Throne of the North.

Chapter 529 Gerald, the Knight and the King
In the southern lands, there are not many human lands facing the north.

The Empire occupies the widest northern border, from the west coast to the Borean Province, all of which are vast lands facing the North. This clear boundary with the North continues eastward to the Griffin Mountains of the Serra Kingdom and the Andara Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Andara then moved eastwards, and between it and the [woodland] occupied by the elves, in front of the North, there were two noble territories that served as the gateway for humans to the North.

Gerald with black eyes, and Gerald with gold eyes.

Just like the four great nobles of Carlos bloodline in the Kingdom of Sera, the two noble lords are of Gerald's bloodline. They are not nobles born and raised in the south, but nobles who fled to the south after the Pan-Dimensional War of Gods when the North Border flooded from the north to the south.

As nobles who moved south, they were able to obtain their own territory in the south, which represented their former power.

Gerald came from an ancient kingdom. They were the royal family of that kingdom and were also very famous in the Norris continent.

In the past, the Norris continent did not have such a large population, and humans occupied a small amount of territory. Secondly, the number of kingdoms was not even as many as the nine today.

Therefore, Gerald's bloodline could be said to be the top aristocratic bloodline at the time, and even the nobles who fled south would give them face.

At that time, the Gerald members could have entered the land further south, and even relied on the reputation of the Gerald royal family to gain the loyalty of a large number of nobles and establish a new kingdom in the south.

But they didn't.

When the North stopped, Gerald's bloodline also stopped, which is now the land located in front of the North, east of the Andara Kingdom, and west of the [Woodland].

The two great noble bloodlines Gerald, Mo Tong and Jin Tong, did not split up like the great nobles of the Serra Kingdom in order to fight for the orthodoxy of Carlos' bloodline.

During the journey south, Gerald's master, the king of the kingdom, led his army to fight against unknown enemies and monsters in the north. He separated his two children who had absorbed the essence of divinity without telling them who was the true heir.

"When the snowstorm passes, when the northern borders disperse, and when the giants retreat, come back, return to our ancestral land, and the fire of our ancestors will be rekindled for you."

The king's order was simple: whoever could lead the Gerald bloodline back to their former lands would be the new king.

Savagery and romance are attributes deeply engraved in Gerald's blood. They pursue victory and death all their lives.

They think this is the most romantic and desirable thing in the world.

Many nobles disagreed with this, but they praised the barbaric courage of Gerald's bloodline.

After the first generation of Black Eyes and the first generation of Gold Eyes established the new Earl Gerald in this land, now is the third generation of Black Eyes and the second generation of Gold Eyes.

It’s just that romance is poetry and distant places, while reality is often cruel. After more than a hundred years of development, the Gerald family has obviously declined.

They were in the area closest to the North, far away from the center of human civilization, and very close to the elves who were unfriendly to humans.

This doomed Gerald's decline. In the new era of hundreds of years, Gerald's bloodline was left far behind by the empire and the kingdom.

I don’t know if they care themselves.

What Ryan cares more about this noble territory is that in the territory of the great noble Gerald, there is a very special system of knights and monarchs.

What does it mean? Whether it is the Black Eyed or the Golden Eyed Gerald territory, there are only two nobles, the two Earls of Gerald.

Other than that, they're all knights.

All the knights had their own land and slaves. They were soldiers of the king, the two Earls Gerald, and also the rulers of the land they owned.

For example, Ryan divided his frozen land into thousands of parts, large and small, without saying a word, and each of his knights and servants was the owner of one of the parts.

Then they were just knights, just soldiers, just followers.

When the king needed them, these knights would bring their own dry food, knight's swords and armor, their own war horses, and their own slaves to the castles of the great nobles, and form the army of Monarch Gerald outside the castles with great enthusiasm.

"It's the ancient romantic system of knights and kings."

This is how Count Pascal described Gerald's bloodline. Whether in the era of Vatican rule more than a hundred years ago or now, more than a hundred years later, Gerald still adheres to the more ancient ways, which may date back thousands of years.

Ryan had doubted this method, but Count Pascal told him that this method would ensure that the knights' loyalty to Gerald would always be supreme.

Why? Earl Gargoyle told Ryan one thing, that is, the current territory of the two earls of Gerald did not belong to them at the beginning, nor was it conquered by them, but was occupied by the former guardian knights of the king of the Gerald royal family after they came to the south.

When Gerald fled to the south, the ancient knight presented the land to the two Earls Gerald.

This is the romance of Gerald, the knight and the king.

If one day in the future a certain Earl Gerald leads them back to the land of their former kingdom, most of these knights will become nobles. They are knights now because they have not fulfilled their promise to the king who stayed in the north more than a hundred years ago, and they have not returned to their hometown.

In ancient times, people like the Pope and the Thirteen Knights, the Hero King and the human heroes who followed him, all lived this way.

They build their own glory in the conflict of blood and fire, and when the dust settles, the knights will become nobles.

Ryan was shocked by this approach. Count Pascal also told him that he was the Gerald of the past, the Gerald with the resources and prestige of a kingdom. The two Gerald nobles now were far inferior to before.

Why? Because that land cannot support too many knights, nor can it support a majestic king.

According to the ancient tradition of knights and kings, how many slave families are needed to support the birth of a knight?

The simplest way to calculate is that ten households of slaves can barely support one knight.

If the knights wanted to be less financially strapped, they would need at least thirty or fifty households to pay for them.

With more than a hundred people, the cost of supporting a knight is already high. And when Earl Gerald came to the south, facing the northern border, how many thirty or fifty households did he have under his command?
It is also necessary to eliminate the direct land and population controlled by the monarch himself. All in all, the number of knights under the command of Earl Gerald, whether he has the black eyes or the golden eyes, will not exceed five hundred.

This is the number that can only be achieved under extreme conditions of exploitation.

What can these people do?
Not to mention the wars that broke out between the North Wind Province and the orcs, even in the internal wars that broke out in those years, there were more than five hundred knights present in each battle.

To put it simply, the army Ryan currently controls is enough to defeat the two Earls Gerald.

"According to the past of this world, they were not weak, but the Pan-Dimensional War of Gods changed too much. A new era has arrived, and Gerald is still immersed in the past of being eliminated."

Count Pascal was also one of the oldest nobles, but in terms of keeping up with the times, he was in stark contrast to Gerald.

From this point we can also see that not every noble can stand at the forefront of the tide of the times. Most nobles are submerged by the waves.

Ryan still heard something from it.

"The Dawn Church intends to support Gerald?"

Count Pascal thought about it and nodded. "That's probably it. The Church has experienced many failures in the Kingdom of Andara, and they have begun to realize that they have insufficient control over the North."

"They will need more power if they want to regain the faith of this land."

"In the north of this one-third of the land, the Empire blocked all the means of the Church. The vast hills in the south of the two kingdoms also prevented the Church from moving freely. As a result, the Empire was able to take advantage of the situation and completely subdue the east."

"The Kingdom of Serra has already shown the gap in foundation between it and the Kingdom of Andara. It is highly likely that it will not be a match for the Kingdom of Andara. If the Gerald Noble Territory is defeated by the Empire again, the northern one-third of the land will have nothing to do with the Dawn Church at all."

"How can the Holy See allow the Empire to repeatedly occupy the land of the Dawn with the faith of light?"

"So... in this year's war, the Church is more concerned about regaining the faith of the Andara Kingdom, while the Emperor is keen on conquering the Thousand Lakes Province in the south."

Ryan roughly understood the situation, but it seemed that His Majesty the Emperor was a little greedy. He didn't want to shift the focus of the war, but he was also unwilling to give up the hard-won victory in the north. He wanted to have everything.

The Dragon Legion and the Gargoyle Legion were also dispatched for this purpose.

"The Cross Redemption Army..."

Ryan thought that this army would probably be his biggest opponent this year.

"It's so annoying. I'm not even allowed to farm properly."

……

Gerald's noble territory and Mo Tong's earldom.

"The grain production is going to decrease again this year, and the knights are already afraid."

Count Zeton Gerald Mo Tong sighed and put down the wooden board in his hand. It recorded that the amount of grain planted this year was less than that of last year. It was conceivable that the joy of the harvest in autumn would disappear.

The reason for this, of course, is the war.

The orcs invaded on a full-scale basis. Even though the Empire dealt with it in a few moves, the Andara Kingdom is still at war with the Devil-Rhinoceros Orcs. The noble leader Gerald is also fighting fiercely with the Minotaur and Kobolds.

These orcs bully the weak and fear the strong, and they only pick on the weak.

However, because the territory of Noble Gerald is not like the Empire and the Kingdom of Andara, when the orcs invaded here, the nobles of the southern lands all had to support them. Although they were short of manpower, they were not stingy with supplies.

But the war was exhausting, and Gerald could hardly hold on any longer.

"How about we borrow some manpower from the elves? They definitely don't want to see us being conquered by orcs. Those proud elves hate orcs very much."

Standing in front of Earl Mo Tong was his brother Dirk Gerald, helping with advice.

"We can't find the elves recently. Besides, the crusaders from the Holy See will arrive soon. They will help us deal with the orcs."

At this point, both Gerald bloodlines felt somewhat helpless.

They welcomed the help of the Vatican's army. More than a hundred years ago, their ancestors launched attacks on unknown monsters in the north in the name of the Lord of Dawn.

They are devout believers of the Dawn, but they also understand that the Redemption Army of the Dawn Church is not a proper army.

They are unforgivable criminals of the Church.

It was never a good thing for such an army to enter their territory, especially for a very traditional noble leader like Gerald.

"What was Uncle Meilan's reaction?"

Dirk asked. The Uncle Melan he mentioned was another Earl Gerald. In order to distinguish him, most people called him Earl Golden Eyed.

The relationship between the two families used to be good, but ever since Zetton Gerald became the third Earl Mo Tong, Earl Jin Tong often taught Earl Mo Tong under the pretext of being an elder, causing the two families to become quite estranged.

"Who knows what he is doing, maybe he is preparing for the coming of the Crusaders."

"They are coming..."

Dirk hesitated, knowing that his words might be an offense to Chenxi, but he still said:

"We will end the war with the orcs, but soon, I'm afraid we will have to declare war on the Kingdom of Andara."

As noble lords, whether it is an empire or a kingdom, it is a behemoth for them, so of course they are always paying close attention to what their neighbors are doing.

They also knew very well that the Crusaders were not coming to help them fight against the orcs.

"The Pope wants to regain the faith of the Andara Kingdom, and then launch a holy war against the Empire from the east. We are destined to declare war on the Andara Kingdom."

"The knights are exhausted."

Helplessness appeared on the faces of the two brothers almost at the same time.

"When can we return to our ancestral land?"

Count Mo Tong sighed, feeling that his dream was far away. Gerald's bloodline had struggled for hundreds of years, but was getting further and further away from the goal. He wondered if his ancestors would blame him.

The count was helpless. They could only be swept up in the power struggle between royal power and divine authority. No matter how hard they tried, they could only watch the arrival of the Crusades getting closer.

Until that day finally came.

The Crusaders of Redemption, most of whom are cunning villains, and a small number are unfortunate people abandoned in the power struggle of the Holy Mountain. However, after being transformed by the abyss, they have gradually forgotten the part of themselves that was once human.

They are more cruel and more eager to kill.

The Church of the Dawn used the Road of Dawn to absolve their sins, and after the end, it was unwilling to leave these notorious guys in the southern land, lest they arouse resentment and be thrown to the north to disgust the empire.

This army had no awe or gratitude towards the Church of Dawn. If it were not for the extraordinary means restricting them, they would have already headed for the Holy Mountain and defected to the Empire.

This is a very obvious thing, but no one knows that the Cross Redemption Army is in the hands of a devout believer of the Dawn.

Walking in front of the Crusaders was an old man. His hair was gray but combed meticulously. He walked barefoot on the ground. His speed was not fast, but all the members of the Crusaders behind him did not dare to overtake him.

The way the Dawn Church judges sinners is not pure, so naturally it cannot get pure Dawn sinners. However, this old man has never wavered in his faith in the Dawn, which is not like the kind of person that the now fallen Church can have.

Alvin Griffith is the name of this old man. He is a priest. Every move he makes is whipping himself with the magic of the morning light. In order to atone for the mistakes he has made, shackles have fallen on him, and the priest's devout faith spreads the glory of the Lord.

(End of this chapter)