Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 283 The Shadow of Grizzlie Castle
"Damn Harvey, damn that evil wizard! He's just an undead wizard who has nowhere to stay and is forced to hide in the northern wilderness to survive! How dare he provoke and mock me, a feudal earl? He truly deserves death!"

Earl Fagan crumpled the letter in his hand into a ball and threw it to the ground angrily. He then spat out a mouthful of anger and felt a little relieved.

He took the warm towel handed to him by the waiter and wiped his forehead. He then thought of his nephew who had died inexplicably at the hands of the other party more than a year ago. New and old grudges surged in his heart at the same time, and he felt so angry that his teeth were itching.

Just because you escaped to the northern wilderness and weren't completely devoured by the evil orcs, do you think you can gain a firm foothold from now on? Now that Saint Valen has completely eliminated the influence of the Union that oppressed the nobles, and His Majesty the Grand Duke has openly sided with the Church, let's see how long you can continue to be complacent!

If the other party was not a wizard lord with the power of a spellcaster, in order to deal with him, he would have to wait for the reinforcements of the Church Inquisition Army from Jinhui City. Earl Feigen really wanted to immediately mobilise the army that had been assembled long ago and rush straight to Jackdaw Town to tie that low-class wizard who could only talk to the stake and let him taste the pain.

Furthermore, the church reinforcements arriving from the capital would also bring a decree from His Majesty the Grand Duke: "Deprive Harvey Floyd of his title as Lord of the Frontier Territory and sentence this necromancer to death for spreading the plague and harming the people."

At the end of this decree, there was an addition that made Earl Fagan ecstatic, that is, the northern frontier fiefdom owned by Harvey would be temporarily taken over by Earl Fagan of Grizzly Castle himself, and then wait for the royal capital to re-enthrone the nobles to take over.

That was a frontier territory nestled in the northern wilderness. Not to mention the harsh and freezing climate, the demonic orcs who came south to plunder every winter were more than a common fiefdom lord could resist. What noble in the capital would be willing to be such an unfortunate creature and suffer there? One careless mistake could cost them their lives.

This meant that the temporary management power of the neighboring fiefdom lord would be extended indefinitely, and the pioneering territory that Harvey had been operating in the northern wilderness for almost three years would directly fall into the pocket of the Fagan family.

In fact, Earl Feigen was not interested in the barren land north of the God's Spine Mountains. He just believed from the beginning that this wizard lord who went to the northern wilderness and suddenly became rich in just two or three years and expanded the pioneer territory must have discovered a treasure in that desolate territory that could bring him huge wealth - either a large gold mine, or perhaps a more valuable magic stone deposit.

Otherwise, there is no way to explain how this low-level necromancer, who came from a poor civilian background, could accumulate such abundant wealth and continuously transport large amounts of food and supplies to his wasteland territory through the Dragonstone Chamber of Commerce, the largest in the southern continent, for several years.

No matter how mysterious and powerful the spellcaster's power is, no one has ever heard of anyone who can turn stone into gold.

At this time, the clerk pushed the door open and entered, bowing to Earl Fagan and saying, "Your Excellency, Baron Ross, the representative of the vassal nobles, requests an audience."

After receiving permission to meet with him, the short, stout, and frail Baron Ross trudged into the Earl's study with a fawning smile. "Your Excellency, the vassal nobles are anxiously awaiting your return. I wonder when you plan to send troops to Jackdaw Town to seek justice for us from that evil Mage Lord..."

He wiped his greasy forehead with a handkerchief and angrily said, "That Mage Lord detained us in Jackdaw Town a while ago, restricting our personal freedom. After we left, he even seized our property in the town. Damn it! My maple-wood vacation home was demolished by those untouchables and burned for firewood!"

Baron Ross pulled out a stack of papers from his pocket and handed them to Earl Fagan with a smile. "Your Excellency, this is the total loss of houses and property we've calculated, amounting to over 6,800 pounds."

Six thousand eight hundred gold pounds? The nobles' holiday homes in a small town like Jackdaw were invaded and demolished, and that's how much property damage they caused? Are your houses made of pure gold?
I'm afraid these guys shamelessly added an extra zero to the bill when they were doing the bill?
Earl Feigen glanced at Baron Ross, showing no intention of even looking through the accounts. "My army has been assembled, and reinforcements from the capital will arrive at Grizzly Castle soon... But what about you? Do you think I can redeem your losses and seek justice for you just by talking?" Earl Feigen raised his hand and knocked on the desk with a dissatisfied thud.

"The conscription order was sent to your fiefdoms three days ago. How many knights and militiamen do you plan to send to accompany me?"

Baron Ross's heart skipped a beat, realizing that the Earl would not let these vassal nobles take advantage of him. His face flushed, he quickly said, "Your Excellency, we will certainly respond to your call. Not only myself, but the other nobles have already gathered their troops in their respective fiefdoms and are ready to march with your army to Jackdaw Town."

He added cautiously, "But I heard that the wizard lord has many followers and is a powerful spellcaster himself. Your nephew, Lord Stevie... seems to be..."

Before he could finish his words, Earl Fagan roared in anger, "Baron Stewie died in a shameless sneak attack, completely defenseless. His Majesty the Grand Duke's decree is clear: he must pay with his life for attacking and killing a nobleman without cause. When I tie him to the stake, I will naturally wash away the humiliation of Stewie's defeat and death!"

……

After scolding the trembling Baron Ross and sending him away, Earl Fagan stood up and paced around the study in annoyance.

Angel, his advisor, who had stood silently at his side throughout, spoke at the opportune moment, "Don't worry, Your Excellency. The Royal Capital has dispatched a full one hundred members of the Church's Inquisition Army to support us, including several high-ranking Judges and Battle Priests. Even if that... Mage Lord is secretly receiving reinforcements from the Union, we will not be at a disadvantage."

The gray-haired old man Angel was originally a spellcaster, but because he was born into an ancient noble family with a long history, Daeus and Saint Valen, and was both a spellcaster and a noble, he was naturally excluded from the target of the purge of the Federation's forces. In addition, his family has always been inclined towards secular royal power and church power, and is a stranger to the spellcaster faction of the Federation.

Earl Feigen nodded in agreement upon hearing this, and made a hasty estimate in his mind that the two hundred elite knights under his command, as well as the corresponding knights' escorts and horses, plus the five hundred militiamen temporarily recruited, all equipped with simple weapons, would make up an army of about a thousand people, which would be the main force of this expedition.

The church reinforcements sent from the royal capital would naturally take the initiative to deal with the Mage Lord and the Federation spellcasters who might be hiding in the dark to reinforce him, so he didn't need to worry too much about it.

As for those vassal nobles who value money more than anything else and only focus on the slightest bit of profit in front of them, apart from a few family knights trained in their respective fiefdoms, the rest of the mob can probably only serve to boost momentum and wave flags.

According to the oral account of the nobles who returned from Jackdaw Town, the troops sent by the other party to temporarily take over the town were estimated to be no more than 500 people, and there were no regular knights in armor and weapons among them. All the soldiers wore thin cotton clothes and could not even put together a set of leather armor.

Humph! So what if he was a spellcaster? In front of the powerful coalition formed by him and the church, he was just as weak and pathetic as a bug crushed by a chariot.

(End of this chapter)