Hehe, Here Comes the Crisis

"Are you being a little too sensitive?" Lilim said speechlessly. "I know you lack a sense of security, but isn't this bordering on persecution delusions?"

The moment Lynn concluded that someone might be trying to assassinate him, he immediately went to discuss it with Lilim. Lynn was absolutely certain that he was just too unlikeable, which was why someone wanted to assassinate him.

After hearing him out, Lilim only felt that Lynn was being overly sensitive.

Lynn said seriously, "Isn't that possible?"

"What profit is there in assassinating you?" Lilim mercilessly criticized him. "You're just a baron right now, and you still have to develop your territory yourself."

"What benefit is there in assassinating you?"

"Would you go out of your way to do something that harms yourself and benefits others?"

Lilim's logic was simple, but like a seasoned Western fantasy noble politician, she believed people did things for profit. If there was no profit, they would not do it. They would not drive others to extinction either. That was everyone's baseline.

Unfortunately, Lynn immediately said, "Why wouldn't they?"

"I'm so unlikeable. I think they would."

"I've already been exiled, and those people still want to do this to me. Just how much do they hate me?" Lynn looked like he was about to cry.

Lilim immediately got angry. "Stop living in your own world, you bastard!"

"When will someone like you realize what other people actually mean? Trash! Bastard! Scum!"

"I still have to teach those people needlework. I'm exhausted to death, you cat. Go away!"

After that, Lilim continued teaching magic, clearly trying to drive Lynn off.

Lynn thought it over carefully. Maybe he really was being too sensitive, but he still needed to ask what others thought.

"Lilim, come to think of it, why do you think those Minotaurs came to rob us?" Lynn still felt that something was off and asked for her opinion.

Lilim replied irritably, "Every winter is like a brush with life and death for Orcs. For food, they gather supplies from spring all the way through autumn."

"When the Demi-human Kingdom still existed, its most important Major events were preparing for winter."

Lynn was somewhat puzzled. "Wasn't there no Nation-Destroying Cold Tide when the Demi-human Kingdom existed?"

Lilim pondered for a moment. "There wasn't, but it was still cold, all right? The Nation-Destroying Cold Tide mainly made winter even colder, freezing huge numbers of people to death. On top of that, grain production fell, the Orcs who had submitted to the Demi-human Kingdom rebelled, and the various countries invaded."

"Is that so?" Lynn agreed with Lilim's explanation. It was somewhat like the Little Ice Age, followed by internal and external troubles. He had learned about the Northern Border entirely through books. Those books all described how cold the Nation-Destroying Cold Tide had been, but from the distribution maps of Orcs and Demi-human tribes, Lynn could see that people still lived there no matter how cold it got. They had merely become fishing and hunting tribes, with some remaining nomadic.

In other words, industrialization was not afraid of this place. The problem was that these barbarians would harass your borders.

It seemed he really could not just develop in peace.

Lynn's barony was called Aningsbe.

To the southwest lay the Principality of Olexian, to the west were various Orc tribes, to the East Side were Demi-human tribes, and to the north were both Orc and Demi-human tribes.

The nearby Orcs were causing trouble now. Would they come attack him after some time passed?

What a headache. This damned sense of crisis.

Don't let Lynn's earlier victory over more than thirty Minotaurs fool you. Ten fully armored knights plus over forty Cannon fodder could certainly win, but those had only been the Strong men of a small tribe.

What if a large tribe came?

Orcs were not weak at all. All members could serve as soldiers. They fought to sustain themselves, and their Combat Strength was not low.

Once Orc tribes united, their Combat Strength became terrifying.

Their strength mainly came from Tigerfolk, Bearfolk, and Minotaurs.

Their numbers mainly came from Wolfkin and Goatfolk.

Their aerial forces mainly came from Harpies.

Their ranged forces mainly came from Centaurs.

Their speed mainly came from Leopardfolk.

A Great Khan had once emerged among the Orc tribes, forcing the Empire to commit its full strength to defense.

Once, more than eight hundred thousand Orcs marched south. The Principality of Olexian could only scrape together two hundred thousand people. They used the Scorched Earth Strategy and relied on the Great River Defense Line and clusters of fortresses to hold out until the emergency Reinforcements arrived: eight hundred thousand troops from the Empire, the other three Grand Dukes, and a whole host of Nobles.

One had to understand that the so-called two hundred thousand included everyone, while for the Orcs, even logistics personnel were soldiers. Those were fundamentally different things.

One knight required four servant knights, and maintaining logistics and transport for those five people required more than a dozen temporarily conscripted slaves or commoners.

As for me, Lynn, just preparing to survive this winter seemed quite difficult.

After talking with Lilim for a while, Lynn still decided to follow the original plan: sell the beef for money, then buy grain and slaves to bring back. At the same time, he needed to find someone who knew where mineral veins could be found.

Lynn had already had Eckley prepare the personnel. Now they only needed to go sell it.