Chapter 225 Return
"Will he take the advice?"

While sorting the books Locke gave Roland, Hela spoke to him curiously.

On the side, Roland answered casually while flipping through a book.

"It is highly unlikely that he will do so. He should still maintain the current neutral balance."

"Huh? Why?"

Hela sorted out and put away the last book, turned her head and said with some surprise.

"Didn't I tell him clearly? Black Rock City is in such a mess right now. Is it really useful for him to remain neutral?"

"Don't be fooled by the chaos in the city. In fact, it is still under Locke's control. Moreover, although the local faction and the border faction seem to be arguing fiercely, in fact, neither side is ready to tear each other apart."

Roland didn't look up and continued.

"The local faction is not united internally. Think about it, those who came to win us over before are divided into several small groups. If it weren't for the pressure from the border faction, they would have dispersed long ago."

"As for the border faction, even though they say they want to shoot up the entire local faction, except for a few extreme ones who really intend to shoot up the local faction, the rest are very clear that they still cannot do without the local faction."

"As long as Locke finds a reason, he can suppress the fight between the two factions at any time."

Roland turned a page of the book and added.

"For example: Isn't it a good opportunity to reward people for their contributions after the annihilation war?"

Hela put the sorted books aside and walked slowly behind Roland. She put her hands on Roland's shoulders, massaging him while injecting magic power to help Roland recover his weak body, while speaking with a tone of understanding.

"No wonder he hasn't taken any action and keeps holding onto the reward, not letting us leave."

"Ah."

Roland lowered his head and did not try to refuse, silently enjoying Hela's kindness.

After Roland explained everything to Locke a few days ago and did not get a positive response from him, Roland began to speculate about Locke's choice.

He will most likely choose to remain neutral and continue to maintain balance.

And the facts were exactly as Roland expected.

A few days after Roland finished talking to Hela, Locke, just as Roland had expected, chose to reward people based on their merits in order to divert attention.

This time, in addition to the soldiers fighting on the front lines, Locke also gave certain rewards to local factions on the grounds of logistical supplies, hoping to appease the dissatisfaction of local factions.

In order to avoid dissatisfaction among the border factions, Locke also increased the rewards for the frontline soldiers.

Among them, Roland, who remained neutral on the surface and had no factional inclinations, and who also had the best performance in this battle, naturally received a big gift.

In terms of military affairs, Locke granted Roland the freedom he had applied for at the beginning, allowing Roland to form an independent army and have the freedom to fight independently against the greenskin warlords.

In terms of territory, Locke also promised to assign all border cities from the old Qi City to the nearest frontier to Roland.

As long as Roland can fight his way out and seize part of the territory of the greenskin high priest he killed, Locke will hand over all the border cities to Roland.

In addition, Locke also exempted Roland's territory and all his future territories from all taxes for ten years. In addition to these substantial rewards, there are also some honorary honors, such as applying for a noble title for Roland from the United Army.

Although Roland was not interested in the so-called noble title.

For the local faction, Roland is not from the border area faction, and taking the reward will not enhance the strength of the border area faction. Moreover, Roland also owns territory in the rear, so their interests can be said to be consistent.

As for the Border Area Faction, Roland's performance in this annihilation battle was obvious to all. Not only was he willing to transfer his elite soldiers to other people for the sake of victory, but he also independently killed the greenskin high priest heading north. It was reasonable for him to receive such a reward.

Moreover, Roland was as ruthless to the green-skinned orcs as the Border Faction, and would kill them all whenever possible. Therefore, in the eyes of some members of the Border Faction, Roland was undoubtedly a member of their Border Faction.

Therefore, Locke's reward to Roland made both the local faction and the border faction feel that their power had been strengthened.

While Locke was awarding rewards and attracting almost everyone's attention, he also took the opportunity to secretly meet with representatives of the two factions. Relying on his personal prestige, he suppressed the factional conflicts again.

However, the so-called secret meeting was not really a secret. Anyone who paid attention knew about it, including Roland.

From the people he arranged, Roland learned that although the representatives of both factions had been prepared, they still left Locke's house in great dissatisfaction in the end.

The conflict between the two factions was suppressed once again, waiting for the next backlash.

When the contradictions accumulate to the limit again and rebound, I don’t know whether Locke can suppress them again with his prestige.

However, this is not the best time for Roland to appear.

Therefore, after receiving the reward and knowing the final outcome of the factional struggle, Roland no longer stayed in Black Rock City. He took his legion soldiers and the military forces that were attracted by Roland's performance in this annihilation battle and went to his territory, Jiuqi.

Although Old Qi was Roland's territory, the time Roland had spent in Old Qi since he entered Donnar could be counted on one hand.

Especially after participating in the annihilation operation, the time he spent fighting outside was longer than the time he stayed in the territory.

Although Roland could not only convey government orders remotely through the communication device left in Jiuqi, he could also learn about the general development of Jiuqi City from the officials.

However, Roland could only have a general impression of the current development of Old Qi City through text.

According to the officials' reports, the development of Roland's entire territory, including the Old Qi City, can be said to be thriving.

Under the plan set by Roland, the territory absorbed a large number of refugees. The influx of refugees brought a large number of laborers, and the large number of laborers also promoted the large-scale construction of the territory.

With sufficient food provided by the meal-making technique, the entire territory was developing rapidly, with significant changes occurring almost every few days.

However, although I learned about the various changes in the territory from their mouths, language and words are ultimately not as real as seeing it with one's own eyes.

Roland led his army towards Jiuqi while thinking silently.

Speaking of which, a little genius has emerged in the territory's ever-expanding bureaucracy.

Not only does he have good administrative skills, but he also became a first-level spellcaster through self-study.

What was her name? Julius, I think?

(End of this chapter)