Southern Territory, Earl of Hossman.
The tall and strong Earl Karlov Hossman sat in his reception room, looking at the visiting guests in front of him.
As one of the most powerful land nobles in the southern region, Karloff Hosman has always been proud of his surname and excellent family lineage.
His family was originally a branch of the Hossman family in the Holy Spirit Plains. A hundred years ago, his farsighted ancestors realized the true direction of the Brumaire Civil War in time and won themselves by responding to the actions of the "Crown Prince of the North". After the establishment of the second dynasty, the ancestors who had no right to inherit were granted the royal family's extraordinary canonization, which allowed the family to obtain a piece of land of their own in the southern border, and became an earl-level land nobleman. From that day on, until the future For a hundred years, the Hossman family in the southern border has maintained prosperity and strength.
This undoubtedly shows the excellent family pedigree, and it also shows the importance of the trait of "vision and sagacity" to the family. Karloff Horsman always keeps this in mind, so he always keeps his eyes open, cautious and He pays keen attention to everything that happens on this land, not only in his own territory, but also in the entire southern land.
After the "Founding Duke" returned from his resurrection, his eyes never left Cecil Territory.
Since the civil strife in Brumaire a hundred years ago, the royal family has always intentionally controlled the development of the southern region. The ancient and huge Cecil family is like a giant beast. Even if it collapses overnight, its remaining corpses and flesh are still powerful In order to prevent those nobles who are still loyal to Cecil's surname from disturbing the situation, the royal family has divided this land more than once in a hundred years, and turned almost all the southern nobles into direct vassals of the royal family, and controlled The highest noble title in this land is the earl, so Earl Horsman has been one of the highest nobles in this land for a hundred years, but this situation was broken less than a year ago .
There is a "Duke" in the southern border again.
Although the duke did not immediately want to return his land, nor did he make any claim to the contemporary aristocratic system in the southern border, but ran to the Dark Mountains to start a pioneering construction while only retaining his title, Karlov ? Earl Hossman has never let down his vigilance against the resurrected founding hero. He has a keen sense of smell, and he can smell different flavors from the Duke's series of actions, which are hidden ambitions and threats.
"That's all the news that can be spread so far," said the guest in front of him. "The spies we sent have successfully infiltrated into an organization called the '25th Production and Construction Brigade'. According to the vocabulary invented by the resurrected duke, it It is a 'secret construction department', according to the information obtained by the spies, this department directly accepts the orders of the lord, and undertakes the highest level of territory construction tasks, so the news sent should be reliable and extremely valuable."
"Very good... Mr. Green, the spies you trained have not disappointed me," Karloff Hossman nodded in satisfaction, then frowned slightly, "So... that Duke Gawain Cecil has a A collection of very powerful weapons? And perhaps provided by the elves?"
"Yes, they use this weapon to deal with monsters wandering in the wasteland."
"The silver elves are the builders of the magnificent wall. It's not surprising that they have weapons against wasteland monsters, but they bypassed the Anzu royal family and directly contacted Duke Gawain Cecil to help with weapons... This is a bit weird ,” Karloff Hossman tapped on the table lightly, thinking about the hidden truth during this period, “It seems that the founding duke is not a 'good neighbor' as I thought..."
"Perhaps we should act as soon as possible to control the development of the Cecil Territory," said the middle-aged thin man called Mr. Green with a gloomy smile. There was a cold light in the eyeballs covered by the hair, "Viscount Leslie has obviously fallen to the Cecil family, and Kant is now substantially under the control of the Cecil family. The man who came back from the dead , is unknowingly infiltrating and controlling the lands that once belonged to him."
"But it doesn't belong to him now," Count Karlov snorted softly, "but we can't make it too obvious that he is still the Duke of the kingdom, at least in name and legally. In this case, the first jumper Whoever comes out against him will do no good no matter what the final outcome is."
"He is indeed the Duke in name and de jure, but who wants this 'Duke' to exist? You don't want it, Viscount Carroll doesn't want it, Viscount Glenn doesn't want it, and even our Majesty the King doesn't want it. I don’t want to, it’s just that everyone has to show enough awe to the founding father of the country,” Mr. Green smiled slightly, as Earl Karloff’s advisor for many years, he was quite aware of what his sharp-eyed friend was thinking. What, "We can't confront the founding hero head-on, it will damage your reputation, but we can contact others first and make some preparations in advance..."
Listening to the consultant's words, the expression on Karloff Hossman's face gradually eased.
"There is one more thing." After the discussion came to an end, Mr. Green brought up another piece of information. "Recently, something called 'Magic Net' has been reported from Leslie..."
"Magic net?" Karloff frowned slightly, "What is that?"
"A magic device, or something similar to a magic device, can absorb the free magic power in nature, and its efficiency is many times higher than that of the traditional self-charging circle. It can stably supply energy to some devices that consume magic power, For example, the magic spar lamp," Green explained, "you should have guessed that it first appeared on Cecil's collar. Viscount Leslie, who was very close to you, bought this technology. However, that Viscount Leslie obviously wants to recover some of the capital... "
Count Karlov Hossman couldn't help but smile: "Any loyalty is limited, as long as the price is right. Is this thing called the magic net worth much?"
"It is of great value, especially after it is combined with a device called a 'magic engine'," Green said, "The magic engine is a magical prop that can replace human work and is infinitely powerful, and it is also owned by Cecil. It is an expensive product, but it is worth the strength of dozens or hundreds of slaves, and they work tirelessly day and night. I have sent people to Tanzan Town to investigate the situation, and my statement is not exaggerated."
Count Karloff was stunned: "Is there really such a powerful magic item? Could it be that the revived Duke even sold this kind of thing to Viscount Leslie?"
"Obviously, the Duke is very short of money after his resurrection," Mr. Green said with a smile. "Of course, I guess he must have reservations about selling it. After all, no one wants to hand over valuable magic items to others. But our spies in Tanzania successfully established contact with the people under Viscount Leslie, and they have a way to secretly get a batch. As you said, any loyalty is limited, as long as the price is right."
"Very well, find a way to get a so-called 'magic energy engine', and what else... the magic net, also find a way to get it," Count Karlov made a decisive decision. He has already seen the potential of these two things. Timely action is the fine character of the Hossman family. "Don't worry about the gold coins you need. The most important thing is to get the magic mystery of Cecil's collar."
Green smiled: "You get what you want."
In the lord's mansion in Cecil Territory, Gawain finished reading the letter in his hand, smiled and looked up at Amber: "Guess what our neighbor in Tanzania Town said?"
Amber glanced at the letter, and the Leslie family's emblem could be seen in the corner of the letter paper, but she didn't read the content and said casually: "Recently, other southern nobles have contacted him, planning to buy a magic engine, right? "
Gao Wen glanced at Amber in surprise: "How do you know?"
"I'm the director of the Military Security Intelligence Service! Director!" Amber stared at her and pointed to her nose, "You appointed me personally, oh my god, you didn't forget it at all..."
Gao Wen hurriedly pushed back Amber's head which was getting closer and closer, while waving his hands: "I didn't forget, I didn't forget, of course there is no internet, the main reason is that I didn't expect that you were actually working. The main thing you do every day is to find various The department is doing nothing, and the rest of the time is making trouble for me, and I still treat you as not doing business at all."
Amber: "…"
The half-elf lady stared and confronted Gawain for a long time, and then thought that she couldn't beat her opponent anyway, so she persuaded her to go back: "In addition to the magic engine, I also received information that several territories in the western region of the southern border Rudimentary magic nets or clues related to magic nets appeared on the Internet. Some noble lords are recruiting rune craftsmen and rune masters, and some people are recruiting magicians at high prices. The lord has already bought or secretly learned some information about the magic net, and is trying to copy it."
"Has the magic net started to spread... Slower than I thought, but considering the impact of winter, this speed is not bad," Gawain nodded while thinking, "Viscount Andrew also worked hard."
As soon as Gao Wen mentioned Viscount Andrew, Amber couldn't help but rolled her eyes: "You still said that Viscount Andrew tremblingly and secretly bribed the technicians you sent over, spent a lot of money and half of it went into your pocket, okay? It’s easy for someone to steal it, and you suddenly sent a messenger to say that the magic net can be sold, not only can it be sold, but you can even let him act as an agent to sell it to farther places... Are you so deceitful?"
"I didn't want to trick him at the beginning, who told him to do some tricks?" Gao Wen spread his hands helplessly, "This is the most troublesome thing for me when dealing with the nobles of this era. Obviously, I can do it openly. Business is good for everyone, and you have to over-interpret your own wild thoughts. But I believe Viscount Leslie will learn his lesson after this... The rules of doing business with Cecil are different from other places."