Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 184 Overture
"What did you say? The Neren family has declared war on the Samirs?" Lucia looked at Egg Kiss in surprise, "When did it happen?"

"Shortly after the northern border was lifted at the beginning of the month, according to the northern border caravan handed over to us at the exit of Lord Fortress, the Flame Temple originally suspected that the Slovens massacre in February was done by the Samirs. But since there is no evidence, it is still under investigation.”

"I didn't expect that two weeks ago, Samir knights suddenly attacked the Klanger village under the jurisdiction of the Neren family. From the local lord Tokel knights down, the garrison and villagers were slaughtered like Slovens, but this time They didn't clean up the scene thoroughly. There were traces of Samir's ice storm on the bodies of the two knights. In addition, a small vendor among the local residents survived. According to his testimony, it was indeed Samir who attacked Klanger Village. A knight without a doubt."

"Testimony." Lucia's eyes flashed a bit of thought, and she pondered: "The trader you mentioned, did he explain clearly how he survived?"

Eggerkiss turned over the information in his hand and said: "At present, we only have a few reports from the caravans in the north. The name of the peddler is O'Connor. Drive a wagon and do some small business in the streets and alleys between several villages and towns near Klange."

"In the early morning of the 9th, he was in charge of sending a cart of grain ordered by customers into the village and carrying it into the cellar—just at this time he heard the shouts of killing coming from outside the house, so he hurriedly hid in the cellar. He was killed before he could hide in, but he escaped by chance. Until the outside became quiet, he tentatively pushed open the cellar door to check the situation, just in time to see the Samir knight who was standing guard at the entrance of the village leaving figure."

"Because the size difference between Samirs and humans is huge, O'Connor assured that he was not mistaken. Combined with the frostbitten knife marks on the two corpses, Earl Nelen immediately believed that the attackers were Samir knights, and then issued a war mobilization order. .Although neither the Northern Territory Tutorial Mansion nor the Flame Holy Church has made a statement, but with the energy of the Neren family, a local war is definitely inevitable."

"Your Highness," Eggy Kiss said, handing another list to Lucia, "Just this morning, the Nelen family submitted a new purchase order to us, please have a look."

Lucia took it and glanced at it. Xindao, the Nielun family really deserves to be one of the most powerful military nobles in the northern border. In addition to the daily order of armor-piercing dragon arrows, they also proposed to order a large number of swords and spears this time. And fine steel armor, this level of weapons and equipment cannot be provided to those temporarily recruited militias. The opponent is obviously ready to let the private troops directly under it participate in the battle and pay a lot of sacrifice and loss.

And because this batch of equipment was urgently needed, Earl Nelen even offered a price that was 20.00% higher than usual, with a total price of more than 300 million runes. Putting it in the "hometown of mercenaries" Kaidan, this money is already enough Pull up a mercenary force of 5000 people.

After thinking for a while, he threw the list lightly on the table, raised his chin and said, "Reject them."

Aegis was slightly taken aback, and said, "Then the reason for our refusal is..."

"The purpose is unknown." Lucia said lightly.

"Although Bolelius has never contacted us for thousands of years, he has participated in the Forbidden War after all. The Samirs are his subordinates and our potential allies in the future. Now the situation in the north is unclear, and an order is far less than Our position is key."

Eggerkiss expression turned cold when he heard the words, nodded and said: "This subordinate understands."

After he left, Lucia sat alone in the study and continued to think about the intricate situation in the northern border.

Since Osarion came to power, it only took him one year to completely overthrow the situation that Duoris had been in business for three years. The Northern Legion gave up power to the local nobles. More importantly, Duoris spent countless manpower The iron wall defense system built by material resources was also uprooted by him. The fortresses scattered all over the northern border were either publicly auctioned by the tutelary government to local nobles, or left vacant and abandoned. defensive properties.

It's not that Osarion is stupid to do so, but the annual maintenance cost of this set of defensive barriers from the initial construction stage to the subsequent maintenance stage is really astronomical.Back then, wars were frequent in the northern border, and everyone in the court desperately needed a big victory to settle the chaos. On the one hand, Duoris had the status of a giant in the new party, and on the other hand, he was lucky enough to have the joint support of the two majesties, so he could afford it. The price of this style of play.

However, the backlash from the new party afterward was still unbearable for him, and he was even forced to bet with Osarion to decide the position of the guard. Even if there was no Longxiang, Duoris was forced to step down and he was completely foreseeable within.

But he is different from Osarion. The rebels in the north have already been suppressed by Duoris. Honestly stick to the northern border?
No, they are just waiting for him to redefine the interests of this vast territory and fill in the huge hole caused by Duoris' three years of madness with the entire New Party.

As for the two majesties who stood at the highest point, their eyes had already left the northern border where the situation tended to ease, and turned to many longer-term and sharp conflicts, and they had no time to support a marquis.

Under the influence of various factors, Osarion is unwilling and unable to repeat what Duoris did back then. All he can do is to play the role of "talker in the north" recommended by many new party nobles. , Balance the interests that each faction deserves.

However, in this way, what will become of the northern border without the iron wall defense system is completely beyond the control of the northern border tutelary palace and the flame temple.

To give the simplest example, if it was in the era of Duoris, it would be infinitely more difficult for Adam to defect from the North with the Giant's Prayer Book, and the tragedies in Slovens and Klanger would be impossible to happen.

No army can break through the cross protection of hundreds of fortresses out of thin air, and then disappear silently after massacring towns and villages, let alone relying on one unsubstantiated testimony and two suspected Samir The murderer can be identified by the knife marks of people, which leads to an inexplicable war.

"Samir."

Lucia frowned, and there were many questions in her mind that could not be answered—after the giant war, they had lived in peace with the northern residents for 16 years, and there was no reason for a sudden attack. Why not choose the battle of the Moon Tree, the Battle of the Dragon Tree, or even the Battle of the Northern Territory three years ago, but choose now?

All of this is too far-fetched, but it happens in such a dangerous and sensitive place as the northern border. The Samirs and the people of gold already have grievances, and the territories are overlapping and intertwined. Daily conflicts and frictions are not uncommon.

He is very familiar with the style of the typical New Party military aristocrats of the Nerren family - referring to the former consul of Karen City and the younger brother of the Marquis of Osarion, Baron Hector of Offnell. The people of gold with high self-esteem like to find trouble with other races, not to mention the moment when the two sides have lost their guns.

His intuition told him that there was an invisible hand behind the scenes quietly pushing all this. Osarion's incompetence, Samir's unruliness, and northern nobles' narrow-mindedness might all be in the calculation of the other party, and the chaos in front of him was frequent. All the fires are just the prelude to a prairie fire.

"Your Highness," Guerrell's voice came from outside the house at this moment, "Principal Ortapis sent someone over, please go to the royal private school to discuss matters."

(End of this chapter)