44. Bottom-Fishing

Count Bristle-Wolf had no idea that his countdom had already been thoroughly arranged by video conference among the Palace Front Department, the Tower of Purity, and Dragon Tooth City.

At that moment, the count was in the lord's chambers of Blue Magpie Castle, secretly meeting Viscount Rothe's illegitimate son together with his eldest son.

The illegitimate son had arrived at Blue Magpie Castle last night as an envoy of the Grey Goose Tribe. As the castle's greatest secret, the moment he entered, he was placed under the control of the Bristle-Wolf family and completely cut off from the outside world.

"Tell me—how many barbarians have come to Gallop Plains?"

"Reporting to you, my lord, there are at least three hundred that can be seen. But a few days ago, they split into several small squads to raid, and they suffered some losses as well. There are now around two hundred and sixty cavalrymen."

"Mm. How many people have they plundered?"

"About eight knight territories, fifty Mana-Wielders, and six Knight Apprentices. The main things they seized were Alchemy Items."

"What did that Head Goose tell you to say?"

"The Gray Goose Leader asked me to bring you a message."

"Hmm?"

"As long as you agree to let him take away the existing spoils and captives, and allow the Grey Goose Tribe to establish a market in Rothe Territory, he is willing to split the profits from salt and iron with you every year, ensuring that you receive a great many Gold Coins annually!"

"Daydreaming!" the count roared. Bristle-Wolf knew perfectly well that Grey Goose wanted to stick a bird's claw into his territory. Split the profits from salt and iron, my ass.

If Grey Goose crawled back to Gallop Plains, Bristle-Wolf City could monopolize all the profits from selling salt and iron on the plains. Why should he share them with some gray-feathered goose?

"You traitor!"

The count glared furiously at the illegitimate son before him. As the only surviving Bloodline of Count Rothe, Count Bristle-Wolf blamed Rothe's downfall on the illegitimate son.

"Why have I never heard that Rothe Territory had some ungrateful thing like you, feeding off your master while betraying him?"

"My lord Count, I had no choice! They..." The illegitimate son looked deeply aggrieved. After all, all the knights in the territory were gone. What could he have done alone?

"You bastard! In the name of His Majesty, in the name of the Dragon Kingdom, I'll chop you apart!" With that, the count raised his blade to kill the illegitimate son.

"Father, Father!" Little Bristle-Wolf hurriedly stopped him. "Guards, drag this traitor away!"

Two knights immediately rushed in and escorted the illegitimate son out.

"Father, please calm your anger."

"That Grey Goose who doesn't know his place—if I, this Bristle-Wolf, don't bite his head off, does he think I'm some mongrel?" Count Bristle-Wolf said furiously.

Bristle-Wolf's thoughts on the Grey Goose Tribe were very similar to Viscount Rothe's. Both believed that this tribe was nothing more than a barbarian proxy they had supported on Gallop Plains, and that Grey Goose had become rich overnight because of them. Coincidentally, the leader of Grey Goose held much the same view. He believed that Viscount Rothe and Count Bristle-Wolf had only developed their present prosperity thanks to the plains' specialties supplied by Grey Goose.

At this moment, Count Bristle-Wolf had no intention of delving into the theory of comparative advantage. He was simply enraged by the Grey Goose Tribe's utter lack of gratitude.

The knight contingents of the various vassals had already begun arriving at Bristle-Wolf City one after another. The count had cleverly freeloaded off the Paladin's prestige, asking Bert Kaul to help the vassal forces converge along the roads. The moment the Barbarian Cavalry caught sight of a Paladin, they would immediately retreat. Thus, after roughly fifty vassal knights gathered in Bristle-Wolf City a few days later, they would head together to Blue Magpie Castle.

A Knight Order of one hundred knights could overpower an even larger force of Barbarian Cavalry. So long as the Knight Order could create an opening for him to charge into the Gray Goose Leader's formation, the count, as a Senior Knight, was fully confident he could take the goose's head directly.

Count Bristle-Wolf swore that he would make the Grey Goose Tribe, which did not know life from death, understand exactly what price it would have to pay for daring to bottom-fish the castles under his command!

After Landen took down the Eagle Tribe, the entire camp moved once more. Yet on the morning of the second day, Patch received word from Fang: following the Grey Goose messenger, they had found a new medium-sized camp.

Landen did not want the territory to relocate too frequently. Every migration to a new camp consumed vast amounts of food. Moreover, whenever they set up camp, they usually took in new Mana-Less or Mana-Wielders, and those people also needed time to adapt to the camp's rules.

But good news soon arrived. One camp was willing to trade the Human Race Mana-Wielders in its tribe with Landen, while another was willing to decide whether to submit to the Gallop Tribe through a duel.

Landen's own forces were now formidable. His Left Camp alone had fifty-one Mana-Wielders, the Right Camp had seventy-five Barbarian Cavalry, and the former Gallop Barony had another eighteen Mana-Wielders. Therefore, Landen decided to leave thirty-three Mana-Wielders from Gallop Barony and the Left Camp behind with Albert to guard the main camp. He himself led sixteen knights from the Left Camp—four Junior Knights and twelve Knight Apprentices—along with ten Mana-Wielders and forty Barbarian Cavalry as the central force. Neil led twenty Barbarian Cavalry as the vanguard, while another ten barbarians were sent to follow Fang as scouts.

With a cavalry force of more than fifty men, the trade with the medium-sized tribe went very smoothly. This tribe, called the Jerboa Tribe, readily handed over one Reserve Knight and three Mana-Wielders in exchange for two Black-Scaled Horses and four Pack Beasts. Landen also promised that if the tribe encountered difficulties in the future, they could come to him for help, or follow his tribe north afterward.

The leader of the Jerboa Tribe was also very satisfied with the deal. Human Race Mana-Wielders required additional cavalry to guard them and consumed a great deal of provisions. Once winter came, having too many Human Race Mana-Wielders would greatly drain the tribe's resources and energy.

On the way to duel the second tribe, Landen rode in the Eagle Luxury Wagon for the first time and directly raised its ten-meter-tall mast.

It had to be said that sitting in the moving wagon, wearing a mask while keeping watch over an area of roughly ten kilometers around them, really made Landen feel... a little carsick. After watching for a while, he removed the mask and peacefully enjoyed life in the luxury wagon.

The duel with the barbarian representatives of the second camp went smoothly. Intimidated by Neil's Patrol Squad, this camp had already intended to submit to the Gallop Tribe. The duel was merely a ritual to display Gallop's great strength, so both sides agreed that they could not kill one another.

When they were certain no one would die, the barbarians preferred to use this sort of "competition" for duels.

Since there was no need to fight to the death, Landen had no need to take the field. Under the witness of the two leaders, Neil defeated the other side's three barbarian representatives.

The training of barbarians was not without rules. After their Mana-Wielder Bloodline was awakened, the magic power within their Bloodline would continuously strengthen their bodies. Neil ate Magic Beast Meat every day, and his meals were far better than those of barbarians from other tribes. He had long been the strongest warrior in the Right Camp, so naturally winning a wrestling duel was no challenge at all.

Previously, Landen had feared that the medium-sized tribes would report his location to Eagle. Now that the Eagle Tribe had been eliminated, Landen resumed his conciliatory policy toward the medium-sized tribes. Besides establishing his prestige as the new overlord of the plains, he hoped to obtain more intelligence.

Wishing everyone a happy National Day! Happy holiday!