He raised his hand, looked back at the butler whose face had turned purple with embarrassment, then shook his head, turned around and walked down the wooden stairs.

A small group of cavalrymen rushed into the castle with a carriage escorted by the cold wind of the early morning. After people dodged in panic and a burst of chaos, the cavalrymen quickly formed a horizontal line in the open space in front of the carriage.

Then they looked at Allen who was walking towards them in silence. For a moment, the only sounds were the neighing and stomping of the ground by their horses.

With a creaky sound, the car door opened and a figure cautiously appeared in front of Allen.

Completely different from Alfred’s arrogance and extravagance, and without Olof’s calmness and gentleness, Field of Sigusan is more like a small country gentleman in a remote area than a baron.

His slightly furrowed brows and bitter expression always made him look bad, and his sad mouth seemed to be always tense because of something worrying, which made him look much older than his actual age.

When others saluted him, the mayor would try to be polite in return. And when Allen saluted him respectfully, he even responded with a more respectful attitude, completely ignoring the fact that both of them were barons.

He looked as if he was afraid that others would be unhappy if he neglected them.

“Sir, I hope my niece has not caused you any trouble.” Field said to the newly promoted viscount carefully, “I brought some gold and food. Thank you for saving my daughter.”

Allen looked at this seemingly cowardly man and his followers who were unloading boxes from the carriage with some surprise. From the sweat stains on the packhorses and the heaviness of the carriage just now, he could guess that there must be a lot of things in the carriage.

He walked over to a box, bent down and opened it.

To his surprise, there were no gold ingots or coins inside, but cups and plates decorated with gold and gemstones. Judging from the dust on them, no one had touched them for a long time.

In addition, there are some gold nuggets with strange shapes, which are probably gold foil peeled off from somewhere and re-melted.

After closing the lid, Allen hesitated for a moment and looked at the cavalry:

“Is the road so unsafe?”

“You don’t know, sir.” Mayor Field showed a helpless smile. “In the past six months, the entire northern territory has been full of bandits. Not to mention groups of travelers, even escorted caravans have been robbed. Several caravans of my Chamber of Commerce were even killed and lost all their money. There are almost no merchants in the city now. Sigusan used to be the most prosperous city in the north…”

“…Mayor Field.” Allen interrupted the man abruptly, “Please take the money back, and your niece back too. I just want the food.” Probably because he didn’t expect to hear such a result, the man raised his head suddenly. Just as he was about to say something, he heard Allen continue to speak:

“…On the other hand, I hope to get your help in other places.

“As you can see, Angate is in a state of disrepair. It requires a lot of things and manpower to repair the castle and settle the people. And I don’t have a lot of money. I hope to get these things in Sigusan at a more fair and reasonable price.”

Field’s throat moved: “So…what do you need?”

“Workers, blacksmiths, materials, weapons… whatever is needed to repair a castle, that’s all I need. And of course, your friendship.” Allen spread his hands, “In exchange, I will send out troops in the near future to eliminate the nearby bandits and reopen the trade route.

“It’s a pretty good deal, isn’t it?”

……

There are several roads from Angate to Montina, one of which goes directly south along the mountain ridge to Montina Castle.

But this road is not only bad for many people, it may even be a nightmare.

In addition to the difficult mountain road, this road is more dangerous from the groups of bandits entrenched in the mountains.

Most of these bandits were villagers from nearby villages. Some were forced into a desperate situation by the lord’s tax collectors, while others could not get food because of natural disasters or man-made calamities, so they became bandits.

They formed groups to plunder nearby caravans, villages or travelers, taking every penny of property from these unfortunate people and capturing every woman who passed by.

Because of this, although there is such a more convenient road, few people pass through that road over the years.

But today, some people broke the silence on this quiet mountain road.

This was a small team with a few carriages. Several mercenaries holding spears and swords and wearing worn leather armor followed slowly beside them. Some were whistling, some were drinking wine, and some were singing loudly songs from somewhere unknown.

In the eyes of some people, such a convoy is no different from naked prostitutes.

There was a very slight sound at the bend in the mountain road. In a place like this where the mountain wind was howling, you would not notice it at all if you didn’t listen carefully.

The next moment, shouts rang out from around the bend. Dozens of bandits shouted almost instinctively, holding hoes, pitchforks, guillotines, and half-broken swords, shouting and whistling as they ran down from their hiding places.

The mercenaries who were drunk and lazy beside the caravan dropped their weapons on the ground almost instantly when they saw the robbers appear. Then they ran away with the coachman without looking back.

While running, a mercenary took out a handful of silver coins from his pocket and scattered them on the ground, probably to reduce the weight so that he could run faster.

Amid the excited cheers, the bandit leader left his men who were picking up silver coins and rushed to the carriages whose wheels were stuck deep in the ground and looked like they were loaded with a lot of things. He lifted up the thick cloth covering them – immediately, the leader was shocked to see the stones and straw inside.

Chapter 241: The Horn on the Battlefield

Sharp whistles echoed in the open space. Several groups of cavalry appeared on the top of the hill, and on both sides of the road were large groups of soldiers holding weapons and wearing armor, with spears and shields everywhere, forming a somewhat weird, yet hedgehog-like formation.

Danfu took a deep breath, spat into his palm, and then tightly tied the rough cloth around his hand. The left side of the old soldier’s head was bald, and the helmet on his head was tilted to one side because of the scar, which made him look even more ruffian.

“Wrap it tighter. You should know that your hands will be slippery when the blood flows to them, and you won’t be able to hold the weapon.” The middle-aged man said to the recruit beside him, “Remember the content of the training. Obeying orders is more important than stabbing blindly.”

The new recruit, who was obviously on the battlefield for the first time, nodded nervously, feeling his throat a little dry.

This old soldier, called “Uncle Danfu” by other soldiers, had followed the lord to fight the evil god in the south before. In this army composed almost entirely of farmers from the mountains, he was already considered a “senior talent.”

Now, in order to obtain the land, military pay and spoils promised by the lord, he took up arms again and joined the Angate Legion formed by the new lord.

“Woo——”

The horn sounded immediately after. Forty-eight Angate soldiers stepped forward and shouted in unison: “Hey!”

This strange shouting was a local method used by these mountain people to drive away wild animals when they encountered them. In line with the principle of “taking what is useful”, Allen used this shouting in the newly formed Angate Legion to boost morale.

This kind of group shouting can effectively relieve the tension of recruits and enhance the morale and cohesion of the soldiers.

Following the sound of the horn and Danfu’s shout of “Let’s go!”, everyone took their steps as usual to the sound of the horn.

The first to take action were the sword and shield soldiers in the front row. They pulled out the iron-headed javelins stuck behind their shields and threw them out with their right hands. Four heavy javelins whizzed away and directly knocked the three bewildered bandits to the ground.

Some of the followers who looked like farmers were immediately frightened and fled from both sides screaming, or simply turned around and ran.

But the elven rangers on the hillside were faster. They rode past on fast horses, harvesting the heads of these “deserters” with their scimitars.

The second horn sounded, and with another shout of “Hey!”, the recruit suddenly felt his tension eased a lot, and a mouthful of saliva entered his dry mouth and moistened his dry throat.

The soldiers began to speed up and the whole team started running forward. Danfu shouted as he ran: “No retreat! Deserters will be executed!”

It was not the first time for him to hold a weapon, but compared to those nobles who treated them as cannon fodder, Baron Angate was obviously a good commander. At least he never delayed their military pay.

Moreover, he had memorized the military law under the whip and the military stick during the training. Any desertion on the battlefield would be executed by other comrades directly without any responsibility, and even the land granted would be taken back. It would be better to die on the battlefield, at least his son could get a piece of land.

“Woo…”

At the third horn sound, the old soldier roared at the top of his lungs:

“Hey——”

“Puff, puff—”

The sound of spears piercing flesh rang out repeatedly, and the five-meter-long spears in the hands of the spearmen stabbed into the bodies of several robbers who had not had time to escape. Danfu took a step forward and forced back a robber with an axe in front of him. From the corner of his eye, he saw another spearman stabbing a robber in the chest with a spear, directly sending the robber flying backwards. The blood spurting out from the wound on the robber’s chest formed a strange arc in the air.

Just one round of spear thrusts killed six or seven bandits. These spearmen were selected from the strongest and most vigorous middle-aged men among the mountain people. They had to tie heavy objects to their hands and feet every day and practice hundreds of stabbings in a row.

Now on the battlefield, without the heavy objects and with the protection of armor, the spearmen’s hands and feet are more flexible, and each assassination is as fast as lightning, and each kill is a life. The bandits are not only lacking in training, but also have no armor, so the battle is almost one-sided.

After a round of stabbing, the bandits collapsed instantly and fled in all directions, while Danfu led his team and chased them in the direction of their escape.

Since signing the “Mutual Defense Agreement” with the city of Sigusan, the trained Angate Corps has begun to attack everywhere, both to eliminate bandits and to verify the training results of the soldiers.

As a “reward”, Anget can purchase various materials from the city at very favorable prices, recruit craftsmen, and buy armor and weapons for the soldiers…

The renovation of the castle was in full swing. At this time, Lord Allen of Angate handed over the army to the commander of Oflei, and he himself led his guards to the city of Montina overnight.

After entering the city, he and his men headed straight for the Montina Cathedral in the north of the city.

This time, Allen did not bring a large army, but selected several agile ones from the Elf Rangers, and several hunters who were good at riding and archery from the Angate Legion, to form a small personal guard.

The whole team was on horseback, and they encountered almost no resistance in the town—no one dared to provoke more than a dozen cavalrymen in full armor and holding banners. The team walked through the bustling market, crossed the wide and flat square, and came to a church in the north of the city that was very busy due to construction and renovation.

Laborers and builders came in and out of the church, pushing wheelbarrows loaded with bluestone bricks and tiles, carrying large pieces of wood, or holding up parchment drawings and pointing and talking.

Allen led his team to the door of the chapel next to the cathedral. Allen signaled his men to wait outside the door, while he took a wooden box from his saddle and walked into the chapel.

The interior of the church adopts a dome structure, with dozens of stone pillars supporting the top of the church. A cross-shaped hole is carved at the position of the altar, and sunlight penetrates through here to form a cross beam of light.

When he entered the church, Bishop Olof was kneeling in front of the cross, praying with his back to the door. The sunlight shone in from the high windows, casting a halo on the abbot’s shorn head.

Allen couldn’t help but lower his footsteps and waited respectfully by the side.

After a while, the bishop, who had finished praying, stood up with some effort. Seeing Allen standing in the distance, a smile appeared on his face:

“It’s good to see you’re alright, kid.”

“With your blessing and thank you for your prayers, Bishop.” Allen wrapped his left arm around the box and knelt on one knee, kissing the bishop’s ring. Then Orlov helped Allen up:

“God bless you, kid. Your presence here probably means victory for you, right?”

Allen lowered his head and maintained a humble demeanor: “Yes, Bishop. Thank you for your strong help at the critical moment. I have successfully regained my territory. The bandit leader has been executed by me. I hired some craftsmen from Sigusan City to repair the castle. The repair will be completed in about half a month.”

“Congratulations, the new Angate man…” Before Orlov finished his voice, there was a tapping sound of heels hitting the ground.

Chapter 242 Sister and Brother Reunited

Allen turned his head subconsciously, and a figure in nun’s clothes bumped into his arms.

The air in his lungs was squeezed out by the hug, and the pleasant scent of gardenia emanated from the ends of his hair and filled his nose, filling the air with an illusory scent.

“Elstin?” Allen tightened his arms in disbelief. The warmth and softness in his arms convinced him that the scene before him was real, not a dream. The girl in his arms was indeed holding him.

“Brother!” The girl raised her head from his arms, a few strands of silver hair showing under the nun’s headscarf, the surprise in her eyes bloomed as brightly as a rose, her warm and soft body pressed against Allen’s chest, trembling slightly.

Before he could react, the girl buried her head in Allen’s neck and cried softly.

Allen was suddenly at a loss as to what to do. He could only comfort her softly while patting Elstin’s curvy back with his hands, whispering softly as if he was coaxing a child.

“I’m fine, really fine, look, I’m back, right?”

“I was worried that the girl would not be safe in the castle, so I took her out and hid her in the church in the name of a nun. Here, I can guarantee her safety.” Looking at the brother and sister hugging each other in front of him, Orlov showed a kind and gentle smile on his face.

Allen nodded repeatedly, his mind focused on the girl in his arms. She had been crying for a long time, and Allen was worried that she would hurt her eyes, so he pulled away the soft body that was like a Simmons mattress and gently wiped away the tears from the corners of the girl’s eyes.

“Okay, Elstin,” Allen gently stroked the girl’s soft hair, reluctantly not looking at her red and swollen eyes, “I’m back, so don’t cry. I promised you that I would help you build a castle. We have a home now, our own home.”

“Brother, I, I…” The girl spoke incoherently. The joy of her lover’s return and the sudden shock of the good news made the girl a little dizzy. When she found that she couldn’t even speak a clear sentence, tears welled up in her beautiful eyes again.

Allen rubbed the girl’s head helplessly, then put her down on the bench and handed the wooden box to Bishop Orlov:

“My Lord Bishop, thank you for your help at the critical moment, which enabled me to get what belongs to me. Thank you for protecting me and my sister. I don’t know how to express my gratitude and respect to you, so I can only do my part to help you rebuild the cathedral.”

After that, he gently opened the wooden box. In the exquisite wooden box lay a holy cross with ivory and gold-plated silver chains, several holy emblems inlaid with gemstones, and an exquisite small ceramic vase.

The choice of these two gifts was also carefully considered. If the bishop had been given gold or silver coins, he would definitely not accept them. But if it was a religious relic like a cross, he would obviously not be able to refuse it. As for the exquisite porcelain vase, although it was valuable and could be sold to a royal noble or a wealthy businessman for a large sum of money, it was difficult for Allen to sell it.

It would be most appropriate to give it to the bishop as a return gift and repayment of the loan. He also believed that with the bishop’s experienced eyes, he would be able to see the true intention of this gift.

Looking at the items in the wooden box, Bishop Orlov glanced back and forth between the porcelain and Allen’s face, shook his head helplessly, and took the box.

The two of them tacitly did not discuss whether these ornaments were enough to repay the loan from the Holy Treasury.

“By the way.” Just as Allen and Elstin were about to leave the church, Orlov suddenly said, “Since you are already the Baron of Angate, you should go to the imperial capital Toledo and register at the Heraldry Institute.”

Allen was stunned for a moment before he remembered that this was indeed the case.

Compared with other kingdoms that practiced the feudal system, the feudal nobility of Soma had a very unique difference: that is, all nobles were theoretically vassals of the king, and there was no further feudalization under the nobility.

This unique form can be traced back to the early reconquest movement. The long-term war with the evil god made the entire northern peninsula not peaceful and tranquil. Countless northern nobles were involved in this protracted war, and many families often spent several generations in this war that seemed to have no end at the time.

This naturally led to a very common phenomenon: when a family lord unfortunately died in a war, when his heir needed to hold a succession ceremony, he was told that his legal lord was fighting on another battlefield dozens of kilometers away.

At such times, Queen Isabella would send royal envoys to hold ceremonies on behalf of the de jure lords, allowing these nobles to pledge allegiance directly to the queen so that they could quickly take over the armies and forces from their elders.

Such situations are not uncommon in wars. However, as the situation of the reconquest movement improved day by day, and the empire repeatedly counterattacked the evil god, the nobles gradually realized that something was wrong.

If a nobleman tried to divide his territory between his two sons, then after his death, his territory would be divided into two, divided into two independent small nobles. Instead of the second son being loyal to the eldest son, each would be loyal to the queen.

If this continues for generations, the nobles’ territories will sooner or later be divided into scattered small territories. By then, if someone wants to rebel against the queen’s rule… it will probably be impossible.

The nobles were not fools, nor did they know Isabella’s ambitions. However, the queen’s prestige, which she had built up through several victories, weighed heavily on them, making it impossible for them to act rashly. They could only watch helplessly as this conspiracy gradually deprived them of their power.

But this is only good for Allen now.

He knew that Orlov was implicitly reminding him to find a way to establish a relationship with the royal family as soon as possible, so that if Montina wanted to annex Angate, he could use this as an excuse to ask the regional governor or the diocesan bishop to mediate.

In this way, even Alfred would be a little wary.

When Elstin, who was wearing a nun’s uniform, left the church, Allen noticed from the corner of his eye that an old man in a thick robe walked out of the door of the library room. His messy silver-gray hair was tied into a bun at the back of his head, and his forehead was bright and broad. From a distance, he looked like a magician in pagan legends.

He vaguely heard Bishop Orlov’s voice:

“Manuscript…information…Master Fischer…”

Fishe? Allen paused, then shook his head with amusement.

A famous scholar of the Soma Empire, a famous professor of the Imperial Capital’s First Royal Academy, appeared in the Northern Peninsula? This is too ridiculous.