Chapter 321: Prelude to the Northern and Southern Wars

Time in Aretuza passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed.

During this period, except for occasionally sneaking off to have fun with the very well-endowed Headmistress Margarita behind Triss's back, most of Wayne's time was spent learning magic and secretly copying magic books in the library.

With that layer of intimate relationship with Margarita, almost all the books in the library opened their permissions to Wayne. Except for those strictly forbidden books, he could read any books he wanted at will, and there was no one to supervise.

The agreement with the witch Ranni was also considered half completed.

Of course, Master Wayne was not the kind of person who liked to take advantage for free. Having taken such a big advantage, it was only appropriate to pay something.

After in-depth communication with the current headmistress, Ms. Margarita, and with the support of this headmistress, the Wayne Chamber of Commerce would replace the supplier who had previously provided materials to the academy and establish a chamber of commerce stronghold in the Bridge Town near Aretuza.

Not only would it provide certain escort services for the female students in the academy, but it would also supply more goods from all over the world to the academy.

To show his sincerity, the prices given by the chamber of commerce to the academy were all discounted, not only with guaranteed quality but also with a much more comprehensive variety of goods than in the past.

Of course, this was a win-win policy. Not only did the chamber of commerce pay, but the academy would also give a lot of support to the Wayne Chamber of Commerce.

One of the most important points was that the female students in the academy would be hired by the chamber of commerce to use the knowledge they learned in school to provide magic services for the Wayne Chamber of Commerce.

Although the abilities of these students were limited, not everyone could become an elite sorceress like Triss or Yennefer.

But as magic apprentices with spellcasting abilities, they could still do things that ordinary people could not do.

For example, magic divination, magic communication, spirit channeling rituals, magic rituals, and even teleportation, they could use to a limited extent.

In such a barbaric and backward Middle Ages, even a magic apprentice could play a quite important role in special places, worthy of the chamber of commerce's courting.

Moreover, after these sorceress apprentices graduated, not every sorceress could become a royal advisor, and most of them still had to engage in other work.

If they could build a good relationship with them during their apprenticeship, in the future, after they graduated, these people could also be more easily used by the Wayne Chamber of Commerce.

This was a business that was sure to make a profit without losing money.

During this past month, Wayne lived quite a leisurely life, almost turning a deaf ear to everything outside his window and focusing solely on his studies.

However, the entire Northern Kingdoms had their attention attracted because of an unexpected war.

A month ago, the defeat of Count Kaen led to half of the Kingdom of Kaedwen falling into the hands of King Demavend of Aedirn, which was something other northern kings could have expected.

However, only half a month later, just when Demavend was triumphantly looting spoils of war in the southern part of the Kingdom of Kaedwen and dealing with the chaos after the war, a powerful army in black suddenly crossed the Pontar River, defeated the garrison of several cities of the Kingdom of Aedirn like a hot knife through butter, defeated several big nobles, and occupied those cities.

The speed was so fast that almost everyone could not react.

By the time Demavend got the news, almost one-third of Aedirn's territory had fallen into the hands of this army, and the entire Aedirn had fallen into chaos. And what shocked Demavend and other northern kings even more was that the number of this army far exceeded their imagination.

Just like the Aedirn army's expedition to Kaedwen this time, the war between the two big countries was already considered the largest war in the North in recent years.

However, the number of troops on both sides was just barely over ten thousand, and almost half of the warriors were farmers temporarily pulled up, and there were only a few thousand real elite soldiers.

The grain and grass consumed during the war were unimaginable for ordinary farmers. This scale of army was the norm in the Middle Ages. After all, in this world, after most farmers paid taxes, it was difficult to support themselves, let alone support a large number of soldiers.

Except for those noble masters who could afford a batch of non-productive soldiers and knights, probably only some rich merchants could keep some guards as a guarantee.

Even those kings found it difficult to pull up an army of over a thousand people in a short time, and they had to go through a mobilization of half a month or even a month to do so.

However, this batch of troops that crossed the river from the south not only possessed excellent weapons and equipment, but the number of soldiers also exceeded most people's imagination.

Just from the news reported by the scouts, the soldiers of this army were over 40,000, far exceeding the total number of soldiers of the Kingdom of Aedirn at this time, and it exceeded by more than double, almost considered a numerical crushing.

Even if King Demavend did not need to reorganize the soldiers and could immediately depart from the Kingdom of Kaedwen and return to the Kingdom of Aedirn, with the gap in their strength, it was fundamentally impossible to defeat this southern army and take back his territory.

For a time, King Demavend's excitement vanished, and he was even directly dumbfounded.

He couldn't figure out why this suddenly appearing army would attack Aedirn, and because the matter happened suddenly, he still hadn't figured out which country this army belonged to and what force it belonged to. He only heard that it came from the south, but was not sure which kingdom in the south it belonged to.

Because of territorial disputes in the Northern Kingdoms, although there were constant wars and various disputes, most of them were small troubles and could not be on the table.

Moreover, these kings were mostly short-sighted, always keeping their eyes on their own one-third of an acre, at most paying attention to other surrounding countries. They knew very little about the intelligence of the southern kingdoms and basically did not pay attention to them.

So this time, it was not just King Demavend who was dumbfounded. Except for a few kings who had trade relations with the southern kingdoms, most of the rulers in the North were dumbfounded and fundamentally couldn't figure out the origin of this army, and could only immediately send out a large number of scouts and use all their relationships to investigate the origin of this army.

However, Master Wayne, who was far away on the Isle of Thanedd, was not among these people.

As early as a few years ago, just like the elven sorceress Francesca, he began to lay out in the southern kingdoms, laid out many trade routes, and buried many intelligence personnel. Although it could not be said that he could reach the sky, they could still investigate some major events that happened in the southern kingdoms.

Originally, according to the estimation of the two, the Northern and Southern Wars should take a few years to break out, so they did not focus their center of gravity on this.

However, what Wayne did not expect was that for some reason, the Usurper, who had not made full preparations, suddenly mobilized the army a month ago and opened the prelude to the Northern and Southern Wars.

And this southern emperor, who rebelled as an officer and successfully sat firmly on the throne, was indeed quite shrewd.

He successfully used King Demavend's expedition this time, taking advantage of the fact that the opponent's army was out and the country was empty, and achieved quite huge results without spending much effort.

This was a good start for the Northern and Southern Wars.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 322 =====