“Father, are you all right?” Asked Perot worriedly.
“So it seems that our opponents are mainly Elk Family. Compared to them, the other three have neither the heritage nor the strength, so they shouldn’t be a problem for us.”
“What?” He couldn’t follow what his father meant.
“You’re such a disappointment,” said the Count, “You really let me down, His Highness gave you such a good chance, but even now you haven’t figured out who your opponents are.”
“Uh, aren’t you surprised?”
“You mean the fact that the Prince insists on going back to Border Town? Of course, I also think it’s strange,” the Count grasped his beard, “But his reasons have nothing to do with us, for us it’s only important that the contract is true.”
This is indeed the case, Petrov thought, I cannot believe that His Highness would go through all this trouble only to make fun of me, as for why he loves to live in Border Town, later I will have enough time to find out the true reasons. But I would never have thought that my father’s ability to accept the new circumstance was this strong.
“Did I hear it right, is that Meede boy your friend?” Shalafi suddenly stood in front of Petrov, “Tomorrow, you will go over and redeem him.”
“You agree that I spend a thousand gold royals to redeem him?” Petrov got startled.
“Think about it, Count Elk died and the eldest son doesn’t want to redeem the second son, and during the battle, with the exception of a few knights, they had almost no losses. Once Jacques Medde took over the title, he will try to hinder your success in the future… No,” said the Count, “Why Jacques did not want didn’t want to redeem Rene is because he is afraid that the other will be a threat him.”
Alright, it turns out this was the true reason, Perot smiled in his heart. But he also knew that his father was correct, Rene had grown up with swords and spears, furthermore, he was much closer to the knights within their territory, unlike Jacques the eldest son, who doesn’t have the body and air of a Lord, instead he preferred the debauched life of a noble.
Although Rene had repeatedly shown that he wanted to be a knight, but that was the time where he had no chance to inherent. But now that the Count was dead, who could guarantee that he wouldn’t ask for the help of the other knights, who could kill the eldest son for him? So why redeem a person who would later become a problem to himself, Jacques’s decision was very simple and ruthless.
“My friend would never do that,” he assured.
“Perhaps, but after you have redeemed him, Jacques will get a headache, whether he has any intention of doing so or not.” Shalafi further explained, “As for the materials worth 1000 points, we can just choose some more craftsmen.”
“When I prepared the ransom for you, I have already transferred some of our craftsmen, and in the case, I will now transfer even more, we won’t have enough craftsmen in our own territory.”
“Do not worry about it, you know that the North has become quite a mess?” explained the Count confidently, “Most of the four Kingdoms forces were killed at Hermes, so everywhere the Lords have forced the people into their armies, there is now a large number of refugees. We can just take this opportunity to eat a little more, like this we can even save some of our monthly payment.”
Hearing all these explanations, Petrov discovered that his father was also an expert businessman — at least his business ability was much stronger than his ability on the battlefield.
Chapter 123 The Invitation of the Church
It was already the fourth day since Roland had taken over the castle, today nearly all nobles in the surrounding areas were gathered inside the castle Grand Hall.
Although most people already knew of the news, Roland still felt that it was necessary to tell them personally that the Western territory now had a new ruler.
After he informed them about his intentions to move back to Border Town and that the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family would now rule in his stead, everyone had suddenly started to discussing the news. Of course, no one was willing to take the lead at this time to stand up and object to it, after all, the Duke’s head was still hanging above the city gate and news that King Timothy had suffered a great loss and couldn’t send any external forces was now also known to everyone.
Furthermore, all the knights of the Honeysuckle Family had already been redeemed, while at the same time he hadn’t accepted any ransom for the other knights, so that the knights, together with the mercenaries, could all come back with him to Border Town. In Roland’s plan, the mercenaries would be sent to the mine, where they could work to earn their freedom, and the knights would get a job offer in case they showed their repentance and had good manner — after all, most knights were literate and could thus also be used as teachers. Of course, for the rest of their life the wouldn’t ever be allowed to ever use a weapon again.
If it was handled like this, the Honeysuckle Family should have enough power to hold the other four noble families back, and they should also have enough troops to defend Longsong Stronghold and their own territory as well, Roland thought. As for the invisible stirring undercurrent, it’s a problem that Petrov will have to worry about on his own.
In the past few days, he also took the time to send some Border Town residents back who had rebelled during the winter where many people had died out due to hunger and the cold, including the former Finance Minister Ferrero, they would all face trial in Border Town. His only regret was that the mastermind behind the attempt to burn his food and the death of Grayhound, Count Medde had already been killed on the battlefield.
Today, the traffic between the Longsong Stronghold and Border Town has finally been restored, which meant that until the end of next week many ships would sail upstream to Border Town to deliver the gathered supplies. Roland guessed that Barov would be very busy for the few next weeks, he had not only received a lot of looted gold coins, he also had to organize the resettlement of the large number of immigrants. Also it was still unknown whether Karl had built enough wooden sheds.
Thinking of this problems, he could not help but want to return to the Border Town as soon as possible, in addition, the great farming operation also needed to start soon.
After entertaining all the nobles to lunch, Roland intended to take a nap, but then one of his guards announced a special guest.
The High Priest of the Church in Longsong Stronghold.
Hearing this, Roland suddenly had no thought of sleep left.
Longsong Stronghold was completely different from Border Town, here the Church had already been rooted for a long time, they not only had a church, they have even dispatched a High Priest to this place. This was also the Prince’s main reason that he had decided to further develop Border Town rather than staying further in Longsong Stronghold — here the people were already under the influence of the church for a long time and any of the civilian could become their eyes. Here his plan to manipulate the people’s view would become complicated and the risk that the witches would be discovered would also become much higher. Unless he completely unrooted the Church, his reforms would never get a chance to work.
Paying attention to the replacement of the ruler of Longsong Stronghold is a normal thing for the Church, so Roland wasn’t too surprised that they would send him a representative to come into contact with him. However, the identity of the person they send was a bit special, as the High Priest of the Church he belonged to the most influential people of people, the area under his jurisdiction was of a similar size to that of a Duke.