Magnificent cities, clean streets, and enthusiastic people? no, no. When Rhodes' men returned to the North, it was deserted, no different from the capital. People were impoverished in the war, and entire countries were impoverished in the civil war. Exhaustion and pain were written on everyone's face. Only a few arms dealers, slave traders, and profiteers who did the business of the dead made a fortune in the war, and the majority of them have returned to poverty.

No triumphal ceremony, no celebration banquet, low-key return to the city. Even Governor Alves didn't know that the King of the North had returned, huh...... No longer the King of the North, but the Grand Duke of Kislev. But it doesn't matter, it's just a name, everyone knows that Rod Lawn will always be the Great Lord of the North, and will always be the spiritual leader of the North.

Rhodes and Celta rode on dark horses, walking in front, and behind them, fifty knights of the North. Snowflakes fell on the group, staining Rod's cloak white. Celta's bearskin coat was also a piece of white flowers, and the war horse seemed to be unable to bear the weight of the person on its back, and let out a gasp or two from time to time.

Pedestrians come and go, only feel that this team of people is not simple, as for the specific identity, no one knows, no one will associate the plainly dressed man in front of him with the king of the north, after all, the people who have seen Rhodes with their own eyes are a minority, most people only think in their minds that the white bear lord, the king of the north, and the vampire terminator Rod Lawn should be a very burly and strong man, and his return will inevitably have a grand triumphal ceremony......

It is precisely because no one knows, no one pays attention, that Rod sees the real side. As Alves wrote, the North was like a shriveled sponge, the last drop of water squeezed out by the civil war. Skinny children wander everywhere, let alone go to school, food and clothing are problems. The beggars wrapped themselves in all the rags they could find to survive the harsh winter. Rhodes knew that the beggars here were real beggars, not the kind of professional beggars who earned more than 10,000 a month......

The procession walked through the narrow streets and stopped in front of the town hall in Errengrad.

......

"Rod, I can't believe it, why are you back at this time?"

In the town hall, when Alves arrived in a hurry, Rhodes had been standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the hall for a long time. The afterglow of the setting sun poured into the room through the glass windows, adding a few dark red streaks to the walls, like blood...... It is here that the rulers of Erengrad were slaughtered, and the blood that once stained the floor of this hall red, then dried it, and then dyed red again. Rhodes in the sun felt only a heavy heart, and the civil war ended with the victory of the Northern Army, however, the entire kingdom was shattered. Like the city, it looks prosperous, but it can't be compared to Errengrad ten years ago.

"Hehe, what? There are things you don't know. ”

Rhodes turned around and replied jokingly.

"There's so much I don't know, and I'm not a god...... All I know is that you left Kislev half a month ago and returned to the North, but I didn't expect you to come back like this...... Of course, if you don't want me to know, how can I know? Besides, I don't dare to know. ”

Alves walked around his tongue, he was not lame, but his legs were as short as his hands, and he walked with the illusion of being lame.

"What else do you dare not know?"

"More ......"

Alves tiptoed and smiled evilly.

"Okay, let's stop fooling around with you. I've seen everything about Erengrad, and it looks like you're incompetent as a governor. ”

Rod joked that he knew that it was not Alves' responsibility, and if it was someone else, he was afraid that it would be worse than the situation in front of him.

"It's much harder to govern a city than a castle, and it's a hundred times harder to stabilize a city in wartime than usual, and if I know how to lead troops, I'd rather go to the front. ”

Alves said, walking straight to his desk and going to get his drinks.

"It's time for you to quit drinking. ”

Rod interrupted him.

This time it's serious.

"Well, I won't drink it for the time being when I'm with you. "020 reading

Alves laughed, put down the bottle, and walked back.

"From the illustrious nobles to the homeless refugees, whenever there is something that can't be handled, they all pile up with me, don't you see that I have aged a lot in the past two years?"

After saying that, Alves pointed to his forehead-

"Half of the hair has fallen out, and even the prostitutes don't like it anymore. ”

"No, as long as you have money. ”

Rod interrupted him with a smile.

"That's right, but I'm not rich. ”

Alves blinked back.

"I know the purpose of your return this time, to revitalize the North, to revitalize the port of Errengrad. But......" he paused, his gaze lingering on Rhodes, "but, it's not that simple. ”

"I know. The situation is much more complicated now than it was then. ”

Rhodes returned. In fact, it is true that when Blackhammer Castle was in great development, Alves managed only a castle with a population of no more than 30,000 people. Today, he is in charge of Errengrad. Cities and castles are two different things, in terms of population alone, Erlengrad is several times larger than Blackhammer Castle, not to mention that it is the most important trading port in the north of Kislev, the old and new forces are intertwined, the city is large, and various problems follow, such as hygiene, congestion, law and order, wealth gap and so on, are much more severe than Blackhammer Castle. In addition to the two years of the civil war, Alves, as the commander of the rear, also had to raise salaries and food for the army...... Rhodes guesses that his addiction to alcohol was developed during this time.

Today's northern territory is no longer something that can be built by pointing and drawing on a map in the past.

"Okay, I'm tired and need to rest for a while. ”

Rod made a gesture, and the tiredness of the journey for days was written on his face.

"I'll have the room cleaned, you'll love it. The hostel in Errengrad is definitely better than that in Kislev. Alves squinted his eyes and smiled, snapping his fingers, and the servant trotted to his side, "Tidy up the room on the top floor of the town hall, and in two hours I will see a room free of dust." Alves commanded.

"By the way, now that you're back, I thought, is there someone you should meet?"

Alves had already walked away on his front foot, and suddenly he thought of something, and turned to Rhodes and said.

"I know that I will meet when I am due, and I ask you not to tell anyone but you about my return. ”

Rod's expression suddenly became serious.

"By the way, one more thing, the harvester you made with the dwarven engineers when you were in Blackhammer Castle is really useful, it saves a lot of manpower and animal power, and I have been asking the technicians to continue to improve it, and now, on the outskirts of Errengrad, one-fifth of the land has been contracted by these big guys. ”

Alves was confident, and this was the only good news Rhodes had heard since he returned, and it was also the moment when Alves really smiled.

"Keep it up, mechanization is inevitable, we lose too much to the empire, not only money, technology, but also people's minds and ideas. ”

Rhodes said.