Knight and Wand

Chapter 194 Territory Tour
Avalon Castle was built on the rising river valley mountain, surrounded by a solid stone wall and towering towers.

The lower city area of ​​the fortress is a criss-crossing street made up of dozens of three-story townhouses arranged in an orderly manner. An elevated aqueduct bridge is suspended in the air, and water pipes in the arched bridge columns connect the various water reservoirs and water points in the lower city area.

The midtown area, which is higher than the lower town, is the passage hub connecting the upper and lower areas.

There are several central corridor stairs in different directions, wide gentle slopes, decorative flower beds that have not yet been restored, rows of ancient sculptures, and scattered duplex houses.

On the east side of the central city, there is a spire fortress slightly smaller than the square main fortress. There is a suspension bridge connected to the city wall. The fortress is surrounded by an arena and a parade ground. This is a barracks and also part of the city defense system.

The protruding area on the west side of the central city is a workshop building that has been abandoned for many years.

After the Thorn Flower Family's military craftsmen moved in, they only activated a few obvious furnaces in the workshop.

There are many strange facilities whose names are unknown, and they are either damaged or their functions and uses are completely unknown.

It was not until the nine short bearded men who were settled down and pushed their way through the seats of the Thorn Flower family's craftsmen and asked Leon for a lot of expensive materials and ointments that a few of the less damaged forging machines in the workshop began to vibrate again.

Going up from the central city, there is the Avalon Main Castle in the northeast corner, the Fountain Square slightly in the center and to the northwest, and the Upper City where the Mage Tower on the top floor is located.

At this moment, Leon was lying on the fence of the upper city platform, looking out at the entire city of Avalon.

Overlooking the town houses, farmlands, and windmills under construction outside the city walls.

Looking at the Thornflower Garrison and Avalon soldiers patrolling back and forth, and people coming and going on the streets, a unique sense of security arises spontaneously.

He remembered Olivia once asked him what kind of future he wanted.

Looking at the territory under his rule today, it seems that that expectation has been largely realized.

A fortress full of security, surrounded by friends and family, and the territory under its rule is also thriving and developing.

Unfortunately, the way things are in this world is that the tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop.

Order is a luxury. Without strong military force to guarantee security and keep the disaster of war out of the territory, the pastoral idyll in front of us can turn into a hell with floating corpses all over the place in just one night.

The memories of the original owner flashed through his mind, and the cruel scenes made Leon wake up from his nostalgia. He turned around and walked back to the central city along the stairs.

The organization's founding ceremony was delayed for ten days before it was finally held yesterday.

It wasn't that something went wrong, but the operation of Lohak and Knight Larian leading the soldiers to clean up the mine took a lot longer than expected, so they finally led the army back.

According to their report, most of the branch tunnels in the underground mine ended in dead ends. The wild goblins remaining inside had nowhere to escape and were blocked underground by the soldiers.

But in addition to the main tunnel and the ventilation air pockets on the top floor of the platform, this mine still has two over-dug tunnels connecting to the surface.

One is the entrance that Leon discovered near a tributary of the earth vein.

On the other hand, the knight ranger who was tracking the wild goblins discovered that the route extended all the way to the border of Mamor County in the east.

It was only after Larian passed through the long mine tunnel, explored a long way in the wilderness on the surface, found a village and asked the locals that he finally figured out the direction.

After hearing the news from Larian, Leon immediately decided to send people as soon as possible to seal the tunnel leading to Mamor at the end.

If the underground minerals in the Nightmare Forest are discovered by other lords occupying the western part of Mammor, who knows how much they will covet them.

As for the dwarves who returned to the mines.

After going deep into the main mine tunnel and discovering that the interior had collapsed over thousands of years, they were disappointed and embarked on the long journey back home.

According to today's map, the dwarves will first head north until they cross the border of "Braden Territory" and go deep into the northern mountains.

That was the city of Heraen, which was closest to Orland in their memory.

If they cannot find their fellow tribesmen there, they will continue to move eastward along the mountains, and even if they cross the "Wound of Omros" and reach the mountains and wastelands of the eastern continent, they will search for traces of their compatriots.

This journey is literally thousands of miles away. Leon couldn't help but sigh at the dwarves' stubbornness. Just listening to Hem's route plan, he felt sweat on his forehead. He could only wish him good luck.
After seeing the dwarves off, the Knights' Order's founding ceremony was held without any accidents.

In addition to the four Knights of the Thorn Flower who swore to join, Leon also granted the title of knight to the six guards who were selected for the earliest rounds of battle.

From then on, they each had their own surname and coat of arms.

Hawke chose the horseshoe as his symbol, Zabron used a battle-axe, Brunan's emblem was a maple leaf, Pavel, perhaps because he was used to the trumpet, used a horn, Boz's was an oak tree, and Dardanelles's emblem was three upright spears.

In addition to these six people, Uncle Brian also accepted the canonization.

Even though the other party was a knight appointed by Olivia's biological father, he had been hiding his real name for many years. After all, he was just a commoner in the eyes of outsiders and could not use the name he used in the first half of his life.

In order to enable him to lead the army better in the future, Leon discussed with him and doubled the reward for his father-in-law by giving him the title of knight.

Since Brian could not use the family crest from the past, he simply used a plain gray background with a red broken sword as a commemoration of his past identity.

This does not include Canis, the card spirit, and Larian and his followers, the advisor.

The Knights of Avalon currently has a total of sixteen knight members, nine knight squires, eleven guards, and several light cavalry, totaling forty cavalry and more than one hundred professional sergeants.

One hundred and forty or so elite warriors can ensure the current safety of the barony and can also respond to the feudal lord's call to go into battle quickly.

If there is a large-scale invasion of the territory, this can be used as a branch to recruit enough conscripts to form an army of thousands of people to resist the invasion.

Of course, Leon hoped that he would not encounter any more wars in the short term, at least not before he collected taxes from his territory this year.

Walking down the stairs and passing by a duplex house with a backyard in the central city, Leon saw Veresa in front of the yard gate, counting the brand new furniture brought by the carriage from outside the town. She arranged for the laborers to move the wooden tables and chairs into the house.

Leon walked over, greeted the busy Ms. Veresa, and then walked into the building.

Many old furniture in the house were cleared out and moved away. On the second floor, Miss Sally was directing the servants to place the wooden table and chairs in appropriate positions.

The bright sunlight shone in through the window with the torn curtains removed, and the rows of tables and chairs in the room couldn't help but awaken Leon's memories of his past life that gave him a headache and made him miss it.

Obviously, this is a student classroom, and on the first floor, there is even a student cafeteria which is still being set up at the back.

In the lower city area not far away, a large house was arranged to serve as a dormitory for future students.

This is an educational institution that is being prepared within the territory. It is only in the early stages, and at most it will teach some cultural basics such as Feru and Uriah language, writing, and arithmetic.

He doesn't have many people who can spare the time to serve as teachers, and the only two people who can truly devote themselves to education for a long time are Miss Sally and Ms. Veresa.

However, education is not something that can be achieved overnight. When we have extra financial resources in the future, we can recruit more teachers and gradually improve it.

When Sally saw the lord coming, she quickly stepped forward and lifted her skirt to salute: "Hello, Lord Leon, I'm sorry to bother you, but it's still a mess here, and we're not ready yet."

"Don't worry, I just came by to take a look. Is there anything you urgently need?" Leon looked down at her and asked.

"The other supplies are ready, but the wax tablets and styluses for writing are far from enough. Of course, we also need a lot of real paper and pens. In addition, if we want to accommodate dozens of children to eat here in the future, the kitchen will also need more manpower.
The dormitory also needs adults to look after the children. Sister Veresa and I can still take care of the good children in your family, but if there are so many children to take care of in the future, I am afraid that the two of us women will not have enough deterrent power. " Sai Li raised her head and looked at the tall lord in front of her, and expressed the difficulties with some worry on her face.

Leon nodded and promised, "There is still some time. I will replenish the teaching equipment as soon as possible, and I will also send more people to manage miscellaneous matters. If you still need anything in the future, remember to submit an application to Elena."

Looking around the classroom, he realized that this was not only to train young people with literacy and numeracy for the future Avalon Territory, but also to be of great use in the near future, and directly related to the Barony's control over the towns and villages of Kantadar in the future. Without disturbing the busy Sally and the others, Leon left the academy that was being prepared and continued to the workshop building on the west side of the central city.

During this period, Leon tried his best to meet the requests of several resident dwarf craftsmen, and did not hesitate to spend money to send people to the surrounding areas of the territory to purchase the materials needed for the short uncles to repair their workshops.

According to Laura, the place was originally built by dwarf craftsmen under Aphrodite, specifically to serve the Mage Lord.

The time and space in the Cursed Land are chaotic, but it does not mean that time has not passed inside. Over the past thousands of years in the outside world, this place has experienced an unknown amount of erosion and lacks maintenance. Most of the equipment in the workshop has been severely damaged.

According to the report given by the Helan people after the inspection, some key materials that were impossible to obtain in this era and even unheard of were missing, which basically meant that most of the facilities could not be repaired and could be dismantled and returned to the smelter for iron smelting.

Fortunately, Leon's requirements are not high. Even if it was made thousands of years ago, high-end products like the Crucible Golem and the Molten Gun would have required the complete Heraen Workshop industry, and he has never dared to hope for them.

Right now, I am already making a profit by having a few furnace technicians hand-make a batch of high-quality cold weapon equipment for me.

Not long ago, he asked the dwarves to help repair several Silver Mountain crossbows that were damaged during training.

When Leon told them that this was a craft that the craftsmen of Silver Mountain City learned from the Helan people, the short uncles were very angry.

According to them, if a Heran made such rubbish, it would be best for him to stay away from steel furnaces and anvils for the rest of his life, lest he anger the spirit of Omroth.

The dwarves obviously disdained to create such a device which they considered to be a disgrace to their craftsmanship and angrily refused the technology to copy the Silver Mountain Crossbow. Instead, they recommended to Leon the revolving crossbow which was a hundred times more powerful than the crossbow.

But Leon asked realistically about the materials and cost of the thing, and the result made him temporarily put aside his unrealistic ideas.

However, at least the designs of spears, swords, and armor of the current era are not particularly different from those thousands of years ago. The only difference is the craftsmanship and materials. The dwarves do not have any psychological burden of hurting their self-esteem when making them.

Leon then transferred the order, which was originally intended to be made by the kingdom's armorer to tailor-make armor for Olivia and Corvis, to the dwarf technician.

Not only the armor for the two of them, but Leon also ordered a new set of armor for himself from the dwarves, intending to replace the Doson snake-patterned plate armor he was wearing.

His height actually grew by several centimeters in four months, and he was now over 1.9 meters tall.

As his body became more and more sturdy, Leon gradually felt that Doson's armor no longer fit him.

Although the redundant design of the armor is not so bad that he cannot continue to wear it, it still restricts his movements. Lohak's trouble is probably more serious than his.

Now that there are dwarf craftsmen here, they all want to take this opportunity to change to a better set of armor.

Arriving at the clanging dwarf workshop area, Leon looked at the remains of the three-legged puppets that were transported back to Avalon from the mine.

Next to the hill of gold and copper, there are many refurbished prospectors neatly stacked up, after being rust-removed, polished, lubricated, and disassembled and replaced with parts.

They folded their three legs and arms and remained in a lifeless silence.

It was not difficult for the dwarves to repair the limbs, skeleton and shell of the ancient mining golem.

But the energy problem could not be solved. The previous unexpected battle destroyed the alchemical synthetic stones under the shells of these gold-bronze puppets, which the dwarves called "the core of the earth."

After searching the mine, they didn't recover many of the earth cores that had been used as spare parts, and Leon was not in a position to rob the dwarves of their almost non-renewable property.

As for the last two captured prospectors that still had their cores intact, Leon asked the dwarves to equip them with steel spear arms as weapons and thicken their breastplates, and placed them in the treasury of the main castle to act as self-disciplined guards and save the little remaining energy.

The "center of the earth" requires matching dwarven equipment to process the corresponding mineral materials and produce them.

He had asked, and learned that Laura could replace the synthesis equipment, but without the raw materials to produce that kind of alchemical synthetic stone, even the King of Magic would be helpless without the necessary materials.

Leon expressed his understanding. Miss Lola was not really an omnipotent god, otherwise she would have helped him wholesale Neti brand materials long ago.

He came to see the dwarf craftsman this time not to see those machines that he didn't know whether they would be useful in the future.

Walking into the huge workshop, Leon listened to the roar of hot steel, and soon found the chief technician among several busy dwarves. He was shirtless, with muscles as angular as rocks, and was holding a large piece of steel slab with pliers and putting it under the reciprocating hammer for forging.

To be frank, he couldn't even tell the gender of some of the dwarves.

The one with the big nose must be a male dwarf.

Some of the people whose noses resemble those of humans are probably female dwarves.

But if the nose is neither too big nor too small, most people will not be able to tell the difference.

This bearded dwarf technician belongs to this category of neither big nor small.

Don't be fooled by his naked upper body. Dwarves do not "throw heads". Being naked upper body has no practical meaning to them.

According to the previous life, Leon couldn't assume the other person's gender at all, in a different sense from Corvis.

And according to the books, the dwarves have always been very happy when outsiders mistake all the Herans for males, and sometimes they will deliberately deepen this impression.

Because they feel that this will protect the strong, heroic women of the Herans with beautiful beards and high-pitched voices from being stolen by foreigners who spy on their beauty.

Hey, you are quite possessive.

But Leon didn’t understand. Didn’t any outsider explain to them clearly that given the huge difference in aesthetic views, wasn’t this really too much to think about?
"Master Adya, I heard that the armor and saddle you made for my griffin companion have been completed? So fast?" Leon walked up and asked as loudly as he could.

This was exactly why he came here. The efficiency of the dwarf craftsmen in making armor for Deathclaw was unexpectedly fast.

You know, it takes more than a month to make Olivia and Corvis' plate armor, but it only takes one-third of the time to make the war beast armor, which is so much larger. It's really counter-intuitive.

A senior furnace technician named Adya, upon hearing the voice of the local lord, temporarily put down his work, turned around, shook his beard, and glared at him: "Ulfgard's egg, you still call this fast? With your request, in my time, if you kept it for more than three days, you would be considered making black money."

There is no joint rotation mechanism, and a few large pieces of chain-bound armor are essentially just a few pieces of fitted curved steel plates. Adya shrugged and turned to lead the way.

Entering the warehouse on the side, Leon saw the huge war beast armor piled on the blanket, which was tailor-made for the Death Claw.

The unpainted steel armor had a silvery sheen.

The skull is covered with an eagle-head helmet, and on the forehead stands a domineering single-horned spike.

Four pairs of large, exquisite arm and shoulder armor stacked together.

Around the raised saddle of the mount are buckles and chains that can secure the rider.

The largest piece of arc-shaped war beast breastplate extending in a Y shape is printed with the iconic sword-wing pattern. In the ribbon carving below the sword-wing emblem, the bloody word "Death Claw" is engraved in Feru characters.

Leon imagined what it would look like when he put on the Death Claws, and his head instantly became excited.

The griffin is a high-level embodiment of the phrase "adding wings to a tiger".

And with a suit of armor like this.

If he hadn't been busy setting off tomorrow to inspect the territory in Glade County, he would have been unable to resist putting this new outfit on Deathclaw immediately and taking it for a spin in the sky to try it out.

Just be patient. After the craftsmen finish painting the armor, it will definitely look more domineering. He reluctantly withdrew his gaze.

(End of this chapter)