Throne of the North.

Chapter 440: Conspiracy and Intrigue Take the Stage
Areris's massive head fell, meeting Ryan's eyes.

"If I am truly a follower of the last Dragon Emperor, then I am the last dragon who still believes in this legend."

"All other dragons are my enemies."

"So you don't know whether the legend about the Dragon Emperor is true or not, you just want to believe it, right?"

Ryan looked at Areris, who did not deny it.

"I found His bones, and we will win."

The dragon roared, and the snow in the sky stopped falling, revealing the scorching sun. A huge shadow lingered under the sunlight, covering everything.

"I can send troops to help you clean up the goblin monsters underground, but what can I get?"

"Is there any danger there? Dragon bone marrow is a very precious substance, and I need it very much."

Ryan said loudly, causing the dragon to roar angrily. A violent blizzard came in an instant, engulfing Ryan on all sides.

"The majesty of the Dragon Emperor cannot be violated. Anyone who violates it will be punished with death."

"So what about the Dragon Emperor? Those ten frozen skeletons, they don't have much to do with the Dragon Emperor, right?"

In the sky, the frost dragon did not respond, but roared after a long time.

"Ants that devour the dragon's essence will inevitably bear the dragon's curse. No life can remain unharmed under the dragon's curse."

A giant dragon descended from the sky, and with a roar, the wind and snow surged like tides.

"I can feel that there is a power there that can kill any dragon. That is the final source of the Dragon Emperor, and it will kill any dragon that finds his body."

This is the reason why the Frost Dragons are afraid to enter. The more noble the dragon is, the more clearly they can feel the extreme threat of death coming from there.

"Since they have been exposed, they are doomed to fail. If it's not me, then someone else will come to the North to fight for the dragon marrow."

"For the sake of peace in this land, I hope that Lord Areris can prevent other life forms except those from the frozen land from approaching."

Ryan said calmly that he didn't know what the situation was with Meyers yet, so to be on the safe side, he would make a deal with the dragon first.

After returning to the Tundra Territory, Ryan called Brand and asked him to organize the Tundra Territory's army to enter the North and go into the dungeons to clean out the gray-skinned goblins.

"They are not weak. The goblins living in the North are extremely powerful. According to Areris, these goblins are followers of the evil god and are tainted with evil aura."

After Ryan gave the order, two thousand cavalrymen of the Stag Legion rushed to the North. The rustling cloaks gradually disappeared in the wind and snow, and the neighing of Northern war horses began to resound over the icy and snowy land.

They will clear out the gray-skinned goblins in the dungeons, which is inevitable, and they will also bring back precious dragon bone marrow for Ryan. All he has to think about and wait for is how to use the dragon bone marrow.

……

Ryan was not idle during the days of waiting. For him, the sudden discovery of the dragon corpse in the North was just an episode. Perhaps it involved the next world on the spiritual panel, but now it was of no use because the door to the plane had not been opened. His real focus was still on the two kingdoms next door, one of the five big nets.

With the help of the Empire's army, the Andara Kingdom has gradually gained a firm foothold, and the war with the orcs has fallen into a stalemate. The nobles there have no more contact with Ryan for the time being.

In the Sera Kingdom, Ryan is using pegs like Connie Dean to control and influence the nobles of the Sera Kingdom little by little. These people can't do anything for the time being, let alone help Ryan do anything, but as time goes by, they will tell Ryan that he is right.

For example, in the territory near Carlos, the conflict between the two noble territories of Baron Mendes and Baron Dean became increasingly fierce.

Connie's return brought the matter to a climax.

"I am back!"

Connie returned to the Dean family. His powerful strength made the eyes of the entire Dean family become brilliant and fiery when they looked at him. As the noble heir who returned alive from the North, he had already been tainted with a faint legendary color. People would praise his story, and it would also make Connie, the future baron, more powerful than other nobles. Everyone would recognize this.

Humans fear the unknown and terrifying North, but they instinctively admire those brave men who have great courage to face death.

So when Connie loudly declared that he would avenge his brother, no one objected. The people in the entire Baronial Territory of Dean were all enthusiastic. Following Connie, they felt that they were invincible.

"Revenge, revenge! Damn Mendes Territory, how dare they kill the heir of the nobility!"

Connie assembled the army. The gift from Ryan, the tall warhorse, the distinct armor and the gorgeous long sword that had not been unsheathed, made him attract more looks of recognition.

"This is war. The war started when the Mendes family killed my brother."

"My weakness prevented the war from breaking out in the beginning, but now I am strong enough to tear apart any knight of the Mendes family."

"In this revenge, we will plant Dean's flag on Mendes' castle!"

Hundreds of people rushed towards Baron Mendes' territory. Conflicts and even wars between nobles were common to the people in this world. The surrounding nobles watched the fun, and the nobles on both sides of the war commanded their armies to launch attacks and defenses.

On the battlefield, Connie defeated the knights of the Mendes family with great force. He was very powerful. Although they were of the same rank, Connie was stronger than all the knights of Mendes combined. What's more, the armor on his body could block most of the attacks. The warhorse under his feet and the ice-blue knight's sword made it impossible for the knights on the opposite side to escape when he launched an attack.

Corpses fell from the backs of war horses one after another. Baron Mendes' expression was so gloomy that it could drip water. As the casualties increased, he had to order the army to retreat.

On a battlefield where there are no tactics and only frontal charges, retreat means failure, and all the nobles will understand that the Mendes family was defeated by the Dean family.

For Baron Mendes, this represented a disgrace to his family's honor and dignity.

"Damn it, that damn Valencia guy, how dare he kill the heir of a noble family!"

Baron Mendes roared in his own territory. Dean's army was blocking his doorstep. If he wanted to resolve this matter, he had to show enough sincerity and bargaining chips to make the Dean family compromise in exchange for interests.

The first to be affected is the forest. Mendes will lose all ownership of the forest, and even more.

This was hard for Baron Mendes to accept. The forest did more than just bring him wealth. If he lost the forest, he would also lose control of the territory. At that time, he would have to depend on others for entry and exit.

Thinking of this, Baron Mendes couldn't help but want to ask for help. He was not alone. As a descendant of the Carlos family, Mendes and Carlos have always had connections. For example, many of his uncles and even his grandfathers are still powerful elders of the Carlos family. "No, the decline of Mendes will also affect the authority of the Carlos family in the kingdom. His Majesty the King wants to suppress the power of our local nobles!"

Mendes thought that only in this way could he impress Carlos' people.

Thinking of this, Baron Mendes began to write a letter, stating that this incident was not a simple clash of nobles, but also a war between the old and the new within the kingdom.

What surprised him was that the Carlos Family responded to him very quickly.

"The threat from orcs has not disappeared. The nobles cannot wage war openly."

"Take back all the slave soldiers, and make the war of knights the only way to resolve disputes."

Some people from Carlos said this, and then provided a solution that Baron Mendes could not do openly, which was to send several knights into Mendes' land to fight on behalf of the knights of the Mendes family.

In the forest, the knights of Mendes and the knights of the Dean family were fighting each other, while in the royal city on the other side, the people of the Valencia family were extremely confused.

They spent a festival of grace in a tense manner, but instead of waiting for the two noble families to hunt them down, they heard the news of a gunfight between the two parties.

"What on earth are they doing?"

"Have you forgotten us?"

A member of the tribe said doubtfully that apart from this reason, he could not think of any new reason to explain why his family was so unimportant in this matter?
Inexplicably, many people looked aggrieved. They were worried about being hunted down by the noble families, but at least that meant that the nobles took their Valencia family seriously. However, such disregard now made people feel that the Valencia family had completely lost their noble status.

A dragon wouldn't care about the ants at its feet, and nobles wouldn't care about the thoughts of commoners and slaves. How could their Valencia family be compared with that group of mud-legged people?

"I don't think so..."

Caird Valencia said:

"When I agreed to the deal with Lord Ryan before, I asked the same question, but they told me that Mendes and Dean would not hunt us down directly..."

“They already knew.”

Caird was a little shocked and frightened. How could there be such a person who could predict everything before it happened? Could it be that Baron Ryan was the lover of the goddess of fate?

“I can’t just sit there and wait for death.”

Caird finally realized how rare this opportunity was for the Valencia family to rise again.

He got up and left his residence to visit Alberto and asked Valencia what else he could do to help Baron Ryan.

"Lord Ryan doesn't need your little say. You are not qualified to help Lord Ryan. Caird, you still don't understand that everything you do is not for Lord Ryan, but for the Valencia family."

"Do you know what the Valencia family needs?"

“It takes a war.”

Alberto looked at Caird and said this, this was the entire plan Ryan gave him. What happened before Connie went to the North was only half of the plan. Only if Connie returned to this land alive could the remaining half of the plan continue.

"My suggestion is that you quickly make a flag and declare war on the Barony of Mendes. For the dignity of Valencia, you must bet everything you have as a noble."

Caird opened his eyes wide, somewhat incredulous. What did that mean? Why was it Valencia's turn to go to war with the Mendes family?

Are they worthy? What qualifications does the Valencia family have to declare war on the noble lords now?

"We, we have no reason or qualifications to challenge Mendes. All nobles and kings will not recognize the legitimacy of war."

"Who said there's no reason?"

"In order to help his family rise, Valencia asked his clansmen to marry into the family of Baron Mendes. However, the Mendes family shamelessly framed Valencia's clansmen and even killed him insidiously, just to force the Dean family to leave the forest."

“Isn’t this shame the heavy burden that Valencia bears?”

"As for the qualifications, as long as you dare to gamble all the glory of Valencia in the past, and lose all the honor of Valencia after failure, you will be completely reduced to a civilian or even a slave."

"You have everything on the line, including your status as a wandering noble, and you are qualified. This is the rule of the nobles. They will not excessively condemn another noble who is standing on the edge of a desperate situation or a cliff."

Alberto looked at Caird and laughed.

"You, the Valencia family, keep saying that you are noble aristocrats, but even you don't quite understand that no one treats you as nobles."

"Your family has fallen into decline. You have lost your land, your people, and your wealth. You can only rely on selling your labor to maintain the simplest of lives."

"You are not qualified to be compared with the nobles. You are just a joke in front of the nobles, a topic used to get closer to other nobles. Now is your only chance."

"But...but..."

Caird gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Every word Alberto said was like a knife cutting into his heart.

Before becoming a noble, the only chance for a wandering noble to be recognized and looked upon as equals by the nobles is the moment when even their badge and bloodline are lost.

Only at that moment would the nobles be reminded of the passion of their ancient noble ancestors and show respect to them.

Such a price is heavy, but the key is that Caird also has wisdom.

"It won't work. The nobles won't believe what we say, and what you said never happened in the first place."

“What if even the Dean family agrees with the truth told by the Valencia family?”

Alberto suddenly said, causing Keld in front of him to open his mouth wide, his shocked expression unable to close his muscles.

(End of this chapter)