Throne of the North.

Chapter 649 The Knight in the Nightmare (Part 1)

Meyers and Ryan.

What is the irreconcilable contradiction between these two?

This is a question that all the nobles of the empire want to know, including Ryan himself.

Even now, he still doesn't understand what Meyers is trying to do in this land.

Being constantly on the defensive is not what Ryan wants.

So he went to Thundercloud Mountain, the castle where the Marquis of Northwind was located.

In Ryan's eyes, Shaya was also a strange and mysterious woman.

She's actually reached the Saint Realm.

Shaya looked at Ryan with a strange expression and asked in a sarcastic tone:
"Are you trying to steal my hand in marriage because you were rejected? If it weren't for the Meyers family sending people, I wouldn't have known that the Baron of the North's authority could silence all the nobles."

"Meyers?"

Ryan shook his head and said:
"They really care about me."

"However, I also want to know what Meyers is trying to do. I have no hatred for them, so the problem lies in the Northwind Province."

"They have an obsession with this land."

“I said long ago that this land belongs to us and no one can take it away from us. This is where our glory is born.”

Ryan looked into Shaya's eyes, and the aura of the Holy Land washed over him.

Do you know what they're planning to do?

Shaya took a few steps back, still shaking her head.

"I do not know."

Looking at Shaya's expression, Ryan knew that things were more serious than he had imagined.

“Meyers is relentlessly pursuing me; it seems there’s no room for reconciliation between us.”

This was agreed upon by Shaya, who looked at the baron of the North.

"If you're willing to give up the Northwind Province, this matter can be resolved."

"It seems that war is about to break out."

Unable to get an answer from Shaya, Ryan turned and returned to the Frozen Territory. He was now certain that the assassination attempt against him had come from Meyers.

Why would someone risk exposing their assassination attempt on a nobleman just to kill him? What kind of wealth does the North Wind Province possess?

Ryan thought he knew this land well enough, but he still couldn't find what Meyers coveted.

"Tell me, what is it about this land that makes it so captivating?"

Ryan returned to Rhinoceros Horn Mountain and consulted Archmage McKen, the old magical scholar who knew a great deal.

"The land itself possesses irreplaceable wealth."

"Perhaps what Meyers wants is the Northwind Province itself?"

"The land itself?"

This statement stunned Ryan.

Archmage McCann nodded and continued:
"Don't you nobles value your land more than anything else? For nobles, isn't the land itself the most important thing?"

Yes, land itself is the most important wealth of nobles. Even a penniless territory is a symbol of honor.

Ryan wasn't so pure; he wasn't a proper nobleman, so he always overlooked the fact that for nobles, land was the most important thing.

Meyers believed that they had an irreconcilable conflict with the Northwind Province and with Ryan because he knew that since they wanted the land of the Northwind Province, they could not be on the same side as the nobles there.

They were bound to be adversaries, so they never considered trying to win over Baron Ryan.

Ryan Clayton is the only noble lord in the Northwind Province capable of stopping the Grand Duke Meyers' family.

He was a nobleman and a lord.

This land belongs to Ryan.

The Emperor's situation has been resolved, but Ryan and Meyers will have to find another way.

"land……"

What can land be used for?

Although Ryan knew that land was the most precious asset for nobles, he didn't understand what the Grand Duke wanted this land for in Meyers.

"The Northwind Province was originally conquered by Grand Duke Meyers and the Nightmare Knights."

Archmage McKen's words made Ryan's eyes light up.

If Archduke Meyers harbored some ulterior motive more than thirty years ago, then there must have been some clues at the time.

"In this world, it's probably not easy to obtain a secret from more than 30 years ago."

Ryan said that the only option was to write to Earl Soron's territory, where the old man should still have memories from more than thirty years ago.

Ryan also wrote to other nobles in the Northwind Province who had survived for over thirty years, hoping to glean some clues from them.

“Count Solon, as someone who has witnessed my growth, you know very well that there can be no absolute conflict between Ryan and Meyers. We are both nobles of the Empire.”

"Meyers must have some ulterior motive for making this decision. It's not because we are enemies, but because I am blocking Meyers' path."

"They have a strong desire for the Northwind Province."

“I have reason to believe that what stands in Meyers’s way is not only Ryan’s Frozen Territory, but also the nobles of the Northwind Province. They are all competitors to Meyers, but I am the biggest threat.”

"I'm very curious to know if anything happened thirty-five years ago when Grand Duke Meyers led the Nightmare Knights to conquer the Northwind Province."

“All the nobles in the Northwind Province need an answer, and that answer will determine our attitude toward Meyers.”

"I have always believed that there are no absolute conflicts among nobles, but it is clear that His Excellency the Grand Duke does not have such awareness."

"Right and wrong need to be determined by the truth."

"The North Wind Province will not be weaker than any province in the Empire. This requires our joint efforts. In today's rapidly changing world, we will create a new glory for our bloodline."

Ryan put down his hardwood pen. The letters he sent to the nobles were all similar, describing the advantages and disadvantages, and trying to find a secret from thirty years ago.

In the Northwind Province today, sending a letter no longer takes a long time; Ryan received letters from old nobles in various places just two days later.

In this extraordinary world, it is difficult to live long enough, and nobles often have a greater chance.

However, after several years of brutal war, there were not many elderly nobles left.

Ryan pieced together footage from that time from scattered pieces of information.

The invasion of Northwind Province by Grand Duke Meyers was quite sudden, as the province was at war with the Black Goat Orcs.

The Northwind Province, still recovering from the war with the Black Goat Orcs, was attacked by the Nightmare Knights on a dark and stormy night.

No one knows how they crossed the vast lands and appeared in the territory of the Grand Duchy of the Northwind.

All that is known is that the terrifying knightly legion utterly crushed the Grand Duke's entire army. Grand Duke Meyers personally killed Grand Duke Northwind, and the bloody slaughter lasted all day. The Nightmare Knights descended in the darkness and departed at the arrival of the next night. After this, a large number of nobles who followed Grand Duke Meyers began a war against all the nobles of the Northwind Province.

Earl Winter, Viscount Hogg, and the previous Baron Hatton—these nobles were all participants in the war.

Without the Duke of Northwind, the Northwind Province was leaderless and powerless to resist the Empire's war. Many nobles were terrified, and many died in the ensuing war.

The surviving nobles recalled being haunted by nightmares night after night. The terrible nightmares made them lose their will to fight. The Nightmare Knights could emerge from the nightmares and appear in the rooms, burning the fearful nobles to death with their blazing black flames.

"They come from nightmares, and they disappear from nightmares."

Ryan looked at the letter in his hand. So much time had passed, yet many nobles were still unwilling to recall it, and even Count Solon was avoiding the topic.

"The knights from the nightmares don't know how to fight them. They wait for you to fall asleep, yet they manipulate nightmares to descend from the deep darkness. The tall knights will become reality in the nightmares. They are the creators of nightmares, and also the redeemers."

"They can appear in your nightmares from thousands of miles away. The shadow of war forces us to sleep. Every night is a defeat of war."

"Countless soldiers died in the slaughter without wounds, and the fear they brought to the living after their deaths caused even more Nightmare Knights to descend. The Nightmare Knights, densely packed and seemingly endless, appeared in the infinite dreamscape. They fought their way out of the dreamscape, taking souls with them and returning to the depths of the nightmare."

"They were knights, but they reaped lives like devils. I couldn't see a single human being in that war."

Count Sauron didn't elaborate on the Nightmare Knight's power, but Ryan seemed to see countless shadowy outlines rushing towards him in a dark and chaotic world, filling the sky and the earth, with chaotic black flames engulfing everything in the chaos.

This is a war of the extraordinary, purely extraordinary, in which mortals are not even qualified to engage.

The knight born from the nightmare descended upon the North Wind, then vanished just as quickly. Grand Duke Meyers didn't even gain a single piece of land from this war.

Decades later, he once again felt a desire for this land.

"He tried to let the Nightmare Knight gallop across this land."

"After leaving the nightmare, the Nightmare Knight attempted to roam the lands of the Northwind Province, but he failed."

Baron Kendra… Ryan looked at the name on the letter.

"Nightmare Knights cannot walk normally on this sunlit land, no matter how powerful they are."

Other than that, nothing more.

Perhaps Grand Duke Meyers was too good at hiding it, and the nobles of the Northwind Province were completely unaware of his purpose.

What exactly does he want to do with this land?

Ryan stood on Rhinoceros Horn Mountain, gazing at the bright moon overhead, before returning to the castle to sleep.

Someone slipped in from the side, but Ryan didn't know who it was. He just felt tired and fell asleep easily.

When he opened his eyes, the world before him had become dark. He was still in the Frozen Territory, on Rhinoceros Horn Mountain, but everything around him was dilapidated, decaying, and everything was in ruins.

Is this a nightmare?
Arriving so quickly, if Ryan weren't at the peak of the Saint Realm, but just an ordinary nobleman, he would probably be terrified. But this level of nightmare had no effect on him...

"Traveling thousands of miles to appear in my dream? Is this an attempt to kill me?"

Ryan looked around and saw that tall monsters were appearing densely in all directions at the foot of the dilapidated Rhinoceros Horn Mountain.

They gradually took on the appearance of knights, their warhorses burning with flames on their limbs and neighing loudly.

"Nightmare Knight?"

Thousands upon thousands of Nightmare Knights surged toward Ryan like a tidal wave. He remained expressionless, his flames shattering a knight and snatching his longsword. Standing atop Rhinoceros Horn Mountain, he slaughtered the Nightmare Knight monsters from all directions.

They were not true knights; they were monsters from a nightmare.

He did not run away, nor did he fly into the sky to hide. He simply stayed in place, constantly facing the enemy. Gradually, this nightmare could no longer touch the part of his heart that he feared, and it receded like the tide.

Ryan opened his eyes and saw a pair of tearful eyes. It was his chief lady-in-waiting, the Viscountess, who was huddled naked in his arms, while Ryan's hand was forcefully leaving marks on her prominent breasts.

"You...you had a nightmare?"

The Viscountess spoke first, noticing cold sweat on Ryan's forehead.

"It's alright, it's very unsafe here these days, so please don't come over."

"It was Madam who sent me."

Avril was the only one injured in Meyers' attempt to undermine Baron Ryan Clayton's prestige.

Ryan came up behind her. It was so late, and the Baroness was still awake.

"She is the Grand Duke's most beloved granddaughter."

Avril pouted, but Ryan held her back and said with a smile:

“You are Lady Ryan, a status that even the Emperor’s Empress cannot match.”

After saying that, Ryan took Avril's hand and flew into the sky with her, heading directly towards the Kingdom of Andara, landing in Dawn City.

Queen Letta looked at the two people who had suddenly appeared with a puzzled expression.

"I'd like some tea."

Ryan said, and Queen Letta nodded, got up, and wearing her close-fitting clothes that exposed a lot of her cleavage, brewed tea and brought it to the two of them.

"You see, even the Queen is no exception."

Ryan grabbed Avril's hand, and in that instant, the tea in Avril's hand transformed into a cold, black, icy blade that pierced through Ryan's chest.

At the same time, Avril's face subtly changed, transforming into a fully armed knight wearing a ferocious mask. She plunged her longsword into Ryan's chest, while on the other side, Queen Leta was engulfed in black flames, transforming into a warhorse.

"A baron in the North, afraid of his own wife?"

The Nightmare Knight sneered, and at the same time, the world around them began to change. From the very beginning, Ryan had never truly escaped the nightmare.

"This is not fear, but respect."

Ryan's expression remained unchanged, unmoved by the blood flowing from his chest.

"Those letters, did you write them? Just to put me to sleep, to conjure up the power of nightmares in my mind?"

Ryan asked, but deep within his eyes burned a blazing flame.

In an instant, towering flames swept across the entire world and engulfed the Nightmare Knight before them.

"Even the gods cannot strip me of my consciousness, so what makes you think that Nightmare can?"

A face formed from flames looked down from the sky, and then Ryan stretched out his burning palm and crushed the Nightmare Knight into ashes.

The moment the whole world was engulfed in ashes, Ryan opened his eyes. He was still in the castle on Rhinoceros Horn Mountain, with Avril lying beside him, holding him tightly.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

Avril asked with concern, and got up to call someone to boil water.

"It's nothing, just some mosquitoes."

Ryan embraced her.

“Bring Signy back.”

Ryan gave the order to the cat-man assassin, and the voice was transmitted outside through some special metal. Appia, who had been hiding in the shadows, appeared in a cloak and disappeared into the distance.

(End of this chapter)