Imperial Throne

Chapter 108: Raid

Time passed swiftly and quietly, unnoticed by all.

The reconstruction and development of the White Mountain Territory were steadily progressing.

Among the villages, Plain Village had suffered the least damage in the previous war. Therefore, during the post-war reconstruction, Lily designated it as the primary development center. She transformed the village into a semi-militarized fortress named West Fortress. Concurrently, the administrative units of Andar Village and Mountain Ridge Village were abolished. The new territorial defense system was essentially built around West Fortress.

In other words, the White Mountain Territory had transformed from one city and five villages into one city, one war fortress, and two villages.

Throughout the territory, aside from the lord Lily Bole, there were eight bloodline users: Ion Soderbell and his son Yam Soderbell, the bloodline knight Roda from the time of Baron Ster, and five bloodline knights cultivated by Ion.

Fisher Village, being the origin of the Soderbell Family, naturally could not be granted to others. Thus, this village was responsible for supporting Ion and Yam.

Since the planned reconstruction of Mountain Ridge Village was canceled, Roda's fief was changed to Old Mountain Village. Although this village was not wealthy, it was sufficient to support Roda, even if he advanced to the second tier.

Based on this, West Fortress was not purely a military fortress but a semi-militarized facility combining two types of castles. Lily purchased a large number of slaves from Bayor Territory. During wartime, they would serve as soldiers of the fortress, and during peacetime, they were responsible for agricultural and mining work around the fortress. Additionally, Lily relocated a group of residents from White Mountain City to live here, offering some lower-tier development policy incentives.

This newly built fortress would be responsible for supporting three bloodline knights.

The budget for cultivating the remaining two bloodline knights was allocated to the expenses of White Mountain City.

In Ion's military plan, the defense of West Fortress would radiate to the entire border of the White Mountain Territory. The fortress was constructed in a mountainous area, ensuring that enemy cavalry units could not easily gain an advantage. Moreover, due to the surrounding hills, the established observation posts were not as easily removed by the enemy as before. Furthermore, since all surrounding villages had been abolished, if the Fertile Plains Territory attempted to launch another southern expedition, they would lose plundering points for resupplying materials, forcing them to extend their logistics line, which would undoubtedly increase their war expenses.

However, these were just the apparent benefits.

In reality, the true purpose of West Fortress was to handle smuggled goods from the Fertile Plains Territory heading south.

The White Mountain Territory had completely closed all border passages to the Fertile Plains Territory and officially announced a severance of relations with the three territories of the Fertile Plains, significantly hindering commercial trade development between the two territories. The transportation costs of many commercial goods inevitably increased.

At this time, the Gem Territory made a high-profile move to purchase goods with strong local characteristics from the Fertile Plains Territory, including but not limited to various magical beast materials, cattle and sheep from the Fertile Plains, certain woolen products, and other such items.

Anna offered purchase prices that barely left any profit margin for merchant guilds using old channels to reroute transportation, making it almost unprofitable. However, if smuggling through the White Mountain Territory was successful, a single shipment could yield at least three times the profit, and if it involved magical beast materials, the profit could range from five to ten times.

As a result, a large number of smugglers began attempting to find a safe passage between the Fertile Plains Territory and the White Mountain Territory, some even involving bloodline users.

But facing the White Mountain Territory, which had already made all necessary preparations, these smugglers' actions were essentially walking into a trap. Therefore, a large-scale, stable, and secure transit station was needed to store the confiscated goods. Once enough goods were accumulated from these smugglers, someone would take over and secretly transport them to the Gem Territory, where they would be sold through channels Anna had already established.

To ensure the longevity of this business, Yam also followed Anna's suggestion to occasionally allow some lucky individuals to create "wealth legends" each month. After all, compared to the profits they earned monthly, giving away to these lucky "wealth legends" was a mere drop in the bucket.

At this point, a year had passed since the end of the war between the White Mountain Territory and the Fertile Plains Territory.

During this year, the White Mountain Territory experienced rapid development.

Consequently, the Gem Territory's wealth accumulation rate more than doubled compared to the time of Baron Hess.

As Anna had told Baron Hess before his death, under her leadership, the Gem Territory exhibited vitality and prosperity far surpassing the period when Baron Hess was in power. Monica, recognizing this, chose to turn a blind eye to the cooperation between the Gem Territory and the White Mountain Territory. In her view, since Akar was Yam's younger brother, it would be strange if Anna did not leverage this relationship.

Monica's indifference was also because the better the Gem Territory developed, the more profit the Kasein Family would earn when they reclaimed it in the future.

...

Yam, accompanied by several soldiers, galloped on horseback.

Before long, they arrived at the outskirts of West Fortress.

In just over half a year, it was naturally impossible to have completed the construction of a fortress.

The White Mountain Territory lacked the necessary talent, and so did the Gem Territory. Therefore, the architects and designers for the fortress were invited by Yam through Atork from Bayor Territory, for which he paid a considerable fee.

Based on the progress of the project, it would take at least three to four years to complete West Fortress.

The extended timeline was due not only to labor factors but also to the significant portion of construction materials that had to be transported from the Red Soil Territory, Bayor Territory, and Forest Territory. The demand for these materials was substantial, making it impossible to meet in a short time.

Thus, it was naturally a time-consuming and labor-intensive effort—compared to the extraction and transportation of resources, the financial investment was not much of an issue.

For the current White Mountain Territory, thanks to a stable trade channel, funds were no longer constrained or tight—basically, every three months, the White Mountain Territory could earn five thousand gold coins, averaging over fifteen hundred gold coins per month.

However, along with high income came significant expenses.

Although it was similar to the era under Baron Ster, with only two to three hundred gold coins left in surplus annually, unlike before, the White Mountain Territory was now in a phase of rapid development. This investment would yield effective returns in a few years—even if smuggling profits dwindled by then, the completion of West Fortress alone would significantly enhance the White Mountain Territory's defensive capabilities.

This was a long-term investment.

But today, Yam had rushed from White Mountain City not to inspect the construction of West Fortress.

Something had happened here.

Several individuals who had been waiting for a long time immediately approached when they saw Yam.

Yam dismounted and asked the leading bloodline knight, "Borm, what happened?"

Borm was one of the thirteen veteran soldiers who survived the White Mountain Territory’s defensive battle. He was also the first to pass Ion’s postwar test to become a bloodline user. The bloodline he awakened was first-tier "Fire-Tailed Rat," and his ability was "Fire Control."

However, the effect of "Fire Control" was limited to manipulating a certain degree of fire; he could not generate flames on his own.

Thus, among the two bloodline knights partnered with Borm, one had awakened the first-tier "Fire Snail" bloodline, with the ability "Flame Spit"—capable of instantly spewing large amounts of fire.

"Where is Kalel?" Yam looked around and did not see Borm’s partner. "And why isn’t Sien here either?"

Sien, like Borm and Kalel, was one of the three bloodline knights stationed at West Fortress by Ion.

Kalel and Borm were arranged together because their abilities complemented each other and could not be separated.

Sien, on the other hand, was known for his steadiness and caution, so he was appointed as the commander of West Fortress, overseeing all administrative affairs. His awakened bloodline was the second-tier "Rock Turtle," a commonly found earth-attribute magical beast in the Eaglehead Mountains. Aside from its thick hide and strong defense, it had almost no advantages. Coincidentally, Ion needed Sien to survive long-term, so he deliberately selected this defensive and life-preserving bloodline for him.

"Commander Sien is currently investigating the scene of the incident," Borm responded. "Knight Kalel was injured and is being tended to by a physician."

"How many dead?"

Yam walked forward, and Borm quickly followed while reporting.

"Thirty soldiers died."

"At first, we didn’t realize it was a trap. We thought it was a routine smuggling case. But due to intelligence suggesting the presence of a bloodline user in the group, Knight Kalel and I personally intervened. When we tried to intercept the smugglers, we discovered that there was more than one bloodline user among them."

"From the Fertile Plains Territory?" Yam asked.

"No," Borm quickly shook his head. "That’s the problem... This group didn’t come from the Fertile Plains. They were trying to cross our border into the Fertile Plains. But they deliberately set a trap to lure us out. Commander Sien suspects they were mercenaries with a special mission, aimed at weakening our efforts to combat smuggling."

"So this was a hostile action targeted at our White Mountain Territory?"

"Yes."

"You were only injured, no fatalities among you?" Yam asked again.

"Correct," Borm nodded. "Thirty soldiers died, but Knight Kalel and I were only slightly wounded. Commander Sien examined the battlefield immediately and believed the enemy held back intentionally. Otherwise, at least one of us would have died. With worse luck, both of us might’ve perished in that battle."

Hearing Borm’s words, Yam’s eyes narrowed slightly. "It seems just as Anna said—someone has grown envious of this business and could no longer restrain themselves."