Meanwhile, in distant Frosgard in the north, Karl, who had just moved into the former Sauron royal palace, showed no sign of being eager to march south.
Of course, he knew the Empress Dowager would not simply sit by and watch him grow stronger, and he knew the south was bound to make new moves. But he understood even better that rice had to be eaten one bite at a time, and roads walked one step at a time.
Though the north had been liberated, what remained was a genuine shambles—more than ten years of Sauron rule had left the local governments here almost completely paralyzed. People's livelihoods were in ruins, bandits ran rampant, vast tracts of land lay abandoned, and displaced refugees urgently needed to be resettled.
If he failed to secure the rear before hastily leading his army south, any unrest behind them would affect the morale of the troops at the frontline.
He first dispatched Lyon to lead the First Cavalry Regiment on a cleansing campaign. The north was vast. Although the main Sauron force had been wiped out, quite a few scattered remnants still roamed the land, along with bandits and robbers who had risen amid the chaos and ravaged the countryside.
Unless these people were eliminated, the northern populace could not live and work in peace, and there could be no talk of stability in the rear. Lyon was intimately familiar with both the terrain and the local conditions of the north; no one was better suited for the task.
In addition, Karl ordered Edgar, the chief steward far away in Carnford, to immediately begin assembling a group of officials. This included local clerks trained within Carnford's administrative system, as well as scholars and literate people willing to head north to Frosgard, break new ground