Chapter 559: Guests of the Castle
One day after Kant’s peaceful development of a year, four distinguished guests arrived at the lion’s castle, the southern County of the dukedom of Leo. They were four of the top n.o.ble families of the dukedom of Leo, Count Cody. Maud, Count Simon. Prynne, Count Rowan. Reese, Count Seth. Enoch.
It was common knowledge that the four top-tier n.o.ble families were all va.s.sals of Grand Duke Cameron, but they did not follow Grand Duke Cameron’s orders.
In the eyes of all the n.o.ble families in the Dukedom of Leo, the four top-tier n.o.ble families were powerful families that could compete with the Cameron family. In fact, that was indeed the case. Whether it was the strength displayed by the four top-tier n.o.ble families or the true strength they possessed, they were not inferior to the Cameron family.
If their family’s real “fiefdom” was not located in the Dukedom of Leo, they might not have become the top n.o.bles of the Dukedom of Leo but might have established a dukedom of their own. They had such power.
The Dukedom of Leo was a large-scale fortress. There were no less than 5,000 elite heavy cavalries in it. However, what was strange was that almost all of these 5,000 elite heavy cavalries were official cavalries. There were only five grand knights, each of them led an official cavalry legion, which was 1,000 people.
Of course, this situation was quite strange. Even those upper-cla.s.s n.o.ble families, ordinary viscount families and slightly powerful baron families in the South County would not only have five grand knights. Lion Fort was the publicly acknowledged number one castle in the South County. It only had five grand knights. It was too shabby and strange.
“Count Maud, Count Prynne, Count Reese, Count Enoch, please come in!” A young man who looked similar to Kant, with long golden hair and blue eyes greeted them. The young man, who was at the peak grand knight level, was no less powerful than the four top-tier n.o.bles of the Dukedom of Leo. He stood upright at the gate of Lion Fort and welcomed the four top-tier n.o.bles of the Dukedom of Leo.
Obviously, this was not a sudden visit, but an official visit that had already greeted the master of the Dukedom of Leo in advance.
“Carl, you have a good brother!” Count Cody. Maud said with a hint of a smile, but there was no warmth in that smile.
Carl. Cameron, the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Leo, Cameron. At this moment, he was managing the entire Dukedom of Leo.
At this moment, Carl heard Count Cody. Maud, a hint of darkness flashed in his eyes. However, he was a qualified n.o.ble, and he quickly hid his emotions.
At the same time, he replied to Count Cody. Maud with a smile and said, “Thank you for your praise, Count Maud. If Kant knew that you praised him so much, he would definitely be very happy. He might even thank you personally.”
“Hmph, I can’t accept Baron Kant’s grat.i.tude. When I see him, I’ll be satisfied if he doesn’t force me to call him Lord!” Count Cody Maud said unhappily.
“Alright, Maud! Let’s not waste any more time. Carl, bring us in. Did Lord Cameron leave the matter to you?”
“Yes, Count Enoch!”
…
Lionheart City was the only estate of Kant that had not changed much. It was still regarded as a large-scale trading city by Kant. The port of Lionheart City handled a huge amount of goods every day. On the East-West Main Road, carriages full of goods filled the wide road. However, more than half of these carriages belonged to Kant’s people. They came from the population of the world of “Mount and Blade”. They constantly transported all kinds of goods from Drondheim, Aaron, Veluca, and Jelkala in exchange for golden eagles. Then, they exchanged the golden eagles for the lovely denars from Baron Kant’s trade caravan.
In Lionheart City, the original population of this world was not excluded. They could obtain the right to live there. Kant did not change either. The upper-cla.s.s n.o.ble families who settled in Lionheart City still lived in the Eastern District of Lionheart City. Because of Kant’s prosperous estate, Lionheart City was well-developed as well. Now, the permanent population of Lionheart City was one-third higher than before. It already had a population of 200,000 people.
Kant stood in a side hall in the city lord’s mansion in the Central District of Lionheart City. In this side hall, there was a sand table of the Dukedom of Leo. He was thinking about how to start the war.
He had several choices now. One, he could choose to complete the main quest and completely conquer the Dukedom of Leo, becoming the only ruler of the Dukedom of Leo. On the other hand, he could choose to explore the world’s will and grant him the t.i.tle of a world n.o.ble — Kant. Isai. Cameron and obtain the land.
According to the world’s will, once he explored and successfully cultivated his own land, the land would be a huge demiplane — it was the Divine Kingdom of an ancient fallen G.o.d, it had fallen to the ground and fused with this main world.
However, Kant was still inclined to complete the system’s main quest first.
Kant had once gone to the coordinates given to him by the world will in the Nahrin Desert alone and opened a door through the Power of War to enter that demiplane to take a look. That demiplane was actually formed after the Sun G.o.d’s divine kingdom fell from the sky and was hung on the main plane of this Isaiah World.
That demiplane was not calm, because it was like a complete world operating inside. Its area was as large as ten Dukedom of Leo, and there were also humans inside, and there were many of them. Kant had sneaked into their library to check the information and knew that these people were all descendants of the Sun G.o.d. Ten thousand years had already made them forget the glory of the past, but the bloodline of the G.o.d’s descendants still gave them great power. Conquering that demiplane was much more difficult than conquering the Dukedom of Leo.
Kant remembered that the descendant of the Sun G.o.d in the main plane had been crazily sacrificed to the undead plane by the pope of the Sun G.o.d Sect. He had wanted to exchange for the power of eternal life, but in the end, he had only become a pathetic half-lich.
Now, Kant’s power was already very powerful. At the very least, it was completely overwhelming against the Dukedom of Leo on the surface.
Of course, if the five great world’s n.o.ble families in the Dukedom of Leo were to hide in their own fiefdoms, Kant would not be completely confident if they were to use all their power in the demiplane like Kant’s to fight Kant, but he was not too afraid.
If the five great world’s n.o.ble families were to unite against Kant, then this battle would naturally be extremely difficult. But if they did not join forces to fight him, then his main quest would become extremely easy. After all, Kant did not intend to occupy the demiplanes of the five world’s n.o.ble families that were mounted on the Isai World’s main plane, even though the coordinates of their demiplanes were in the South County of the Dukedom of Leo.
There was no need to do this. The more demiplanes there were, the better. Possessing them did not simply mean increasing the amount of land. It also meant that they needed to defend against the invasion of the demons in the demiplane. The demiplane formed by the Divine Kingdom of the Sun G.o.d did not have any traces of the invasion of the demons. That was probably because Kant had yet to truly “reclaim” it.
After he occupied the demiplane, it would become his “fief.” At that time, under the push of the will of World of Isai, if the random spatial pa.s.sage created when the Endless Abyss invaded the upper planes was connected to World of Isai, the world’s will might transfer the spatial pa.s.sage to his “fief.”.
If he didn’t want to become a demon, even if he had the system, he would have to help Isai resist the invasion of demons until the spatial pa.s.sage closed, or he would have to forcibly close the spatial pa.s.sage himself.
Kant thought about the situation in the Dukedom of Leo, and then muttered to himself, “First it’s easy, then it’s difficult. I’ll take down the East County first, and then I’ll attack the South County!”
In fact, with the various countries and sects collectively declaring that Kant was not a person who defected to the demons, but an honorable n.o.ble, many n.o.bles in the East County wanted to rejoin Kant, and even many upper-cla.s.s n.o.bles in the South County had secretly sent envoys to contact Kant and expressed their intention to pledge their allegiance.
But Kant completely rejected them.
He had already developed, did he need these n.o.ble’s allegiance?
There was no need at all. His overall strategy had already changed.
In the past, he was still a little worried. If he really occupied all the territories on the land, for the sake of his pure empire of “Mount and Blade”, would he really have to slaughter all the humans? However, the existence of the fiefdoms in the demiplanes of the world n.o.ble families helped him solve this problem that troubled him greatly.
At that time, he could only focus on chasing away the people on the lands he occupied. When he really occupied all the territories on the land, he could still chase those people into the fiefdoms of the world’s n.o.ble families. After all, Kant had no intention of conquering the fiefdoms of the world n.o.ble families. That would be a big problem.
Although Kant believed that he had a cold and resolute heart, he still instinctively rejected to ma.s.sacre all the humans in this world. That was why when he had first formulated the plan, he had left some s.p.a.ce for the n.o.ble families and commoners of this world. But now, there was no need.
“Will, pa.s.s down the order to Baheshtur. Tell him to start attacking the entire East County and clear out the entire East County! Those who are willing to leave, drive them out. Those who are unwilling, bury them in their homeland!”
Kant calmly issued this war order that was destined to lead to a b.l.o.o.d.y storm.
Will was the mage commander in charge of Kant’s intelligence transmission. He obeyed Kant’s order and left.
“Mande, you will lead 200 Swadian Royal Knights, 200 Sarleon Lion Knights, and 200 mages to support Baheshtur! Bring the Flag of Intimidation and the Horn of Commanding Power!” After Will left Kant gave an order to a Swadian Royal Knight beside him. Mande was his name.
All of Kant’s troop cla.s.s had gradually become a level 4 or 5 advanced troop cla.s.s. Even the level 6 troop cla.s.ses Swadian Royal Knights, Sarleon Lion Knights, and mages of the Enfath Empire each had grew to 1,000 people. The huge Caradia Empire, this was the name Kant had prepared for his empire. It had gradually begun to take shape. The prosperous economy was enough to support Kant’s huge and advanced troop cla.s.s.
However, level up 6 troop cla.s.s was already the upper limit, and the system seemed to be unable to upgrade the troop cla.s.s to the true transcendence realm.
Kant’s current denar savings were growing rapidly every week. All the experience gained from the continuous battles had been used up by Kant, and all the troop cla.s.s had been upgraded to the highest level up.
With the huge population base, Kant no longer had to worry too much about the number of soldiers.
After giving the order, Kant set his eyes on the remaining half of the South County on the sand table.
This half of the South County was filled with manors and many castles. Because it was close to the Resniston River, this part of the land was the most fertile land in the entire South County. It was also the most fertile land in the Dukedom of Leo.
The best land was naturally occupied by the strongest n.o.ble. These manors and castles belonged to the upper-cla.s.s n.o.ble of the Dukedom of Leo. In fact, these upper-cla.s.s n.o.bles had occupied 80% of the power and resources of the entire Dukedom of Leo.
The last half of the South County, even without the intervention of the five great world n.o.ble families, was still a tough nut to crack.
With Kant’s current power and military strength, it was inevitable that they would be crushed by him. However, it was estimated that Kant would suffer significant losses to do so.
At this moment, a Swadian Royal Knight walked over and reported respectfully to Kant, “Lord, Count Cody Maud, Count Simon Prynne, Count Rowan Reese, Count Seth Enoch, and Viscount Carl Cameron request an audience.”
Kant raised his head. “The four top n.o.bles of the Dukedom of Leo, as well as my elder brother whom I have never met before?”
Why are they here to see me? Behind these five people stood the five true n.o.ble families of the Dukedom of Leo. The powerful upper-cla.s.s n.o.ble families of the Dukedom of Leo did not even have the right to know of their existence.
“Take them to the main hall. I’ll be right behind you!” Kant recalled the words of the G.o.d of War, Edmund, before he died. “I’m afraid these five people do not come with good intentions!”
In the main hall of the Lionheart City, Count Cody Maud, Count Simon Prynne, Count Rowan Reese, Count Seth Enoch, and Viscount Carl Cameron, the five most powerful men in the Dukedom of Leo, were brought to the main hall by the Swadian Royal Knights. The attendants served them delicious and sweet drinks in time.
However, this delicious and sweet drink tasted like wax to the five of them.
“Carl, your little brother is so arrogant! How dare he make us wait for him?” Count Simon. Prynne said with extreme dissatisfaction. Among the five of them, perhaps Carl was the only one who was dissatisfied with Kant. One year ago, when Kant took over Lionheart City, among the four city gates of Lionheart City, the city gate guards that he sent suffered heavy losses and almost all of them were wiped out. Three-thousand-man troop was not a small number.
“Count Prynne, please be patient. On behalf of my brother, Baron Kant, I apologize to you. After all, he has not received a proper n.o.ble education. It is inevitable that he has some flaws in n.o.ble etiquette,” Carl. Cameron’s voice was gentle as he spoke. However, a hint of disdain flashed in his eyes. Carl was filled with jealousy and hatred towards Kant. This brother that he had never taken seriously and had even treated as if he had never seen him before had now climbed onto his head.
He was thinking about how to push Kant hard later.