Throne of the North.

Chapter 96: Priorities are clear
"Ryan, this is all your fault!"

As a lord and a noble, they certainly would not look for the reasons in themselves. From childhood to adulthood, they have never had the opportunity to find problems in themselves.

"If you hadn't ordered us to leave the castle, how could I have lost so many soldiers? How could my territory be plundered and looted by them?!"

Ryan also looked at Barnes coldly. His anger had not yet been released, and now it was Barnes' turn?

"Barnes, are you questioning me?"

"Among the allied nobles, one side escaped from the battlefield. Is this the honor of your Barnes family?"

"I have never heard of such a thing in the entire southern continent. Barnes, do you know what will happen to you if this kind of thing spreads to the southern part of the empire?"

"You will be despised by all the nobles. No noble will be willing to consider your Barnes family as a friend. They will only laugh at and be wary of you, a treacherous villain!"

"you!"

Barnes pointed at Ryan, his chest heaving but unable to utter a word.

During the war, he abandoned Ryan's army and left, although he did not escape.

This is a fact, a fact that no one can refute and no one can suppress.

"Your soldiers died? If you had stationed them in that town, would so many of your soldiers have died, dying at the gate of your own castle, blocked outside by the narrow mountain road and gate of the Flower of the North Wind that you are so proud of?"

"Your town was looted? Your enemies are not orcs, but nobles. Nobles have their own rules. They would never dare to loot your territory in public without reason. All the reasons are because you lost the war here."

"They are the victors of the war, and they should enjoy the rights of the victors, and looting is one of them."

"Before your army was defeated, did they plunder the town? Everything is because of war, and to the victor goes all!"

"All of this is caused by you, Barnes!"

"Not only did you cause the death of your troops and the plundering of your territory's wealth, you also caused the death of more than half of my troops."

Ryan stared at Barnes' face. The hot breath brought by the Flame Dragon Knights made Barnes feel a little uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but take a few steps back.

"Barnes, you probably didn't expect me to win, did you? I won the victory that should have belonged to us. I caused Count Weiss's army to suffer heavy losses in Lingdu County. I used only a thousand soldiers to win a war against an enemy that was several times larger than ours."

"This war will be recorded and praised, and you, Barnes, will be the one who betrays the honor of the nobility and flees without credibility in this story!"

Hearing this, Barnes finally panicked and whispered:
"I didn't run away, I was just too worried about my castle."

"Hmph! Baron Barnes, you'd better do this instead of being frightened when you see Count Weiss's army."

"Besides, you should be thankful that I won this war. Perhaps this victory should have belonged to us three barons."

Barnes' eyes lit up.

"Ryan... I agree to the distribution of the Ice Peak Forest. You will take 30%, and Baron Hatton and I will each take 10."

"And Ryan... can you let my people participate in the recording as well?"

Indeed, this war in which the few defeated the many was destined to be recorded and passed down. Barnes did not want any bad news about himself to spread in it, and he wanted to be the winner.

Ryan looked at Barnes with a cold smile.

"Let's talk about this later. You'd better arrange for someone to clean up your territory. If those corpses are left there for too long, they will cause plague."

Ryan certainly couldn't let Barnes off so easily. From now on, the three noble families would unite around the frozen land.

No matter from which aspect.

……

"I actually... lost?"

Viscount Miles looked at the news in his hand in shock, and couldn't help but look at it a few more times, worried that he was dazzled.

In the end, he had to admit that this was destined to be a war that would be celebrated.

"The Frozen Baron defeated the 4,000 soldiers from the Count Weiss family with only 1,000 soldiers. This war will shock the entire North Wind Province."

Beside him, Christian couldn't help but worry about his father.

"Father, at least we don't have an army going there. This failure, there's no Miles."

"What do you know!"

Viscount Miles roared like an old beast, looking at the news in his hand unwillingly.

Next to him, Viscount Miles's youngest son, Rag, spoke up:
"Brother, this war represents the war between Viscount Miles and Baron Frozen Earth. The name of our family will appear in the most prominent place no matter what."

"Moreover, Earl Weiss's army was defeated by the Frozen Baron. We no longer have an absolute advantage against Viscount Dragun. In fact, after hearing this news, Viscount Dragun is likely to take the initiative and even attack us."

"We need to help Earl Weiss gain the support of the entire Lingdu County, and then use the Earl Weiss family to suppress the nobles of Lingdu County, so that the Miles family can occupy this land forever."

"but now……"

Christian looked at Rag, he could tell that these words made sense and were what his father wanted to hear, but at the moment there was deep anger hidden in his eyes.

His younger brother had obtained the glory that should have belonged to him.

"Christian, please go out first."

Viscount Miles's tired voice made Christian even angrier, but he didn't dare to resist his father.

"Rag... maybe you are right."

……

A war that will be told about and will change the situation in Lingdu County. Viscount Dragun quickly sent people to the Flower of the North Wind to congratulate Ryan on becoming a dazzling military noble in the empire.

Then he invited them to attack Lingdu City together. Viscount Dragun's army had already assembled and was about to set out for Lingdu City to occupy the land he had been longing for.

Of course, Ryan refused, and his reason was very good. He and Baron Barnes' army had suffered unprecedented losses and no longer had enough troops.

He believed that the nobles would not doubt this, because defeating a larger force with a smaller one and without the advantage of terrain was bound to be tragic, and the failure in front of the Fortress of the Flower of the Borealis was bound to be exaggerated by those ostentatious nobles.

Maybe now, according to those nobles, Baron Barnes no longer has any soldiers but slaves.

On the fifth day after the messenger left, Ryan learned through scouts that Viscount Dragun's army appeared thirty miles outside Lingdu City, with a number of over ten thousand.

(End of this chapter)