Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Decisions of All Sides

After reviewing the battle reports and merit lists from the Western Front, Louis III took a breath of the early winter air, his brow furrowed with worry.

Round and round it went, and winter had come again.

Every winter the Beastmen marched south was the Kingdom’s most difficult time, plagued by scarce supplies and setbacks on the front lines.

The last time the Beastmen marched south, it had also been winter. The Beastman Empire had struck with a heavy fist, smashing right through the central front, and their cavalry had pushed deep into the Frankish Great Plains.

In the end, if the Human Alliance hadn’t reacted so swiftly, assembling tens of thousands of soldiers for an Extraordinary Army in just one month, the Frank Kingdom might have been wiped from the annals of history.

But that wasn’t what concerned Louis III.

In fact, the military situation this year was many times better than in previous years; it might even be the best year in the entire history of the Frank Kingdom.

In the past, the central front would have long since collapsed. The greatest purpose of the Siriel Defense Line was simply to ensure the army on that front could retreat safely. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

But now, not only had the central front not collapsed, but it had even launched some decent counterattacks. Barol City had only just begun to face a crisis.

If this trend continued, the central front might just hold out until next spring.

The only downside, it seemed, was the hero responsible for this achievement: the thorn in Louis III’s side, Grantham.

Grantham had once been just an ordinary Count among the Northern Nobles. But through his outstanding performance over the past thirty years, he had risen to a point where Louis III had no further promotions to grant him.

In a nation ruled by nobles, when a great house rises to prominence, it inevitably carves away a piece of the Royal Family’s flesh and blood.

His younger brother, Prince Samon, was a recent, glaring example.

Clearly, under Grantham’s influence, even some within the royal clan were growing restless.

Louis III wasn’t foolish enough to believe that his stupid brother could interfere with the Kingdom’s Standing Army on his own.

He wasn’t even dead yet, and already a crowd was eager to usurp his position. Louis III didn’t dare to imagine the chaos that would ensue after he was gone.

In Louis III’s eyes, Samon and the people behind him were fools who gave no thought to the Royal Family’s interests. ’If Samon actually takes the throne, what will he use to repay his debt to Grantham?’

Forget the future—even now, Grantham had no more titles left to be granted. His alliance with the Kingdom’s Northern Nobles already posed a fundamental threat to the Royal Family.

Most crucially, Grantham was a Legendary Knight with a lifespan of hundreds of years, and only a fraction of that time had passed.

Louis III rubbed the bridge of his nose, his thoughts turning again to his son’s letter.

Noah’s military talents were an unknown, but he had always shown a knack for politics, which was why the King valued him so highly.

The current situation was more or less as Noah had predicted, if not worse.

If Samon were allowed to establish a firm foothold on the central front, the Royal Family would lose its internal unity. If the Northern military-merit nobles then decided to get involved, there was no telling how things would unfold.

He had to help Prince Noah. He even had to quickly withdraw Samon’s unit of the Royal Standing Army.

His previous move to cede authority on the central front was now showing its effect. The Royal Family could withdraw the Standing Army to the heartland without reservation, and whether they were used to support the other two fronts or for another purpose was entirely up to Louis III.

And as the Northern Nobles poured in more resources, they became completely tied down to the central front.

This had its pros and cons. While the Royal Family appeared to have preserved its strength by withdrawing from the central front, it had, in reality, lost most of its control over the war.

The central front was also where the Kingdom’s nobility was most concentrated. Without the Royal Family’s suppressing presence there, the political capital the Northern Nobles could accumulate was unimaginable.

But Louis III had no other choice. If he were younger, he would undoubtedly have fought these treacherous subjects to the bitter end, employing any means necessary.

But he was old now. He didn’t even know how many years he would have left once this war was over.

His greatest task now was not to expand the Royal Family’s power, but to seek stability. He needed to preserve as much influence for the Royal Family as possible, create a political environment with a high margin for error for his son, and leave behind a respectable legacy for himself.

"Someone, summon Earl Byron," Louis III commanded. "Tell him I need to renegotiate Resolution 788 of the Frankish Noble Council."

To support Prince Noah’s ambitions, a single official document from him would not be enough.

Resolution 788 concerned the Southern Nobles’ request from several years prior to further deepen commercial cooperation with the Southern Kingdom.

Marquis Oscillate was the most powerful proponent behind this matter. The Marquis’s trade caravans traveled far and wide, and his power base was primarily in the south, making him a heavyweight of the southern faction. Of course, once a noble reached the rank of Marquis, it was difficult to say they belonged to any single faction.

The Southern Nobles had always wanted to import advanced military-industrial products from the Southern Kingdom, as most of the Frank Kingdom’s iron and coal mines were located in the north.

Once the borders were opened for trade, how could the small workshops of the north possibly compete with the Southern Kingdom?

Of course, that was a secondary concern. The main issue was that opening the borders would allow the Southern Nobles to further integrate themselves into the Southern Kingdom’s market.

Economically, the Frank Kingdom was a typical resource-based nation. Many Magic Crystal Ore mines and rare materials were in the hands of the Southern Nobles, and the country’s largest Demon Beast Mountain Range was also in the southeast.

Louis III had always kept the borders closed precisely because he wanted to foster domestic craftsmanship.

Therefore, opening the borders was something that neither Louis III nor the Northern Nobles wanted to see, which was why the matter was ultimately dropped.

But the situation was different now. At this rate, by the time the Human Alliance Army arrived, the Beastman horde would still have been unable to break Grantham’s line of defense.

By then, the prestige and political capital of the Northern Nobles would be staggering. If he didn’t use what prestige he had left to weaken them now, Noah would be left fumbling in the dark when he took the throne.

As for what to do if the Southern Nobles grew too powerful in the future, Louis could only trust in the wisdom of those who came after him.

After all, it wasn’t as if the borders had never been opened before. Everything depended on the domestic political situation, and he trusted that Noah’s future methods would not disappoint.

...

When the King’s decision spread, Marquis George was in his garden, with Earl Mike and Earl Harold trailing behind him.

"Marquis, have we gone too far this time?" Earl Harold said with a frown. "The King is already ordering the Kingdom’s Standing Army to withdraw to the interior for ’rest and reorganization.’ If this continues, I fear the pressure on the Marshal will be immense."

The King’s decision was a cause for joy for some and worry for others.

But the ones with the most to worry about were likely the northern, inland nobles like Harold.

Their lives were already difficult, and now the King was completely washing his hands of the central front. The price they would have to pay to fill that gap would be astronomical.

Crucially, they couldn’t afford to delay. Every time the Beastmen marched south, they, the northern inland nobles, were the first to suffer.

"There is nothing bad about this. It is a crisis, but it is also an opportunity, Harold. Do you understand? A golden opportunity," Marquis George said calmly, watering his flowers.

Marquis George had personally put considerable effort into the matter concerning Prince Samon.

He had pulled strings with both the Royal Family and Marshal Grantham.

Marquis George’s primary objective was to force the King’s faction out of the central front, and he had already arranged the next steps.

As for the Southern Nobles trading with the Southern Kingdom, Marquis George remained noncommittal.

Such a thing couldn’t be accomplished overnight. The Southern Kingdom had been swindled by them more than a few times in the past; the issue of rebuilding trust alone would be enough to keep those southern merchants anxious for a long while.

The benefits for the Southern Nobles were a distant prospect, but his own—Marquis George’s—were within arm’s reach.

As long as the central front held, the political capital he stood to gain was immeasurable.

Then, as soon as a major political upheaval occurred, that capital could be immediately cashed in.

And that so-called political upheaval was only a few years away...

Thinking of this, Marquis George couldn’t help but take a deep breath, a sense of grand ambition swelling in his chest.

In his opinion, his father’s generation had been far too conservative, allowing Louis III to press them at every turn. In the end, the King not only reclaimed everything the Royal Family had lost but even took several large bites out of the Northern Nobles.

But none of that mattered. The Frank Kingdom would soon return to the way it was before—to the era when the great nobles reigned supreme.