Banner of the Evil God

"This is unreasonable!" Priest Milomont's eyes widened. "You are just a baron. There are viscounts, earls, marquises, and then the grand duke. Then the grand duke will come directly to snatch you, your title. Aren’t you annoyed? The claws are too long!”

"...our Keen Territory is directly under the Grand Duke." Creek sighed, "Although it is surrounded by the territory of Earl Holhack, this area is not. Probably when it was established, a specially arranged area was Enclave to prevent this area from being completely controlled by Count Holhack."

"Since the surrounding area is the territory of Earl Holhack, then the people affected by the disaster are also Earl Holhack's subjects. Even if someone comes to ask for food, it should be Earl Holhack who sends people."

"It's just an excuse." Creek continued to sigh.

"How shameless!" Milomon understood, shook his head and said, "I can't help it, we orcs have never done this."

"The winter before last, didn't we just go on an expedition in accordance with the Grand Duke's order?" Knight Howard James frowned and said, "Even if the vassal should be loyal to the lord, my lord, you personally led the troops to participate in the battle of 'The Day the Sun Goes Out', and we The army led by Keen suffered heavy losses, and even you, my lord, were almost killed on the battlefield. Isn’t this enough?”

"So this letter is very sincere, saying that it is not His Majesty who needs food, but the disaster-stricken territories that need food." Crick said with a sneer, "Our Majesty the Grand Duke is very clever!"

"Didn't we also have a good harvest last year? Why didn't he reach out last year and suddenly came to ask for food this year?" Knight Charles Oss asked in confusion.

“Last year’s harvest was not obvious,” said Crick. “Last year, except for a few experimental fields that used fertilizers, most fields adopted new farming techniques, but the increase in harvest was limited, and the total harvest only increased by about 20%. To be honest, this level of harvest is not particularly impressive, but this year is different. Because of the comprehensive promotion of fertilization and new agriculture, this year's harvest has increased dramatically. Although the statistical results are not yet available, based on the current statistics. Come on, this year’s total harvest may be nearly four times that of previous years.”

When Crick said these words, the entire conference room fell into an astonishing silence.

After a few seconds, Scout Reina couldn't help but ask: "Sir, are you right?"

"That's right."

"...That's no wonder!" Keen City Patrol Captain Red sighed deeply, "I would be jealous too!"

"But our neighbor, Earl ****, is not jealous." Butler Leighton said.

"Perhaps he is also jealous, but he is just not as quick to take action as our Grand Duke." Intelligence officer Raphael said quietly, "During this period, he has held several high-level meetings, and maybe he discussed attacking us at the meeting. thing."

Creek's face suddenly turned darker. Before the tiger at the front door could be driven away, the howling of wolves could already be heard at the back door.

What's worse than bad news? That's two pieces of bad news!

"But fortunately, Count Holhak hasn't taken action yet, so we still have room for change." Master Damved said, "But the Grand Duke's order has come, and this is a problem that must be solved immediately."

"Does this still need to be solved?" Creek sighed deeply, "That fat guy looks like he's going to kill me. I really want to hack him to death!"

"Those who can't be cut to death, don't think too much." Although he is a priest who is the god of literature and art, but he does not do his job properly, Thomas, who spends all day doing research, advised, "With the few manpower in our territory, it's okay to have a fight with a viscount, but it's safe to fight against the archduke. lose."

"I just said that casually." Creek sighed in frustration and couldn't help but cough twice more.

"Master, you have to take care of yourself!" Butler Leiden advised worriedly, "No matter what difficulties there are, as long as you are here, our territory will have a future. Even if we suffer a loss this time, so what? Anyway, we will eventually It’s still a good harvest, and it will continue to be good.”

Creek nodded slightly, sighed softly, and admitted his statement.

As Butler Leiden said, even if he suffered a loss this time and was robbed of a large amount of food, His Majesty the Grand Duke of Thunder can't rob it every year!

Keenland’s new agriculture is on the right track. Maybe next year’s harvest will not be as bumper as this year’s, but there will still be two to three hundred kilograms per acre of land. Even if we take a step back, there is always two hundred catties per acre of land.

Such a harvest is enough to support Keen Territory's continuous progress. Even if he suffered a loss this year and had a large amount of food taken away by the greedy fat man, he would not be able to find an excuse to ask for it next year...

"Hehe, this idea is a bit naive!" Priest Milomon said with a sneer, "I don't know if you have ever seen wolves hunting on the grassland. Generally, wolves will only chase and attack smaller beasts. But those particularly powerful wolves will choose the powerful beasts and follow them from a distance, hunting some each time, just like herding."

His round eyes narrowed and emitted an eerie light: "As long as you get the benefits and taste the sweetness this time, there will definitely be another time next year, and it will continue from now on and form a routine."

Everyone in Keen's territory fell into silence. Although they were unwilling to admit it, everyone felt that what Chief Priest Milomon said made sense.

"I remember the winter before last, when he called for troops from all over the country to support the Eagle Kingdom, but at least four counts ignored him at that time." Intelligence officer Raffl recalled while slowly saying, "It seemed that nothing happened after the incident, and nothing happened. "

"That's the Earl." Steward Leiden hurriedly advised, "The Earl's power is beyond our comparison. Even the Duke would not dare to fall out with the nobles over such a trivial matter. But we are not the nobles. !”

As he said, Keenland is not a big noble and lacks the confidence to stand up to the Grand Duke.

The Principality of Thunder was founded by a knight who was canonized by the "Supreme Mage" Master Yimia Lamperus. Because there was a lord above his head, the knight did not call himself king later. Instead, he respected Lampelus as king and called himself the Grand Duke of Thunder.

The current nobles of the Thunder Principality are divided into seven levels, the highest is the king, the Thunder Duke himself. Theoretically, he is the master of the entire Thunder Principality, but in fact, except for the direct-administered territories and the directly-administered territories, the lords of the other territories are various big nobles, and he is just the leader of those big nobles.

The second level is composed of three marquises, respectively held by the queen's brother, the most respected among the princes, and the grand marshal of the principality. Marquises do not have fiefdoms. They are close ministers of His Majesty the Grand Duke. Their power and status come from the trust and grant of His Majesty the Grand Duke.

The third level is the earls, who are the descendants of the companions who opened up the territory with the first Grand Duke. At that time, Master Lamperus was not the only one who had subordinates to the First Grand Duke, there were several others who were close to him in status. Later, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the first Grand Dukes enfeoffed the territories and ennobled them as earls. The earl is the supreme ruler of a territory, and even the grand duke has no right to dictate his territory. In fact, with the development of Thunder Principality to this day, with the prosperity of various counties, the Grand Duke's control over the entire country has been declining.

The fourth level is the viscounts. Viscounts are nobles with more fiefdoms and greater influence. Some more powerful viscounts had barons under their command, while others only had knights. The Grand Dukes and Earls all had viscounts under their command. They accepted the canonization of their lord and were loyal to the lord. Although they have relatively greater power in their own territory, the master's orders still take precedence.

The fifth estate is the Baron, and the Keen Territory is the Baron Territory. Baron is the lowest level among the "city nobles". Each baron has his own lord, and some even have several levels of lords. But most of them also have knights and quasi-knights under their command, which can be regarded as more than enough.

The sixth level is a knight, and the seventh level is a quasi-knight. The difference lies in the presence or absence of a fief. Knights have their own fiefs, while quasi-knights can only receive a salary from their lord. Moreover, the territory of knights can be hereditary together with the family name, but this is not the case for quasi-knights. Unless their children are canonized again, their titles can only be enjoyed by themselves and cannot be passed on to future generations - so they often do not have surnames.

There are currently two knights in Keenland, namely the Knight of Os and the Knight of James. The contemporary Knight of Os is Charles Os, who inherited the title, territory and glorious title from his father Divor Os. The surname is; and the father of Howard James Knight is Nane James, a close friend of the old Baron Keane.

The system of seventh-level nobles is in order. If you want to challenge this system, you need not only strong courage, but also strong strength.

The current Baron Keen obviously does not have this strength. Otherwise, Crick would have kicked the messenger out long ago.

After a discussion, everyone felt that there seemed to be no other solution except giving in and sending food.

Just when Creek sighed and wanted to end the meeting, Priest Milomont suddenly had a cold light in his eyes, leaned into his ear, and whispered: "Lord Baron, why don't we kill the messenger and treat it as confiscation?" How about the news?"

Creek's eyes lit up and he considered it carefully.

Although this idea is a bit far-fetched, it is not impossible. After all, the sky is high and the Emperor is far away in the Keen Territory. Even if His Majesty wanted to send troops to attack, Count Holhack would not be able to agree. In this case, he would just do something big!

As long as it is done cleanly, without any evidence, and if you insist that you have not received any news from the capital, then of course nothing will happen.

It will be at least a month before His Majesty the Grand Duke finds out and sends an envoy again.

If we seize this time, we have enough time to process this batch of grain. Even if His Majesty the Grand Duke wants to rob it then, there will be no food for him to rob!