Imperial Crown.

Chapter 252: Letter from the King's Capital
It was a letter from the royal capital, Mingnagar.

The wax seal on the golden envelope looks as good as new.

Marquis Anthony straightened his tie, sat down at the table, carefully cut the envelope with scissors, and shook out the parchment inside.

His eyebrows trembled slightly.

Judging from the sharp sword-like handwriting, this was not written by a court official, but was written by His Majesty King Keynes XVI himself.

It is not easy to receive such treatment. When writing this letter, His Majesty the King was either very excited or very angry.

Anthony took a deep breath and opened the letter with the mentality of "jumping into the river and closing his eyes".

"To my dear Home Secretary and future Governor of Nord Province, Marquis Anthony Vanya Edwards."

"I have to extend my cordial regards to you for your outstanding performance in the Nord Province. Your efficiency is just as outstanding as my father's wet nurse."

"After all, she nursed my father for a whole year."

"But what I don't understand is, can you secrete milk, or do you need to feed the baby yourself?"

"One year, almost one year! You still haven't been able to make any breakthroughs in the Nord Province."

"I am not an impatient monarch, and I understand that you have your own thoughts and plans."

"Then can you give me a reasonable reason - how did you make a wedding entertainment known to everyone? From this point of view, I should fire my court dwarf. Maybe you are more suitable for this position."

"If there is really some calculation here that I don't know about, can you explain the article "Hot Beauties - Private Ranking"? Is rating bitches part of your big plan?"

"Perhaps written words cannot express your profound scheming, so please return to the capital immediately after this wonderful competition and explain your brilliant vision to me in person."

"Missed you, Habsburg Mann Keynes."

Marquis Anthony placed the letter respectfully on the table, took out his handkerchief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, as if His Majesty the King's saliva had sprayed on his face.

From these words alone, he could imagine the excitement and anger of His Majesty when he wrote the letter.

Indeed, this trip may not have been very successful, but Anthony still had some complaints about His Majesty the King's impatience.

After all, Nord Province is an important frontier area. How can we deal with things here quickly and easily?
The Fox family has been rooted in the Nord Province for hundreds of years, and it cannot be resolved overnight.

In particular, this involves Griffith, a troublesome family that has been entangled with the royal family since the founding of the empire.

The most confusing thing may be the competition.

Although the competition was a bit too loud and beyond Anthony's initial expectations, it was still under control. No matter how influential a competition held on the northwestern border of Nord Province was, how big could it be?
It's almost over anyway.

The seventh round ended quickly, and except for the match between Eric and Judra, no new dark horse emerged.

The two contestants from the Church of Light were both eliminated in this round. Akori and Gul'dan advanced successfully. The two knights from the Slater family also stood out. Together with another knight from the Fox family, these three families occupied 2 places in the top 1 list.

Including Eric, there are actually only two places left for other nobles in the Nord province.

The list of names was quickly arranged. Slater and the remaining players from the Fox family faced off against each other in pairs, and there was no civil war. Akori and Eric also faced off against two players from other counties.

Anthony was very satisfied with this arrangement, and even secretly thought that it would be so much fun if both players from the Fox family lost.

But he also knew that this was just his wishful thinking. Perhaps at this moment, in a corner that he could not see, the Fox and Slater families had already begun to collude.

Marquis Anthony doesn't like going out very much recently, because every time he sees the bustling streets, he thinks of the content of the letter - how does His Majesty the King know so much about the competition?

But with the end of the three-day offseason and the official start of the eighth round, Marquis Anthony still had to show up. After all, the next three rounds of games will be more important than the last, and he needs to stand in front of the public to emphasize his presence.

But today, as soon as he arrived at the arena, he felt something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what exactly went wrong.

It was not until he arrived at the box that he discovered that in addition to Montreal, Thomas, Tyrone and Raven, there was actually a fifth person sitting there.

He was a middle-aged man who looked to be about 40 years old, a little fat, with a round face and a red complexion as if he had been through a lot of wind and sand. It was only the end of August and it was still very hot, but he was wrapped in a thick layer of fur.

"Marquis Anthony, I have heard of your reputation for a long time, but I have never met you." The middle-aged man stood up enthusiastically and saluted Anthony: "Nice to meet you, my humble name is Jonah Shiva Hopkins, from Ontario County, Molinier Province!"

The moment he heard the name, Anthony immediately remembered this man's identity.

Jonah is an imperial earl, the head of the Hopkins family, one of the three major earl families in the province of Molinier, and a fourth-rank ice knight.

But why is he here?!
"It's Earl Jonah." Marquis Anthony returned the greeting and sat down. Then he asked casually, "Why didn't I hear about your arrival?"

"I just arrived this morning." Count Jonah said bluntly: "Look, I didn't even have time to change into my formal dress!"

Marquis Anthony nodded and said, "As far as I know, Ontario County is not close to here. Why are you interested in coming here?"

"Haha, of course it's because of this competition!" Earl Jonah laughed, his voice full of excitement. "Speaking of which, I've felt since I was young that the military preparations of our northern provinces are really badly neglected. They're actually imitating those inland nobles, reveling every night, and talking about nothing but art and pleasure. It's really unbearable!"

"I have also heard of Baron Raven's reputation. I was not optimistic about him at first. What about the 'Little Bee'? He was also studying some weird inventions. It seemed that he was only focused on making money. He didn't look like a nobleman."

At this point, he chuckled again and gave Raven a thumbs up. "I never expected that Baron Raven, you are really amazing. You actually picked up the tradition of the 'competition competition' at your wedding, and even arranged the competition so excitingly!"

"I got a battle report by accident. I didn't take it seriously at first, but when I read it, my blood boiled. I haven't seen such a fierce battle in many years."

"But just reading the battle report is not enough. I was eager to join the game, so I brought a group of people here. I thought that even after the game is over, I can still feel the atmosphere and learn from Baron Raven's experience."

“I didn’t expect that I would actually catch up!”

It was fine at first, but the more he talked, the darker Marquis Anthony's face became: "You didn't come here by yourself?"

Jonah nodded. "Of course not. Basically, people from the neighboring counties who have nothing to do come here. We also met some nobles with the same purpose along the way. There are about 40 companies in total that came to Eagle Town this time."

Marquis Anthony felt his back getting wet. He had never expected that the popularity of the competition would spread to the province of Molinier.

This is not in the royal capital, but on the border of the empire!
At first, Anthony just wanted to use this competition to make Raven see the situation clearly and not get so close to the Fox family.

But now, as the situation develops, the direction of the entire competition has deviated from his original intention. Even if Akori can defeat Gul'dan by then, Raven realizes that he and the royal family are inviolable, which will cause new problems.

That is, as the competition gains momentum, Gul'dan's performance will make the Fox family famous, and their reputation, which had just been suppressed, will usher in a surge!
How can I explain this to His Majesty the King?

I have completed the task you assigned to me. I hit the Fox family with a stick, and now you give them a carrot?

But the problem is, even if carrots are to be given, it should be given by His Majesty the King!
This silence made Jonah misunderstand: "In fact, we also know that you, Marquis Anthony, have made great contributions here. If it weren't for your proposal in the beginning, this competition would not have been held."

"Speaking of which, this competition is really a rare event. Before I came here, I was communicating with Count Duna of Cartier Province. He also said that if it wasn't too far, he would also like to come here in person."

Anthony's vision went dark.

The Cartier Province is located in the southwest of the empire, and its straight-line distance from the Eagle Territory should be more than 1200 kilometers.

No wonder even His Majesty the King knew about it!

In this game, Anthony was distracted throughout and basically didn't pay any attention. He only knew that Gul'dan won in the end and advanced to the semi-finals of this competition.

After the event, we had to have a sumptuous lunch with everyone to welcome Count Jonah.

After the party, Anthony found Raven and hoped to talk to him alone for a while.

Entering the study and dismissing the others, Marquis Anthony got straight to the point: "Baron Raven, this competition has a huge impact."

"Now, I hope you can interfere with the fermentation of this matter on the Skyhawk platform and end this competition quickly and quietly."

Raven raised his eyebrows and said hesitantly: "Well..."

Raven could guess some reasons for Marquis Anthony's dissatisfaction and uneasiness.

If this sentence had appeared a month ago, Raven might have done it, but now he would never give in.

"Baron Raven!" Marquis Anthony stared into Raven's eyes: "This is no longer your Griffith family's business!"

"Oh, don't be so excited, Marquis Anthony." Raven spread his hands and said, "It's not that I don't want to do this, but even if we stop the Sky Eagle platform now, it won't help."

"It has been three months since the competition began. Now, not to mention other places, the entire Nord Province is paying attention to this competition."

"The Sky Eagle Platform can be closed, but this will only attract more curiosity. Maybe the nobles who are still at home or the nobles of neighboring provinces will rush into Eagle Town frantically because of this. I think that is not the result you want to see, right?"

Raven's words calmed Anthony down a little.

After all, it was because the secret letter from His Majesty the King had previously put too much pressure on him, and Jonah's arrival later further aggravated it.

Now that he had calmed down, he had to admit that Raven was right.

Even if Raven has selfish motives here, the competition is no longer a private matter. Forcibly interfering will only lead to dissatisfaction among all the nobles.

Judging from the letter from His Majesty the King, the position of Governor of Nord Province still belongs to Anthony. It would be unwise to offend the nobles of the entire province at this time.

"Baron Raven, my gentleness doesn't mean I won't get angry." Marquis Anthony said calmly, "This competition must be ended as soon as possible."

"Of course." Raven smiled and said, "I will shorten the off-season and speed up the schedule. After all, with so many people eating and drinking, my Eagle Territory will not be able to hold on any longer."

"That'd better be true." Anthony looked at Raven deeply and turned away.

The door closed with a bang, and Raven sat back at the table, shaking his head mockingly.

It was you who first proposed the competition, but now you regret it?

But speaking of it, Raven has to thank Marquis Anthony. If it weren't for his suggestion, Raven, who has always disliked socializing, would never have thought of the idea of ​​a competition.

Now, the competition is in full swing, beyond everyone's expectations. This can be said to be an opportunity created from nothing, and Raven is best at seizing such opportunities.

Next, he would indeed shorten the off-season and speed up his trips into the city, but he would also promote this athletic competition more vigorously, making it an event that would be remembered by the Nordic province.

And this is by no means the last competitive tournament, but the first one of its kind.

In the future, Raven will turn the competition into a pure competitive event, held every two years, divided into three groups: first level, second level, and third level. Each county will be given corresponding places for the preliminary round.

Each county selects its own representatives, and then the competition starts with the top 32 in Eagle Town.

In this way, we can regularly bring enough foreign population to Eagle Town and save a lot of initial troubles.

In this way, his territory will be transformed into a holy land for knights in the Nordic province!
Of course, the above are just preliminary frameworks, and how to implement them specifically still needs to be discussed. For now, we should still focus on the ongoing competition.

For Montreal and Anthony, the athletic conference is their place of gaming, but Raven has his sights set on more than just the athletic conference itself.

It's time to start implementing the plan that has been brewing for a long time.

"Volaf!" Raven called out loudly.

"Baron!" Volav walked in and pounded his breastplate. "What do you want?"

Placing a folded piece of parchment on the table, Raven said, "Give it to Eric."

"Remember, don't let anyone see what's on there."

……

(End of this chapter)