Imperial Crown

The Church of Light has a Papal State and its own Holy Knights.

They have always been happy to "spread" the glory of the Lord of Light and try to penetrate all aspects of the empire's politics. It is said that in the eastern part of the empire and some inland provinces, there are precedents of archbishops or priests becoming lords and ministers.

The Nord Province has always been known for its old-fashionedness, and the Church of Light has never had enough say.

So this time, the Church of Light is likely to take advantage of the opportunity of the Death Hand Cult to deepen its influence in the Nord Province.

When the Nord Province cannot solve the problem by itself, the Church of Light will enter the scene in a high-profile manner, emphasize its value, and let everyone know how indispensable they are.

But the Nord Province is the territory of the Keynes Empire after all. The Keynes Empire is not in its heyday, but it is also one of the only two super empires on the continent. It is not as easy to overthrow as the Storm Dynasty at the beginning. How can the Church of Light legitimately station troops in the Nord Province?

"Nobles cannot serve as priests, and clergy cannot be granted titles." Raven analyzed along the line of thought, feeling his body getting colder and colder: "So it is... the Fox family!?"

Viscount John raised a smile at the corner of his mouth, and sighed: "It would be great if you were my grandson!"

It's not that old John wants to play an ethical joke, he really admires Raven.

The reason why he returned the town of Shining Gold to Raven was not that he was really afraid of the so-called "threat of the Slater family".

The Griffith family has always had an old relationship with his family, and he doesn't want to see Griffith fall. Since Raven has shown the desire to revitalize the family, Viscount John doesn't mind giving the younger generation a chance.

Under Raven's governance, the Eagle Territory is thriving, and now, Raven has also brought him unexpected rewards.

Now, Raven has shown a keen sense of smell far beyond his age.

And Viscount John's son and grandson are not up to the task, and he has to go to war in person. How can he not have a good impression of Raven?

"The Fox family is a latecomer and has always wanted to truly control the Nord Province." Viscount John said, "In the early years, they relied on the power of the royal family, but the current King Cairns XVI has only been on the throne for a short time and is not interested in managing the border areas. It is not surprising that the Earl of Montreal has other ideas."

Raven sighed faintly.

Viscount John suddenly smiled: "Are you starting to regret helping the Slater family now?"

Raven shook his head decisively: "I will never regret the decisions I made."

Viscount John looked surprised and was about to ask why when a loud noise suddenly came from outside.

Simon walked in and saluted respectfully: "Baron, Viscount John, Mr. Judela is outside and hopes to enter the camp."

Raven and Viscount John looked at each other and saw a smile in each other's eyes. Finally, Raven said: "Let him in."

Soon, Judela, who was in a mess, walked in. His armor was full of scratches, there was a through wound on his shoulder, and there was a rotten mark on his face. Obviously, the process of escaping was not smooth.

When Judela saw Raven and John sitting by the campfire drinking and chatting leisurely, his heart suddenly galloped, and it was so sour!

After separating from Raven, he wanted to break through with all his heart, leading his subordinates to fight and retreat, but there were too many skeleton soldiers, especially those first-level skeletons hidden in the cannon fodder skeletons. If you are not careful, you will make mistakes. At the beginning, you can still concentrate on dealing with them, but as the battle progresses, it is inevitable that your energy will be a little scattered, and the injuries on your body were left at that time.

It took him two hours to finally lead the team out of the Skeleton Sea. When he stopped to count the number of people, there were only more than 70 people left in the team of about 170 people before the battle!

At that time, he could still comfort himself - maybe Raven and John had died in the Sea of ​​Undead, and he could run out intact, which was already a victory!

Not only that, Judela had a backup plan.

He observed Raven's logistics troops evacuating early in the morning, and he also sent his scouts to follow up and found the hiding place of this team.

The amount of supplies Raven brought made him quite envious. With these supplies in hand, he could gather the defeated soldiers of the coalition forces. Maybe when he fought next time, he could have more soldiers than when he came out!

As a result, when he arrived at the place, he was dumbfounded. Sitting outside were the serfs led by Xuefeng, and inside were the Xuefeng Legion. The battle flags of Raven and Viscount John were planted on the top of the city!

When he came in, he counted the number of people. The serfs suffered more casualties, with less than 300 left, but at least 230 people from the Snow Maple Legion survived, and none of Raven's personal soldiers were missing!

Proportionally, he was the first to escape, and his losses were the most serious!

If I had known earlier, I would have gone with Raven to rescue John, and I could have sold him a favor. It's not like now, I have to look at people's faces to enter the castle!

After saying hello, he could only sit by the campfire in a sullen mood.

Neither Raven nor John would care about Judra's choice, but with him as an "outsider", the previous topic could not be continued.

"After this great defeat, I don't know how many people can survive." Raven sighed: "What should we do next?"

Judra's evil intentions persisted: "I think we can send people to pick up some of the defeated troops. Although they are defeated and retreated, at least they have experience in fighting the undead, which can greatly increase the combat effectiveness of our hands."

"It's a good idea, but I'm opposed to it," Raven said.

"Why?" Judra said with a hint of depression: "Indeed, I have selfish motives for bringing up this idea. My soldiers have suffered a lot and need to be replaced, but my combat effectiveness has become stronger, which is good for all of us. ah!"

"So I said it was a good idea." Raven glanced at him: "But you didn't consider the logistics."

"I did bring a lot of supplies, enough to support fighting outside for half a year, but that was under the premise that I only had thirty-five people under my command."

"Now that our three armies have come together, the number of people has increased twenty-fold. It could last for half a year, but now it can last for more than ten days. If you recruit more people, we can't eat people."

This sentence immediately silenced Judra.

Originally, since he proposed this idea, Judra naturally had a way to solve the logistical problem, but when he saw that Viscount John didn't say anything, he swallowed the idea back.

What he was thinking was that the skeleton soldiers did not need food. Although the main camp was breached, many supplies were still there, and he might be able to send people to recover them later.

But he discovered something, because Raven didn't mention the food stored in the castle when he spoke.

It's winter now, and there's no way there's no food in a noble's granary. Raven didn't mention it, which only means that the food doesn't exist.

It is very likely that it was moved or even burned by people from the Order of the Hand of Death.

The people in the castle were not spared, so how could the people in the camp be so soft-hearted?

"Then we have no choice but to retreat?" Judra asked unwillingly.

Viscount John slowly shook his head: "We cannot retreat. Although our coalition lost in today's battle, I have gained some insights."

"The most important point is that we can no longer fight in large groups, at least not until we reach Men'en City."

Judra was a little confused for a moment: "Although this time it was indeed a disastrous defeat, it was probably because Viscount Morgan died too tragically and the preparations were not sufficient. With this lesson learned, when we gather together again, we should..."

"Are you willing to hand over the army to my command?" Raven suddenly asked.

"This...of course, if..." Judra stuttered.

"You won't agree, because the army is the foundation for our nobles to live and work." Raven's voice was calm: "Without royal orders and no Duke present, leadership is a big problem. When reorganization is impossible, even with this After learning a lesson, they are still nothing but scattered sand when they are brought together again.”

"Isn't it because of this that Fisher and Viscount John parted ways?"

Viscount John cast an admiring glance at Raven: "More than that, have you noticed that if it weren't for the second-order undead like the Skeleton Knight, the cannon fodder skeletons and first-order skeletons actually don't move very fast."

"If we maintain mobility and the reconnaissance efficiency is high enough, as long as we are not surrounded by large corps, we can completely take the initiative in the war."

"Fight if you want, run if you want. We couldn't do it before because we didn't have as good scouts as Baron Raven's men."

Raven asked, "So, your advice is to keep going inward?"

"That's right." Viscount John nodded: "The real crux of this war is still in Munn City. Only by liberating the Slater family can we have a unified command. Otherwise, we can only be worn down by the hand of death." Lose."

"I have stored a batch of food in Snowman City in Hippok County. I will send someone to deliver it later. When the rest is over, we can set off again."

Of course Raven agreed with this proposal, and Judra had no reason to object.

After discussing some specific details, everyone dispersed.

After experiencing a big battle, Raven was very tired and fell asleep without meditating.

It was a very peaceful sleep.

After a brief wash, Raven came to the hall, where a temporary command table had been set up. Viscount John was sitting behind the table, writing furiously.

Seeing Raven coming over, Viscount John put down his pen and smiled: "You got up very early."

"Are you deploying an order?" Raven asked.

"The order has been completed. I am going to send a letter and send it back with the order for food adjustment to report that my family is safe." Viscount John said: "Do you want to write one too?"

Raven was slightly startled and nodded.

After all, it had been almost a month since I left the Eagle Territory, and I had just experienced a big war. It was really time to break some news to my family.

Sitting at the table with a pen in hand, Lei Wen thought for a moment and wrote only two words on it:

"Safety."

Compared to Raven's brevity, Judra was more "attentive" and wrote three letters in one go, not knowing who they were given to.

Of course, there must be Denise.

The letter was sent together with Viscount John's transfer order.

When Viscount John's personal soldiers, who acted as messengers, rushed back with food, eleven days had passed. This batch of food directly relieved the dilemma of running out of supplies.

But the news that followed was less pleasant.

…