Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  “That’s unreasonable!” Bishop Miramon opened his eyes wide. “You’re just a baron, and there’s a viscount, earl, and marquis between the Thunder Lord and you. How could he just jump over the others and ask for grain from you? Won’t your monarch be angry? That’s too much!”

  “The Keane Hill is directly under the control of the Thunder Lord.” Crick sighed. “The surrounding area is under Earl Holhuck, but ours isn’t. Perhaps it was a special arrangement when the Hill was built in order to avoid Earl Holhuck’s complete control of the area.”

  “Since the surrounding area is under Earl Holhuck, it should be his residents that suffered from the disaster. Thus, Earl Holhuck should have been the one to ask for grain from us.”

  “The Thunder Lord just needs an excuse.” Crick sighed again.

  “What a shame!” Miramon understood. He shook his head and said, “There’s nothing I can do. We Orcs never do things this way.”

  “In the winter of the year before last, didn’t you follow the Thunder Lord’s orders to join the war?” Knight Howard James said with a frown. “I know a courtier should be loyal to his monarch. You already led your soldiers to join the battle of the Sun’s Death Day. What’s more, your army suffered a great loss there, and you even almost died on the battlefield. Wasn’t that loyal enough?”

  “That’s why the letter was put it in a sincere way. It says that it’s not the Thunder Lord that needs the grain, but the people in the disaster-stricken area,” Crick said with a sneer. “How smart our Thunder Lord is!”

  “We also had a good harvest last year, but he didn’t ask us for grain. Why did he ask this year?” Knight Charles Ouss asked with confusion.

  “Last year’s harvest wasn’t as noticeable as this year’s,” Crick said. “Last year, although new farming techniques were used in most fields, the harvest wasn’t as good as it was this year. It saw only a 20 percent increase in output. To be honest, that was nothing special. But this year, with the wide use of fertilization and the adoption of new farming techniques, we had a sharp increase in output. Although we haven’t received the final statistics, judging from the current figure, the output for this year will probably be four times what it was last year.”

  After Crick finished his words, the whole meeting room fell into an amazed silence.

  Several seconds later, Scout Rena couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Sir, is that true?”

  “Yes.”

  “No wonder!” Ryder, the captain of the military patrol of the Keane City, sighed deeply. “If it was me, I would have also envied such a good harvest!”

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  “But our neighbor Earl Hulhock didn’t envy us at all,” Layton said.

  “Maybe he did. He just acted slower than the Thunder Lord,” intelligence officer Rafael said slowly. “Earl Hulhock has held several meetings with its high-level officers recently. Maybe they’ve discussed taking advantage of us.”

  Crick looked more worried. He hadn’t solved the current problem yet, and the next one was already coming.

  What could be worse than a piece of bad news? Two pieces of bad news!

  “Fortunately, Earl Hulhock hasn’t come. We still have time to save the situation,” Mage Damwade said. “We’ve received the order from the Thunder Lord, so that’s what we have to deal with first.”

  “Is there anything we can do?” Crick huffed deeply. “That fat guy is sure that there’s nothing I can do about it. I really want to chop him to death!”

  “Stop talking like that, please,” persuaded Thomas, the priest of the God of Art and Culture who had focused on researching all day. “With the fighting power of our hill, we can fight against a viscount at most. If it really is the Thunder Lord, we’ll definitely lose.”

  “I just said that to say it,” Crick huffed disappointedly and coughed again.

  “Sir, take care of yourself!” Layton persuaded Crick worriedly. “No matter what difficulties we meet, as long as you’re here, there’s a future for our hill. Even if we suffer a loss this time, does it matter? After all, we had a good harvest this year, and we’ll have more in the coming years.”

  Crick nodded slightly and sighed. He agreed with Layton.

  As Layton had said, this time, the Thunder Lord had come to rob grain from Keane Hill, but he couldn’t come every year!

  The new farming techniques of the Keane Hill had already started on the right path. Perhaps there wouldn’t be such a good harvest as this year’s, but it would be possible to get an output of two to three bushels per acre, but at least two.

  A harvest like that would be enough to support the continuous development of the Keane Hill. Even if the Thunder Lord took a lot of their grain away this year, he wouldn’t be able to find an excuse to come again next year.

  “You’re too naive,” Bishop Miramon said with a sneer. “I’m not sure whether you’ve seen wolves hunting in the prairie. The average wolf only chases after animals in small groups and attacks the elderly and weak ones left behind, but strong wolves prefer to choose animals in a large group as their hunting targets. They follow these animals from a distance and hunt only several of them each time. It’s just like grazing.”

  His round eyes were filled with a gloomy light. “If the Thunder Lord gets grain from us this time, he’ll definitely come again next year. Thus, he’ll begin regularly rob grain from us in the coming years.”

  Nobody talked in the room. They didn’t want to admit it, but they knew that what Miramon had said was reasonable.

  “Last winter, the Thunder Lord called on the surrounding areas to support the Eagle Kingdom in the war, and there were at least four earls that ignored him.” The intelligence officer Raffle said slowly, “But nothing happened to those earls in the end. They weren’t punished.”

  “They’re earls,” Layton said worriedly. “We aren’t as powerful as earls. If even barons don’t dare to separate from great nobles over such small things, we can’t, as we aren’t great nobles at all.”

  As Layton had said, Keane Hill wasn’t any sort of great noble. They didn’t have the courage and confidence to fight against the Thunder Lord.

  The Duchy of Thunder had been built by a knight under the Supreme Mage, Master Ymirjar Le-Peyroux. This knight had worshipped Master Le-Peyroux as his monarch, so he saw Master Le-Peyroux as the king, and he became the first Thunder Lord.

  The current nobles of the Duchy of Thunder could be divided into seven ranks, with the Thunder Lord, a duke, at the top. Theoretically, the Thunder Lord was the master of the whole Duchy of Thunder. However, in fact, he was just the master of some hills that were directly under the control of the Duchy of Thunder. In other hills, there were independent monarchs who were all great nobles. The Thunder Lord was just the leader of the alliance of these great nobles.

  In the second rank were three rulers: the queen’s brother, the most highly regarded prince, and the chief general of the Duchy of Thunder. They didn’t have any feuds. They were the Thunder Lord’s favorite courtiers, so their authority and status were all gained from the Lord’s trust.

  In the third rank were earls, who were descendants of those who had accompanied the first Thunder Lord to explore the world. At that time, the first Thunder Lord had not been the only subordinate of the Master Le-Peyroux, and there had been a few more subordinates who had a similar status to the first Thunder Lord. When the Duchy of Thunder had been established, the first Thunder Lord had divided the country into several areas and conferred with the other subordinates of the Master Le-Peyroux to gain the title of earls. An earl was the highest monarch of an area, and even the Thunder Lord had no right to interfere in the daily affairs of their areas. In fact, in the current Duchy of Thunder, with the development of each Earl Hill, the Thunder Lord’s control of the whole Duchy of Thunder was weakening.

  In the fourth rank were viscounts, who were nobles with many feuds and great power. Underneath some powerful viscounts were barons and knights. Both dukes and earls had viscounts under them. These dukes and earls were the rulers of these viscounts, so they had to be loyal to them. Although these viscounts enjoyed great power in their own hills, they still had to put their superior’s orders as the priority.

  In the fifth rank were barons. The Keane Hill was a Baron Hill. Barons were at the bottom of the nobles who governed a city. Each baron followed his own superior, and some barons even had several superiors in different ranks. Meanwhile, these barons also had knights and lower-knights under them.

  In the sixth rank were knights, and the last rank were lower-knights. The difference between them was whether they had feud. A knight had his own feud, while a lower-knight had to receive a salary from their supervisor. The feud and family name of a knight were passed down from generation to generation. For a lower-knight, their title of nobility wasn’t hereditary. That was why normally, a lower-knight didn’t have a family name.

  In Keane Hill, there were two knights, Knight Ouss and Knight James. Knight Ouss had inherited his title of nobility, feud, and his family name from his father D’vor Ouss, while Knight Howard James’s father was the best friend of elder Baron Keane.

  The system of nobility with seven ranks had a strict order. To challenge this system, one needed not only great courage, but also power.

  The Keane Hill wasn’t powerful enough right now, or Crick would have already gotten the emissary out of his door.

  After several rounds of discussion, they felt that there was no way out except to turn over the grain to the Thunder Lord.

  While Crick wanted to end the meeting in a gloomy mood, Bishop Miramon had an idea. He moved closer to Crick and said in a low voice, “Sir, how about killing the emissary and pretending we haven’t received the order?”

  Crick was surprised at his words and began to think about them carefully.

  Miramon’s suggestion was feasible. The Keane Hill was far from the Duchy of Thunder. If the Thunder Lord wanted to send soldiers there, Earl Hulhock wouldn’t allow it. Thus, it was possible for Crick to follow this course of action.

  As long as Crick killed the emissary secretly, no one would know about it. Crick could firmly say that he had never received any order from the Duchy of Thunder.

  It would be at least a month until the Thunder Lord found out what had happened there and send another emissary to Crick.

  A month was long enough for Crick to find a way to transfer the grain. At that time, there would be no grain for the Thunder Lord at all!