Rise of the Landragon Household (1)

In the Porfield Kingdom, every banquet and serious meetings would end up talking about a rising power: The Landragon Household.

The Porfield Kingdom was anything but a monolith. Although the King was a very strong Grand Knight in his prime, with enough strength to talk with magi on an equal footing, there were many factions of nobles who opposed his leadership for the sake of personal gains. And besides the King Philippe IV, there were plenty of royal suitors who would gladly take his role should he fall, his sons and nephews having enough ambition to plot his demise already.

Fortunately, King Philippe IV had a tight grasp on the royal succession and minimized its impact. After all, as a Grand Knight, he could easily live up to 150 years without losing too much of his physical prowess, and he had already announced that he would reign until his 100th year.

Still, numerous factions had formed. The [Central Golden Plains] were monitored by King Philippe IV himself, with Duke Fireheart and several households loyal to him. The North was owned by Count Starford, who was a well-known supporter of the Crown Prince. The East and West were composed of numerous factions supporting the 2nd, 3rd and 4th princes. As for the Southern Gate Region, it had been known to be relatively independant, focused on guarding the Kingdom.

Not too long ago, the Dalian Kingdom had invaded the Porfield Kingdom and turned the Southern Gate Region into a blood bath, causing the royal princes to avoid this region and shift their attention to other territories, dismissing the South as a land of fallen warriors.

Yet, the rise of the [Landragon Household] was no secret. Merchants coming from the Dalian Kingdom and the Greenhill Kingdom were overflowing in the land, with its capital Satbury having doubled its inhabitants.

Most would think that such a strong immigration would cause numerous problems to arise. However, there was no territory which could boast an equally excellent criminal rate. With the rise of the [Dragon Knight Order], monitored by the [Golden Demon], no bandits dared to come in the Landragon Fief.

As for underworld organizations, there were rumours that they had all been wiped out by the Viscount Frederick Landragon himself.

In the Landragon ancestral keep, a youth was looking at a letter with close interest. He was tall, unnaturally muscular and his eyes radiated a deep killing intent. Based on the world's standards, he could be considered quite good-looking, although he was uncomparable to his brother John.

Of course, this youth was Arthur Landragon, and after a year of managing the territory and focusing on his research, he had acquired a deep-rooted maturity that he previously lacked. Most would see the Viscount in him, although the latter would admit that he had been surpassed already.

Arthur was evaluating the effect of his policies.

[Landragon Territory - Viscount Fief

A 328-years-old Household founded by a Grand Knight, with a long history of producing knights. It has recently risen to power with Viscount Frederick Landragon, who accumulated a lot of merits in the war against the Dalian Kingdom 20 years ago, and his three heirs, who absolutely crushed the Lark Household by commanding the Elderwood Alliance Army.

Order: 88 / 100 [Criminals have been roughly eliminated from the territory, but there remain some thieves in rural areas. Criminal organization have all been thoroughly destroyed]

Size: 3 920 Square Kilometres

Inhabitants: 54 230 Subjects (Not counting the merchants)

Commerce: 2 830 Merchant Convoys have gone to Satbury in the past year

Military Power: Dragon Army (150 Elite Cavalry), Black Legion (300 Elite Heavy Infantry Soldiers), Satbury Guard (500 Average Soldiers, including 300 footsoldiers and 200 archers), Dragon Knight Order Trainees (100 Footsoldiers). Total: 1050 Soldiers. Number of Knights within the territory: 54.

Political Stability: 70 / 100 [There is no major political instability, although there is some friction between the Black Legion and the Dragon Knight Order

Wealth: 268 354 Gold Coins [A very big cash fortune that is the result of taxes and bandit subjugation mainly]

Yearly Income: 125 423 Gold Coins [5 423 from yearly residencial taxes, 6 200 Gold coins from passage rights, 26 320 Gold coins from merchant good taxes, 37 480 Gold Coins from the Medicine Hall, 20 000 Gold coins from the Knight Order Temple, 3 000 from the Landragon Tailor Shop, 3000 from the Landragon Blacksmith Shop, 24 000 from the Landragon Art Market]

Reputation Score: 8 956 Points]

Although Arthur was not the one to directly manage the territory, he had created several laws within the territory. These laws reduced merchant taxes, but instead of reducing the income, it actually far increased the attractivity of the territory and the flux of goods. As a result, the Landragon Household made an enormous amount of benefits from taxes alone.

Making it easy for immigrants to obtain a residency, his policies allowed the population within the Landragon fief to nearly double in a year. Naturally, many came from the Lark Territory, seeking a strong lord for protection and avoid a repetition of Everlasting City Fall. At the very least, Satbury was unlikely to fall.

The Dragon Knight Order, commanded by John, also made a significant amount of wealth through donations and completing escort requests. The wealth would then be used to develop the fief further. Any gold coin that was earned would be reinvested in the coming month for further development and more income. In a year, the bandit subjugation, the Elderwood Marriage with Lady Emma, and the numerous treaties actually allowed the treasury to reach an historical all-high with more than 500 000 gold coins.

However, rather than keeping them for dust to accumulate, Arthur invested 400 000 gold coins in four main businesses: a Blacksmith Shop, a Tailor Shop, the Medicine Hall where he learnt and taught basic alchemy to 120 employees, and the Landragon Market Infrastructures to further enhance the merchant attractivity of Satbury. Naturally, the rest of the wealth went into strengthening the military power of the city, including better equipment for the City Guard Order, the Dragon Knight Order infrastructure and naturally, Arthur's personal research.

Inside his room, ten dark-cloaked men were guarding him.

[Name - Frozen Warrior

HP - 100 / 100 | Mana - 80 / 80

Attributes:

Strength – 6 (+3) | Agility – 3 (+1) | Vitality – 8 (+2) | Magic Power - 8

Status - Healthy

Perk - Ice Monster [+3 Strength, +2 Vitality, +1 Agility], Frozen Skin [8 Defence against physical and magical attacks]

Skills - Beginner Swordsmanship (40), Horsemanship (26), Spear Mastery (10)...

Spell - Frozen Sword [Low-grade] (30)]

Knight Skills - Power Thrust (20)

Formation Skill - Turtle Defensive Formation]

Looking at his close guard, Arthur could not help but feel pride. Although he had had to host several tournaments and spend a considerable amount of gold coins to attract strong knights into the Landragon fief, he had managed to gather enough injured knights to experiment on and finish his Frozen Warrior Research. Although the research had cost him an incredible amount of magic crystals, Arthur was using the Landragon's treasury as his own, so he could afford the expenses.

The result was impressive.

Although the Frozen Warriors were not capable of autonomous behaviour, they could follow basic orders such as 'Guarding the master', or 'guarding the door'. They required neither sleep nor nutrition. They were the perfect bodyguards. And each one of them was equivalent to an intermediate knight in terms of fighting prowess. In fact, considering their spell [Frozen Sword], and their innate resistance, it would not be surprising for them to be able to best advanced rank knights.

Of course, when they worked together, and used the [Turtle Defensive Formation], even an army of knight would not be able to reach Arthur while he would cast spells. In a year, Arthur had cultivated daily and he was nearing the completion of a long-term mission.

[Rise of the Landragon Household - Optional Mission

Task - Increase the Landragon Territory Reputation to 10 000 Points within the Porfield Kingdom

Rewards - 20 000 EXP, 10 Skill Points, Military Blessing [All soldiers with loyalty above 80 towards the Landragon Household will receive a +5 increase in their main weapon mastery skill over the next month]]

Besides the EXP rewards, and the skill points rewards, the Military Blessing was something Arthur looked forward to. A +5 increase in swordsmanship was enough to make the difference between a veteran and an elite soldier after all.

'Only 1000 reputation points to go, huh', Arthur thought, 'Then, I might as well shock the whole kingdom'

The letter lying on his table was quite straightforward. It was a royal summon accusing him of murders. It seemed like someone had investigated Count Elderwood's sudden death, which was actually the result of his [Ice Curse] spell. Or perhaps it was related to the many tournaments he had hosted in order to gather knight-level corpses to create his Frozen Warriors.

Fortunately, the royal summon was not overly offensive. It was mostly a way for the King to reassure his subjects, and show off his power. But more importantly, the King wanted to support the rise of the Landragon Household. Becoming an ally of a rising household would surely solidify the King's position, as he would eventually gain control of the Southern Gate Region through the Landragon Household.

'I wonder about the kind of goods he will have prepared to convince me ...'