Knight and Wand

Chapter 163 Turbulence and Opportunity

"That is it, my Lord."

Standing on the edge of the cliff, the spy pointed to the direction of the Holy City of the Kingdom of Serian east of the border for the poetess.

Hundreds of poems look into the distance.

In her field of vision, she could see in the distance a strange scene where the air was twisted and hazy, as if with heat waves rising.

The mountains are still mountains, the water is still water, but Bai Shou knows that it has been essentially isolated from real time and space.

She calmed down a little and concluded that the disappearance of the bigwigs of the Eastern Expedition Faction should indeed have nothing to do with the Western Expedition Faction in the country, but was purely an accident caused by unknown reasons.

Otherwise, this method is too unconcealed. In front of His Majesty the Emperor, the struggle in the imperial court dare not evolve into something so unruly.

The spy cautiously speculated to Bai Shou: "Although the retreating Kantadar army still claims that the king is alive, I think they may have lost more than just the king. After conquering the Holy Land City of Rolandar, many noble generals of Kantadar and Uriah, including the king, were in the city. Now they have all been swallowed up by the sudden curse. With so many lords lost at once, Lord Kantadar may cause chaos."

His speculation was certainly not groundless. Ever since Rolandarne's news was cut off from the outside world, many mercenaries stationed in the surrounding areas, originally employed by various nobles, had lost their employers and commanders.

After a long period of not receiving supplies and commissions, within a month or two, many mercenary units began to "collect" debts from the vicinity of their original bases.

Now, more than three months later, all the mercenary groups that did not withdraw with the rear troops have disbanded under the leadership of various small leaders, turning into roaming bandits, wreaking havoc in the eastern county of Kantadar.

As time went by, the cursed land east of the border expanded. Since the mercenaries could not go east, they naturally began to plunder the territories of their original employers in the west.

They will never return home unless they get a lot of money.

Lord Kantardar and his army, who could have stopped their lawlessness, disappeared in the holy city of Rolandar.

The county magistrates who still had troops stationed in the rear were still able to drive out the rebels, but in the areas where there were no troops garrisoned, even the families of the local noble lords suffered the murderous hands.

These mercenaries, who were originally recruited to conquer the Kingdom of Serrian, have now become an endless bandit problem in Kantardar.

The war had already been a heavy burden on eastern Kantadar, and now with the severe war disaster, famine had already occurred everywhere.

Towns began to defend themselves and blockade themselves, and thousands of Kantadar civilians in the countryside were forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in county lords who still had military protection.

At this moment, the other main forces of Kantadar, who were supposed to maintain order and suppress the rebellion, retreated to the center of the kingdom without any reluctance, like a receding tide.

This is also the reason why the spies concluded that the king was missing.

According to intelligence from insiders, the one who now controls the army in the name of the king is Avilut's younger brother, the "Duke of Aberle".

The army he led was now rapidly heading towards the central part of Kantadar.
That is where the royal court was located, where his eldest son "Prince Kaso" ruled on his father's behalf after Aviut went to war.

Such a reverse march really makes people doubt the real purpose of the Duke of Aberle.
Bai Shou listened to his men's reports and carefully memorized the information in his mind.

But unlike the spy in front of her who was born in Kantadar, what she really cared about was not the unexpected political turmoil in this indigenous kingdom.

Even if the kingdom was torn apart and people were devastated, for Baishou, the matter was far less serious than the domestic political problems that would be caused by the assassination of "Piriano", a mage with a nominal title.

What's more, unlike Piriano, who was forced to take the throne by political factions, the whereabouts of several great wizards who truly controlled a small part of the empire's political situation for hundreds of years are unknown.

Even in the early days of the empire, when the rising mage lords fought each other in civil wars, it was rare for them to lose so many powerful beings at one time.

Bai Shou was puzzled in his heart, lying in silence. He wondered what had happened to those big shots that made them come all to the Western Continent to join in the fun, and even scrambled to gather together and rush into Rolandar. Now they were all suffering.

She only hoped that those extraordinary beings who could call the wind and rain could escape from the spiritual field as soon as possible.

After all, during the long years they had lived, they had explored spirit-like sites around the world more than once, bringing back countless amazing ancient wonders and knowledge for the empire.

Although they have been missing for more than five months, Bai Shou knows that this is still possible because the time in the spiritual field is chaotic and disordered.

Perhaps right now, those powerful wizards are just experiencing the formation of the cursed land.

"Let's go. Just leave some spies in nearby towns to watch out for the spread of the spirit-like field. Take your people to the capital of Kantadar and monitor the turmoil caused by the loss of the king.

As for those big shots from the empire, if they can't save themselves in the cursed land, we ants can't help."

Bai Shou shook her head and confirmed the reason why the wizards had lost contact. She had basically completed the most important task of this trip. The ones who would have a headache next would be the big guys in the country.

Selva.

Leon handed over the two wanted warrants delivered by the kingdom's official messenger to Lohak.

"Post these on notice boards in the village market and the East District Square, and remember to read them to the people."

Lohak took it and looked at it, there were two wanted bounties.

One is of the warlock Met, which not only has a text description of his appearance, but also a simple portrait.

Lohak recalled the quick encounter he had with that guy in Longka and thought the painting was quite vivid. The other one was a wanted notice for the female assassin who escaped from Larian's knife that night.

Unlike the sorcerer Met, who was well-known to many people in the capital, it was impossible to draw the exact appearance of an unknown female poet who had only been seen by a few people based on a description alone.

It's hard to say how effective this thing will be.

Leon had never seen the female assassin, but he had seen Mette's magic.

He doubted that changing one's appearance should not be a difficult task for a warlock master who could use magic to create a half-human, half-snake monster like that.

Watching Lohak and his men post the bounty notice, Leon turned to look at the other people at the table.

"Has the hired craftsman been settled?" Leon asked Ms. Elena.

"Yes, sir. I have arranged accommodation in the East District for Mr. Shock's family and his apprentices. They expressed their gratitude to you for the house you gifted them," Elena replied with a faint smile.

Leon nodded.

Of course, Old Brian is not the only blacksmith in the Three Territories, but not all blacksmiths know how to maintain weapons and forge and preserve armor.

Selva, which is building a standing army of 100 people, needs at least one or two professional craftsmen to maintain the army's logistics.

Especially in the future there will be many delicate and expensive crossbows that need to be maintained.

As a centurion, old Brian is now busy with military affairs and can no longer find time to take care of the armor and weapons in the armory as he did before.

So he had to send someone to the guild in Farolis many days ago to hire a craftsman and settle in Selva.

This naturally cost a lot, including a newly built mansion and fortress, a blacksmith shop in the barracks, and an annual salary of 36 gold coins for him and two apprentice craftsmen.

The territory's already huge annual expenditure has been added with a considerable expense.

However, during this period, the territory's finances were not all outflows.

Leon finally waited for the large number of outsiders he was prepared to welcome in the past. The floating population in the Selva area has been increasing rapidly in recent days.

Before the Greyshirt Valley army led by Count Trosa passed by, a large number of vanguard craftsmen arrived early to clear the way for the army.

Based on the Thorn Flower Baggage Camp in the east, they built a larger logistics camp to the north.

In just six or seven days, not counting the permanent personnel stationed outside, the number of people entering Selva on a daily basis has increased several times.

The floating population entering the villages and towns is almost equal to the local population, and the demand for meat, wine, vegetables and various daily necessities from outsiders has increased dramatically.

Fortunately, everything was prepared.

Leon sent Lohak to escort Ms. Martha to contact the surrounding caravans and village merchants who had already signed contracts, and notify them to start fulfilling the contracts.

This work was originally supposed to be presided over by Azerien, but unfortunately he led his team to Silver Mountain City to purchase military equipment and supplies, so Leon turned the matter over to Ms. Martha, who had long been eager to show her talents.

An endless stream of convoys soon arrived in Selva with their wares, and within just two or three days of the completely opened new market in the East District, the number of stalls and the level of activity far surpassed those of the old village market.

Many smart Selva villagers also moved their vegetable and handicraft stalls to Xinshi in the east district.

This is just the beginning.

Ever since the Thornflower family set up the entrance to the forest road in Selvadong, the future of this small village is destined to prosper unless something unexpected happens.

The team of craftsmen who came to build the camp now, according to the notice on the letter, were only the several thousand troops that were going to be transferred back from the Greyshank Valley Territory.

In the future, the craftsmen and baggage caravan that will arrive nearby to pave the way for the king's army will be even larger in scale.

And even if the war ends in the future and the army leaves, this road connecting Kossos County and the new county in the southern part of the forest will only become more prosperous with the passage of people as the situation stabilizes.

Even now, the total population in and outside the Selva region has exceeded six hundred. In this way, the land ruled by the three brothers has a population of over a thousand.

Even though more than one-third of them are not his own subjects, in fact, considering only business income, the wealth created by these outsiders is far greater than the taxes that can be generated by farmers in the territory.

Just by estimating the scale of growth, Leon knew that this year, Selva's commercial tax alone would be at least four or five times higher than the annual income of the three leaders combined.

Of course, the prerequisite is that Selva must import as much as possible from all over to maintain the supply of goods, not just relying on the subjects and surrounding merchants. Selva is also organizing its own trade caravans to speed up efficiency and commercial construction.

We must seize this opportunity while the army's merchants have not arrived yet and there is no competition.

Alas, I feel emotional. This book, which I wrote for fun, has come to this day. It is really impressive to see it being recommended by the magazine. Haha, I am satisfied.


(End of this chapter)