Chapter 164: Blockade
"We can't just sit here and wait to die, so I want to request the Bishop's help to break open their southern blockade," said Knight Wolf.
The long wall built by the southern nobles wasn't very tall, only slightly higher than the walls of York Town, and its construction wasn't very refined.
However, those nobles had enlisted magicians to extract all the earth vein energy from the lands outside the wall, which belonged to them, and further polluted the land with various poisons.
They had used purely manual methods to turn the surrounding area into a deadly zone.
Wolf felt that these actions were not limited to just those southern nobles—perhaps even the nobles from the main city further south were involved.
So he felt some urgency.
After losing the Rat Path that previously provided fragmented news suggesting the Lord was still alive, he was desperate to establish contact with the Lord.
And it wasn’t merely for commercial trade routes.
To achieve that, at the very least, they would need to blast open the poisoned land. Digging through it by manpower alone would likely cost thousands of lives.
"Calm yourself, Knight Wolf," said Bishop Corleon. "Do not worry about the Lord. When the time is right, the Lord will return on His own."
At present, Corleon had been receiving fewer and fewer reports from the south. The range covered by that Giant Golden-Edged, Red-Background Dragon Flag continued to expand.
Even during his conversation with Gluttony, although the other party hurled insults and disdain, Corleon could still hear the fear within his voice.
Clearly, the Lord and that magician were beings even more mysterious than Gluttony.
Thus, Corleon speculated that the Dragon Flag represented the Lord.
And this continuously expanding area of concealment clearly wasn't a sign of encountering danger.
Combining that with the intelligence previously delivered by the Rat Path—fragments of news pieced together about the southern nobles—Corleon believed that the Lord had already established a foothold in the south and was gradually encroaching upon the territory of the Patlin Family.
It was something Corleon could perceive and speculate, but Knight Wolf was unaware.
So Corleon continued, "If you wish to break through to the south, what you will face is the Coalition of Nobles, challenging the noble power of half the Principality of Patlin with the strength of York Territory."
"You cannot cut through these noble coalitions to rendezvous with the Lord. Worse yet, if you exhaust the warriors we’ve gathered over the past six months, those noble coalitions will once again step into York Territory."
"The Rat Path has merely left York Territory; it's not that messages from York Territory cannot be obtained."
"And there's also Viscount Youn. He won’t be kind enough to help us conceal the power of the Hunting Fang."
"What makes Mysteries and Holy Relics terrifying is the unknown."
Once the power of a Holy Relic is understood, it becomes easier to counter. For instance, while the Hunting Fang can only be matched with another Holy Relic, as for the Slumbering Horn, once auditory perception is blocked, one is essentially immune to the horn’s power.
Moreover, they were capable of forming knight orders with over a hundred members. When these knights gathered, they could tear through Mysteries with overwhelming force.
There were also those magicians, who were seasoned manipulators of Mystery.
"You are an experienced knight. You should understand this," Corleon concluded.
Wolf closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, then sat on the third bench to the right.
"You are right. I lost my rationality due to anger and urgency," said Wolf. "But we still cannot just wait to die."
"A prolonged blockade will lead this land to its death."
It was said the land would die from the blockade, but in reality, it was because the earth veins had been severed and eroded, causing the land to lose vitality. Like the land of the Church Nation, it would eventually desertify completely and become unfit for crop cultivation.
Those magicians extracted earth vein energy and scattered poison to gradually corrode the earth veins of York Territory.
Land, aside from Mysteries and Holy Relics, was the nobles’ most treasured asset. But when their rule was threatened, they didn’t hesitate to destroy even the land itself.
Neither of them brought up inviting magicians to resist.
If scholars still adhered to some form of order, magicians were pure chaos.
All they cared about was pursuing higher magic.
Corleon knew through Revelation that those southern nobles had explicitly told the magicians they could test methods to kill the earth veins, even extract the magic from them, and they had provided the resources—thus securing the magicians’ aid.
York Territory would never allow magicians to run wild. Even Oscar had gradually grown tired of teaching magical studies and instead turned to researching newly developed mechanical disciplines.
After all, if studying magic didn’t involve extracting earth veins, manipulating Mystery, or conducting blood sacrifices with hundreds of people to refine magic crystals, how could one truly learn magic?
Calling the act of conjuring a few fireballs to light firewood or boil water "magic" was laughable.
That’s also why, in the past half year, not a single magician had visited York Territory.
Corleon did not respond further but said, "In a few days, Baron Belair will visit. Let Administrator Piero and the three barons receive him."
"What is he coming for?" Wolf frowned. "Is it because of the werewolves?"
Before the Rat Path’s departure, Wolf had learned through it that Baron Belair had officially gone to war with the werewolves.
"Not just the werewolves," said Corleon. "York Territory can still be self-sufficient for a time, but Baron Belair's lands can’t even conduct normal farming. And with werewolves, those natural hunters, around, they can’t even rely on hunting or livestock for food."
"Trade with Baron Belair?" Wolf shook his head as he spoke. "They have nothing York Territory needs."
Compared to the besieged York Territory, Baron Belair's domain, which bordered and was plagued by the Wolf Catastrophe, was even more miserable. Thus, Wolf had never considered launching an attack northward.
Beyond Baron Belair's territory lay the Nation of Werewolves.
Given the nature of those werewolves, perhaps only the blood-soaked lands, made more fertile by slaughter, held any value.
Beyond the Nation of Werewolves was the Theocracy, whose stance remained unclear. The Theocracy now acted like a rabid dog, attacking anyone in sight. Wolf wasn’t sure whether the Church of the Sanctuary, which shared the same Faith, could remain friendly toward them.
Further south beyond the Theocracy lay the Principality of Corlay, ravaged by Dark Creatures and Fishmen.
Of course, the Principality of Corlay now existed in name only. The Corlay Family clung to a territory the size of a marquisate near the Northern Kingdom’s border, under siege from the Theocracy, Dark Creatures, and Fishmen on three fronts.
If not for the Corlay Family's decline, the breakdown of fragile cooperation between the Fishmen and Dark Creatures, and the Theocracy’s rabid behavior of attacking everyone, the Corlay Family would have already perished.
Compared to moving north then east through lands already devastated multiple times, heading south was far more worthwhile.
"It’s not trade. We are going to help him," said Corleon.
"Help?" Wolf repeated, confirming that he had heard "help" and not "conquer."
"Yes, help. More precisely, the Church will help him," Corleon reaffirmed, as though confirming Wolf's unspoken thoughts.
"He is, after all, human and shelters nearly ten thousand humans. That is an act of mercy. And those werewolves are ultimately Dark Creatures," Corleon continued. "So we must help him."
"Of course, the aid comes only from the Church’s power."
"Please convey this decision of mine to Administrator Piero. He’ll know what to do."
Was there still a difference between the Church's power and the power of York Territory now?
Wolf shook his head but said nothing more. He stood and went to the newly constructed Hospital.
Even if his body had temporarily recovered and wasn’t undergoing Mystery Assimilation, Wolf had grown somewhat estranged from his family. Rather than being feared by his kin at the family manor, it was better to remain at the Church’s Hospital.
This Hospital, meticulously built by Cicero, was far more comfortable than the manor.
Had it not been for the southern nobles sealing off York Territory with the long wall, and the critical news about the Rat Path's departure, he wouldn’t have made the trip to York Town.
As for the Bishop’s orders, naturally, he would have a squire deliver the message.