Knight and Wand

Chapter 296 Faction: Pendragon

".Last year, the Baron's annual income was 12561 gold crowns.
The annual fiscal expenditure is 20666 gold crowns.

Among them, the total military expenditure used to maintain the 18372 war horses in the Knights Templar, the Security Team, and the Horse Administration was gold crowns.

The salaries of administrative officials in the territory and various miscellaneous expenses were 2054 gold crowns.

The cost of serving in the inner court of Avalon Castle is 240 gold crowns."

Azerien, who served as the chief government steward and the chief steward of the Knights, reported the financial revenue and expenditure of the territory to Leon in an orderly manner.

Looking at the documents in his hand, Leon listened quietly.

Even without counting the funds spent on last year's wedding celebrations and knightly tournaments, the territory's on-paper revenue and expenditure alone resulted in a fiscal deficit of 8105 gold crowns.

However, Leon was not panicked, because if it were not for raising horses, the territory would actually have achieved normal income and expenditure, and even had a surplus income of 2587 gold crowns every year.

Of the annual expenditure of more than 10692 gold crowns, more than half of the expenditure, 550 gold crowns, were used to feed the fine war horses obtained from the eastern part of Kantadar. The horse administration was indeed a big spender.

Of course, even if a lot of money is now being spent on horse racing, Leon is not worried about a financial crisis.

It’s simple, Castle Avalon is not short of money now.

After the Undead War, the Shatai and Baldim families spent all their fortunes to pay the Thornflower family's army a huge reward, and Avalon received a full 20,000 gold coins.

Among the military spoils captured and distributed during the war, the total amount was as high as 40,000 to 50,000.

Including the rest and recuperation last year, the combined territory income of the three of them was more than ten thousand. Now the wealth accumulated in Avalon Castle was enough to squander like this for six or seven years without worrying.

This is not counting old Uncle Brian, or should we call him father-in-law now. After he married Olivia, he led a team of Avalon knights on a long journey north, and brought back several carts of treasure from some unknown corner.

It was said to be Olivia's dowry.

Of course, Leon didn't want to touch the property that his father-in-law had hidden for his wife for so many years, so he just locked it deep in the treasury.

After all, Leon believed that as the territory developed further in the next few years, especially after the spring, and trade was established with the lords of the Jihad Alliance in the Sobornitz District, it would not be difficult for him to fill the fiscal deficit of more than 8,000 within a few years.

The victory in the Battle of Rolandar was very timely, and the Undead War did not affect the territory too much. The Barony recovered quickly from the war, especially now that the administrative system has been gradually built and is able to effectively manage all aspects of the territory.

Currently, the territory has established six major government departments, namely “one hall and five offices”, gradually moving away from the makeshift team that was used to govern the land in the beginning.

The first is the "Executive Office", which is the highest administrative center responsible for coordinating decision-making and implementing various policies and coordinating the operations of other departments. It is led by Azerien as the "Chief Administrative Officer".

Dozens of village officials and mayors in the territory are required to come to the administrative office of Avalon Castle regularly every year to report on the situation in various places.

The two militia patrol companies covering various places led by "Security Chief" Larian are also directly under the jurisdiction of the Executive Office.

After that is the "Finance Office" led by Ms. Elena as the "Chief Tax Manager". This is the financial and taxation center of the territory, responsible for coordinating the collection and management of taxes across the entire region, formulating the annual revenue and expenditure budget, and auditing the accounts of various institutions. Such an important department is currently managed by only the chief steward of the inner court, Lohak's sister, which makes people most relieved.

In the future, perhaps an independent "audit agency" will be separated from it to prevent long-term corruption among officials in the financial department.

But at present there is a shortage of talent and officials are scarce. Even the tax officer has to do the work of three people, and it is already difficult to maintain the departmental framework.

Leon trusts Ms. Elena very much, so for the time being, he is not in a hurry to expand the administrative structure until the students of Zhongsi Academy graduate and the territory is enriched with talents.

Next is the "Market Supervision Office" led by Ms. Martha as the "Market Manager". Its function is to manage all large and small commercial activities in the territory, supervise ranches, fixed markets, and mobile caravans within the territory, control prices, issue trading licenses, and inspect smuggling. Of course, the biggest problem of this department is also the lack of literate and numerate staff.

Then there was the Horse Administration Office, led by Hawke as "Stable Master".

The five hundred or so war horses that account for half of the current fiscal expenditure, as well as the various draft animals in the territory and the complicated affairs of a hundred or so grooms, are enough to force Leon to set up an administrative department specifically for horse breeding.

Finally, there is the "Academic Affairs Office" led by Ms. Veresa as the "Chief Education Officer", and the "Medical Office" led by Miss Milena as the "Chief Medical Officer".

These two departments are much smaller than other institutions.

The Office of Academic Affairs currently only needs to be responsible for managing several teachers and a hundred or so students at Zhongsi College.

And in the clinic, even including Miss Milena, there are only seventeen doctors in total.

There are two doctors stationed in the fort, ten doctors dispatched to various villages and towns, and four traveling doctors in the territory. Most of them were taught by Miss Milena herself in the past two years.

Although their number is small, with the guidance of Corvis, the medical skills of these barefoot doctors in Avalon are still higher than 90% of the folk doctors in the Western Continent.

In addition to the above, Leon plans to set up a special "engineering institute" and a "prison institute" to manage criminals when building public facilities in the future, separating the prison functions from the security team to avoid abuse of power.

But these plans are still on paper. After all, what is most lacking in this era is talent. There are dozens of clerk positions vacant right now. This made everyone in various departments, from the general manager to the petty clerk, very busy last year. Leon felt very headache.

He didn't know if he could bring back some literate people from Orlando City on this trip to the capital, he just hoped that his reputation would be attractive.

After he began to rule a land, he increasingly understood why ancient rulers were so eager to seek talented people.

Let alone a virtuous person, even a fool who can read, write and calculate is a rare treasure.

This is just the management of the 1,000 square kilometers of land in the Avalon Territory, with a mere 20,000 residents, not to mention the vast tracts of land he controls in the Sobornitz Territory.

In fact, his Avalon Territory base, located within the sphere of influence of the Thorn Flower Family, is only a fraction of the area currently under the jurisdiction of the "Pendragon" forces.

There are several thousand square kilometers of land in the Sobornitz Territory, which is the sphere of influence of the "Pendragon Family".

More than 1,000 square kilometers of territory will be his future direct territory.

In addition, there is an area of ​​nearly 10,000 square kilometers, which is the fief of the Crusade Knights from the Knights of Avalon who died under their command.

Except for the fifty or so surviving Avalon Crusade Knights, the families of the other victims either had children who had not grown up and could not inherit the fiefdom, or had no male heirs in the family. They had to verify the corresponding legal heirs one by one and could only temporarily entrust them to themselves as the feudal lord for custody.

Before the winter of last year, Leon had organized the families of the Avalon martyrs to go "frontier" and occupy the land that would belong to their future in advance.

After all, this isn't truly a reclaimed wasteland; the original fields, houses, towns and countless public facilities on the territory are all ready-made. If it weren't for the lack of information, the current situation in the Sobornitz Territory would be enough to attract all the homeless people in the Western Continent to flock here.

If you think about it, that might be a good thing. After all, rebuilding society always requires a lot of manpower.

The post-war Territory of Sobornitz is currently controlled by multiple forces including him.

Not only did the Baldim family regain most of their original territory, but they also greatly expanded the land they actually controlled.

Some of the surviving former eastern Kantadar families returned to their homeland after the war, but with the exception of the Baldim family, whose power was relatively well preserved, many of the original lordships had undergone tremendous changes, and the original local families were no longer the most powerful factions in Sobornitz.

Now in the eastern part of Kantardar, the most powerful faction is the Thorn Flower Family.

If he himself were included, the Farolis forces would cover nearly 24,600 square kilometers of land in the eastern part of Kantadar.

Together with the baronial territory of the Thorn Flower family in the northern Glade County and the Thorn Flower family, Farolis basically controls 38,000 square kilometers of land, which is barely enough to be a provincial region even in his previous homeland. Leon also heard that Feodor planned to move a large number of people from Glade County, which has a population of hundreds of thousands, to the east last year to help Baron David and other Thorn Flower vassals develop their territories. Of course, whether intentionally or unintentionally, this population gift package given to the vassals after inheriting the Earldom does not seem to have a share for himself.

Although Leon didn't care about this, he still felt that after Lord Elliver's life and death became unknown, the gap between him and the new lord was growing.

Fortunately, most people in the family, such as Mrs. Adelina, David, Marcelo, Redo and other important members, still treat him with kindness and respect. Even though Feodor dislikes him, he doesn't think they will have a conflict.

As for the matter of relocating the residents, Princess Ines is also doing it. She has not only been allocated 11,000 square kilometers in the Sobornitz Territory due to the Undead War.

It is said that in Magya Territory, Ines also obtained one-third of the land on the west coast of "Kilinya County" due to the southern expedition.

If her fiefdom in Xiwan County is taken into account, after the third princess of Orland has digested these spoils for a few years, Yin Ran will be a powerful lord.

Leon thought that perhaps he could try to use their political alliance to get some people from the little princess to fill his territory.

In addition to the above three parties, the territory allocated to the remaining Holy Lake Knights was also not small.

Since these brave fanatics had the largest number of holy war knights, after the war, the Ilaril knights received a total of 17,000 square kilometers of fiefdom.

The one hundred remaining Knights of the Holy Lake are now managing the territory for the four hundred comrades who died until the families and descendants of the martyrs in Dineshien come to Sobornitz to inherit.

After that, there are the knights-errant scattered all over the place. They are not numerous, and their fiefdoms combined only cover less than 2,400 square kilometers. Moreover, they are too lazy to manage their affairs and are really casual and free-spirited.

Finally, the more special ones are Baron Ivan's Shatai family and the Mamor family, which did not originally belong to Sobornitz County.

After surviving the Battle of Rolandar, Baron Ivan not only took back the 600 square kilometers of land in Shatai City and his family's ancestral home, but he and his Griffin mercenary knights also obtained 3,400 square kilometers of fiefdom, becoming a great lord far superior to his ancestors of the Shatai family.

Ivan's identity is very special. He was born as a former eastern lord and survived the Battle of Rolandar. He has enough reputation to gain the respect of the Kantardar people.

Leon's character, experience, and the friendship they have established with each other also make him trust and feel at ease with Ivan.

So Leon handed over the agency rights to manage the Jihad Alliance headquarters, Finlaytown, and eastern affairs to the other party, in order to serve as a bridge to maintain communication between the Kantardars within the Jihad Alliance and the emerging foreign lords. For this task, only Ivan, who was born locally, was the most suitable.

As for the Mamor family, Count Sangetan also sent dozens of brave and loyal knights to volunteer for the Rolandar expedition, but only three survived afterwards.

Although he knew that giving the land to the dozens of soldiers who died in the battle was no different from giving it directly to Count Sangetan, Leon still kept his promise.

The Mamor family gained 1,700 square kilometers in Sobornitz, and Count Sangetan, it is said, used this as capital after the war, and while the lords of the Greyshirt Valley of Orland who occupied Mamor County were recuperating, he went back north and recovered the old territory of about 5,000 square kilometers.

Although it was only a southeastern corner of the original vast land of the Mamor family, it still made Sangetan's title of "Earl Mamor" no longer just an empty title, and there seemed to be hope for revival.

After listening to the reports from various departments, the monthly territory meeting finally ended.

After the meeting, Leon had just taken the hot water brought by Olivia when he was visited by Corvis who had hurried over.

"My Lord! I have made the instrument to detect the talents of apprentices!" The young man reported with joy as he entered the room.

Upon hearing this, Leon immediately followed him to the Mage Tower.

Passing through the courtyard of the magic academy which had already taken shape, the two came to the workshop on the upper floor of the Mage Tower. On the messy workbench filled with discarded parts, he saw Corvis's work.

It was a very strange-looking device, consisting of two parts. One part was a huge crystal ball with several coaxial steel rings engraved with runes in the center. The crystal ball was bigger than a human head. The other part was like an inverted iron pot helmet with magic spells sealed inside.

The two parts are connected by a bamboo-shaped movable chain.

"The frame of the instrument has not been completely completed yet. I imitated the appearance of the 'Sorting Instrument' of the Atias Mage Academy. Once the shell is completed, it can be fixed on a chair and the subject can sit and test it. You can try the function first. Just wear it on your head."

As Corvis spoke, he picked up the crystal ball with several iron rings embedded in it and hung it on a shelf beside him, then handed the helmet to his lord.

Leon took the helmet and put it on his head. He saw Akao draw a seal to activate the device. Ripples appeared inside the crystal ball on the hanger, and several iron rings lit up with magic light and began to rotate.

Leon felt the magic power surge and his eyes were dazed for a moment. When he came to his senses, he saw the crystal ball burst into a dazzling white light, illuminating the wizard's workshop, which was already connected to the earth magic power and the eternal lamp was lit, even brighter.

"Is that all?" Leon asked.

"As expected of you, this brightness is really scary." Corvis was dazzled by the light and couldn't help but exclaim: "It's still such pure natural magic, without any impurities."

"What does that mean?" Leon looked at the light of the instrument gradually going out, so he took off his helmet and asked in confusion.

"This detector is better than the one used by the Atias." Corvis took the device and explained, "The Atias Sorting Instrument can only determine whether one has the mental compatibility to manipulate magic, but the Lorelit detection instrument can also detect the nature of the magic circulating in the subject's body, and the ratio of natural magic to chaotic magic. In my case, the ratio of purple aura to gold aura is about nine to one."

After saying this, the blond boy sighed inexplicably and smiled bitterly: "With such a high content of chaos magic, if I were discovered by the people of the Holy Sun Cult when Vilania was still here, I would probably be captured and locked up in the high tower of the 'Ring of Magic' for cultivation."

"Don't worry, you are now a knight of Avalon and a noble of Orland. I won't let anyone take you away." Leon patted him and comforted him, "Besides, you are one of the heroes who recaptured Rolandal. How dare the people of the Holy Sun Church embarrass you? Aren't you afraid of being punished by God?"

Corvis chuckled and put the detector back on the table. "That thing is ready. I will find Master Adya of the Edel Chamber of Commerce tomorrow to make the protective case. When are we going to meet His Majesty Redwin?"

"Don't worry, let Lohak and the others take the knights and set off first. Anyway, Olivia and I will be riding the Deathclaw and Xiao An and will reach Orlando City in minutes." As Leon spoke, his eyes were looking at the silver Neti card that was being kept in a display case nearby.

Tendrils of magical light still flickered between the cracks cut by the dragon slayer Valencis Arsen, and could not be healed.

As soon as Leon saw the card torn by the enemy, he felt sad. If the ancient wizard guard had assisted in the battle of Rolandar, perhaps his side would have sacrificed fewer warriors.

Lord Irem, King Gorim of Steelforge, too many Knights of the Holy Lake and Heraen Guards died in the terrible magic released by the blood demon.

According to Kamoz, if the blood demon had not roared something pronounced as "Valari" in inexplicable anger and was sucked back by the dark gate, no one would have survived in front of the altar in the Great Temple Square.

In his heart, Leon mourned for the noble warriors who had been the last to leave. He made up his mind that this time when he went to Orlando, he must go to the Alchemy Guild to find a way to purchase more materials for making Neti cards.

Perhaps I could also ask around to see if the "Spirit Soul Stone" recorded in ancient books is circulating in Orland.

Otherwise, you will have to go to the Dragonheart Peninsula of the Kingdom of Aurelia or go out to sea to find the Elf Island of Isuan.

In any case, after experiencing the bloody battle of Rolandar, Leon became more and more eager for more powerful power.

The improvement of one's martial arts and magic skills cannot be achieved overnight.

But if we can use more Neti cards, search for ancient relics, and summon powerful wizards or warriors in the history of this world, then next time we face such a dangerous and desperate situation, fewer people will die.

not to mention.
Leon sighed.

In his heart, he still remembered the promise he made.

Those warriors who had been half-tricked by him into joining the Guards and who had kept their mouths shut about Canis's resurrection also died heroically in the Great Temple of Rolandar.

Leon doesn't like to break his promises.

He had found and preserved the relics of those Knights of the Guards after the war. Sooner or later, he would try his best to pull back those Crusade Knights who died heroically from the Dead Sea.

(End of this chapter)