Chapter 247 The Flag of the Griffin Flutters.

"Lord Jerain, the Duke is looking for you."

In a castle on a high mountain, Jerain was teaching the two younger brothers the skills of swordsmanship and fighting in the courtyard, when the butler came over.

"Are you looking for me?"

Jerain pondered what would happen. He put down the uncut broadsword in his hand and let the two younger brothers practice on their own. Then he took the towel handed by the servant to wipe the sweat and palms, and asked as he walked.

"I don't know what's next." The butler shook his head. He followed Jerain and walked towards the study where the Duke was.

Turning around the long corridor in the castle, ascending the spiraling stairs, under the bow of the two white lion knights, Jerain knocked on the door.

"Is it Jerain?" A slightly hoarse voice came from the room.

"it's me."

"come in."

Jerain pushed open the door, walked in, and the housekeeper poured tea for him, then carefully closed the door and left.

Sitting in front of the coffee table, Jerain looked at his father.

Compared to Jerain, the old duke already had a lot of white hair, and his body also showed signs of aging.

Jerain is only about 30 years old now. In the eyes of the upper echelons of the empire, he is still a young man of the younger generation, not very mature, and the old duke is now in his 70s.

This age is very old among ordinary people, but the practice of the extraordinary sequence delays the effects of aging, allowing the duke to still maintain a certain amount of energy.

"What are you doing recently?" The old duke asked about Jerain's current situation.

"Practice the Transcendent Sequence, and according to your requirements, you can cruise among the various territories in the Western Territory to get to know and familiarize yourself with the situation of the vassals."

"Yeah." The old duke leaned back in the chair, put his hands together, and closed his eyes slightly.

The room was silent for a while before the Duke Griffin continued to speak.

"What do you think the current Western Region is like?"

"On the surface, it is prosperous, but people's hearts are floating." Jerain commented.

"How can you see it."

"We have gained a certain amount of wealth by relying on customs, Lanjianhe, and other trade routes, which have made the territory much more prosperous than in the past."

"However, various changes are taking place within the empire today."

"After the reform of the central region, although it seems that there are constant disputes and conflicts, in fact, the strength under the water has increased significantly compared to the past."

"A large number of people from the north have moved into the central region, and the various workshops and schools in the central region have also prospered. Of course, this will have an impact, but if it can be stabilized slowly, the central region will still be the most powerful place in the empire. It has the largest number of great nobles, the largest number of extraordinary people, and the largest population."

"On the other hand, in our western border, although we have obtained wealth through trade, these wealth are not reliable."

"Very good, very good." The old duke slowly opened his eyes and looked at his son.

"You know why I said it was fine."

"It's not because you see the problems in the Western Region. In fact, these things will gradually be discovered. The real value is that you don't fully regard the empire and us as one."

"This is the most gratifying thing to me. I thought that an overly upright and upright education in the early years would make you a noble knight obsessed with justice, but luckily it didn't."

"The relationship between the empire and us, or the western border is very different from the rest of the empire."

"Other territories were laid down one by one during the expansion of the empire, so the Emerald Forest was brought by marriage. We were integrated into the empire because of an alliance or agreement."

"For a long time, the mountain people in the Griffin Territory have been known for their bravery. It is near the Sigh Mountains, there are many monsters, and there are few grain-producing areas in the territory, and there are frequent struggles."

"In some old storage rooms in the family, you may still see some decorations left by past ancestors, such as huge deer head hangings, dragon heads, dark cave lion fur and so on."

"In the past, when our ancestors received guests, they would invite guests to watch these ferocious and powerful spoils, which represented a kind of honor."

"But this traditional custom has slowly disappeared in the past two hundred years."

"We are also like those nobles in the middle, wearing gorgeous clothes, learning poetry, tasting art, exploring the noble way of knighthood, and so on."

"This kind of change, in fact, I didn't gradually discover and know about it until I read the ancient books recorded at home in recent years."

"Although it's not a big deal, it can be seen that we are gradually forgetting many things in the past."

With that said, the old Griffin Duke stood up, moved his body slowly, and then looked out the window at the verdant mountains and canyons. The figures of several Griffin knights passed through the distant forest.

"We're very dependent on trade now and we're obsessed with this prosperity."

"Minerals and monster materials in the mountains can easily be exchanged for food in the central region and Crancia, and the people don't have to pay a lot of taxes, and can have leisure to practice the extraordinary sequence, or do other things."

"Such a situation is not bad, hehe." He smiled, but his voice was a little dry.

"If our family is really loyal to the imperial family of the empire, this will be a very good era. The new emperor is young and promising, and the empire is gradually improving."

"But how can a lion growing up in the wilderness be willing to squat in a low house?"

"The Emperor is currently only implementing these new policies in the central region, but as long as he slowly digests the internal conflicts and finds a stable system in the New Year, the Emperor will soon be able to

This system will be promoted throughout the country. "

"Is this bad?" Jerain seemed puzzled.

"It's good for the Empire, but it's not good for us." The old duke turned around slowly.

"Where do you think our power comes from, land, population, force."

"As those workshops build up, they take that away and let us go downhill."

"Those things are very dynamic and powerful, but this kind of power disturbs me that it will no longer be under our control."

"You know, I'm even a little afraid of that day. It's hard to imagine what kind of roles and existences we, the nobles in the western mountains, will become in those times."

"At least it's no longer an important role, or even a marginal figure."

"It's disturbing..." He seemed to sigh, feeling that he was old and unable to embrace this new world.

"but!"

After finishing his sense, the old Duke Griffin suddenly turned around and looked at Jerain with a fanatical look.

"We still have a chance, that is, to hold this future chariot firmly in our hands, and let ourselves be its master, and even everything!"

"Jielan, do you realize that our family is now standing at a fork in history."

"If we continue to sit back and watch everything happen, we will be like those necromancers of the Quicksilver Dynasty. They did nothing in the end and watched the magic sequence gradually become stronger. At first, we thought it was a good thing, and there were new powers in the Dynasty. Until later. , there is nothing to do with them, only to realize that everything is over."

"The weakening of the necromantic sequence has led to a significant decline in the right to speak within the dynasty, and the emerging magic sequence superhumans have begun to occupy positions of power, which finally led to the separation and disintegration of the dynasty."

Gu Jin

"When people rise up, even if you don't regress, you will gradually become weaker."

"The new emperor, he is not the self-confessed friend and Mingjun of the great nobles, but the one who digs the graves for all the nobles."

"Do you understand what I mean, Jerain. If we continue to sit back and watch, everything from the Griffin family in the past will become as old as the ashes of the giant beast in the storage room."

"So, do we want to follow the example of the new emperor, first carry out reforms in the western region, and grasp various lifelines in advance?" There was some hesitation in Jalan's words.

"No, you should understand in your heart that this is not a long-term solution." The old Duke Griffin was dissatisfied that the son still refused to face the reality.

Jielan also knew that the mountainous environment in the west was far less than the population in the central part, and it must not be able to develop the territory directly under the emperor.

"But this……"

"No but, child, this may be the best opportunity, and you have also seen the 'revelation', haven't you." The old Griffin Duke's voice was low and full of temptation.

He sat in front of the large seat again, and at this time, a girl in a white dress slowly appeared in the room. She had snow-white hair, snow-white eyebrows, her eyes were slightly closed, and she slowly lowered. He slowly wrapped his arms around the neck of the old Duke Griffin.

"Yes, now is the best chance, and the ravens of the north will support us." The girl's voice was tender and ethereal.

Under the blessing of the witch's power, the aging duke was covered with a faint white light, and the originally wrinkled skin began to become smooth, like smooth marble, making him seem to be back when he was young and strong.

Looking at his father who received the witch's blessing, Jerain could only hold back the stormy waves in his heart and slowly lowered his head.

"Imitate Your Highness Hua Silin."

Blessed by the Holy White Stone, the white griffon flag was stretched again and conveyed its command to all parts of the Western Territory. Lines of heavily armed knights walked out of the castle in the mountains, lines of griffins crossed the rolling hills, and the flapping wings made a noise.

The army of the Griffin Kingdom began to assemble, and this time, they will once again show how proud and powerful these mountain people, whose ancestors had the courage to hunt giant beasts, were.

The Third Age, 1710, the season of autumn winds.

A war broke out again within the empire. This time, the leaders of this launch were no longer those low-level civilians, but a powerful alliance of nobles.

The Salius family, who maintained their full strength in the Great Crusade and had a high reputation in the Western Territory, declared the current new emperor illegal in the name of Duke Griffin.

"The kid sitting on the throne is just a liar who fakes the blood of the royal family, and the loyal Griffin family will support the orthodox royal blood to ascend to the throne, in order to eliminate the traitors and defilers on the side of the king."

"The sacred traditions and glory of the Empire are unshakable and must not be allowed to fall into the hands of greedy and untrustworthy traders, the worms of destruction of the Empire."

In the name of setting things right, Duke Griffin rallied the army in the west, and contacted the remnants of the former Amanck brothers, as well as many aristocratic forces dissatisfied with the current New Deal, and began to launch a crusade against the center of the empire.

The continuous flag of the Griffon obscured the sky and the sun, and nearly 1.2 million troops began to gather, and this was only the power of the Western Region. As the Raven Duke Trey family guarding the north, this time it was rare to participate in it. Nearly 60 The flags of the Grey Crows began to gather in the wind and snow.

Although many people in the north were puzzled and even puzzled by such an order, they still began to prepare for the battle under the order of the Duke of Raven, and prepared to seize the food-producing land in the south as soon as possible.

Facing the war and denying his legality to rule the Griffin Duke, the new emperor Elio also responded quickly, and immediately announced

The central provinces of cloth entered a state of preparation for war, and began to recruit soldiers in large numbers to produce firearms and artillery.

Because the new emperor issued an order, the Chamber of Commerce also needs to form a guard to assist in the battle, and will also be rewarded for merit and title.

In this way, the old nobles have long been accustomed to it, and they have no opinion. Among them, many ancestors started their careers by virtue of war.

And businessmen with manpower and wealth finally found a way to climb the ranks and obtain titles. The backlog of complaints also found a way to vent. They spontaneously armed themselves and joined the deployment of the empire. Many workshops that had been shut down began to reopen. Recruiting people, and the number of refugees on the streets has also decreased rapidly.

Various workshops producing commodity goods, under the active organization of the Chamber of Commerce, began to quickly change their uses. They changed the factories that made alchemy creations to produce armor and muskets, and the spinning factories also quickly made tents, gauze, rain cloth, and military uniforms. , boots, and a series of products.

In response to the financial pressure, the central government of the empire began to issue war bonds. As long as they were purchased, they would repay generous interest and principal after a few years.

While the central part was actively preparing for the war, the new emperor's messenger also came to the southern border.

In the huge hall like a garland, members of the 'Fairy Wood' dressed in neat clothes sit on the circular seats. On the sides of their collars, there are uniform badges of small white flowers, which means that they are members of the 'Fairy Wood'. identity of.

In the center of the layers of white and green garlands is the smallest semi-circle, in which sit 6 high-ranking members, who will be the leaders of this meeting.

"To sum up, now Duke Griffin has gathered an army and started to declare war on the new emperor. His purpose is obvious, to overthrow the new emperor's rule and support another royal descendant who is easy to control." A middle-ranking member was making a report.

"What do you think about the new emperor's request for help? Let's not make a statement for the time being, and make a decision after careful consideration and decision."

Afterwards, members of the meeting began to express their views and opinions. Some of them argued and refuted each other, and analyzed the pros and cons of each other.

"The system of the empire is fundamentally different from ours, and we have no reason to maintain such a backward and even unfair system."

"However, if the new emperor is allowed to be overthrown, then we will face a huge integrated empire in the future, and the pressure in it can be imagined. Don't forget, how the powerful Oz country was defeated in the hands of the empire, And it just so happens that the land under our feet once belonged to the country of Oz."

"I agree with the decision of the organization to participate in the intervention, but I do not agree to assist the new emperor in the form of support." At this time, a member with glasses stood up.

"First of all, our organizational belief is to build an equal, enlightened, and just country. If you help maintain the imperial family, what is the difference between betraying your own beliefs, and am I still the same as those nobles who focus on interests in the end?"

"Help must have conditions, that is, let the new emperor accept the organization's philosophy and system, and only then can there be a reason to send troops."

"However, it is impossible for the other party to agree to such conditions." Other members also bluntly said that this is simply making the emperor commit suicide.

"Yes, but we have shown our sincerity. They don't agree. That's their business. Rather than saving a decaying empire, it's better to sweep it away together when they both lose and present a clean world."

"It's crazy, the southern border can't afford such a huge war now."

For a time, there were different opinions, until the sound of the bell rang, and the conference hall was quiet again.

"Lord Jialan, please speak now." The eyes of everyone in the hall converged on the blue-haired girl in the center. This girl who looks like 16-17 years old can be described as the soul of the 'Fairy Wood' organization. Members follow, even objects of belief.

"We will support the emperor in the middle of the empire." Roland Hill first expressed his opinion.

"But the army will not be sent there, just the supplies they need. This is based on the friendship between the two countries, because in the early days of the organization, it was indeed because of the edict of the new emperor, which avoided many scenes of bloodshed."

Roland Hill's words echoed clearly in the hall. The voice was sweet and soft, and it was often addicting. The clear structure of it made many members nod secretly.

"The reason for not sending troops is also as the previous members have said, we can't let our soldiers die for something like this, because it goes against the beliefs of the organization."

...

After Lorraine Hill finished speaking, there was warm applause in the hall, and then the resolution was passed quickly. Many old weapons accumulated in the south, such as armor and muskets of different specifications, began to be transported to the middle of the empire.

After the 'Fairy Wood' gradually improved its armament and produced unified standard weapons, these things left over from the past would be of little use, and it would not be distressing if they were given away.

However, this is indeed a much-needed material for the middle of the empire, which is currently in need of a lot of arms.

After the arms and armaments began to be transported to the central part, some food was gradually loaded into the trucks and transported to the central part of the empire to support the new emperor against the allied forces of the griffins and ravens.

Because of this civil war, the entire empire began to be divided into three parts, one is the coalition of Griffin and Raven, the other is the new emperor and his allies in the middle of the empire, the 'Fairy Wood' organization in the south, and the third is Jade The elves of the forest and the nobles of the eastern realm with elves blood.

Among them, the Allied Forces of Griffin Ravens are in full swing, and various provinces and cities in the central part of the empire have begun to fall into war. At the same time, the southern border is actively preparing for the war, starting to build fortifications, training the army to shadow

Cope with possible crises and support the middle of the Empire with supplies.

However, even if such a fierce war broke out, the Eastern Territory and the Emerald Forest remained peaceful and neutral.

The Duke of Unicorn, the Landsworth family stated that they would not participate in this war. They recognized the reasonableness and legality of the actions of both parties. It seems that whoever is the emperor has nothing to do with them.

Anyway, the empire has abandoned the elves, right? It is no longer a green empire, but a crimson empire.

In that case, let them fight for themselves.