On October 2, at the Rothe Territory Viscount's Castle, the Gray Goose Leader had just finished enjoying a night of care from human girls.
To be honest, he now understood why human nobles all built castles. Wind School arrays kept the air circulating indoors; Fire School and Ice School arrays regulated the temperature; soundproofing arrays shut him off from the barbarians outside; and there were baths ready for use at any time, alchemical lamps, and human maids to serve him.
At that moment, the Gray Goose Leader was full of ambition. After sweeping through the Dragon Kingdom's Northwest Territory, he would return to the Gallop Plains with hundreds of slaves and more than a thousand Mana-Less.
He would build a great castle beside the Salt Mine. Its profits would be enough to hire a human Mage to set up arrays throughout the castle.
He was no longer satisfied with the Northwest Count Territory as his only market. He also hoped to find the Girislav caravans entering and leaving through Lokirav Pass in the east, and the White-Owl caravans belonging to the Dragon Kingdom's northern Count, and open up new markets.
Of course, the most important thing was that Blue Dragon lord. Without him, there wouldn't be enough salt pots.
"Leader," a Gray Goose barbarian came to report, "we've taken all the Knight villages in Rothe. As you instructed, we haven't attacked the territories of any other Dragon Kingdom nobles, but they've probably already noticed us."
"Hahaha! Good. We want them to notice. If they don't, how will they know Rothe is mine now? How will they gather in Blue Magpie City? And how will we catch them off guard and sweep through their castles?"
"Yes, Leader. Our warriors from the plains have already set up camp outside the castle. Two hundred warriors are fully prepared and waiting for your order."
"Don't rush. Give that old Bristle-Wolf a little time. Let them take a good look at our forces," the Gray Goose Leader said casually. "What about the other camps on the plains? Didn't I tell them to head south as soon as possible?"
"Yes. Our cavalry have already split up to deliver the orders."
"Good. Apart from those guarding the Salt Mine, have all the other tribes come here. Let them see how we besiege the Dragon Kingdom's Count."
Less than forty kilometers east of Rothe Castle lay the Bristle-Wolf Family's private domain, Blue Magpie Barony. The castle in this territory was directly managed by each successive Count Bristle-Wolf.
Blue Magpie City had once been a supply base for the many armies traveling to the Gallop Plains. It had ready-made granaries, a dock, barracks, and fortifications. It was two days' journey from Bristle-Wolf City. Whenever the barbarians invaded south in great numbers, the Bristle-Wolf Knights and the Knights of the various Barons and Viscounts in the Count Territory would advance there, preparing to drive them back.
Along the Boundary River between Rothe and Blue Magpie stood several watch posts. These simple camps were usually beside the river's drawbridges. At the first sign of a large-scale barbarian invasion, the bridges would be raised at once.
Five days earlier, every drawbridge had already been raised. The barbarians had invaded in force. They had stormed Rothe Castle and occupied all of Rothe.
As the barbarians appeared near the Boundary River, whether deliberately or by chance, the entire Blue Magpie Territory was gripped by panic.
Viscount Rothe had once been deputy commander of the Bristle-Wolf Knights. A Senior Knight, he was one of the best fighters in the entire Northwest Territory, and his Knight squad was a renowned force in Bristle-Wolf City.
Yet this powerful force had not lasted three days against the barbarians. Not a single Knight had managed to break through and get word out.
The Knight Captain left in charge of Blue Magpie Castle had long understood the gravity of the situation. Since September 31, he had been gathering intelligence from Rothe every day and sending it to Bristle-Wolf City.
"My lord! Knight Captain!" A Knight ran over to report. "There's been movement on the western bank of the Boundary River!"
"What? What happened?" The Knight Captain asked, but didn't stop walking. He put on his helmet, rode out of the castle, and headed for the Boundary River with his personal guards.
A little over ten minutes later, the Knight Captain and his men reached the nearest observation post to Rothe Territory. They saw flocks of birds suddenly taking flight above several patches of woodland across the river.
"What's going on?" The Knight Captain immediately climbed the watchtower.
From the thirty-meter-high tower, he looked out over Rothe Territory. Great clouds of dust were rising more than ten kilometers away. Barbarian cavalry poured out of the dust in wave after wave. The tall barbarians rode Black-Scaled Horses, and within minutes they had reached the river. More than two hundred riders swept along the riverbank from north to south like a cloud of black smoke.
Behind the barbarian cavalry came countless pack animals, flocks of sheep, and carts driven by the Mana-Less. Large numbers of Mana-Less were also hauling timber.
The Knight Captain knew that the river beneath his feet could no longer protect Blue Magpie Castle. With so many Mana-Less, the barbarians had all the materials they needed to build a massive bridge.
"Gather everyone and leave at once! Notify every post along the riverbank to be ready to withdraw to Blue Magpie Castle!"
The lord's residence in Bristle-Wolf City.
A note slipped silently from Caspian Bristle-Wolf's hand.
"Two hundred men? How is that possible?" Where had they come from? The Count felt a storm rising in his heart. Behind those two hundred cavalrymen, there had to be at least another four hundred. They still needed men to guard their camps and the Salt Mine, not to mention nearly four thousand Mana-Less. That meant at least sixty camps.
There was no telling whether all the land south of the Gallop River could even muster sixty camps. How could so many cavalrymen have gathered together?
"Father... what do we do now?" His eldest son, Fernando Bristle-Wolf, was just as shocked. By the Empire's standards, the Bristle-Wolf Knights were a force of fifty Senior, Intermediate, Junior, and Reserve Knights.
Three Senior Knights, ten Intermediate Knights, and twenty Junior Knights made up the core of the force. The remaining seventeen Reserve Knights were mostly the second or third sons of various Barons and Viscounts.
The other Viscounts and Barons together should be able to muster about seventy more Knights. This force would be badly outmatched by two hundred barbarian cavalrymen.
If the Knights from the entire Count Territory formed an army and charged straight at the two hundred barbarians, perhaps the Knights could win in the end, but the price would be unimaginably high.
As the vanguard, the Bristle-Wolf Knights would probably have to prepare to lose more than half their force. The remaining two Viscounts and four Barons would likely have to sacrifice their heirs—or even the lords themselves. It would take at least ten years for the Count Territory to recover from such a battle.
And the barbarians had a higher proportion of Mana-Wielders than the Human Race. They might well come again next year.
Even if the Knights avoided a direct clash with the barbarian main force, they would inevitably end up locked in a standoff at Blue Magpie City. If the Count summoned the Knights from every territory, those territories would be left undefended, and the barbarians could easily slip in with light cavalry.
If he didn't summon the Knights, then the Viscounts and Barons throughout the Count Territory would likely have to face barbarian cavalry forces of more than a hundred riders.
Caspian felt utterly defeated. The barbarian invasion was a strategic trap. Their horses gave them the mobility to cover great distances at high speed.
Rothe Territory had fallen because the Bristle-Wolf Family had acted too slowly. With Rothe Castle, the gatekeeper of Korniko Pass, gone, the barbarian cavalry could roam freely throughout the Northwest Count Territory.
Defend one place, and you abandon the rest. Defend everywhere, and you defend nowhere.
"I never thought Rothe Castle would fall in just a few days," the Count finally said. "What do the barbarians want?"
"Grain? Money? People?"
"Hmm. They've already taken Rothe, but it still isn't enough." The Count had guessed the barbarians' intentions, but what good would that do? Could he organize a mass evacuation? Or divide his forces to defend everywhere?
"Notify the Bristle-Wolf Knights to take up positions at Blue Magpie Castle. Order the Viscounts and Barons east and south of Bristle-Wolf City to seal their castles and mobilize all their Knights to Blue Magpie City."
"Father..."
"We'll save whoever we can."
"Should we send word to the Royal Capital...?"
"No. We're short on troops, but Bristle-Wolf City isn't under siege. Have every family send some Mana-Wielders. We can bring our army to more than two hundred men, and we may well be able to fight them without being at a disadvantage. We're on our own Count Territory now, where magic flows freely. The advantage is ours!"
"All right, Father." This was the first time Fernando had heard of ordinary Mana-Wielders being conscripted to fight the barbarians. But he also knew that the Bristle-Wolf Family had served as the Dragon Kingdom's Northwest Count for generations. Every inch of land in the northwest belonged to the Bristle-Wolves, and the family would never tolerate anyone else encroaching on it.
"My lord," the Bristle-Wolf butler said as he entered the room, "a message has come from the Mirror Hall. They're calling a royal council."
Between Bristle-Wolf City and the King's directly governed lands around the Royal Capital, Dragon Tooth City, lay Viscount Elk's territory. Gunter Elk, the Viscount, was a distant relative of Wornat Elk, the Elk Marquis of the Dragon Kingdom's south. The common ancestor of the two families had lived before the Magic Tide of the God Emperor's year 709.
But having shared an ancestor three hundred years ago didn't stop the current Viscount Elk from cozying up to his Marquis kin. As far as the Bristle-Wolves were concerned, the Elk Family was the most pro-Royal Capital and southern noble house in the entire territory.
"Two hundred cavalrymen? How could this happen? Shouldn't the Count have gone straight to Rothe Castle to reinforce it?" The Viscount could already tell there was more to the situation.
"Perhaps the Bristle-Wolf Knights didn't have time to assemble?" his scholar speculated.
"That can't be it. All fifty-odd Knights of the Bristle-Wolf Knights live in Bristle-Wolf City. They could assemble in half a day, reach Blue Magpie Castle in less than a day, and be at Rothe Castle by the third."
"The enemy has two hundred cavalrymen. Even if all fifty Knights went, could they really turn the tide?"
"A barbarian tribe can only field ten cavalrymen, but they wouldn't send all their forces to attack. Behind two hundred cavalrymen, there must be at least forty tribes. There's no way those barbarians could have prepared and set out together.
"Even if Bristle-Wolf City didn't deliberately sit by and let Rothe fall, their failure has still led to the largest barbarian invasion in years. Our Count is probably going to come under pressure from the Royal Capital."
"So what should we do now?"
"Gather all our Knights and prepare to head to Blue Magpie Castle. We can't make the same mistake as the Bristle-Wolves!"
At that moment, in the palace of Dragon Tooth City, the Royal Capital, Dragon King Dusen Whiteowl was holding a royal council in the Mirror Hall.
The Mirror Hall was a very unusual room. When someone first entered, it seemed to contain nothing but polygonal walls, a table, and a chair.
But once the array beneath the floor was activated, seven or eight mirrors on the walls would come to life. They could connect to another mirror thousands of kilometers away, allowing people on either side to see one another. To someone from Landen's hometown, they were like two monitors.
In the Mirror Hall of the Dragon Kingdom's palace, special magic mirrors were linked to two enfeoffed Marquises, three enfeoffed Counts, three Ducal families, the Kingdom's Supreme Temple, the Kingdom's highest Magic Tower, Dragon's Nest, and the lairs of several Legendary Dragons.
Today's royal council was called specifically to discuss the barbarian invasion along the northwestern border. The Royal Capital had received word as soon as the Bristle-Wolf Count learned that Rothe Territory had fallen.
The Royal Capital wasn't slow to learn many important things. But because of the struggles between the various families, bad news was usually first dismissed as something that needed no attention at all. Then it was deemed something that could be dealt with whenever convenient. Later, it was finally recognized as a missed opportunity to act.
In short, knowing in time didn't mean acting in time; acting in time didn't mean being able to avert disaster in time; and averting disaster in time didn't mean the future would turn out well. That was how the power struggles between the Kingdom's families played out.
"Caspian, my old friend, tell me: how bad is the barbarian trouble where you are?" Nine years ago, for one reason or another, Dusen Whiteowl had become King of the Dragon Kingdom.
Although he was the son-in-law of the previous Dragon Kingdom King, Baoer-Ya Red-Dragon, he didn't bear the Red-Dragon name. He would abdicate in favor of his son, Ye Richie Red-Dragon, once he reached level nine.
So while Dusen Whiteowl was in power, he disliked holding these "video conferences." Even through the magic mirror, he could sense the other nobles' resentment at his having risen to the throne through marriage.
"Your Majesty, please trust that the Bristle-Wolf Family can defend the Kingdom's entire northwestern region," the Northwest Count said in his defense, though it was feeble and unconvincing.
"I hear two hundred barbarian cavalrymen have gathered in Rothe Territory, and several hundred more are assembling north of Cornico Valley?" asked Baron Roland Lanyuan, the Captain of the Royal Guard.
"Impossible. Absolutely impossible." The Bristle-Wolf Count could only dig in his heels to keep the Royal Capital's forces from entering Bristle-Wolf Territory.
"Hmm. If the pressure isn't that great, then the Dragon Knights don't need to stay on alert. But what about you, Lord McLaren Blue Dragon?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." McLaren Blue Dragon was one of the Dragon Kingdom's three Legendary National Pillars, and was now a peak-tier Legendary Knight.
Legendary National Pillars were Legendary powerhouses granted fiefs and supported by a Kingdom or Principality. Their families were either royal houses or had been made Ducal families.
For example, the Dragon Empire's three Legendary National Pillars were the Legendary Knight McLaren Blue Dragon, the Legendary Priest Gorkesh Red-Dragon, and the Legendary Mage Benite Wyvern. Each Pillar's family held a Ducal title and possessed a central city.
Such generous treatment naturally came with the expectation that they would respond promptly whenever the Kingdom faced a crisis.
"Would you keep an eye on the Northwest Territory? If anything goes wrong, lend a hand."
"Of course, Your Majesty."
"Thank you for making the arrangements, Your Majesty." The Bristle-Wolf Count thanked him aloud, but inwardly he could only groan. Whenever a Legend intervened, suitable compensation had to be given. He regretted even more now that he hadn't supported Rothe in the first place.