Of course, Lynn also knows that not everything in this world will work according to his own ideas.
Calanthe Queen is still the ruler of a country no matter what she says.
Not to mention the stubborn ass like Queen Calanthe, even a wise king like Istredd. If Lynn suggested that Istredd build a fortress somewhere, Istredd would have to consider it carefully.
After all, building a fortress costs a lot of money.
Not to mention the subsequent maintenance costs and the expenses of hundreds of garrison troops.
Therefore, Lynn also has a plan B.
If, he means if...
If Queen Calanthe refuses to listen to the advice no matter what, then at least when she hears that Nilfgaard Army is crossing the border and marching towards Marnadal Valley, she must not leave the city for a decisive battle, but stick to Cintra city and wait for reinforcements.
In the original plot, if the main force of the Cintra king had not been completely lost in the field battle, the subsequent Cintra city would not have fallen so quickly.
Therefore, if Queen Calanthe is really unwilling to build a fortress in Marnadal Valley, then retaining the precious royal troops and waiting for reinforcements, maybe Cintra can still have a glimmer of hope.
After Mousesack left, Lynn took out the sound transmission box and sent invitations to Triss and Fringilla respectively.
He is now only the grand duke of Kovir in name, but in fact the land area he controls is equivalent to the land area of kingdoms such as Cidaris, Verden, Brugge, and Sodden.
He invited Triss and Fringilla not only to serve as royal advisers, but also to grant them fiefdoms.
The sorceress is also a human being, and naturally she also has the thoughts of people of this era - to obtain a piece of land of her own.
Ever since humans landed on this continent, there has never been a king who granted land to warlocks.
Even the "the White" Raffard, who was a highly respected minister, was only the regent of Temeria.
Nominally, he owned the entire country, but in fact he was neither a noble nor had any land under his direct jurisdiction.
After his death, his descendants have nothing to inherit.
Now, Lynn allocates land to the sorceresses, even if it is just a piece of land the size of Earl's territory, it is tantamount to tying them to his chariot.
Lynn is not worried that Emhyr·Enris will not let him go.
Emhyr is just a mortal, even if he can spread Dimeritium on City of Golden Towers to prevent the warlocks under his command from being disloyal.
It is also impossible for him to put Dimeritium shackles on every warlock and then untie them when he needs them.
Not even Nilfgaardian Empire would do that.
Therefore, if Fringilla wants to leave Nilfgaard, Emhyr cannot stop it at all.
However, once you really leave the empire, you are considered a traitor. Not only will you never be able to return to Nilfgaard, but you will have to face assassins sent by the emperor from now on.
But do these Fringilla care?
She doesn't care.
So, she secretly escaped from the Nilfgaardian Empire.
Came to Caingorn City.
Lynn personally selected a piece of fertile land for Fringilla.
Similarly, supporting administrative staff have been arranged for her so that she can be a hands-off shopkeeper and enjoy the status and power of a female Earl.
The arrival of Fringilla not only means that Lynn has an additional warlock, but also provides the possibility for Lynn to form a magic army.
You know, the number of famous warlocks in the Nilfgaardian Empire is not as good as that in Northern Kingdoms, but the number of magic soldiers is far more than that in the north.
This mainly stems from a proposal Fringilla made to Emperor Emhyr in the future:
That is, all civilians under the age of 18 across the country will be tested for their magic qualifications.
As long as there is a possibility of magic qualifications, the civilian can study at Imperial Academy of Magic, and all expenses during the period will be paid for by the Imperial Finance Department.
But after graduating, the civilian must join the imperial army and serve the emperor.
The service period is ten years.
Imperial Academy of Magic doesn't care about how far the student can go on the road of magic. What he considers is how to make the student develop combat effectiveness as quickly as possible.
Late bloomers do not exist in Imperial Academy of Magic's dictionary, and the academy does not cultivate scholar-type warlocks.
All Imperial Academy of Magic courses only serve the purpose of "war".
This kind of teaching purpose is completely opposite to that of the Aretuza Academy and Ban Ade Academy, so Imperial Academy of Magic is rarely able to teach first-rate warlocks.
Top warlocks like Fringilla and Assire mainly come from family inheritance, not from Imperial Academy of Magic.
Now that Fringilla has come to the north, it just so happens that Lynn can also cultivate magic soldiers on a large scale in his own territory.
Fringilla is very satisfied with the territory that Lynn carefully selected for Fringilla.
In order to thank Lynn, Fringilla specially hosted Lynn for three days and three nights in the manor he built with magic.
If Triss's sound transmission box hadn't sounded at the right time.
Maybe Lynn will stay in the manor for another week.
After Lynn returned to Caingorn, he met Triss in the lord's mansion.
But what surprised him was that Triss did not come alone.
"Hi, Lynn, long time no see. I heard that you are now a Grand Duke. Maybe I should call you Sir."
Keira Metz, standing next to Triss, smiled and performed the courtesy of a noble.
"Ms. Keira, why are you here?"
Keira did not answer.
Instead, he looked at Triss with a smile.
The red-haired sorceress sighed.
"Just say whatever you want without looking at my face."
So Keira said with a smile, "Lynn, you don't mind having two sorceresses working for you, right?"
"Of course," Lynn glanced quickly at Triss, who had no expression on his face, so he nodded, "Of course I don't mind."
The sorceress smiled and saluted again, "That's it, Keira Metz, I am willing to serve you."
"This..."
Lynn looked at Triss in disbelief.
Is there such a good thing?
How could he not be happy?
It should be said that no king... or grand duke would be unwilling to have multiple sorcerers serving in his court.
Triss saw Lynn's expression of thirsty for talents, and immediately snorted, folded his hands on his chest and said.
"After this woman heard that I was planning to come to you, she also resigned from Foltest. If you reject her, she will have nowhere to go."
Keira said, "It doesn't matter if Lynn really doesn't want to accept me. There is no need to feel any pressure. At worst, I can go back to the Aretuza Academy to teach. Anyway, doesn't Margarita Laux-Antille often complain that there are too many students and not enough teachers?"
Just kidding.
After all, how could Lynn let him go?
Keira is different from Philippa.
If it is Philippa, then Lynn is really grateful.
Because this woman is either causing trouble or on the way to causing trouble.
Even if both of her eyes were gouged out in the future, it would not change her character.
As for Keira, although she also has the common problem of covetousness among sorceresses, but then again, people are not machines, and who doesn't want to live a good life? Moreover, Keira has never been ambiguous on issues of right and wrong.
Therefore, after some pleasantries, and relying on Lynn's sharp tongue, he made both sorceresses very happy, so the two women stayed and arranged a fiefdom for each of them.
Of course, in order to prevent them from fighting, Triss and Keira, as well as the fiefdoms of Fringilla, are separated by a considerable distance.
Moreover, if they want to walk from their respective fiefdoms to Caingorn City, they will not pass through any woman's fiefdom.
Although there is no conflict between the three girls now, it is always right to take precautions before they happen.
Next, Lynn ran back and forth countless times between Novigrad and his own territory.
Finally, enough bureaucratic clerks were recruited.
Then, he non-stop arranged them into his own territory and that of his vassals.
However, only a few of these people have experience and have served other nobles, and most of them are only educated and have not really received work experience that matches their majors.
Therefore, at the beginning, there were still many problems.
But these are all within Lynn's expectations.
Fortunately, although the land area of Duchy of Hengfors is not small, it is in the extreme north, sparsely populated, and there are not many villages and towns with a slight population concentration. Therefore, it is relatively difficult to manage. Even if something goes wrong, the impact will not be big and it can be easily corrected.
After a long period of running-in, this group of officials finally accumulated enough experience. Some of them who were really incompetent were replaced by Lynn, and a new group of capable talents were selected.
By this time, even if he didn't have the bottom line, there wouldn't be much trouble.
So, taking this opportunity, Lynn left Caingorn City, returned to Kaer Morhen, and found Tissaia alone.
And told the other party that he had occupied Hengfors League.
Lynn has not forgotten what he promised to the other party.
Aretuza Academy is one of the two well-known magic academies in the north, located in Temeria.
And Temeria is in the middle of Northern Kingdoms.
Once war breaks out between the North and the South, Aretuza Academy may be forced to take sides.
Therefore, Lynn made a suggestion to Tissaia: relocate Aretuza Academy to his own territory.
From the map, your territory borders Principality of Talgar to the west, Duchy of the Curved Coast, a vassal state of Redania, to the south, and borders your nominal fiefdom Isparaden to the east.
The north of his territory stretches from Poviss in the east to Isparaden in the west. It can be said that it spans from one end of the known world to the Dragon Mountains at the other end.
This geographical location is simply tailor-made for the Aretuza Academy.
If a magic academy does not settle on an inaccessible mountain, but must choose to be located on a small island in the middle of the mainland where people come and go, it will lead to intentions without any intention.
If Aretuza Academy moves to the Dragon Mountains, on the one hand, it will be far away from the whirlpool of disputes from now on. There is no need to worry about the envoys and spies of the kings, and they will gather in Goos·Velen...
On the other hand, moving Aretuza to one's own territory is equivalent to tying the other party to one's own chariot.
Of course, Lynn will not force Aretuza to fight for himself like Radovid later forced Oxenfurt University.
But you must know that this magic academy does not only train combat warlocks, but also trains more non-war talents such as alchemists and scholars.
In other words, it would be a huge waste of talent to turn a warlock who originally had countless possibilities into cannon fodder that can only be used in war.
After working together for such a long time, Tissaia finally confirmed the character of Lynn.
She believes that Lynn, even if Aretuza moves to Lynn's territory, Lynn will not forcibly recruit students from the college.
Therefore, Tissaia agreed to Lynn's plan.
The most troublesome thing about moving the entire college from Thanedd Island to the Dragon Mountains is actually not the moving process, but how to complete it without being noticed.
You know, although King Foltest is not as paranoid as Radovid, he has always respected the position of the academy.
But if Tissaia or Margarita Laux-Antille told him that the college would move from his country...
Even Tissaia, who is not so sensitive to politics, can guess that King Foltest will most likely not let him go.
Even if all tangible benefits are abandoned, Aretuza moving away will cause a very serious blow to Kingdom of Temeria and the reputation of King Foltest himself.
Based on this alone, King Foltest will definitely not agree.
It is conceivable that King Foltest will definitely put pressure on Aretuza and Lynn himself.
The worst case scenario may even happen, Temeria and the equally shady Redania form a coalition and attack together.
But, if that really happens, Lynn is not worried.
He has three thousand standing troops under his command, and he can also ask for help from Istredd.
Temeria and Redania have come all the way, and they are waiting for work here. They can definitely defeat the coalition forces.
Moreover, the possibility of this happening is extremely low. Even if Foltest hates himself until his teeth are broken, it is impossible to unite with King Vizimir.
Because Temeria is too far away from Duchy of Hengfors, and there is Redania in between.
Even if there is any benefit, it will be intercepted by King Vizimir, and Temeria will not be able to get any benefit.
Although King Foltest has problems with his personal style, there is nothing wrong with his brain.
I won't do anything like making wedding clothes for others.
Tissaia left Kaer Morhen.
Since the decision was made to move the college, it would be impossible for her, the former dean, not to be personally involved.
Lynn provides the necessary ships to move the college, because Aretuza is located at Thanedd Island. Taking the sea route to Praxaeda Bay, and then following Braa River into Duchy of Hengfors is the fastest and most worry-free route.
It is much better than the land route.