678 Frey

Morning.

In the training grounds of the castle.

Fang Yuan waved a giant sword resembling a door plank and did a few standard sword moves, causing the squires and apprentices to look on stunned.

After slightly warming up his body, he raised his long sword forward and, while maintaining this stance, fully entered into a state of meditation.

This sorcerer's technique of recovering spiritual force was also very useful to Fang Yuan, so he absorbed its essence directly.

With the contributions of a world, the progress of fighting spirit can be said to be endless and won't require long before I can advance into a Quasi-Legend or even a Legend. But the cultivation of Disaster Knight will be a little difficult.

It was a Legend profession after all, and advancement was not such an easy task.

The first level of the Disaster Halo is to enhance one's body and their allies. The second level is to curse enemies. In this part, we still need a few special ingredients and environment.

Fang Yuan associated it with Glendon's nickname, Death Hands!

This name was not just for show.

That was because once the Disaster Halo reached the second level, it had the ability to absorb dead spirits and negative emotions to boost the curse.

Furthermore, at an even higher level, it could simulate a horrifying, legendary technique—Finger of Death!

Ignoring any defenses, as long as judgment was passed, it would attack and kill directly. It could be said to hold power over life and death. The most important thing was… it had somewhat violated the authority of Death God Hess!

This is a little troublesome, but it isn't possible for me to ascend as a Disaster Knight since I need to conceal myself, Fang Yuan silently thought in his mind. The only good news is… the attitude of the Duchy toward religion is still at a respectful distance. Even the Church of Death doesn't have much rights to speak!

After a while, a female servant's voice trailed over with a respectful tone, "Sir! The Baron invites you to the dining room to eat breakfast!"

"Okay, I'm going!"

Fang Yuan put down the heavy sword and used a towel to wipe his face before slowly leaving in a sea of reverent gazes.

The breakfast prepared by the baron was very sumptuous. The main course was white bread and fragrant toasted blueberry muffins. For drinks, there were vegetable soup and hot milk. Various salt and pepper shakers were placed on the table to be used freely.

As the closest knights to the baron, Fang Yuan and Gray sat together eating breakfast with the baron and his family members.

The baron's wife was a classic, beautiful noble lady. She had given birth to two sons and one daughter for the baron.

The eldest son, Mattus, was twenty years old this year and was the baron's heir. He was very similar to the baron, including his clothes and expressions. It could be seen that he was putting in effort to learn from his father, and there was a slight haughtiness in between his brows.

The second son, Timo, was only seventeen years old, and his appearance was gentle and more frail-looking, with a bit of a scholarly aura.

As the second son of a noble family, without any rights of succession since he was born, he could only train hard and learn to become a knight's squire, or the squire of other noble families, while forging a path by himself.

Finally, their daughter, Tanya, was an elegant young lady. Not knowing why, she seemed to be extremely diffident and lowered her head upon seeing Fang Yuan.

According to the baron's habits, no conversation was allowed while enjoying breakfast. After eating in silence, Fang Yuan and other knights were invited to the baron's study for a secret discussion.

At this time, in the study, Sorcerer Heim was also there and passed a letter bearing the seal of the Duke's Office to the baron.

Baron Shawshank finished reading silently and instantly nodded, passing the letter to the next Knight. "The target has been decided. It's Knight Frey."

"Knight Frey?"

Fang Yuan twitched his eyebrows.

At the side, Knight Gray instantly added on, "Luhn, you're a newly promoted noble, so you may be unclear. This Frey originally relied on a title obtained via dishonest methods and became famous by doing unconventional things. His territory is one of the top commercial powerhouses in the area. Furthermore, his land is vast and can casually employ hundreds of armed escorts and mercenaries."

"What about his lord?" Fang Yuan asked with some doubt.

"His name is Baron Haital, but that old fool can't even suppress him… Furthermore, there were rumors that even the position that he clinched for Frey in the beginning was also done under coercion," Baron Shawshank replied with a gloomy look.

"In other words, although he's just a knight, this Frey has already obtained half a baron's power."

Fang Yuan nodded, yet his heart had a subtly delicate feeling.

In truth, if he had not inexplicably gotten hold of a set of inheritance documents, he could have perhaps taken a path similar to Frey.

And with such a risky move, he would encounter the animosity of all the nobles and would now be tasting the nasty consequences.

Of course, in reality, the risks behind Fang Yuan succeeding the position of Knight Jorah was not just less than the other, but even greater.

"According to the intelligence, Knight Frey has always been providing conveniences to the hostile forces outside the borders, evening having some connections with many evil religious sects. Furthermore, he may perhaps be secretly confining Baron Haita."

Baron Shawshank said passionately, "As nobles, we definitely won't permit this degenerate to continue breaking rules! Thus… we must declare war!"

"Declare war!"

Knight Ge Guo was the first to move forward and use actions to declare his support toward for the lord.

"That's right! Declare war!"

This matter was already largely decided previously, and the knights like Fang Yuan did not have a trace of objection.

"Great!"

Seeing this, Baron Shawshank released a small smile. "The Frey Territory is very rich, so don't worry about the allocation of your spoils. However, we still need to first discuss a procedure!"

Fang Yuan watched on coldly and realized that these western lords' greatest difference with the eastern ones was that they had never seen the problem of profits as a taboo issue.

Even if their manners were as unpleasant as bandits, they would make the proper allocations before war without beating around the bush.

Among this, Baron Shawshank naturally had the lion's share, while the other knights did not leave empty-handed, each having their own share.

Especially Fang Yuan. Although he was only sending a force on paper, and really just escorting them, he managed to obtain a piece of land!

According to what Baron Shawshank said, this land was seized by Knight Frey. The key was that although this land was a little distant from the Frey Territory, it was actually very close to the territory of Knight Jorah and about a thousand acres.

Any enfeoffment system would have such examples of territorial land dispersion in the later periods.

Especially because Knight Frey did not have much foundation or many connections, he was naturally unable to exchange land with the other nobles and had to concentrate on his strengths.

Hearing this, the other knights' eyes started to turn red.

To them, a thousand acres was practically a small-sized knight territory. Even if just another hundred acres added, that was already something very decent.

The only issue was that they knew Luhn was not only a high-level professional, he was also paid great attention to by the grand duke. Even if they were jealous, they could only suppress it forcefully.

Seeing this, Baron Shawshank laughed inside and hurriedly made many promises. This similarly included the allocation of Knight Frey's territorial lands and treasures and, at long last, barely appeased all the knights.

However, from what Fang Yuan could observe, these knights' eyes were already as red as a rabbit's.

"Lord Baron!" Seeing this, he walked forward one step. "I have just taken over a territory, and manpower is still needed. Just pass me the Howl Manor."

The Howl Manor was a territory that he wanted to obtain in advance.

Equivalent to half a small knight territory, it was a manor built by Knight Frey.

"Okay!"

Regarding this request, Baron Shawshank gladly accepted. After all, this was an expression of the other party proactively building relations.

However, stemming from another motive, he still said, "Let Knight Gray assist you. He will bring another fifty people and that'll be sufficient to crush all resistance! After you have taken down Howl Manor, mop up all the other peripheral forces of Frey and lastly group up with us at the Frey Territory!"

…

"Finally… is he coming?"

Just as Baron Shawshank was scheming against Knight Frey, in the Frey Territory, this knight was similarly sighing.

Knight Frey was over thirty years old, yet he had already become bald. The hair strands on the sides of his head were completely white, and his face already had deep wrinkles. Due to the throat injury in his early years, he had injured his vocal cords and caused his voice to sound as nasty as a night owl.

At the moment, he sat on the seat of honor in his castle with a secret letter passed to him by a raven and couldn't help sneering.

As a knight, being able to construct his own castle was definitely something worth being proud of.

Knight Frey called his own castle 'Hope Castle', containing his wild hopes for the future.

As someone even inferior to an average low class citizen, he was the role model that crawled up from being a serf. The early half of his life was already envied and respected by many lower class people and seen as a lifelong target to strive for.

However, in his goals, becoming a noble was only the beginning!

He still needed more things to fulfill his wild ambitions and desires!

Yet, at this moment, this ambitious eye could see the risk of a collapse.

"The grand duke has finally decided to attack."

For a tiny noble who was not even a baron, the anger of those holding power in the duchy was obviously very frightening.

But Knight Frey was of course not alone.

"Everyone! Are you all prepared?"

He looked at everyone below and let out a wicked laugh like a wild owl. "Every piece of land and every millet has the imprint of our Frey Family. Now that Shawshank is preparing to take away everything that we have, they need to be prepared to pay the price!"

"Of course!" An orderly sound echoed. "Your will is our destiny!"

"Okay, according to our previous plans, go and position yourselves!"

Knight Frey coughed and waved his hands.

Instantly, scattered footsteps rang out within the main hall before it was enveloped by silence.

"Just by using adventurers, mercenaries, and your trained army, it's not sufficient to resist the baron's siege!" a voice abruptly rang out. Human silhouettes wrapped in black robes slowly walked out from the shadows.

"Yes… So I will choose to ally with you! Grand Duke Stan stupidly unleashed his plans all over the nation and his power will be greatly limited. We just need to defeat Baron Shawshank and will be able to obtain sufficient leeway," Knight Frey said gravely.

As his method of growing and thriving overly flouted the rules and he was ostracized by mainstream society, other than winning through unexpected or unconventional methods, he already had no other choice!