When helping Restoration Army defeat Hengfors League Army with less, Istredd promised that Lynn could choose any city from Kovir and Poviss except the summer capital and winter capital.
When it was the turn of the demon hunters, all the nobles present were whispering.
They are all curious about how Lynn will choose.
As a result, Lynn pointed his hand to the east of the map.
Enclaves of Kovir and Poviss, Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén.
Isparaden is nominally subordinate to Kovir and Poviss, but in fact enjoys a high degree of autonomy.
Their annual taxes are the smallest among all vassals, and their military obligations are simply not fulfilled.
Even after the "Poviss Secession" incident occurred, the nobles of Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén even killed the archduke sent by Kovir and Poviss.
Externally, it was claimed that the death was accidental.
After Thyssen family stepped down and King Idi took over, his control over Isparaden further declined.
I simply didn't even pay taxes.
It has completely become a de facto independent country.
It's just that the nobles of Isparaden are not convinced by anyone, so they can't choose a king who can convince everyone. In addition, relying on the name of Kovir as the suzerain country, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, so Isparaden and the suzerain country are still separated by this last layer of window paper.
If you think that Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén only has this trouble, you are wrong.
Isparaden Due to its deep inland relationship, it cannot be said that its commercial trade is non-existent, but at least it can be said to be better than nothing.
The income from any barony of Kovir and Poviss is higher than the income of Isparaden from a barony of Earl.
Coupled with the extremely high degree of autonomy and xenophobia here...
Therefore, when Lynn pointed at Isparaden, the nobles were all dumbfounded.
Even Istredd never expected that Lynn would choose this way.
He had already prepared himself. Even if Lynn wanted Inis Bohet Island, he would bear the pain and give up his love.
In the end, I never expected that Lynn would actually want Isparaden.
Isparaden That piece of land looks bigger than Inis Bohet Island, but in terms of income, the former is far inferior to the latter.
"Lynn Earl, have you really thought it through? Don't you regret it?"
"Well, this is it."
Other nobles avoid Isparaden, but Lynn has his own considerations.
First of all, Isparaden is very close to Kaer Morhen, and the two places can take care of each other;
Secondly, Isparaden is larger than Velen, but the environment is not as bad as Velen, and the number of monsters is much smaller than Velen.
Therefore, as long as the local local snakes are dealt with, agriculture can be developed on a large scale in Isparaden.
Agriculture is very important in this era... or should I say, it is very important in every era.
It's just that in Lynn's home world, many Westerners who have been raised as lazy people by high welfare believe from the bottom of their hearts that products grow on the shelves.
In addition, Westerners generally believe that engaging in finance can make more money than farming. Over time, fewer and fewer Westerners understand agriculture, and the role of agriculture has gradually been underestimated and forgotten.
In this world, productivity cannot be compared with Lynn's home world. Therefore, no matter how well business develops, agriculture cannot be ignored.
If you don't have enough to eat, no art, philosophy, etc. can save you, and you will turn into a beast in a matter of minutes.
Furthermore, the land Isparaden borders Kaedwen.
And Lynn, who holds the script in his hand, knows very well that the Henselt king of Kaedwen will betray the northern camp in the future and attack Aedirn together with the Nilfgaardian Empire.
At that time, Lynn, who has great righteousness, can take the opportunity to lead his troops south and destroy Kingdom of Kaedwen.
Of course, it can be expected that the local nobles of Kaedwen will definitely jump out and accuse their own blood.
But it doesn't matter, the local nobles Lynn don't like him anyway, he only wants the land but not the people, Kaedwen's local nobles are one of them, either they are decent, or he helps them look decent.
Besides, as long as you occupy Kingdom of Kaedwen, you can cut the land of Kaedwen into countless pieces and entrust them to soldiers who have made heroic contributions in the war and are from humble backgrounds (promote them to knights or barons).
These new nobles will naturally unite closely around Lynn for their own interests.
This method does not apply to Continent of Westeros, because no matter how messy Continent of Westeros is, Seven Kingdoms is more or less related to her.
If anyone dares to sway the interests of the upper-class nobles, Seven Kingdoms will immediately form a coalition and be the first to destroy him.
But this method can be used in the world of witchers.
Because there are naturally irreconcilable contradictions between the north and the south, it is absolutely impossible to reconcile, and therefore it is impossible to unite.
At the same time, in the near future, the seemingly stable northern camp will become unstable, and the entire north will tremble under the iron heel of Nilfgaard's black army.
By that time, the kings in the north will not be able to protect themselves, let alone control Lynn.
Now that Lynn has made his choice, Istredd said nothing more and announced that Isparaden has been sealed to Lynn.
And in order to let Lynn better rule Isparaden.
Istredd promoted Lynn's noble title from Earl to Grand Duke.
Only this time, when the other nobles looked at Lynn, they no longer looked at him with envy, but with sympathy and pity.
Because they all know the ending of the last Grand Duke.
In fact, they can all guess the reason why Lynn chose Isparaden.
Even if Isparaden's business is not as good as that of the local area, its mineral resources are far inferior.
But in terms of area and scale, Isparaden is almost the same as the mainland.
If the local nobles of Isparaden can be suppressed, then Lynn will be a grand duke in name but no different from a king in reality.
Coupled with Isparaden's high degree of autonomy and independence, even if Lynn listens to the instructions but not the propaganda, Thyssen family has nothing to do with Lynn.
He won't even fall out with Lynn.
Because even if Lynn actually becomes the king, it is equivalent to a potential ally. In addition, there are Hengfors League and Principality of Talgar between Isparaden and the mainland. This world also has a proverb similar to the proverb of distant friendship and close attack.
Of course, all of this has preconditions.
That means Lynn can suppress the local nobles of Isparaden and secure his position as Grand Duke.
Regarding this point, the nobles under Istredd are not optimistic about it.
Although they all admit that Lynn is very powerful, after all, it is not powerful enough to ignore thousands of troops.
Moreover, the number of demon hunters under the command of Lynn is really too small.
There are only a dozen or so.
Sneak attacks are okay, but frontal combat is just a worry...
In short, the nobles are not optimistic about the future of Lynn.
In this way, all the usurpers have been brought to justice, so Istredd's army will naturally be disbanded.
For such a huge army, it costs a lot of money to eat and chew horses every day, and there are also many peasants and soldiers recruited into the army.
As long as the army is not disbanded, these conscripted farmers and soldiers will not be able to go back to farming.
This is obviously not conducive to resuming production.
Moreover, those nobles who had benefited from the Restoration War could not wait to visit their new territories for a good inspection.
Therefore, the nobles left Lan Exeter, taking their troops with them.
Even those conscripted peasant soldiers in the army directly under Istredd were able to return home after receiving a large sum of money.
And Istredd himself led the remaining army and embarked on the return journey to Lang Essette.
Although this war of restoration ended much faster than he expected, and the losses and damage caused to the country were also minimized, after all, it was the replacement of the old and new regimes, and he had to return to the capital as soon as possible to take charge of the overall situation.
And one evening, when the army stopped to set up camp, an owl flew into Istredd's tent.
There is only one person in the account, Istredd.
He glanced at the owl standing on the box and smiled.
"Philippa Erhardt, I am truly honored to have you here."
A flash of light flashed, and the owl disappeared, replaced by a woman sitting on the box in an elegant posture.
If not the royal advisor of Redania, who else could Philippa Erhart be?
"Your Majesty, you are welcome... No, I should call you Your Majesty now."
"I have to thank you for your help. Thanks to you for delaying the action of Redania's army. Thyssen family will not forget your efforts. When you need it, Thyssen family will definitely answer the call."
"Well, I have written it down, and I am sincerely impressed by His Majesty's generosity. Our two countries have had some unpleasant experiences in the past, but that is all in the past. I hope that the friendship between our two countries will be unbreakable and last forever."
'Our two countries?'
Istredd is keenly aware of the words used in Philippa's words.
His eyes twinkled slightly.
But it soon returned to normal.
The two exchanged a few more polite words, and then Philippa finally revealed his intention.
"Your Majesty, I have heard some very interesting news recently."
"Oh, what is it?"
"According to some false rumors, there were mutants with cat eyes involved in the battle in which Your Majesty defeated Hengfors League Army. I wonder if this happened?"
"Ms. Philippa is joking. Didn't you also say that it is a false rumor among the people? How can it be true?"
"So, there is no demon hunter in your country who has become an archduke?"
"No, that's true. It's just that it involves state secrets, so it's not something that should be disclosed to outsiders."
Philippa said in a deliberately confusing tone.
"Well, I can understand it, but, Your Majesty, you must be careful of those mutants. I believe you must have heard rumors about them."
"They will do whatever it takes to get the bounty. The school of demon hunters active in the south is in danger of destruction precisely because of their existence, which threatens the usurper emperor Nilfgaard."
However, Philippa was disappointed.
Istredd looks as usual.
"Thank you for your information, Ms. Philippa, I will keep it in mind... Anything else?"
Philippa stared at Istredd.
The latter also had a smile on his face and looked at her intently.
In the end, Philippa took the initiative to look away.
Istredd's wise Philippa had already predicted this.
But the Thyssen family leader's mind and magnanimity still exceeded her expectations.
Logically speaking, after a king successfully restores his kingdom, shouldn't the next operation be to hide the good birds and hide the good ones, and to cook the cunning rabbits?
What is this operation?
Is Istredd really not worried that those demon hunters will seize his country?
You know, if no accidents occur, demon hunters can usually live for a long time.
If you are willing to spend time slowly infiltrating a political power, regardless of whether it will succeed in the end, isn't this something that anyone in power should worry about?
Is Istredd really so relieved?
Seeing that Istredd really didn't care about those demon hunters, Philippa thought about it and finally stopped instigating.
After all, the big thing she is going to do next will have to rely on Istredd.
At least for now, I can't fall out with him.
'Go and talk to those witchers alone to see which witcher can confuse Istredd like this.'
Seeing that Istredd didn't want to talk about this topic anymore, Philippa also changed the topic.
At the same time that Philippa went to see Istredd, he was in Lan Exeter's prison.
"Hey! Get up! Get up quickly! Woman!"
Julia Aibatemak was called up from the bed in the cell. Together with other prisoners, she was called to the shower room to take a shower and was given a set of clean clothes.
While waiting in line outside the cafeteria, Julia quietly asked a prisoner in front of him.
"Do you know what's going on?"
"I heard that a big shot is coming."
"Big shot, what big shot?"
Before the prisoner in front of her had time to reply, she heard the jailer shouting loudly, "Don't whisper to each other, please be honest!"
Julia stopped saying anything.
Afterwards, she and other prisoners entered the cafeteria to eat and were taken to an open space outside the prison.
Then, she was surprised to find that the open space was full of people.
And it's none other than Wild Cats's former companion.
"Everyone be quiet and stand still."
The guards in front of these prisoners were fully armed and very nervous.
After all, there were only a few dozen of them, but there were three thousand prisoners in front of them.
These prisoners are not criminals like murderers or rapists, but members of Wild Cats who fought for King Lettenhove during the previous siege of Lan Exeter because they were on the wrong team.
King Lettenhove was executed, the entire family was exterminated, and his close associates were also executed or exiled.
As for these Wild Cats who fought for King Lettenhove and suffered almost half of their casualties, they were thrown into prison just like this.