A month later, the confidant sent by the nobleman returned to Kestrel Gap and brought a message from the Grand Duke:
Tomorrow night, the Grand Councilor will come to his room in person to talk to him in detail.
"What? That adult really said that?"
"Yes."
But this nobleman was not happy at all.
Because he really couldn't figure out how the other party sneaked into this heavily guarded pass.
At the same time, a feeling of boredom and anxiety came over me.
If the other party is discovered when sneaking into the pass, the person who intends to seek refuge with the other party will also suffer the same consequences.
At this time, the noble couldn't help but began to wonder if he had made a mistake when he planned to defect to the other party.
Originally, according to his idea, the two sides should exchange letters secretly first, and wait until the exchanges are almost complete, especially when the next rotation of nobles comes to take over...
The other party then pretends to be a businessman or traveler, and after passing through Kestrel Gap, goes to his own territory to meet him.
This is the only way to be foolproof.
After all, Kestrel Gap is not the one who has the final say, there are four other nobles here.
The nobleman paced the room anxiously.
He asked his cronies again if they had said how they planned to enter the pass.
However, the answer I got was that the other party didn't say anything.
The nobles had no choice but to guess that the Grand Duke would probably cross Mount Caingorn via the mountain path that his cronies had walked.
And since the other party said he would meet with me tomorrow night, it is possible that he is already on Mount Caingorn now.
So the nobles had no choice but to send some of their soldiers to patrol near the foot of the mountain, hoping to intercept the opponent.
If you meet the men of other nobles, they will use the excuse that they are preventing enemy spies from coming through the mountain trails.
The nobleman also knew that this was a lame excuse, because the hunter's trail was actually very difficult to walk. Let alone a large army, even a small group of people might slip and fall if they were not careful.
That is to say, his close followers are all mountain people and have strong steps, so they can move freely on the mountain trails.
Time soon came to the night of the next day.
The nobleman was restless in the room.
At this time, a confidant opened the door and walked in.
The nobles immediately came forward with anxious faces.
"How's it going? Is there any result?"
The confidant shook his head.
The nobleman walked to the window and looked outside.
Inside the pass at night, except for the city walls and a few places, most places were pitch black.
"Isn't it possible that the Grand Duke is not planning to take the mountain trail, but wants to take advantage of this moment to climb up the pass city wall?"
"No, no, no, how is this possible? Even at night, there are a lot of patrols. How can we enter the pass without alerting anyone?"
"He has come in." The noble heard a strange voice suddenly coming from behind, and was startled. He turned around and found that the confidant who had come to report to him had turned into a strange young man at some point.
The noble heard the young man say this.
"I am Lynn·Augustus. I am honored to be a guest at Kestrel Gap."
"You you you you..."
The nobleman was so shocked that he almost fell to the ground.
"Is this magic? Or something?"
"It's just a little trick, it's not enough."
Lynn naturally has no need to tell the other party that he actually used Glamarye to become one of his cronies, and then came here with his other unknowing cronies.
"Now, let's talk."
The demon hunter made the Axii Sign gesture, and the surprised expression on the noble's face instantly became dull.
Taking advantage of the other party being confused by the master Axii Sign, Lynn quickly asked a few questions.
1 minute later.
"I see, okay, I understand."
Snap!
Lynn snapped his fingers.
The nobleman woke up with a start.
But I don't remember what happened when I was hypnotized just now.
I just remember that I seemed to be in a trance.
"The night is still long, let's talk."
Before the morning light began to shine, Lynn walked out of the noble's room.
Under the cover of night, I easily avoided the patrols and entered Mount Caingorn.
The purpose of coming alone this time has been achieved. This noble is willing to swear allegiance to Lynn and become Lynn's internal agent, informing him of the situation of Kestrel Gap and even the entire Isparaden.
And Lynn also promised him that as long as he, his family, and future generations are loyal to Lynn, they will never betray him.
Then Lynn will also protect his title, territory and interests from others.
These are not the effects of magic.
Lynn released Axii Sign on him, actually not to give him some kind of hint - not because he didn't want to, but even the charm magic of the warlock can be easily broken, and once broken, it will cause unnecessary trouble.
He personally came to Kestrel Gap and released Axii Sign, just to test whether the other party was sincere.
In the next two years, Lynn followed the same pattern.
Successfully win over a small group of nobles secretly.
At this point, the entire Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén can be confirmed, and almost a quarter of the nobles are willing to be loyal to Lynn.
What's interesting is that.
This quarter of the nobles are all nobles from the territories that the Kovir caravan will pass through.
What's even more interesting is that they are willing to use 30% of the collected tolls to honor Lynn.
These noble Lynn have all been tested with Axii Sign, and they all abandon darkness and turn to light from the bottom of their hearts.
As long as Lynn leads troops to attack Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén one day, they will definitely respond from within.
In addition to wooing the nobles of Isparaden, Lynn also did many other things:
On Novigrad's side, since taking over Whoreson Junior's territory, Lynn's power, both openly and secretly, has actually exceeded that of Cleaver's Gang and Cutups.
After taking control of the city hall, Novigrad can be said to have become the private property of Lynn.
Afterwards, Lynn went to Cleaver's Gang and Cutups to show them that he was the real owner of Novigrad, and each gave them an offer they could not refuse.
Then, Cleaver's Gang and Cutups joined Lynn's forces as allies.
Of course, being called an ally is actually equivalent to being a vassal.
It's just that the sect leader Lynn can be said to be generous and kind.
Not only will they not be used as cannon fodder, but their territory will not be reduced at all.
They just need to give 10% of their income to themselves.
The reason why we only need this 10% of the income and not more is because Lynn has no intention of grabbing food from their bowls.
This 10% of the income is just symbolic, representing that you are their suzerain, and serves as a class division, nothing more.
However, just because Lynn does not require them to provide too much does not mean that there are no other requirements.
The first is that they can engage in financial activities (collecting protection fees) and smuggling in their territory before, but Lynn does not allow them to buy or sell anesthetic powder, not even on their territory, not even one gram.
Secondly, if there are suspicious people or suspicious situations on their territory, they must report it to the forces of Lynn immediately.
Finally, and most importantly, if there are external forces that invade and infiltrate Novigrad, Lynn requires them to advance and retreat with it and drive out the foreign forces.
Lynn seems to have made a major compromise, but it is not.
The situation of Cleaver's Gang and Cutups is a bit special.
Cutups's territory is full of traffickers and pawns.
Cleaver's Gang are all non-human races and are naturally wary of humans.
If we forcibly take over their territory, it will be even more troublesome if strikes, frictions, conflicts, etc. occur in the future.
It's better to continue to let them take care of it.
Besides, Novigrad's largest territory now is his own power. The combined territories of Cutups and Cleaver's Gang are not as big as his own.
This Novigrad still relies on its own power.
When your power becomes bigger and stronger in the future, are you still afraid that Cutups and Cleaver's Gang will not understand current affairs?
Some things will happen sooner or later. There is no need to become fat in one bite now, just take it step by step.
In addition to Novigrad, Lynn also sent Syndicate in the name of Novigrad Chamber of Commerce to return to the former Kingdom of Nazair and now Province of Nazair.
Lynn lets them secretly conduct espionage activities locally and form and develop underground forces.
Syndicate used to be Nazair's national intelligence organization, and returning to Nazair is like coming home.
Although last time, Syndicate participated in the vigorous uprising of Nazair, which harmed the local civilians, causing Nilfgaard to cause a lot of massacres in Nazair.
But after that, life was not easy for Nazair.
Nazair, like other conquered areas, is nominally part of the empire and a province of Nilfgaard.
In fact, it is just a colony of City of Golden Towers.
If Lynn were a native of this era, then he might be as surprised as others and wonder why the Nilfgaard people did this.
But he comes from another world, has completed higher education and has been severely beaten by society, so it is not surprising that Nilfgaard people operate.
It's actually not that complicated.
As a country with rampant militarism and year-round expansion, it is absolutely impossible for conquered areas to become self-sufficient.
One reason is that the empire needs to obtain soldiers from these conquered areas.
If there was a better way to choose besides being a soldier, who would become a soldier?
On the other hand, the empire also needed these conquered areas to remain poor.
In this way, these places will deliver cheap labor and raw materials to City of Golden Towers.
Even if Nilfgaard allows slavery to be legal, this huge empire still needs people to work everywhere, especially Nilfgaard's various workshops.
After First Northern War in the original plot ended, Nilfgaard used cheap handicrafts to attack Northern Kingdoms's market with the intention of destroying their handicraft industry.
Of course, the response of Temeria and Redania is to increase tariffs to prevent the impact of the Nilfgaardian Empire's products (this matter is also recorded in Chapter 5 of the third part of the original novel).
The conquered areas were treated like colonies, and City of Golden Towers was frantically supplied with blood. Naturally, it was impossible for the local people to have no complaints.
If it were in the past, they would have had no choice but to serve as soldiers for Nilfgaard, achieve military exploits, and then return to their hometown with a pension, or if they did well, they might be able to go to City of Golden Towers for development.
No matter what, their hometown will only gradually decline.
But now, Lynn gives them a chance to choose.
An opportunity to fight to drive away the Nilfgaard invaders and restore the glory of Nazair.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that among the Nazair people, there are a few traitors with weak knees who want to be dogs for the Nilfgaard people.
But as a former national intelligence organization, Syndicate is now reorganized and developed in Novigrad. Lynn believes that Drake still has the ability to know people and make good use of them.
Finally, it is related to Lynn personally.
The process of moving Aretuza Academy to Duchy of Hengfors was smoother than expected.
Due to magic, almost everything in the academy can be packed away.
Except for the tallest building on the island, Tor Laura, also known as Tower of the Gull.
This is one of the buildings left on Thanedd Island when humans had not yet landed and the elven states were still strong and prosperous.
This tower hides a portal through which the elves came to this world (of course it is just one of them).
However, this portal was quickly abandoned and remains so until now.
It is mentioned in the original book that even Vilgefortz may not be able to activate the portal of Tower of the Gull.
But this is always a hidden danger.
Therefore, after all the students boarded the ship provided by Lynn, Tissaia, the last one to evacuate Thanedd Island, used magic to destroy Tower of the Gull, turning it into a pile of completely symmetrical ruins when viewed from high altitude.
After the Aretuza Academy moved collectively to Duchy of Hengfors, as long as Lynn had free time, he would go to Aretuza to take classes.
Of course, he was not in class with those female students, but was taught by Margarita Laux-Antille alone. What he wanted to learn was orthodox magic theory knowledge.
After learning Griffin Meditation Method from School of the Griffin, which has the strongest spellcasting ability among witchers, the power of his Signs has never gone any further.
Naturally he was not satisfied with this.
Only children make choices, and he chooses both magic and physical power.
Therefore, a long time ago, Lynn had an idea:
If he goes to learn magic seriously, even if he can't learn magic in the end, but just systematically learns theoretical knowledge, will it help improve the power of Signs?
For example, Igni Sign belongs to the fire system, so if you learn the fire magic in School of Evocation, is it possible to help release Igni Sign?
For another example, Quen Sign belongs to the protection system. If you learn the magic of the protection system, you might be able to increase the strength and range of Quen Shield.
In short, although the system bound to him is marked as the exclusive panel of the witcher and not the warlock panel, how can you know if there is a bug if you don't try it?
Anyway, it doesn't cost any money, just give it a try.