"What?"

Looking at Charles, the head of the palace who opened his mouth cautiously and had an extremely strange expression, the corners of Loren's mouth twitched constantly when he resisted the urge to complain.

"Miss Lena asked me to tell you that it was just a small accident that would not delay the official wedding. Charles whispered, "Please don't worry, just concentrate on presiding over the ceremony as originally planned." ”

“...... I know. ”

Charles said no more, and then turned to leave.

"What's wrong?" Lu Sien on the side looked at the departing palace governor and asked with some curiosity.

"Nothing... Something was wrong with Isaac's side. Loren, who tugged at the corners of his mouth, smiled without changing his face.

When he met his fiancée, he suddenly had an inspiration, and the little wizard who went to find him not only failed to bring people back, but also plunged headlong into the "new discovery" himself......

This kind of thing, Loren really doesn't know how to explain it clearly from beginning to end in one sentence.

The gray-eyed boy shrugged his shoulders indifferently, in his opinion, it was not strange that something happened to Isaac - it was better to say that this guy was able to get married smoothly, which was the strangest thing in the world.

If anything, it's the celebration itself, where the black-haired wizard was fully armed to celebrate the victory at the Battle of Ebolden, and even reminded himself to bring his weapons just in case.

Could it be that this celebration is not as simple as it seems, and someone intends to plot against this celebration and even assassinate Lord Loren?

The gray-eyed boy couldn't help but start thinking crankily. The Azorean elves, the assassins of the Celestial Dome, the lackeys of the Church... Countless possibilities lingered in his mind.

Until a muffled thunderclap interrupted his thoughts.

"Boom ......"

With the heavy and sluggish sound of the doorway, the door of the Red Blood Castle Palace slowly opened.

Outside the door, there is a lot of people!

Although nominally only the thirteen lords of Byrne and the three hundred nobles and emissaries from all over the empire were actually invited, this did not mean that Charlotte would give up such a good opportunity to increase the prestige of the Turin family and even promote Byrne.

Throughout the festivities, free food and wine will be served throughout the city, and Byrne's Cathedral, the venue for the festivities, will open its doors to share in the joy of victory and the glory of the Holy Cross.

In the midst of the flood of people, a road less than three people wide was set aside, and the heavily armed Byrne knights, armed with shields and spears, did their best to maintain order and push the crowd behind them back.

Looking at the inexplicably familiar picture in front of him, the memory of the black-haired wizard seemed to return to the day three years ago, when he was "counterattacked" by Charlotte and became the Duke of Byrne.

This is not something that I asked for, or even what I wanted, and I didn't choose it.

But since fate has to stand on its own side, it should accept its challenge calmly.

“... Dear Loren, if you do win, I will give you what you have always wanted to get, but have never been able to get......"

I've always wanted to get it, but I never got it... What exactly?

Loren didn't mean to doubt it—not that he didn't believe it at all, but Brandon wouldn't have deceived himself about such a thing at all, because it wouldn't do him any good.

"Lusen. ”

Calming his breath, the black-haired wizard said softly without looking back:

"Let's go, we can't be late. ”

"Hmm. ”

The gray-eyed boy nodded vigorously.

....................................

By the time Loren stepped through the crowd and into Byrne Cathedral, the hall was already filled with figures, whispering words, and the sound of ear-to-ear exchanges filled every corner of the church hall.

Members of the Earl Family of the Thirteen Lords of Byrne, famous knights, congratulatory messengers from the principalities and even the Heavenly Dome, congratulatory messengers from the Church, and high-ranking officials of the Principality......

The 300 people gathered together were arranged according to the pre-arranged positions.

Neither Loren nor Charlotte was going to treat the ceremony as a simple celebration or a "summer feast", but just a lavish banquet to entertain all the guests, which would be of no use except to show off their wealth.

So what they had to do was to spread the will of Byrne, or Loren Turin, to the whole and even the whole empire through this ceremony.

On the one hand, it is to further use the victory in the Battle of Ebolden to increase Byrne's prestige, and on the other hand, it is also to unify Byrne's thoughts and improve Byrne's cohesion, so that they can really understand what Loren wants to do and what Byrne wants to do in this elven war.

It was because the Black Duke could not make the Byrnes understand his thoughts that he ended up in the end, and Charlotte certainly knew this experience.

As she said, with this victory and the appearance of the dragon, Loren's reputation in Byrne has reached an extremely high level, and now no matter what he says, the Bynese who are passionate and hero-worshipping will agree.

"Lord of Byrne, Lord of Turin, son of the Knight King, Duke of Loren Turin has arrived!"

With a shout from Lusen, there was a sudden silence in the church hall.

Joy or pride, indifference, indifference...... Countless faces changed color as they turned their gaze to the figure of the black-haired wizard.

The scene in front of him reminded Loren of Conod's coronation, the only difference was that it was himself standing in the crowd, and standing here was the supreme emperor of the empire.

The black-haired wizard made his way through the crowd to the main altar under the statue of the Holy Cross, and the thirteen counts of Byrne, led by the Countess of the Red Blood Castle, were the first to gather around.

"Knights of Byrne, come forward ——, swear allegiance to your master——!"

After stepping into the hall, Charles, the Governor of the Duchy, who had been waiting early, took over Lusen's "work" and carried out the traditional Byrne ceremony with a solemn expression.

These were all "traditional activities" that had been carried out countless times before, and even each count had practiced it alone more than once, in the order that had been set since the time of the Knight King, and the thirteen counts stepped forward in turn, one step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time.

Although this habit of "following the rules" comes from the kingdom of Saklan, the sense of ritual full of mystery and solemnity is also very suitable for the Byron people's love of banquets.

Charlotte was the first to step out of the crowd and gave Loren a standard knightly salute in a bright black and red dress, not forgetting to glare at him secretly.

The expressionless Loren could only raise his eyebrows and force a smile.

They were followed by Guy Angot, Earl of Fort Mountain Rock, and Tris Eckert, Earl of Fort Fury, old men from the days of the Black Duke, who were also Loren's most hoped-on knightly commanders.

Earl Zarard, Earl of Bannerspear Castle, Cedric Elendil, Earl of Broken Sword Tower, and Garnis Bowes, Earl of Castle Loyalty, are the three gatekeepers of northern Byrne and the core generals of the hoplite legion;

Bell Lanmaros, Earl of Lakeheart, Ambon Rigel, Earl of White Horse Peak, and Ed Gerante, Earl of Glory Tower, are the eastern, western, and southern lords of the outer perimeter of Crimson Castle, and they have always been entrusted with important duties in the cavalry force.

William Garryhs, Earl of the Twin Towers, and Orkney Gareth, Earl of Rainbow Bridge, are the two extremes of the Byrnes today, and they did not hesitate to show their faces.

Count Galliers, who was known for his piety and stubbornness, was very dissatisfied with the contradiction between Loren and the Church of the Holy Cross, and snorted very "inadvertently" when he saluted;

The Earl of Gareth, on the other hand, was very keen on wizards and alchemy, and after hearing that the wizards of Eberden had withdrawn to Byrne, he had always wanted to rebuild the wizarding tower in his Rainbow Bridge Earldom, and even looked at Loren with a somewhat flattering look.

Ayton Grenwell, Earl of Stormcastle, half-bent over and led Borne Bosival, Earl of Hopeful, who was only five years old, to step forward and salute the black-haired wizard.

The previous generation of Count Bolino Bocival was killed in the Centaur War, and as a result, the Bosival family, which was thin, could not find a suitable heir for a while, so Borino's five-year-old son could only inherit the title directly.

This result made Loren very sad, but also helpless - under Byrne's knightly system, the main force of his duke's army was formed with each count as the core, and the absence of a Count of Hope Peak who could fight meant that Byrne's hussar corps would be greatly reduced in combat effectiveness.

The Bosivar family of Hopefuls obviously knew this, so there was no opposition when Loren implemented the new military system, and this time the "count" came forward to show their "support" for the duke.

When the "babbling" "Little Bosival" bowed and was supported by Grenwell, the Earl of Stormcastle, and retreated, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly froze.

"Knock ————!!!!"

In the hall, all the Byrne knights slammed their long swords on the ground at the same time.

"Guys—"

The voice of the black-haired wizard echoed through the circular vaults and marble walls of the church hall, unmistakably heard in everyone's ears.

The Thirteenth Earl—from the gray-eyed Earl of the Castle of Fury, Earl, to the five-year-old Earl of Peak, Bosival, all looked solemn at the same time.

"I am grateful to all of you for accepting my invitation to participate in this ceremony to celebrate the victory. The black-haired wizard said in a deep voice, "But as you expected, the purpose of this ceremony is not just to celebrate victory and triumph. ”

The audience was silent, and everyone's eyes were watching Loren's every move very naturally, waiting for what he was going to say next.

Facing those eyes, the black-haired wizard said sharply: "Because the result of that war is far from being called a victory!"

As soon as the words fell, the originally joyful atmosphere suddenly became much colder.

"Yes, with less than a third of the enemy's strength and a barely defended city, we have slowed the enemy's invasion, and we have greatly thwarted their attack......"

"But equally, we have also lost Ebolden, the largest and only outlet in the empire, giving the initiative in this war to our enemies!"

"I am by no means an alarmist, nor am I by no means trying to make you fear our enemies. After a pause, Loren said coldly: "But if we are still in this war with any luck, if we still have any ideas other than uniting and defeating the incoming enemy, please don't forget ......."

"From Ebolden to Byrne, it is far less than the distance from the Kingdom of the Azores to the Empire!"

All of them... Especially the counts and knights of Byrne, their faces immediately turned a little ugly.

The meaning of the black-haired wizard's words, saying that it was a "threat", was too light.

Only the Count of Castle Fury's expression remained the same - he had seen the Azorean elves army with his own eyes at Eberden, and had also analyzed it with Loren, so it was clear that Loren's current statement had been as softened as possible, giving the knights present a little confidence.

The truth is far more terrifying than this.

"The enemy can organize an army of 100,000 capable of fighting within a predetermined time, and prepare sufficient carrying equipment to drop this army on the battlefield across the sea with 100 percent combat effectiveness... And as far as I know, that's probably less than one-sixth of their combined strength!"

"Even if this is a war in which the enemy has completely squeezed the power of the whole country and even the entire race, and is close to the 'national invasion' and the 'Great Migration', what kind of unity and unity are needed to accomplish such a move?"

"So the difference between us and the Azorean elves is not the weaponry, not the number of top combat power, not even the level of combat power under the same force - but that they can complete such a mobilization, we, the Empire... No way!"

Loren's statement was straightforward and hurtful, and after seeing the knightly legions assembled in the Red Blood Castle and Boi's Imperial legions, the Earl of Fort Fury had always believed that even if the enemy was really strong, it could not be stronger than a united empire. 、

But he had to admit that Loren was right - in the face of an army that was as mobile as the Boi nomads and horsebackers, with discipline similar to the "black walls" of Sackland, and as good as the Byrne knights.

It was his instinct to be wary of powerful enemies, but what made him even more wary was that the vast majority of Byrne's knights and counts were unaware of this, and even simply thought that "Byrne won, and the long-eared ones are nothing great".

That's the scariest thing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, ——, enemy has sounded their trumpets, and now it is no question of whether there will be war, whether it will go to war, whether it will be met or not;

The black-haired wizard took a deep breath: "Therefore, from this day on, in the name of the Lord of Byrne, the Lord of Turin, I call on the knights of Byrne to keep the oath you promised: absolute allegiance to me, to Loren Turin, to follow me, trust me, and win with me in this battle that will determine the fate of Byrne and even the Empire!"

"I'm against ——!"