After seeing Princess Sylvia and her entourage off,
Even the female cousin of the former King Lud III of the Hanaiabada Kingdom — now the Empress Dowager of the Shaislan Kingdom and mother of the young king — had been forced by the prince royal who returned with the army to drink a cup of poisoned wine. Her head was then severed and placed in a crystal box, sent over as an apology. Accompanying this severed head were two million gold Fordes and rare treasures worth millions, along with a seven-year-old half-brother of the young king who had been sent as a hostage…
How should he handle this matter? Norton Lorist had quite the headache. There was no precedent for this — a kingdom submitting to a family. If word got out, people would think it was something straight out of a fairy tale. But the Shaislan Kingdom sat alone beyond the seas and had never been taken seriously by the nations of the Galentea Continent. Moreover, the Chikde Trading Company had already transferred the maritime spice trade route to the Shaislan Kingdom over to the Norton Family. In that case, bringing the Shaislan Kingdom under the family's jurisdiction was only natural.
The ones escorting the transport ships back were Torin and Tok, father and son. As the logistics officers of the naval corps, old Torin gave Norton Lorist a detailed report on the situation in the Shaislan Kingdom. In his assessment, the military power of this archipelago nation was in the hands of Prince Royal Shaheim, while the young king, still a minor, had been reduced to a puppet of the kingdom. Moreover, the boy deeply hated the uncle who had poisoned and beheaded his mother…
Alas, court intrigue was everywhere! Norton Lorist sighed and issued his decision regarding the Shaislan Kingdom. He had no desire to scatter his energies among the internal struggles of this island kingdom. The only thing that interested him was the Shaislan Kingdom's spice specialties. The people of Northland now lived well and had grown accustomed to a meat-heavy diet, with no shortage of beef and mutton. These spices, brought back to the family's territory, would make for a profitable source of wealth.
Norton Lorist planned to establish another merchant fleet and open a maritime trade route to the Shaislan Kingdom, while also using this archipelago nation as a dumping ground for the family's goods — sending luxury items and daily necessities there, and bringing back spices. As for the power struggles within the kingdom, the family need not get involved, so long as the Shaislan Kingdom guaranteed the supply of spices.
"My lord, what should be done with the young hostage and the woman's head that were brought this time?" old Torin asked.
"Send the woman's head back to the young king. What a waste of such an exquisite crystal box — of all things to put inside, a severed head. How disgusting." Norton Lorist waved his hand dismissively. "The hostage is too young. Have him study at the Nico Academy for a few years first. Once he's old enough and understands things, send him to
"Yes, my lord."
After settling this matter, Norton Lorist began planning where to send the Flying Tiger Corps for combat training. The Fisabulen Family's lightning raid to seize the Greater and Lesser Jinchuan regions and establish provinces there had set off alarm bells in Norton Lorist's mind. He couldn't yet determine whether his family's Flying Tiger Corps possessed superior combat strength compared to the Fisabulen Family's field cavalry corps. In terms of type, the Fisabulen Family's rangers were classic light cavalry, similar to the Norton Family's scout light cavalry — coming and going like the wind, advancing and retreating freely. Only by concentrating heavy forces to compress the battlefield space could one force them into a head-on clash, just as had been done the last time they deployed troops to the royal city to deal with the two ranger regiments led by Viscount Kristoff…
As for the Norton Family's Flying Tiger Corps, although they were also cavalry, they leaned toward medium or heavy armored cavalry. The defensive power of the steel-armored lance cavalry was hardly inferior to that of the former Krisen Empire's Royal Guard Knights, and they emphasized discipline, formation, and shock power. For ranged attacks they had war chariots fitted with steel crossbows; for charges, steel-armored lance cavalry; for siege warfare, thunderbolt catapults. One could say the Flying Tiger Corps was a highly mobile field assault corps.
If the Flying Tiger Corps was likened to a long spear, then the Raging Bear Knights led by the family's Golden Knight
If not for the fact that warhorses with good endurance, high load capacity, and fast sprints were extremely rare, Terman's knight order would already have a full regiment, instead of only having grown to just over ten thousand men by now. But when compared to the Fisabulen Family's field cavalry corps, Norton Lorist realized that in a head-on clash between formations, whether it was the Flying Tiger Corps or the Raging Bear Knights, both would steamroll the field cavalry. The problem was that Grand Duke Fisabulen was no fool — he was an old fox who would only engage the Norton Family's Flying Tiger Corps and Raging Bear Knights in ways favorable to his rangers.
It was also rather annoying. There were those who could steal for a thousand days, but no one could guard against theft for a thousand days. Maintaining a high state of alert for too long would only drain the soldiers' energy and vigilance, making them more vulnerable to ranger raids.
In fact, the best countermeasure against rangers was scout light cavalry. Should he form another scout light cavalry regiment? Norton Lorist entertained the thought for a moment before dismissing it. Princess Sylvia had spent nearly a month touring Northland, and during that time, Tagel's Volibear Intelligence Bureau had dispatched numerous agents disguised as grooms, servants, and the like to make contact with the princess's entourage, gathering a great deal of intelligence. One key piece of information was that Grand Duke Fisabulen had broken up the able-bodied captives from the grass barbarian tribes and distributed them into the military, both to assimilate them and to make up for the family's armed forces' attrition.
Compared to these grass barbarians who had lived on horseback since childhood, the Norton Family's scout light cavalry could only rely on superior equipment and long-term training. Currently, apart from the lack of suitable ranged weapons that could be fired from horseback, forming another scout light cavalry regiment would likely draw opposition from his subordinates. After all, to establish the Flying Tiger Corps, the Bedrock Corps, and the Imperial Guard Corps, the reorganization of the family's armed forces had already exceeded budget by over three million gold Fordes this year. Even though the conquest of the Hanaiabada Kingdom had yielded rich plunder, it couldn't sustain this kind of spending. Better to let Master Sid and the others develop suitable horseback ranged weapons first…
Norton Lorist didn't believe that his family would come into conflict with the Fisabulen Family within the next two years. They had just signed a military arms agreement, so these two years would certainly be a period of peace. Furthermore, if he attended the Knight Tournament next year, there was a strong possibility of a marriage alliance with the Fisabulen Family. If he married Princess Sylvia, then the Fisabulen Family would become allies on the same side as his own, and the field cavalry corps would pose no threat to him.
When he thought of Princess Sylvia, Norton Lorist wasn't sure what he felt. All the family retainers who knew of the matter were very much in favor of the match, and even Governor Hanske on Shilowas Island and Governor Hikde of the Hanaiabada Archipelago had written letters urging him to do everything he could to facilitate the marriage, claiming it would bring enormous benefits to the Norton Family and so on. But in Norton Lorist's eyes, it all felt rather strange. He had always regarded Princess Sylvia as a cute and beautiful little sister, and had never imagined that she would take a liking to him…
For Norton Lorist, the only benefit of Princess Sylvia's visit was that it had completely silenced his court — Miss Dina. For Miss Dina had realized that, from every possible angle — whether it was status, beauty,
Miss Dina resentfully abandoned her scheming to elevate her younger sister to the seat of the Norton Family's matriarch, and announced that she would enter seclusion to advance to the Silver rank, becoming the Dina Family's first female knight. Norton Lorist nearly laughed his teeth out. He had heard of entering seclusion for arduous training when advancing from Silver to Golden rank, but he had never heard of needing seclusion to break through from
With nowhere to turn, Norton Lorist finally had no choice but to send Tiger Ross with the Flying Tiger Corps to the Wilds to hunt herds of herbivorous magical beasts, and also dispatched Great Swordmaster Hughes along with them. As for himself, he holed up in Bedrock Castle, his laziness acting up and unwilling to budge, simply staying in the family's territory for the winter and New Year as usual.
Sometimes, when he thought about it, it felt rather sad. He had returned to the family's territory nearly ten years ago, and for the sake of the family's development Norton Lorist had been constantly rushing about, never able to rest for a moment. Spending the New Year at Bedrock Castle this year actually felt somewhat uncomfortable. In particular, since the three allied families had gone with Norton Lorist to
With nothing better to do, Norton Lorist carried out a thorough purge of the family's territory during the winter, focusing specifically on the underground black society organizations that were just beginning to sprout. Since everyone was stuck at home during the deep winter, it was easy to catch them one by one. Pulling up one gourd brought the roots along with it — over twenty family knights were implicated in this winter crackdown, all of them given demerits and placed on probation. Among them, three Silver Knights were stripped of their knightly titles by Norton Lorist and unceremoniously expelled.
As the family territory's Chief Criminal Inspector, Criston submitted a report to Norton Lorist on these underground black society organizations, pointing out that most of the members were idle, brawling types whose families were either family knights or officials in the town garrison forces. Some retired family soldiers had also joined or established these underground organizations. They avoided major crimes but committed minor ones constantly, and over time they had become a force that intimidated law-abiding subjects, monopolizing certain profitable industries in their areas — either consciously or unconsciously — and slowly expanding their influence.
Inspector Criston believed that the most effective means of combating these underground forces was to enact a comprehensive criminal code as soon as possible, and that strengthening the training of town patrol forces while expanding their authority to combat crime was the best way to prevent the emergence of such underground organizations in the future.
Norton Lorist found this interesting.
The year 1776 of the Galentea Common Calendar passed without much fanfare. Apart from a batch of nearly two thousand convicts who were exiled to the Hanaiabada Archipelago, the Norton Family's territory remained a scene of thriving prosperity.
After the three-month rainy season, Tiger Ross returned from the Wilds with the Flying Tiger Corps, bringing back the carcasses of over a hundred thousand herbivorous magical beasts. Norton Lorist reviewed the Flying Tiger Corps and found that the warriors had become quite fierce and imposing after a winter of training in the Wilds, and he was very satisfied with the results.
When April arrived, good news came one after another.
However, there was bad news as well. Two Silver Knights, Pitt and Wassima, failed in their advancement and would need half a year of recuperation to recover from the physical and spiritual damage. Additionally, Dolce,
For Norton Lorist, Fatty Shi's advancement to the Golden rank meant that he could once again become an absentee manager, delegating all the trivial administrative affairs of the territory to Fatty Shi. In a good mood after his efforts with the three Dina sisters, young aunt Driana happily swelled with child, and Norton Lorist was going to have another baby.
After Fatty Shi emerged from seclusion and took over the family's affairs, he learned about everything that had happened during his year-long absence. He sighed with emotion about the current plight of Dawn Academy — after all, they were all alumni of Dawn Academy. At the same time, he greatly praised Norton Lorist for pushing to establish Dawn Academy in Northland, declaring that this was what truly mattered for the Norton Family's fate a hundred years hence. He planned to devote the family's resources over the coming year to building Dawn Academy as quickly as possible so that it could open and begin enrolling students.
As for the marriage between Norton Lorist and Princess Sylvia, Fatty Shi held a different view from the other retainers, maintaining a cautious attitude. He believed that a marriage alliance between the Norton Family and the Fisabulen Family was not entirely beneficial, and instead felt they should be wary of Grand Duke Fisabulen's movements. For Northland, the Fisabulen Family, which controlled three provinces, was a rival whose strength and influence matched the Norton Family's, and they needed to be watched closely.
On April fifteenth, the Norton Family convened another family council at Bedrock Castle, with Fatty Shi serving as the family's Chief Knight to lay out the goals to be achieved that year. The next thing to prepare for was Norton Lorist's journey to Windbury Royal City to attend the Knight Tournament hosted by Grand Duke Fisabulen. Norton Lorist's goal was to bring Princess Sylvia back to the family's territory…
(To be continued.)