Demon Royal Family

The speed of flying was more than ten times that of walking. Nebuldan carried Ivo and entered the border of Laces in only ten days, which was equivalent to three months of Ivo's trekking through the mountains.

Originally, Ivo wanted to return directly to the Royal Capital, but after thinking that landing on a dragon was too high-profile, he asked Nebuldan to land near Liema Town and waved his hand to let the frost dragon forage for food on its own.

Ivo came to Liema Town for several purposes, including inquiring about this year's intelligence, taking a look at the development of the Hurricane Regiment led by Stonehoof, and releasing news to the Brotherhood. In one year, the results of his assessment were early. It came out, but I haven't received it yet.

In one year, Liema Town has undergone greater changes, thanks to the trade routes of the Jinmeili Chamber of Commerce.

Commerce brought development, Liema Town became more and more prosperous, and the town expanded twice. There was a constant flow of travelers, merchants, and mercenaries on the streets, and it was very prosperous.

With the discovery of a small mineral vein thirty miles away, the population of Liema Town increased rapidly, including many miners. A small mineral vein represented huge profits for major chambers of commerce. The mineral vein was located in Madi's territory. He was very interested in the mineral vein. Have the right to dispose.

Major chambers of commerce hope to obtain the mining rights of the mineral veins, and have funded the construction of Liema Town to please Madi. This is also one of the reasons for the rapid development of Liema Town. According to the current development momentum, it may not take a few years for Liema Town to be able to It became a fierce horse city.

The distribution of cities in Lasces is relatively rough. In addition to the cities planned by the royal family, if some small towns develop rapidly and the population and scale reach a certain standard, the lord can pay a huge amount of wealth to the royal family in exchange for the power to build the city.

There are many benefits to building a city. The first and most obvious one is the improvement of status. The identities of town lords and city lords are very different. After building a city, there is a high chance that one will be promoted to a title. In peacetime, developing territory is the main way to improve one's title.

The role of cities far exceeds that of towns. Cities allow the construction of moats, city halls, etc., and receive financial allocations from the royal family every year. The development speed is snowballing faster and faster, the population increases rapidly, and elites are attracted to move in. The lords can obtain various benefits. The benefits are countless.

After a year's absence, Ivo marveled at the development of Liema Town. The expansion of the town was rigorously distributed, and the prototype of a city had already been formed. The number of guards on the streets had also increased significantly. The influx of population represented an increase in tax revenue. Coupled with funding from the Chamber of Commerce, now Madi is not short of money, and Ivo can see Madi's ambition to build a city from the prototype of the outer city wall under construction.

Ivo followed his memory and came to the stronghold of the Hurricane Regiment. In front of him was a four-story building with exquisite decoration. It was completely different from the shabby appearance in his memory. People were constantly rushing in and out. On the stone tablet at the door, there was an inscription "Hurricane". "Mercenary Group" in five characters.

Ivo was stunned for a long time before he was sure that this was his hurricane group. He walked into the lobby with his head full of confusion. There were many round tables and several counters in the hall. There were many mercenaries sitting at the round tables, and some customers were signing in front of the counter. When writing employment contracts, what concerned Ivo was that the mercenaries all had a black badge hanging on their chest. The badge was engraved with a white scroll-shaped pattern, which seemed to symbolize a hurricane.

"leader?"

While watching, he suddenly remembered the exclamation in a low voice beside him. Ivo turned around and saw Gavin standing next to him, looking at him doubtfully. Gavin saw Ivo's front and confirmed Ivo's face. Identity, he was surprised and happy: "Chief, you are finally back."

Ivo tilted his head and said, "Find a quiet place to talk."

Gavin nodded and took Ivo upstairs.

All the way to the fourth floor, Ivo saw Shiho and four unfamiliar faces in the room at the end.

These four people were all senior leaders of the Hurricane Regiment, and they looked at Ivo with confusion. For them, Ivo was also a strange face.

Shiti suddenly stood up from his seat and said happily: "Chief, you are finally back!"

Ivo nodded and looked around. Seeing that the four unfamiliar members had surprised and uncertain expressions, as well as a touch of alienation and wariness, Ivo felt a move in his heart. He calmly sat down at Shiho's seat, knocked on the table, and spoke forcefully. Said: "Gavin, explain the current situation, why my hurricane group became a mercenary group? Also, who are these people?" Ivo pointed at a few unfamiliar high-level members.

The four senior members looked at each other, and Gavin said at the right time: "Everyone, Mr. Ivo is the real leader of the Hurricane Group, and we all work for him."

At this time, a fierce-looking senior member sneered: "As the deputy leader, how come I don't know about this?" As soon as he finished speaking, the other three senior members all agreed.

Ivo looked at him, "What's your name?"

"I don't need to tell you." The fierce man who claimed to be the deputy leader snorted coldly.

Gavin hurriedly introduced: "This is Manu, the current deputy commander of the Hurricane Regiment. These are Luke, Tambor, and Sianson, all mercenary captains."

Manu said coldly: "I will not admit that a stranger became my leader for no reason."

Stonehoof roared, "I am a follower of Mr. Ivo, who is of course the leader of the Hurricanes."

Manu sneered: "The Hurricane Group is the Hurricane Group, and you are you. In short, I do not recognize his identity and will not accept any of his arrangements. Let's go!"

Manu stood up, and the other three mercenary captains followed him.

Ivo had no expression on his face: "I didn't let you leave, come back and sit down!"

Manu sneered, completely ignoring Ivo, and walked towards the door, about to push it open.

At this moment, a blazing heat wave suddenly erupted in the room, and the entire room instantly turned into a sea of ​​blue fire.

The door was burning. Manu quickly stepped back and looked at Ivo in shock. Blue flames were pouring out of Ivo's body, but he was sitting on his seat, motionless.

Ivo pointed to the seat and said forcefully: "Sit down."

Manu swallowed and sat back obediently. The other three mercenary captains were even more frightened. They could feel the terrifying temperature of the blue flames, as if Ivo could kill them with just one move.

After they sat down, the blue sea of ​​fire suddenly disappeared without any trace of charring. It was like an illusion. They were even more shocked by Ivo's methods.

Ivo knocked on the table: "I don't care what happened before, from now on, everyone in the Hurricane Group must obey my orders."

The four mercenary captains were silent. Faced with Ivo's unfathomable power (at least it seemed unfathomable to them), they did not dare to refute.

Ivo was actually a little dissatisfied. A year ago, he asked Stonehoose to establish the Hurricane Regiment. He didn't want to be high-profile and just turn it into a well-established mercenary regiment. It seemed that Shihodo didn't have complete control over the Hurricane Regiment. What he wanted was an obedient person. After intimidating the four Manu people, he looked at Gavin with questioning eyes.

Gavin glanced at Manu and the others first. Ivo raised his eyebrows and became interested. He pursed his lips at the door. Manu and the others hurriedly left as if they had been granted amnesty.

There were only three people left in the room. Gavin wiped his cold sweat and hurriedly explained the development trajectory of the Hurricane Group in the past year.

A year ago, after Ivo left a sum of money and left, Gavin began to assist Stonehoof to gain a foothold in Liema Town. Following Ivo's plan, they began to recruit people, inquire about information everywhere, and lay out an intelligence network.

It went smoothly at first. The prosperity of Liema Town provided a great boost to their plan. Population mobility was an important factor in transmitting intelligence. The Hurricane Regiment's intelligence network gradually radiated to half of the southwestern area of ​​​​Races.

But they soon encountered financial problems. The intelligence network was a very expensive thing. There were too many people to hire, and the division of levels required strict planning. The transmission of intelligence also required money, and the intelligence network was very secretive. Importantly, these expenditures may seem piecemeal, but as the intelligence network grows larger, the rate of money burning increases exponentially.

This is a spider web structure. The larger the area covered by the intelligence network, the more terrifying the daily maintenance expenses will be.

Maybe it only costs 100,000 benas in the first month, and it may cost 300,000 in the second month. The layers are added up, so the intelligence network is not something ordinary people can afford.

In just two months, all the funds left by Ivo were squandered, and the development of the Hurricane Group fell into a bottleneck. The protection fees from the caravan alone could not fill the hole. Forced by helplessness, Shiho had to change his business strategy and began to accept employment. Register as a mercenary house and become a mercenary group.

Stonehoof was powerful and completed several missions well. He gradually made a name for himself in Liema Town, and the Hurricane Regiment began to expand in size. There are now two to three hundred mercenaries in the regiment, and they can only make money at a rate that can barely fill the holes needed to maintain the intelligence network, unable to expand.

The Hurricanes claim to be a mercenary group, but only Gavin and Stonehoof know that they are actually building an intelligence organization.

Ivo touched his chin. He could still accept this result. For the Hurricane Group, funds were the biggest bottleneck. Ivo thought about it and took out more than half of his money, three million Benas, which was bulging. Several money bags were placed on the table, and Ivo asked: "How long will this money last?"

Gavin's eyes lit up, he thought for a while, and said: "We can allow our intelligence network to radiate half of the country in Las Vegas. The scope will be five or six times larger than it is now. The expansion will require one million, and the monthly maintenance cost will increase to seven One hundred and fifty thousand."

Ivo frowned. The speed at which the intelligence network was burning money was beyond his expectation. Lasas was only a kingdom of Frigga, occupying a very small area of ​​Frigga. The intelligence network covered half of Lasith. , three million can only last less than three months.

Although he still had one or two million, it was obviously not enough to spend. Ivo nodded his forehead in distress. He did not expect that there would be a day when he would worry about money. Although he could use the assets of the Dark Eye in Lasces, he did not want to Do this.

The reason is very simple. Although his authority in Lassis has increased and he can embezzle the wealth of the Dark Eye on a large scale, every flow of funds is monitored, which will make the Hurricane Group attract the attention of the Dark Eye and even be infiltrated. , Surveillance, the card of the Hurricane Group has not been exposed yet, Ivo does not want to choose the big one.

Money is like cleavage, if you squeeze it there will always be some.

Making money must be put on the agenda.

Generally speaking, Ivo is quite satisfied with the development of the Hurricane Group, which saves him the trouble of finding information. A thick pile of information for a year is placed on the table, allowing Gavin to only pick out the major events worth noting, and in the end, the remaining A dozen pieces of paper.