Chapter 206: Once a Rich Man

Chapter 206: Once Rich

Legendary magicians have multiple means of resurrection, the first of which is the Seven Ring Magic Resurrection Spell. But using this spell to resurrect must require that the corpse is intact and the soul is attached to the corpse.

Duke Brenner killed Eleanor, and of course the Grant family burned Eleanor’s body to prevent the Venus family from using the resurrection spell to resurrect Eleanor.

Even Ilana’s soul was stirred apart by Duke Brenner using a powerful sword intent.

Legendary magicians also had a Legendary Magic Soul Parasitism, which split half of their souls to be hosted on top of a piece of magical equipment.

But this spell had a not-so-small weakness, half of the soul and memories would be lost, and it was quite troublesome to recover a magician who was resurrected using this spell.

Elena also had another brilliant means of resurrection, she had once obtained a page of the Book of Divine Artifact Pacts, and utilized this book of pacts to sign a life-sharing pact with a Legendary Witch Demon.

Her soul state was very special, and she shared her soul and memories with the legendary witch demon through the Book of Contracts. If the witch-demon had not been killed, Eleanor would not have died. Her soul would have regrouped in the Necromantic Realm and then entered the Morning Glory Realm through a hidden dimensional passage.

Ilana had moved on the flesh of many young members of the Venus family, using some of the talented young members of the Venus family as props for resurrection.

As long as Ilana’s soul remained intact, she could take over the young members of the Venus family.

The Venus family has been passed down for more than a thousand years, and the population with this family’s bloodline is no less than hundreds of thousands of people, scattered in different countries, so it is simply impossible to kill them all.

Unless the Legendary Witch Demon could be killed along with Ilana, the life-sharing contract could be broken.

Although it was possible to take over and be reborn, the death of the body would severely deplete the soul energy. The Legendary Witch Demon that shared its life with Ilana could not use the power of magic to fight for three years.

If Ilana wanted to regain the power of a Legendary Witch Demon, it would take at least twenty years to gather magic power.

After Ilana was resurrected in a young girl, she immediately notified the other important members of the family, and all of the heavyweight members of the Venus family were aware of the means by which Ilana was resurrected.

Over the years, the Venus family had developed rapidly and gradually prospered, and could make waves in the Grant Kingdom, relying entirely on the legendary magician Ilana.

Without Elena’s backing, the power of the Venus family is now only slightly stronger than the four eastern marquises, and not as strong as the weakest Duke Guise.

Ilana’s safety and security was the most important thing for the Venus family. After receiving Ilana’s situation, the Venus family immediately dispatched high-ranking professionals to protect her and hide in a secret stronghold.

This stronghold had been operated by the Venus family for a thousand years, and only a few high-ranking members were clear about the location of the secret stronghold.

There was a mage tower in the stronghold, and a medium distance teleportation array was also built, capable of teleporting up to three hundred kilometers away, even if it was discovered by others, there was still enough time to escape, unless they were ambushed by a Legendary Magician, and hiding in this secret stronghold could guarantee Eleanor’s safety in any situation.

After Charlemagne, Anthony, and Harden received the news of Ilana’s defeat, an unbelievable look immediately appeared on their faces. They never expected Duke Brenner to come up with this.

The Venus family’s over a hundred years of hibernation and accumulation of powerful forces would be destroyed today.

Especially the Wild Lion Legion commanded by Charlemagne was originally the regular army of the Grant royal family. Charlemagne had relied on coercion and trickery to get this centralized legion to follow him south to join the war.

Once the news was leaked, Charlemagne was 100% unable to control the Wild Lion Legion.

Anthony, Harden two families a little better, family members do not know the details of the situation, but flowing with the Venus family bloodline, there is no right to choose.

Can they still expect the Grant family to pardon them?

Taking advantage of the fact that the news hadn’t spread, the three of them held an emergency meeting.

Charlemagne raised his head anxiously and paced back and forth, “Make a decision quickly, once the news leaks, we’re done for.”

Viscount Anthony said, “In this situation now, the most important thing is to be decisive, the cause of the Gascoigne Province is immediately abandoned, the three of us take our respective family members and hide, cultivate the next generation of members, and continue to wait for an opportunity.”

“It can only be like this, first hide from the wind, avoid this period of time, and continue to contact after two years. The contact location is at secret intelligence station number three.”

With a legendary magician sheltering them, the Venus family has developed very well in these recent years, not only secretly controlling the Gascoigne province and influencing the two southern counts. It also had hidden forces in all the other provinces of the Grant Kingdom, and its influence even extended to neighboring countries such as the Grand Duchy of Starnic and the Kingdom of Rhine.

In both of these countries, there were figures similar to Baron Harden. There were hereditary nobles who had yet to be exposed who secretly sheltered them, enough for Baron Harden, Viscount Anthony, Charlemagne, and the others to hide for a while.

After the three conferred, they immediately fled with their family members.

As soon as the leader ran away, he was discovered by the upper echelons of the coalition army the next day. Although they hadn’t received the battle report from the front line yet, these high-ranking officers immediately had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.

After their urgent deliberation, they decided to take control of the army and surrender to the Duke of York.

The southern rebels were completely annihilated and the northern rebels surrendered.

Just into February, the Crown of Grant quelled the rebellion.

The Duke of York then marched into Nolan, the royal capital, with a large army.

Seeing King Charles, Duke York waved his hand condescendingly and said, “Press on!”

“I am the patriarch of the House of Grant and your king. You have sworn allegiance to me, you cannot treat me like this.”

King Charles waved his arms hard and pushed the two officers away.

The Duke of York raised his lance and struck King Charles hard.

Duke York was a ninth-ranked knight, and King Charlie was a bit less powerful, merely a sixth-ranked knight.

The difference in strength between the two sides was huge, and Duke York’s blow unexpectedly broke King Charlie’s arm.

“Charlie, I advise you not to ask for trouble and press on.”

Not long after Duke York entered Norland, the senior members of the Mage Association also returned to the Morning Glory Realm.

By the beginning of March, Duke Roger of the Southern Expedition left Steven Grant to sit in the three southern provinces as the governor of the three provinces, fully managing the military and political power of the territories of the three southern provinces, and returned to the capital, Nolan, at a fast pace with his own soldiers.

Steven Grant is a distant branch of the Grant family.

The Grant family has been sitting on the throne for six hundred years, and the population with the Grant family bloodline exceeds one million.

These descendants of the Grant family, if they were not capable, would have the social status of ordinary people after a few generations.

But the capable distant branches of the Grant family, the royal family will also invest resources to support.

Steven Grant is such a character, from a humble background but awakened bloodline, strength is even stronger than Duke Roger.

After the death of Duke Brenner, the Grant family had five ninth-order professionals, Steven was one of them, and the remaining four were Phillip, Pansy, York, and Roger.

The five Ninth Order Professionals were all important figures in the Grant Kingdom.

Steven was the Governor of the three provinces, holding the military and political power of the three southern provinces, as well as a Palace Earl, an important officer of the Praetorian Guard system.

Duke Brenner faked his death, and the only ones who knew the inside story were Pansy, Steven and two family members. Even York, Roger were kept in the dark, they rushed to the vicinity of Nolan before knowing the detailed plan.

Pansy was the president of the Mage Association, holding the most powerful mage force in Grant Kingdom.

York and Roger were both hereditary great nobles with elite soldiers under their command, and Roger would also take over as king and would soon hold the power of Grant Kingdom.

Philippe was forced to give up his throne when he was young by Duke Brenner and entered the Morningstar Church Monastery.

In the Morning Glory Church Monastery, Philippe received the church’s unreserved cultivation, and is now a ninth-order priest, an eighth-order golden knight, and his combat power is a bit stronger than the ninth-ring magician Pansy.

Now Philippe was already the High Priest of the Morning Sun Church of Grant Kingdom, second only to Archbishop Sena.

But because of the past events, Philippe was no longer particularly concerned about the Grant family’s affairs, what he was most concerned about now was instead the development of the Morning Glory Church. After all, if a priest wants to advance, he must be close to the gods in his thinking and adhere to the creed of the church.

Even though Philippe was already an important figure in the church, Philippe would definitely fight in the face of the Venus family that colluded with the evil gods.

With these five people from the Grant family joining forces, even if Ilana was in her full strength, she could fight with a legendary magician.

After Roger returned to the royal capital, he succeeded Charlie as the king because he was at the top of the line of succession.

As for King Charlie, his eyes were gouged out and he was rushed to the monastery.

Originally Roger was bound to execute King Charles, but Philip and Pansy showed their opposition, and the Duke of York abstained from the question.

While King Charles survived, Prince Felix died in battle.

As to how exactly he died, no one even pursued the matter.

Her mother, Mrs. Holland, was also carried off by a low-ranking officer during the war and became the officer’s forbidden wife.

News of the overthrow of King Charles’ rule reached Fort Black River by late February.

Receiving the news that the Duke of York had brought troops into Nolan, Richard and William, father and son, were finally relieved.

With this political stand, the Harland family had become the victors and did not have to worry about being liquidated.

Richard reacted quickly, and after conferring with William, he immediately left Fort Black River with his troops, and turned his head west to attack Baron Harden’s territory.

Baron Harden went south with his main force, and he had a population of thirty thousand in his territory.

Baron Harden’s eldest son, Baron Leon, also had a population of eight thousand within his territory.

Now that the hereditary nobles in Gascoigne Province who participated in the rebellion would be liquidated, these territories were reduced to fat meat.

This kind of situation was always a case of fast hands and slow hands. If you’re slow to grab it, you’ll lose the opportunity for rapid development.

Richard’s reaction is very fast, the strength of Harland’s territory is very strong, now the military power has exceeded Viscount Rommen, is the strongest power of the nobles in the province of Geddar, he set his eyes on Baron Harden’s territory, and the other nobles do not dare to take food from the tiger’s mouth and compete with Richard. So as not to be cleaned up by him in passing, and deduct a charge of chaotic party.

Now this situation, temporarily in a state of chaos, the nobles attacked each other, and no one can manage. Those with big fists and strong power certainly speak much louder.

Now that the war of counterinsurgency had come to an end, the remnants of the Venus family had also turned to underground activities.

Although there were still some soldiers in Baron Harden’s territory, they were now deeply afraid of being typed into another book and becoming accomplices of the Venus family.

Involving the fight for the throne, the nobles were very cruel. For ordinary people without backstage, they would often make a big deal about the strains. Facing the siege of Richard’s army, the defenders of Baron Harden’s territory almost surrendered at the first time, handing over the territory to Richard in its entirety.

The war had already ended, and rewarding merit and punishing faults became the mainstream.

The Harland family stood on the side of the victor this time, naturally not afraid of being held accountable from above.

Although the Harland family didn’t participate in the war and didn’t shed blood, the role they played was very crucial.

It is because of Richard and William, held the northern legion, did not let the northern legion support King Charles, south to fight.

The Wild Lion Legion was deeply involved in the rebellion, although most of the ordinary soldiers and basic officers were pardoned, high-ranking officers were executed.

Those who committed minor offenses were dismissed from their posts, while those who committed serious offenses would be tried by the law.

The nobles of the Gascoigne province were also severely reprimanded for their participation in the coalition of nobles organized by the Venus family.

Viscount Cisse, the enemy of Harland’s domain, failed to take sides this time and also got into trouble. Not only was half of his territory cut off by the royal family, his title was also demoted to baron.

Almost all of the nobles in Gascoigne Province were deceived, and most of the hereditary nobles followed the trend and sent one or two squadrons to join the coalition of nobles, so there was no big trouble.

Even so, the Gascoigne Province nobles were labeled as untrustworthy by the Grant Crown.

Legionnaire Zachary of the Northern Legion had failed in his political stand and had been dismissed by King Roger. However, he was highly decorated in battle and did not cause too much harm, barely escaping with his life.

Although the family territory was preserved, a thousand men needed to be drawn to join the Redeemer’s Legion.

The Redeemer’s Legion is Duke Roger’s newly established legion, mainly funded by the nobles who failed to stand up this time. In addition to the nobles of Gascoigne province, Rach province, the barons of the three southern provinces who rebelled are required to contribute men and money.

There are three Legions of Redeemers, and all of their annual pay is borne by the nobles.

When losses occur, they are also to be replenished by the nobles.

These three Redeemer Legions were assigned to the Northern Border Province, with command under the Central Legion.

The three northern border provinces were stationed with the central main legion because of their strong military power. Therefore, King Charles attached great importance to the three northern border provinces, and drew out the elite soldiers and generals who were loyal to himself to control the three northern provinces.

This time, King Charles was ousted from power, and almost all of the senior officials in the three northern border provinces were replaced.

Richard’s old acquaintance, Edelweiss, was smoothly promoted to the consul of Gerda province.

The reason why Edelweiss, who has no backing, was promoted is because he was on the right side of the line. He was an official who rose up from Brenner County and had channels to contact the Duke of York.

The second is also because the new king Roger has no direct line officials, temporarily can only promote seniority deeper local officials to maintain the situation.

After this rebellion, the situation of the Harland family immediately changed for the better.

The enemies of the king’s capital failed to step down because of the political struggle, and Richard and Duke Roger also have a slight affinity.

The most crucial thing was that Richard had made a fortune in the war, and all of Baron Haden’s years of accumulation had fallen into Richard’s pockets.

Baron Harden’s collar was very strong, and the reserves of supplies piled up.

Richard drew manpower from the territory, and even let the students of the Riverbank Elementary School participate in the statistical inventory, and it took a few days to finish the inventory of Baron Harden’s supplies.

There were twelve boxes of gold coins, each containing twelve hundred gold coins, totaling fourteen thousand four hundred.

There were twenty boxes of silver coins, adding up to a total of two thousand gold coins.

Sixty boxes of copper coins, each box had six thousand copper coins, adding up to a total of one thousand gold coins.

In just the coins alone, Richard had raked in seventeen thousand four hundred gold coins.

In addition to the gold coins, there were also a large amount of cloth, livestock, salt, spices and grain, which were piled up in a mountain, and the number of gold coins exchanged was very considerable, roughly estimated to be no less than 30,000 gold coins.

In addition, Baron Harden also has a lot of military supplies, 300 horses, 500 iron armor, 600 bows and arrows, counting the lances and swords, enough to arm 1,000 infantry cavalry.

In addition from the treasury also found a number of enchanted weapons, there are thirty pairs of enchanted armor, fifty enchanted longswords, enchanted bows and crossbows twenty.

This batch of equipment, again, was cheap for Richard.

The Iron Horned Horses that Baron Harden kept in his territory, a total of six second-order stallions, thirteen mares, and nine ponies, all belonged to Richard.

Together with the scattered harvests, the value of these materials was not less than 100,000 gold coins.

The charm of war money was so great that it made people get rich overnight and also made them go bankrupt overnight.

Taking advantage of the chaotic situation, Richard plundered a large number of people from Baron Harden’s territory and relocated them to Harland’s territory.

Forced to leave their homes, the Barony of Harden’s lords dared to speak out in anger.

But when people are under the roof, they have to bow their heads. Even if one’s temper is hard, it can’t be harder than a sword.

Forced by the sword, Baron Harden’s people finally left their homes.

This time, the population that migrated from the Barony of Harden exceeded thirty-four thousand.

Together with this batch of population, the population of Harland’s territory would exceed one hundred thousand.

With the increased population, funded by Baron Harden, and no shortage of weapons and equipment, Richard immediately formed five new infantry squadrons, one scout squadron, and expanded the army by one thousand.

After the end of the war of pacification, there are large and small dozen of hereditary nobles were de-royalized, including the three hereditary counts in the south.

This civil war in Grant Kingdom caused the political situation to change.

The last time the political situation had changed had happened more than a hundred years ago. Duke Brenner’s great victory over the orcs, Grant Kingdom established three provinces in one breath and rewarded four dukes.

The territories of the lost dukes and nobles needed to be redivided.

When it comes to the division of territories, the situation becomes complicated, and one needs to weigh the pros and cons and take care of the interests of all parties.

The royal family of Grant got the fattest piece of meat, the territories of the three southern counts were swallowed by the royal family and became three provinces.

Duke Jonathan’s collar also had a very large harvest, swallowing the Earl Roger’s collar.

Roger became the king, it was impossible to be stationed at the northern frontier, his son was still young and was not capable of holding the territory.

Now there was a need to reward Duke Jonathan for his meritorious service, so Roger decided to divide the territory to Duke Jonathan after discussing with the important figures of the Grant family.

Duke Jonathan ate up Roger’s Earl’s territory, and Duke York, who also made great achievements, was slightly more difficult to reward.

Although there is a large territory in Gascoigne Province, Duke York is not willing to put his strength on the frontline of the war with the orcs. So only two thousand square kilometers of land from Maryland Province was given to Duke York.

Two thousand square kilometers of land looked small, quite a bit smaller than the territory controlled by the Harland family.

But Maryland province is a vast plain and in the hinterland of the kingdom, the territory here is very valuable.

It has been three hundred years since the royal family has been knighted in Maryland Province.

The triumvirate got the benefits, and the next two dukes were Duran and Loran.

These two dukes didn’t want to spread their power around.

Although there was a large territory in Gascoigne Province, the great nobles simply couldn’t see it. Obtaining a fiefdom in Gascoigne Province would inevitably require fighting with the orcs.

Although the two dukes of Loran and Duran often clashed with the Kingdom of Delong, the intensity of the clashes was far from being comparable to the invasion of the orcs.

Although they were obligated to support the war in the northern border, after all, they were not the front line, and the pressure was much less. Even if the territory of Gascoigne Province was given away for nothing, they were not willing to take a look at it.

Because they didn’t want the territory, Duke Roger rewarded them with 100,000 gold coins and sent them a batch of potion resources.

The other great nobles basically didn’t take sides, and the most meritorious ones in the counter-insurgency battle were Richard and William.

Their father and son held back the Northern Legion, making the battlefield near Nolan less troublesome.

If the Northern Legion had joined forces with the Wild Lion Legion to go south, they might have broken through the Duke of York’s defenses.

The situation would have changed, and the internal conflict in the Grant Kingdom would have been a bit more severe.

Although Richard and William did not participate in the battle, Duke Roger still rewarded Richard with a strange merit, and Baron Dillam’s collar was divided among the Harland family.

In these recent years, the main route of advancement for the orcs was through the Platos Mountains, the Harland Valley.

The Barony of Dillam located in this area was unlucky and suffered two major blows, the remaining members of the family lost their confidence in running the territory and have given up the right to inherit the territory.

This territory has once again been reduced to an unclaimed land.

The Barony of Dirham was not small, and was even larger than the Barony of Stopa, with a total area of sixteen hundred square kilometers.

Although this territory is still hilly, but the hills have been very low and gentle, the territory is still 30% flat land, agricultural conditions are much better than the territory of Stopa.

Compared to the previous territories of the Harland family, this territory was undoubtedly much more fertile.

After eating Baron Dillam’s territory, the Harland family’s territory has already exceeded 10,000 square kilometers, and counting the 30,000 people snatched from Baron Harden’s territory, the total population has also exceeded 100,000 people.

Richard placed all the population that moved here in the new territory.

Barony Dirham had developed farmland and ready-made houses, although it needed to be crowded for a short period of time, the conditions were better than when Richard started to develop the territory.

(End of chapter)