Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 83 The Third Letter from the North

Duke Calvin unfolded the letter, glanced at it for a few lines, and his gaze stopped on two words.

"Marriage?!"

"Huh?" He almost spat out his tea.

"Who? And with whom will they be married?"

His eyes scanned rapidly downwards, reading ten lines at a glance, until they landed on that particular line of text.

“The third daughter, Emily Edmund, will be betrothed to Louis Calvin.”

He froze.

He remembered Louis.

My initial impression of him was that he wasn't very talented, didn't have much ambition, and was a typical aristocratic son who just wanted to live a life of leisure.

That's why they sent him to the North, as a way of making use of him, since they never intended for him to inherit anything anyway.

Later, the old butler Bradley mentioned it several times in his letters, saying that Louis had managed to organize that messy corner of the North very well.

They even found magic marrow mines in the North and traded with their family every month, earning a substantial and stable income.

He was satisfied with what he heard and casually allocated some resources to help Louis establish a foothold in the North.

"Worth nurturing." That was his thought at the time, but that was all.

He was busy with other things after that and didn't pay attention to it anymore.

In his mind, Louis was always the kind of child who was useful but not the core of his life.

It's just a casual move.

Unexpectedly, the Duke of Edmund has now personally proposed marriage to her, wanting to give his precious daughter to him. This is no ordinary move.

"There must have been something I didn't know about."

He immediately summoned the butler: "Is there any letter about Louis?"

"Yes, sir." The butler calmly and deliberately pulled out a letter from the thick pile of papers and handed it over with both hands.

“This just arrived today,” he added.

Duke Calvin took the letter, tore open the seal, unfolded the pages, and frowned as he read.

The letter was mainly a report from Louis on what he had been doing recently, and the very first sentence made his eyelids twitch:

"I was ordered to go to Qingyu Ridge for reconnaissance. I traveled fifty miles at night and led one hundred and thirty knights to capture an important enemy stronghold."

Then came one more shocking story after another.

"We set up an ambush and annihilated 800 elite enemy wolf riders, with no one on our side killed in action."

"..."

The constant stream of information nearly made his eyes pop out of their sockets.

"What?! A night raid of fifty li?! Leading one hundred and thirty cavalrymen to wipe out eight hundred elite troops, and all of them survived? What kind of military genius is this?!"

"He was also specially awarded the Northern Shield Medal, granted an additional 1,000 square kilometers of fiefdom, and promoted to governor of Snowpeak County!?"

A nineteen-year-old prefect!

The Duke gently folded the letter, leaned back in his chair, and lowered his head in thought.

This goes beyond what can be described as "good" or "worthy of attention".

"This can't be made up, can it?" he asked in a low voice, as if questioning the contents of the letter.

But he quickly calmed down and realized that even if Louis had the guts, Duke Edmund would not play along with his act.

These military achievements can be easily verified with a simple check.

"At only 19 years old, with limited resources from his family... he actually turned the northern border upside down and was forced into becoming a prefect."

The Duke of Calvin admitted that he had indeed misjudged the situation.

He suddenly remembered that Louis had always been a little too quiet.

Unlike other children who fight fiercely, he is always a step behind, very obedient, as if he has no desires at all.

At the time, he thought the kid lacked ambition, but looking back now...

"Maybe he's faking it! He feels he has no chance of inheriting the title, so he's pretending to be mediocre and wants to escape the southeastern province early on, avoid the struggle between his brothers and sisters, and ascend to the northern border?"
Although he couldn't compare to his two older brothers, he couldn't remain an outsider any longer. He glanced at the letter from Duke Edmund on the table, his expression gradually hardening.

They began to assess the pros and cons of this marriage.

Edmund is known as the Lord of the North, and among the Northern nobles, he is practically a local emperor, the unshakeable core of the entire North.

Although Louis was previously just a peripheral member of the Calvin family, he now possesses a real fiefdom and a "Shield of the North" medal thanks to his military achievements in the North.

More importantly, he is now the governor of Xuefeng County.

In the north, this is already considered a considerable force, and they can serve as the family's representative in the northern border.

“If this marriage goes through,” Duke Calvin squinted, “it will be a fallback plan for the Calvin family in the North.”

The Calvin family in their southeastern province is quite wealthy, but their situation in recent years is far from optimistic.

The royal family has overreached.

He heavily relied on his cronies, promoted new elites, and continuously sent meritorious nobles and bureaucrats to the southeastern border, not to mention the round after round of audits and tax increases...

Nominally, they are balancing forces, but in reality, they are seizing land, people, and profits.

The goal is simple: to eliminate the powerful families.

"In the past few years, the port has been giving back 30% of its profits to support the new elites in the capital," Duke Calvin sneered.

This local tyrant in the southeast has been getting a piece of his flesh chopped off and used for soup every year lately.

If we can connect with the North, this refreshing current, we might be able to have more options before the situation changes.

As for the Edmund family, although they also wanted to extend their influence to the south, they did not want to be completely involved in the power struggles at the heart of the empire, and a marriage alliance was a good way to achieve this.

Moreover, both of their families were among the eight great families, making them a perfect match.

Duke Calvin nodded slightly.

The only downside is that the emperor wouldn't like it; he doesn't like any connection between the eight great families.

The current emperor enjoys immense prestige and wields swift and decisive power, leaving the eight great families utterly helpless.

Even if the eight major families really joined forces, they couldn't shake him in the slightest.

So they are all enduring and waiting.

Let this aging emperor pass away naturally, and then wait for the next emperor.

Ideally, a more easily manipulated and more willing-to-compromise heir should ascend the throne.

And that day doesn't seem to be far away.

He closed his eyes, recalling the last time he had an audience with the emperor in the capital.

It was an old, frail body sitting on a golden throne.

He was already eighty-seven years old that year and wouldn't last much longer.

As for the heirs? Each one is more incompetent than the last.

The only one widely favored, the third prince, was famous at a young age, a skilled military commander, and highly respected among the people.

As a result, six months ago, while inspecting his territory, he "accidentally" fell into a cesspool and drowned on the spot.

Duke Calvin gave a soft hum, his eyes utterly indifferent.

"A peak-level knight would 'accidentally' fall into a cesspool?"

What a joke! This is assassination, this is humiliation.

In broad daylight, in front of the whole world, they humiliated the royal family and the emperor.

This was probably done by some old noble family as revenge against the emperor.

Of course, this did not come without consequences. In the past six months, the emperor has been wielding power more frequently, promoting his confidants, new nobles, and loyal ministers from families of civil officials.

His wariness of the old aristocracy reached its peak.

Therefore, even a simple marriage proposal can trigger suspicion.

"This matter requires utmost care." He sat back down in his chair, took out a piece of paper, and dipped it in ink.

(End of this chapter)