"That princess is just a poor woman."

"Ho-are you sympathizing with her? She's the old guy's own daughter. ”

"But she's just a commodity to trade now. So, our focus should not be on her. ”

The woman's voice carried a very seductive softness, there seemed to be a snorting sound in the darkness, the long hair was flying, and the woman raised her head:

"Isn't your ultimate goal to ruin that old guy's layout?"

"Well, that makes sense, I see."

……

Samantha didn't speak, her turquoise eyes blinking only slightly. Since she arrived in Taron, the house that had belonged to Fred has been her temporary residence.

At this time, she was sitting behind her desk, and three men stood in front of her.

Her chief guard, Cohen, and two other ordinary-looking, unassuming men—of ordinary stature and temperament, dressed in the usual clothes of ordinary civilians, looked like ordinary craftsmen, craftsmen, or petty traders.

These two men actually have another layer of unknown identity.

They are royal agents who directly obey His Majesty Edwin's orders, but this time Princess Samantha came to Talen, and they didn't care about revealing their identities, and after reporting the calendar, they entered the city lord's mansion and came here to meet the princess.

In fact, it was also a warrant from His Majesty. From this day forward, they will be separated from the royal secret and become Princess Samantha's bodyguards - there are many types of guards, and their roles are more like the eyes and ears of the princess than Cohen's duties.

"According to the information, Count Savalen Wolf has not seen any unusual behavior in the last two months, and Count Madock of Karthas exchanged letters with the one in Ensada three months ago."

One of them replied respectfully, he glanced up at the princess, and continued, "Half a month ago, a knight broke off his relationship with Tarun. ”

"A knight? You mean Lord Karen Bennett? ”

Another asked, secretly noticing the princess's expression, "He renounced his title and fief and went to Karthus, supposedly to his son." ”

"It's not unavoidable that this is a private act."

Princess Samantha's chief bodyguard, Cohen, said coldly on the side. For a long time, the three powerful counts of Northland Norgo have been in collusion most of the time, and in the royal capital of Elva, this is not a secret at all-

His Majesty's plan is very clever, but these counts are not fuel-efficient lamps either.

Judging from the chronological sequence, the correspondence between Karthas and Ensada has nothing to do with Her Royal Highness the Princess's journey to the north, but the knight who left Tarun for Karthas would not believe him if he chose to flee from his master.

In Norgo in the Northlands, the relationship between these knights and their lords is as strong as ironclad.

"So, Lord Cohen is suspicious of Earl Wolfe?"

"There's no evidence right now."

Samantha looked up, her calm eyes scanning back and forth over the faces of the three men, and she pursed her lips, as if to restrain or hide her emotions—she was officially engaged to Fred Wolff, in a sense, a member of the Wolf family.

If Count Wolf really had a bad idea, she didn't even know how to deal with it.

She was only a young woman of twenty-three years old, and although she had a bright mind, the little thing in her head was completely dwarfed in the face of these old foxes.

Samantha didn't want to think about the worst-case scenario.

What's more, she doesn't have a very good way to deal with it right now.

Naturally, you can only take one step at a time.

She summoned her fiancé Fred to go to Karthas with great fanfare, precisely to show the outside world a relationship — at least, some form of alliance between the royal family and the Wolf family.

And for other things, Samantha can only do her best to fight for it.

Tripartite Pact.

The royal family, Tarun and Karthas, except for that marriage contract, this is the common purpose of Princess Samantha and the Edwin royal family.

And the benefits of the royal family can be obtained from the hand of Ensada by way of territory exchange - in the aristocratic circle of the royal capital Elva, the earl has an extremely bad reputation, and against him, it will hardly cause much reaction.

All it is necessary to enlist the other two counts who have independent powers, each with an elite military force, such as the rangers of Talen, the griffon knights of Karthas, and the hoplites of Ensada.

When these three counts joined forces, they possessed power that even the royal family feared.

This is where His Majesty Edwin's strategy of dividing and conquering and choosing Ensada alone is clever.

Not many people knew the details of this scheme, and in this room, in Tarun, and even in the land of Nogo, only Princess Samantha knew the whole thing, and the three, including Cohen, only knew about it with a single scaly claw.

However, there was one guy who was an exception, and he knew no less than the princess Samantha in question.

……

From the town of White Rock in the Cyan Hill to Kartass, there is a connecting trade route between the two places. The trade route was built with the transport of war materials in mind, such as wool and iron ore from the Ceris region, which would soon become equipment, war equipment, and clothing and bedding at the front.

For this reason, the trade road was flat and open, paved with gravel and smooth enough to accommodate four standard carriages—the four-wheeled carriage that was drawn from the kingdom's borders, and which originated in the early days of the Elantra kingdom and is still widely used by the military and civilians today.

Gross rode on horseback, and beneath him was a tall, muscular warhorse. Over the course of these days, the three Westland horses in their team had been well cared for, and their fur looked shinier and more moist.

On this trade route, they rode more than one cart after another.

A few days have passed.

The faint outline of the walls could already be seen in the distance as the inky ridges intersected in view - the capital of Nogo, Karthas was the largest of any city in the Northlands, and not only that, but it also had a fortress like Talen.

Gross narrowed his eyes.

It's close to the outer city of Karthas, and maybe it will take about ten minutes if the ride is smooth.

In early winter, there are only a few thatched huts and dark brown ridges on both sides of the road, and in some places near the stream, you can also see a few waterwheels used to irrigate the fields.

The merchants' carriages slowed down here, and the procession began to become long and crowded, and there were many travelers on horseback, such as Gross's party—

The queue was waiting in line to pass through the city gates.