Imperial Crown

In the dream, there was a lush forest, with ancient trees towering, completely covering the sky.

But wherever he looked, Raven saw not green, but red——

The ground was full of corpses and broken limbs, some of them were elves, some were human, broken and twisted, and each corpse had anger and fear on its face.

The forest was burning.

Raven breathed in the blood and ashes in the air, feeling almost suffocated.

He dodged a spear and raised his hand to swing his sword. A ray of blood cut through the sky, splitting an ancient tree next to it in half like a crescent moon. Amid the loud noise, the elf's broken limbs and blood were splashed together.

Running with big strides, Raven suddenly kicked open a heavy door, and then saw three old female elves praying loudly around a spring.

Raven couldn't hear what they were chanting, but felt panic and anger in his heart. He strode forward and threatened them with a sword on his neck, but no one wavered.

The long sword pierced into the neck of an old elf, but no blood flowed out. The elf suddenly collapsed to the ground, as if only a layer of skin was left.

In a trance, he saw the other two elves showing cruel smiles, their bodies collapsed at the same time, black and red liquid flowed out of their mouths and noses, and then... gradually gathered at his feet!

"Ah--!"

Raven suddenly opened his eyes, struggled to sit up from the bed, gasped, and felt a chill on his body. His clothes were soaked with cold sweat.

There was a trace of doubt in his eyes: "Could this be the process of how the ancestors were cursed?"

This dream was too real.

However, when he wanted to investigate the details, the traces of the dream began to fade away. He found that he could no longer remember the appearance of the three elf women, let alone the content of their chanting.

"Baron." Petty's voice sounded outside the house: "It's time for breakfast."

After a while of silence, Raven was sure that he could not find out more details in the dream, and then he said: "Come in."

After changing clothes with Petty's help and having breakfast, Raven held a long-awaited morning meeting.

Denise's long black hair was tied up behind her head, revealing a smooth and full forehead, and her eyes were full of joy.

Old Gordon sat upright with his eyes downcast, and in front of him was his notebook that he never let go of.

Eric was still wearing the armor and sitting behind the table. There was a sense of relaxation in his eyes that he had not seen for a long time. Obviously, he recharged himself again after returning home.

As for Nancy, who occasionally attended the meeting, she did not show up. The trip to Bloody Highlands made her very tired, and she spent most of the day catching up on sleep.

When they saw Raven coming, the three of them stood up and saluted.

Walking to the main seat and sitting down, Raven smiled and motioned everyone to sit down, and started today's agenda.

First of all, the refugee problem is still the old-fashioned issue. Now it can be temporarily appeased, but the subsequent resettlement is a problem. Eagle Town does not have so much land for them to cultivate.

Eric suggested that a group of soldiers could be recruited from them; Denise said that a brewery could be built in Eagle Town, which could absorb more manpower.

In addition, the construction of Eagle Town also requires a large number of off-site labor.

However, these are just intentions, and the specific situation will be determined after the riots are over.

After the general strategy was determined, the focus of the meeting shifted from the resettlement and diversion of refugees to the economic level.

You know, before Raven left, there were only more than 200 gold coins left in the warehouse.

And the future income is not optimistic.

The biggest objective factor is the current situation.

The Hand of Death has plunged most of the Nord Province into turmoil. Even if the turmoil can be quelled within the year, the destructiveness it brings is difficult to estimate.

Goldshire Town is an export-oriented economy that is extremely dependent on the consumption of foreign populations. Under the current background, it can be foreseen that tax revenue will be greatly reduced.

The sales of Eagle Territory products such as Angel's Tears and Angel's Kiss will probably be greatly affected. After the orders on hand are completed, it is hard to say how much income will be left.

The construction of Eagle Town has been planned, including taverns, restaurants, hotels, opera houses, and even breweries, duel arenas, etc.

Before Raven came back, these plans had been put on hold by Old Gordon for later, because this would almost renovate Eagle Town from head to toe, and at least tens of thousands of gold coins would be invested.

But now it is different.

The number of gold coins was finally counted by Old Gordon, a total of 68,723.

Due to the current situation, this money cannot be spent for a while, but it does not prevent it from stabilizing everyone's heart like a ballast stone.

This gold coin not only saved the Eagle Territory's finances, which were about to collapse, but also acted like a magic medicine, making Old Gordon's face glow.

With this money, no matter how chaotic the outside world is, as long as there is no enemy at the gates, the development of Eagle Territory will not be hindered.

Even someone as mature and prudent as Old Gordon had some thoughts about asking Baron Raven to walk around the Bloody Highlands again.

Of course, it was just a thought, and Old Gordon would never say such an unreliable idea.

Denise was also very happy. Now that Monen City was surrounded, it was conceivable that when the turmoil was over, the business landscape there would undergo profound changes. With the support of the Eagle Territory's strong financial resources, she was confident that she could expand her business territory in a wasteland.

Eric was even less worried. After the bloody battle on the highlands, he believed that Raven would pay more attention to the construction of the army than he did.

After this issue was over, Raven began to arrange the operation of the riverside workshop.

Except for Angel's Kiss, which was difficult to maintain due to the lack of flowers, Angel's Tears and Angel's Embrace could still be produced for quite a long time, so there was no need to stop.

After all, whether it was wine or perfume, they were not afraid of long-term storage.

In addition, he also ordered Poirot to suspend other work at hand and prepare as much "base material" of perfume as possible for him, that is, high-concentration alcohol.

Mosingan's death sounded the alarm for Raven.

Healing potions are not omnipotent, and the treatment of wounds afterwards cannot rely entirely on boiling water to boil bandages.

Every soldier who has seen blood is a precious treasure. It is a pity that they did not die on the battlefield but died of bacterial and viral infections.

The female workers, led by Qiao Ya, who sewed product labels, did not have to stop working. In addition to labels, they could also sew clothes, bedding, etc.

Raven did not intend to let go of the leatherworkers headed by Green. With the surface iron plating process, the protection ability of ordinary leather armor can be greatly improved, and there is no worry about sales.

Finally, there are the gray dwarves. Raven plans to let them cast a long sword with star iron, and then start making farm tools - this will definitely cause dissatisfaction among the gray dwarves, but who makes Raven their master, and after the spring, they will open up the land?

After all the details were discussed, it was noon, and Raven kept Eric to have lunch together and discuss the future military construction.

"It won't be long before we have to lead the team to support the Slater family." Raven tore off a piece of bread and put it in his mouth and chewed it: "There are not many soldiers left in the first battalion now, and it's too late to recruit more soldiers. I plan to recruit all the soldiers as my personal soldiers. What do you think?"

"A wise decision, sir." Eric swallowed a mouthful of roasted garlic: "After a great war, our soldiers can be considered elite even if they are placed in the Iron Legion. If they are pulled out alone, there is absolutely no private army that can compare with us."

Raven smiled: "How about comparing with Viscount John's 'Snow Maple Legion' and Baron Angel's 'Iron Furnace Legion'?"

Eric's expression became serious: "Above them, sir."

"Oh? Really?" Raven raised his eyebrows, a little surprised.

"Indeed." Eric analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the two armies: "From the perspective of personal strength and organizational dispatch, Viscount John's 'Snow Maple Legion' is better; but because it guards the iron mine and has a well-developed forging industry, Baron Angel's 'Iron Armored Guard' is better equipped."

"However, both armies have the same problem - they have never really experienced war."

Raven frowned slightly: "Didn't the horse thieves on the Bloody Highlands come down to plunder in previous years? Haven't they ever fought?"

"Indeed." Eric did not deny this: "But the horse thieves came down to plunder supplies and women."

"Generally speaking, if the horse thieves encounter a small group of private soldiers, they will choose to rush up and destroy them and drive them away; if they encounter a large group of private soldiers, they will use their mobility advantage to escape, so there are very few direct battles. time."

"A force that has only experienced minor battles cannot withstand pressure."

Raven grinned:

"According to you, are the private soldiers of the nobles in Nord Province all rubbish?"

Eric was stunned for a moment, thinking carefully: "You are almost right."

"Although our Nord Province is the border of the empire, to the north is the Principality of Eivor among the Fitton city-states, and to the west is the Bloody Highlands. There are no enemies that are too threatening."

"The private soldiers of each family lack the actual combat training like our Eagle Army."

Speaking of this, Eric sighed heavily: "It is said that there are many brave warriors in the border areas, but the combat effectiveness of our private soldiers is not as good as the nobles of Eastwood in the south adjacent to the Miracle Mountains."

"If we really talk about quality, most of the nobles' private soldiers are not as good as the horse thieves on the Bloody Highlands!"

Raven smiled slightly.

I didn't expect that Eric, an old soldier, would have a bit of "angry youth" in his heart.

But in retrospect, the bandits were indeed crazy enough. Although they were just a mob, once they started fighting, they were fearless and unafraid of death.

"Let's not talk about Heleti, let's just talk about the two helpers he found, Firebeard and Steelfang."

Eric was afraid that Raven would not believe him, so he continued to analyze:

"These two people are both second-level extraordinary people, but they didn't even touch your hair, and were beaten and fled by your personal soldiers. This shows how elite our Eagle Army is!"

Raven's mouth curled up a smile: "I killed the third-level Heleti, what are two second-level ones?"

"And these two people have been scared out of their wits. Have you forgotten that when we came out of the Rustwater Oasis, they sent people to show their loyalty."

Eric sighed: "Yes, that little word is used, you can almost see them sticking their butts up, just wagging their tails."

"But this is also flexible, especially that Steelfang, who is only in his early twenties, is already a second-level strength, with rare lightning fighting spirit, and 70 or 80 horse thieves under his command. He can also judge the situation. I have to say that he is also a genius."

"Heh." Raven smiled slightly.

"Genius?"

"Genius is just the threshold to meet me!"

Speaking of this, Raven was suddenly startled and looked at Eric with interest:

"Did old Gordon say anything to you?"

...