Throne of the North.

Chapter 425: Viscount Hogg's Entrustment and the Participation of the Emperor Selectors
No noble could question the power in Ryan's hands. Ryan made the greatest contribution to the victory of the war. If there were anyone who could use the title and the emperor's orders to argue before, it was because of him.

But with Ryan's sword killing the werewolf king, everything was beyond doubt.

The head of the Werewolf King is the bargaining chip in Ryan's hand. Logically speaking, this head is enough for Ryan to be promoted to a higher title.

Ryan also wrote a letter to the imperial capital and sent the body of the Silver Moon Werewolf King Hati to the emperor as a collection gift.

But until now, the emperor has not responded to him.

This made Ryan realize one thing, that is, the current aristocratic title system cannot be easily touched even by the emperor.

There is only one reason for this, and that is what Viscount Hogg said.

There are too many nobles, but too little land.

The Norris continent is very large, but in such a vast world, two-thirds of it is called the North. The once fertile and prosperous places have been covered by wind and snow.

However, in the face of the disaster, a large number of nobles survived. They howled about the former glory in their blood on one-third of the southern land, wanting to obtain the land to restore the glory of their family.

The still powerful nobles also wanted to expand their own lands and make their descendants become lords and nobles, thereby expanding the family's voice and power.

The nobles who lost their land wanted land, and the nobles who owned land wanted more land, but in front of the North, the land would not expand.

One problem with upgrading your title is that it is not something that can be changed simply by changing your title.

In this process, there must be something matching it, such as the emperor must grant Ryan more land, wealth, and population.

Land is the most important thing, but what can be done? The emperor can't give Ryan more, let alone say "go grab it yourself". If he wants to grant Ryan the title of Viscount, he must let the army of Wing Canyon go north, plant the flag of the empire in a farther place, and then give the land there to Ryan.

But now the emperor doesn't even want the Northern Wind Province anymore, and the empire is cutting off its relationship with the Northern Wind Province within 30 years.

Therefore, I can only pretend that I didn’t see Ryan’s letter.

Ryan had nothing to lose about this. The emperor had crowned him as a baron and gave him the Frozen Territory. But what about now? Was the Frozen Territory very small? Ryan felt that the scope of his territory was not inferior to that of the two earls.

Of course, another reason for this indifference is that this is an old tradition of the empire.

Grand Duke Meyers conquered the Borean Province, but all he got was a bunch of useless development orders. Earl Clayton traveled 3,000 miles across the North to plunder the mammoth tribe, but the only benefit he got was that one of his descendants became a baron.

Great contributions but no rewards, that’s an old tradition.

This is also why it is said that the empire is a common empire of the royal family and the great nobles. The emperor can no longer reward the great nobles with more things. The great nobles can only rely on themselves to get what they want.

The same goes for Ryan. If he wants something, he can't rely on others to give it to him, but has to get it himself.

For example, what Viscount Hogg wants now, that power, is in Ryan's hands.

"You want me to help you acquire a piece of land and half a mine?"

Ryan frowned, and Viscount Hogg said anxiously:

"My contributions are sufficient. My army fought the most difficult battles on the battlefield together with you. The nobles cannot question my military achievements."

Indeed, in terms of merit, Ryan is first, Marquis of the North Wind is second, the two earls are third, and Viscount Hogg is fourth.

Why is Ryan first? Because he killed the werewolf king. Why is Marquis of the North Wind second? That baby in swaddling clothes has a terrible background. The two earls are third because of the fighting power of the Extraordinary Legion. Viscount Hogg is fourth because of the fighting power of his one thousand cavalrymen, who are very powerful. They also participated in the most crucial war. Only a few nobles like them participated in that war.

Further down, the nobles could argue about who was fifth and sixth.

"If you had come to me earlier, I would have told you about it as well, but it's very troublesome now."

Ryan waved his hand and said:

"I can't just tell those nobles which piece of land you want without going through His Highness Volvo, right?"

"No, no, no, that won't work. I still need His Highness Volvo's approval. I have a solution."

Viscount Hogg told Ryan the reason why he came to see him in the middle of the night, and Ryan raised his eyebrows.

Wow, one of the eight knights is from Viscount Hogg’s family.

……

Lingdu City is very lively. It has been lively since the completion of Beifeng Avenue, but in the past few days, the prosperity of this city has reached its peak.

"The Eight Knights are back!!!"

People were shouting at the door, those who were working stopped what they were doing, and the unemployed who were waiting anxiously crowded into the road.

"Have you heard that many nobles have come to our Lingdu City just to find out who among the eight knights will win."

"How is it possible that noble gentlemen would also pay attention to this?"

"How is that impossible? I heard that some of the eight knights are even noble lords. They came here just for them."

"How can this be? I heard that a big shot from the south came to Lingdu City, and only the nobles came."

"How do you know that big shot didn't come for the Eight Knights?"

The crowd was arguing constantly, but finally quieted down after hearing a cry of surprise from the direction of the city gate.

"Lord Knight Valentine is back!!!"

People shouted and looked in that direction with wide eyes, only to see a figure wearing an animal skin cloak walking through the city gate in a dusty manner. Wherever he went, all the people around him retreated three to five meters away, just because behind the other person there were bloody heads tied together by vines, with flies flying over them, and the surface of the rotten orc heads was still stiff with the fear they had in life.

The bard following behind the knight also took off his windproof cloak and shouted loudly.

"In the Honeymoon Forest, Knight Valentine defeated fifteen orcs alone, cut down six large trees, and smashed one hundred and twenty bushes. He fought from sunrise to sunset. The light witnessed his strength. The orcs were terrified of Knight Valentine's bravery."

"At Icefish Lake, Knight Valentine..."

The bard shouted loudly, and before we could hear a tense and exciting battle, people started cheering.

Seeing this scene, Valentine smiled under his armor and tore off his cloak, revealing a set of armor covered with scars.

"Orcs will never be able to defeat humans!"

Valentine roared out, causing thousands of people in Lingdu City to cheer!

"Valentine! Valentine! Valentine!"

The bard's voice also entered the finale.

"Knight Valentine has killed a total of 120 orcs. According to the rules of the Northern Brave Guild, under the watchful eyes of the respected Lord Baron Ryan, Knight Valentine will be rewarded with 120 gold coins!"

Not far away was the platform where the battle took place. The ten thousand gold coins were still lying there. The people from the Northern Brave Guild picked up one hundred and twenty gold coins and put them in their purse. The heavy sound attracted countless eyes, and finally it flew across the sky and fell into Valentine's arms.

"What about the others? Am I the final winner?"

Valentine was very confident because when he went out he found out how difficult it was to kill orcs. He tried every means possible, even the old horse that followed him and belonged to Viscount Miles died, only then he got such a huge number of heads.

Someone responded that the other knights had not returned yet, but the next moment they were interrupted by cheers from afar.

"Master Hunter is back!"

Along the way, the bard's shouting made people excited again. Listening to the opponent's fighting skills, Valentine also became nervous.

The bard also told the story of Knight Hunter's battle achievements at the end.

"One hundred and forty-five orcs were killed, but Knight Hunter said that a strong knight would not leave the heads of weak orcs. They were not worthy of being collected by him. So, minus the twenty-three rat-headed men, dog-headed men, and cat-headed men, Knight Hunter killed a total of one hundred and twenty-two orcs."

Upon hearing this answer, Valentine opened his eyes wide and became extremely angry. He wished he could rush out of Zero Crossing City right now and kill a few more orcs.

He lost, he actually lost.

The six times he had won against Hunter before had never made Valentine's body tremble as much as this time when he lost to Hunter.

Outside the city, the third knight also returned. This time, the entire Zero Crossing City was cheering, because the Knight of Ashes was the knight they were most familiar with.

"Ashe Knight, killed a total of 156 orcs!" The bard's final chant brought boiling cheers to Zero Crossing City.

Riding his warhorse all the way to the distance, he came to the viewing stand for the nobles. Liam knelt on one knee in front of Baron Hatton, who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Father, Liam has not lost the honor of the Hatton family."

Hatton smiled and patted Liam's shoulder, then looked at the other nobles. He said nothing, but his eyes were full of sweet words.

This is my son.

"Is it really possible?"

Ryan's eyes were also speaking, he looked at Viscount Hogg.

The latter nodded at him and joked that he had prepared the best mount, the best weapons, the best armor, the best magic potion, and even invited a warlock as a scout, and the amount of gold coins consumed was no less than five hundred.

"Uma! Uma! Uma!"

Countless cheers suddenly rang out in the city, drowning out the bard's voice.

Many people were surprised, because without the need for the bard's voice, they could see that behind Knight Uma, there were more orc heads than the previous knight.

"Is he Uma? I remember him. In the previous war, he killed the leader of a werewolf clan."

"The Bronze Knight killed werewolves comparable to the Gold Knight. He was indeed able to kill so many werewolves."

A noble spoke in surprise, and Ryan smiled, not expecting that Viscount Hogg had someone to help him.

Viscount Hogg spoke.

"Uma is my nephew. He inherited the excellent bloodline of the Hogg family. I also believe that he has the ability to become a noble who protects his people against orcs."

"It's best to leave Anto Town to him. It's too close to the Black Goat People."

Ryan also said at this time:
"Does Viscount Hogg have such a plan? He killed 315 orcs, including more than 60 werewolves. This Uma is indeed qualified to protect a town."

"But it's not that easy to become a noble. Anto Town... I remember that was the land of Baron Ellis, right? I saved him twice before, and Anto Town was destroyed twice. I'm afraid it's not as good as a lord's territory now."

Viscount Hogg looked at Ryan and said angrily:

"Baron Ryan, you shouldn't question the origin of the nobility. Uma's mother is the sister of Baron Ellis's aunt. He has the blood of the Ellis family."

Baron Ellis's aunt's sister sounds weird, but the full name is actually Baron Ellis's aunt's man - Baron Ellis's uncle's sister.

Viscount Hogg omitted a title.

Ryan pretended to be surprised, then nodded without questioning.

"I see. I apologize to that bloodline of the Ellis family."

Ryan stopped talking here, and Viscount Hogg snorted coldly and turned away.

This was a show. The nobles looked at Ryan and Viscount Hogg, thinking about the location of Anto Town. Recently, only two nobles were fighting for the interests of the mine in this place.

One is Viscount Hogg and the other is Lord Norton.

Well, it has nothing to do with them anymore, and Ryan was right. The town of Anto was really destroyed thoroughly. The mines there collapsed completely. He saved Baron Ellis twice, but failed to save him the third time.

In Lingdu City, people were still eagerly waiting for the return of the other four knights, but they didn't wait for them. Instead, four bards walked out from the crowd.

Knight Valentine was not the first to come back, these four were.

"Knight Merry unfortunately died on the werewolf battlefield. He fought hard to kill three werewolves, but was overwhelmed by more werewolves."

"Along the way, Knight Merry saved thirty-five humans. He is a true brave warrior in the North, practicing the dignity and honor of a knight."

"The Northern Brave Guild does not encourage death, but for Knight Merry, he is the hero of those thirty-five humans."

"He will be remembered, and his name will be engraved in the Sunset Hall of the Northern Brave Guild! The light of light will always shine on his past, and his death will be glorious."

"..."

The remaining three bards also told the stories of the fall of the three knights, which made the atmosphere in Lingdu City a little cold, but it soon turned into more enthusiastic cheers.

They felt the same sadness and heroism as the bards did, but people did not cheer for dead heroes; they only supported living legends.

"Uma! Uma! Uma!"

The reins of the tall Northern warhorse were also delivered to Knight Uma's hands, and the crowd began to spread the rumor that Knight Uma would become a noble. In this way, the leader of the Eight Knights became the discussion of the nobles, making Zero Crossing City even more boiling.

"Eight knights, and more than three hundred orcs died at their hands."

Ryan said this while standing beside Volvo. The data he mentioned were not the numbers seen by the people of Zero Crossing City. Whether it was Valentine or Lian, Hunter or Uma, or the four dead knights, their real battle records were not that scary.

Most of this data was obtained with the help of others. Of course, this was a shady deal that only existed in the first Ryan. Otherwise, even a Baron heir like Ryan would have found it difficult to come back alive in this brave event.

But Volvo was still a little surprised that eight knights actually killed more than three hundred orcs.

"I cannot accept your previous invitation, but I would like to invite you to make a steady stream of wealth together. I wonder if you are interested."

Ryan said this, and only the two of them could hear it.

"Oh?"

Volvo looked at the gold coins scattered on the arena and asked with some interest.

Ryan looked at the respected knight adventurers below.

"They kill orcs for gold, for horses, for armor and weapons, but it's very stressful for me to pay them enough."

"If Your Highness is willing to share part of the burden, I think... the adventurers' profits in the North will also be happy to share part of it with Your Highness."

"They killed the orcs, which means that Your Highness is also among them, helping the Empire fight against the evil orcs in the north."

Volvo thought about it. Although he didn't quite understand what Ryan was talking about in terms of earning wealth, he still asked:
"How much does Baron Ryan want me to take on?"

Ryan held up a finger.

"Ten thousand?"

"one million."

Volvo brought one million gold coins allocated by the emperor to the North Wind Province to buy iron ore at a low price.

Volvo almost couldn't hold the hot tea in his hand. He turned his head and stared at Ryan, as if asking why he didn't just grab it.

“Not much, and even if it weren’t for your identity, it wouldn’t be enough.”

Ryan said this, shocking Volvo.

"Can you bring me more than one million gold coins?"

"Far more than that, Your Highness."

"One hundred thousand is my bottom line."

Volvo took a deep breath. He chose to believe Ryan, but one hundred thousand was the bottom line. If Ryan hadn't become more and more important in his heart, he would have considered it for three months even if he wanted ten thousand.

"One hundred thousand? If you won't regret it, then it's a deal."

What Ryan wanted was not the gold coins, but the identity of Volvo's elect and the power in the empire.

If the reconstruction of the West Sea Fleet is completed, Volvo will have greater power on the West Coast. By then... who says that the Northern Brave Guild on the West Coast will not be called the Northern Brave Guild anymore.

Now the arrival of these nobles represents the expansion of the Northern Brave Guild.

(End of this chapter)