Throne of the North.

Chapter 692 I Won't Treat You Badly

Twilight Keep is located on the southern edge of the mountains, as is the case throughout the province of Twilight. Only mountains like these can protect this land from the fierce winds and blizzards of the North.

When Ryan saw Twilight Keep, war was raging, with thousands of human soldiers and countless orcs forming a battlefield that stretched across the north and south sides of a dilapidated fortress.

Twilight Keep is a fortress level with the mountain peaks. In its heyday, nobles standing atop the fortress could see the vast, desolate world of the North.

However, from a distance, the fortress now looks more like a trampled ruin. The Behemoth that crashed into Twilight Fortress left permanent scars on this land.

Ryan had initially thought the breach in Twilight Keep was like the tiger's mouth of a human hand, but upon seeing it with his own eyes, he realized it was far more complex than that.

Twilight Keep is not just a simple walled fortress; the surrounding mountains are part of it. Inside the mountains are the storage areas of Twilight Keep and the source of extraordinary magic.

However, now, not only has the fortress been breached, but several storage spaces have been buried, and the only source of magic power, the fortress's energy core which stores millions of magic crystals, is also unable to successfully raise the magical defenses of Twilight Fortress.

The mountain collapse was the work of the Behemoth. Countless orcs now covered the hillside. They had never enjoyed such a life before. They could find an endless supply of food simply by digging into the ground beneath their feet.

A well-fed orc is powerless to fight; they are too lazy to move. In front of them, to their south, on the battlefield between humans and orcs, countless weak cannon fodder orcs are pushed out. Their only purpose is to serve as filler animals to consume human strength.

Ryan looked at the lazy orcs on the distant mountain, then at the countless orc army below, and couldn't help but frown.

"They seem to...become smarter."

Ryan felt that his analysis was somewhat untenable. How could orcs possess such intelligence? Their savage bodies were their true nature, and their brains were used to think about whether they were hungry.

"The wisdom of the orcs?"

Upon hearing Ryan's reply, Volvo and Harald were both shocked; this was illogical.

Volvo gritted his teeth and said:

"No matter what the orcs have become, I will now drive them back to the North and never allow them to set foot on the Empire's land."

“Give me a way, and I won’t treat you badly, Mr. Ryan.”

Volvo patted Ryan on the shoulder, who frowned, glanced at him, and said nothing, only replying:
"Your Highness, it all depends on whether you are willing to pay a sufficient price."

Ryan said that.

"any idea?"

Volvo asked directly; he just wanted results.

"There are two solutions. One is to feed the orcs."

"And another thing is to feed the orcs until they die of overeating."

Ryan's eyes flashed with murderous intent. No matter how intelligent orcs were, how smart could they really be? Even if a small number of orcs had developed their brains, the rest were still beasts whose stomachs replaced their brains.

"The orcs have only one desire to attack: they are hungry, they are so hungry that they can't find anything to eat."

“We don’t know what happened in the North. A large number of orcs came from the depths of the north to the lands relatively to the south. Their arrival squeezed out the orc tribes that were originally on the land. Orcs would kill each other, but obviously this time they didn’t.”

"They chose humans as a channel to vent their grievances about unequal distribution of benefits."

Volvo nodded, a fact already proven by a long history.

"So what do you mean by feeding them? Giving them food?"

Volvo's eyes were hostile. If things really turned out this way, not to mention how the Dawn Church would ridicule and attack the Empire, even within the Empire itself, he would no longer be qualified to become emperor.

The emperor of the empire could not compromise with foreign tribes.

"Of course not."

Ryan shook his head.

"To feed the orcs, besides filling their unfathomable stomachs with food, another way is to reduce their appetites."

"One hundred orcs would consume a thousand catties of grain, while ten orcs would only need to consume a hundred catties of grain."

Ryan pointed outside, to the north, where the faint roar of a huge monster could be heard.

"Kill ninety percent of the orcs in Twilight Keep, use war machines, use the power of magic, use extraordinary legions, and let legendaries charge into the orc army for slaughter."

"The remaining ten percent of the orcs are able to be self-sufficient in the north. When faced with threats, fear will replace the desire for destruction, and they will stay peacefully in the cold north."

Volvo frowned but said nothing, while Harald, standing next to him, spoke with dissatisfaction:

"Does Baron Ryan mean to have the slave army retreat and then send knights and mages to the front lines?"

That's absolutely impossible. Whether they are knights or magicians, they are all from the upper class. What right do those slaves have to stand behind them and watch the show?
"What's the second method?"

None of them denied that if the Empire's superhuman forces were to launch a full-scale attack, they could indeed inflict a devastating blow on the orcs. However, in that case, these powerful superhuman lords would suffer heavy casualties, which would likely cause the Empire to never recover.

"The second method is even simpler."

Ryan laughed cruelly.

"The nobles sent hundreds of millions of gold coins to the fortresses in the north, but—it wasn't enough."

Ryan's eyes narrowed slightly as he said:
"not enough."

"Your Highness needs to issue an order to have the nobles provide more, not just food and tools, but truly extraordinary resources."

"The Empire's Mage Association must be able to make magic scrolls, right? Let them turn these resources into war magic, the kind that even ordinary people can use."

"And Your Highness, use this wealth to buy and exchange things. Go to the dwarf kingdom in the south. Don't they have weapons like magic crystal cannons? Buy them. Also, go to the woodlands in the east. Those immortal elves have world crossbows and unimaginable abilities. All of them can be traded. If they are unwilling, it means that the conditions Your Highness has given are not enough."

"The royal family and the noble families must also possess formidable resources. Let them bring them all out."

"Transform these resources and wealth into the foundation of the Northern Fortress War, bombard the mountains with magic, cover the ice and snow with magic crystal cannons, until no orc can stand on the border of the Empire."

"Simply put, it's about throwing money at it."

"Spend hundreds of millions or even billions of gold coins to win this war in style."

"If all goes well, Your Highness will achieve a victory with the greatest casualties and the least losses."

"These are what they call... the orcs who are overfed in the North."

Instead of feeding them food, they were given lethal doses.

There are two methods, but it sounds like there's only one: to crush the orcs with powerful, overwhelming, and extraordinary means.

Individually speaking, humans are at the bottom of the world. Orcs are far stronger than humans, but why are humans always able to become the dominant species in the struggle for supremacy among countless races?
They possess unique skills, crafting and utilizing external objects to become powerful. They can have nobles provide manpower to overwhelm the orc army with top-tier superhuman strength, or they can have nobles provide money to use wealth as a means of warfare to break through the orc defenses.

Regardless of the type, they all represent enormous consumption and costs.

"Are there any other ways? Can't we use Ryan's powerful military command talent to win this war?"

Volvo looked at Ryan and said sincerely:
“Ryan, if you can win this war, I can help you stop Grand Duke Meyers from eyeing the Northwind Province.”

Volvo's expression was so sincere that it was impossible not to believe him.

"This is all for the sake of the Empire, my esteemed Your Highness."

Ryan bowed and said, then explained:

"Military command, strictly speaking, is the coordination of war resources. Outsiders can only see the results, but in reality, as a commander, you can't control the fighting on the battlefield. What a commander can manage is logistics."

"If a person can ensure that ten people have food, clothing, shelter, and transportation in an orderly manner and obey orders, then he can turn those ten people into elite soldiers. If a person can ensure the food, clothing, shelter, and transportation of ten thousand people, then he can become the commander of a legion of ten thousand people."

"The commander commands not the battle, but everything outside of it."

Listening to Ryan's words, Volvo seemed to be deep in thought.

"You mean, just give them good food, good water, and good sleep?"

Ryan blinked, then nodded.

"That's it."

Beside him, Harald instinctively felt this was absurd, but he didn't know how to refute Ryan's words. Based on his experience in Twilight Keep... Ryan was right.

The soldiers below are all slaves with desires, without desires.

No, even slaves have desires, but they don't have ownership of their own lives, which prevents them from having desires.

What soldiers seek is simply to eat well, drink well, and sleep well.
Looking at it this way, what they said isn't wrong.

Harald looked at Ryan with a much kinder gaze; this young man seemed to be more than just outwardly naive.

He didn't care too much about the title of Baron Ryan within the Empire.

Volvo gained confidence and made a bold move.

"I know what to do."

Volvo has its own businesses. Ryan's words reminded him of the Northern Warriors Guild, where an orc's head was worth a gold coin. Now he seemed to understand why Ryan had told him that the Northern Warriors Guild could bring him huge economic benefits.

There is something to do with home.

Volvo's eyes held a determined look.

Ryan didn't know what decision the elector had made, but he knew his advice had been successful.

Ryan did not deceive Volvo; his initial idea was to use the vast economic base to determine the course of the war.

The empire is too rich. If so much money is not used in the right way, wouldn't it be leaving it for others?
When war comes, the empire's prosperity advantage is enormous, and conversely, in times of peace, the empire's military strength can provide a huge advantage for economic prosperity.

He stepped on his own foot with his left, becoming the overlord of the entire Norris world, and even defeating the Dawn Church.

Columbus III understood this, which is why the two electors of this generation had distinct styles: Freud's war fervor and Volvo's political acumen. Strictly speaking, the perfect elector, the Viking, would become the empire's money bag.

However, Viking Columbus, the chosen one, exceeded everyone's expectations, so much so that the emperor changed the test for Volvo. Columbus III recognized Volvo's achievements in the Northern Heroes Guild and naturally entrusted him with this responsibility.

However, he did not expect that he would die so young.

Volvo has yet to realize the importance of this financial bag.

But now he should understand.

"In that case, the North Wind Province will also have the opportunity to receive more resources."

Ryan thought to himself that all he wanted was a small portion of the Empire's prosperity to supplement his household expenses in the North.

This enormous war in the North is not something the Northwind Province needs much; one-sixth of it would be just right.
As Ryan pondered these thoughts, Volvo's heart was also churning with turmoil. He had already begun planning how to extract more war wealth from those nobles.

He appears professional in this regard; there may be other contradictions, but that involves political struggles.

Through political exchanges and compromises of interests, nobles would willingly send vast amounts of wealth accumulated over generations to the front lines in the North.

His father, His Majesty Columbus III, had already set an example, so Volvo's challenge wasn't that great.

The first person the elector thought of was his loyal follower, Archduke Meyers.

The Meyers family was his first and foremost supporter, and Volvo's ambition to become emperor would not have been possible without the Grand Duke's help.

In that case, let's increase Grand Duke Meyers' support even further.

As it happens, Chrysus is located in the Twilight Province.

"As Meyers' successor, Chrysus should also have considerable power to use the Grand Duke's wealth, right?"

"He should be able to come up with more wealth."

……

"The Meyers family has run out of supplies."

Faced with this question from the elector, the usually composed Grand Duke heir showed a troubled expression.

Volvo remained calm, patted Chrysius on the shoulder, and said earnestly:

“Crysus, I will not treat you unfairly, nor will I treat the Meyers family unfairly.”

“I know what you want. My father has promised you, and I will keep that promise.”

Chrysus narrowed his eyes slightly. Keeping a promise? Is it the Northwind Province?

"As long as the Meyers family can take the lead and get more support from the nobles for the war in the North, I will be able to become the emperor of the empire."

"And I will become the emperor of the empire, and the current Freming family will be the future Meyers."

Upon hearing this, Chrysus was finally tempted.

(End of this chapter)