Knight with Wand

In the corridor leading to the conference room, Earlif said as he walked: "I thought you were dissatisfied with the revenue sharing discussed before, so you came here to discuss it again, but now it seems there is something else."

". Share?" Leon followed Feng Jun beside him and couldn't help but wonder.

Elliot turned his head and said, "Yes, didn't you send Azarian to bring people to Archers to discuss the iron ore?"

Leon suddenly understood and explained: "I have been away for nearly half a month and have just come back. I haven't returned to Avalon yet. All matters in the territory are now managed by Azarian."

Hearing this, Elliot smiled and said: "Oh, you can rest assured. This boy is respectful. When it comes to money at the negotiation table, he won't give in at all. I, the master, didn't get any advantage from him. You I will divide the accounts into 40 and 60, and conservatively estimate that you will have an income of more than 4,000 gold crowns every year in the future.”

How many? ! Leon raised his eyebrows in surprise.

He knew that the iron ore was of great value, but so much revenue was only 40% of the revenue. According to statistical estimates, even if his barony collected theoretical taxes in full, it would not have that much money.

The castle servant opened the door of the conference room for the two of them, Elliot entered and motioned for Leon to sit down at the table.

Earl of Thorn Flower thought of the iron mine and asked in passing: "Speaking of which, I have heard for a long time that the craftsmanship of the dwarf craftsmen is extraordinary. They have not been seen in the land of Orland for hundreds of years. I want to find those few people in your city. A dwarf master has customized some advanced plate armor and weapons. I wonder if this will affect your arrangements for them?"

Leon shook his head quickly: "You can send people to order ordnance from Master Adeya. You don't need to ask my opinion. They are not my employees. I just rented the workshop of Avalon Castle for them to use."

Leon wanted to make friends with these extraordinary dwarf craftsmen, so he naturally did not force them to become servants of his own power. Otherwise, if the dwarves were angered and left to find another place to settle, apart from other things, if the people in "Silver Mountain City" knew After hundreds of years, another dwarf has come to the Kingdom of Orland. It is estimated that everyone will welcome these ancestors and become guests of the city of craftsmen.

The nine remaining dwarves in Avalon Castle are now recorded in the name of the "Edel Union". They are considered an independent craftsman group and are not subordinates who obey his orders. Leon does not prevent the dwarfs from accepting external orders. Orders, anyway, while they make money, they also bring a lot of tax to themselves.

"I see, but even you don't know where the dwarf envoys who helped you explore the ancient mines have gone?" Elliot asked curiously.

Leon came up with half-truths and half- lies to deal with the world: "I just heard that they said they were going north. They seemed to want to reach the mountains north of Orland, maybe to visit other dwarf countries."

"It turns out that the ancient legend that there is a country of dwarves in the desolate mountains in the northern border of Orland is actually true."

Elliver sighed with emotion: "It's a pity that the dwarf envoy did not pass through Fort Archers. Otherwise, I would have liked to entertain them. It would be better if I could contact the legendary dwarf kingdom."

After saying that, he waved his hand: "Okay, let's just talk about it at the dinner party. Why did you come here in such a hurry to tell me what happened?"

Leon immediately became serious and said what he meant: "It's a long story, sir. Eight days ago, I borrowed the help of a griffin and flew to the east. I wanted to see how my hometown, which had fallen into the hands of the Kantadar people, was doing. , who knew that halfway, we encountered an area shrouded in clouds."

After carefully reporting the situation and severity of the disaster, Leon continued: "The situation in the east is very serious right now, and the people who caused this disaster are probably those who encouraged Kantadar to invade Serian eastward, Artias Imperial Mage."

He told the story of his trip in as much detail as possible, covering up unnecessary details and the magical knowledge analyzed by Laura, and only used an inferred tone to discuss the true situation he investigated.

Elliot looked serious when he heard it. He couldn't help but get up and spread out the huge map of the Western Continent. Sometimes he looked at it seriously, sometimes he walked around and thought about it.

After pondering for a long time, Earl of Thorn Flower sighed and looked at Leon with a wry smile.

"It seems that every time you come to see me, you always give me unexpected and beyond-imagined news. Leon, I don't know whether to cry or laugh now. If this shocking thing hadn't come from you, I would have I won’t believe it at all.”

Hundreds of thousands, even millions or even more corpses swept across the land. Not even a drunkard in a tavern would say such wild words.

Earlive recalled what he learned about the population size of the kingdom in the city of scholars "Brillance" when he was young.

All the lords in Orland have drained their wealth and united as one. How many armies can the whole country organize?

Two hundred thousand? Three hundred thousand? What kind of earth-shattering war would that be?

Even in the bloody civil war for the throne more than ten years ago, the eastern and western factions combined only had a total of hundreds of thousands of troops fighting each other.

As for the millions of enemies he might face now, Elliot felt that it exceeded the limit of his imagination. He could not estimate it, and he never thought that the world could organize and support an army of one million.

But at this moment, Leon said that the sea of ​​undead corpses that do not require supplies and maintenance costs limit their scale only by the number of souls and corpses.

Is this a divine disaster sent by the God of Death to the mortal world to punish the world?

Elliot felt that the summer air he breathed was a bit colder.

Leon looked at the unbelievable expression on the face of the feudal lord and said quickly: "My lord, what I said is not false. You can send a trusted warrior to the eastern border of Kantadar to find out the truth. I am willing to take him there on a griffin. The soldiers and civilians of Shatai City who suffered the disaster can also testify for me."

"That's not necessary. You are my most trusted warrior." Elifer recovered and waved to Leon: "I also believe that you will never joke about such a serious matter."

After speaking, he couldn't help knocking on the table and said angrily: "It's the Atias again! The conspiracy to murder my wife has not been settled with them. These damn foreign wizards have committed such a heinous disaster that is intolerable by heaven. If millions of lives are to suffer misfortune, they will not be able to atone for this sin even if they go to the hell of Vinolis for eternal punishment!"

Leon said quickly: "We must report to His Majesty Ledwin as soon as possible. Such a big crisis should not be borne by the Farolis family alone."

"Of course." Elliver nodded and sighed, "It's just that, given the current situation, it's really difficult to get the king to stop his southern expedition, end the war as soon as possible, and deal with this disaster.

The 'old dragon' is now unstoppable. It's said that the kingdom's army has reached the foot of Mount Usato, and is about to conquer the mountain pass and march into the territory of the King of Kantadar. It's a pity to ask the king to stop at this time."

Leon frowned and said, "In the face of a disaster, if we can't stop that area from completely swallowing up the eastern part of Kantadar, when the scale of the corpse ghosts grows to an unimaginable level, then it will be meaningless for Orland to conquer as much Kantadar land as possible, and even the original territory in the north will be ravaged by this disaster."

"The difficulty lies in that His Majesty Ledwin will never trust the information we provide as easily as I trust you, let alone end the war that is in full swing.

I just hope he is willing to send spies to the eastern part of Kantadar to confirm the situation." Elliver said helplessly.

He also seemed to understand why the Kingdom of Kantardar, which should have a fierce army, is now like a pile of loose sand and is defeated by Orland.

Since this terrible disaster originated from their original invasion of Serian in the east, now, I am afraid that Kantardar has suffered some major changes, so that until now, no ruler has stood up to organize the overall situation to resist Orland's southward advance.

"In any case, we must strengthen the defense and armaments of the entire county from now on. However, before going to the front line to meet the king, I will first send someone to invite Count Rahman, Baron Anquila and other lords to come to Archers to discuss this matter." Elliver thought about the traditional allies that the Farolis family could contact, and even thought of a past enemy.

He asked Leon again: "And Shatai City, where is the town located in the east of Kantardar? Give me the detailed location, and those Kantardar people will be our helpers now that they have received your favor."

Leon quickly took out the map that Ivan gave him and compared the location.

The king and his minister discussed for a long time in the conference room before they ended their discussion.

"I know you are eager to go home. I won't let you attend the dinner after such a big incident. Go to my stable and pick a fast horse and hurry back to Avalon."

"Thank you for your understanding, sir." Leon stood up. This time he didn't forget to salute. He was really anxious to go back and didn't want to delay outside.

Elifer stood up and patted Leon on the shoulder. "Take good care of the territory and military affairs. When I prepare, I will send someone to inform you to follow me south and go to the front to meet the king."

Borrowing a handsome noble warhorse from the lord's stable in the castle, Leon galloped back to the valley of Avalon.

The sky was just beginning to darken when he entered the city.

Finally arriving at his own territory, his tense mind gradually relaxed.

First go to the wizard tower to let Laura appear.

Seeing that the young teacher didn't say much and walked quickly to the workshop to deduce the strange magic, Leon didn't dare to disturb him, and hurried back to the main castle to call a meeting of the senior members of the Knights.

In the room, with the help of Corvis, he took off the three layers of heavy knight armor inside and outside. Leon held his shoulders and took a long breath. He looked at his partner beside him: "Akao, have you tamed the eagle during my absence?"

Corvis asked the servants to move the armor away, and turned back to answer: "Well, 'Xiao An' is willing to fly with me. Although it will take some time to cultivate trust before re-imposing the contract, it is not a problem for general riding travel. It was originally raised by Pilieno and still remembers me. It is not so resistant."

"Then I'll trouble you. In the future, I will need you to help Avalon to deliver letters and messages to many places."

"It's no trouble. It's my honor to help everyone." The boy smiled.

"By the way, did you see the child we brought back this time?" Leon asked.

Corvis thought of the skinny boy and nodded: "I just met him. Olivia seems to have arranged for him to live in the dormitory of the academy."

"That child has a talent for learning magic. Laura discovered it. I plan to let him learn magic from you. What do you think? Are you willing to accept an apprentice?" Leon changed into his regular clothes and suggested while taking him to the Lord's Hall.

Corvis followed behind with some hesitation: "Should I teach him? If it's just guidance, there's no problem, but I'm still far from a proper mage."

"It's enough to be able to get started. This child still has to start with basic cultural courses such as writing and mathematics. I don't know how long it will take before he can learn more advanced magic knowledge. By then, you will probably have become a proper mage." Leon said with certainty.

As they talked, the two walked into the hall.

Leon looked up at the emblems hanging around the walls of the hall. During his absence, it seemed that the newly-crowned Avalon Knights had made their own emblem flags.

At present, in addition to himself, Azerien, Lohak, and the first four Thorn Flower Knights who joined the Knights.

Olivia's blue-bottomed golden lion flag, Corvis's white-bottomed red eagle flag, Brian's gray-bottomed broken sword flag, and Hawke, Zabron and other colorful emblem flags have been hung in the hall.

Walking past more than a dozen emblem flags representing members of the Knights, Leon inexplicably felt a sense of accomplishment like collecting cards.

Of course, these are far from enough to fill the hall at the moment. Even if there are hundreds of flags here in the future, it will be more than enough.

Retracting his gaze from above, Leon saw that Olivia, who had just washed and changed into a white shirt and blue skirt, had arrived, and Azerien and Lohak had already sat on the chairs waiting.

At present, they are the five most powerful people in Avalon, not only because of their identities and positions in the Knights, but also because they are all people who know the existence of Laura and the Mage Tower.

He quickened his pace and sat down with Corvis. He told everyone what he saw and heard with Olivia.

After the story ended, the hall fell silent for a while. Azerien and Lohak frowned, and they never thought that their hometown might have become a "hell" in the true sense.

"Expand the army, store food, recruit soldiers and buy horses. There is no time to slowly build the territory as planned before." Leon turned his head and asked his chief steward about the financial situation: "How much money do we have in the public treasury?"

"Counting the tax of 1252 gold crowns collected with the minimum tax reduction during the previous southern tour, we currently have a total of 5033 gold crowns before settling this month's expenses." Azerien answered immediately.

The Grand Steward of the Knights continued to report on the current territory finances: ".Currently, the salaries of knights and officials, military maintenance costs, servants' salaries and all other expenses in the barony are about 393 gold coins per month."

"What is the estimated territory income next year?" Leon remembered the iron ore mining income that was divided 40% and 60% by the Lord of the Sea.

"If all territories under the Knights are fully levied, it will be about 3756 gold crowns per year, and the income from the Avalon Iron Mine is conservatively estimated to be more than 4000 gold coins."

"What about the tax grain paid by the territory?" Leon asked.

"If there is no deficit, the annual staple food is expected to be about 2835 Aoshi." Azerian replied.

Leon nodded, closed his eyes and quickly converted, tapped his fingers on the armrest, and got a weight of 144 tons.

At the limit, it is enough to feed an army of about 2,000 people for two months. Of course, as a new lord, he is far from having the capital to organize a standing army of 2,000 people, and 500 people are extremely difficult.

"The Knights' army must be fully staffed as soon as possible, and the money in hand cannot be kept for laying eggs." Leon set the direction of future government affairs.

"The heavy cavalry team must be expanded to 100 cavalry, the infantry to 300 people, and the archers to 100 people."

He was somewhat fortunate that the feudal lord had dismissed the young and strong men who had been recruited in the Thorn Flower Territory before. In his new territory, Orlando had enough soldiers, and it was easy to replenish 360 qualified soldiers.

However, the "treasury" that was finally filled was not easy, and it was about to run out of money again for military horses, armor, weapons, and military pay.

Especially war horses, this strategic resource, it is probably okay for the feudal lord to sell himself ten horses, no matter how many, the family is still short of it, this thing is never enough, and Leon estimates that, including the spare war horses, he has to spend a lot of money to buy at least 70 or 80 horses.

But even if it is a minimum qualified war horse, without connections, it is easy to be slaughtered by the seller at a price far higher than the market price. He hopes that Earl Elliver has a channel to help him find a suitable seller.

On the third of next month, it will be on the reading guide. The editor said that this is the best recommendation position. A book can only be on it once. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m happy to be recommended anyway.