"In your dreams!"
This was the difference in perspective. If it had been
The late Steward Kreis of the Norton Family had left Lorist three steward-type talents: Hanks, Speer, and Coden, hoping they would assist Lorist in prospering the Norton Family. But what Lorist had achieved already exceeded old Steward Kreis's wildest expectations by countless times. The Norton Family's prestige had reached the pinnacle achievable by a noble house, and the family's strength had grown powerful enough to rival, even surpass, the kingdom itself.
Unlike Steward Speer, who was obsessed with financial management, or Steward Coden, who was shrewd and smooth in handling personnel, Steward Hanks was also a talent in administrative coordination. Had the Norton Family remained confined to its original territory, Hanks would have been a perfect household steward, perhaps even achieving the same accomplishments and reputation as old Steward Kreis.
But after Lorist's return, the Norton Family began to expand outward, no longer clinging to a corner of the Northland. As the family's strength grew, so did its territorial holdings. At the same time, Lorist aggressively promoted the new talents who had followed him. Compared to the short-sighted, old-fashioned Steward Hanks, Lorist was far more willing to entrust his close friend Fatty Shi with all administrative and coordination matters for the family's lands.
It wasn't that Lorist didn't value Steward Hanks, but that Hanks's performance had never truly satisfied him. On the contrary, Lorist was repulsed by Hanks's actions within the family—rallying those from Maplewood Manor into a faction, considering himself an "old hand" of the Norton Family, and suppressing and sidelining newly added talents. On top of that, Hanks repeatedly defied him, ultimately forcing Lorist to exile him from the family's management.
Lorist never expected that this Steward Hanks would stir up an internal family rebellion at such a critical moment for the Norton Family. It truly proved the old saying: external enemies are easy to guard against, but internal thieves are hard to prevent. With a grim face, Lorist asked: "Did His Majesty agree to Steward Hanks's request?"
"Yes," Tagel lowered his head in reply. "I arrived too late. Steward Hanks had already announced His Majesty's appointment letter for Young Master Lesket throughout the Northland. Although Lord Shrade wrote a letter to His Majesty when he departed for the First Corps of the Imperial Guard, the lockdown on North Sea City forced me to smuggle myself across. By the time I reached the Mana Hill Plains front line, the die was cast. His Majesty only learned what had happened after reading the letter. Lords
Now Lorist understood what the Second Prince's "too late to regret" meant. Clearly, the Second Prince had meant well but caused harm. He had misunderstood—he hadn't intended to cause trouble for the Norton Family. He had believed Lesket was Lorist's illegitimate son, and because he wasn't a legitimate heir, he couldn't command the family's respect. Therefore, Lorist had sent a messenger hoping to gain his recognition, promising to keep the Norton Family's three great corps armed and continue assisting him in attacking the Commercial Alliance.
He had to help with this, and he had to give face as well. The Second Prince must have been thinking exactly that — when Lorist came to him to have Lesket recognized as the acting family head, it was very likely because Princess Sylvia had borne a legitimate heir, and he didn't want to stick his neck out, so he made the King play the villain. So be it. With a casual sweep of his pen, the Second Prince appointed Norton Lesket as the Norton Family's acting family head in the King's name.
"After receiving His Majesty's appointment letter, Steward Hanks had every right to accuse Legion Commander
"Through the mediation of Lady Krisia and Steward Codan, Lady Sylvia and the four secondary wives departed Rage Bear City with the two young lords and headed for Cherry Blossom Ridge Manor. Legion Commander Ovigis and Lord Shward escorted them with the Second Imperial Guard Corps, the Bodyguard Battalion, and three Sword Saints, leaving Rage Bear City to Young Master Lesket and Steward Hanks. Steward Hanks also released Baron Shrade and Steward Spell, and the two lords traveled to Cherry Blossom Ridge Manor with their families."
Tagel had finally given Lorist some reasonably good news — no civil war had broken out in the family's territory, and Fatty and Steward Spell were both safe and sound.
"Where are the family's three great armed corps now?" Lorist asked.
"Well..." Tagel replied with a troubled expression. "The three great corps are still at the Federiga Royal Capital. They've run into a bit of a problem..."
"Hm? What problem?"
"They captured Bruvik City and Lete City. His Majesty led the White Lion Corps to take Klido City, and the Hunting Cavalry Corps raided Gidelinc Province and Mavefrin Province..."
Lorist looked perplexed. "Hold on — where are Gidelinc Province and Mavefrin Province? I've never heard of them."
"Oh, it's like this, Your Highness. After the Glass War, the Commercial Alliance annexed the Trinberg Kingdom and the seven surrounding kingdoms, then divided these annexed territories into twenty-one provinces. The fifteen original commanderies of the Trinberg Kingdom were reorganized into five provinces. Gidelinc Province and Mavefrin Province are both provinces bordering the Mana Hill Plains..." Tagel explained.
"I see, go on." Lorist rubbed his beard in embarrassment. In truth, Tagel had reported all this intelligence before, but at the time Lorist had been focused on the areas around Northland and within the kingdom itself, paying little attention to the Commercial Alliance's maneuvers. No wonder he looked so confused when he heard the names of those two provinces — the former empire hadn't had such provinces.
"Um, well, because the Commercial Alliance is quite wealthy, the three legions of our family army ended up seizing rather a lot of plunder — nearly a thousand large carts' worth combined. At the same time, at the same time, they also captured over five hundred thousand people..." Tagel flushed as he spoke. It was practically a frenzy of pillaging.
Fine. Lorist had to admit that the three legions he had built up for the family army had become nothing short of organized banditry. Robbing for money and kidnapping people — they were getting better at it by the day. But right now he could only pretend he hadn't heard a thing.
"Didn't you say all three legions ran into trouble?" Lorist prompted.
"That's right, Your Highness. Precisely because they seized so much plunder and captured so many people, their grain supply has become rather tight," Tagel answered.
Seeing that Lorist was about to speak again, Tagel hurriedly added, "Your Highness, I know you're going to say we stockpiled massive amounts of military provisions in the royal city of Windbury. But you've forgotten about the migrants we forcibly relocated from Andewulf Province, Podaorg Province, and Campona Province, haven't you? Besides the two to three hundred thousand who made it to Northland, over five hundred thousand others are still stuck in Winston Province with nowhere to go. Baron Kamola, who handles logistics and supply coordination, has already exhausted every effort to maintain basic provisions for these migrants. He's completely unable to do anything more for the three legions over there and the additional five hundred thousand new arrivals. It's all because Northland has cut off all transportation routes — the stockpiled grain and supplies can't be replenished..."
Steward Hanske, damn him! Lorist furiously clenched the wooden basin on the table, crushing it to splinters.
"So what are Bodvig, Tiger Ross, and Jost planning to do?"
"Your Highness, the current situation is this: Lord Bodvig is remaining at the royal city of Fediga to guard the prisoners and migrants. Lord Jost and Tiger Ross are leading their legions to return to the Mana Hill Plains, planning to loot enough grain from the Commercial Alliance. Come winter, they'll use sled carts to reach Winston Province quickly, which will save a tremendous amount of provisions consumed along the way." Tagel relayed the three legion commanders' plan.
"And then what? Will Winston Province suddenly have enough grain? Use your heads — over a million people arriving in Winston Province will immediately trigger a food shortage, and then we all just stand there watching everyone starve to death?" Lorist snorted in dissatisfaction.
"Lord Bodvig and the others might be planning to counterattack the Northland..." Tagel said.
"Counterattack? Is it that simple? The moment they approach the two iron-chain bridges, Hanske will declare them all traitors. He might even cut the iron-chain bridges outright to see how they plan to counterattack. By the time they reach Mitoboro's downstream ferry crossing and try to force their way across, most of them will have starved to death."
After delivering a few words of rebuke, Lorist then asked, "How are intelligence and communications holding up?"
"Your Highness, the moment Steward Hanske seized control of the First Imperial Guard Legion, he immediately dispatched people to take over the messenger hawk headquarters at
Tagel replied, "The only transportation route to the Northland is the sea route from North Sea City to Silovas Island. But Steward Hanske also imposed martial law in North Sea City — all sea vessels arriving at the city have been detained in Bullhorn Bay and forbidden from putting to sea. He even ordered the North Sea Fleet to submit to his commands, though Admiral Sembawood ignored him and sailed the fleet back to Silovas Island."
Back when Lorist had first decided to train messenger hawks for communications, he was still stationed at Rock Fortress. Later, the family's administrative center was relocated to the Northland's capital of Ragebear City, but the messenger hawk training facilities and the main messenger headquarters remained at Rock Fortress. After all, no matter how well-trained, messenger hawks were still animals — they only remembered Rock Fortress as their home. It wasn't as though relocating to Ragebear City would make them follow along.
Although a new messenger hawk training base had been established in Ragebear City as well, it was still too new. The main hub for external communications remained at Rock Fortress. Steward Hanske was well aware of this and seized the messenger hawk headquarters at Rock Fortress immediately, effectively cutting off roughly half of the family's internal and external communication lines.
"Besides the severance of the Northland's external communications preventing messages from getting through, our family's spy outposts planted across the other provinces are still mostly intact. It's just that messenger hawks can't be used — intelligence and messages will have to be relayed by hand, which will cause significant delays." Tagel said.
"How are the North Sea Fleet and Silovas Island faring right now?" Lorist asked.
"There's a hidden coastal cave in the Blade Mountains where two shallow-draft coastal vessels were stowed. I took one of those small ships to the Kenmace Family's territory, then transferred to a larger ocean vessel at White Gold Beach to reach Silovas Island. When I arrived, I found the North Sea Fleet and the Imperial Guard garrison stationed on the island locked in a standoff. That was because Lord Pacchico, who was guarding Silovas Island, had received Steward Hanske's order claiming that Admiral Sembawood of the North Sea Fleet was rebelling, and commanding Lord Pacchico to arrest Admiral Sembawood immediately..."
Lord Pacchico had no idea what had happened in the Northland and believed every word of Steward Hanske's orders. I explained the situation to him, told him to disregard those orders, and that from now on, he need only obey Your Highness's commands. That finally brought Lord Pacchico and Admiral Sembawood to shake hands and make peace.
Then I went to the Mana Hill Plains to deliver the message to His Majesty and the three corps commanders. When the three commanders learned of the upheaval in the Northland, they were shocked and immediately wanted to lead their troops back. The king hurried to stop them, but got an earful from Tiger Ross. Realizing his mistake, His Majesty regretted it deeply and had no choice but to allow our family's three armed corps to return. I had intended to go back to the Northland to deliver the message, but I ran into Lord
Lorist stood up and began pacing around the room, stroking his beard in thought. Steward Hanske's rebellion had disrupted all of the family's plans. But the greatest difficulty they now faced was that the three corps needed to use sleighs during winter to transport all those migrants to Winston Province. Over a million idle migrants would place an unbearable burden on Winston Province — this was the foremost problem that had to be solved. But with the Northland's communications cut off, Winston Province would have no way to receive adequate logistical supplies from the family.
The only thing that put Lorist at ease was that Baron Camorra was still in Windbury Royal City in Winston Province and had not returned to the Northland. With him overseeing the situation in Winston Province, Lorist could rest assured.
"There's no rush about the Northland rebellion. Once I've recovered my strength, I'll go back and deal with those traitors in due time. It's already the end of December — I expect the three corps have already begun transporting their wealth and migrants back. Winston Province is about to face its greatest test.
Redi, Tagel, I'll write several orders right now. Take them to Windbury Royal City and deliver them to Baron Camorra. Have him take charge of the overall situation and restrain all of the family's armed forces. Anyone who disobeys is to be executed on the spot. At the same time, order the Flying Tiger Corps and the Hunting Cavalry Corps to dispatch all their sleighs to the other nobles' territories to borrow grain. Tell those territorial lords that it is my personal promise — the grain borrowed this year will be repaid double next year.
Also, Redi, you will personally wield the whip. Jost and Tiger Ross are each to receive one hundred lashes as punishment for disobeying the family's orders and taking their troops to the front lines on their own authority. The deputy corps commanders and regimental commanders of both corps are each to receive fifty lashes for failing to dissuade their superiors and instead following them in defiance of orders.
Furthermore, have Bodenfing lead two regiments of the Boulder Corps to Silovas Island and await orders there. Have the Hunting Cavalry Corps and the Flying Tiger Corps each contribute one regiment to accompany them. Order Admiral Sembawood of the North Sea Fleet and Regimental Commander Pacchico to gather as many ships as possible in preparation for transport."
"Yes, Your Highness."
...