Free Citizens
There were only two things in 1783 that concerned Lorist. The first was the grand ceremony of Auguslo's ascension. Even though it was already over, the falling out with him and the wariness he had for House Norton and the four allied houses only grew. The two factions were practically rivals and it seemed like their battle would be battled out in the arena that was the Krissen Empire. Before Lorist the swordsaint and Auguslo the emperor settled who won, the situation wouldn't calm down.
The other matter was the construction of the grand palace in Ragebear. After three hard three years, and the painstaking effort of nearly 200 thousand laborers, the grand palace was finally complete. On Grindia, there was no tax for constructing new properties. As long as nobles had the money and power, they could build a palace even grander than that of the royal family's and make it their residence. Not only was that a display of wealth, it would also serve as a legacy for their descendants to inherit, while also helping the house leave a mark in the annals of history. Handra's Inkcuby Palace and Forund's Summer Palace were such examples.
What dumbfounded Lorist was that he had made the decision to construct the Palace Ursa Rex wasn't for the fame, but rather to solve the issue with overproduction of a mineable resource in the dominion. In other words, he was increasing demand for the material to make up for the falling prices and also giving the farmers a chance to earn some extra money, which could then be used to stock up on more of House Norton's products. That way, the dominion's economy would get the stimulation it needed and the folk would lose the habit of saving every single coin they made.
That was why even though Palace Ursa Rex was grand in size, it wasn't very detailed and ornate to squinted eyes. The grandest palaces on Grindia were no different from several beautiful manors and castles linked together with a shared garden. They were far from what Lorist imagined fantasy-world castles would look like. And given that the term of the project was quite short, it couldn't compare to some palaces in his past life, which easily took more than a decade to construct. Then again, perhaps because of the advent of battleforce, the people in this world had an advantage when it came to building speed. Battleforce-using workers could easily lift large rocks and greatly increase the efficacy of construction.
Lorist had interfered with the design of Palace Ursa Rex to resemble the Forbidden City which he had seen during a visit with his secretary once. Even though he couldn't exactly replicate the whole thing, the grand scale of the whole project earned Ciroba's awe; the old architect's belief that Lorist had architectural talent was once again reinforced through the layout and design he provided of the buildings. But when Lorist received the final designs and saw the Gothic-style decorations on his Chinese-style palace, he thought that it felt a bit off, but it was already too late to change.
Ciroba on the other hand was filled to the brim with ambition. He was driven to make Palace Ursa Rex a Grindian structural marvel so as to leave his mark in the world of architecture. Had Lorist not decided on the name of the palace early on, Ciroba would be willing to give up on his riches, title and everything else to have the building named after him. If it were called Palace Ciroba, he would die with no regrets.
The grand architect spared no effort when it came to the construction and monitored the whole project closely, not letting off the slightest mistake. He even lived on the site itself. Given the humongous nature of the project, its term was set at two years and its budget, two million gold Fordes. But due to Ciroba's request, it swelled to three million, five million, and finally, eight million with Spiel's permission following the proposal to make it the greatest palace ever built on the continent. The term of construction was also lengthened to three and a half years while the 100 thousand laborers doubled. They were all brought over from various other project sites.
Spiel didn't think that spending so much on Palace Ursa Rex was a waste as it was a core matter of the house. Given House Norton's current might and prosperity, it required a palace just as grand to flaunt and make a statement. That was all the more justified taking into the fact that Lorist was a swordsaint of the kingdom. He was the greatest thing to ever come out of House Norton during the past three centuries. A residence fitting for his status was obligatory. After a few centuries, his descendants would also live in that palace proudly and admire his legacy.
When Lorist received that proposal, he was completely dumbstruck. A budget of eight million gold Fordes was more than three times the annual income received by the house a few years back. The usually stingy and pauper-like Spiel actually agreed to spend so much. If Lorist didn't trust in the chief finance supervisor's usual tact and wit and his scrutiny for every single bit of spending, he was going to send people to investigate whether there was corruption involved in the project.
Fortunately, the house had already established their trade route to the south of the continent and earned around six million gold Fordes yearly by exporting the goods it produced to Morante. Jillin Harbor's market also brought some one million gold Fordes in profit. Even though the house spent three hard years to defeat the Trade Union and lent so much money to the Free Union to aid their development, the income largely made up for the costs and there wasn't a need to worry about any financial crisis brewing in the following years.
Lorist smiled bitterly when he saw the figure of eight million. He was more than willing on spending that amount on raising living standards for the citizens or improving the gear of his forces. He didn't want a grand palace in the first place and how it had all come to this was genuinely a surprise to him. The budget for the palace that was planned to stimulate the household economy didn't require it to be grand or well decorated. But now, there was nothing he could change about the quadrupled budget. He had no choice but to live in the palace.
He didn't quite like living there. Unlike his expectant lovers and children, Lorist much preferred staying in simple fortress strongholds like Firmrock. He could hear the horns to wake the forces in the morning and listen to the grunts of the training soldiers. That was the life he truly wanted to read.
He recalled a saying in a webnovel he read in his past life: 'a beautiful palace is nothing but a beautiful cage in which the emperor locks himself. That's why there are no heroes after the wise founding emperor because they have been spoiled by their luxuries and lost touch with reality, being toyed around by the others like birds in a cage'. That was the case as well with the Song dynasty. The succeeding emperors were nothing but shipwreck after another.
During the 10th month, Lorist left Silowas with his family members and arrived in The Northlands. He was already preparing to move into Palace Ursa Rex. If he were honest, he didn't really like the name of the palace, which was set after the elders of the house all agreed to it. Since House Norton was called the Roaring, Raging Bear of The Northlands, the names suggested by the elders all had something to do with bears. Palace Ursa Rex was the one that was picked for its imposingness. Lorist settled with it because it was at least better than Palace Ciroba.
"Your Grace, in the palace are 3461 statues of a magic beast bear in various poses. To capture a sense of reality, we captured 17 magic beast bears from the wild and sketched them for reference and picked some poses that were most suited to be made into sculptures," introduced Ciroba as he pointed to the various bear statues place across the palace according to his design.
Ah, so all the money was spent by you! Do you think we're in a bear museum? commented Lorist in his mind. Unlike the heart-aching Lorist, his lovers and children were all stunned by the beauty and majesty of the palace. Sylvia loved her new abode. The children on the other hand had long dispersed and started playing tag around the bear statues. Anderbael climbed up the largest statue and stood proudly to show off, much to his personal caretakers' anxious worry.
I'm so busy and tired! Ever since returning to the dominion, Lorist had to move as well as plan the new year's celebration at Palace Ursa Rex. As it was the first time the celebration was being held at that venue, Lorist didn't dare to slack off. He welcomed one guest after another daily and missed the peaceful and relaxing days he spent at Cherry Blossom Ridge last year.
After the new year, everything finally quieted down for Lorist during the rainy season. The year of 1784 had arrived and i was when House Norton would begin their expansion towards the northern border of the empire into the Magical Dragon Mountains. A new province would be formed with Twinmont Town at its center, giving the house another province under their jurisdiction. The province would be henceforth named Montside after the fact that it was beside Magical Dragon Mountains.
"I intend to implement a policy that allows private ownership of land in this province," decided Lorist.
In some sense, the current three million plus subjects living in the Norton dominion were no different from tenants as all the land in The Northlands belonged to the house. Even though House Norton forcefully moved more than two million other citizens into their domain and gave them farmland and houses to settle down, they didn't really own those. They had to pay half of their crop harvest to the house as rent. Both the land and the house couldn't be sold away either, but they could be renovated and inherited by their descendants. But in doing so, they would have to pay a fee to the house for the procedures.
In The Northlands, apart from the manors given by House Norton to the gold-ranked knights, even the land of Dawn Academy and the special noble district belonged to House Norton. The lease of Dawn Academy's land was indefinitely termed and free for them to use, but if the academy wanted to move away, the land would be returned to House Norton unconditionally.
The special noble district was slightly different. House Norton sold them the right to use the land however they saw fit. The nobles were free to construct their own manors and castles and give them to their descendants and also sell and trade them without obstruction from the house. However, the current 'owner' of the land still had to pay a sum to the house on an annual basis. Even though the sum wasn't huge, if the sum wasn't paid and accumulated up to a certain amount, House Norton had the right to confiscate everything within it including any manors or castles built.
However, the house wasn't such a ravenous, blood-sucking vampire. They would auction the property away and only take what they were owed before returning the extra money to the debtor. Alternatively, a noble could pass on the property and debts to another for them to bear. However, that meant a departure from the noble circle in The Northlands and that was a method only employed during the most desperate of times. The nobles were even willing to borrow money from high-interest lenders just to be allowed to stay in the special noble district, because there was always hope for recovery as long as they remained.
As for the reason for the boost in real estate price in Felicitas's seven towns, it was due to the special districts that were built there. The only difference was that it wasn't exclusive to nobles. The treatment the residents there would receive was the same. That was an opportunity for the richer folk in the dominion as the houses in the special district were far better than the free ones they were given. Farmers that purchased the houses would be able to return their former one to House Norton and get a ten percent tax cut on their crops.
The largest difference between the household dominion and the territories under the house's jurisdiction was that in the household dominion, the main house was the highest power. The true people with power in territories under the house's jurisdiction were the nobles that were enfeoffed there. Apart from those lands, the remaining land belonged to the main house. So, for larger noble houses, they were really unwilling to make vassals of their subordinates because the produce of the dominion belonged to the house. The house stood to lose income after enfeoffing part of the dominion to a vassal noble.
Lorist intended to implement a private property policy in the new province on Montside. In other words, he was going to give away all the right to ownership to the land there of the house. The province would be the free domain of capitalists and it was done so because of need. Montside was a new province and it required people. However, most of the subjects of the house were forced to move to The Northlands. Given that Montside bordered Magical Dragon Mountains, not only were they exposed to barbarian raids, they also had to defend against magic beasts. The people living there required the ability to defend themselves to survive.
While most of the barbarians and magic beasts could be countered by the household forces, small scale bandit raids and random animal attacks were going to happen even with the precautions in place. So, Lorist set his sights on the retired household soldiers and mercenaries. He would offer them the tantalizing prospect of owning their own land in Montside and each retired soldier of the house would receive around 17 square meters of land in Montside and be allowed to do anything with it as they pleased. Ten They could transfer it to their descendants or sell them to other people without the permission of House Norton.
"Perhaps the land-owning citizens of Montside will become the first of truly free citizens in our domain," said Lorist.
Auguslo's Provocation
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Oh? Where am I? Lorist opened his eyes groggily to the milk-yellow wooden wall beside him. The wooden patterns formed an odd picture. The soft bed veil fluttered above the gold-plated bronze bed rack with the wind.
The breeze of dawn entered his room from the two open windows, causing the violet crystal wind chimes that hung by them to ring a pleasant tune. Looking at the chandelier hanging from the white ceiling and the magic beast bear engraving on the wall, he finally snapped awake. Oh, this is Palace Ursa Rex, my new home. I'm within Maria's bedroom...
His initial puzzlement came as no surprise. Even though he had been living in the palace for three to four months already, he spent most of his time sleeping in his master bedroom with Sylvia or within his study. Last night, it was Maria's turn to accompany him. He didn't call her to him, but instead, went to her room and spent the night there. It was no wonder he didn't recognize where he was when he woke up.
"Dear, you're awake..." Maria opened her eyes groggily and brought her naked body towards Lorist. She reached her right hand out to feel Lorist's crotch up in a practiced manner and soon wrapped it around the morning-hardened shaft. Soon, she retreated into the blankets with the grace of a swan all the way until her head reached his crotch.
'I don't want any 'morning exercise' today.' That was what Lorist wanted to say at first, but his body responded more honestly than he wished. Even after going at it twice with Maria yesterday, Lorist's member hardened like steel from her playful tongue teasing. I think I'll have to get more rest in the study later today... thought Lorist as he raised her up and plunged himself deep into her.
What he didn't expect was that there would be so many things that he had to deal with.
"Your Grace, according to Tarkel's report, our emperor has just lowered the amount of money required for an honorary noble title. An honorary viscount title cost only five thousand gold Fordes, but the honorary count title is still the same at eight thousand."
Charade looked at the documents in his hand with a stricht expression. "During the latter half of last year, His Imperial Majesty has entitled more than 130 honorary nobles and gained no less than 500 thousand gold Fordes. What's worth noting is that most of the ones purchasing the titles are tycoons from our dominion who benefit most from the trade in Morante. After becoming rich, they hope to be able to mingle among high society, so they spent that money to gain imperial honorary noble status."
Lorist shrugged. "This isn't something we can do anything about. We can stop them from gaining honorary noble status, can we? The imperial decoration is far more glorious than our own after all."
Charade's response, however, put Lorist at a loss for words. "No, Your Grace, they purchased an honorary title from the empire and returned to convert them into noble titles conferred by our house after paying a fee. It costs about eight thousand gold Fordes to gain honorary baron status from our house, but the process of transferring an imperial honorary noble title to one of ours cost only two thousand plus. They will save three thousand gold Fordes in total by doing so."
"Pitiful merchants, wanting to save that small amount of money," muttered Lorist with admiration.
Offering honorary titles for sale was common among the kingdoms and powerful noble houses. For the rich, obtaining an honorary title was akin to making sure their family and household would be kept safe. They would also gain a hike in status and be allowed to mingle among the noble circle. If they were lucky, they might even gain ownership of land one day and become a proper landed noble. House Kenmays was one such example.
Only by mingling in the noble circle first could they stand a chance to serve a liege and possibly earn their favor. Becoming a proper landed noble would no longer be an impossible dream to achieve in the long term. That was why many of the new rich in the Norton dominion wanted to convert the titles. What dissatisfied Charade was how they'd buy titles from Auguslo for conversion. Wasn't that letting Auguslo benefit for nothing?
Lorist on the other hand was quite satisfied that those imperial honorary nobles converted their titles to Norton honorary titles. That meant that the confidence in House Norton's continued development in the future was high. They believed in the stability of the institution than in the empire. It was a sign that everyone still kept a clear head and didn't pay attention to Auguslo.
However, he also felt a little uncomfortable with the notion of having been taken advantage of. After some consideration, he instructed, "Well, just adjust the conversion fee for an imperial honorary title to about two times the total price. That will stop anyone from doing so, and His Imperial Majesty will no longer benefit from this conversion scheme.
Charade nodded. That was a surefire way to curb the matter. If the conversion ended up costing more than buying one from House Norton directly, they'd rather go for the latter option from the get go.
"Your Grace, as the number of honorary nobles in our dominion grew by quite a lot, many of them are petitioning for us to expand the special noble districts for them to purchase land and build manors and castles. After the administrative bureau made a survey, we believe that we can set up three more special noble districts between the existing ones and Palace Ursa Rex. We can link them together with the five older ones. It's still a rough draft for now, and we will naturally make sure that the districts are at least 300 meters away from the palace for security purposes."
Charade handed a document to Lorist, who gave it a look and signed. The request for three more special noble districts to be built was approved just like that.
"Another thing, the administrative bureau is preparing to move forward with our residential area construction plan in Redriver Valley and Salus in the coming two years. The house finance department has approved the plan and is ready to invest five million gold Fordes for the development over the course of five years. It's estimated to earn us around 37 million gold Fordes after that. This is the master plan, please sign here."
The real estate business of the seven towns of Felicitas had earned the house great returns for their investment. Even though there were quite a number of obstacles they had to work through and only finished development after six years, they were all solved in the end. It could be said that almost everyone living in Felicitas bought their own homes and started living in them. The house earned 13 million gold Fordes in profit from that, causing Viscount Spiel, the chief finance supervisor of the house, to turn his sights on the three million plus citizens in The Northlands.
Spiel came up with a plan to have almost all the citizens move into houses they bought within a span of ten years. He was intent on scouring their wealth clean. If they had no money, that was no matter. The house could let them take loans and buy houses, which would have to be repaid in a decade or two.
Two years ago when Lorist was still in Morante considering how to deal with the Trade Union, he sighed with awe at Spiel's harshness and sharp wit when he read that proposal. It could make almost all the citizens into workers slaving away for their own homes. Lorist understood that the house had invested no less than 50 million gold Fordes in the dominion during the past decade, including the salaries and bonuses of the soldiers, the costs of forcing the refugees to move and providing them with farmland and houses, the starting of new factories and mines, and so on. Behind all that was a huge, jaw-dropping budget.
The wealth in The Northlands didn't lie in the millions of gold Fordes it provided the house, but rather, the many factories and small business spread across it, such as food stalls, grocery shops, salons, tailors, the production of daily necessities, as well as the job opportunities they all provided workers. The passage of the past few years caused every commoner household in The Northlands to amass up to tens and hundreds of gold Fordes, which they kept for emergency use.
Spiel was gunning for the gold Fordes of these commoner households. If he could spur them to spend their hard earned stash on the newly developed houses, the amount the house would earn was unbelievable. Spiel's eyes were bloodshot at the thought of that. But considering that the house was fighting a war with the Trade Union and required time to recover, the plan was postponed back then.
Last year, Spiel brought that plan up again and Lorist finally allowed it to be carried out in Redriver Valley and Salus. Given that those two places were among the first territories of the house, they were the next candidates for the housing project as the citizens had lived there for quite some time and had amassed quite a bit of wealth.
After signing the document, Lorist handed it back to Charade and asked, "Is there anything notable about the situation with Montside?"
Charade replied, "Your Grace, because of the private land ownership policy, we received nearly 100 thousand applications. Currently, we are doing initial surveys and that will take another half a month before we have a conclusive picture on things. We estimate that we will approve around 30 thousand citizens in the first wave. There are around four thousand qualified mercenaries and retired soldiers which we requested. The rest are people who have only trained with the local garrison forces for a few days, only there to fill up the number."
"Montside is different from other provinces. We don't need to develop it as a whole for now. Everything must be done with proper pacing," Lorist said as he put his legs on his desk and leaned into his chair, "Sending powerless citizens there is exposing them to danger carelessly. The place is far too close to the wildlands and Magical Dragon Mountains. So far, Firmrock has set up defense lines around the most dangerous areas, while Tigersoar had almost exterminated all the magic beasts in the wildlands. I estimate that it will take around four to five years for the situation there to stabilize. The citizens we're recruiting to send to Montside now should be just enough to populate a few towns. We don't need to rush this."
"I understand," Charade said after some thought, "But, Your Grace, many honorary nobles wrote us or sent people on their behalf to ask about the private land-owning policy. I suspect that they're trying to rely on buying land in Montside to become recognized as landed nobles."
"Hehe, aren't they optimistic? Tell them that each person can only own up to 17 square meters of land at most. The allocation of land will also be based on drawn lots. Even if a mercenary band signs up for it, the land they receive might not be linked together. Also, not all the land in the province is for sale. At most, half is open for civilian purchase and the other half is to be used as land to enfeoff to people with contributions."
After Charade left, Malek and Tarkel entered right away, not giving Lorist any time to rest.
"Your Grace, we have news straight from the imperial capital. His Imperial Majesty has stationed Fiercegale legion in Messen. The reason they gave for that is that they're preparing to eliminate bandits in the eleven central provinces. There are also rumors that Whitelion legion is going to be called back and stationed in Welbassia," said Tarkel.
Lorist stood up from his desk right away. "What's that fool thinking? Is he going to declare war against our alliance?"
Malek and Tarkel knew who Lorist was referring to as a fool, but they feigned ignorance.
Welbassia neighbored Yungechandler and the two provinces were separated only by Egret Lake and linked by a single mountain path on land. Madras's Ironguard legion was stationed at the border in Lichtana Citadel back in the day and forbade Charade's convoy from passing. Auguslo was going to use more than 100 thousand refugees to besiege the citadel and opened up a bloody path for the northbound convoy to pass.
Fortunately, Lorist rushed all the way from the dominion and led the convoy through the frozen Egret Lake and used a night attack to cut of Ironguard legion's water supply, which allowed Auguslo to take the citadel with ease and storm Yungechandler. Currently, Auguslo was moving Whitelion legion back to Welbassia, obviously with ill intent against Yungechandler, which was under Norton control. Given that Whitelion legion was an army used to deal with internal threats, was Auguslo sending the message that House Norton was to be treated as an enemy nation?
The newly formed Fiercegale legion was also stationed at Messen, which was a blatant affront to the alliance of four houses! Apart from House Shazin, whose dominion had moved to Koribia, one of the central provinces, Fiercegale's presence in Messen seemed to aim to cut off House Norton, House Kenmays and House Felim's contact with the outside world just like Whitelion. It was no wonder Lorist called Auguslo a fool for intentionally doing something so provocative.
"Have Els bring Ironguard legion to Yungechandler and rebuild Lichtana Citadel. Include the mountain path into the defense perimeter and set up cannons on Bread Hills. Make sure to let it seem like our defenses are really tight. Also, build a few shipyards at Egret Lake to construct cannon-armed ships to sail and patrol the lake. Not a single boat or raft on the other shore should be allowed to enter the waters. Get the shipbuilders from Bullhorn Bay. Our house has invested near ten million gold Fordes in Yungechandler and the development is just about to finish. That fool is obviously not going to let us profit that easily."
Lorist quickly came up with countermeasures. "Also, have Jaeger travel to House Shazin's dominion. Give the reason that we've received an invitation from him to defend his dominion. That way, we can sandwich Fiercegale legion along with House Felim's Pegasus Legion in Southern. I wanna see how Auguslo gets Fiercegale out of there."
"Understood, Your Grace," said Malek.
Plundering Incident
Hey Guys! Prince here.
So I made it through surgery, now four and a quarter teeth lighter; three wisdom teeth, one molar, and a quarter of a poor bystander which will have to be fixed once the mouth is in working order again.
The worst part for me is always waking up from anaesthesia afterwards. That feeling of being awake but with only half your head working is the worst! Anyway, I look and feel like I've been through a boxing match, and I suppose you could say I have. The pain medication is doing its thing, though, and, whilst making me feel like I haven't slept in days, it keeps the pain at bay. So I can get back to editing and you guys can get back to reading.
Don't forget to join our discord server if you guys want to hear about these kinds of shenanigans as they're happening or just want to argue with people over which of Lorist's concubines makes the best waifu.
Toothless regards.
Prince
Back during the attack on the four central duchies, Lorist led the alliance of four houses to attack the duchy of Shabaj and raided its territory of Rimad, Messen and Jigzai. The allied noble army that joined in to take advantage only made the three provinces nothing but hell on earth. About 800 thousand subjects became the spoils of the victors and were forced to move to different dominions. Had it not been for Auguslo's arrival, Jigzai would've ended up like Rimad and Messen: completely empty and desolate.
It had been almost a decade since that conflict, yet Messen and Rimad still hadn't recovered their vitality. The population was ever so dwindling. The central areas' predicament was also partly due to mismanagement. Auguslo didn't enact any civilian-friendly policies and focused on rebuilding his army. He raised taxes on the farmers to foot the cost of sustaining his army, resulting in the bandits within the eleven central provinces gathering together. Many nobles that were dissatisfied with Auguslo were in cahoots with them, adding to the difficulty of stabilizing the situation.
That was especially the case after Auguslo left with his 300 thousand troops he trained in the eleven provinces for the frontlines at the Trade Union. With the army gone, banditry rose significantly due to support from certain factions. The eleven central provinces had become the most chaotic area in the kingdom. Auguslo had sent a division of local noble troops to curb the matter, but when the bandits were no longer able to withstand the pressure, they simply went to the forested areas of Messen and Rimad. The pursuing soldiers had no choice but to give up on the bandits who had escaped deep into the woods.
It was not until House Norton prepared to attack the Trade-Union-controlled Majik and Anderwoff that the soldiers stationed in the eleven central provinces were provided with supplies to continue their bandit-curbing operation. Lorist ordered his eldest disciple, Reidy, and Blademaster Shuss to lead the guard brigade and aid Els's sentry legion on a large-scale cleanup operation to exterminate the bandits. Only then did the situation within the eleven central provinces stabilize slightly.
But following the war between the Trade Union and Andinaq, bandit activity in the central provinces recovered and grew even worse. The three bloody years on Falik Plains only served to chip away at the nobles' forces. Even the dukes, Forund, Fisablen and Shazin, returned to their dominions in the central provinces and were only barely able to defend their dominion. They weren't able to do anything about the neighboring provinces.
After Auguslo returned from Falik Plains, he disbanded the remainder of the kingdom's forces and spread them throughout the territory controlled by the royal family to form local garrisons to keep the peace. But due to a lack of funding, much of the plans were never implemented. The best Auguslo could do for the central provinces was send some men over to defend the more important towns without being able to help the smaller towns and villages at all.
When Auguslo's illegitimate son, Wecksas, was in charge of managing the defenses of the imperial capital, he gave the order for tax to be strictly collected in the form of cash due to their nearly emptied treasuries, causing many farmers in the central provinces to be unable to bear that kind of burden and side with the bandits, unleashing even more chaos. A few towns were even taken over by them.
Had Auguslo not taken another Fisablen as queen and relied on House Fisablen's funds and gear to quell those revolts, the consequences he would have to deal with would be even more troublelsome.
Currently, Auguslo was forming a new Fiercegale legion using the local garrison forces that were involved in quelling those revolts. Though the reason for its formation was the extermination of bandits, its placement was nothing short of in poor taste. Geographically speaking, that was a sound decision that showed Auguslo's trained eye for military affairs. Messen was the central hub of transportation and a strategic location in the northeastern area of the empire. The routes from Southern, Yungechandler and even Egret Lake passed through Messen.
For Lorist, Auguslo's stationing of Whitelion and Fiercegale to seal off the two ways out from the northeastern area of the empire was no big deal for House Norton, because they still had the sea route. However, that move severed the connection between the three houses of the alliance and House Shazin. Given that salt merchant committee had proliferated throughout the empire, the secession was even more crucial. In other words, it meant that the committee's activities would be at mercy to the two legions. Should any accident come to pass, the alliance of four houses wouldn't tolerate it.
In terms of strategic battle placement, stationing Fiercegale in Messen was a great move. Rimad and Southern neighbored each other and House Felim's might had recovered rather well over the past two years. Duke Felim ordered his household force, Pegasus, to continue eradicating bandits in Rimad to protect Southern from any raids. And as Messen was an important trade route for salt merchant committee, it wouldn't be out of place for House Felim and House Shazin to have their forces to conduct bandit sweeps there. That made the route from Southern to Shazin's dominion in the central province of Koribia a much safer one.
But after Fiercegale was moved to Messen, that trade route was cut off. That only served to intensify Lorist's suspicions that Auguslo was the one behind the attempted assassinations of Kenmays. Otherwise, why would he do something like cutting off the salt merchant committee's trade
Even more infuriating and causing Lorist to call him a fool was even though House Norton had gained access to a doorway to riches through trade in the south of the continent, he still couldn't give up on the market in the 30 plus provinces of the empire. The goods ordered by salt merchant committee annually would amount to around four million gold Fordes in total and the profit of one or two million was the key to maintaining the alliance. So, Lorist couldn't tolerate Auguslo for coming for the salt merchant committee.
If Auguslo was on good terms with the alliance, then Fiercegale legion might even be welcomed by them in Messen as House Felim could earn a bit from selling supplies to them.
But given their tense relations, Auguslo's actions only seemed to be of malign intent.
The current situation of Messen caused Fiercegale to be unable to sustain themselves from the land either. Rimad was also raided clean. Not only that, Jigzai and Samora were in a really bad economical state and wouldn't be able to offer Fiercegale any aid either. They had to depend on transporting large amounts of supplies from the southern provinces all the way to Messen.
Based on what was being transported, Lorist would never believe that Auguslo's reason for stationing Fiercegale there was to eliminate bandits. First of all, how could they deal with the bandits if they couldn't defend their supply line properly? If they were really going for the bandits, the right thing to do was to head to Handra's household dominion and start exterminating the bandits in provinces where their presence was weaker step by step. Only with that and good management could the situation really be stabilized. The towns and villages should be defended to wipe the bandits out completely instead of sending troops directly to Messen.
"Your Grace, Duke Kenmays sent an urgent letter to report that one of the salt merchant committee's trading convoys that left three days ago lost contact after passing through Egret Swamp. The duke has already requested Duke Felim to send Pegasus out to investigate," reported Jinolio. Lorist had been expecting news like that for a long time.
"Hehe, no need to wonder. Who else but Fiercegale can engulf a trade convoy of three thousand people? Send an eagle message to Freiyar and get him to work with Duke Shazin's forces. We can act now. NOtify Duke Felim to send Pegasus to seal off Rimad as well," ordered Lorist.
After waiting for three agonizing months, it was finally the time to strike. Lorist sent Jaeger to Koribia, Shazin's dominion, on the grounds that the duke himself requested aid to deal with bandits. Actually, they were there to disguise themselves as bandits to attack the supply line of Fiercegale. Auguslo's troop spent a grueling three months in Messen with huge ration shortages and their messengers they sent out would be spirited away for no reason. Their communication with the outside world could be said to have been cut off.
Under such circumstances, the trading convoy of salt merchant committee seemed like a juicy sheep waiting to be eaten. Other things aside, they could at least sate their hunger with the rations of the convoy and charge them a huge toll to be allowed to pass. Even though salt merchant committee was considered to be an imperial trading guild, Duke Kenmays usually didn't pay much heed to the officers of Fiercegale, especially elites like the general, so they had long received secret orders from Auguslo to cause trouble for salt merchant committee. That was a chance that they wouldn't miss.
Yet, the trading convoy refused to adhere to the legion's demands. Usually, the convoy would be refused passage if they refused to pay a toll. The convoy had two choices: give what was demanded of them or go home. But given how desperate Fiercegale was, they would never let the convoy go, so they acted and managed to force the rest of the convoy into their army camp after killing some hundreds of people.
It was only then that the general and commanding officers knew they screwed up big time. The most glaring fault of their actions lay with the casualties both sides suffered. Fiercegale suffered a few hundred casualties, and even more resisting merchants perished as a result. If it was a small trading convoy, the general could just give the order to silence them and toss the corpses into a valley somewhere and refuse to admit fault. But the large convoy had about three thousand people, and silencing them would prove to be no easy task. Now, they could only imprison them in the army camp and report it to Auguslo to await further instruction.
But the moment Fiercegale sent out the report, it was attacked by Jaeger, Pegasus and Shazin's forces. House Nortons stormed Fiercegale with tens of cannons and soon decimated them. The soldiers either discarded their weapons and surrendered or ran around chaotically. However, thanks to the tight encirclement of Pegasus and Jaeger, they were captured and taken prisoner in the end.
That incident proved to be the greatest scandal in the empire during Year 1784. One of the three newly formed imperial legions, Fiercegale, whose task was to exterminate bandits, had resorted to banditry themselves and were about to kill off three thousand people from salt merchant committee's trading convoy to silence them! Fortunately, the moment the alliance of four houses received word of the missing convoy, they immediately sent their troops to break into Fiercegale's camp before the convoy members were harmed, successfully saving them.
If the alliance of four houses attacked Fiercegale when nothing like that happened to the convoy, Auguslo could declare the alliance of four houses treasonous traitors and summon all other nobles in the empire to wipe them and their leader, House Norton, out. Even if they weren't able to win, it would help quench Auguslo's fire and he could apply more pressure on Lorist during negotiations to accept even the most egregious of Auguslo's demands.
However, Fiercegale was caught red-handed and the proof was undeniable. Not only did the merchants provide testimony to that case, even a few of the simpler-minded commanding officers of Fiercegale admitted everything, thinking that Auguslo would stand behind their backs. The report they were going to send to Auguslo was also intercepted and had the handwriting and personal seal of Fiercegale's general, making it undeniable proof. Even Auguslo wasn't able to explain his way out of it.
Duke Kenmays had a long novel written about the whole affair, containing the testimonies provided by the officers of Fiercegale, the accounts of the surviving merchants, as well as the report Fiercegale attempted to send Auguslo, and spread as many copies as far as he could. Virtually every noble in the empire received a copy and some even made their way to the Free Union. In a fit of rage, Auguslo was said to have destroyed every single article of furniture in his quarters. But he had no choice but to step out for damage control. He wrote Duke Kenmays a letter of apology and admitted his fault in trusting the wrong sort of people.
The Fiercegale plundering incident was a fatal blow to Auguslo that caused his reputation to suffer greatly. Not only was the new legion he spent so much effort to form completely wiped out, the eleven central provinces didn't have a single imperial force unit remaining, further exacerbating the bandit situation. But now, Auguslo no longer had the means to gather funds and rally more troops.
Lorist was quite glad that he managed to give Auguslo a square slap in the face, which he had to take without complaint. Some had noted in the testimonies of the officers that the reasoning for laying hands on the convoy was a shortage in supplies. However, when prompted for why they didn't have enough supplies, the response was always 'bandit attacks'. When further questioned on why they didn't wipe out the bandits that pillaged their supply line, those officers weren't able to come up with anything in response.
Auguslo was also at a loss for words. He couldn't acknowledge that the reason Fiercegale was stationed in Messen was to curb the alliance of four houses. Even though it was common knowledge, bringing it to light would only make it awkward for everyone. So, he didn't pay the 30 thousand captive soldiers of Fiercegale any heed as if the legion had never existed. Lorist wouldn't feed those parasites for nothing either, so he sent them to the newly established Montside to serve as laborers.
Auguslo's Objection
"Your Grace, His Imperial Majesty sent you a letter," reported Jinolio as he entered with an intricate, pale yellow envelope.
"Open it and let's see what our emperor is going to say this time." Lorist was currently quite preoccupied with something else. Since Jinolio was his third disciple, he had Lorist's trust and was allowed to deal with such matters.
It was currently tea time and Lorist was lying on a mat on the ground beneath a small pavilion in his garden. His two youngest children, Jadebins and Rolinors, were crawling all over his body. The two children were roughly born around the same time. One of them was Sylvia's youngest child and the other was Daisy's. The two of them were nearing the age of three and they were treating Lorist like a big, living toy, climbing all over him and tripping from time to time with joy.
To prevent displeasing the two little fellas, Lorist had no choice but to lay on the ground unmoving with a grim expression. He had to push the kids apart from time to time to prevent themselves from getting into a fight from overexcitement. Usually during tea time, Lorist would gather with his family and play around with his children. But when the women mentioned the new clothes that just arrived in stores for the autumn season, they all left their children to Lorist and swarmed to the markets. Lorist had his hands full looking after his children.
Fortunately, some of his elder children had to leave after tea time to receive lessons from their tutors, leaving behind the two energetic toddlers and a depressed Anderbael standing in a horse stance. Though he was supposed to attend two periods of additional vocabulary class, he slipped away when his tutor's attention slipped and used a stick to knock on a hornet's nest which he discovered in the garden. Had the leader of the guards, Patt, not passed through at that moment, Anderbael would definitely end up with swelling stings all over him.
When Patt brought Anderbael over, the tutor happened to be telling on him to Lorist. Lorist really couldn't deal with Anderbael. He tried corporal punishment and good old chiding, but the bear of a child stubbornly refused to change. In the end, he resorted to punishing him by getting him to get into the horse stance.
"Your Grace, His Imperial Majesty mentioned two things. The first concerns the Fiercegale plundering incident in Messen. He hinted at the scandal being a trap we set for him and asked us to not go too far and pursue the matter any longer since we obviously benefited from it."
Lorist snorted twice and said, "After all that, he's regretting it now? If he knew this was how it'd end up, why bother starting in the first place? If he didn't try to block our front door, why would we plot against him? He's not doing what he should and is paying pointless attention to our house, completely forgetting who saved him from Falik Plains in the first place. When it suits him, he'd come groveling to us and begging for our help, but when he no longer needs us, he tosses us away like a used rag.
"I more or less understand that he's a disloyal dog who sits when there's something in it for him and barks when there's not. Just ignore him. He's accusing us without any evidence anyway. Salt merchant committee sends out its convoys during the 4th and 9th months every year and the nobles were waiting to engage in their usual trade. It's Fiercegale's own fault for causing public outrage by preying on such a high-profile target. If the fish didn't bite the bait, how would we even get a hook on it in the first place?"
Lorist moved the snotty Jadebins off him and wanted to get a piece of cloth to wipe his face. But Jadebins simply rubbed his face on Lorist's pants. In fear of hurting him by pulling away, Lorist had no choice but to endure. He'd just have to change into another pair of pants.
"What's the second thing?" asked Lorist.
"Oh, His Imperial Majesty objects to the monopolization of the fishing catch in the whole of Egret Lake by Ironguard. He demands us to retreat to the center of the lake and not cross the middle line and also for us to not use the bank of the lake as a training ground for our cannons."
The year was going really sourly for Auguslo. Not only did the scandal with Fiercegale flare up, Whitelion, which he stationed in Welbassia and Yungechandler's border as well as House Norton's Ironguard which was stationed at Egret Lake displeased Auguslo greatly. He found himself in quite a difficult position as he didn't expect Whitelion to get along so well with Ironguard.
Back then, Auguslo had agreed to Lorist's request to send a legion of troops to Malivia to aid House Norton against the Trade Union as a reserve force. Based on Auguslo's three-year experience fighting the bloody battles in Falik Plains, he believed that the legion would be used as enemy fodder. There was a good chance that House Norton wouldn't be able to resist the assault of the Trade Union and use that legion to shield their own forces during their retreat.
At least, that was how Auguslo envisioned it. That was something he'd do if he was in that position. That was why when he returned to the imperial capital, he restructured the two legions under his control and shifted all the elite troops into the royal guard. Even the general of Whitelion, Ripleid, was moved to the royal guard to serve as general. Those that remained were knights that Auguslo didn't quite like for a variety of reasons like not willing to swear unconditional loyalty to him, so he stuffed them all in WHitelion and sent them to Malivia. In fact, Auguslo had practically given up on the entire legion.
The newly appointed general of Whitelion, Sybek, was a famous three-star gold-ranked knight in Andinaq who had pledged loyalty to Auguslo's father, the third prince. After the third prince's death, he wasn't regarded highly by Auguslo because he opposed one of his guerilla plans during the civil war. That marked the start of their cold relationship. Even when Auguslo was leading his 300-thousand-strong army to attack the Trade Union, Sybek only ever took the position of colonel or division sergeant major without ever being given a chance to take the helm.
However, during the bloody battles in Falik Plains, Sybek saved Auguslo's life once. That time, Auguslo was situated too far at the frontlines as he was inspecting the enemy encampments when two Trade Union blademasters attacked all of a sudden. Fortunately, Sybek happened to be passing through during a patrol. Otherwise, it would've been truly dangerous for Auguslo. The enemies were two rank 2 blademasters and even if Auguslo's own blademaster bodyguard could barely take on one, Auguslo wouldn't be able to fend off the other.
Now that Sybek had finally saved Auguslo's life, he began to catch his attention. However, given his straightforward personality that prompted him to say what he thought, he didn't give Auguslo any special care or respect. Naturally, Auguslo soon gave up on Sybek for his lack of sensibility. It was already quite surprising that he was even appointed the general of Whitelion.
Even though Sybek was a rather straightforward person, he was no fool. He knew why he was appointed to be Whitelion's general, but as a traditional royal family knight, he agreed to his assignment and started to reform his legion. He worked hard with his own troops and soon won their loyalty, managing to gain a thorough grasp on the legion.
Being sent to help the Norton forces out, Sybek understood his position and obediently followed any orders the Nortons gave them. The Nortons were quite satisfied with his cooperation and didn't neglect giving him some benefits as well, such as subsidizing some of their rations and giving a part of the supplies they obtained from the Trade Union. They even received some magic beast jerky that was shipped all the way from The Northlands.
In the end, Whitelion's troops had a better time at the frontlines than the royal guard in the imperial capital. That was especially the case given how they returned with lots of spoils after two raids in Trade Union territories with the Nortons. Not only could they switch out the cruddy bronze armor given to them by Auguslo for cutting-edge mithril armor of the Trade Union, the soldiers of Whitelion also earned quite a lot of coin for themselves.
Sybek greatly appreciated the Norton system of spoil distribution. It didn't have anything to do with who raided faster. Instead, the units received an amount of the spoils proportional to their contributions. There was a specialized unit that dealt with the pillaging, before an inventory of all the spoils was made for them to be appropriately distributed. Each soldier's due was accounted for clearly. Whitelion also received similar treatment as the Norton troops without any dicrimination, filling each soldier in their ranks with gratitude.
Under such circumstances, Auguslo's intent on causing trouble for the alliance of four houses by stationed Whitelion in Welbassia and Yungechandler's border had the opposite effect. When salt merchant committee sent a convoy to the imperial capital during the eighth month, Whitelion had requested a high toll price of one small silver per person. The convoy paid a total of 40 or so gold coins for the 4000 plus people and about 100 in total for the whole convoy.
However, after paying that sum, the convoy increased the prices of their goods by 20 percent a the imperial capital, causing Auguslo to be secretly cursed by the citizens, who attributed the rise in prices to the greed of the emperor, much to Kenmays's delight. By paying a small sum of 100 or so gold coins, he managed to earn a few thousand more in profits.
During the beginning of the 10th month, the scandal regarding Fiercegale spread to the imperial capital and everyone believed the rumor when they heard it. Some of them even believed that the one behind the incident was none other than Auguslo himself, given that the emperor had formerly established his greed with the populace. The last time, it was his collection of a toll that caused prices of goods to rise. So there was hardly anything surprising about him orchestrating the plundering of the trade convoy.
After hearing the rumors, Auguslo ransacked his bedroom once more. He only wanted to cause the alliance of four houses some trouble so that he would have better bargaining chips with Lorist to get something out of House Norton instead of antagonizing them fully. He was well aware that he couldn't match House Norton in terms of might, nor did he want to force Lorist to revolt. All he wanted was to show off his might as the emperor to make Lorist lower his head slightly. He wanted to let the other nobles in the kingdom understand that even a swordsaint wasn't exempt from following the orders of an emperor like him.
But how in the world did it devolve to this point? Auguslo still didn't understand it no matter how hard he thought. Though the crimes of Fiercegale were undeniable, why would they go so far as to plunder salt merchant committee's trading convoy? And even though Whitelion only collected around 100 gold Fordes as toll from the other convoy, why was the rise in price of goods sold blamed on him? He didn't have anything to do with it.
It was dinnertime and the main dish of the meal was two fishes. They're longtail whitefishes caught from Egret Lake, Auguslo's favorite.
"Oh? Where did longtail whitefishes this huge come from?" Auguslo didn't remember asking anyone to catch any for him.
"Your Imperial Majesty, they're gifts from Whitelion. There are 14 in total and they're being kept in the live well. They're incredibly fresh," replied a butler respectfully.
"Whitelion? Are they fishing at Egret Lake?" asked Auguslo.
"No. It seems that the fishes were given by House Norton's Ironguard legion. Apart from the 14 given to Your Imperial Majesty, there are tens of carriages of them being sold in the city. They were cleared out completely in around two hours. The Whitelion soldiers said that they would be bringing in another batch from Ironguard tomorrow to be sold," replied the butler.
What's going on here? Has my Whitelion legion turned into fishmongers? thought Auguslo angrily as he ate the fish and resolved himself to visit the legion tomorrow to find out what in the world was going on.
Early the next morning, Auguslo traveled lightly and only brought a squad of imperial guards with him to Whitelion's encampment in Welbassia. On the way, they encountered Whitelion soldiers escorting four carriages of fish, seemingly towards the imperial capital. Though Auguslo had wanted to stop them to ask about it, the soldiers didn't pay any attention and continued to travel at full speed, as if the fishes within the carriages were more important than anything else. After all, dead fish didn't sell as good as live ones.
Though filled with rage, he didn't bother to chase the fish-escorting soldiers down. He decided to deal with it when he arrived at camp. But when he finally arrived in the afternoon, his temper flared once more. Where's everyone? This camp is practically empty, save for a few people walking around!
Fortunately, the gates were still maned. Auguslo angrily asked where everyone had gone and received an answer he didn't expect: they went working. Work? What kind of work?! Auguslo felt like he was going to faint. The guard explained in more detail about the job.
Firstly, House Norton was rebuilding Lichtana Citadel and it was going to be a huge project. The uphill path to the citadel and down to Bread Hills were included within the scope of construction. Most of the Whitelion soldiers went to help construct the citadel and were paid on a daily basis. They were also provided with two meals daily and were allowed to drink ale.
The other one concerned helping Ironguard with the fishing at Egret Lake. The guard mentioned that the lake was covered almost entirely in sails. The soldiers were also paid on a daily basis and if they did well, they were also allowed to take a fish or two back for dinner. Currently, Sybek was negotiating with Ironguard because he felt that the share of ten percent of the catch Whitelion was getting was a little unfair. He hoped that it could be raised to three-tenths, but the stingy general of Ironguard, Els, didn't agree. The generals have been arguing about the matter for the past two days.
Soldiers not intending to work could in turn purchase fish from Ironguard to sell them in the various towns, but they would bear any risk by themselves. It was said that it sold rather well in the imperial capital yesterday, so they made off around three in the morning for another run. The guard said that if he wasn't on duty today, he would've joined in with them to share the profits.
Ridiculous! How could they do this? How could they work for House Norton?!
It seemed that the soldier standing guard didn't know that the elegantly dressed noble before him was the emperor himself. He rambled on and complained that they were only paid one month's salary in the past three, making them unable to feed their families well without doing any extra work. He also mentioned that if he weren't a soldier of Whitelion, he would want to move to The Northlands for a new career.
Auguslo blushed with embarrassment. He knew about the shortage of compensation for Whitelion. Initially, he wanted to get Whitelion to collect toll from passing trading convoys to make up for the lack, but so far, they've only collected toll from salt merchant committee once. Other trading guilds shifted their routes to the sea to dock at Jillin Harbor. Come to think of it, using 100 gold Fordes to make up for three months of payment was really laughable. It was no wonder the soldiers went to find work.
Auguslo then asked why Whitelion themselves didn't group together to fish for themselves.
The guard replied that firstly, they had come upon the idea too late. It was only after the soldiers of Ironguard set sail in their fishing boats did Whitelion understand their purpose. Additionally, the side of the lake Ironguard was on was filled with boats while not a single person dared to sail on Whitelion's side. That was because the boats of Ironguard had cannons installed on them and used the lake as their training ground. From time to time, they would fire their cannons, so nobody dared to stay near the side of Whitelion, to say no more of preparing to sail there.
Flipping out in rage, Auguslo couldn't resist writing a letter of complaint to Lorist. Currently, all he wanted was to be given a cut of the fishing operation at Egret Lake. That way, he would at least be able to earn around 100 thousand gold Fordes in a year.
Huge Blunder
It was said that Auguslo's blunder at the encampment of Whitelion became a huge joke. The incident stemmed from his deep dissatisfaction with the current state of the legion. He had intended to teach them a lesson. First, he rebuked Sybek, who had rushed back quickly after hearing the news, harshly and had him wait for his punishment while he blew the horn to gather the soldiers who had left to work.
But after three blows, only tens of Whitelion soldiers returned lazily after half an hour while complaining about some of them blowing the horn for no good reason and interrupting their earning a living for their families. Auguslo, greatly enraged, barked at the ten plus soldiers and had them scram immediately.
As one of the two main legions of the empire, the Whitelion soldiers and their family members enjoy certain tax benefits that the commoners don't. Auguslo had taken a page out of House Norton's book for that. Even though he couldn't afford to give identical benefits the Nortons gave their troops, decreasing some taxes and giving the families of the soldiers some extra care were within his capabilities. So, those two legions were easily able to attract lots of applicants.
Auguslo believed that firing the ten plus soldiers was a harsh punishment. Had it not been for the fact that most soldiers had gone to do a part time job, Auguslo would've wanted to kill them outright. But given the sheer number of people he was dealing with, that wouldn't be an appropriate punishment and the soldiers who went to work might be aggravated into revolt. After some thought, Auguslo decided to fire them from the legion and take back the benefits it afforded them. He was almost certain that the soldiers would regret right away before begging and groveling to be forgiven.
However, the soldiers couldn't be happier to leave. "Great! I can leave with my wife and children for Yungechandler immediately!"
"Yeah, I want to go too! My dad was grumbling that I shouldn't have joined the army in the first place. Our neighbors left for Yungechandler already and not only did they get farmland and houses, they also managed to secure a good living at the factories. They're earning around ten gold Fordes yearly..."
"That's great! Let's there together! I want to tell my family the good news first."
Auguslo was completely speechless. Seeing the fired soldiers leave the camp happily instead of crying and begging felt off somehow. Just as he was pondering the matter, more soldiers returned to camp from work. The moment they heard that some soldiers were fired and kicked out of the legion, the envious looks in their eyes couldn't be more apparent. They all swarmed to Auguslo and said, "Your Majesty, we violated military law as well. Please discharge also..."
Troubled, Auguslo pointed at the soldiers preparing to leave and cried, "Wait, before you leave, remove your equipment and armor! That's property of the military! You can't take them with you."
He didn't expect the soldiers to reply, "We bought these ourselves! They're private property and have nothing to do with the military!"
Bulltshit! These are specially made mithril armor! Each set cost 40 plus gold Fordes at least! How could those poor hicks afford it?! However, Auguslo immediately wondered, wait, since when did I provide mithril armor that good to Whitelion?
Most of the 50 thousand pieces of armor Lorist donated to Whitelion back then formerly belonged to Whitelion in the first place. They were mostly ruined after many battles, with only around ten thousand pieces remaining. Auguslo reclaimed them for use with the imperial guard. During the reformation of the two legions a few years ago, Auguslo recalled giving mostly cruddy old leather armor to Whitelion. There were less than a thousand sets of metal armor which were harvested from corpses and weren't maintained.
Yet, the armor worn by the Whitelion soldiers were of mithril make. Auguslo felt that the legion had almost changed completely. He looked closely and noticed that it was an elite legion that seemed even more disciplined and capable than the imperial guard he so painstakingly formed. Other things aside, the soldiers that returned to camp were decked out in complete gear and well-disciplined. They quickly formed together into many orderly square formations and appeared rather menacing.
"Your Imperial Majesty, the armor they are wearing are indeed their personal property. They spent their own money to buy them. Nobody was willing to wear the leather armor we provided given the quality and weak defense capabilities, so the soldiers spent their own money to buy those equipment. Right now, the equipment owned by the legion are mostly stored within the storehouses. There are inventories that take account of them," said Sybek, who was just reprimanded not long ago.
"How... how could that be possible?" Auguslo pointed oddly at the battle formations. "There are around 50 thousand troops here! They earn only around two gold Fordes per year and wouldn't be able to afford metal armor like that without saving for at least 20 years! How could there find the money to buy so many pieces of equipment that matched together?"
"It is true, Your Imperial Majesty," Sybek said a little troubledly, "Back during the Battle of Bluwek when House Norton defeated the Trade Union forces' army of 200 thousand, many of their soldiers were captured and these equipment were basically stripped from the prisoners. Since the Norton forces don't see much point in using them, they sold them to our soldiers in Whitelion for cheap."
"How cheap? Perhaps we can also..." Auguslo looked rather interested. If House Norton doesn't want them, they can sell it to me! I might be able to get some free food and supplies from them too.
Sybek shook his head awkwardly. "Your Imperial Majesty, back then, I also wanted to buy some equipment on behalf of the legion. However, House Norton refused to sell to our legion, but said that the soldiers could spend their own money to buy them. That way, they can take the gear back home when they retire as a sort of benefit for them. As that armor may be the difference between life or death on the battlefield, and our soldiers' spoils and bonuses happened to be distributed, almost all the soldiers bought a set. I heard that the cheapest ones sold for around eight large silvers..."
Auguslo's teeth were grit so hard that he didn't realize blood was coming out. Eight large silvers? That's dirt cheap! One gold Forde was worth 20 large silvers, and mithril armor like that was usually worth more than 40 gold Fordes. How could they have sold for so cheap? How could they have ended up in the hands of the Whitelion soldiers?
"H-h-house... House Norton... Do they still have any armor from captives for sale? I... I'll pay... one... no, two... two gold Fordes per set." Auguslo's eyes were bloodshot with his nose bulging. Who wouldn't take advantage of that kind of deal? Two gold Fordes was a far better price than eight large silvers anyway and he felt that the price he offered was really appropriate.
However, Sybek's reply completely extinguished his flaring expectations. "They're long gone, Your Imperial Majesty. Apart from the ones our soldiers bought, a part of the equipment was given to the newly formed defense forces of the Free Union. The remainder had been sold to the four restored nations in Falik Plains for a thirty percent discount. Each set was sold for the rough price of 30 gold Fordes."
Auguslo was both disappointed and angry. House Norton is obviously trying to mess with me... They actually sold such good armor to my soldiers for such a cheap price... Are they trying to butter up to them? Auguslo had already forgotten how he consigned them to their fates as enemy fodder in the first place.
He also conveniently forgot about the rations and payment he owed Whitelion. In his eyes were nothing but the armor worn by the Whitelion soldiers as well as the fine weapons they were carrying.
No nation on Grindia would forbid their members from buying their own weapons to use. Not only would that allow them to use the weapons they were most familiar with to achieve their full potential on the battlefield, that would also serve to decrease the burden on the military budget. In fact, they couldn't want anything more than getting the troops to use their own weapons. Whitelion was the perfect example of such a case.
Auguslo drooled as he saw the weapons and armor the Whitelion soldiers bought for themselves, but he had no reason whatsoever to claim the weapons that belonged to the individual soldiers. After much consideration, Auguslo made a tough decision. "Sybek, I'm going to use the high price of five gold Fordes to purchase each set of armor and weapons. Order them to remove their armor and discard their weapons for collection now. I will pay them the coins at a later date..."
"That's impossible!" Sybek refused the order almost immediately. The condescending glare he shot him cut ever so deep and discomforted Auguslo greatly. "Nobody's a fool, Your Imperial Majesty. If this order is announced, the whole legion will explode with rage. Even if you're the emperor, you can't use such a low price to purchase the personal property of the troops..."
"Such a low price? Didn't you say that they got them for a steal? Five gold Fordes is almost ten times the amount they bought it for! People can't be too greedy, General Sybek!" snapped Auguslo out of embarrassment and anger.
"These are the things the soldiers use to survive on the battlefield. Back then, salt merchant committee wanted to buy them for 35 gold Fordes a set, yet none of them were willing to sell! Many of the soldiers are going to pass them on through their families as heirlooms. So I seriously don't understand why Your Imperial Majesty thinks that five gold Fordes is enough for a set of armor and weapons. Does Your Imperial Majesty think that one gold Forde can be used as ten?" Sybek didn't bother with courtesy and spoke his mind without reservation.
Auguslo's face flushed red again, but he wasn't able to get angry no matter what. Fortunately, he hadn't given the order just now. Otherwise, the soldiers might just revolt. Though salt merchant committee had offered 35 gold coins to buy each set, the soldiers of Whitelion didn't take the deal. If Auguslo ordered them to sell them at five gold Fordes, he would end up a huge laughingstock once more should word of that spread. His reputation of greediness would only be reinforced.
Actually, Auguslo had a good eye for the equipment and he could tell that each set of armor was in fact worth more than 40 gold Fordes. If the pikes, shields and swords were included together, the price would go as high as 50, especially when the design and make of the equipment were of the same series. If sold in bulk, perhaps the price might even rise ten or twenty percent. After all, getting armor of completely similar design wasn't an easy task.
It was House Norton's invention of water-powered machines that greatly decreased the demand for manpower in the production of large quantities of weapons and armor. But due to the blademasters that were sent to assassinate Lorist in The Northlands, the designs of the machines were leaked. Following that, the Trade Union rebuilt the exterminated Wessia, that used to be known for their forging, to fashion their own water-powered machines. Only then did could large numbers of mithril armor and weapons be made for the Trade Union forces.
As General Sybek said, the weapons and armor were indeed what the soldiers of Whitelion were counting on to survive. Even though the world of Grindia was one of battleforce, with silver ranks and above being able to manifest threatening blade glows,s set of good mithril armor was still the best way to ensure their safety when facing the enemy.
For instance, people without battleforce wouldn't be able to pierce the mithril armor no matter how great their weapons, and enemies of iron or bronze rank would at best be able to wound mithril-armor-wearing soldiers without actually killing them. As for silver ranks and above who could use blade glows, they might run out of battleforce after facing around a hundred enemies wearing only leather armor. However, when faced with soldiers clad in mithril armor, they would only be able to take on around ten enemies before running out as the mithril would serve to drain away much of the energy of the battleforce and the blade glow.
Currently, Auguslo found himself in a rather troubled spot. He wasn't able to find a good way to step down. First, he had wanted to strip the leaving soldiers of their personal property in quite a hasty blunder. After that, he wanted to buy the equipment of the soldiers for a cheap price, only for that notion to be shot down by Sybek. He now hung in a position that couldn't be more awkward.
Inwardly, Auguslo felt a huge tantrum brewing. He really wanted to bark at the soldiers who went part timing for House Norton, but the joyful departure of the tens of soldiers had given Auguslo a strong reminder Perhaps the soldiers just couldn't wait to leave. He didn't exactly have a good reason to chide his troops either, as it was the lack of payment that caused them to go seek out other employment opportunities in the first place.
Looking at the troops that stood in neat formation, Auguslo felt an oncoming headache. He really wanted to completely kick them out and reform the whole legion. That way, the soldiers that would stand before him after that would all have poor equipment. But no matter how friendly Whitelion was with House Norton, he had to admit that the legion that stood in front of him was nothing short of elite. If they were disbanded, there wouldn't be a doubt that they would fall in with the Nortons. Wasn't that just making trouble for himself? Perhaps the Nortons would be able to form another legion from the soldiers who just lost their jobs...
No matter how he chose to deal with them, Whitelion would prove to be a huge problem. It was obvious that letting them stay in Southern was no longer acceptable. They were going to do nothing but fish for the Nortons and help them fill their labor needs. After much consideration, Auguslo finally thought of a solution. He gave Sybek the order for the troops to be relocated to the central provinces for the extermination of bandits. This time, they would do that for real instead of block the trade routes of the four houses.
"'His Imperial Majesty left just like that after the order without dealing with Whitelion in any other way,' was what was included in Els's report. General Sybek sends his regards and requests for Whitelion to be allowed to go through Yungechandler and Egret Swamp to head to the central provinces for bandit extermination. General Els also asks if our house be participating as well," reported Jinolio.
Yungechandler was a territory under Norton control, so Whitelion, a legion belonging to the imperial family, had to first apply to be let through. If Lorist refused, the legion would have to travel south through Bodolger and Frederika, which was a huge detour that almost doubled the distance they required to travel.
Lorist rapped the desk with his fingers. After a while, he nodded. "Of course we'll let them pass. Whitelion is a friend of our house. We will be more than willing to help. However, send Els an eagle message to tell General Sybek this: it's already the end of the 11th month, so if Whitelion is willing we can bring the legion to the central provinces during winter from the 12th to 1st month next year on sleds. That would spare them the need of traveling a long distance in the mud after the rainy season."
"Alright, I'll notify Lord Els about it," Jinolio said, "Is Your Grace going to respond to the letter His Imperial Majesty sent? It has been more than a month since it was received."
"Hahahaha..." Lorist cackled heartily. "Forget that letter. Let's pretend we didn't receive it. I just hope that His Imperial Majesty will grow wiser after these two incidents and stop ogling us with his greedy eyes in hopes of getting free stuff he doesn't deserve. What he really needs to do is to manage his empire properly and ensure the living standards of the people and the functioning of his administration instead of threatening others with force to get what he wants."
The Obstructive Andelou Merchant Guild
Time passed really quickly and soon, it was the 7th month of Year 1785.
"Your Grace, Whitelion spent three months to wipe out the bandits within Wesstwood and they are on their way to Phapsia next. What's surprising is that His Imperial Majesty started to properly supply the legion after the new year and no longer owe them any payments. Whitelion's morale is high now and they're fully confident that they'll be able to get rid of the bandits," read Jinolio from a secret report sent from the central provinces.
Lorist shook his head slightly. "Whitelion is going to have it tough soon... Sybek will not be able to take care of the bandits in Phapsia."
"Why does Your Grace think so?" asked Jinolio curiously.
"It's simple," Lorist said before he pointed at the map of the central area hanging from a wall, "Among the eleven central provinces, apart from the territories of dukes Handra, Forund and Shazin, Wesstwood is the least infested with bandits given that it's located between those three provinces. Whitelion made the correct first step and didn't let us down after we sent them there during the winter.
"Yet, they took three months for Wesstwood alone. That is also taking into account that the three dukes helped to seal off exit from the province using their respective household forces, leaving the bandits no way to escape and allowing for complete extermination. The current state of Whitelion makes it a heavy-armored legion. It doesn't have enough mobility and can't match the bandits in terms of speed. Instead, they are hugely disadvantaged in a pursuit.
"Phapsia used to be the territory of Duke Farkel, but during his resistance to our emperor's conquest, he chose to burn down the capital of his province, Freimox, and left for the Trade Union after he lost. His current whereabouts are unknown. Even though Farkel's burning of Freimox allowed our house to take advantage of the migrants, Loze had to raze down the territories of the landed nobles there to procure the food the refugees needed. Some of the nobles and knights that weren't captured are still unaccounted for.
"That's why the bandit crisis in Phapsia is the most serious. It is also the source of the farmer's revolt in the central provinces. Apart from some logistical support from Shazin, there's nothing else we can do to help Whitelion when they're in Phapsia. The immobile legion will have a long and grueling time ahead of them given how the bandits can simply outrun and evacuate the troops. I don't think the legion has any initiative in this battle at all."
"I understand now, Your Grace. So a heavy-armored infantry legion like Whitelion isn't much use for the extermination of bandits in a whole area. A highly mobile cavalry legion like Jaeger and the guard brigade would be a far better choice, right? As long as they set their sights on the bandits, there's no way they can escape."
Lorist nodded praiseworthily. "Not bad. The guard brigade is an elite force that can head the extermination of the bandits and a light cavalry unit like Jaeger can set up the defense perimeter and scout around. Whenever they find that the bandits are escaping elsewhere, they can give chase until the bandits have nowhere else to run. Either way, a defense perimeter will still have to be set up to prevent any of the bandits from slipping away and allowing the problem to spread."
Jinolio had been with Lorist for quite some time. Lorist was quite happy with his third disciple and taught him much in every facet he could. The only thing he found fault with Jinolio was his pacifism. Jinolio had always been avoidant of fighting others and he could be said to be the one with the least talent for battle among Lorist's three disciples. during the latter part of last year in the 10th month, Jinolio oly only just started learning the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique from Reidy three years later than Howard.
"Your Grace, here's a report Viscount Camorra sent. The report was written by Baron Fenston, Jillin Harbor's security chief, and it states that since the 4th month of this year, nobles and trading fleets visiting the harbor have declined in number. This year's number is estimated to be less than half of last year's. Baron Fenston had conducted much research into the matter and discovered that Andalou Merchant Guild had set up a large trading point at Flowater Creek. Many of the traders stopped there instead. Baron Fenston hopes that our house will come up with a countermeasure for that."
The formation of the market at Jillin Harbor was an outlet Lorist used to sell the products and ores produced by the nobles in the northwestern area. There were 31 provinces in the Krissen Empire and the lands were vast with rich resources. Apart from the goods House Norton purchased to be resold and the ones they produced, the other goods would be transported to Morante and sold there. One such trip would double the revenue easily and around two million gold Fordes could be made per annum.
Even though he had to split half the profits with Auguslo, the million-Forde income was a reasonable amount for the house. More importantly, those imperial nobles were able to sell their goods through that channel too and earn some amount of money to be able to afford the luxury goods House Norton produced. The formation of the market at the harbor was good news for Auguslo, House Norton, the imperial nobles and the poor folk of Jillin Harbor.
But now, somebody lost to temptation and began to reach out for that delicious piece of cheese, and that was none other than the illegitimate son of Auguslo, Wecksas. What's he thinking? Does he really have that much capital to found a trading point just like that? If they were going to sell their gods at Morante as well, Lorist could write the Free Union a letter to cause them trouble and squash them like the ants they were. After all, the maritime trade route belonged to the Nortons, so Andalou would have no choice but to use the land route, which was easily much more expensive.
"Is there any word from Tarkel?" asked Lorist. Affairs concerning the interests of House Norton would be investigated by Furybear at first notice to gain a proper grasp on the situation.
"What do the reports say?"
"Yes, Your Grace. This is Sir Tarkel's investigation report," said Jinolio as he took out a thick folder.
"What does it say?"
"During the new-year celebration last year held at the imperial palace, Count Wecksas introduced the main investor of Andalou formally. It's said that he is the successor of a merchant guild from the Romon Empire that had already been exterminated. His name is Selik and he is preparing to restart his career in the Krissen Empire, so he joined hands with Count Wecksas to found Andalou Merchant Guild. But due to the count, the situation of Andalou doesn't seem optimistic. Probably as a token of apology, Count Wecksas introduced Selik to the emperor.
"According to Selik, his family offended a powerful duke in the Romon Empire and caused the downfall of the trading guild. Selik also suffered a huge injury during his escape and has two long scars on his face. So, he would often dress in a black robe and doesn't like to show his face. However, Selik's troubles weren't in vain as he managed to catch the attention of his pursuers to allow for most of his assets to be transferred out of Romon. He even managed to help a bunch of loyal subordinates to escape.
"Sir Tarkel has sent two informants to the Romon Empire to find out more about Selik, but they would take at least half a year before a conclusion can be reached. During the celebration, His Imperial Majesty showed admiration for Selik's talent and chatted with him personally for more than three hours. It's also rumored that Selik was even offered a chance to serve as well as a title. However, Selik refused His Imperial Majesty's request on grounds of his crippled and wounded body, which the emperor expressed great regret for.
"After the rainy season, Selik guided Andalou in the founding of a large trading point in Flowater Creek and promoted it aggressively. As the prices they purchased goods at are similar to the prices of Jillin Harbor, many landed nobles traded their household products to Andalou to avoid the trouble of traveling so far or to curry favor with Count Wecksas.
"In terms of funding, our informants have ascertained that Andalou received financial backing from the emperor. There is proof that His Imperial Majesty allocated around 800 thousand gold Fordes to Andalou. As for the traders mostly stopping at the trading point, our house has written a letter of objection to His Imperial Majesty, but the reply we got was that this is normal competition in trade and the imperial house has no right to meddle in it.
"The target of trading of the goods purchased from the nobles on the other hand isn't Morante. Instead, Andalou sends out trade convoys to the Trade Union. Our informants aren't sure what sort of relationship Andalou has with the Trade Union, but they've all heard Selik said one thing. 'Merchants have always strived for profit. Even an enemy or the devil himself is my friend and customer if he can bring me profits'."
Lorist furrowed his brow at the new conundrum. He didn't think that Andalou would have such a talented businessman who not only grabbed Jillin Harbor's business but also obtained Auguslo's support. Most importantly, they managed to circumvent the trade central Lorist forged in Morante and managed to form a relationship with the Trade Union. The Trade Union lacked lots of raw materials and resources, so that trade route was crucial to them. Only then would they stand a chance on growing powerful once more.
This is a truly surprising development, Lorist thought with a bitter smile, Who would expect the Krissen Empire to supply its sworn enemy, the Trade Union, with resources and raw materials? They also managed to perfectly outmaneuver our house's control. Even the new Peterson kingdom between the Trade Union and Krissen Empire won't be able to do anything about this...
With the support of the Krissen Empire, perhaps Peterson could still be able to stop the trade route to the Trade Union. However, the empire itself was supporting the use of that trade route, so Peterson could only begrudgingly accept the status quo. While he could afford to upset the Trade Union, King Peterson wouldn't dare to offend the new Krissen Empire. Even though House Norton had influence there, there was nothing that could be done. If the Trade Union partnered up with the Krissen Empire to deal with them, the newly independent Peterson kingdom would no doubt fall.
The sole goal of a merchant's actions was to make profit regardless of whether the customer was friend, foe or demon. That saying was just like the one Lorist heard in his past life: 'capitalists would even sell the rope that will be used to hang them'. Selik was a true merchant and that was the kind of thing Lorist found hard to deal with.
"Are there any suggested countermeasures in the report?" Lorist could only count on sourcing a solution from the others. Many brains were better than one after all.
Jinolio flipped to the last page of the report and shook his head. "Your Grace, Baron Fenston has suggested increasing the purchasing price for the goods by around ten percent. But Andalou raised the price to match us right after that, causing most of the traders to stop there instead of Jillin Harbor."
Lorist's eyes flashed as he paced around in the room twice. He stopped and said, "Send an eagle message to Jillin Harbor to raise the purchasing price by thirty percent. If Andalou matches up to us, raise it by 1.5 times!"
"But, Your Grace, we'd have almost no profits like that," Jinolio said, startled, "If we purchase at such a high price, the profits after we deduct manpower and transportation costs would be negligible! We can only barely break even. Your Grace, this would not just harm them, but ourselves as well! Even if Andalou gets suppressed, we would not be unscathed either!"
"Haha... That's exactly what I want: a pyrrhic victory. Think about it, Jinolio, if we raise the purchasing price and only break even, then Andalou would have to raise their prices as well. But if you take into account the higher cost for transporting on land, which they rely on, do you think they'll have any profits? I think they'll be losing money while we can at least break even."
"But what if they don't raise their prices to match ours?"
"If they don't, nobody would sell them any goods. Their trading point would fail if that's the case, Though there are some who would do barely profitable business, nobody would conduct business that lost money. They will be forced to give up on this trade route because they won't be able to make up to the emperor, their investor.
"As for our house, we will be able to continue breaking even for two to three years. The most important thing is for us to stop Andalou from trading with the Trade Union, the enemies of our house. We must always remain alert and anyone that tries to aid their recovery is going against us. That's why raising the price to match Andalou's is the only thing we can do now."
"Understood, Your Grace. I'll send the message immediately," said Jinolio.