Can't I develop my own character?

At this moment, Ryan deeply felt the tough character of the people in the Western Territory. After all, Alvin came here on behalf of the emperor, and he was also the grandfather of the second prince. How could he be killed like this?

...Wait, if Alvin dies, wouldn’t the Second Prince lose his greatest support in competing for the throne?

Is this also good news for Casradi?

What puzzled Ryan was that even after the battle had gotten to this point, there was no reaction from the imperial capital. Alvin was quite powerful, having led more than 10,000 royal guards who had escaped from Childe to hold out for two days under Maganna's pursuit. He was probably also waiting for the old emperor to come and save him.

Although Maganna might not buy it, Ryan was puzzled by the old emperor's silence.

Are we just going to watch Alvin die?

First of all, now that the old general is dead, the second prince will most likely have no chance of competing for the throne, even though he still has many loyal followers in the imperial capital.

Secondly, this was a slap in the face of the old emperor. Even for the sake of the royal family's reputation, he should not have said nothing.

Ryan couldn't contact Casradi in real time, nor did he know what was happening in the imperial capital. He wanted to see how the old emperor would end this matter.

Maganna has a bad temper. If you stroke a cat by its fur, it will explode. Ryan is now 100% sure that Maganna was tricked by the old emperor. She will definitely not give up after the Iron Blood Army encountered such a big incident.

What's next? Either the Western Territory will directly declare independence, or even establish a principality given Maganna's personality.

Otherwise, the Western Territory and the Empire would completely break up and the stalemate would continue.

No matter what, it was a fatal blow to the Augustus Empire.

After all, the empire lost its western border and gained a killer opponent like Maganna. The Grand Duke turned around and ignored the Western Barbarian Army. Those barbarians went around from the northwest and attacked Augustus directly. The nobles on the border had to risk their lives to stop them.

Although they are both imperial generals, Maganna's importance to the empire is far beyond what Alvin can compare to now.

Just as Ryan was eating melon seeds and watching the show, he opened the game and was suddenly stunned. Lin Qi passed the saint assessment smoothly, and then... was going to come to the Western Territory?

"You're even involved in things like the Janus Gate?"

Ryan was very confused because the Janus Gate basically did not interfere in the affairs of other countries before.

However, the influence of the power of the outer gods has indeed increased recently. In any case, as the newly appointed saint, Lin Qi naturally has to handle her first task well.

Moreover, Ryan actually did not want Maganna to really break up with the Empire. If the Western Territory became independent from the Empire, its future actions within the Empire would be greatly restricted, and it would be basically impossible to casually mobilize two thousand people to help as before.

But as for Maganna to make peace with the Empire... Ryan was not sure, because not long after Lin Qi decided to come to the Western Territory, the latest news came from the front line. Maganna personally led the army to break through the defense line established by the Royal Guards and killed Alvin with her own hands!

An imperial duke and old general died just like that!

Then that afternoon, the Iron Blood Army returned to the capital. Maganna disbanded those who had come to support and returned to the city of Cherde with only more than 10,000 Iron Blood Legion soldiers.

As soon as Ryan met her, the iron-blooded Grand Duke said, "I might have been used by that old man."

Maganna hadn't even taken off her blood-soaked armor yet. She exuded a strong murderous aura. Although she was just a loli, she looked extremely majestic.

At this time, the Grand Duke's delicate brows were tightly furrowed.

"Why do you say that?" Ryan asked puzzledly.

"I originally thought the old emperor would definitely intervene to stop me from killing Alvin, but no. I control the entire Western Territory, and my spies haven't detected any signs of imperial troop activity." Maganna crossed her arms. "That's all for now. According to news from the imperial capital, some nobles close to Alvin requested troops, but the old emperor remained indifferent."

"This is not normal, Ryan, you know? My intuition tells me that I'm being used by that old guy."

Magna has always believed in intuition. Why? Intuition. Isn't that enough?

Ryan was even more confused: "Grand Duke, if you have doubts, why did you kill Alvin?"

"Of course I have to kill him. That guy has already ridden all the way to the Western Territory to shit. If I don't kill him, what will happen to the dignity of the Iron-Blooded Grand Duke? Besides, I've already swung my sword, and no one is stopping me. Wouldn't it be embarrassing to pull it back myself?"

Listening to Maganna's matter-of-fact tone, Ryan was speechless. "Grand Duke, what should I say to you? Give me some clues, and I'll give you what you want."

But then again, this is indeed not normal.

They were so active before, and seemed to be determined to reorganize the entire Western Territory, but they gave up just because Maganna came back alive?

Giving up is understandable, but there's no need to lose an old general, right? It would also be embarrassing for the royal family.

He is an emperor after all, but he doesn't even have this backup plan. Ryan always feels that something is wrong... Or is this the result the old emperor wants?

"Wait, this isn't right. How will this benefit the old emperor? If his goal isn't to destroy the Western Territory directly..."

"Hmm? Ryan, what did you just say?"

"No, it's okay. I was just mumbling." Ryan couldn't figure it out for the time being. "Then, Grand Duke, what are you going to do next?"

Maganna snorted, "What else can we do? We've already come to this point. First, we need to rebuild the Iron Blood Army, then continue the fight and push the Western Barbarians out of the Talma Line. We also have to guard against the Red Tiger Guards' attacks. There's so much to do."

"Red Tiger Guards? Are they coming?"

"Next to the Western Territory is Alvin's territory. He has many loyal followers. According to spies, the Red Tiger Guards are already gathering."

"I see."

The Red Tiger Guards were Alvin's direct subordinates. No, the Royal Guards were just those assigned to him by the old emperor.

"Wait, since Alvin's territory is next door and he has so many Red Tiger Guards, why did the old emperor specially dispatch the Royal Guards to bring them to him?" Ryan asked.

"Well..." Magna tilted her head slightly, "Maybe Alvin asked for it himself?"

"I think you should investigate this matter thoroughly, Grand Duke."

"Is there any need for that? They were all royal soldiers anyway. If they died, they died. Right now, we should be on guard against retaliation from Alvin's men. And the Second Prince, I heard he got so angry he had a fight with his mother yesterday. It cracked me up."

Ryan said seriously: "Grand Duke, we must recognize who the real enemy is!"

Magna nodded: "Of course, so what?"

Ryan: "..."

So we have to investigate!

"What if there's something wrong with the royal army? There are 30,000 of them, after all. The old emperor can't just give them up, right?"

"What you said makes sense. I'll have someone investigate."

Listening to Ryan's words was better than listening to any other words. Maganna pondered it and realized that it was indeed true. The cost of training the Royal Guards was no less than that of her Iron Blood Army. Given the old emperor's stingy temperament, he only sent 2,000 men to his own daughter, but 30,000 to a foreign general? Although it was intended to suppress the Western Border, it seemed that the suppression was not going on now.

Maganna immediately called someone over and passed down the order. She had an insider in the imperial capital, so she would check it out first, but she couldn't guarantee the answer.

"By the way, where's Creed?" Ryan asked.

"She ran away." Magna said, then frowned again: "I killed her puppet. She actually made preparations in advance. Could it be that she knew this would happen?"

"It's hard to say... Anyway, let's prepare first. The situation in the Western Territory is very delicate right now."

How should I put it? Although the traitor has been cleared out, the situation in the Western Territory is much worse than before, and it is neither good nor bad.

You say we won, but the Iron Blood Army lost most of its troops, and it would be impossible to rebuild them in two or three years. But there are the Western Barbarian Army in the west and the Red Tiger Guard in the east, and they were all consumed before they could be rebuilt. The pressure is huge.

And Maganna was only a duke after all. She couldn't kill Alvin for any reason. She had killed so many royal guards. Now public opinion outside the West Territory was all over the place, saying that she was rebelling.

Ryan guessed that a large number of people who were originally wavering and neutral, or who were inclined to support Maganna, were now busy distancing themselves from her.

There is no way. It is too early to rebel. We are not prepared and the old emperor is not dead yet.

And the trump card was also exposed. Those tens of thousands of people seemed to be a lot, but they were not enough to attack the imperial capital. Moreover, they could not be used all the time and had to be dispersed throughout the western border to fulfill their duties.

Looking at it this way...it's not just neither better nor worse, it's even worse than before!

Ryan was shocked. If I hadn’t analyzed it, I wouldn’t have known. Grand Duke, I always feel that you are going to be dead!

Now, the Grand Duke has no choice but to rebel to the end, but there is no way to achieve his goal. He can only establish a principality, but a principality is useless.

Or, they would just go back and continue to be gatekeepers for the empire, and there might not be any hope of rebelling in their lifetime.

"The... Archduke."

"Ok?"

"Do you have any backup plan, old man? For example, you can summon another hundred thousand heavenly soldiers with a wave of your hand."

Magna looked at him like an idiot: "If I had that kind of thing, I would have gone to the imperial capital long ago."

"So that's it?"

"Yes what's the matter?"

"It's okay, I'm just asking."

Ryan thought, great, from now on the Grand Duke will sit at the same table with the princess.

......

Although Ryan tried his best to think positively, the situation was indeed not optimistic.

Only more than 10,000 of the 50,000 Iron Blood Army are left. This number of people is not enough to support Maganna's counterattack against the Western Barbarians, let alone resist the attack of the Red Tiger Guards.

So she could only withdraw some of the people who had been supporting her before, in case the Red Tiger Guards really attacked.

Fortunately, the recruitment of the Iron Blood Army went quite smoothly. This battle really demonstrated Maganna's prowess and gave the loyalists confidence. As for the people in the territory, they were also happy because Maganna was really good to them and her cruelty was only directed towards her enemies.

Oh no, there's also some unlucky guy.

When Ryan was strolling in the camp, he saw Iverson standing upright at the gate from a distance. When he asked the reason, Iverson said that this was the intensive training given to him by the Grand Duke. He was asked to stand in the sun for ten hours every day this month, and he had to carry something weighing dozens of kilograms on his head.

Iverson felt that this was a test from the Grand Duke, but Ryan felt something was wrong no matter how he looked at it.

Could it be that thing on his head is trying to make him shorter?

"Hello, I'm looking for Mr. Potter."

Ryan walked into a bookstore and said to the clerk inside.

"Excuse me?" the clerk asked with a smile.

Ryan looked around and made sure no one was around before whispering, "I'll find some dry wood and start a fire."

The clerk was startled, stared at Ryan for a while, and nodded slightly: "Please wait a moment."

After saying that, he turned and walked upstairs.

Light the fire. This is a code word of the Fire Covenant. The meaning of the whole sentence is similar to "pass on the fire". Pass on the fire from fire to fire, and the fire will never go out, representing the spiritual will of the Fire Covenant.

Well... that's what Jonathan said.

After a while, a middle-aged man in his forties came down. He stared at Ryan for a while, then signaled the clerk to close the door.

"You are...Mr. Ryan."

"you know me?"

The middle-aged man smiled and said, "Don't think too highly of the Fire Chasing Force in the Western Territory. At least we know about it among our own people... Besides, Mr. Ryan, don't you know how famous you are now? You are half responsible for the current situation in the Western Territory."

"..."

Ryan's mouth twitched slightly. How can this be blamed on me? I am more wronged than Dou E!

"I need your help."

He revealed the purpose of coming to find the Fire Covenant.

As the official supernatural power of the empire, they have a very comprehensive control over all kinds of information about the empire, so Ryan wanted them to help check on Alvin's situation and whether there was any problem with the 30,000 royal troops.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Ryan, we can't disclose this information casually." Porter shook his head and refused.

The implication is that you are not qualified to know.

Although Ryan is very successful now, he is still a little Camilla in the Fire Covenant, the captain of the Berman City Investigation Team and a second-level investigator, whose position is lower than his.

"You mean yes?"

"..."

Seeing Potter's silence, Ryan took out the Seal of the Covenant from his backpack and said, "I think I should still have the right to know this kind of news, right?"

Potter was stunned: "Chapter of the Covenant? You...how could you..."

"Don't worry about where it came from, I'm just asking if I can know."

"Of course." Potter took a deep breath. "The Chapter of the Covenant represents the authority of a Level 6 Investigator. You are fully qualified to access these. But... could you please tell me what you want to do?"

Ryan said seriously, "Of course it's for His Majesty! We, the Fire Chasers, only serve His Majesty. Could it be that you have other ideas?"

"Ah, of course not. I never doubted your intentions at all. I just wanted to know what exactly you were going to do."

"You have no idea how much effort I put into gaining Maganna's trust. She used my identity to hide herself, and I've done her a big favor this time. She's trying to win me over," Ryan said in a deep voice. "But you know, I'm solely devoted to His Majesty, so I must ascertain the situation, and then use this information to gradually gain Maganna's trust. She's simply too presumptuous to openly disobey His Majesty's orders. The empire will remain uneasy until the Iron Blood is eliminated!"

Potter was stunned.

He saw great will in Ryan.

"Come with me!" Porter motioned Ryan to go upstairs to talk.

...