Throne of the North.

Chapter 743 Tenfold Leverage, If the Devil Had a Name

"This method is too slow."

Ryan shook his head, and the Marquis Governor sitting at the head of the table frowned. He didn't like Ryan's attitude. If Ryan could smile and show surprise that he had no objections, the Marquis would be very happy and might even give Ryan a large amount of war resources.

The Marquis of Hot Springs was not a marquis who liked to consult with others or listen to their opinions.

Perhaps it was for these reasons that he lost the race to become emperor decades ago.

This has nothing to do with whether someone is excellent or not; clearly, the nobles would not support such an elector.

“Lord Ryan, I don’t believe your territory can support a large population.”

"You're wasting their lives on the development of your territory, even forcing slaves to build mountain roads and fortresses in the freezing cold, risking them freezing to death. It's such a waste to consume excess population in this way."

"I will give you a satisfactory reward."

Hearing Marquis Hot Spring's words, Ryan was also somewhat surprised. This marquis seemed to know quite a lot about him and his territory.

Indeed, those who can become the elector are absolutely outstanding in terms of ability.

The imperial system for electing the emperor has been perfected for countless years, and there are no exceptions.

This is the first time a nobleman from outside the Northwind Province has spoken about the changes in the Frozen Territory, details of which even Baron Hatton, who spends his days eating, sleeping, and buying maids, is unaware of.

Ryan wouldn't go along with what the other person was saying; he certainly wouldn't traffic people.

He started talking about time and algorithms on his own.

“Countless men have died in the Hot Spring Province. Even if those women go to find a surrogate mother, at least half of the families will completely lose their men. It is foreseeable that the population of the Hot Spring Province will no longer be prosperous in the coming decades.”

"This period of time is roughly twenty to thirty years. During such a long period of time, those women who no longer have men either die from exhaustion in the fields or are forced to become someone else's female slaves."

"It will take twenty to thirty years for the population of the Hot Spring Province to gradually recover. During this process, more boys will appear. However, when these boys grow up, they will be at least sixteen years old and their bones will gradually mature before they are qualified to undergo knight training that exceeds their limits."

"This process will take another three to five years, or even ten years, before more trainee knights will appear."

"These apprentice knights are the reserve armored knights that the Marquis needs to select."

"In the first twenty or thirty years, it is impossible for many apprentice knights to emerge, because the land of Hot Spring Province is now polluted and ruined by war and bloodshed. Families are struggling to survive, so how could they possibly have extra resources and time to train knights when they are struggling to stay alive?"

"Without persistent effort, there will be no knights, or if there are, they will be grotesque and flawed."

"Therefore, these twenty or thirty years are wasted. The next twenty or thirty years are the essential time for a boy to grow into a man. Even the great gods cannot turn an infant into a grown man."

"This is also a necessary time."

"These two phases will take fifty or sixty years. Only after fifty or sixty years will the Marquis have time to replenish the Magic Armor Knights."

"But that would take too long."

"My lord, you can't wait fifty or sixty years, or even sixty or seventy years, can you?"

Ryan said confidently, "The new era of the empire has only been developing for a few years, a little over a hundred years. How can this marquis afford to wait? Moreover, with the new emperor's coronation, the empire's direction is changing day by day. Time is truly precious."

"The Marquis wants to buy people from me, actually just to save the first twenty or thirty years of these two twenty or thirty years."

"Use the men you buy to fill those twenty or thirty years."

"In this way, the Armored Knight Legion will be able to recover and maintain itself in about thirty years."

"Moreover, thirty years is also the estimated recovery time for the orcs after suffering heavy casualties. The Marquis does not want the recovery of the Hot Spring Province to be slower than that of the orcs, because that would only gradually erode the size of the Armored Knight Legion. With one side growing stronger and the other weaker, the Armored Knight Legion will eventually become history."

"At that time, even you, Marquis, will be forgotten by the dust of history and will not be remembered by future generations."

With each sentence Ryan uttered, the Marquis of Hot Springs' expression darkened further.

“I will offer a fair price. In the slave market, a slave of an adult male costs only two or three gold coins. I can give you a price of ten gold coins. You will definitely not be disappointed.”

Marquis Hot Springs said in a deep voice that he had his own goals and desires, and even though Ryan had revealed his plans for the future, he was still unmoved.

Ryan shook his head.

"Your Excellency Marquis knows me and my Frozen Territory well, so you should know even more that it has been less than ten years since I, Ryan Clayton, left the Imperial City for the Baron's Territory in the North."

"The Marquis wants to spend thirty years quelling the calamity of this war, but in my opinion, this is absolutely unacceptable."

"I've gotten to where I am today in just a few years. Thirty years? That's far too long. If it were me, I'd want to restore the Extraordinary Legion to its former state as soon as possible tomorrow."

"Saving fifty or sixty years is much more cost-effective than saving twenty or thirty years."

"Of course, there are ways to do this. The first and simplest way is to be blessed by the gods and discover another world. Capture strong men from that world and train them into armored knights. The journey can be completed in no time, without any cost, and it won't take more than five years."

"The second problem is getting knights to pledge allegiance from elsewhere. This cannot be forced by brute force. Most importantly, almost no knight in this world is not loyal to the nobles."

"Wild knights are simply impossible to find."

Marquis Hot Spring was somewhat annoyed, feeling that Ryan's mutterings were all nonsense.

“The luck bestowed by the gods is not something mortals can control, but I think it wouldn’t be too troublesome to bring people from outside the Hot Spring Province here.”

"The Marquis knows me so well, so he must be familiar with Zero Crossing City."

“That city has gathered too many people from all over the empire, and even from the noble territories of the kingdom. Each of them has the potential to become a knight. You could say that each of them is qualified to become a magic-armored knight.”

After all, wearing magic armor makes you a magic armor knight.

"Heh, Mr. Ryan, you want to recruit me? I heard that you get a lot of benefits from the Northern Warriors Guild in the south every year. It was established by His Majesty the Emperor himself, and you just sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labor."

"Now, you also want the wealth of the Hot Spring Province."

Ryan said with a smile that this Marquis Governor could not be dealt with by the same coercion and inducement as the Earl of Ferguson.

Political consensus can only be achieved when the interests of both sides are aligned.

“My lord, you are mistaken. What I want is not the wealth of the Hot Spring Province, but your wealth.”

"I cannot sell people to you, but this is the most suitable solution I can think of for your current situation, Marquis. Otherwise, I can find you an entrance to another world?"

Ryan said it jokingly, and the Marquis of Hot Springs didn't take it seriously.

"With this method, those people will come to Hot Spring Province, and your Magic Armor Knight Legion will be restored to its former glory in three years at most."

"Thirty years and three years...tsk tsk."

Ten times leverage, that's very tempting.

“You yourself said that all knights in this world have nobles they are loyal to, and you become my armored knight just because you come to Hot Spring Province? Baron, you seem to be a little too ‘clever’.”

"Or are you questioning my intelligence?"

“My lord, I am not questioning your wisdom, but rather the loyalty of humankind.”

"A knight comes to the Hot Spring Province as an adventurer. Once you're here, is there no way to become a Demon Armor Knight?" "What way?"

Ryan narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, remaining silent as he watched the dozen or so delicate maids in front of him writhe, their alluring bodies and pale skin creating a scene of utter chaos and disarray.

"Does Your Excellency really want to hear this?"

Marquis Wenquan thought for a long time, and his tone calmed down.

"Tell me about it."

Ryan smiled as he looked at the Marquis of Hot Springs and pointed to the maids in front of him.

"My lord, please give them to me."

"it is good."

Marquis Wenquan didn't care at all; he had plenty of wealth, but what he lacked was something that wealth couldn't buy.

Ryan clapped his hands, and a wave of heat slammed into a soldier outside the door. The soldier staggered and turned to look into the hall in confusion.

“Sir Knight, the Marquis just gave them to me, and now I’m giving them to you.”

"However, there's one condition: you have to beat him."

Ryan pointed to a young man inside the hall. He was... a member of the royal family. His father had followed the Marquis of Hot Springs to this place, and he was born here.

The two were actually about the same strength; the difference lay in the fact that the knight at the entrance had been on the battlefield, and the young man inside the hall was of noble status.

Upon hearing Ryan's words, the knight at the door subconsciously swallowed, his eyes glued to the door, but he remained standing there without saying a word. He was torn between agreeing and refusing.

dong dong!

Ryan tapped the table, and behind him, Brand brought over a suit of armor, which had been taken from a knight beside the Marquis of Hot Springs. The whole process took less than a minute.

The Marquis did not stop it.

"This armor seems to have been blessed triple by a mage, allowing a knight to unleash 120% of his combat power. Most importantly, it is sturdy enough to withstand the fangs and claws of orcs, as well as the sharp weapons of others."

"If you win, it's yours too."

The knight's breathing quickened, but at that moment, he suddenly turned around and resolutely became a guard at the banquet, as if he had never heard Ryan's words.

"Your Excellency, are there any women in your family, or rather your wife's family, from collateral branches? As far as I know, the Marquis de Hot Springs seems to be from the Earl of Sirens family."

"That's a big family too."

It's definitely not possible for members of the royal family, but the Earl of Sirens has many distant relatives whose bloodlines are so distant that they can't even be traced back eighteen generations to the direct line.

"If he wins, choose one of your daughters to marry him."

"And, please leave a place for him next to you."

Ryan looked at the Marquis of Hot Springs, where a magnificent knight's longsword, a gift from Baron Ryan to the Marquis, lay.

"Putting everything else aside, the Marquis still has the strength to carry his weapon, right?"

The last few words were spoken by Ryan towards the door; his legendary control of power ensured that there would be absolutely no mistakes.

This time, it wasn't just the knight standing at the door who was acting strangely; the other knights around couldn't help but clench their fists, almost ready to volunteer.

On the contrary, it was the royal family member in the hall, a descendant of the marquis's followers, who blushed.

He was furious at Ryan for making things up so casually.

However, Ryan did not stop.

Bang!

A sword was thrown on the ground.

"This sword, 'Snow Dragon's Roar,' is a weapon produced in the Frozen Territory. It was personally forged by Master Brock. It almost became the legendary 'Snow Dragon's Roar.' If we had won, it would have been yours."

"And warhorses... Let me think, do you want a Highland warhorse or a Northern warhorse? I don't need either, so I'll just give you one of each."

"And then there's the land, which is a bit of a problem. My territory isn't in the Hot Springs Province. How about this, after you win, go to the Hot Springs Fortress and tell the Marquis that you died there. I'll give you a new name, and you can come with me to the Frozen Territory. The weather there is cool, and it's certainly not lacking in prosperity."

"Hmm, not a bad idea. But there's no war at Hot Springs Fortress now, so you'll have to go further away, to the North. I'll tell the Marquis that you were bitten to death by werewolves, and just give him any corpse and say it was you. There's no shortage of those things in this land these days."

"From now on, you will be my squire."

"Giving you so many women, maybe in ten years or so, one wealthy family after another will emerge, and then..."

"Sir...sir..."

A trembling voice interrupted Ryan's devilish whisper, and the knight at the door turned around, his neck and limbs completely red.

He really couldn't hold it in any longer.

He couldn't speak, but he suddenly knelt down.

The knight kept kowtowing, leaving a crimson stain of blood on the floor. He didn't speak, but everyone could see what he was thinking.

"What's your name?"

"Ashton, my lord."

How many people are in your family?

"Six...five. My brother died on the battlefield, my father and mother were reclaiming wasteland, my sister-in-law was weaving hemp cloth at home with my brother's children, and I..."

How many people like you are there in the village?

"There weren't many. Most of them died, and a few didn't have my talent and didn't become knights. There were only six, but I'm the only one who survived."

"You're in charge of patrolling the Marquis's castle?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember who gave you what I just mentioned? Was it the Marquis?"

"Yes, it is!"

"enough!!!"

The question-and-answer session was open and frank, until the ever-dignified Marquis of Hot Springs finally roared out, then stared intently at Ryan. He knew perfectly well that this was the solution Ryan had been talking about!
"You are truly a... devil who manipulates people's hearts."

"Who do you think will win, Your Excellency?"

(End of this chapter)