After completing all the handover matters, Pierre felt an unprecedented sense of ease, no longer having to worry about how to resist Graywhite Territory.
After surrendering, even his mental exhaustion was cured. Now, Pierre wrote letters to other great nobles in the Northern Border every day, encouraging them to surrender with great ease.
As Pierre understood the pain points of these great nobles, being the elder brother who made the proposal, he addressed each noble’s concerns directly, explaining every issue they worried about.
When it came down to it, the most crucial problem was that White Frost Fortress could not hold back the army of Graywhite Territory, and these nobles needed to consider whether their own walls were as sturdy as White Frost Fortress.
In response, the attitude of those great nobles was quite subtle; some wrote back to Pierre, stating that the Northern Border was currently embroiled in the internal strife of the Lars Family and that they wouldn’t participate.
This was a way to cut ties with Doug while still trying to sit on the fence, or perhaps they felt the conditions given by Graywhite Territory were insufficient and wanted to negotiate further.
Pierre scoffed at this; these people didn’t grasp the essence of fence-sitting. However, he understood, as the terms from Graywhite Territory weren’t much different from defeat. Could nobles who lost their lands still be called nobles?
These individuals were just like the old Pierre, always thinking about holding on a bit longer, resisting a bit more, even though they knew they couldn’t withstand the onslaught of Graywhite Territory. They believed that if they surrendered, they might negotiate better conditions. They still fantasized about Graywhite Territory abandoning the so-called rules and reverting the Northern Border to the days of Duke Lars.
Reading between the lines, it implied that if Lind abandoned those complicated rules and regulations, these people would probably surrender even faster, and could even serve as volunteers.
But in reality, Pierre realized after seeing Graywhite Territory take over White Frost Fortress and subsequently deal with the surrounding small and medium nobles as if they were bandits, that the initial conditions Graywhite offered were actually the best. The governor controlling Graywhite Territory was not a very patient one—if you really wanted to play both sides, the other party would just choose to continue the war.
After all, pushing all these great nobles out wasn’t a matter of possibility, but a matter of time.
Pierre now felt very fortunate that he still had some usefulness to Graywhite Territory and his attitude was generally proper, but the great nobles that followed him would probably not be so lucky, as the Laurent Family’s surrender had already set a positive example for those nobles in the Northern Border. Next, it was time to find a negative example.
In the past few days, Pierre had spent his time writing letters, and in the remaining time, introducing Lauri to the various tunnels of White Frost Fortress. After all, this place would serve as the military base for Graywhite Territory in the future, and if something went wrong, the blame would definitely fall on the Laurent Family.
So Pierre dared not hold back any information.
After introducing the last tunnel, Pierre prepared to bid farewell to Lauri.
Next, Pierre’s family would return to Graywhite Territory under the escort of the Lars Knights, and along the way, they would also hand over Emily to the Sisterhood.
Until the end, Pierre dared not look back at White Frost Fortress; it would be impossible to say he felt no pain. If he truly felt no pain, he wouldn’t have resisted so resolutely at first.
Aside from the guards arranged by Lauri, Pierre brought only his two sons and Emily; the remaining family members were dispersed, so the fact that Pierre’s family could still stay together was a small favor from that lord governor.
Throughout the journey, Pierre was constantly inquiring about the specific systems of Graywhite Territory from the Lars Knights and the officials of the towns they passed through, buying several copies of newspapers.
As Pierre had speculated, Graywhite Territory was indeed in dire need of people, especially those with higher education. Thus, that lord governor had no choice but to bring back former nobles.
But even among the nobles, it was quite difficult to be granted an official position. Just understanding the examination system made Pierre’s scalp tingle; it was hard to tell whether one was holding an official position or sitting in prison. Yet, this didn’t hinder many old nobles from rushing to regain their family’s power.
Glancing at his two silly sons, Pierre shook his head. Under the puzzled gazes of the brothers, he finally told them to find a woman and settle down soon, so they wouldn’t continue to waste time.
After all, now being a noble was merely an honorary title; Pierre didn’t need to put too much effort into finding someone for a marriage alliance. It was time for them to practice their instruments.
After a few glances at Emily, Pierre’s mood slightly eased. Although Emily had made several mistakes this time, the primary responsibility did not lie with her, which could also be seen as a blessing in disguise.
Moreover, Emily was much smarter than her two brothers. Although she was just helping the Sisterhood suppress bandits, she was still contributing to strengthening Graywhite Territory’s forces.
The restoration of the Laurent Family’s glory now rested squarely on Emily’s shoulders.
The Pierre family arrived at Deepwater Port, the largest river port city in the Northern Border besides River Valley, but the local authority had seen little development in the face of oppression.
At that time, the Sisterhood had already been waiting in the city for a long time. As soon as the Pierre family entered the city, they saw the Sisterhood providing free medical care.
Emily wanted to step forward to greet them, but hesitated after taking a closer look. Pierre also glanced over and noticed that most of the Sisters wore red robes, which truly resembled the attire of a cult.
Especially as they got closer, Pierre realized that their robes seemed stained with fresh blood and that they wore blood-stained beaked masks.
The sight of a Sisterhood treating the people of Deepwater Port for free looked very strange.
After hesitating for a moment, Emily still mustered her courage and approached to ask, “Excuse me, are you the Sisterhood of Saintess Flora? I am Emily Laurent; General Lauri should have contacted you, and I want to assist you in bandit suppression.”
After finishing treatment for a patient, Flora stood up, nodded, and said, “I’ve already heard what General Lauri said, so I will rely on you from now on. The remaining Lars Knights will help you.”
Seeing the Lars Knights behind the Sisterhood, Emily finally felt relieved, knowing she wouldn’t have to lead these Sisters in the fight against bandits.
However, Emily was still curious and asked, “Lady Saintess, may I ask why you and the other Sisters are all wearing red?”
“Oh, about that,” Flora pointed to a corner of her nun attire that wasn’t stained red and said, “These are the blood of demons; we killed them when they came to hinder us. I originally planned to clean it up, but we thought the red robes looked quite nice, so we did a bit of special processing.”
“Demon? Hinder? Kill?” Pierre found himself questioning his proficiency in the common language for the first time.
Hearing Pierre’s words, Flora nodded and said, “Unfortunately, two of them escaped. Otherwise, I should have managed to dye the entire nun attire red.”
Flora’s tone was incredibly gentle, just like a saint, which she indeed was. But Pierre felt somewhat regretful for sending his little daughter to the Sisterhood, turning her into a bandit-suppressing knight.
This really didn’t seem like a proper Sisterhood.
“We…we are here to suppress bandits, right?”
“That’s right, mainly some bandits scattered around the towns; no need to worry, there will be surrendering Doug Army members to guide you, and Lars Knights will accompany you.”
Flora stepped forward and gently patted Emily’s shoulder as if she were an older sister. However, Emily caught a faint smell of blood under the fragrance that had covered it.
Even though they had special processing, it seemed these spices would still take some time to completely mask the smell of blood.
Emily resisted the impulse to tremble and joined the Sisterhood’s bandit suppression team.
