The silver moonlight shone through the dense foliage and sprinkled on the square, making it look as beautiful as it was during the day. Brendel stood on the balcony of the Town Hall, overlooking the quiet mountains and forests of the southern border under the night sky. Four months later, Valhalla had completely formed the embryonic form of a small town. This towering tree was rooted under the mountains in the north of Schafflund, and the diameter of its shade was more than a thousand meters, covering the city below. But now, the residents here were only the Tree Elves, the villagers of the Green Village, and some humans. Most of the humans were members of the Valhalla Wind Archers Guard. Another group of new residents were Kirrlutz, and the young men of the Folded Sword Squad also lived in the lower city.
Valhalla's massive roots divided the city into four regions: north, south, east, and west. The Light Elves' newly constructed barracks was located in the western region. Looking down from the plaza, the western region was already beginning to take shape. The streets and buildings were divided neatly. Odum had to admit that as a descendant of the Rune Dwarves, he was quite capable. At the very least, he seemed to be born with a natural talent for city planning. The West Region was mainly divided into two districts, the North and the South. There was a main street that ran across the entire West Region, separating the two districts. In fact, this street ran through the city and circled around the lower city of Valhalla. Brando jokingly called it the Ring Highway, but other than him, no one knew what it meant. As time passed, everyone followed suit and called it the Ring Highway.
The Ring Highway was also designed by Odum. It was modeled after the two rings of Valhalla and he called it the Third Ring Highway. However, the design of the Ring Highway was not bad. In fact, Brando knew that the old dwarf was discussing with Monique if they could open up the bottom of Valhalla and build a cross-shaped street that would pass through the center of Valhalla's trunk. This way, the entire lower city would be connected. Brando naturally understood the benefits of such a design. However, Odum's focus was mainly on defense because it would make it easier for the different districts of Valhalla to defend against each other.
Monica didn't object to it. After all, Valhalla was huge, and it wasn't a big deal to dig a tunnel from the center. After all, it wasn't a real tree, but a magical city in itself. In the North and South districts of the West Region, the main building in the North District was a military camp. Other than that, there were also some buildings that resembled human buildings. It was a newly built noble military camp. The noble military camp in the Kingdom of Erouine was no different from the other noble military camps in most human countries. There was a training ground and a camp, which was a functional building. In the game, it could significantly improve the training speed of the soldiers and the morale of the stationed troops.
Brando thought that it might be because of the increased discipline brought by the centralized management of the army. It was just that the game had turned it into data.
The White Lion Guards were stationed in this military camp, opposite the Wind Archers' camp in the South. There were only two functional buildings in this huge city, so it was relatively empty. However, it was much better than the other three regions that had not been built yet. Brando was planning to move the entire city of Abies to Valhalla. After all, the city under the giant tree could not be kept a secret forever. In fact, after Odum ordered the workers to build the outer walls, many people had already guessed their lord's plans. However, it was impossible for them to guess that this was the legendary fortress. Brando claimed that this was the Giant Elven Tree that was planted by the Tree Elves. With his relationship with the Druids, no one could find fault with it. After all, there were many such trees in the Dark Forest, and the Druids built their cities on top of them.
Perhaps one day, when Valhalla continued to grow, this lie would eventually be exposed. However, Brando believed that by then, he would have nothing to hide. At least for now, Valhalla was still very fragile and needed to be protected. In fact, except for a few people around him, most people believed this story, including Veronica who had been to Valhalla personally. She thought that this was a gift from the Druids and did not even think about the legendary fortress. After all, it was a little too ridiculous. Moreover, she had seen it with her own eyes. The fortress had completely disappeared into the Loop of Trade Winds.
As for the others, including the young people of the Folded Sword Knight, they were still amazed when Brando brought them to the city. Some of them had heard from the young lady of the Flower Leaf Territory about the magnificent Druids' city of trees, but they did not expect to see it with their own eyes and live here as guests for a period of time. One after another, they expressed their interest. The scholar lady had come to him more than once to ask for permission to visit the city. Although Monica did not like these foreign guests, other than not letting Shido into the core area of Valhalla, Brando still gave her the right to visit from the lower area to the uppermost square. His generous move further dispelled everyone's suspicion, including the eldest prince.
Today, the young people of the Folded Sword Knight were still temporarily living in the North City District. There were many tents there, but the military barracks and supporting buildings were also being planned for them. In the past four months, Monica's clan had increased to nearly five hundred people. Now, the entire upper level of the tree canopy could be seen flying between the branches at any time. Under their control, the construction of Valhalla was getting faster day by day.
However, the growth of the city itself had slowed down. According to Monica, it would take at least a few years for it to move from this stage to the next stage. One aspect was that the supply of magic could not keep up. Valhalla's demand for magic was a bottomless pit. In fact, almost two-thirds of the ore produced from the crystal mine in the Black Forest had been supplied to this territory, but it was only enough to maintain its daily operations. Tónigel's income from the Magic Crystal trade had been greatly reduced in recent months. Amandina had warned him about this several times, but the merchant lady was very optimistic about this. In her opinion, the Magic Crystal trade itself was not a long-term business. The key was that this kind of commodity was too sensitive and could easily attract covetous people.
Generally speaking, the high purity crystals produced by a crystal mine would be quickly consumed in the first few months. What followed was a long and difficult mining, but the output would decrease year by year. The crystal mine found in the Black Forest was extremely rare. If Tónigel continued to export large amounts of these high purity Magic Crystals, it would not be difficult for people to guess that a crystal mine with high reserves had been discovered in the territory. Now, they could take advantage of the growth of Valhalla to reduce the amount of crystals they sold. As for the decrease in income, in fact, the development of other minerals and specialties in the Black Forest had gradually made up for this.
Most importantly, many of the resources in the territory were now self-sufficient. Therefore, the financial dependence on trade had been reduced by a lot.
On the other hand, the number of light spirits was also a problem. Monica's five hundred clansmen had reduced the time it took for Valhalla to grow from the first stage to the second stage to less than half a year. But if they relied on their own efforts for the next stage, it would take at least five years. If he wanted to reduce this time to a year, he would need at least two to three thousand light spirits. But the production of light vortices was still only twenty per month. The Moon Tower was currently serving the Mage Tower in the County of Abies Castle, contributing to Tónigel's first batch of Wizard Apprentices. Not to mention that it was impossible to use it to increase the production of light vortices at this time, even if it doubled the production of light spirits, it would still take several years to reach that number. The gains did not make up for the losses.
The only way now was to first develop the territory and let Valhalla become self-sufficient. Then, he would continue to think of other ways to increase the production of mana. There were many ways to increase the production of mana, but it had to be done step by step. Currently, the territory only had the Crystal Pool, Mage Tower, Light Vortex, and Moon Tower. But Brando knew of a few other advanced buildings that could greatly speed up the construction of the territory.
But first, he needed blueprints, and second, he still needed more mana pools.
While thinking about these thoughts, Brando took a deep breath and withdrew his gaze from the quiet city below. He turned back and walked back to the hall from the terrace. Valhalla's Tree Hall was much livelier than it was during the day. Except for Carglise, almost all the officers of the White Lion Guards were gathered here, and against them were more than a dozen sergeants of the Folded Sword Knight Regiment. Metisha, Hipamira, Amandina, The Shire, and several mercenary commanders stood on the other side. As his old subordinates and confidants, they formed a circle of their own. The remaining smaller circle was the eldest prince and Shido, as well as Laurenna and her husband, and the little prince Haruz. What made Brando a little strange was that the eldest prince did not seem to intend to mix with the young men of the Folded Sword Knight Regiment.
But he understood the other party's thoughts after a little thought. The other party did not seem to want to oppose him here. This was a statement. On the one hand, as a guest, and on the other hand, it was unnecessary because Lenarette knew very well that he, Brando, could not really control these people. These young people from Cruz were rooted in the Empire, and their families, futures, and future were all in that homeland. If Erouine was a behemoth like the Empire, it might be attractive to some people, but Erouine was just a small kingdom. He did not have to worry about these young men of the Folded Sword Knight Regiment being truly loyal to him, Count Tónigel.
Therefore, there was no need for him to fight with these young officers. He was a member of the royal family and must maintain his detached status.
His Royal Highness must be very clear-headed and had already figured this out. He understood that if he wanted to control this regiment of Knights, he had to give him enough respect, because nominally, the Folded Sword Knight Regiment was also loyal to His Royal Highness. Although people with discerning eyes knew what was going on, this layer of skin between nobles was very important, and no one would take the initiative to tear it down. Perhaps even the young men of the Folded Sword Knight Regiment understood this, but they did not mention it.
And it was precisely because of this that he had to act according to the rules. Veronica and Mangrove must have thought so as well, which was why they were relieved to hand these young men over to him.
Brando suddenly realized that he had taken things for granted, but he shook his head. This was enough. He did not really intend to take these people into his pocket. He just needed a group of people to help him fight against Madara. The country under the shadow of the East was growing stronger day by day, and the White Lion Knight Regiment that he cultivated could only be considered as an outstanding force in Erouine. But compared to the next generation of talents that Cruz carefully cultivated — the Folded Sword Knight Regiment — it was still a far cry.
The key was that he did not have much time left. He had to arm this army that belonged to Erouine before the second War of the Black Rose arrived. Otherwise, he would completely lose his claws under the blooming Black Rose.
One Freya was not enough.
Then what about the Folded Sword Knight Regiment?
When he walked into the hall, there was still a heated argument going on. It could be said that it was extraordinarily lively. Both sides were arguing about whether to attack Count Randner or the undead of Madara first. Brando raised his head and looked at the huge map of Erouine hanging on the wall. There was a red cross on the map where Silverman was located.
The White Winged Knight Regiment had been defeated.
It was exactly the same as in history. But this time, he had even warned the Grinoires side, but those rigid noble officers still made the same mistake. In fact, there was a dispute between Duke Grinoires and the Royal Faction about whether or not they should warn Duke Grinoires. That was because Makarov and the others believed that if they followed the original plan of luring the Blood Staff into the target area, they must not alert the Blood Staff. But if they did not warn the Grinoires side, the princess would lose the support of the people, and more importantly, the people of Silverman and Bucce would suffer heavy losses.
In the end, the princess personally wrote a letter to the Duke to explain the matter. Brando felt that the reasoning of some people in the Royal Faction was ridiculous. A year later, Madara and Erouine were both on guard against each other. If one side was preparing for war and the other side did not react, then it would alert the Blood Staff. After all, this was no longer the Year of Blossoms and Summer Leaves, but the last season of the Year of Swords.
Unfortunately, everything that happened made him very angry. At the same time, he despised the old noble system of the kingdom more and more. The descendants of the ancient nobles were not worthy of their current status.
He sighed. There was no doubt that the Blood Staff would head straight for Viero, just like in history. Even though it was in cahoots with Radner, its goal was different from Radner's. Its goal was to completely occupy Grinoires and Viero, cutting off Karsuk's connection with the rest of Aouine. Only with such an achievement could it be justified in the eyes of Madara's supreme ruler and earn it a higher status. The Blood Staff should know that it had already caused Madara to be wary of it. If it did not take the initiative to attack, then it could only close its eyes and wait for death.
However, Count Randner was different. His goal was to rely on Madara to secure a territory that could be defended and attacked. He had completely fallen out with the Royal Faction, and the best outcome he could hope for was to become independent from Erouine and become a neutral autonomous region between Erouine and Madara. If he did not succeed, then he would at least be able to escape to Madara.
That was why his goal was to conquer the Silman and Slovenia regions. However, he had a common goal with the Blood Staff, and that was Kerkul Castle.
Furthermore, Count Randner would attack Kerkul Castle before the Blood Staff. Before news of his collusion with Madara spread, he would think of a way to trick the gates of Kerkul Castle into opening under the guise of reinforcements. This was the most convenient method. Even if it was exposed, it would be easy to besiege Kerkul Castle. There was no longer any obstacle in front of the Blood Staff, and the nobles of Kerkul Castle would definitely order the Vermillion Legion to continue south from Braggs to stop the undead army. At that time, the rear would be completely empty, and there would be no way to stop Count Randner.
However, that was only an 'if'.
There were enemies that Count Randner did not expect waiting for him to walk right into their trap. The outcome of this battle was already decided, and the only thing left to do now was to plan how to make them fail.
He interrupted his thoughts and came to Maynild's side. Maynild was studying a detailed map on the table. She noticed Brando's arrival and looked up at him, whispering, "You've become stronger after returning from the Deadly Tundra." Brando was slightly startled. This seemed to be the first time 'senior' had spoken to him in private after returning from the Deadly Tundra. He nodded and did not deny it. He had practically shared the experience of the final battle with Milos with Freya. Even though he did not know if the others would benefit from the experience, it was still a huge source of income for him. It was not inferior to the benefits he gained from the Loop of Trade Winds.
He had already raised the ranks of the Templar Knight and Mercenary to the peak, and there was basically no need for him to level up these two classes in the future. He had also unlocked the opportunity to become a Frostborn Guard from Seibers, but he had not invested any experience into it yet. This was because there were many branches to choose from for high-grade classes, and Brando was still considering them.
Maynild looked at him quietly and asked, "Did you leave Dark Ko Hua and Kind Ko Hua behind because of Échis?"
Brando was stunned for a moment before he realized that this was what she really wanted to ask.
"Did you feel it?" He asked.
"It's different from the game," the female Knight replied.
"The future of this world —"
… …
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