Knight and Wand

Chapter 142 Changes in Situation

"What do you mean? Why don't you let me see Master Canis this time?"

Heinkel came to the Longka camp as a messenger again and questioned the knights of the Thornflower family with dissatisfaction.

Sir Redo replied calmly, "Unfortunately, our Lord Elliver wanted to see Lord Cannis, so he asked him to stay somewhere else temporarily. He is no longer in Longka."

"You sent him to the city of Farolis? Then I will go there to visit him." Heinkel frowned.

"It's not in Farolis City. I can't tell you where it is exactly." Leido shook his head. He only suddenly learned two days ago that Leon was going to escort the young master of the Wolf family to meet the Baron.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Prepare the ransom. On the agreed day, we will naturally release your young master. He is a rough man, not a rare beauty. We feel it is a waste of food if we keep him well fed and well fed." Lockhak laughed.

"If I can't see the young master, how can I know whether you have arranged his treatment as promised? I will give these two hundred gold crowns when I see him!"

Heinkel felt as if he had been fooled and reached out to close the lid of the cash box on the table.

But Azerien on the side held the old knight's hand.

"You can't break your promise, sir. We didn't treat Lord Canis unfairly. We just invited him to move to a better living environment. Look at the simple conditions in Longka. There are only rough soldiers. How can they serve the noble eldest son of Baron Gunnar?
Send him to the rear, where he will have his own maids to take care of his daily food, drink and washing. Wouldn't it be more comfortable than living here? I didn't tell you where you were going, but for the safety of my master. After all, the world is not peaceful recently. In any case, you must stay today for the agreed two hundred gold coins. "The son of the noble said with a piercing smile, not giving in.

The guards and soldiers in front of the hall door also blocked the entrance with unfriendly looks.

"You are even more like bandits than the wolf cubs under my command." The old knight snorted, shook off his restrained hands, and said angrily: "Don't play tricks. If the Son of Gunnar loses a single hair, no matter how much you take today, you will have to spit it out a hundredfold later."

After giving a harsh warning, Heinkel turned around and walked angrily to the door, shouting at the thorn flower guards who were blocking the way: "Get out of the way!"

Azerien did not stop them, but raised his hand to signal the soldiers to let them pass.

Lohak came to his good brother, opened the cash box, and touched the yellow gold coins inside: "Just let this old man go? We haven't counted the money yet, what if it's not enough?"

Azerien shook his head helplessly: "Don't worry, they won't give less. This is not a business in the market."

After saying this, the noble son did not feel as relaxed as he appeared to be.

Compared to the others present, he was one of the few people in Longcane who knew that Canis was dead.

Leon took away the body of the young master of the Wolf family, and only told him to pretend nothing happened, deal with the envoys from the Wolf family as usual, and delay time.

Were they going south to seek reinforcements from Baron Elliver? Then why did they bring Cannis's body with them? Were they afraid that the body would be discovered and so they moved it to another place?

With this doubt, listening to the sound of Lohak counting the gold coins on the table, Azerien looked up at the sky outside the door, wondering what other ways Leon had to resolve this crisis.

Fortunately, Leon didn't keep his companions waiting too long.

Back in Longka, where the dispute remains unresolved, Leon continues to confront the Wolf Family army stationed in Aiken Village.
Time flies.

April has just begun in the year 673 of Orland.

This was the time of spring in the northern region of Kantardar, south of the Nightmare Forest, when the farmers in Glade County were busy with spring planting.

This place is far away from Mamor County in the northeast where the war is intense, so the war should not spread here.

With the Penrose Forest in the north as a natural barrier for thousands of years, the lords of Glade County had assembled their troops when the Battle of Reddingburg broke out several months ago, responding to the orders of Earl Mamor and heading north to resist the aggressive Orland army.

As long as the Northern Kingdom's army heading south is blocked in Mamor, Glade will be safe and will not be threatened at all.

At least, that's how it should have been.
The Farolis family has been busy for two months, risking everything on preparations, and finally the harvest season has arrived.

All the great changes in Glade County happened in just a few days.

The garrison of only a few hundred people in Archersburg was unable to turn the sudden battle into an urban attack and defense.

The Thorn Flower elite, disguised as a western caravan, easily avoided inspection and entered the inner gate by repeatedly bribing and performing transactions during this period.

Their unexpected action defeated the defenseless guards at the city gate.

The Thorn Flower soldiers, determined to die, captured the city gate and lowered the drawbridge without even encountering a counterattack by the Kantadar defenders against the lost city gate.

The Farolis army ambushed outside the city marched straight into the city without encountering any decent resistance. After a brief fierce battle, the panicked remaining Acherus defenders, along with the lord's family, retreated into the inner castle.

Even the obstacles caused by the panic-stricken residents in the city were greater than the trouble caused by the defenders.

It took less than a day to capture this defenseless city, and Baron Thornflower felt it was unreal when he entered the city.

Indeed, he had never fought such an easy battle to capture a city in his life. Even the siege equipment that was being disassembled and transported in carts to the camp at the edge of the forest was not used.

Thanks to the fact that the enemy had never expected that they would be suddenly attacked by a huge army that seemed to have dropped from the sky without any news or warning, none of Farolis' siege plans or contingency plans were used. He only made a tentative operation to seize the gate, and he captured this huge city.

After blocking the gates of Acherus, Elifuer sent only three centuries to surround the inner fortress on the high ground that the enemy had finally occupied, without intending to storm it.

Rather than wasting precious soldiers on it, he needed the forces at hand to capture key villages and towns in the surrounding areas as soon as possible.

As for the enemies hiding in the lord's castle, once they have consolidated the territory they occupy in Glade County, time will naturally defeat them. After they have eaten up all the food in the inner castle, the families of the former lord will come to him and beg to surrender.

After quelling the brief chaos in the city of Achesburg, the Farolis army restored order, and the logistics and baggage train took several days to move from the forest camp to the city.

With the huge amount of supplies and wealth stored in a city, the pressure on Elliver was suddenly reduced. He divided his 4,000 troops into two groups. One group was to maintain stability in the city and blockade the inner castle, and the rest were to spread out at the fastest speed to occupy the entire county.

Without any decent obstacles, the fierce and wolf-like army easily wiped out most of the surrounding villages and towns that were empty of manpower. In a short period of time, without the knowledge of the Glade lords who were on the expedition far away, the owner of this land had actually changed.

The matter was settled. Earl knew that it was finally time to confront his country and seek help.

Once the Glade army, whose territory had been taken away, got the news and gathered reinforcements, the Farolis family would not be able to monopolize such a victory.

Fortunately, the plan went unexpectedly smoothly, and there was still a lot of time left for the Thorn Flower family.

He couldn't help but have some fantasies. If his father had encountered the good fortune of the cursed land disappearing, and had a retreat to the south, the family could have taken refuge in the Kingdom of Kantadar and would not have fallen into the situation they are in today.

Laughing and putting aside the delusion that could lead to him being accused of treason, Elif recalled several letters that had been sent to him from the Briar Flower House a few days ago.

There was a military report from an officer of the Selva baggage camp, which stated that on March 22, Knight Leon led two hundred soldiers in Longca, defeated the invading army of one thousand wolf leaders, and captured alive the eldest son of Baron Gunnar.

There was also a report from Knight Tigas that on the evening of March 24, Adelina encountered another assassination attempt. Fortunately, she was prepared and a so-called foreign knight-errant discovered the assassin's plot and did not disturb his wife.

Finally, there is a letter from Leon himself, in which he gives a more detailed account of both events.

Thinking of the more specific speculation in Leon's letter about the assassin who intended to kill his wife, Baron Thorn Flower fell into deep thought.

"What on earth do you want to do, Atias people?"

He knew very little about the strange country he had never heard of, and could not guess the specific motives of the foreign forces that came all the way to the Western Continent to assist Kantadar and torment Orland nobles like himself.

Is there something that the Kantadars can give to each other that Orland cannot?
There was too little information for Elipher to figure out.

Let's put this matter aside for the moment and think back to what Leon said about the battle of Longka and the actual number of enemies. Elliver couldn't help but sigh at the boy's honesty.

With an army of 700 people, including the baggage stationed at Aiken, even if they defeated a thousand people, what would be wrong in boasting about their military exploits?

However, whether it was seven hundred or one thousand, the child exceeded his task and not only protected the Thorn Flower Territory, but also taught the Wolf Family a big lesson.

Thinking of his arch-enemy's eldest son who had shined on the front line of Mamor and was captured by his own vassal, Elifer could not help but feel proud.

He sincerely hoped that Gunnar would come in person to redeem Canis.

This way, you can enjoy the wonderful expressions on the other person's face.

But then, Elifer became a little distressed. He was increasingly confused about how to reward this young square-flag knight.

Every time he thought he had done enough favors to the other party, it seemed that after a while, the other party would give him a merit that exceeded the reward.

It seems that the original idea still needs to be changed. Just relying on a baron title and those lands is still not enough and cannot match the help of this child.

His future is immeasurable, and if you want him to work for Thorn Flower for a long time, you can't be stingy.

The so-called oath of allegiance is only binding if it is fully rewarded, whether it is for sincere people or despicable villains.

He returned to the barracks and ordered Balf to lead the army to garrison Achesburg. He then dispatched a company of 100 men from the heavy cavalry and a company of 100 men from the light cavalry to accompany him and set off to return to the territory of Orland.

Whether it was to disclose the situation in the Nightmare Forest or to resolve the dispute with the Wolf family as soon as possible, he would have to go back and resolve it personally. His reliable little knight had already done his best.

Central Marmore County.

Kantadar's reinforcements were still unable to break through the pass captured by the Orland army and come to the city to support the besieged city.

After this period of time, the city could no longer hold out, otherwise the defenders, who had run out of ammunition and food, would have no choice but to resort to cannibalism.

The soldiers were fine, but the nobles in the city, feeling that there was no hope of reinforcement, had to maintain their last bit of dignity.

General Trosa formally signed a document promising basic conditions with the envoys of the enemy nobles, and then accepted their surrender of the city.

The four or five-month siege came to an end, and Mamor became the new county lord of the Northern Kingdom.

The Orland army, on the other hand, hardly wasted any lives on its tall and sturdy walls.

If Leon were here, he might wonder why he didn't see the spectacular siege battles in the movies and TV shows of his previous life from beginning to end. Over the past few months, the most intense battles between the two sides were nothing more than the occasional projectiles of siege weapons at the city walls and urban areas, as well as small-scale attempts by the army in the city to break out.

Bloody battles like the one in Rolandar, where more than 100,000 soldiers fought and hundreds of thousands of residents were killed or injured, are not the norm in today's wars.

To accommodate the surrendered troops, the King's supporter led the Orland army into the besieged city. Because the surrender was timely, the city was not filled with starving people.

As the army moved in, Trosa and his generals examined the map in front of them.

Being able to take over an entire county at such a small cost, I'm afraid both His Majesty Redwin and the lords of the Greyshirt Valley who were summoned to the battle would be satisfied with the result.

And with this southern expedition, the Northern Kingdom was able to live up to its friendship with Serian.

Nearly half a year ago, the capital received news that King Kantardar had assembled a large army and was heading straight for Serian. In order to put some pressure on Kantardar who had made such a big fuss, he was ordered to lead his army to the south.

But no one expected that the thousand-year-old city of Rolandar would fall so quickly.

If it weren't for the recent news that Kantadar's army had suffered an unexpected setback in its eastward invasion, and that King Aviut seemed to be withdrawing from the territory of Serian, he would have almost thought that the ancient country where the legendary holy prophet was sleeping was going to be destroyed.
Did the Holy Kingdom of Dinethien lend a helping hand to Serian? Trosa knew that unlike the Northern Kingdom, which only looked up to them because they were fellow Feru people, as a kingdom also ruled by the Holy Sun Church, they were real allies. Perhaps it was their army that repelled Kantadar's offensive.

Temporarily putting aside his confusion about the situation in the distant Serrian, Trosa turned his attention back to the territory of Orland.

The recent sudden dispute between the two noble families in Kossos County left him puzzled, but now he could finally free up his hands to deal with this inexplicable dispute. As the largest lord in Greyshank Valley and an important minister of the king, he was the only one who could arbitrate and mediate this matter.

While thinking, Count Trosa raised his head with interest and looked at the northern warlock who had volunteered to investigate the accusation. "How did the two families fight? Master Mette, since you witnessed the process, please tell me in detail how the grown-up young wolf of the Gunnar family fell into the hands of the little griffin of the Thornflower family?"

(End of this chapter)