When Duke Alma tied Raphael to the village of Fletcher, Ralph was building defenses without knowing anything.

When he met Duke Alma, Ralph's expression was unusually complicated—of course he knew Alma, and he had known him for thirty years.

Alma left the Lion Knights more than thirty years ago, and in the years that followed, Ralph was a young Ranger when he became the Knight Captain of the Horn Call Rangers.

Moreover, Alma could have become the Grand Master of the Horn Summoning Ranger Regiment, and at that time, Alma was the lord of Long River Town, and his reputation in Long River Town was very high.

However, after a tragedy in Lion Lake City, the original lord of Lion Lake City, Alfwan, was relocated due to his failure to protect the king and nobles, and lost the territory of Lion Lake City.

Alma saved the Mad King and was named Lord of Lion Lake City.

But then Alma killed some of the scum of his own family, and killing his relatives was a great crime, and he lost his family's territory in Changhe Town. It just so happened that Duke Elfwan, who had lost Lion Lake City, took over the town of Long River.

The two dukes swapped territories, which was not a coincidence, but the result of the mutual support of the two best friends.

However, as a result, Alma did not become the Grand Master of the Clarion Call Ranger Regiment.

After all, the purpose of the Ranger Regiment is to defend their homeland, and having a lord outside the jurisdiction of Changhe Town as the head of the Regiment is not in line with the traditions and regulations of the Ranger Order.

Moreover, after Alma was sealed to Lion Lake City, he took charge of the Lion Lake City Flag Guard, which completely made it impossible to serve as the Horn Summoning Knights.

The Lion Lake City Flag Guard was actually formed by Duke Elfwan, and now this force is the Lion Lake City Heavy Cavalry led by Forsset at the beginning.

In fact, the establishment of the Lion Lake City Flag Guard also originated from the misery that Leonardo created in Lion Lake City - too many noble lords were killed, causing Lion Lake City to be extremely empty for a while.

Moreover, Alf Wanben lost the territory of Lion Lake City because of his weak defense and failed to resist the Lion Knights led by Leonardo.

Although he had been transferred to the town of Long River, Lion Lake City was Elfwan's hometown after all, so before leaving, he armed the wealthy citizens of Lion Lake City with property and formed a heavy cavalry force between commoners and nobles.

The newly formed Lion Lake City Flag Guard is actually similar in nature to the Horn Summoning Ranger Regiment, and it was originally a civilian force with the purpose of protecting the countryside.

In order to quickly equip Alma with the ability to protect Lion Lake City, Alfwan handed over the Lion Lake City Flag Guard to Alma.

Of course, it was also in order for him to continue to maintain his influence in Lion Lake City, and in the years when Elfwan was healthy, the Lion Lake City heavy cavalry was actually fighting for Elfwan many times.

And Count Auden became the Grand Master of the Horn Summoning Ranger Regiment.

Alma and Alfwan were indeed close friends who cooperated with each other, and Elfwan provided Alma with a chance until his death.

However, Count Auden and Ralph gradually became Alma's enemies over the past thirty years, and in addition to conflicts of interest, there were also conflicts of ideas and behaviors.

For example, Alma's current behavior is something that Auden and Ralph would never have done......

"Ralph, old man, I know you don't like me right now. But that's okay, as long as you still like your only son. ”

Alma looked at Ralph with her head held high, "I just need you a favor......"

"Lord Duke, your actions like this will only make me look down on you......"

Ralph shook his head, his eyes full of contempt.

"It doesn't matter...... I never cared what people thought of me. Ralph, I'm going to be the Grand Master of the Horn Summoning Rangers, and I need your support. You know that my patience is limited, and for your son's sake, tell the young people of the Ranger that I should have been their leader. ”

Alma shook her head, expressionless on her face.

"The leader who killed the members of the Rangers? Phew! ”

Young Raphael struggled incessantly, and his attitude was extremely fierce, and Alma killed twenty Rangers in front of him, and his anger can be imagined.

"Shut up, kid, I don't want to hurt you......"

Alma turned her head and let her men gag Raphael's mouth, and then stared into Ralph's eyes: "This is your only child, Ralph. He is brave and determined, and he has a great future. I swear that if you are willing to help me, I will make Raphael the next Grand Master. Of course, you can also say no, as long as you are willing to leave him forever...... I'll give you five minutes to think about it. ”

Ralph, of course, could not give up his only son......

No matter how determined a tough guy is, there will always be a soft underbelly.

With Ralph's cooperation, Clarion Call summons all members of the Ranger Regiment to assemble in the village of Fletcher.

It only took Alma two days to nominally become the Grand Master of the Horn Summoning Rangers, and headed west with the Horn Summoning Rangers.

He claimed to lead the rangers to 'suppress bandits'.

The large force of the Ranger Regiment actually happened to pass by Godric and the others who broke through the siege and returned to Fort Shield, and they were actually only twenty miles apart from each other when they were closest to each other.

This was a deliberately guided route by Alma, and the Clarion Call called the Ranger Regiment and did not approach the hill that besieged Godric.

There were indeed a large number of 'bandits' to the west of Fletcher Village, and the members of the Unclear Horn Call Ranger did see many members of the Red Brotherhood with their own eyes, so they did not suspect Duke Alma's purpose in the slightest.

So, just three days later, Alma summoned all the members of the Ranger Regiment with a horn to 'hunt down' a large group of bandits and came to the jurisdiction of Lion Lake City, near the village of Payne.

But after coming here, they lost track of the Red Brotherhood members......

Alma had Kedren take the rogue knights and bandits of the Red Brotherhood in circles to Fort Shield.

Of course, he wouldn't let those Red Brotherhood bandits enter any of the villages in the Lionlake City precinct......

If these unruly and uncontrollable rogue bandits appeared in Lion Lake City, they would arouse the resentment of the nobles of Lion Lake City, especially the people of his Horton family.

Half a year ago, many villages had just been plagued by Forcher and the Red Brotherhood......

Everyone in the family knew that Alma was connected to the Red Brotherhood, and if the Brotherhood members appeared in the Lion Lake City precinct in large numbers, the Holden family would abandon Alma.

In fact, it was originally difficult for the members of the Red Brotherhood to unite together, and every city in the Pander Continent had a Red Brotherhood, but they did not have a common leader, nor did they have a clear hierarchy, let alone a serious army.

This is a huge underworld organization that obtains wealth through assassination, protection money, drug trafficking, dirt sales, and slave hunting and slave trading, and it is probably the largest organization on the entire continent, but this organization is very loose and difficult to manage.

Many seemingly ordinary commoners, businessmen, and even nobles are also members of the Red Brotherhood, but they all belong to various gangs, and the various gangs in various cities have been fighting each other for territory, and it is difficult to unite.

However, the Duke of Alma spent a lot of money to buy a number of rogue knights, and let these noble rogues recruit men from various cities to form such a large army, and let Baron Kedren coordinate the management.

Alma persuaded Kedren to fully support his offer by giving these rogue knights to Kedren and becoming Kedron's personal soldiers.

The members of the Red Brotherhood had been inquiring about Raphael's movements, and Raphael was able to spot the bandit's traces near the hill, of course, Alma deliberately sent someone to lure him, and his main purpose was to capture Raphael.

Capture Raphael with a familiar Kedren and trap Godric and Charles, emptying Fletcher and Ralph's border camp and preventing Godric and Charles from spoiling him.

Alma then used Raphael to coerce Ralph to cooperate, becoming the Grand Master of the Clarion Call Ranger Regiment, and once again used the members of the Red Brotherhood to induce the Ranger Regiment to go out in a big way to suppress the bandits, and all the members left the eastern region to help the Shield Fortress - the Shield Fortress became a lonely city for the time being.

Kedren's mission now is to return to the eastern frontier with the Red Brotherhood, completely occupy Ralph's camp and the village of Fletcher, and then besiege Fort Brave.

- It's the same routine that Alma used to occupy Long River, only this time he had more to achieve.

Use the bandits of the Red Brotherhood to capture the Shield Fortress, and then lead the Horn to summon the Ranger Regiment to "reclaim the lost ground", and then stand and fall into a good reputation.

If Duke Alma gets Fort Shield and controls the dangerous area of the border, he can use the safety of Long River Town as a bargaining chip to completely coerce the Horn to summon the Ranger to listen to him.

He first asked Forschel to send people to build a camp on the riverbank and repair the bridge, originally to coerce the rangers.

Almako has never forgotten the family's original territory, Changhe Town...... The plan had drained all his savings, and he wanted to put the Red Brotherhood members to good use of the ones he was about to give to Kedren.

Moreover, he summoned the Ranger Regiment with a horn to the village of Payne near Lion Lake City, which also killed two birds with one stone.

Alma directly approached the First Flag Guard of Lion Lake City.

It was a heavy cavalry of more than two hundred men, and they were now gathering in Payne, as they spotted a large number of armed forces approaching in the east.

Due to the large number of troops attacking, out of caution, Grandlon, the flag bearer of the First Flag Guard of Lion Lake City, did not act lightly, but set up a defense in Payne Village.

But Grandlon never imagined that these people were actually the Horn Summoning Ranger Regiment, and the leader of the team was his old lord, Duke Alma.

Duke Alma, with all the members of the Ranger Regiment, only took a few minutes to get Grande to stand behind him.

The Horn Summons Ranger Regiment has a total strength of more than nine hundred people, and all of them are elite.

Of course, the large number of powerful rangers has a huge deterrent power, and Grandon doesn't know that the rangers have only been fooled......

You must know that the Horn Summoning Ranger Regiment was only guarding the security of the Eastern Region before this, and almost never left the Eastern Region, let alone entered the jurisdiction of Lion Lake City.

To be able to take the Ranger out of the east and appear in the village of Payne near Lion Lake City, in Grandlon's opinion, there is only one possibility - he thought that the Ranger was fully controlled by Alma and became a private soldier!

In this case, of course, Grandon had to be soft......

And, in addition to the deterrent power of the rangers, there is another phrase that works - "Grandlon, follow me with the Flag Guard." I know that the families of the Flag Guards are under the custody of Forsette, and we are out to change that. ”

The family of this army has always been controlled by Forsett, but the young noble young master probably did not expect that his father would do the opposite and easily rebel against this elite army.

After all, Alma is the lord of Lion Lake City, and it should have been the grand return of the flag commander of the First Banner Guard to the old master.

For the next half day, Grandon unobtrusively led Alma into the city of Lion Lake, where he paid a private visit to the commanders of the various units in the city.

The two knights and a dozen knights were killed by Alma and Granlon, and most of the army in Lionlake City quietly returned to Alma's hands overnight.

As Alma said, as long as he showed up in Lion Lake City, no one would dare to do anything to him.

That very night, Forsette became Alma's captive.

This was also the hand of the heavy cavalry of the Lion Lake City Banner Guard, who tied the sleeping Forsette to Duke Alma.

From the time Alma began plotting to capture Raphael, in just a few days, Lion Lake City was back in the hands of the elderly duke.

Forsette finally relented to his father, and gave an account of everything, including his sister, under the whip and salt water.

Alma banished him from his home and exiled Forsette to the Raven Realm along with his own sister.

Subsequently, the 'scouts' of Baron Kedren came with the news that the Cato and the robbers had joined forces to attack the Shield Fortress.

Alma immediately marched towards Fort Shield with most of the Lion Lake City's army, along with the Horn Summoning Rangers.

Like a loyal servant who actively defends the country.

……

Fort Shield, Hall of Lords.

After successfully breaking through and joining Leofrick, Godric entered Fort Shield with Charles and others to recuperate.

There were too many wounded in the team, and Riva was even more dying, and only Fort Shield had a doctor to treat the wounds.

As they passed through the village of Fletcher, they received a report from Ralph's craftsmen that Duke Alma had become the Grand Master of the Horn Summoning Rangers, and had taken them to the west to 'suppress the bandits'.

Godric could naturally realize that the thousands of members of the Red Brotherhood must have been created by Duke Alma, because this reminded him of Alma's previous 'bandits' to control Long River Town.

But this time, with the knights sent by the king to keep an eye on Long River, and Malbert, the son of Duke Brennus, there was also Alma probably not going to fight Long River's idea.

Add to that the fact that those Red Brotherhood members are on the northern border - then it's possible that Alma wants to deal with Fort Shield!

Therefore, he ordered all the troops to enter the Yongdun Fort to prepare for battle, and sent people to send an order to Changhe Town to gather troops to come to support.

"Lord Godric, how did Duke Alma become the head of the Horn Summoning Rangers? Ralph probably won't support him......"

Leofrick still didn't quite understand.

Godric, of course, didn't know why, he thought about it for a long time, and finally came to a conclusion: "Whatever method Alma used, I at least believe that the Ranger people will not attack us...... As long as we can defeat those gangsters, his plan will not succeed, and we will only have to deal with the members of the Red Brotherhood for the time being. ”

"No, maybe the Cato ......"

Riva suddenly opened her eyes from her coma and said with a pale face.

Her injuries were so severe that she was barely bandaged, but the two fatal wounds in her chest and abdomen had not been able to stop the bleeding, and she was being watched by Charles at the moment.

Riva ...... You'd better stop talking and get some rest! ”

"No, Charles, let me see Fort Shield...... Ha, that's what this place looks like......"

Riva grabbed Charles' arm tightly and asked her to sit up and lean on Charles's body to look around.

"The Gatu......" Leofric muttered.

"I made a deal with the Gatus...... I know that the one who has the most connection with the Cato is the Duke of Alma, who can even hire the Cato to do things for him. The Red Brotherhood is not capable of attacking the Shield Fortress, but the Gatu ......"

Riva's voice grew lower and lower, and her face grew paler, and the moment she sat up probably consumed all the strength she had left.

All eyes were on Riva.

"She's right, we're going to face a tough battle......"

Godric nodded in agreement: "Miss Riva, you ...... Miss Riva? ”

Riva suddenly stopped moving.

Riva ...... Riva, don't sleep, don't sleep! Riva ......"

Charles's heart ached, tears welled up, and he cried helplessly as he helped the limp Riva.

He had already realized that Riva was able to sit up just now, probably because he was back in the light of day......

"Don't be noisy...... Charles, help me tell Lord Leon that I can't repay his favor. But at least, I got home......"

Riva's voice grew low like a mosquito, and after the last murmur, her head drooped.

Until the last moment, she kept her eyes open, greedily watching everything in the lord's hall.

It was the castle that her father had built, but it was her first time entering the halls of the lords.

And for the last time.

She used to deny that it was her home.

But she finally went home.

In the way that an aristocrat should be.

……

Lion City.

After two and a half days in the Secret Chamber, Leon finally met King Ulrique.

The king's face was pale as if he were a living person, and this countenance reminded Leon of the secret spy of the Bacchus Empire.

However, even after seeing the king, the lord still lay on his bed.

"Leon, the Bacchus Empire has attacked White Hart Castle, you have to find a way to repel the enemy......"

Ulrike didn't care about Leon's rudeness, and gave Leon instructions in the first sentence as if nothing had happened.

"Your Majesty, I am locked up here now, how can I repel the enemy? By the mind? ”

The lord lay on the bed and turned over, lying on his side facing the king, probably as a sign of respect.

"This is Yin Gere...... Alas, go back to your territory, and I will give you some compensation. ”

Ulrike originally planned to push it on Yin Gor, but looking at Leon's appearance, he changed his tune and directly offered compensation.

"Your Majesty, what kind of compensation?"

As soon as he heard this, the lord rolled over and stood up from the bed, and his attitude became unusually upright.

"I know you're doing a good business, and I need a lot of money right now...... You will find a way to raise a hundred thousand dinars for me, and I will grant you a tax exemption in my territory with your banner - a privilege that only royal estates can receive, is that enough? ”

Ulrik's voice was low, his breath was weak, and he was obviously in poor health, but he kept his head high.

“…… Your Majesty, this is a deal, not a compensation......"

Leon shook his head, a new understanding of the thickness of Ulrik's skin.

But Leon also knows that in fact, Ulrique's proposal is indeed a win-win approach.