Imperial Crown.

Chapter 224: Horn of Decline

Raven finally chose Fireball.

Sikoret and Raven are one and the same, and will never harm his interests.

In order to complete the engraving, Raven needs to use his mental power as a pen and magic power as ink during meditation to construct the overall structure of the magic in his own magic pool.

This is a slow and steady process.

Even after thousands of years of development, the structure of Fireball has been simplified to the extreme, but it still has 9 different magic circuits. It will take at least two or three months to complete the construction.

While Raven was leisurely studying magic, the Nord Province was in turmoil.

Because Marquis Anthony had just returned to the City of Mon'en, he announced a major event - he officially began to calculate the military merits of the previous battle with the Cult of the Hand of Death!

He also announced that after several months of investigation, he had obtained detailed evidence and knew who was falsifying military achievements.

If you surrender yourself voluntarily, you can be punished lightly and given a severe warning. Otherwise, your territory will be taken away at the least, and your title will be stripped away at the worst!
It is interesting to note that before announcing this matter, Earl Tyrone of the Slater family held a grand birthday party, and sent invitations to most of the Nord provinces, except for those nobles who had close ties with the Fox family.

And there is another fact.

Earl Tyrone's birthday was not during the days when the cocktail party was held.

When the news reached his ears, Gul'dan, who was dancing with the beauty in his arms, could no longer sit still.

He hurried to the outside of Montreal's study, tidied himself up, took a deep breath, and then gently knocked on the door.

"Enter."

The room was dim, and Montreal sat at the desk with his back to the window, his hands crossed under his chin.

The moonlight shone through the window, illuminating his gray hair and half of his old face.

Gul'dan's face tightened. It was the first time he saw Montreal looking so haggard.

At this moment, he suddenly realized that his father was really old.

"Father..."

Montreal flicked his fingers, and the strong wind activated the magic lamp, lighting up the room: "Sit down."

Gul'dan lowered his head and said, "...Father, what should we do?"

This was the first time in his life that Gul'dan felt powerless.

In order to resolve this crisis, the Fox family made many attempts and efforts, such as inviting Marquis Anthony to visit and presenting some valuable "artworks". Montreal even went to Montreal in person to visit Anthony himself.

But all these were ineffective. Anthony refused all invitations; he accepted all gifts but would immediately give gifts of equal value in return; and he simply avoided Montreal's visits.

"There is no way." Montreal said calmly: "Marquis Anthony came on behalf of His Majesty the King. As long as we are still subjects of the Keynes Empire, we cannot fight against him."

“Even if he and the Slater family unabashedly stood together to suppress us, he couldn’t find any problems.”

Gul'dan lowered his head even more, and at that moment he felt a little resentful towards his father.

If Montreal had not accepted Archbishop Thomas' proposal and gotten too close to the Church of Light, allowing the Church of Light to station troops near the city of Hovey, the Fox family would not have been targeted by His Majesty the King to such an extent!
Immediately, this complaint turned into resentment and was transferred to Archbishop Thomas.

As early as when Marquis Anthony just arrived in the Nord Province, Gul'dan visited Thomas to ask for help, but was declined by Archbishop Thomas.

At that time, Archbishop Thomas made it very clear that if he intervened in this matter, it would be detrimental to the Fox family.

This is the truth, but the more Gul'dan thought about it, the more he felt that this was exactly the same as the excuse he made when he seduced an ignorant girl into bed and then did not want to take responsibility after the incident.

"Then it seems that we can only take the initiative to re-count the military merits and report them." Gul'dan said with a bitter face: "This is much better than waiting for Marquis Anthony to take the initiative to announce the results. We are all nobles, he should not be too ruthless..."

Some things, if not weighed on the scale, may not be as heavy as a feather; but if weighed on the scale, they may be as heavy as a mountain.

Such is the merit of war.

Montreal shook his head: "It's great that you thought of this, but it's not enough."

"Before that, I need to voluntarily give up my position as the Governor of Nord Province."

"But father, this price is too high!" Gul'dan was stunned for a moment, and said excitedly: "This governor position has been held by our Fox family for 200 years!"

Although he could not interfere in military power, the governor was responsible for the business and government affairs of the entire province.

The most important power is to collect taxes.

Collect taxes in the Nord province and then escort them to the royal capital!

Millions of gold coins are traded every year, and the profits from them are so lucrative that they are unimaginable to ordinary people.

If it weren't for this position, the Fox family, which is far inferior to the Slater family in terms of territory, population, and economy, would not have the capital to compete with the Slater family!
Surrendering the governorship would directly harm the interests of the Fox family.

"The territory is the foundation, kid." Montreal had obviously made a plan: "It seems that our previous cooperation with the Church of Light was indeed a stupid move. It made the young king hate us very much."

"Even if I hold on to my position as governor, Anthony will deprive me of my title based on my military achievements, and even my territory may be taken away. At this point, the only way to survive is to actively cooperate."

Guldan was convinced by Montreal, but understanding the truth did not mean he could accept it. He slammed his thigh hard: "Damn Anthony, damn the country..."

"Be careful with your words!" Montreal shouted, "Gul'dan, remember this: treat your monarch with more respect than you would treat a god!"

"Yes..." Gul'dan looked even more dejected and answered weakly. Montreal losing the title of governor meant that he could not inherit the position.

Knowing that his son was speaking without thinking, Montreal's expression softened slightly: "Gul'dan, as a noble, you must not only consider yourself, but also our vassals."

"They surround us just to gain more benefits."

"Now I am voluntarily handing over the position of governor, not only to protect myself, but also to protect them. Otherwise, if Marquis Anthony really launches a thorough investigation, they will suffer heavy losses and their morale will collapse."

"On the other hand, if we protect them, they will naturally stand on our side. With their support, Anthony and Tyrone will not dare to kill us."

"Marquis Anthony cannot afford to push us to the brink of destruction."

Gul'dan leaned back in his chair, poured himself a glass of wine and drank it without saying a word, obviously not having heard much.

Montreal sighed in his heart. He was a little disappointed with Gul'dan's poor ability to withstand pressure, which inevitably reminded him of Raven.

The more unfavorable the situation the family is in, the more it needs external assistance, and Raven is undoubtedly the most important external aid among many.

Now it seems that marrying Nancy to Raven was the best decision he had made in recent years.

"Under the current circumstances, it is inconvenient for me to leave." Montreal said, "You prepare to go to the Eagle Territory on my behalf to discuss and confirm the wedding date, betrothal gifts and dowry with Raven."

"But before that, we need to redesign the gift list. The previous dowry was too meager."

Hearing this, Gul'dan's brows twisted into a knot. In his opinion, the previous gift list was already too much, and now they wanted to increase it?
Montreal didn't care about Gul'dan's attitude.

Over the next period of time, the Fox family will become increasingly weaker.

Therefore, we must support Raven even more - the stronger he is, the better off the Fox family will be!
On the other hand, Raven was not very surprised when he heard the news announced by Marquis Anthony.

After all, Marquis Anthony has come here, it's impossible that he is here just to buy a mirror, right?

Moreover, the weaker the Fox family is, the better it is for him. Most of the time, a powerful wife's family is not a help.

So with almost no distraction, Raven still focused his energy on engraving the fireball.

Fireball has 9 different magic circuits. Soon after the first circuit was completed, the ordered Intellectual Magic Net finally arrived along with various materials and combat skills.

Since the Intellectual Magic Net is extremely sensitive to magic power, it cannot be loaded into space equipment. It was transported by the third-level magician Monroe himself on a flying carpet.

For such a large order, the Mages Guild provides a full range of services, including the installation of the equipment itself, the opening of the magic well, and a full set of tutorials on how to build the platform yourself.

After staying in Eagle Castle for two days, Monroe finally left. However, from the moment he arrived until he left, he had been holding an attitude of watching a joke, and it was obvious that he did not think that Raven's spending this time was wise enough.

Having the Intellectual Magic Network is just the foundation. Building a platform requires at least four steps.

The first step is to create a magic well to provide energy for the magic network of intelligence.

For this simplified version of the fourth-order intelligence magic network, the Mage Guild can do it for you. After all, its energy consumption is not very large, and a first-order magic well is enough.

Secondly, it is to adjust the intelligence magic network itself to a specific frequency of vibration, because its working principle is to use magic fluctuations to transmit information. If the fluctuations are not unique enough and are not encrypted, then in the eyes of the magician, it is no different from shouting to the whole world.

The third step is to build your own platform on the Intellectual Magic Network. This step is a completely unfamiliar field for many magicians and is also the most difficult step. There are precedents in history where great magicians bought the Intellectual Magic Network on a whim and ended up leaving it gathering dust.

Fourth, a magic circle for the communication platform must be designed from scratch, and it must be carefully considered, otherwise someone who obtains the magic circle can completely reverse the operation and use the magic circle to influence, destroy or even control the platform itself.

This is also the most difficult step in the entire process. Only the Mage Guild itself, with its large number of magicians, can have a stable number of people to constantly guard the platform and prevent anyone from sabotaging it.

A ready-made example of this is that even the royal family of the Keynes Empire could not afford a communication network that could connect the entire country, and only set up an intellectual magic network in the five provinces near the royal capital.

After all, magicians are hard to find, and in order to operate the platform developed by the Intellectual Magic Network, one must have magic power.

Not to mention that the simplified version of the Intellectual Magic Network that Raven purchased can only barely cover from Eagle Territory to Monn City, which is less than one-third of the entire Nord Province. The market size is too small. Even if it can cover the entire Nord Province, he still needs to be able to find so many magicians!

But what Monroe didn't know was that Raven's mind contained a soul from another world.

Many concepts that other magicians could not understand were very clear to Raven.

The Intellectual Magic Network is the server, the platform is the network, and the terminal array is the mobile phone and computer.

Therefore, in Monroe's eyes, the third and fourth steps that had stuck Raven for a long time were not insurmountable difficulties.

Building your own platform is ultimately a form of programming.

This is what Raven did in his previous life!
Due to thousands of years of complacency, in Raven's eyes, the language used in the Intellectual Magic Web is actually quite crude, with many redundant and useless designs.

After becoming familiar with the rules, Raven built a platform that could run smoothly in just 23 days.

Raven named it "Skyhawk".

During this process, December passed and the time came to January 12 in the Guangming calendar.

As for the fourth step, it was completed even earlier than the third step.

The opportunity actually lies with Petty.

She awakened and became an alchemist. Although she had magical powers, she was unable to draw magic circles independently. The Deep Blue Platform could help an alchemist gain a lot of knowledge.

Therefore, Raven specially designed a portable enchantment item with similar specifications to a laptop computer in his previous life.

Raven was too lazy to give it a name, so Patty called it the "Book of Magic".

The Book of Magic uses misty heavy iron as its main frame, with the magic array that communicates with the Deep Blue Platform engraved on it. Combined with magic crystals, even people without magic power can use the platform.

With just a few minor changes, this portable prop can be connected to the Skyhawk platform.

Due to the structural design of the Book of Magic, if one wants to reversely invade through the magic circle on it, it must be destroyed. Once it is destroyed, the magic circle will naturally lose its effectiveness.

In theory, Raven only needs to make sure that the original design of the magic circle does not leak out, and he does not have to worry about other magicians destroying it.

So in the next few days, Raven taught Petty how to operate the Intellectual Magic Network, and asked Petty to help write detailed information of various goods on the Sky Eagle platform.

At the same time, Raven also placed an order to the forge factory and gave a drawing of the magic book.

As for the two steps of shaping and construction, the gray dwarves can do it very well as long as the blueprints are accurate. Only the last step of providing magic needs to be completed by Raven himself.

This is also the common method used by most families that produce enchanted equipment - after all, hundreds or thousands of pieces are shipped every year, and if all the processes rely on magicians, they will be exhausted.

Since the quantity was not large, the forging factory only took two days to complete the production of the first batch of 120 magic books. Among them, 46 could not be enchanted due to insufficient enchantment patterns, and the yield rate was about 62%.

For a first forging, it is pretty good, and there is still room for improvement.

After being processed by Raven, the 74 finished products that could be enchanted were turned into 58 magic books, which were then immediately taken by Simon and distributed free of charge to every member of the Chamber of Commerce.

Each of the 12 noble families in Xuefeng County was allocated 2 machines, for a total of 24 machines.

Raven sent the remaining 34 units to the city of Monn, where they were distributed by Denise.

Raven has great ambitions.

The "Eagle Platform" built this time is not only to integrate trade information, but also to make it a social, leisure and entertainment platform.

Therefore, it not only has trading functions, but also communication and chat sections, and a points system for business alliances has also been added.

By spending points, you can get some entertainment resources on the platform.

As for the entertainment resources - the bard Rocco gave Raven a very good inspiration, and now it is time to put it into practice.

"Lord of Mysteries", a grand serial!

As for the effect, we can only wait and see.

Because there was a new harvest in Raven's territory.

……

(End of this chapter)