Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords.

Chapter 220 Faction Struggle
"Haha, Lord Earl, we can talk about these topics later. Now let's deal with the affairs of these good guys first."

Levi laughed and changed the subject: "Although this injury is nothing to them, we can't just ignore it after all."

Indeed, in this small hand-to-hand combat with regular knights who outnumbered themselves, this group of strong men achieved remarkable results, with almost no one lying on the ground, which was a great honor for the lord.

But the other side is not a bunch of small fry. These formal knights who have cultivated fighting spirit are definitely not weak, not to mention that their numbers are greater than theirs.

Some people in Gaoyabao were also beaten badly, and now they are basically standing still.

"Indeed, Sir Levi's men are first-rate in the whole of Derby. The loss of one of them would be intolerable." Earl Luke said with deep sympathy.

These centaur warriors and the extremely strong orc warriors are all well-known and powerful races, and what is even more commendable is.

Earl Luke even saw in them the quality that determines whether they can become a top legion - discipline!
This quality is even more important than personal bravery.

The reason why those wilderness races whose individual bravery far exceeds that of humans cannot occupy a place in this land is because they lack this most important thing.

The tiny bit of strength that the Lion Hunting Knight showed today made them realize that the rumors were not all fabricated.

What is even more exaggerated is that in such a small emerging frontier territory, it is said that there are nearly a thousand warriors of these races. Such a large gathering of elites actually all obey the orders of the Lord of High Cliff Castle obediently.

This Lion Hunting Knight is really very valuable!

Even a count may not have such military strength.

This made Earl Luke's eyes even more fiery.

Levi felt a little uncomfortable, wondering if this fat old man had some personal interests or hobbies. After all, with his appearance, he could easily attract both men and women.

He waved goodbye quickly: "Please excuse me, both of you, as I have some personal matters to attend to. We will talk to you all night long after we have resolved them."

The two earls were not annoyed. When the Lion Hunter Knight showed off his muscles, even if he was just a baron, it was enough to win their favor.

They said goodbye with a smile and agreed to have a few glasses of rum when they had the chance.

"Phew, sir, we almost got into big trouble this time."

It was not until this time that Sikai looked at the people leaving and finally spoke.

When Florina left just now, she deliberately glanced at him, which frightened him so much that his flesh and blood trembled.

"puff."

The lord turned his head and couldn't help laughing out loud.

This middle-aged knight with a strong face and a burly figure actually had a panda eye in his eye socket.

"Lao Si, you are a great knight after all, how come you are even more miserable than these fools under my command?"

"Don't mention it. Even though my fighting spirit is higher than these bastards, I am only slightly stronger than them without using fighting spirit. Two fists cannot beat four hands. If you are not careful, you will get hit."

Sikai looked depressed. He touched his eye sockets with his hands and grimaced in pain.

Oh, what is going on...

"Let's go back first."

Levi waved his hand and didn't continue teasing him.

No matter what, it was Highcliff Castle that eventually affected this knight.

As soon as he entered the warm room, he saw worried eyes looking over, and a pair of small hands started to touch the lord's body.

"Levi, it's all my fault. If I hadn't taken action first, this wouldn't have happened." Bai Ruishi's eyes were a little red.

When she heard those people insulting Levi, she couldn't help but take action, but she didn't expect that it would directly lead to a fight.

"These little bastards need to be taught a lesson, or else they really think that Gaoyabao is easy to bully." Levi patted the little girl's head and comforted her: "Not to mention that I'm fine."

"Then your..." Beristina looked at the lord's clothes, which seemed to have experienced unimaginable vicious attacks.

"I have to say this group of knights are indeed different. They are much stronger than those wilderness punks." When he said this, Levi was so angry that his teeth were itching. He took the woolen coat handed to him by the goatman maid and put it on to cover up the linen gown that had become tattered rags.

Just like no matter how many ants there are, they cannot shake a big tree, these knights are no match for the lord either. However, they are really tenacious enough. They rush forward one after another without caring about their lives. In the end, at the cost of a bruised face and nose, they succeeded in tearing Levi's...the only underwear on his body into rags, and his perfect body like a marble sculpture was looming.

"Boo-chi, boo-chi!"

The little thing also circled around Levi anxiously, and finally puffed up its cheeks and kept waving its little fists, as if it wanted to avenge the lord.

"With your tiny arms and legs, you'll probably fail as soon as you go up there." Levi's mood instantly improved when he saw this little thing.

Then he asked her to help treat Sikai who was standing beside him.

In response to her old father's instructions, she did not hesitate. A ball of green light emerged from her little hand, and she waved it gently and ran towards Sikai's injured eye socket.

Sikai felt his burning eyes cool down and feel comfortable. He quickly came to the mirror in the room and saw that the black eye sockets were visibly fading and returning to normal. He couldn't help but exclaimed, "Sir, your magic beast is too strong. The magic effect is almost as good as those of low-level clergy."

The real world roughly follows a common sense, that is, in Warcraft, the larger the size, the more magic power it contains.

Just like a hamster-like monster generally only knows tricks like water-breathing, while those huge monsters can often use fireballs and ground spikes.

This monster is about the same size as a hamster, but I didn't expect the healing magic it cast would be so powerful.

"Of course not." Levi rubbed Buji's little head and praised him.

In fact, because Buji couldn't speak, Levi didn't know what magic she could do.

At present, all he knew was that she knew healing magic and a magic that would allow him to never be empty-handed.

He learned about the former when the little creature took the initiative to heal him after he wrestled with the barbarians in Gaoya Castle.

As for the latter, it was purely because he was fishing and couldn't catch any fish for a long time. Just when he was about to comfort himself that it was not because of his poor fishing skills but because all the fish in the river had gone home for dinner, she flew over and waved her little hand, and hey, a fish took the bait instantly.

This made him both happy and depressed.

After recovering, Sikai quickly said goodbye and left, probably going to report to Florina.

"You did a great job today. That's what a real man does."

Levi patted Mil's shoulder in affirmation.

This kid got beaten up a lot because he was the first to protect Christina Bai, and he was also punched in the eye.

However, the result of these scars was that Christina was not hurt at all.

"Hehe, brother-in-law, this is what I should do."

Mir rubbed the back of his head and grinned.

This was one of the few times he was praised by the lord, which made him feel that the beating was worth it. "The knight who beat you was severely beaten by me. If there was no advanced clergyman to treat him, I think he would have to bear that pig head for several months, which would be enough to make him lose face."

Levi has always been very petty, and he was kind-hearted enough to not let the other person get out of bed.

But this time he did remember the Earl named Ster. For some reason, this man obviously did not get along with him.

……

It has to be said that the Maple Leaf Lake Barony is very wealthy. Although the banquet hall is not as good as the Duke's Palace in Cologne, it is also luxurious enough.

Candlesticks hung on the walls, bringing bright light to the entire hall.

Long tables covered with red tablecloths were set on the polished gray wooden floor.

The maids shuttled between the long tables like butterflies, serving delicious dishes on silver plates one by one.

Toast, fresh milk, pine-flavored steak...there is also the Northern specialty honey pumpkin pot and a plate of fresh strawberries.

It can be said that these foods are no worse than what we had in Cologne, and Levi was very excited seeing them.

In a sense, this was definitely not a banquet that a new baron could afford, and it was most likely paid for by Lolina.

He came with an empty stomach. After all, banquets are all about eating, drinking and having fun. It would be unreasonable not to take the opportunity to make some extra money from Fujiro.

"Sir Levi, here."

As soon as I came in, someone waved at me with a smile.

Levi walked over, because this was not a simple banquet, he did not bring Beristina and the others.

"Fugero and the others haven't arrived yet?" Levi sat down next to Ando, ​​the count who was in his prime.

As the nominal protagonist of the banquet, Levi did not see Fujiro, but other nobles had arrived.

"I guess he's still dealing with something." Count Ando said casually, and then took the initiative to pour a glass of fruit wine for the lord.

This made Levi "flattered". Although he had been too famous recently, he was just a baron after all, while Andor Tilly was a real earl.

He had his own fertile fiefdom and castle, and at least tens of thousands of soldiers, making him a powerful earl.

The same thing happened to old Earl Luke, who was anxious to marry off his daughter. The combined number of soldiers under their command was at least 30,000.

These are the inside information that Sikai revealed to him privately.

"You are too polite, Lord Earl. Logically, I should be the one to do it."

In fact, one thing that puzzled Levi was why the earl favored him so much.

Writing a letter to show goodwill would be fine, but taking the initiative to speak for him when they had never met each other could not be explained by wanting to get to know this famous Lion Hunting Knight.

"I guess you want to know why." Andao took a sip of the fruit wine slowly. The wine was heated, and the warm liquid gradually warmed up his slightly cold body.

"I really want to know." Levi nodded curiously.

Although he was famous, he was far from being worthy of such courtesy from an earl.

There were at least six or seven earls present, but only two of them had a good impression of him.

It was obvious that Count Luke wanted to take him, the Lion Hunting Knight, as his son-in-law, but Levi had no idea what Count Ando was thinking.

"Two reasons. First, to be honest, I admire you for escorting a duke's heir to the North alone." Andao looked at the lord as if he was looking at a fellow man: "Because I was the same at the beginning."

He didn't say much, but Levi seemed to have seen him go through the same thing.

"And the second one?"

Levi knew that the second one must be the most important.

After all, people often like to whet their appetite.

Not to mention, the first one can only make Earl Ando feel like he has met a close friend, but it is not enough to make him stand on the side of the lord.

"Sir Levi, can you notice anything different about the banquet hall?" Andao pointed and asked an irrelevant question.

"what is the difference?"

Levi looked up and looked carefully. He didn't pay attention at first, but after An Dao reminded him, he found that the seating between the nobles in the banquet hall was very interesting.

About 70% of the nobles, led by the earls of Tess, were obviously gathered together.

On their side, Andao and Luke gathered a group of small nobles.

"Do you know that there have actually been two major factions within the North in recent years?" he said without waiting for Levi to reply.

"Count Ando, ​​it is difficult for me to see what is on the water given my position." Levi shook his head.

Even though he is a noble, the information channels of an emerging noble cannot be compared with those of the old nobles. He even relies on Sikai to know a lot of inside information.

He had only been in the North for a few months and was completely in the dark about the upper echelons here, let alone the secrets of factional struggles.

"Don't tell me there is a usurper in the North?" Levi asked in surprise and doubt.

He made up his mind that if Andao dared to nod, he would turn around and report to Florina.

The appearance of someone who could affect Florina's status at this time would definitely do him more harm than good, and he must nip it in the bud.

"Ahem." Ando almost spit out the wine in his mouth. He said with a smile: "Sir, your imagination is richer than those authors of knight novels. Our Duke Fulina eliminated all competitors to ascend to the throne. How could there be a usurper?"

"Which two factions?" Levi waved his hand and realized that he was thinking too much.

It seems that reality is not as dramatic as novels after all.

"On one side are the conservatives, who still believe in the Ice and Snow Goddess and attempt to keep the North in its current state. On the other side are the reformists, who lean toward the Church of Holy Light and hope that the North can develop better under the new rules."

"Uh……"

Having said that, if the lord still doesn’t understand, then his brain has really been eaten by the goblins.

"Which faction do you and Earl Luke belong to?" However, based on the idea of ​​seeing is believing, he still asked.

"Duke's Party." An Dao drank the wine calmly with a smile on his face.

……

(End of this chapter)