If everything in the world is to be maintained for a long time, there must be a certain degree of order and regularity.
The quantitative balance between predators and prey, and the relationship between high and low in the food chain are among these. The organisms at the top of the food chain tend not to have too many individuals, because if their numbers get too large, the entire ecosystem will collapse.
There seems to be something on the earth that maintains the balance of everything, allowing everything to exist perfectly and lastingly.
Translated to human society, order is something that people crave instinctively.
Regardless of language, culture or region, the stories people yearn for are often inseparable from struggle and battle. If you look closely, the most widely spread and popular epic stories of many ethnic groups are actually very similar, and they are inseparable from the main theme of revenge or the larger-scale restoration of a conquered prince.
People yearn for stories about passionate heroes who go around the world single-handedly and enjoy revenge.
But except for the northern region, which is still non-mainstream, there are few stories about what kind of characters these heroes became after they resisted the brutal royal power and ascended the throne.
A sword alone cannot bring about a happy and prosperous age.
Drawing a sword to kill and raising an army to resist is, at best, just the beginning. The person who can heal the trauma and chaos created by these wars with order and create peace so that the people can live and work in peace and contentment is the virtuous king that a country truly desires.
Heroes who fought bloody battles and founding fathers may not necessarily become good kings.
Throughout the entire Rigal world, there have been few people with such qualifications for thousands of years.
In most countries, order is also used as a weapon. We can say it bluntly.
They are all.
Screwed up.
The heels of the hard-soled cowhide boots made a crisp "duoduo" sound when they stepped on the green granite floor. The servants stood on both sides of the corridor with their heads lowered, not daring to raise their eyes. Without visual inspection, they could sense the faint anger of the superior from the hurried footsteps of this group of people.
The relationship between order and chaos is not absolute opposition.
As representatives of the country in maintaining order, the strict hierarchy and various institutions should have existed to maintain the smooth and effective operation of the entire country.
But just as the movable structure of armor will produce dirt over time, if it is not cleaned, its activities will be affected.
Once order begins to change, the relationship with chaos becomes infinitely closer.
"Tap tap tap -" "Tear off -" The leader of the Macnisto Dragon Wings pulled off the wool cloak for going out with a cold face, and then threw it directly on the shelf nearby.
"Captain, calm down." Adjutant Sig tried hard to persuade others, but his own expression did not get much better.
"It's been more than twenty years, Sig, it's been more than twenty years." The head of the regiment muttered like this and kept pacing back and forth anxiously. All the dignitaries under his command stood in silence in the reception room.
"We have been at peace for more than twenty years just to support these losers!" Mainister, who was in a high position and in his forties, was usually gentle and gentle, but when he was angry in front of his own people, he finally couldn't help but explode.
Suomir has a long history and a sparse population. In order to fight against the powerful Laman Empire and the ethnic minorities in the Eastern Highlands, martial arts have been practiced among the people since ancient times. The royal family and nobles also strongly supported this, in order to reverse the numerical balance with one against five with combat power.
What was born from this was the concept of professional soldiers, and on top of this, there were various gentry classes and military attache classes.
They have been supported by various taxes for a long time, just so that one day they can defend their country and make sacrifices for the land and royal power——
Then the problem arises.
What would happen if the country was at peace for a long time and these military attachés were no longer needed?
Decreased combat effectiveness, decreased awareness of vigilance, and relaxation are only one aspect.
Another item that sounds very cold but is indisputable is the increase in population.
The Suomir people will get married and have children at the age of seventeen or eighteen, and the nobles will get married even earlier. In addition, because great nobles usually take concubines, it is common to have multiple heirs. The children of many Suomir nobles who are the same age and generation as the queen are now in their late twenties, and many of their grandchildren are already eleven or twelve years old.
Children of nobles are born into noble families. Peace without war eliminates the biggest factor in the death of the aristocratic class. The population of this class has shown explosive growth in more than twenty years.
The fief can only be inherited by the eldest son, and daughters can still marry off. But those second sons, who can start at least three or four, and their equally numerous children, cannot always stay in the territory and rely on the people on the land who are increasingly under pressure to support their luxurious life.
It's natural and reasonable. In the past twenty years, along with the population of the aristocratic class, Suomir's bureaucracy has also experienced explosive growth.
Running errands was out of the question, that was the job of servants. Every young man in the pampered Suomir noble family wants to be a leader. In order to accommodate them, various prestigious leadership positions were created.
Everyone must show their leadership dignity and have a clear view of something. It is not to supervise the implementation, but to show one's identity and status and to show off. In this kind of place where the management class is the most bloated, a small department only has one errand worker with civilian background, and the rest are thirty or forty aristocratic bosses sitting drinking tea and waiting for him to report.
Overextended managers severely reduced execution in all aspects. People who do practical things get the lowest salary, run errands until they die, and often get beaten up because they offend their aristocratic superiors with their words, attitude, or even clothing.
No one would want to work in such an organization unless they had no other choice. This trend has been going on for a long time, and the organizations established by various royal families have become more and more formal. Just showing off face without doing practical things is completely unworthy of the salary consumed every year.
Just oppressing civilians isn't the worst. Nobles like to go through the back door and gather with relatives and friends. Therefore, over time, many local departments will be occupied by noble children of an entire family.
The other department is occupied by nobles from other territories.
They brought various struggles between nobles into their work. If the instructions issued by the royal family involve departments controlled by two feuding families, they will interfere with each other to prevent the other party from feeling better. And things will naturally be delayed again and again.
This is the reason for the anger of the Grand Captain of Manisto Longyi.
Her Majesty is missing.
Although His Majesty hid it from the Prime Minister when he traveled, the Prime Minister took the time to make amends and quickly sent the letter. Notified the Dragon Wing Knights garrison and local nobles along the way, asking to pay close attention and provide defense.
There shouldn't be any problem with this. Through Suomir's white-feathered raven with excellent flying speed and abundant physical strength, he can send messages at fixed points within a few hours. His Majesty's whereabouts should always be under control.
But here's the thing.
Except for the parts directly controlled by the royal family and the knights.
Suomir's communications department, a place that holds important information and is listed in the logistics category, is naturally crowded with nobles of all sizes.
For the first time in his life - I would definitely be lying if I said this - the Grand Commander of the Dragon Wings, Weimar Macnisto, desperately wanted a war in his country. Send all these damn idiots with fat butts from sitting in chairs to the front lines and clear the house.
Three days.
The investigation revealed that Her Majesty the Queen's whereabouts were unknown for three full days.
That's not the most annoying part.
What made Mainisto almost draw his sword and kill the man to the ground was because of their false intelligence.
The entire area there is under the control of a certain Duke, so within the entire force, the descendants of the nobles and nobles in the Dukedom hold important positions.
And when Her Majesty the Queen did not appear in their territory at the estimated time, the little aristocrats in the management were worried about being blamed by the superiors, so they falsely reported the news and submitted it with "no exception".
Afterwards, when the Duke's second son, the controller of the information department in the entire territory, discovered this matter, a whole day had passed. And what kind of boss has what kind of subordinates? As expected, his approach is to continue to cover up.
The entire territory fabricated lies and falsely reported intelligence, making the higher-ups think that the Queen had passed through their territory safely.
When it was expected to be the time to arrive at the next territory, Mainisto and others were waiting for only a red letter saying "Your Majesty has not arrived yet, please come quickly!", and the whole thing was exposed.
Because the entire territory had falsified and covered up the facts, they had no idea where His Majesty had disappeared during the three-day journey.
Due to the confusion of false information and the time spent on the road, it took them two full days. Finally, under the intimidating power of the Dragon Wing Knight, someone finally spoke out of fear.
But perhaps knowing that Mainisto was here to investigate, the Duke's second son directly brought out his father and the knights from the entire Dukedom, fully armed when he met with the Grand Master. It looked like if the leader of Longyi wanted to arrest him and question him, the civil war in Suomir would start here.
Your Majesty is important, Your Majesty is important. At this juncture, they have no energy to take care of such a thing. With full of anger, Mainisto can only return to Talwa Suta.
"Your Excellency, Captain -" "Huh - I made you laugh." He calmed down and resumed his superior appearance: "Send scouts, hurry up, and the information officer investigates where His Majesty may be missing. If all the false information is eliminated, His Majesty should have lost the news here——" Mainisto pointed his finger at the northern entrance of Talva-Sutta.
"This is a good thing, because it is within our sphere of influence. But it is also a bad thing, because the highlanders also haunt this area."
"Locate the trace quickly. Your Majesty is the pearl of our country and must not be lost!"
"yes!!"
————
It’s the end of August in Northern Europe and it’s already freezing cold.
After climbing for a while and walking for two or three days, the probability of going downhill began to increase significantly, and it was obvious that we had reached the north of Talwar-Sutta.
All three wore woolen cloaks to keep warm. Galeva's is gray, while Henry's and Mira's are dark blue and burgundy respectively. The two rode horses in front, while the innkeeper's eldest son behind was walking with the little unicorn.
As slow as he is, he has more or less noticed the cleverness of the little unicorn. Its beautiful eyes always reveal a high energy, and it is obviously not an ordinary pony.
Only in hindsight did he notice that this was the gorgeous white pony until they had been traveling together for so long.
Galeva still fully believed that Henry and Mira had delivered the horse to its owner, and that it was a camel horse they had bought later. This also shows how superb the sage's makeup skills are.
The days of travel were lackluster, and only one-fifth of the provisions brought along were consumed. In autumn, Talwar-Sutta is full of vitality. It is not difficult for them to hunt with light crossbows and put a little effort into hunting. On the highest peak of the Palohia Plateau, the snow melting in the sun spreads in all directions, and most of the trails are not far from such creeks.
Animals need drinking water just like people. If you think about them, you can easily find the traces.
The sounds of horses and people walking continued one after another, but after crossing this section of the road, first Henry, and then Mira, also frowned and raised their eyebrows.
"Uh - what's wrong?" The dull Galeva still looked dull, but the wound on his hand was much better. They managed to find some honey on the way. Although the collection process was a bit troublesome, it not only worked well as an isolation layer to prevent bacteria in wounds, but also made the somewhat cloying biscuits much more delicious.
"Traces," Henry said.
"Trace of roughness." Mira added.
"Out of place, as if being chased by something, no, probably looking for something hungrily." Both of them stopped, turned over and dismounted, and began to inspect. Galeva came closer, and the little unicorn nudged him because he was standing in the middle of the road. The young people are asked to move to a relatively safe corner, and if they are attacked, let the sage and the Luoan girl deal with it.
"The tracks are gone, but the broken branches and upturned rocks are still there."
"It's bipedal. Wild animals can't do this kind of thing."
"Goblin, teacher?" Mira took off the sword from the saddle and tied it around her waist.
"No." Henry shook his head: "Obviously he didn't know what he was looking for, he was just looking through it randomly. This is not what a creature that lives in the wild all year round would do."
"It's human." Mira held the hilt of the sword, and Galeva swallowed.
This area has always been a battleground for military strategists. Not to mention the highlanders, they had struggled with the soldiers stationed there before. And judging from Henry and Mira's analysis, these people obviously encountered some problems and were looking for something eagerly.
The sound of "rustling--" suddenly rang in the bushes nearby.
"Who is it?" The Luoan girl shouted, and then she tightened her grip on the hilt of the sword.
"Wha—!" The voice was obviously coming from this direction.
"Teacher!" "Dad!"
"..." The person who rushed out of the bushes was a little black-haired girl with messy hair, dirty body and many scars.
She hugged the sage's waist, and then shouted out words that had the same pronunciation in both the West Coast language Lamani and Suomir.
The Luoan girl's face was dull.
"What...is going on?" Galeva was dumbfounded.
Henry was the only one who remained calm. He lowered his head and looked at the little girl holding his waist, who was a little dazed and flustered, but her eyes of the same color as the sage looked deeper into the woods.
"Your Highness? Is it really His Highness? -" "No, no - Your Majesty, that's not -"
The wind blew through the forest, but it was unexpected but seemed like something was destined.
The two people who broke out were wearing dirty rags.
Not daddy..." The little girl backed away with a dull look on her face.
The six people faced each other in silence.
