Throne of the North

He did not lose to Baron Hatton, but he lost to the most forgotten territorial noble from the Frozen Territory in the North Wind Province.

Roche stared at Ryan. He could not imagine how the broken place of the Frozen Territory could have such soldiers.

The only answer might be Earl Clayton.

"Tell me, how much money do you need to release me."

At this moment, Roche was a little desperate. The turmoil in the North Wind Province was about to come. He wanted to concentrate the wealth and resources in the territories of several knights and Baron Hatton, so as to sell them for a good price, but now he no longer had the confidence.

In the North Wind Province, the military strength is far greater than the means of political struggle of the nobles. If it were in the south, a noble without an army might be able to deal with a powerful noble, but it is impossible here.

The nobles in the North Wind Province have nothing without military strength.

His father saw this very clearly, so he was able to raise hundreds of soldiers in an organized army, instead of just using serfs who would run away as soon as they entered the battlefield like other nobles.

But now...

Roche stared at Ryan, and he swore that he would never forget the humiliation of today.

"Ahem."

Ryan cleared his throat, then laughed and looked at Baron Roche.

"Since Baron Roche is willing to use gold coins to redeem his freedom, it couldn't be better."

"Let's do the math, first of all, you, the fifth-class noble of the empire, Baron Roche, how many gold coins are you willing to pay for your life and freedom?"

"Five thousand gold coins."

Roche said immediately.

"Five thousand?"

Hatton next to him shouted.

"Roche, you are only worth 5,000? Without 50,000 gold coins, don't even think about leaving my territory."

"50,000 gold coins, why don't you go and rob Hatton?"

"Hmph! Roche, you have a baron territory, and three knight territories, and you have at least five iron mines. Tell me you can't come up with 50,000 gold coins?"

Hatton was quite familiar with Roche's Crow Ridge, after all, they were old rivals.

"Do you think gold coins fall from the sky? Ten thousand gold coins, I will pay a maximum of ten thousand gold coins to redeem myself, otherwise I will wait for the Noble Council to come to you."

Roche looked at Ryan, after all, he lost to the baron of the frozen land territory.

Ryan nodded and said:

"Well, Baron Roche will pay each of our two barons 10,000 gold coins to redeem his freedom."

"I only said ten thousand." Roche was still roaring, his heart was bleeding.

Ryan looked at Roche and smiled:

"A total of 10,000? For this amount of gold coins, why don't I go to Crow Ridge in person? I think I will have everything by then. What do you think, Baron Roche?"

Ryan's words made Roche silent. Looking at his reaction, Ryan continued:

"Then next is your soldiers, Baron Roche. We have captured a total of 560 soldiers from Crow Ridge. Each soldier is a precious treasure, at least 30 gold coins per person."

"Thirty? Most of them are slaves. What are you thinking about thirty gold coins per slave?"

Ryan's hands were slumped.

"How could I not know there were slaves? You know, on the battlefield, they are all warriors who have taken up weapons."

"Impossible, serfs can get a maximum of ten gold coins each, and other soldiers can get twenty-five gold coins each. This is the rule among nobles."

Hearing Roche's words, Ryan and Hatton looked at each other, and the latter nodded.

"Well, then it's 9,300 gold coins, rounded up to 9,500 gold coins."

Hearing Ryan and the others being so easy to talk to, Roche suddenly had a bad idea in his heart. He reacted and looked at Ryan.

"My...my knights...where are they?"

"They? None of them survived."

Hearing this answer, Roche felt dizzy.

"I...you..."

Roche stared at Ryan's handsome face, his fingers were pinched white.

"And Knight Water, he is your lord. Since your own ransom is 10,000, then for this lord, giving us 5,000 each, isn't it too much?"

Ryan said, looking at the desperate Baron Roche, who was still immersed in the ending of his cavalry being wiped out, and silently accepted Ryan's proposal.

"Then next, it's the issue of compensation for our two nobles."

As Ryan said, Roche and Hatton both opened their eyes wide.

"And?"

"And!"

Ryan looked at Baron Roche, a little puzzled.

"Why, is it strange?"

"I was a guest in Mr. Hatton's territory, but suddenly, your Lord Knight Water came with a large group of people to plunder Mr. Hatton's wealth, and then you came with a huge army. This is a war, an invasion of territory. According to the rules of the nobility, we have unlimited defense rights."

"You started the war, but you don't get to choose the end of the war."

"If there is no war reparations, when will the war end?"

"Baron Roche is a nobleman. He won't be naive to think that we don't have the strength to continue this war, right?"

Hatton echoed excitedly:

"That's right Roach, it was you who started the war. Without war compensation, it means that the war is not over yet. The war between the Crow Territory and the Shenma Territory will continue."

Ryan looked at Baron Roach and nodded.

"The damage and impact caused by the war need to be healed with gold coins."

"Then how much do you want?!"

Baron Roach stared hard at Ryan's face. Before, he thought that this black-haired, red-eyed boy from the Clayton family was a symbol of nobility, but now he only felt that it was the face of a devil.

"In a word, the damage caused by this war will cost at least one hundred thousand gold coins."

Ryan said, no ransom of prisoners can compare with the compensation of the war itself.

"One hundred thousand gold coins, not a single gold coin less."

Hatton's eyes were shining and he said with great excitement.

"One hundred thousand gold coins? This is absolutely impossible, at most fifty thousand."

Ryan interrupted Roach and said:

"Baron Roach, I think you haven't realized your position yet. One hundred thousand gold coins is a number that cannot be negotiated. Crow Ridge can't get that much. It can be supplemented with grain or iron ore wrought iron, even at the end of this year. It’s okay to pay it off when the time comes.”

"War reparations have no room for bargaining for the loser. In this, you are no longer a noble, but a loser."

Ryan said, causing the color to completely disappear from Roach's face.