Chapter 306: The Chaos Caused by Mom (01)
Chapter 306: The Chaos Caused by Mom (01)
Goldenveil’s current territory was still considerably small, covering only two thousand square kilometers.
This figure was reached after extensive development, both in Goldenveil—whose population had already reached twelve thousand—and in Windmere, which was also growing at a considerable pace.
Scattered across that two-thousand-square-kilometer region were fifty settlements.
Seven of them were elven, four belonged to the dwarves, and fifteen were home to humans.
The closest was twenty kilometers from Goldenveil, while the farthest was just over one hundred.
In recent months, there had been some limited contact with a few of them, but never anything very direct.
They were aware of Goldenveil’s existence and were concerned about it, but that was the extent of it.
Apart from a few brief encounters between Goldenveil patrols and those forces, nothing on a larger scale had occurred.
They were located within the territory of the Barony of Goldenveil, but they did not recognize its authority.
Together, these settlements were home to a total population of fifty thousand souls, capable—in a moment of utter desperation—of easily mobilizing twenty or even twenty-five thousand soldiers into the field.
Even so, the biggest problem lay with the other twenty-four settlements.
Six orc camps, four kobold settlements, and fourteen goblin villages.
Together, these had a population of forty thousand, almost entirely warriors.
In other words, to subdue that entire area—if it failed to force those people to surrender peacefully—Goldenveil would have to face something close to sixty thousand enemy soldiers.
That was exactly what that conversation was about.
They had an elite force of four thousand soldiers, with over two hundred already at the third stage—numbering four hundred if the paladins of the Order of the Silver Wings were included as well.
It was an extremely powerful elite force, with each soldier possessing the equivalent of decades of combat experience accumulated in the Hell Soldier’s Portal.
Even so, facing so many enemies—especially with the goal of pacifying the entire area before the coming winter—would be quite a task.
Because of this, they spent the rest of that day mapping out routes, cross-referencing information gathered from previous patrol contacts to determine who would be easiest to subdue peacefully, as well as identifying the best locations to ambush a potential unified army.
After a few hours of drinking and discussing all of this, Ethan finally officially appointed Theron to the position of legate, leader of a legion.
Of course, he would not yet have any actual power—not until he was fully briefed on Goldenveil’s military laws and received Doran’s approval.
Even so, he was given his own residence within the barracks, along with a generous salary and various types of magical herbs to help him stabilize his fourth-stage foundation.
The official formation of the first legion would not be approved until it reached five thousand men, although he would be granted authority over the four battalions currently in formation even before that.
When Ethan finally left the barracks alongside Doran, to his surprise, the first thing he saw was a young guard running toward him, clearly coming from the harbor.
"My Lord, my Lord! Sir Ron is back!" announced the guard, stopping in front of Ethan and bowing hurriedly, his chest still heaving from the run.
Ethan and Doran exchanged puzzled glances.
Ron was supposed to be at least another two weeks away from returning.
For him to be back so soon, either something very good or something very bad must have happened.
In the end, Ethan would only know for sure once he saw Ron in person, so he quickened his pace toward the port of Goldenveil.
His eyes immediately fell upon a total of ten ships.
To his surprise, those vessels were powered neither by wind nor oars, but by mana engines!
Even within the Kingdom of Burning Ice, there were only two places capable of producing ships like those, and each one sold for at least one hundred or two hundred thousand gold coins, with the most powerful models reaching millions or even tens of millions.
For Ron to be there with such expensive ships, his journey had undoubtedly been an absolute success!
Ethan smiled as he approached the dock where the first ship was already docked.
A large hatch opened on the side of the hull, and from it, a ramp lowered with a faint creak.
The first thing Ethan saw was Ron, with a strange expression etched on his face.
"What’s the matter? Is this not enough? Ethan joked as the merchant stepped off his own vessel, accompanied by a crew of fifty highly skilled workers he had hired for a fortune to serve on the Goldenveil.
Even they, who had already worked for powerful and wealthy chambers of commerce, could hardly believe their eyes.
"Hm..." Ron stopped in his tracks, letting his gaze sweep over the surroundings with attention.
That harbor was large enough to accommodate hundreds of ships docked at the same time—a true marvel of engineering, though unable to rival the colossal wall surrounding the city.
"Well... I’d say it’ll do," Ron said with a bitter smile, shaking his head.
His eyes fell on the soldiers accompanying Ethan just behind him—four imposing officers in black armor interwoven with golden runes that glinted faintly with every movement, a gold-plated bearskin draped over their shoulders like a lion’s mane.
Little by little, he began to doubt more and more the story that Ethan would be able to accomplish all of that solely thanks to his mother’s influence.
But... if it wasn’t his mother, then who?
"Lord Ethan," Ron began, "Are you aware of your mother’s great deeds in the Kingdom of Burning Ice? She truly caused a massive stir, hahaha," he concluded, observing the young lord’s confused expression.
"My mom? No, wait." Ethan thought for a moment. "Let’s talk about this somewhere more appropriate. Have your men get everything ready, and follow me."
"Of course," Ron smiled, shouting orders to his workers.
When all the ships had docked and begun unloading at the port, Ron followed Ethan.