Victor naturally agreed with Alex's idea. "That could be a good thing. It would take a lot of pressure off everyone."
The sudden mobilization, which had brought them close to a state of war, posed little problem for Two Rivers County. At Victor's insistence, its troops had remained on high alert year-round. Even the private armies of vassal nobles had to take part in regular joint field exercises.
As a result, Two Rivers County could now claim the strongest army in the Northlands. Of course, that was partly because Alex had taken most of the Iron Birch Family's forces into the kingdom's interior to carry out suppression operations.
With Two Rivers County's thriving industry and trade, military funding was not in short supply either. The cost of this defensive operation was manageable for Victor. Weber of the Finance Department kept complaining, but given the importance of the matter, he approved a temporary allocation as quickly as possible.
For the other Northern Frontier nobles, though, it was not so easy. As those counts had said, their collective strength had yet to recover to its pre-Civil War level. Their fiefs had grown and their ranks had risen, but their reserves were exhausted, and even their armies had not fully recovered.
Asking them to prepare for war and commit resources on this scale now was a heavy burden.
If Alex's idea could be put into practice, however, it would address those problems.
Victor also knew it would not be easy. In the days of the Grand Duchy of Vera, whether the Northern Frontier nobles were defending against Barbarian invasions or attacking the Barbarians to expand their lands, they could rely only on themselves. Successive grand dukes had looked the other way, and the nobles of the interior had never sent support.
For a