The current Lord of White Mountain Territory was not a person who pursued luxury.
Therefore, although his territory developed slowly, it was indeed constantly growing.
As a result, White Forest Castle only held banquets at the turn of each year; at other times, such extravagant spending was never indulged in, which led to the people in the castle, whether servants or nobles like Giggs and Miss Cynthia, rarely wandering around the castle after nightfall, making the entire castle exceptionally quiet once night fell.
But tonight, with the arrival of a messenger, the quiet of the entire castle was completely broken.
Inside the castle, in the study with a sand table displaying detailed terrain of several territories, the Lord of White Mountain Territory, simply wrapped in a blanket, was pinching his brow, looking somewhat headache-ridden and weary.
He had just finished dealing with the messenger, sent him to the guest room to rest, and then immediately summoned the two vassal knights currently in the castle, and also had his own messenger immediately depart to notify another vassal knight who had returned to his fief.
When Giggs arrived with Yam, there were already three people in the study.
Shortly after, Cynthia also arrived, dressed in formal attire.
In contrast, Giggs, who was only wearing pajamas, seemed to have a somewhat improper attitude.
Yam only briefly glanced at the middle-aged man with the aquiline nose before looking away.
This was his third time seeing the current Lord of White Mountain Territory.
The first time was when he first arrived at White Forest Castle, meeting him at dinner; after that, Yam no longer participated in the Boer Family's dinner gatherings, as he discovered that besides himself, no other vassal knight participated; the second time was a hurried encounter while practicing swordsmanship in the central courtyard garden.
However, whether it was the first or second meeting, there was no communication between them, so Yam did not know the temperament of the Lord of White Mountain Territory. He had only heard snippets from Giggs' occasional remarks, but this was not enough for Yam to form a sufficient impression of the Lord of White Mountain Territory.
"Yaka's father, is there something important for you to summon us so late?" Giggs still had his usual carefree demeanor. He even casually found a chair and sat down, then gestured for his sister and Yam to also take a seat.
But neither Cynthia nor Yam listened to him.
However, to show his stance, Yam still stood behind Giggs.
He had been in White Forest Castle for some time now, and he naturally understood that Giggs and the old baron had a rather discordant relationship. He also suspected that perhaps it was because of this that the Lord of White Mountain Territory was not very friendly towards him. After all, he was Giggs's vassal knight, not the Boer Family's vassal knight, and certainly not the Lord of White Mountain Territory's vassal knight.
"An urgent order from Count Shufang." The Lord of White Mountain Territory glanced at his eldest son and said coldly, "That evil wolf from Gem Territory suddenly went mad for some unknown reason, and even incited Dense Forest Territory and Red Soil Territory to send troops. Red River Territory can't hold them back much longer, so they've asked us for aid, and fearing we wouldn't send troops, they also sent a plea for help to Count Shufang."
Upon hearing the Lord's words, the two vassal knights present frowned deeply.
War is one of those things where it's fine if you don't fight, but once it officially begins, the outcome is very difficult to predict.
Previously, the scale of the war was strictly limited to the conflict between Red River Territory and Gem Territory, so they had been fighting for over a year, almost two, with only a few Bloodline Knights seriously injured, but none fatally. Most of the casualties were commoners and serfs below. In fact, for more than two-thirds of the time during the war, it was spent on training troops and transporting supplies. It was Red River Territory, fighting on its home ground, that suffered more, having missed one spring plowing and two autumn harvests.
Fortunately, Red River Territory was wealthy, having accumulated a considerable fortune due to its convenient position as a developed transportation hub, so it could sustain the losses.
But now, with Dense Forest Territory and Red Soil Territory intervening, things were completely different.
Because Dense Forest Territory and Red Soil Territory were both Viscount territories, unlike Gem, Red River, and White Mountain territories, which were all merely Baron territories.
Red River Territory and Gem Territory, being relatively rich, each had five knights serving their families under their Lord. A few years ago, Gem Territory inexplicably lost a Bloodline Knight, causing its strength to decline slightly, which is why it failed to achieve a complete victory in the war with Red River Territory, instead being dragged into a protracted war of attrition.
Although nearly half of Red Soil Territory's land was unsuitable for habitation, due to the large output of monster materials, Red Soil Territory was considered a rich territory among the surrounding Lords, with seven Bloodline Knights under its command; although Dense Forest Territory did not have stable monster material resources like Red Soil Territory, its territory was quite vast and could stably provide a large amount of timber resources, so it also had six Bloodline Knights under its command.
If Red Soil Territory and Dense Forest Territory acted together, even if they had to leave a few Bloodline Knights in their territories, these two combined could still field ten Bloodline Knights to assist. Adding the Bloodline Knights from the Gem Territory Lord's own forces, the three noble families combined could deploy at least fifteen or more Bloodline Users.
White Mountain Territory was resource-poor. Earlier, not counting Yam and Cynthia, there were only Giggs and Yaka's father, along with three vassal knights, totaling only five Bloodline Users. Among them, only the Lord was a Third-tier Bloodline User, there were two Second-tier Bloodline Users, and the remaining two were only First-tier Bloodline Users.
"Lord, the three territories of Red Soil, Dense Forest, and Gem are estimated to combine forces with fifteen Bloodline Users, of which at least three will be Third-tier Bloodline Users, and an estimated five or six will be Second-tier. Relying only on us and Red River Territory, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold them back."
Yam recognized the middle-aged man who spoke.
The two previous times he went to Fisher Village, this person was responsible for protecting Giggs. It was said that he was currently the Boer Family's Knight Commander, a Second-tier Bloodline User, and his cultivation had already reached seven points half a year ago. Now that half a year had passed, it was estimated that he must have made further progress towards Third-tier Bloodline.
"Count Shufang has sent three people to help." The Lord of White Mountain Territory sighed, "Third-tier Bloodline Users are impossible; we can only rely on myself and the Red River Territory Lord..." Speaking of this, he glanced at his son Giggs again, and then continued, "However, if we are lucky, and the Red River Territory Lord's son breaks through during the battle, then the gap in Third-tier Bloodline Users will be filled."
Upon hearing their Lord say this, the two Boer Family vassal knights already knew that this war was inevitable.
The enemy would have at least three Third-tier Bloodline Users, and certainly no fewer than five Second-tier Bloodline Users. On their side, Red River Territory had two Second-tier Bloodline Users, plus their own Knight Commander, making three. And since Count Shufang had sent reinforcements, the gap in Second-tier Bloodline Users should be eliminated.
In this way, with the strength gap between the two sides not far apart, the competition would only be about command ability and willpower.
The Boer Family's Knight Commander was not a timid person.
He merely fulfilled his loyalty by clearly explaining the pros and cons to the Lord of White Mountain Territory, and now that the situation had reached a point where battle was unavoidable, he quickly stepped into his role and said in a deep voice, "What are your thoughts on this battle, Lord? And who do you plan to leave behind to protect the young master?"
Giggs had been listening for a long time and finally heard his name. So he flatly refused, "Protect me? I don't need it. I have Yam, that's enough. You all go fight with Yaka's father."
"Young Master." The Boer Family's Chief Knight Commander turned his head, gazed at Giggs, and then said in a deep voice, "Even if you don't need protection, what about Miss Cynthia?"
"That's true." Giggs nodded, "Then let Nika stay."
Nika was the only female Bloodline Knight among the Boer Family's three vassal knights.
She was thirty-one this year, but was still a First-tier Bloodline User. It wasn't that her talent or potential was lacking; in fact, she had reached full First-tier cultivation five years ago. It was just that the First-tier Bloodline secret medicine she took was quite special, and Second-tier Bloodline was truly hard to find, which is why she stayed at First-tier Bloodline for so long. But in return, she possessed extremely rich Bloodline User combat experience.
Therefore, having her protect Cynthia was not only reassuring to Giggs, but also to the Lord of White Mountain Territory and the Chief Knight Commander.
Yam remained silent, standing quietly at the side.
He knew that he had no right to speak in such a war council, and even if he were given the opportunity to speak, he wouldn't know what to say, as he was completely ignorant of these matters. At this moment, he even found himself distracted, thinking that if Yaka's father were here, he could probably offer some good suggestions, after all, he was a Kingdom Army scout in his younger days, often fighting with those people from the south, what cunning tactics hadn't he seen?
With that thought, he worried about Yaka's father and his younger brother again.
It had been almost nine months since the two left home, and he didn't know how they were doing now—he dared not, and would not, imagine that Yaka's father and his younger brother had died, so he could only constantly reassure himself that they had encountered an accident and were delayed; at the same time, his diligent and unceasing daily sword practice was also to force himself to clear his mind, not to overthink unnecessary worries, so as to avoid adding pointless troubles.
"Yam? Yam!"
"Huh?" Yam, roused by Giggs' voice, looked around the room. Now, only he, Giggs, and Cynthia remained in the room.
The Lord of White Mountain Territory probably felt immense pressure, so he had already left with his two vassal knights to make preparations.
Matters requiring the mobilization of the entire territory for war cannot be acted upon immediately with a few words; preparing military provisions alone could take three to five days. However, this was only a problem for the White Mountain Territory Baron to worry about, because his three vassal knights all had their own fiefs. Therefore, besides Nika, the other two had to go to their own villages to conscript soldiers, or call upon the militia, and even military provisions had to be self-supplied.
"You should bring your mother over tomorrow." The carefree look on Giggs' face was gone. "White Forest Castle is much safer than Fisher Village, no matter what."
Upon hearing Giggs' words, Yam's heart suddenly trembled.
Because he suddenly realized that this war might not be as simple as he had previously imagined.
So he bowed his head and replied, "Yes."
"What about Yaka's father and your younger brother?" Cynthia suddenly spoke, "I remember your family has four people."
"Yaka's father..." Yam's heart suddenly panicked, and his expression became somewhat sad, "Yaka's father and my younger brother have been away from home for almost a year, and I haven't heard from them."
He almost blurted out that Yarn had taken Yaka to hunt monsters, but he reacted in time at the last moment, so he didn't reveal too much information.
Although Cynthia's intuition told her that something was not quite right, she observed Yam's expression and knew that he was genuinely worried about Yaka's father and his younger brother, so she didn't say much more, only apologizing and stating that she didn't mean to bring up the topic.
Seeing the atmosphere turn awkward, Giggs quickly told Yam to leave first.
And now that Yam knew war was about to begin, if the enemy bypassed Red River Territory and attacked White Mountain Territory directly, Fisher Village, being closest to Gem Territory, would very likely become the first plundered point. Therefore, he couldn't sit still and asked Giggs for permission to leave immediately and return to Fisher Village.
Giggs readily agreed.