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Hooves struck the earth, kicking up dust as the knights, mounted and armed with lances and kite shields, stood in a standoff against the barbarian cavalry armed with round shields and scimitars several hundred meters away. The knights occasionally approached the barbarian ranks, engaging briefly before breaking away; sometimes, they would strike at the barbarian cavalry with their lances, only for the agile riders to dodge instantly. The barbarian cavalry would also draw their bows to fire, but the Beast Fang Arrows shot from their composite short bows were utterly unable to pierce the knights' iron armor. The two forces circled one another, closing in and pulling apart by turns.

At Blue Magpie Castle, Count Bristle-Wolf stood on the observation deck, watching the probing skirmish between a squad of the Bristle-Wolf Knights and thirty barbarian cavalrymen. After years of accumulation, the Bristle-Wolf Knights were well-equipped with iron armor and Black Scale Horses, and every squad was led by a high-level knight. It could be said that a knight squad of this size could easily overwhelm a barbarian cavalry force twice its number.

The leader of the knight squad outside the city was the Mane Wolf Eldest Son. As a standout of the younger generation, he possessed great talent in battle aura, horsemanship, and technique, lacking only combat experience.

Fortunately, such probing maneuvers were never intended to be a fight to the death, but rather a mutual assessment between opponents.

Ever since Count Bristle-Wolf had realized the barbarians' intent—to prevent the vassal knights from across the northwest from reaching Blue Magpie Castle and then pick them off one by one—the Count had been searching for a solution. The current situation between the Bristle Wolf and the Gray Goose was that the combined force of the Bristle-Wolf Knights and all vassal knights was stronger than the total cavalry of the Gray Goose. However, the Gray Goose had split into five groups; apart from the hundred or so men beneath Blue Magpie Castle, the rest had broken into small raiding parties to harass the vassal territories and interfere with their assembly at Blue Magpie Castle. Without the vassal armies to provide support, the Count was unwilling to risk his own knights in a direct charge against a hundred cavalrymen.

To break this stalemate, fresh forces were needed. The Count had taken two actions: first, he dispatched squads of 10-15 knights to maintain a constant state of tension and probing against the barbarians. The knight squads were formidable, and with a mid-level priest from Bristle-Wolf City stationed within the castle, they could control the intensity of their skirmishes to ensure no casualties or losses.

After several days of probing, the barbarians had suffered over a dozen injuries and falls, forcing them to recall some of their raiding parties. This allowed the Count's vassals to leave their territories and gather at Blue Magpie Territory. Viscount Elk and another baron from east of Bristle-Wolf City, both currently on the observation deck, had been liberated in this very manner.

However, merely gathering the vassals was likely not enough. While Count Bristle-Wolf summoned his vassals, the leader of the Gray Goose was also summoning more tribes from the plains. Consequently, the Count had reached out to the Blue Dragon Family of the kingdom, pledging the next three years of private salt revenue as collateral to request the support of a 25-man knight squadron.

This squadron was expected to arrive in about a month, and the Count believed that the local vassals combined with these external reinforcements would be enough to drive away the barbarians while keeping the territory under his control.

"You know Albert Gallop better than I do; he won't be caught by those savages," Viscount Elk said from behind the Count, attempting to comfort Hark. "Your family has managed that forest for so long, what else is there to worry about?"

"It is precisely because I am familiar with it that I worry. There are too many Magic Beasts in the forest; a single moment of carelessness and a Mana-Less one will become a meal for a mid-level Magic Beast. The reason I took care of the commoners of two territories for Rothe Territory eight years ago was because we know the forest too well—a single mid-level knight simply cannot handle it alone," Hark said, his heart still tethered to his own territory.

"I used to oppose your trading grain, salt, iron, and horses with the barbarians. I thought it was aiding the enemy, but I don't think so anymore. The Black Scale Horses are too powerful, and when battle aura cannot be used, iron armor is the strongest defense. Now that the barbarians are mounted and armored, if we cannot keep up, we will only be trapped in our castles by them."

"Are you not going to say that it was our trade that caused the barbarians to grow strong?"

"Don't be ridiculous. How many barbarians could your little bit of trade equip with iron armor?" In the Dragon Kingdom, there was a saying that it was the frequent trade between border nobles and barbarians that had led to the barbarians' current strength. "There are at least 200 barbarian cavalrymen in the entire northwest territory now, and their tribes have at least an equal number of barbarian Mana-Wielders and five times as many Mana-Less ones. Even if all the Mana-Wielders in the northwest sent all their grain to the Gallop Plains, it wouldn't be enough to feed so many people."

"But the Empire can afford it," Hark said with a bitter smile. "How can one lower the cost of salt and iron while ensuring the interests of the nobles? Naturally, the Imperial Salt and Iron Department buys salt and iron ingots directly from the barbarians on the Gallop Plains on a massive scale."

"Indeed. Salt and iron are bulk goods, difficult to transport, so local production is more profitable. To ensure even greater profits, the Salt and Iron Department even provides the barbarians with iron-smelting and salt-boiling technology." As a family that controlled the vital passage from the imperial heartland to the Gallop Plains, the Elk family was highly sensitive to the transport of goods. "Every year, massive amounts of grain from the east and south of the continent, along with Mana-Wielders from families that lost their power struggles, enter the Gallop Plains. The barbarian tribes sustained by this grain and these slaves can now easily dispatch hundreds of cavalry to sweep through the northwest territory."

"Not only that, the entire northwest territory and the entire Dragon Kingdom are buying salt and iron from the barbarians. Our gold coins are being divided between the agents of the Dragon Family and the barbarians; these coins have now become the chains used to hang us."

The two border nobles outlined the well-known secret of the Gallop Plains, one sentence after another. After multiple failed campaigns, the human race had decided to develop the mineral resources of the Gallop Plains through proxies, with the Blue Dragon Family—the kingdom's agent for the Salt and Iron Department—stepping forward to guarantee the barbarians' mining technology and transport routes.

While such mining would increase the barbarians' strength, no matter how powerful they became, they could not threaten the interior of the Dragon Kingdom, because once past Bristle-Wolf City, the influence of the Magic Turbulence would nearly vanish. Thus, the barbarian threat would exist only within the borders of the northwest countships.

Although the minor nobles in the northwest territory would be in danger, compared to the cost of living for the populace of the entire Dragon Kingdom and the interests of the Imperial Salt and Iron Department, such sacrifices were deemed necessary. This was the inner thinking of the high-ranking officials in the halls of the Dragon Kingdom.

"I truly don't know how you have managed all these years," Viscount Elk said, now full of admiration for Hark. "Don't worry about the territory. Even if Albert and his men fail to protect the commoners, it doesn't matter. It would be simple for a few of us nobles from the east and south to pool our resources and find you 300 commoners. My chief knight's third son recently became a mid-level knight; I will call him tomorrow to serve as your family knight."

Now that the nobles in the northwest territory had personally felt the barbarian threat, they all understood that Hark's territory was their outer gate; they did not mind parting with a portion of their population and Mana-Wielders to support him.

"Who is that?" the Count suddenly asked from the balcony.