The city of Neverwinter, Counsel Room.
- Your majesty, Lord Greyrat has destroyed the enemies on the Greenears road. In the report, he says two heirs of two tribes are being escorted to Neverwinter as hostages. Two tribes of Grasslanders are going to settle in our western lands. Lord Greyrat wonders if he could take his men back or not since the Grasslanders are depleted now so Khal Kjartan can do the rest.
- Then prepare rooms for the heirs, keep an eye on them, make sure they do not do anything stupid. Ask Impetus to bring his men back but leave 10000 men building forts there to keep these steppes obedience. We need to establish the Blue Order there soon, how many Ordermen can you spare, Sir Crypto?
Crypto is the commander of the Blue Order, although he can only rally around 1000 men without permission from me or the Judges, he can call every Ordermen from all over the Kingdom under emergency circumstances.
- I think we can only send 600 men there, your majesty. Establishing the Order there would be challenging, but if the legionaries help us, I believe everything will be in order in 1 year.
- Good, then find a capable man and give him 600 men, he can have 400 more newly recruit levies. That'll be 1000 men, I want these steppes in order in 6 months.
- As you wish, your majesty.
I pause a second and observe my counselors. Charles is here as the commander of the castle guards. Mushashi is the commander of the garrisons, a newly appointed chancellor, Scholar Alwin. There are two absent counsellors, Impetus, my Grand Marshal, and Hanzo, my Spy Master, who are now in the Heathen Kingdom.
- If there is no more, then I'll end our meeting.
- Wait, your majesty. Lord Hanzo's men have given me some unpleasant news.
- And what is that?
- The East has problems, your majesty. Some raiders come from unknown appear on our coast, burn our villages, pillage our towns. As the information, Lord Rosewood and Lord Altherwolf gave them, the raiders often appear in groups of 200 or 300 men. Until now we have no ideas about where they come from and how many of them.
- Charles, how many shadows do we have left here?
- 25, your majesty. But 7 of them are still being trained.
- Send all of them, these raiders can be our potential enemies. I want to know who they are, where they come from and what their purposes are. Alwin, is there any clue about who are they?
- The sources are relevant, your majesty. They say the raiders wear yellow scarfs and use moon-like swords.
- Lyrion raiders, then?
- Perhaps, your majesty.
Lyrions are the people who live by raiding on the other side of Eden's Cross, the Eastern Sea. My ancestors are chased from our home to Arcondale Penninsula by them. I have no information about them, but these things happen to be similar to the legends.
- Send my command to Lord Altherwolf and Lord Rosewood, increase the number of ships patrolling the coast, Lord Rosewood can use the Royal Fleet if he needs. Temporary migrate the people from villages or towns near the sea to the inland, the Blue Ordermen will be responsible for the migration and protect them in the inner towns and villages. How many soldiers we have in Oceanhall and Summervalley now?
- About 25000 if we count the Royal Fleet and the Blue Ordermen, your majesty.
- Charles, we have just recruited 8000 levies. Ask Ser George to lead them along with 2000 veteran soldiers in our army to the East. Maintain the training on the way, I want them to fight properly in any formations of our armies. Ask Impetus to return immediately, we are dealing with unknown enemies so we must be ready for any cases. Is Bear Forest attacked by the Raiders too?
- Yes, your majesty, although the terrains there give house Crayton advantages to repel the raiders, they have sustained several damages.
- So the Alleinstein Kingdom will have to take care of their own stuff, we don't have to worry about them for now. But in the worst case, ask my uncle to maintain the garrisons in Meath, only use men in Oceanhall and Summervalley to fight the raiders.
- As you command, my king.
- Alright, now you at dismissed.
The counselors and I leave the room, Charles follows me. After getting out of the room, I'm accompanied by 4 knights and Alpha, the firstborn of the wolves. I leave two others playing with Christina, although she has been 13 recently, she is still acting like a kid, which always disturbs me if I don't let the wolves playing with her. However, I think it is a good choice to keep the wolves beside her to protect her from any possible assassination attempt.
I walk to the garden, and ask Charles:
- Did your mother sing to you about the Lyrion Raiders when you were small?
- She did, your majesty. They are said to be born to take anything they want and destroy everything that they can't take or does not belong to them.
- And now there is a chance that they are on our shores, our ancestors ran from them in the past. I don't want us to run now. I would have taken all my men to match East to make sure that they are no harm if not for the Beastmen tribes in the Abandon Forest. I can stand thinking of letting Neverwinter undefended.
- We should send tributes to them, your majesty.
- Which'll prove that I'm a weak king. We won't do that. Bring the documents to my chamber later, I need detailed information about the nearest tribes.
- You want to make friends with them?
- Not with all of them, one is enough.
I intend to support a tribe that has the potential to become the ruling tribe in the Abandon Forest, if I succeed, my northern border will be secured for a while, which gives me more strength to enlarge my territory to the south. The Heathen seems to be a good ally at the moment, but in the future, I can't say they will. Beastmen are savage, but they keep their words, that is what their gods teach them.
But for now, I'll have to find a suitable tribe, not too weak, not too strong. If they are weak, there is no point in supporting them. If they are strong, they will not value my support. The future is full of possibilities, and I just have to seek opportunities for myself.