I'm not a lord

Chapter 244 The Northern Territory Today

In a bison town inn called 'Pious Warhorse', several tables of guests are listening to a knight recount his experiences in war and on his journey.

The knight had a large brown beard, but he wasn't very old, looking to be under thirty. He was broad-shouldered and wore thick leather armor, with a longsword in a leather sheath at his waist, and a pair of silver spurs on the heels of his boots.

Those qualified to wear longswords and use spurs were usually knights who had been officially knighted and whose family lineage could be traced.

Beside the knight sat an even younger man, also dressed in a leather coat with a short sword at his waist, like a servant accompanying his master on a journey.

However, the Crown Territory has been in a state of chaos recently.

Even a bandit can enter and leave various cities and towns openly as long as he disguises himself as a knight and makes up a plausible story.

As for the guests who acted as listeners, they were mostly dressed as priests or merchants.

Buffalo Town is located on the north bank of the Jinghe River and is also the territory of the Buffalo Monastery.

The monastery built a port and established a town along the river, specializing in serving travelers and merchant ships.

Power abhors a vacuum. As the order in the Crown Territory collapsed, various local forces sprang up like mushrooms after rain on the north bank of the Jinghe River.

Besides the noble lords appointed by the Duke of the Marshland and the bandits who ruled the mountains, the already powerful monasteries also profited immensely from this catastrophe.

Monasteries typically possessed their own armed forces and absorbed a large number of refugees and unclaimed land, leading to their rapid expansion.

They are also often located near major transportation routes, enabling them to make money by opening hotels, selling alcohol, and transshipping goods.

These monasteries possessed both funds and troops, enabling them to safeguard their territory while maintaining a degree of independence, much like the temple powers during the chaotic times in the East.

Merchants were also happy to rest and spend the night in the inns run by the monastery, where it was at least relatively safe.

The merchants listened intently as the young knight spoke eloquently.

The knight recounted the recently concluded Battle of Amber Harbor. He was a gifted orator, and when he reached the climax of the story, he would use exaggerated facial expressions and body language to make the audience feel as if they were there.

"After many days of fierce fighting, Duke Lothair of the Marsh finally broke through the walls of Amber Harbor, but when he entered the city, he saw a terrifying scene from hell!"
He saw countless flags and ships rising on the sea—the flags of the Rui royal family and nobles from all over the world, and ships full of the Southern Army!
The despicable merchants of Amber Harbor have long betrayed the North. Instead of resisting Otto's ships, they even welcomed these troops from the South!
As soon as Otto III landed, he immediately led the southern army in a fierce attack on Lothair.

As for the final outcome of this war, you all know.

This despicable man from the South has seized Amber Harbor, taken up the whale-horn scepter that symbolizes royal authority, and is about to be crowned king!

At this point, the knight looked up at the sky, raised his hands, and his face contorted in a ferocious expression, as if he had truly experienced that war.

After capturing Amber Harbor, Otto immediately dispatched a large number of fast horses to spread the news to various places in order to gain more supporters.

A single capital city is not enough to give him the confidence to be crowned king.

But the various regions of the kingdom showed little interest in the soon-to-be-crowned new king of the North, and few were willing to let a Southerner rule them, even though their ancestors came from the South.

In the hearts of the Northerners, they have long since severed ties with the distant South.

The North is the North, and the South is the South. Although they share the same origin, they are by no means of one mind.

Just then, a short, stout merchant wearing a black beret asked, "Where is the Duke of the Marsh? I heard he died in that war?"

The young knight immediately refuted: "Rumors, nonsense! That is the strongest warrior in the North. This kind of defeat cannot take his life. Right now, the Duke of the Swamp has led his army to retreat to Thoth City. He has not given up his thirst for and pursuit of the throne. I believe he will continue to fight Otto!"

The city of Tote is only a few dozen kilometers from Amber Harbor and was a distribution center for supplies established by the Duke of the Marsh before the war.

Another businessman asked, "How do you know all this?"

“Because I come from the city of Tot!” The young knight proudly raised his head, deliberately showing off the slash marks on his leather armor. “So you were serving the Duke before?” The black-hatted merchant, who had asked the first question, gripped his wine glass tightly.

For the merchants of the royal domain, the Duke of the Swamp was their greatest enemy.

In the past year, the Duke has annihilated the city of Coron and forced several municipalities to pay tribute to him to meet the needs of the war.

Businessmen tend to form marriage alliances among people of the same social class.

In other words, the merchants present most likely have a blood feud with the Duke of the Swamp.

The knight replied, "No, I fight for the King, King Maurice."

Upon hearing this, the black-hatted merchant released his wine glass and asked curiously, "Maurice? That bastard king? Where is he now? There are rumors that he was killed by Otto."

Due to his background, Maurice clearly had few supporters in the royal domain.

Even after he was crowned king, he officially changed his surname to Urenius.

But an illegitimate child is an illegitimate child, and few people in the royal territory will give him any face.

The knight quickly shook his head: "That's of course a rumor. The king had already left Amber Harbor by ship before Otto landed."

This knight was indeed a survivor of the Battle of Amber Harbor, and he was indeed a court guard of Maurice.

However, instead of sailing with Maurice to the South, he took his nephew and tried to escape from Amber Harbor to return home.

He was unwilling to leave his homeland and was already weary of the war.

At the next table, the brown-robed priest, who had been listening quietly, suddenly launched into a barrage of questions: "Is what you're saying true? King Maurice is still alive? Is he still in the North?"

Not everyone looks forward to a chaotic world.

Most priests longed for a stable life, and even if Maurice's legitimacy was low, he was still a member of the Urenis family and had received the blessing of the Archbishop of Amber Harbor.

If a kingship candidate could be found that is acceptable to all factions within the kingdom, Maurice would undoubtedly be the only choice.

It sounds ridiculous, but some people have already begun to miss this illegitimate king.

"Of course he's still alive. As for his exact whereabouts..." The knight only got halfway through his sentence before picking up his wine glass, downing the remaining half in one gulp, and then slamming the glass heavily on the table.

The brown-robed priest immediately shouted, "Boss, bring this esteemed knight two glasses of the finest ale, put it on my tab."

The innkeeper, who was leaning against the counter listening intently, immediately served the knight three full glasses of ale and added, "The last one is on me."

"Thank you."

The knight brought the full glass to his lips, inhaled the aroma of the ale, and then said, "As far as I know, King Maurice has already sailed to the South, along with his queen and princes. I'm afraid they won't be returning anytime soon."

One merchant immediately exclaimed, "He actually fled to the Southern Territory? Oh, God, that damned coward, that cursed bastard!"

These words immediately ignited an uproar throughout the hotel, with the vast majority of people beginning to curse the illegitimate king.

The North has a strong martial spirit, and people despise deserters in duels and on the battlefield.

Maurice, the ruler of a nation, actually abandoned his kingdom and fled to a foreign land; this was no ordinary deserter.

But if Maurice were also in this inn, then he would certainly have something to say: Did I want to escape on my own? Isn't it because you don't acknowledge me as your bastard king? Even if I had five thousand soldiers under my command, would I have needed to flee to the south?
An elderly priest, clearly drunk, slumped over the table and choked out, "The duke has rebelled, the king has fled, the capital has been lost, what will become of our Northern Territory?"

(End of this chapter)