"Right here." Krisha tapped the map of the former Redelis Kingdom that Schwad had brought over. "This is a small valley in the Yunduan Mountains, less than a hundred li from the Great Snow Mountains. His Majesty plans for us to cross the Yunduan Mountains once more and return to the Andinak Kingdom, rebuild our strength, and make another attempt. The six thousand soldiers who followed His Majesty are the most loyal and elite among us. After exiting through the secret passage in the Fideliga royal capital, we emerged onto a stretch of streambed that effectively concealed the traces of our large force's march."
"Following the streambed, we waded through the water for most of the day, putting about a hundred li between us and the Fideliga royal capital. Then we turned toward the hilly terrain of the Yunduan Mountains, where dense forests provided us with cover. However, His Majesty felt it would be best to find a place where we could rest and recover for a few months, then cross the Yunduan Mountains once winter arrived. That way, we could pass through the Cloudmist Marshes when they froze solid and make it back to the kingdom."
"When we opened the map of the Redelis Kingdom we'd taken from the palace, we were surprised to discover that this small valley, less than a hundred li from the Great Snow Mountains, actually belonged to someone. It was marked as the fief of a baron named Cremundo. After investigating, we found that this Baron Cremundo had never appeared at the Redelis royal court, and no one had ever seen him."
"His Majesty decided this barony was the ideal place to recover — as long as we guarded the valley entrance, no one would know what was happening inside. So we marched toward the valley and launched a night raid, capturing the small castle guarding the entrance. After we'd taken the castle, His Majesty was preparing to send someone to inform Baron Cremundo to surrender. Knight Borden Codi volunteered to go. But we never expected that his head would soon be mounted on the outer wall of Baron Cremundo's castle deep within the valley…"
Krisha's eyes filled with tears. "We were all driven mad with rage. No noble would do such a thing as execute an envoy. His Majesty ordered us to storm the castle immediately and hang Baron Cremundo to avenge Knight Borden Codi. We fought for two months, suffering nearly five thousand casualties. Knight Hisrid also died on the walls. Of the thirteen golden knights who left the royal capital with His Majesty, only I, Lipired, and Caritok remained. One of the two Great Swordmasters guarding His Majesty was also killed, and the other was seriously wounded…"
Lorist's eyes lit up. "Caritok is still alive?"
Caritok was an old student of
Krisha nodded. Perhaps recalling the bloody battle in the valley and the devastating casualties, tears fell once more.
"That Baron Cremundo — was he the Eldest Prince? He'd been hiding in this valley the entire time?" Lorist asked.
Krisha shook her head first, then nodded. "In the end, we finally captured the castle in the valley. By then we had learned from prisoners that Baron Cremundo was the Eldest Prince's illegitimate son, and this valley fief was a retreat route the Eldest Prince had arranged for himself. There were also three thousand of the Eldest Prince's elite soldiers in the valley. After escaping from the Fideliga royal capital, the Eldest Prince had been hiding here the whole time, watching us fight to the death against the Redelis nobles, waiting to rise again once we were defeated. He never expected that we would also slip out through the secret passage, and by a twist of fate, we cornered him in this valley fief, forcing him into a decisive battle with us…"
"We were all blinded by bloodlust, and His Majesty was nearly driven to madness. He never dreamed that he would end up in a mutual destruction scenario with the Eldest Prince in this valley fief. In his fury, he ordered every last one of the ten thousand-plus prisoners in the valley executed — after all, they were all relatives of the enemy. After personally beheading the Eldest Prince and his illegitimate son, Baron Cremundo, His Majesty vomited blood and collapsed."
"These six thousand men were His Majesty's finest. If we had brought them back to the Andinak Kingdom, we could have easily reclaimed military and royal authority. But we suffered devastating losses in this valley fief, and only a little over two thousand remained, most of them wounded. After His Majesty recovered from his injuries, we finally received news from the outside — the situation was already settled. Returning to the kingdom now would be suicide. So we disguised ourselves and came to the Northland to seek your help, hoping the
So the Eldest Prince was finally dead? The man who had raised the banner of rebellion and ignited the imperial civil war — and the Second Prince as well — both killed by the Second Prince's hand. In that regard, the Second Prince really was more of a protagonist than himself! Lorist let out a long breath. "Krisha, you've been with His Majesty for nearly twenty years now, haven't you? You're his lover. Has he said anything about giving you a proper arrangement?"
Krisha blushed. "He — he did say that. He said once he unified the former empire, he would marry me…"
"Queen or consort?"
"Does — does it really make a difference? As long as I can be with His Majesty…"
"You'd better not forget that the blood of the Norton Family flows through your veins. Unless His Majesty forgoes taking a queen and makes you his principal wife, that would be barely acceptable."
"I'm not being an alarmist, Krisha. Haven't you noticed that His Majesty has always been wary of the Norton Family's power? Even back when he was still the Second Prince. It was our Northbound caravan's armed guards who swept through the Andinak Kingdom's rebellious vassal lords and helped him seize control of the kingdom. And ever since then, he's been trying to leverage our Norton Family's strength without being willing to pay the proper price."
"A ruler must be just and fair. But has His Majesty been? He's always been dangling empty promises, giving us nothing but pie in the sky. Krisha, think about it — has the Norton Family ever done anything to wrong His Majesty? Back then, our Northbound caravan was nearly driven to a dead end by him. He poached so many knights from the caravan, and how many are left now? Then there was the Cobo City affair. We captured Cobo City and provided him with massive amounts of grain, solving his army's food shortage, all in the hope that his forces would defend Cobo City and buy time for our caravan and the masses of refugees heading to the Northland."
"But what did he do? Krisha, did you know that His Majesty sent troops who tore down the city walls and then withdrew? It was blatant — he wanted to use our caravan and the refugees as bait to draw the enemy's attention. We gave him such enormous help, and he stabbed our family in the back. From that moment on, I stopped trusting His Majesty's character."
"Shilovas Island was the fief granted to our family, but he turned a blind eye as his tax collector — some viscount or other — extorted the island mercilessly. He pretended not to know when the kingdom's noble scions seized Wanghai Manor on the island. Do you really believe His Majesty didn't know about any of this? And when I killed that viscount, his brother — some count — brought nearly a full regiment to hunt me down. Do you think His Majesty truly had no idea? I don't buy it for a second. He was feigning ignorance while simultaneously trying to keep the Norton Family in line, making sure we stayed obedient."
"I've had enough, Krisha. Have you forgotten that our four great families defeated the Second Prince, divided the Northland among ourselves, and formed an alliance? I wrote you a letter about it back then — you may have forgotten, but would His Majesty forget too? Now he wants to appoint me Grand Duke of the Northland, promising that all the territories the Norton Family conquered would remain under Norton control. If I accepted and word got out, do you have any idea what would happen?"
"It would be nothing but a scheme to sow discord. The four great families of the Northland currently look to our Norton Family as their leader. If they heard that I had accepted His Majesty's decree, wouldn't they suspect I was coveting their territories? Even now, at a time like this, he can't stop stirring up trouble for me. Is he hoping the Northland descends into chaos and returns to the lawless state it was in before?"
Krisha quickly waved her hands. "No, Locke, you've surely misunderstood His Majesty. There are many things His Majesty was not aware of. He told me about the Cobo City affair himself — he said it wasn't that he didn't want to help you, but that his forces were insufficient at the time. He couldn't just leave ten thousand troops sitting in Cobo City doing nothing, so he ordered them to tear down the walls only after confirming you had left. The regiment commander at the time was Borden Codi. He tore down the walls a few days early because he was worried about His Majesty's safety, and when he returned, His Majesty berated him severely. I was there at the time — His Majesty said he felt terrible about what happened to the Norton Family…"
"As for what happened on Shilovas Island, His Majesty truly didn't know about it. You know that during those two years, His Majesty was focused on consolidating the kingdom's strength and preparing for military reunification of the former empire. He naturally wouldn't have been paying attention to such minor matters. Tax Inspector Viscount Aslan's actions really had nothing to do with His Majesty. After you killed him, his brother Count Aslan led troops to hunt you down, which enraged His Majesty. He ordered Count Aslan's estate seized and stripped him of his title."
Lorist shook his head. "Forget it. What's past is past. There's no point rehashing it. But Krisha, you didn't come here this late at His Majesty's behest, did you? Trying to gauge my intentions?"
"Yes. His Majesty was worried you might have some misunderstanding of him, so he sent me to ask — what conditions would you need to agree to send troops to help him reclaim his kingdom? As long as they aren't unreasonable, His Majesty is willing to agree to any of your demands," Krisha said.
"Tsk tsk, look at that, Krisha. Even now His Majesty is still talking about 'not unreasonable' demands. Think about it yourself — isn't this exactly what I mean about His Majesty's wariness of the Norton Family? So let me ask — what exactly can His Majesty offer the Norton Family? Spare me the symbolic gestures or empty promises."
"Locke, that attitude of yours is excessive! Don't forget that His Majesty is your liege lord! As a vassal lord, you must show proper respect!" Krisha said angrily.
"Fine, fine, fine. Krisha, go back and tell His Majesty this: the Norton Family cannot send troops. However, we can provide a financial contribution of one hundred thousand gold Fordes and a full corps' worth of standard equipment — the same price His Majesty paid the first time when he wanted our family's Northbound caravan to help him sweep through the kingdom's nobles. The White Lion Corps standard equipment — there are still seventy-two thousand sets remaining. I'll hand over all of it as the Norton Family's support for His Majesty's restoration. That should fulfill the obligation and duty of a vassal lord, shouldn't it?"
During the forging process, other alloys had been added to the equipment, making even re-smelting it too troublesome. He might as well take this opportunity to return all the White Lion Corps standard equipment to the Second Prince, sparing himself the need to commit family forces to his restoration campaign.
Krisha leaped to her feet in shock. "Lo-Locke, you — you're really willing to give all the White Lion Corps standard equipment to His Majesty?"
In Krisha's eyes, she had never imagined Lorist would be willing to hand over the entire White Lion Corps standard equipment to the Second Prince. A single set of White Lion Corps standard equipment sold for sixty to seventy gold Fordes at a discount. Seventy-two thousand sets — that was nearly five million gold Fordes' worth. For Lorist to go this far was truly unparalleled among vassal lords. No one could say he hadn't done his utmost…
"I'm serious," Lorist thought to himself. The equipment was just gathering dust in the armory. Steward Speer had reminded him several times to get rid of it — it took up far too much space.
"Then we'll also need to recruit soldiers from within the family's territory…" Krisha immediately followed up with another demand.
"Out of the question!" Lorist flatly refused. On what grounds would they conscript soldiers from his family territory? He had no such obligation. "You can conduct voluntary recruitment, but you may not do so under the Norton Family's name. Family armed forces have their own rules regarding the conscription of territory subjects. Even His Majesty has no authority to conscript the Norton Family's subjects to bleed and die for him!"
No noble had the authority to conscript soldiers from another noble's territory. For any territorial lord, the population within their domain was their own resource and wealth. However, voluntary recruitment was another matter entirely — one party paid real money, the other fought for pay, and it became a transaction. A lord could not obstruct that.
"Fine, voluntary recruitment will work. But Locke, you need to give us that hundred thousand gold Fordes upfront. Also, if we're recruiting soldiers, you must not deliberately obstruct our efforts. Finally, the provisions for the soldiers we recruit within the Northland will be covered by the Norton Family initially. Will that do?" Krisha was pushing her luck.
She was thinking beautifully. With this batch of White Lion Corps standard equipment plus the hundred thousand gold Fordes, His Majesty could surely raise an army of sixty to seventy thousand here. She hadn't expected the Norton Family's territory to have so many people — with just one gold Forde per person as a resettlement fee, volunteers would surely flock in droves. It was exactly these methods that His Majesty had used in the Andinak and Redelis kingdoms to raise armies of over three hundred thousand.
Lorist let out a cold laugh. "Fine, you have your way. I think you can go report back to His Majesty now. He'll be very happy to hear this."
Watching Krisha leave in high spirits, Schwad, standing beside Lorist, asked worriedly, "My lord, you're giving all the White Lion Corps equipment back to the Second Prince and allowing them to recruit soldiers in our territory. Aren't you worried they'll cause chaos in our territory or some other trouble?"
Lorist laughed. "They want to recruit soldiers in our territory? I'd very much like to see how many they can find. Of course, if anyone in our territory does want to volunteer, it's simple — we'll escort their families to the military camp as well and revoke their allocated housing and farmland. Since they're going to serve His Majesty, His Majesty can take care of their families' livelihood. Our Norton Family's territory won't let them get a free ride."
"Yes, my lord, you're absolutely right," Schwad said, laughing as well.
…(To be continued.)