Chapter 22 No Choice

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Ulyan fell silent for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing and said, "You're overthinking. None of this has anything to do with me. I've never had any desire to become some damned noble."

"What?" Knight Romon looked up in astonishment.

"But do you know what the North Ice River is like now? A large number of orc clans are moving south. The raiding parties are swarming in like locusts. And what is the empire doing? Cutting military spending! Canceling the standing army! The garrison at Wind God Fort has been reduced to less than a thousand. With so few people, they can't even fill all the fighting positions on the city wall!"

"Perhaps Grand Duke Mitchell also knows the situation is urgent and has been constantly mobilizing troops from various countships. But those damned southerners don't care at all. They're just waiting for the orcs to invade on a large scale so they can attack from the south and get a share of the spoils!"

"There's no hope for the Northern Region. I can only lead my people south. This is the farthest I can go."

"My goal has never been to be some knight or noble lord. I just want to settle down my daughter and my people during my lifetime. So what if the fief is given to someone else? It's better than being massacred by the orcs."

Romon listened quietly to Ulyan's words and didn't say anything more.

Maybe others don't know, but he knows best. With Ulyan's ability and the wealth he's accumulated from ten years of service, he could have taken his daughter and left far away, gone to a small southern city to be a comfortable rich man for the rest of his life, and left a generous dowry for his daughter to marry into a good family.

But when it comes to taking hundreds or thousands of people with him, everything becomes uncertain. At least Romon doesn't dare to think about whether he has the guts and ability to do so.

Although Romon was born into a knight family in the town and doesn't have a good impression of the ignorant and numb rural commoners, he's not a stupid person after all and can somewhat understand Ulyan's thoughts.

By the freezing and inaccessible North Ice River, how far can kinship go?

People in the same village are more or less related. Some have fathers who are cousins, and some have grandfathers who are cousins.

Including the surrounding villages, there are always some relatives. If they come to you on their knees and beg, as an Imperial Sergeant, the head of a village, and even the de facto clan chief, can you have the heart to run away alone?

The people in the Northern Region value blood ties extremely. The Odalov family has maintained its thousand-year rule mainly because it is "the bloodline of the god of war Tyr's eldest son". As a result, for all the people in the Northern Region who are descendants of Tyr, for thousands of years, the only reason for rebellion can be that they don't accept the Odalov family, not to overthrow it.

Even Romon himself, if one day Isonpol is also difficult to defend, he won't be able to leave his people and run for his life alone.

After saying these words, Ulyan patted Romon on the shoulder and said, "What you're considering is whether this investment will pay off. What I'm considering is how to lead my people to survive. I have no choice."

Romon fell silent for a moment and said in a deep voice, "Captain, I understand. I'll do my best to persuade my father to agree."

The next day, led by Ulyan, Romon took a long tour around the settlement camp. Listening to Ulyan boast proudly about his great feat of "emanating an awe-inspiring aura that made the kobolds bow down instantly", and then carefully giving some suggestions from the locals, Romon finally boarded a fishing boat loaded with iron ores and headed downstream.

Regarding the price and items of the iron ore trade, a steward who specialized in this would communicate with Ulyan.

These iron ores from the Kobold Valley would be classified into three categories according to their quality, and could be exchanged for grain weighing from the same amount to twice as much.

Although the Husky Kobold Lisa would worry that the sly humans would be picky and would specifically send the top-grade iron ores to the River Bend Settlement Camp, the other dim-witted kobolds didn't have such concerns.

Driven by greed, some kobolds would even carry some rocks with little iron content to trade, just because these rocks were big and heavy enough. They hoped to exchange for more grain.

These rocks picked out and tossed aside by the villagers in charge of receiving were not completely useless. They were the best materials for building dams and house foundations.

And those selected high-quality iron ores would be transported to the blacksmith shop in Isonpol, where they would be crafted into farm tools, parts, and weapons, and then shipped back to River Bend Territory for further trading.

This trade was already very fair. The Northern Region was not really lacking in iron ore resources. What was truly lacking was productivity, miners, and transportation. The value of the iron ores themselves was only part of it, and the transportation cost of traveling back and forth for a hundred li by small fishing boats also accounted for a large share.

So before the more than thirty-li road in River Bend Territory was repaired, this trade was destined to be carried out on a small-time scale.

If it weren't for Ulyan's relationship with the Petukhov family, no one would be interested in such a small-time trade that was both risky and troublesome.

This time, Romon brought nearly a ton of wheat and a boatload of pioneering supplies such as iron farm tools, rivets, and saw blades.

Looking at the grain carts that were filled again, the villagers were all overjoyed and full of energy when working.

Ding! Due to the abundance of grain, the happiness level of your residents has increased!

The grain here was not the rye that tasted sour and was rough to swallow, but high-quality wheat that was abundant on the banks of the Anzerno River.

As for rye, the steward of the Petukhov family politely stated that rye accounted for a very small proportion of the grains planted in Isonpol. And generally, before it even headed (of grain), the stems and leaves would be harvested and used to feed donkeys and horses.

A ton of wheat might sound like a lot, but in fact, when distributed among three hundred people, no matter how much other grains were mixed in and how frugal they were, it would only be enough for about a week.

What was truly valuable were the ironware and steel swords that Romon brought. These were the most urgently needed and scarce supplies in the settlement camp.

Especially the steel swords presented by Romon were all military-grade, thick steel single-handed swords with the style of the Northern (Soviet) Region. Their value was more than ten times higher than those iron bar swords made by rural blacksmiths or worn-out steel swords that had changed hands a hundred times.

In the market of Isonpol, such a steel sword was worth a ton of wheat.

As Ulyan's top enforcer, Leo was the first to be allocated a steel sword, which greatly increased his favorability towards Knight Romon.

"If he's willing to take off that armor and give it to me, I'll support Uncle selling, no, marrying you to him."

Sitting on a large wooden barrel in the camp kitchen, Leo held the steel sword in his hand. He stretched out his finger and gently flicked the blade, feeling its weight and the tremors that quickly dissipated. He couldn't help but click his tongue in admiration.

The sharp blade and tip could easily slice through or pierce the fur of wild beasts and alien races.

The two deep blood grooves not only reduced the weight of the weapon but also adjusted the balance of the blade.

The thick and flexible sword spine could ensure that the blade was not easily deformed or broken.

Looking back at his beloved iron sword previously, it often bent because he stabbed too hard. He could only step on it to straighten it and then continue using it. Leo didn't even dare to strike with it forcefully.

Frequent strikes against hard objects like bones would cause the iron bar sword to deteriorate as fast as a candle melts.

If he had had such a steel sword back then and worn Romon Knight's lightweight armor, not to mention just a kobold leader, Leo would even have dared to challenge Ulyan!

"Humph, you're such a mess!" Olivia didn't want to talk to him and started counting the supplies on her own.

The kobold cubs hiding under her skirt seemed to be able to sense their "mother's" emotions. Immediately, several small kobold heads popped out. They bared their teeth at Leo and barked loudly, but then were scared back by Leo glaring at them.