Chapter 79 - Meeting neighbors

[2 AR October 6]

During the month, the Esnor family constantly had a holiday, so each family member wanted to spend more time with little Alexander. Ivo was only glad of this, because he still has too little time due to his duties, but he still tries to spend as much time as possible with his son.

Now the baby sleeps most of his time, but this does not prevent his relatives from enjoying the presence of Alexander, even Vesta fell in love with her nephew.

Ivo was now at the council, where trivial matters regarding the Empire were discussed, a little distracted, he remembered the status of his son.

[Status]

Name: Alexander Esnor

House: Esnor

Age: 0

Race: Human (85%); Lesser Junior Titan (15%)

Strength: 4

Dexterity: 4

Stamina: 5

Magic Affinity: 10

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 2

Alexander inherited excellent genes since he already had purer blood and high magic affinity from birth, but since his blood was still not activated, he did not have regeneration, although he was still stronger than ordinary children.

However, Ivo's thoughts and conversations in the council were interrupted by a knock on the door. All the members of the council looked at each other, and then Ivo said "Come in."

The wooden door creaked open and a legionnaire entered the room, he put his fist to his chest, showing his respect, and then said "Tsar, scouts from the southern borders reported that an army of Latins began to gather around the valley 3 days ago"

All the councilors frowned, earlier, when there was a tribal system in the valley, at this time of year, barbarians used to go on raids, attacking and devastating various kingdoms. Therefore, the Latins prepared their troops to resist these raids. The exception was last year when the southern kingdoms gathered a large army and attacked the barbarians.

Kato said "We have enough food and essentials, so there is no point in raiding Latins, and we still need time for the valley to function properly under the Empire."

Ivo nodded in agreement and replied, "This is true, we should try to establish contacts with them, but it will be difficult. There is a certain tension between our peoples, in addition to this, we should not forget that they will not like the fact that they have a more serious threat at their side than scattered tribes "

Agatha suddenly said "I recently read a book about your stay in the Republic, in the book you wrote that although the republic is more advanced than the tribes in certain criteria, we still have some things that they do not have, such as good iron or glass. Maybe we should try to connect with these things? "

One of the tribunes said, "Indeed, we can try, but we cannot use iron for trading. Our legions are equipped with iron equipment, the Latins will definitely notice this, and if we start trading iron with them, they will clearly suspect that we have a way of producing good iron in large quantities. As former hunters, we must understand that a hungry animal is doubly dangerous "

Ivo also said, "You are right, although iron is more readily available in the republic, bronze weapons prevail in the kingdoms. They will definitely covet our iron. Instead of iron, we can try glass, salt, sugar and paper. "

Ceres said "Does the republic have a sugar deficit? And you're not worried that they might find out the recipe for the paper? "

Ivo replied "As far as I know, they buy cane sugar from other countries, they most likely have never seen beet sugar. As for paper, I'm not particularly worried, they are unlikely to be able to learn the process of making paper. And even if they are lucky and find out about it, I don't think it will hurt us much "

Kato said "While we can trade with them, we will also need to show that we have the power to fight them back, without power we cannot dialogue with them."

Ivo nodded in agreement and then said, "It's settled then. I will go to the Foal Citadel to take the first legion and lead him to the border, you Kato organize the second legion. Take some wagons with goods and head to the southern borders as well. "

Ivo said, "With that, I declare this meeting closed."

After these words, all members of the council got up from their chairs and left the leader's hall, leaving only Ivo and Ceres in the room.

Ceres sighed and then said "Be careful."

Ivo hugged Ceres "Don't worry, I will try to solve all the problems as soon as possible to get back to you"

An hour later, Ivo said goodbye to his wife and son, left the settlement and headed towards the citadel. Although horses are not yet common in the Empire, Ivo still obliged all scouts to use horses, since the information has a tendency to become outdated.

Therefore, in order not to waste extra time, Ivo also used a horse. By the way, Ivo also ordered that all riders have a stirrup since this device is much easier to handle with a horse.

[2 AR October 13]

A few days later, Ivo, along with his legion, finally arrived at the southern borders of the Empire. Earlier in these places, there were often various barbarians who hunted and were engaged in gathering. But after the founding of the Empire, these places were abandoned and nature returned to its pristine appearance.

When the legion arrived at this place, the scouts had already noticed them, so they arrived at Ivo and are now reporting on the current location of the enemies and their number.

The scout said "We found that the Latins had set up two camps. Each camp has about 5,000 warriors. In addition, it can be said that there are different sides in these camps, as these warriors wear different colors and flags. "

Ivo said "Most likely these two camps represent two alliances between different kingdoms. This can be used to our advantage "

Then after a little thought, Ivo said "We will set up our camp here, send some people to their camps and invite their representatives to negotiate."

The scout put his fist to his heart, and then left Ivo and went to carry out the order entrusted to him. When the scout had left, Ivo turned to his officers, "Order the legionnaires to prepare for the arrival of the envoys. Also, while we are trying to arrange peace talks, do not forget that they may decide to attack us, so do not let the legionnaires relax. "

The officers also saluted respectfully and went off to do what was required of them.

[2 AR October 14]

In the first camp of the Latins, as in the second, everything was calm now. The warriors communicated with each other, and their commanders had fun in anticipation of the upcoming battle.

Basically, all the commanders were aristocratic children who rushed to the battlefield to gain some merit in their kingdoms. While the Barbarians are content to be strong, the kingdoms did not want to lose their precious troops for war without profit.

Therefore, usually aristocratic children without inheritance, who in the future will not have any titles, were sent to the war with the barbarians. Or heirs who should receive some merit for prestige.

After all, many young men want to be glorified as a murderer of barbarians, a brave warrior, a genius commander, protector of the kingdom, etc.

However, the aristocrats were not stupid, they understand that if you send children to have fun, they can die stupidly and lose soldiers, therefore, experienced veterans were often appointed at the head of these gatherings to monitor all the actions of these children.

But the quiet existence of these people was interrupted by the loud shout of the guards "Someone is approaching the camp."

Hearing this cry, the warriors reluctantly tore themselves away from booze and other pleasures and then began to leisurely prepare their weapons. Meanwhile, a man in armor came running out of the largest tent. Wrinkles and gray hair were visible on his face, which speaks of his extensive life experience.

He hurriedly approached the outskirts of the camp and then began to peer into the distance, where clouds of dust from the running horses could be seen.

Within minutes, this dust turned into silhouettes of horses and people. Unfortunately, the Latins still couldn't see their guests, so they had to wait a few more minutes.

Finally, the scouts approached the right distance so that they could be seen and heard. One of the scouts waved his hand and stopped his horse, and his subordinates did the same.

The old warrior began to examine these guests apprehensively. He saw that these warriors carried with them a scabbard, a bow, and a quiver of arrows with black feathers, but this was not all that attracted his attention. The most notable is the clothing of these guests.

They wore cloth clothing that completely covered their body, leaving only their neck and head exposed, even with leather gloves on their hands. All of their clothes are dyed dark. Over this cloth, the garment is a chain mail made of many iron rings.

The old man knew that even in large kingdoms, iron is a very rare thing and only states such as the Republic can afford to arm their people with chain mail and iron weapons.

In addition, carefully examining their weapons, the old man saw with his own vision that all the weapons were engraved with two-headed Raven. Remembering all sorts of families and countries, he never found similar coats of arms.