Throne of the North.

Chapter 621 The Orcs of the North

The invitation from the Wings of Light comes at a price, and Ryan intends to have the Shadow Vanguard emulate the Vampire Legion.

"This is for dealing with those Black Swan assassins. You need to understand that our enemies are more powerful than we imagine."

Ryan spoke to Signy, but the girl with vertical pupils did not react.

"Kill them, or be killed."

She spoke casually, and Ryan waved his hand. Signy clearly didn't need any further reminders from him, and she had no intention of getting involved.

"Let's arrange for fifty vanguards to participate in the Wings of Light. As long as they hold golden feathers, they can openly appear in the lands of those nobles."

"This is an excellent way to understand those nobles."

“When the nobles see the power of the Shadow Vanguard, they will naturally need me.”

Ryan laughed; the Wings of Light had given him yet another way to extend his tentacles.

Back in the North, Ryan no longer needed to deal with those tedious political considerations; instead, he faced the more troublesome issue of developing his territory.

In the North, there is only one theme: survival.

The most crucial political task for the frozen territory this year is undoubtedly the construction work.

The swamps to the south, the snow-covered Great Wall to the north, and the road system between them.

With the weather still quite good and the development of the swamp progressing reasonably well, mainly because the slaves and commoners involved in the development had already seen the results of the previous two years, they were particularly enthusiastic. Lord Ryan promised them that they would be entitled to a portion of the harvest from the reclaimed farmland and that they would not be subject to taxes for the first few years.

This swamp is vast; Ryan roughly estimates that if it is eventually reclaimed, it can meet the needs of two to three hundred thousand families.

However, the specifics are unknown, since Ryan's standards for survival are different from those of ordinary people.

Population brings many problems, but it also brings great wealth. Zero Crossing City didn't become rich overnight; Etrilia has put a lot of effort into this.

“I heard from your brother that you haven’t been to the blacksmith’s shop in a long time.”

Ryan said to his chief administrator, "Aitria is very beautiful. More than once, Bogeld has doubted whether she and Brock are really siblings."

"I hope that in two years, both sides of the road from Zero Crossing City to the Frozen Territory will be golden."

"Those ginkgo trees will become our symbol."

Aetria looked somewhat tired. The tundra territory was growing larger and larger, which increased the pressure on her. Recently, the Shadow Vanguard had also appeared. These rebels were all alone, but she had to arrange land and houses for them.

There are quite a few vanguards. If it weren't for their recent battles against the Black Swan assassins in the two eastern kingdoms, the Frozen Territory wouldn't even have provided them with housing.

"Two years is far too short. I'm planning to reduce the number of people clearing land in the swamp area."

Aetria refused, saying that those ginkgo trees wouldn't grow just by watering them.

"Oh?"

"We need more people in the north, and we can't keep sending people from Nidhogg anymore. There aren't enough houses in the Frozen Territory to accommodate more people, and the Great Wall in the north has been attacked by orcs many times."

“Some werewolf clans, seemingly having lost out in some competition, have begun to move south. They drive out other orcs, who are not very bright and will attack the construction sites in the north when it gets cold.”

"A larger gathering of construction workers can prevent orc attacks, speed up construction, and avoid a prolonged orc threat."

"In addition to that, there are transportation problems. Road construction has always been difficult, and there are very few flat areas in the tundra."

"I really don't know how you managed to let the warhorses run on the mountain back then."

Aetria complained, then turned and walked away, not wanting to hear any more of Ryan's thoughts about the swamp, which would only make her work harder.

"Didn't I tell you to train more officials?"

Ryan was somewhat helpless. Aetria was a blacksmith as powerful as Brock, but Ryan also loved her talent in politics.

Beside him, the cautious steward hesitated before speaking:

“My lord, they all say… they all say that your way is quite different from that of other noble lords.”

Ryan knew what he meant; it was nothing more than matters of systems and other aspects, but he didn't offer any explanation.

"Of course they're different. If they were all the same, what would be the point of having them? I pay them wages so they can do better than other nobles."

"If anyone has any objections, then give the opportunity to someone else and become a slave."

Ryan returned to Rhinoceros Horn Mountain. He didn't need to worry about the swamp problem; Aetria's abilities were beyond question.

Even after bringing in Brand, Ryan's primary concern remains the north.

"Aetria said that orcs have started harassing the northern border again?"

"Yes, those orcs have an astonishing ability to reproduce, and they even manage to survive in the frigid North."

"Only a few years have passed, and they have already grown to a considerable size again."

Brand also stated definitively:
"However, these orcs are not enough to threaten the Frozen Territory. Harassing the Great Wall fortifications is the limit. The army will increase patrols."

Ryan frowned and said:
“The construction of the Northern Wall will take several years; we can’t let the orcs keep harassing us.”

"Let's clean it regularly, consider it training."

"Yes, but..."

Brand thought for a moment and then said:
“We have discovered a new type of orc, the kind not recorded in the Empire’s intelligence. They look like lizard orcs, with scales the color of ice and snow. They are slow, even slower than kobolds, but their defense is very strong. They are a head taller than our knights, but their arms are slender.”

"The soldiers fought them several times but failed to kill a single one. They were able to crawl under the ice and snow and were very fast."

New orcs?

No one can say for sure how many races of orcs there are, but it is not common for new orcs to appear near human civilizations.

It's very simple: the closer you are to human civilization, the more likely you are to plunder good things from a prosperous human civilization.

Under such competitive conditions, only those with strong ethnic power can dominate this 'Diaoyutai'.

Will a powerful orc race suddenly emerge among the orcs? Probably not, because the orcs' rule is simple: whoever can defeat them is powerful.

The primal laws forged through bloodshed have made the orcs' path to power fraught with brutality. And according to Brand's description, these so-called Frost Lizardmen are no more agile than werewolves, their attack power is weaker, and they even fall short in the physical strength that orcs pride themselves on. Naturally, they don't belong to the powerful class. Defense… perhaps that's their only redeeming quality.

This orc race has no right to suddenly appear on the edge of human civilization.

They are not worthy to be orcs who prey on humans.

Brand, a former hunter, naturally understood that if a wild beast appeared in a place outside its natural habitat, it meant something unexpected.

"Can we find the reason? What about those adventurers who went into the North?"

Brand shook his head and said:
"No news. Should we send scouts and Blood Eagles to the North?"

In the face of the threat from the northern alien races, humanity's top priority has always been prevention, followed by defense, while offense has never been humanity's choice.

If a large number of new and powerful orc races do emerge in the North, it is necessary to take precautions in advance. Otherwise, if humans are unfamiliar with them, they will be at a great disadvantage when facing strong and savage new orcs.

"Let's try to get information from those lizardmen first. If that doesn't work, we'll send scouts to the northern border."

Scouts are too precious, and Ryan doesn't want his newly trained scouts to venture into the vast North. In Norris's two-thirds of the northern world, any number of scouts sent there would be like sesame seeds scattered in the ocean.

Not every scout is Griff's.

……

To the north of the foothills, on the endless snowfield, human structures, undulating like long snakes, are rising from the ground. Scalding hot snow is poured down from the seven- or eight-meter-high fortifications, instantly binding all the soil and stones to form a smooth and hard ice wall. Then, above the fortifications, scalding hot snow is repeatedly poured down after each layer is built, firstly to kill insect eggs, and secondly to stabilize the wall.

The Great Wall fortress was very long and wide. In the alchemists' plans, the shortest section was eight meters long, while the most spacious parts even exceeded thirty meters.

This doesn't resemble a fortress at all; it's more like a long, narrow city, and the current height is far beyond the final height of the Great Wall fortress.

Those metal pillars, driven deep into the earth, were telling all the slaves who were building the fortress that it was not what it appeared to be on the surface.

The extraordinary sorcerers clad in alchemical robes are worthy of awe. When they first saw this vast snowfield, no one could have imagined that a towering fortress would rise from the ground in such a place. These alchemists have changed the world and the perceptions of more than 400,000 people in this fortification.

Here they can eat bread until they're stuffed.

Tap tap tap~
This was the dull rumble of warhorses' iron hooves pounding the snow. The enslaved laborers were already very familiar with it. Every day, knights would lead soldiers on patrols. Those damned orcs were truly terrifying. Their daily conversations revolved around who had been killed or captured by orcs.

The food they ate was transported from Nidhogg, and once they were full, they became food for the savage beastmen.

This time, however, some noticed something different. Before them stood tall knights, and they had to look up to see the powerful knights on their northern warhorses. They wore heavy metal armor, and the lances in their hands gleamed coldly, devoid of any warmth from the sun's rays.

Gene is the centurion of this unit. He became a centurion not only because he has some talent in knightly training, but also because he has been tested in many battles and survived many wars.

"Open the door!"

Gene roared, and at a gap in the Great Wall's fortifications, ordinary soldiers pushed open the wooden gate, and hundreds of knights rushed into the vast snowfield.

"Our goal this time is to capture the Frost Lizard Orcs alive. Whatever their names may be, this is the name Lord Ryan has given to their race."

"If you get separated in the snowstorm, remember to head south. General Michaela will come to your aid."

"Of course, our biggest threat is not our target, but those werewolves."

Gene patted the knight's longsword at his waist, the metal striking the scabbard with a harsh sound, and said with a laugh:

“They resent the badges we wear.”

"Ha ha ha ha."

All the knights laughed; everyone knew that their Lord Ryan had killed the king of the Silvermoon Court.

Gene's expression turned serious.

"We absolutely cannot become weaker than them."

"Don't worry, Centurion Gene. With Lord Ryan's blessing once again, I feel myself getting stronger every day. Those damn werewolves, I'll kill them one by one, or two by two!"

The knights possess strong self-confidence. Their knightly strength doesn't solely rely on their own arduous training; Lord Ryan's blessing is the most crucial factor, enabling them to fear no enemy.

"Then let's go."

A hundred cavalrymen may look imposing, but once they enter the vast snowfield, their imposing presence diminishes considerably from a distance.

Moreover, those frost lizardmen are the same color as the northern lands, and they are adept at sneaking beneath the ice and snow, making them no easy task to find.

They encountered more often than not, those familiar orcs.

"Black Goat Man, an old acquaintance, but I am not the same person I was back then."

Gene's hand landed on the knight's longsword, and in the next charge, the longsword was drawn and the heads of all the Black Goatmen in front of him were severed.

"Don't let them escape!"

Gene gave the order that the Black Goatmen ahead could not escape, for the Northern Warhorses were born for the North.

Once all the orcs' blood had cooled, Gene looked around. Since he had discovered traces of the Black Goat People, the Frost Lizard People should not be far behind.

Thanks to the strict orders imposed on the knightly class by the widespread education in the Frozen Territory, Gene's mind became much more agile.

The orc family is not a loving and harmonious one; instead, they eat your flesh and drink your blood.

The North cannot produce many resources for survival, and the orcs eat a lot, so most of the time their food comes from the orcs themselves.

Why did the Black Goat Man get entangled with the Frost Lizard Man? The reason is quite simple.

That is, the Black Goat People are dark enough, while the Frost Lizard People are white enough, making the Black Goat People stand out in front of the Frost Lizard People in this northern world.

Most importantly, the relatively rugged environment in which the Black Goat People live is also suitable for the Frost Lizard People.

"let's go!"

The blood on the ground was already cold, but the blood in the corpses was still warm. Not long after the knights left, the ground beneath the snow began to throb, and then one after another, frost lizardmen crawled out, greedily eyeing the still-erect corpses on the ground.

At this moment, Gene led his knights back into the charge.

(End of this chapter)