"Your Excellency, I have said more than once that His Royal Highness the Prince's patience is limited, but you have not been able to give him a satisfactory answer." In the lord's mansion of Pegond, Ellen is sitting on the lord's chair receiving the angry messenger.

"But I have said more than once, Your Excellency, I have removed all the barricades leading to Viruga in Pegand, reduced all the customs duties for His Royal Highness's caravans, sent half of the grain in Pegand's warehouse to Viruga, and cleared the bandit strongholds that harassed his people for His Highness, even if it is a knight canonized by His Highness himself, what else does His Highness want to accuse me?" Alleyne leaned back in his chair and asked with some dissatisfaction.

"Don't forget that you promised you to become a loyal vassal of Your Highness, but now that Your Highness has gathered troops to defend the city, where is your army? And where are the hundreds of warriors of Serindil and Pegond that you are talking about? Are they cowardly cowards who dare not face the spears of their enemies? Seeing Aryne's arrogant attitude, the messenger still maintained the same attitude and speech, but there was already a hint of anger and threat in his words.

"That's right, if Your Highness can accept me as a baron by King Haraus, and take over Thrindir and Pegand, then I will be his loyal vassal." Ellen said unhurriedly, "But please tell me, when will Your Highness fulfill his promise and let me get the status of Baron's lord?" Let me take over everything in both places? Isn't it too much to demand full payment before the goods arrive? I'm sorry I say that, but if I don't have the authority granted to me by the King, how can I serve His Highness? ”

Alleyne said it politely, but the meaning was very unfriendly. He made it clear that he didn't want to pay a high price to do a day job because of empty promises, even if the other party was a prince.

"Really? I thought Lord Ellen was a valiant knight as rumored, but I didn't expect you to be here to bargain with a greedy merchant for orders from the Prince. The messenger snorted coldly when he heard Aren's words, and instead of answering him directly, he turned to provoke him with words.

"Merchant? I do hate merchants, those guys are mercenary, and honor is not as good as a few coppers in their hearts. Alleyne pursed his lips disdainfully, and said businessmen, the first image that came to mind was Manid, and the two were full of contradictions and looked down on each other, which made Ellen have no good impression of all merchants.

"But even these cunning businessmen have something to be praised. All the money of the smart traders is to earn more dinars so that they can survive and get richer and richer. ”

Alleyne stood up, walked to the side of the cupboard, and took out a jar of fine wine, which Byron had placed there, and which even he himself was reluctant to drink.

The butler, who was hiding behind the door and looking out through the crack in the door, immediately waved his hand, and the servant behind him immediately raised the plate and followed the butler into the living room very politely.

"It's dinner time, sir."

The butler said very politely.

"Would you like your loyal envoy to dine with him? I've got good wine and wild boar meat from yesterday. Alleyne smiled and looked at Ron, who quickly sensed his eviction.

"No, since you said so, then I will go back and report to Your Highness. Have a nice meal, Lord Ellene. ”

The messenger Ron saluted him very elegantly, but his expression was as cold as a stone, and finally the "Excellency" also deliberately accentuated his tone, as if to remind him that no matter how much power he had today, without the help of the Prince, Ellen would only be a knight, not a baron. It's easy for a prince to do that.

After the messenger had gone, of course, Alleyne did not enjoy the food as he had just said, and although the table was full of delicacies made of game and fine wine, he had no appetite at all, and did not even want to touch his knife and fork, but only thought about what to do next with his arms on his lean.

Everything should have gone smoothly, Rhodok's army began to assemble again to retake Viruga, and in order to prepare for the defense, Prince Harauu finally decided to give in to Elleen, saying that he could win the title of baron and the fiefdom of two towns for him, and would not ask about the whereabouts of Byron's wealth, as long as he swore allegiance to the prince, so that both the king and the prince would be an extra help rather than a trouble.

Ellen was glad that by this time he had basically stabilized his form and began to consider himself as Byron's successor, he persuaded Bandak to continue to serve him, and promised him a good salary to keep his current position as the crossbowman captain, and after much hesitation, Bandak agreed, and at this time he had little hope of Byron's survival. In a similar vein, Alleyne used it several times, trading his original village fiefdom for Rolf's support, isolating Desaivi's forces and forcing her to compromise for supplies. Aside from the fact that Kress always didn't say anything about him, the old members of Byron left behind basically acquiesced in his right to rule.

So he took up residence in Byron's former residence, claiming to be a lord everywhere, changing some of his decrees, and gathering troops and supplies in response to the prince's call. Originally, everything went well, until Fatis and Jamila returned with that rumor...

This form was completely reversed, although rumors alone were not enough to prove anything, but Byron's old army in the south was split into two at once, Desaivi directly found Fatis to join his team, Bandak also began to hesitate again, and the squires of Serindil, who were originally under his control, expressed their support for him, and suddenly threw themselves into the arms of Fatis, because Fatis said that he wanted to restore Byron's previous decree in Serindil, not to mention that the local garrison sergeants were basically Fatis people.

Although the grain is still more stored by Pegangde, most of Byron's elite troops, namely the cavalry officers of the Fatis family and the cavalry under their command, are controlled by Fatis, and the Peony mercenaries are more inclined to fight for the friendly Fatis (another reason is that Jamila keeps a key to Byron's cash box), and the quality of the troops that Alleyn can provide to the prince has suddenly dropped a lot.

And Prince Harauu at this time made the same old mistake of arrogance as his father, and let him mess up things that could have been negotiated. He still insisted that Alleyne fulfill his previous promise, otherwise he would not have fulfilled his promise.

Alleyne is in a dilemma again, and this time it's worse than the last time.

On the other hand, in Serindil, Fatis and they were also thinking about their next move.

Nine Heavenly God Emperors