Chapter 202 The Principality of Winter with External Troubles and Internal Troubles

- A great spell.

There are only six treasures left in this world, a great thing that is far more powerful than the divine name curse, just like the name itself.

Just knowing its name is part of the ritual.

At present, the distribution of great-level curses is one for Noah, Winter, and Denisoya, and two for the Church. There is still one sinking on the bottom of the maelstrom... It is said that the wise men of the underground world are also trying to salvage it.

It can even be said that the current countries, all rely on the great-level curse to rebuild after the disaster. If they didn't master the great-level spells, no gods would choose to rebuild the enchantment with them as the center.

——Precisely because a great-level curse cannot be lost. Theocratic power and the new kingship have reached a certain degree of compromise.

And this great spell held by Lin Dong...

Is it the three-color scepter that Ivan has always used as a crutch?

At first, he thought that this was the proof of the power of the Duchy of Winter... I didn't expect it to be true, but it was a little different from what he thought.

Annan couldn't help but take a look at the scepter.

It is composed of silver, black, and dark blue, intertwined like hard vines. At the bottom end, the three colors are unraveled from each other and protrude in three directions, as if forming a non-slip bracket.

A structure similar to a handrail is formed at the uppermost end - composed of silver rings, black crosses inlaid with each other, and a huge eight-sided dark blue sapphire diamond in the middle of the whole pattern.

Usually, when Ivan wanted to stand up, he would put his hand in the middle of the ring and hold the upper part of the cross. And when he was standing, he would put his hands on the ring as if he was holding a steering wheel.

This can make Ivan stand very stable.

Rather, it is because its function as a "crutch" is too perfect, so Annan does not doubt whether it has other uses...

"...But it's too dangerous, isn't it?"

Annan couldn't help but say, "I remember that other Hands of Winter have touched it. What if the news leaks and the three-color scepter is stolen?"

"It is precisely because no one can trust it that it should be held in the hand; it is precisely because it is not safe to hide anywhere that it should be placed in the sun."

Ivan said slowly, and took a deep look at Annan: "It is precisely because the Grand Duke and the scepter cannot be lost that they are used as a sign of the Grand Duke's power - so there is no need to consider the consequences of accidental loss of one of them."

significantly different from other countries.

Winter here is to highlight a "few people".

Noah alone was a dinner party at the palace, and there were more than 200 people; Denisoya and the United Kingdom of the Fields were even more - only the members of the royal family who lived in the palace for a long time, including the harem, servants and eunuchs There are more than three hundred people.

And look back at the Principality of Winter.

There are only a few people in the current Archduke Winter Palace. Ivan has no wife, and he has no elders - the only child at home is Annan.

Apart from the two of them, there were four others in total. All are the leaders of the Hand of Winter... There are only six leaders now, and two of them are not at home.

Yes.

In the Principality of Winter, there are no servants to serve the Grand Duke. That's why I pulled a department from the hand of winter alone,

to handle the Archduke's internal affairs.

On the one hand, this is because the Duchy of Winter lacks everything—you must know that one of the duties of the Hand of Winter is to monitor the local nobles, so that they do not waste too much; and in order to achieve this goal logically, the Grand Duke must also lead by example.

On the other hand, they are also responsible for their safety. If attacked, the Hand of Winter might be able to protect the Archduke, but asking them to protect their servants... that's impossible.

Although there is the monitoring of the Hand of Winter, and the survival of the blood of Winter is very important to suppress the frost beast, in theory, the Duchy of Winter should be the most firmly ruled duchy. But in fact, the Archduke of Winter and his direct descendants are the most attacked among the leaders of various countries... no one.

This wonderful phenomenon has also attracted the attention of scholars in other countries.

According to the results of a sociologist's research, this should be related to the mechanism of "winter years".

Because in winter, the people of Winter must rely on the protection of the small enchantment to avoid being frozen to death by the cold wind... This has led to the people of Winter who mainly rely on the city-state to live. As the connection between cities becomes loose, ordinary people's awe for the blood of winter and the laws of the principality will drop sharply.

Instead, it was the direct control of the local aristocracy and a variety of local methods. The ability of the Grand Duke himself to monitor and control the local nobles will actually be weakened.

But ordinary people don't care about this - their dissatisfaction with the extravagant and reckless local nobles will eventually radiate directly to the Grand Duke. This has something to do with the local nobles consciously attracting people's attention and hatred to the "Hand of Winter" who is actually responsible for supervising them.

Archduke Ivan's exploits are undeniable. But the nobles have other tricks.

One theory is that the Hand of Winter has suppressed the channel for the archduke to obtain information, just like the kingdom of Denisoa where the eunuchs ruled - but this statement can only be understood by people with a little culture.

Another, more common way of saying that is to put the pot on the fact that Duke Ivan is not in good health.

Why do you pay so much tax, because a lot of resources are used to hang the Archduke; why the Hand of Winter or the nobles act recklessly, because the Archduke is not in good health, so he cannot leave the Frost Whisper Province.

As a result, the Grand Duke of Winter is often attacked by people of various types.

Of course, there are very few "Avengers" who are completely brainless.

Most of the attackers knew that Ivan must be protected by the Hand of Winter.

They all hope to achieve their goals by kidnapping the grand duke's heirs, wives or other relatives.

Either a request for the release of an important political prisoner (usually a spy from another country, or a connection to an icebreaker); there are some whimsical ones, a law or laws passed by the Archduke; I hope the Grand Duke can punish some local nobles. Of course, their kidnapping is almost impossible to succeed.

But there are some smarter ones who will directly assassinate the Archduke in the name of some local nobles. I hope that after the Grand Duke can find out, he will take revenge against a certain noble in the opposite direction.

This is also the reason why the Northland Alliance clearly assassinated Annan, but Annan still has to investigate carefully.

Neither Annan nor Ivan want to be used as a gunman - you have to find out before you can do it. Because in the history of Winter, there have been such incidents of blaming political enemies.

In addition, it is necessary to prevent the possibility of being poisoned by spies from other countries, or the possibility of servants being bribed, eavesdropping on intelligence and stealing important documents. For the Principality of Winter, which can be said to be a "backland", it is not too easy for a person with the status of "servant" to be bought.

Even if they are both countries protected by the righteous gods, this does not mean that the relationship between countries will be very good.

Regardless of the issue of border friction, the very different cultural atmosphere alone will lead to a lack of communication between them.

In addition, the King Noah from the previous generation—the one who claimed to be uniting the five kingdoms and rebuilding the Great Barrier.

Although Annan knew that this was actually because he was the "child in the cup" whose lifespan was locked, he deliberately planned to make enemies for Noah in this way to retaliate against the kingdom of Noah who gave birth to him... But other countries The people and the high-level people don't know about it.

As a result, the revenge of the child in the cup not only hurt Noah, but also directly disturbed the muddy water-his action of declaring war on Winter, on the contrary, made Denisoya and the teaching nation vigilant, and had to launch arms race.

And after the strength of the Church and the United Kingdom of Denisoya rose, Lin Dong had to remain vigilant against them.

As a result, the peace that could have been maintained temporarily after the bloody battle was over is now more and more crumbling.

In addition, the matter of the Winter Rebels also reminded the Winter Winter family—even the Hand of Winter, which is bound like a caged bird and completely unable to disobey the orders of the Grand Duke of Winter, cannot be absolutely trusted.

The result is.

Archduke Ivan, not only did he find a way to lead the entire nation through the difficult winter.

He also had to try his best to maintain the deterrent force at the diplomatic level externally, suppress the alliance of northern nobles who had long been opposed to it, and befriend several extraordinary nobles in the south.

In addition, there is also the mess left by the Icebreaker Army and the Winter Rebels - there are always people in the Frost Beast Troop who are restless, and a very important Frost Beast was lost some time ago. It is suspected that there are still people doing frost beast experiments.

Looking back, Annan was assassinated again... According to Annan's feedback, it seems that it is not just the desire to overthrow Dmitry's forces. If the bloodline of "Grynznuha Winter" was found, then the situation would be more complicated.

They still don't know what method the Winter Rebels used to break the spell of the "Hand of Winter" and take other Hands of Winter out of the Archduke's control.

Under such circumstances, the tax withheld by the local nobles and the reckless behavior of "local methods" are already considered the simplest situation.

- It's all scumbags.

And with so many troubles coming together, Ivan's body couldn't hold it any longer.

"...The situation facing Winter is very complicated. Fortunately, you are back."

Ivan said slowly: "I must give you the position of the archduke and the curse first. Only then can I conduct some investigations... and actions as I thought.

"Follow me, Annan. I'll teach you how to use the power of the scepter."