Chapter 240: Post-Leopold Era
The Kingdom of Layton in winter is almost the harshest living area in the world. The cold wind, mixed with snow and ice, almost never stops. People walking in it, if there is no suitable reference to guide the way, will soon lose their way, freeze to death in despair and helplessness, and become a corpse that may not be discovered until the snow melts in spring.
But for the Thracian army, getting lost was not a problem, nor was the wind and snow, nor was the cold.
They have guides, magic to point the way, tools to keep out the cold, and plenty of provisions.
Losing the "Iron Prime Minister" who had been brilliant in this war and used magic-like scheduling methods, caused some trouble for the Thracian army. But those troubles were offset by ample cold protection, and at least from the perspective of this war, they were going well.
"Despite some resistance, our army is still marching forward according to the established route!" A staff member reported, "According to the current trend, we will be able to reach Leyton City in five days at most."
Richard Thrace sat in a soft chair upholstered with snow bear hides, his expression gloomy.
"I remember when the strategy was formulated, it was estimated that the city of Leyton would be attacked in seven days." He said, "It has been five days now."
The staff choked for a moment. He had also participated in the original military conference, so he naturally knew the original plan.
At that time, it seemed that the plan was nothing special, as long as it was done step by step. And now, they are indeed acting according to this plan... but for some reason, the efficiency of the action is just a beat slower.
The staff discussed it privately many times, but they still didn't understand what the problem was.
Regrettably, Leopold Otto, who made that plan in the first place, is dead, at the hands of the traitor James Edward.
When they got the news, they couldn't believe their ears - that Leopold was dead? Died in a mere knight's house? What a joke!
Everyone knows Leopold's methods. Don't say that James is just a mere knight, even if he is a powerful count, he can't kill him!
But Leopold was dead, for sure.
The Patrol Division arrived at Edward's house almost immediately. They braved the high temperature to open the living room that was burnt to rubble and found his remains.
Because it was so destroyed, there was no possibility of resurrection.
More importantly, in that living room, there was only his corpse.
This means that Leopold was not only dead, but probably killed and then cremated.
His Majesty who got the news was silent for a while, then sneered a few times and said, "We all underestimated James and the Edward family!"
Then, he issued an order to completely destroy the Edward family.
The staff, of course, understood why: looking at everything that happened that morning, it was clear that the Edwards not only had the strength to kill Leopold, but also the means to summon dragons (though they had no control over what was being summoned). Dragons), they even have a group of powerful dead men, and powerful magicians who can provide ultra-long-range teleportation.
All of this is slowly developed and completed without everyone noticing it.
This kind of ability, this kind of background, simply makes people shudder!
In fact, it is not a good choice to destroy the Edward family, but to subdue them. But no king can tolerate such a guy who secretly developed a huge power under his own nose, no!
Previously, many people thought that James Edward was able to make such a large amount of money, just pure luck. Now they understand that this is not luck, but heritage, a reflection of the deep heritage of the Edward family.
It's just that James' frivolity and greed prevented this heritage from being able to play its greatest role.
This is the misfortune of the Edward family, but the luck of His Majesty Richard.
The staff all understood that with the exposure and destruction of the Edward family, His Majesty was also deeply relieved at the same time of anger and fear.
In any case, the Edward family is over, and he doesn't have to worry about dying under the assassin's knife when he goes on patrol or hunting someday.
Even if Jaime would try to get revenge, it would be better than knowing nothing.
Anyway, there are many people who want to kill His Majesty Richard, and they don't care about one more.
However, His Majesty's mood did not improve because of this, but became increasingly violent.
Since Leopold's death, it seems that all kinds of things have gradually become unsatisfactory. This was the case with the attack on the Kingdom of Leyton, and it was also true when dividing the sphere of influence of the occupation area with the great nobles.
It was clear that they had already negotiated their respective incomes before, but the big nobles tried their best to take up a little more for reasons such as "greater losses".
The loss of their army is indeed greater than the loss of the king's army, but that is because they are reluctant to invest in armament, who is to blame?
As long as the army under the king's command is a soldier, everyone has magical props to protect against the cold. This alone is beyond the reach of those big nobles.
With such an investment, the loss will of course be relatively small.
However, in the face of the great nobles who have spoken out, His Majesty the King has no choice but to make concessions.
"If only Sir Leopold were here!" he often sighed.
Of course the staff knew what he meant—if Leopold was still there, he would definitely be able to divide the alliance between the great nobles and turn them from being monolithic to fighting each other. Don't say it's a concession at that time, it's almost the same as taking more benefits!
But... Leopold was gone.
No one said this, even when His Majesty mentioned certain topics, they would deliberately avoid the name.
There is no fool who can be King Richard's staff. When I mentioned Leopold's name at this time, I was making trouble for myself! Didn't you see that His Majesty was getting more and more angry?
If it had been in the past, he would never have issued that murderous order--even if he really meant it, he would have been preempted by Leopold, who then devised a more appropriate action plan.
That kind of plan, no one would have thought of it, was the same as his usual plan.
Since Leopold's death, many people have wanted to take his job and take his place as prime minister of the kingdom.
But now, there are fewer and fewer people who think this way.
Being repeatedly hit by the cruel reality, the staff deeply realized the gap between mortals and geniuses, and never dared to make such delusions.
Even the chief of staff is the same.
"It's ridiculous that I even thought about fighting him back then, and even thought he was nothing more than that..." Walking out of the camp, looking at the heavy snow in the night sky, the head of the king's staff sighed softly, "Okay. After all... this war is almost over. No matter how many accidents, the result of Layton's defeat will never change."
"When this war is over, I will take advantage of the victorious battle. Your Majesty is in a good mood and will return home. I am also a baron, and I have a good territory... My daughter is not too young, so I will go back this time. I just happened to find a suitable husband for her, and I can see my grandson in a few years..."
"Whoever wants to sit for the seat left by Leopold, let's fight for it. In short...it has nothing to do with me!"