"Have we reached an agreement?"
This was an extremely lavish mansion in the noble quarter of the Windbury royal capital. It had originally been the residence of a southern provincial count of the Iblia Kingdom, but after its owner was executed for treason by Grand Duke Fisablen four years ago, this grand mansion had been sealed up. As Grand Duke of Northland, Lorist could have stayed at the Rose Palace, but he didn't want to gather together with His Highness the
When Shrade returned, dusk was approaching. He found Lorist sitting by the window in his dim study, gazing at the sunset glow on the horizon. Hearing Lorist's question, he took off his outer cloak and handed it to Jenorio beside him, instructing, "Get me a bottle of fruit wine. I've been drinking tea all afternoon — my mouth tastes like nothing."
"Your Highness, we've reached an agreement. Grand Duke Fisablen is willing to provide horseshoe gold worth one million gold Forde as ransom for the forty thousand soldiers of the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps, but they want us to provide weapons and equipment for those forty thousand soldiers." Shrade pulled up a chair and sat down beside Lorist.
"Heh..." Lorist let out a cold laugh. "It seems the Fisablen family's coffers are quite deep. They just handed over a million to His Highness the Second Prince, and in the blink of an eye, they can still pull out another million for ransom. Looks like next time we sell them goods, we'll have to double the price. But to think a mere million gold Forde would have us equip forty thousand men with weapons and armor — he's got quite the scheme."
The equipment of the Fisablen family's Border Patrol Cavalry Corps soldiers — the Cavalry Model 103 standard armor and weapons customized by the
"Your Highness, this agreement still needs your approval before it can be executed. If you don't agree, we can keep haggling with them — there's no rush on our end," Shrade said.
Lorist shook his head slightly. "It's not that simple. What do our three allies have to say?"
Shrade took a cup of fruit wine that Jenorio brought over and took a satisfying sip. "Count Phelim and Count Shahin believe that both we and Grand Duke Fisablen now belong to the Andinak Kingdom, and as allies in the joint campaign against the four central duchies, we should let them off the hook. There's no need to press them so hard. Duke Kames has been working earnestly on our behalf in the negotiations, but Grand Duke Fisablen has held firm that this is their bottom line — beyond this one million, they can't produce a single additional gold Forde. As for His Majesty the King, naturally he speaks on behalf of the Fisablen family. He's hinted several times that we should take what we can get and not push too far..."
Lorist was silent for a moment, then sighed. "Forget it. There's no need to haggle over every last detail, lest people say the Norton Family is petty. The soldiers of the Third Border Patrol Corps are different from the armies we've captured before. Their families are all in Fisablen territory, and they surrendered under duress. They've been harboring resentment the whole time, believing we only beat them through trickery. Especially after their corps commander took responsibility for the surrender in front of them all and then drew his sword and killed himself — that only deepened those soldiers' hatred and desire for revenge against the Norton Family. We can't put them to use for our family. The longer we keep them locked up, the deeper the hatred will grow. Just let them go back."
"Your Highness, aren't you afraid of releasing a tiger back to the mountain? If the Fisablen family goes to war with us again, those soldiers will be a formidable fighting force." Shrade was somewhat reluctant to release more than forty thousand veteran soldiers.
"Heh, formidable fighting force? Them?" Lorist laughed dismissively. "I'll admit that the power of spirit can give these soldiers greater combat effectiveness when they face our Norton Family troops in the future. But so what? Are we afraid? True strength doesn't rely on spirit alone — it requires superior weapons, thorough defenses, long-term coordination, rigorous training, and the invincible confidence that comes from constant victory. When these soldiers eventually face our family's armed forces again and are crushed once more, they'll fear us from the depths of their hearts. Once their spirit is broken by us, they'll be completely useless — what fighting force could they possibly have?"
Shrade drained the fruit wine in his cup in one gulp. "Fine, then we'll execute the agreement as written."
"Wait..." Lorist said. "Don't let that old fox Fisablen off so easy. Go ask Steward Sper — I recall that after we destroyed the Madrass Duchy, we captured a large quantity of battered leather armor and worthless scrap-metal weapons. Steward Sper gathered them all up and threw them in the warehouse to gather mold. Get those scraps shipped over and equipped onto the forty thousand prisoners of the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps. If that old fox Fisablen protests, tell him the original Cavalry Model 103 standard equipment that cost sixty-five gold Forde per set is now on sale at fifty gold Forde per set. Have him bring another two million and we'll give them a proper upgrade. Otherwise, he can come and have it out with me."
Shrade laughed. "Your Highness, that's absolutely vicious. That old fox Fisablen will practically cough up blood. It's a straight-up slap in the face. Fine, let's do it — the agreement only says we have to provide them equipment; it doesn't specify what kind of equipment we must give them..."
Lorist sighed deeply again. "I don't want to do this either. Once word gets out, His Highness the Second Prince will no doubt spread rumors and slander behind our backs, saying we can't see the bigger picture, and the Fisablen family will hate us to the bone. But I'm sorry — I cannot sit idly by and watch the Fisablen family restore their strength and power. Compared to His Highness the Second Prince, it is the Fisablen family that poses the greatest threat to us."
Shrade stopped laughing. After a moment, he too sighed. "Your Highness, are you upset with Count Phelim and Count Shahin? They're allies of our family, but now they're dragging us down. Perhaps we should consider dissolving our alliance with them. In fact, many within the family believe that without the Four Families Alliance of Northland, the Norton Family's influence might expand faster and reach further..."
Lorist finally stood up and walked to the window, leaning against the frame and gazing at the streets and houses shrouded in twilight in the distance. "You think so too? That the Four Families Alliance of Northland is a burden rather than an asset to the Norton Family?"
Shrade shook his head. "I don't think that way myself, but I do feel that Your Highness places too much importance on the alliance with those three. In truth, even combined, those three allies couldn't withstand our family's military might. Ever since the conquest of the Madrass Duchy and the Iblia Kingdom, there have always been people in the family who think Your Highness cares too much for the three allies. Take the Kames family — they monopolized an entire province, and we even allowed them to establish a maritime trading fleet, giving them a share of the Northern Sea trade revenues.
And Count Phelim — not only did we send troops to help him reclaim his family's territory, we also provided money and soldiers to stabilize his position. We even went to war with the Pegasus family on their behalf, sacrificing and losing tens of thousands of loyal family troops. Many family knights and officials believe that our conquest of the Iblia Kingdom actually turned out to be a net loss, with the Pegasus family getting the better deal.
And Count Shahin — he was nothing more than a
Although I don't support these views, I do acknowledge that Your Highness has indeed been very considerate toward the three allies. But I believe Your Highness must have your reasons and deeper intentions. It's just that our vision isn't as far-reaching as yours, and we can't see things as clearly."
Lorist burst out laughing. "All right, enough flattery — and if you're going to flatter, at least do a better job of it. Though I have to say, you really don't have a talent for it."
"Perhaps you won't believe this, but when the idea of forming the Four Families Alliance was first proposed, I didn't really put much thought into it. I just wanted to find an outlet for the new products and goods being produced in our family's territories. Compared to the Four Families Alliance of Northland, I valued the Snow Salt Trading Company more — I hoped to use the company to promote our family's goods to other provinces. As for the Four Families Alliance, its original purpose was simply to calm those three allies' nerves." Lorist paced the room with his head lowered as he spoke.
"Calm their nerves?" Shrade was greatly surprised — this was something Lorist had never revealed to anyone before.
"Yes, calm their nerves," Lorist said. "At that time, we had just joined forces with those three to dig a trap for the Second Prince, and with their cooperation, we wiped out the Iblia Kingdom's First Legion and tens of thousands of the noble coalition forces in a single battle. Right after that, you all went on a rampage, sweeping away every territory noble in Northland except those three allies. The excuse was that they had helped the Second Prince attack our Norton Family territories.
Think about it yourself — if I hadn't proposed the alliance at that point, what would the situation in Northland have looked like? Obviously, those three would have united against the Norton Family. Because our Norton Family forces had swept through all the territory nobles in Northland, those three had only one way to avoid sharing the same fate: band together against the powerful Norton Family. And if we had to deploy our family forces, while we could have wiped out all three of them, our losses would have been enormous — not worth the cost. Plus, Northland would have descended into even greater chaos, potentially affecting our family's development and construction efforts.
That's why I proposed the Four Families Alliance — to put those three allies at ease, prevent further conflict in Northland, and focus everyone's efforts outward, united against the threats from the Madrass Duchy and the Iblia Kingdom. It bought time for our family's development plans. What I didn't expect was that Kames fellow would run the Snow Salt Trading Company so well that he used shared profits to bind all four of us tightly together, keeping the alliance intact to this day."
Lorist had already walked nearly halfway around the room. He continued, "In the beginning, I didn't think much of this alliance. But after our family's Shilovas Island was attacked, which led to our expedition to the Haneabada Archipelago and the destruction of that slave kingdom, I came to realize the alliance's vital importance. Without those three allies shielding us from external pressures beyond Northland, the Norton Family could never have peacefully developed and built up its strength in Northland, allowing our family's power to grow so rapidly.
Northland is truly vast — it's a single province of the Empire, yet its area is three times that of Dralemsk Province. With the Norton Family's previous strength, even if we controlled all of Northland, we would have attracted countless opportunistic predators. Especially since Northland has only three major routes to the outside — if any were blocked, we'd be cut off from the rest of the former Empire's territory. To put it nicely, it's easy to defend and hard to attack. To put it bluntly, it's isolated from the world. Even though we have North Sea City and Ox Horn Bay for access to the outside, a single sea route alone cannot support the massive volume of goods and merchandise produced in our family's territories.
And back then, the Norton Family was being beaten so badly we had to hide in our shells, reduced to taking blows passively.
By all rights, I should have destroyed the entire Kames family and scattered their ashes to truly satisfy my hatred, shouldn't I? But fortunately, Duke Kames' father proved himself a man of keen foresight. He made a decisive move to avoid my military reach, fled to the eastern region of Northland to secure survival beyond my grasp, and sent people to sincerely admit their mistakes, apologize, and sue for peace, which ultimately led me to forgive them. In the course of our interactions, I discovered that Kames fellow has a talent for commerce that rivals your own — the difference being that you oversee the big picture while he focuses on trade and personal relationships. It was this appreciation that turned us into friends.
Among the three allies, Duke Kames has the farthest vision. He understands clearly that only by maintaining this alliance can the Kames family successfully transition from a merchant dynasty into a traditional noble house. That is why he spares no effort in running the Snow Salt Trading Company. Similarly, as the influence of the Four Families Alliance of Northland expands, the Snow Salt Trading Company's reach grows with each passing day. For Duke Kames, it's a win-win situation.
I once heard an old saying — a fence needs three stakes, and a good man needs three helpers. Though the Norton Family has been passed down for two or three centuries, at heart we're still a small noble house on the northern frontier. We simply can't compare with those ancient and powerful noble houses across the continent. In the former Krisen Empire, the Norton Family was known for loyalty and righteousness. That's why we've always insisted on pledging allegiance to the true Krisen imperial lineage — the Andinak royal house. It's like strapping a heavy burden onto our family's back. Easy to put on, very hard to take off.
You know full well how His Highness the Second Prince regards the Norton Family with suspicion. And our family has already risen as far as it can — we've reached the pinnacle of noble titles. Unless we could independently establish a duchy, which is impossible and would never be permitted by His Highness the Second Prince. If we rebelled, the Norton Family's two-hundred-year reputation for loyalty and righteousness would be destroyed in an instant — that's a price I cannot afford to pay. The name of a traitor doesn't sound good, and I don't want to be pointed at by a thousand fingers.
So now, the Four Families Alliance of Northland has become vitally important. Think about it — back when our four families coordinated perfectly, His Highness the Second Prince suffered a tremendous loss while our Norton Family gained enormously, securing jurisdiction over Dralemsk Province and Winston Province, bringing both provinces into our Norton Family's sphere of influence. In His Highness the Second Prince's eyes, the four families of Northland are one body. He cannot target any single one without considering the others, so he must first find a way to destroy our alliance.
Without this Four Families Alliance of Northland, His Highness the Second Prince would only need to deal with the Norton Family alone, and rumor and slander would be enough to severely damage our reputation. But with three allies at our side, his usual tricks won't work as easily — that's the blessing of having established the alliance. No matter which family His Highness targets, he must consider whether he can withstand retaliation from the other three.
This campaign against the four central duchies is a baited hook, but we had to bite. Count Phelim is bent on restoring the glory of the Pegasus family, and with his territories currently facing a manpower shortage, turning his eyes to the central duchies is hardly surprising. Count Shahin has never been skilled at territory management, so his desire to plunder wealth is understandable. They swallowed the bait His Highness the Second Prince cast out, and we had to go along for the ride. Just as you told me — attacking the four central duchies benefits our family as well. That's why the Four Families Alliance of Northland must present a united front to the outside world, and not be easily divided by His Highness the Second Prince's provocations.
What I didn't expect was that this time, His Highness the Second Prince dragged Grand Duke Fisablen into the mix as well. That old fox's demand to release the surrendered soldiers of the Third Border Patrol Corps is obviously an attempt to restore their strength. Count Phelim and Count Shahin have been blinded by the potential gains from attacking the four central duchies, while Duke Kames doesn't understand the danger Grand Duke Fisablen poses. That's why they don't want to speak up for us — they're worried that raising objections would jeopardize the decision to attack the four central duchies. That's also the reason I agreed to release those soldiers. The only pity is that without this free labor, many of the projects we had planned will have to come to a halt."
...