After the convoy departed, the mercenary
Lorist had his attendant fetch Steward Hanske. After confirming the inventory of iron chainmail, he decided to sell twenty sets to the mercenary band at a thirty percent discount, at a price of six gold fordels per set, and then sent the profusely grateful mercenaries on their way.
In truth, sometimes plans fall victim to changes. Lorist's arrangement to concentrate all manpower on building the city wall was interrupted once again. The reason was simple: the supplies transported from the Red River Valley Estate Castle had exceeded his expectations by far. Every warehouse in the valley clearing was packed to the brim. Helplessly, Lorist had to first arrange for manpower to build additional warehouses, which further delayed the city wall's construction.
Most of the first few batches of supplies consisted of barrels of gluevine sap. This was because Cedricamp, adhering to the principle of prioritizing materials the family estates could not produce, had scheduled the gluevine sap as the highest priority. He knew of Lorist's decision to continue building the mountain city after the castle was completed, and this sap had become an essential construction material.
Lorist stopped
During the process of transporting the gluevine sap, a small incident occurred. A four-wheeled cargo wagon fully loaded with the sap developed an axle problem while passing through the city gate. Old Father Baileck, who was in charge of the city wall construction project, was furious, as this wagon was blocking the transport lane for building materials. He gathered a few people to push the wagon to the side, but the topmost barrel, possibly loosened by the vibrations of the journey, suddenly burst during the move. A torrent of gluevine sap cascaded down, dousing Old Father Baileck right on the head as he stood there shouting orders with his mouth open. This left Old Father Baileck looking like a drowned rat while also giving him a first-hand taste of what gluevine sap was like.
Old Father Baileck smacked his lips, stunned for a long moment. Suddenly ignoring everything else, he turned and ran to find Lorist. He pulled Lorist into a deserted corner, looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, and then said mysteriously, "My lord, I know where gluevine sap comes from..."
Lorist was completely bewildered by Old Father Baileck's behavior. Hearing this, he laughed. "I know that too. The Roman Empire, isn't it? Who's playing this joke on you? Sneaking around like this, isn't that common knowledge?"
Old Father Baileck looked around once more and lowered his voice. "No, my lord. What I mean is, I know where in our family's territory there are gluevines that produce gluevine sap..."
"You're saying... that there's a place in our family's territory that also produces this gluevine sap?" Lorist was utterly astonished.
"Yes, my lord. More than a decade ago, I was once sent by the family to the seaside to boil salt. While passing through the Blade Mountain Range, I spotted a medicinal herb, and while trying to gather it, I accidentally tumbled into a deep ravine. I thought I was done for, but the ravine was filled with enormous vines everywhere, their leaves interwoven so densely that when I fell from above, I landed on those leaves and was lucky enough to survive. By the time I hit the ground, I was only unconscious for half a day before waking up. That deep ravine was very strange — incredibly damp, yet with no snakes or insects. You could say it was spotlessly clean; apart from rotting leaves on the ground, you couldn't find even a single ant. I was both thirsty and starving, with no food or drink to be found, so I simply took the dagger I carried with me and cut a slit in one of those enormous vines, then drank a few mouthfuls of the sap. But the sap was bitter and astringent, nearly impossible to swallow, so I stopped drinking."
"The ravine was massive, and I couldn't find any way out. Eventually, I decided to climb up along those giant vines. Even at the very top, I only reached about halfway up the ravine's height. I shouted for help, and fortunately my companions had been searching for me. They heard my cries, lowered a rope from above, and pulled me up. That's how I was saved. Just from drinking a few mouthfuls of that vine sap, my stomach hurt for ages afterward. I spent a fortune buying several tubes of medicine from Master Dumpason in Northwild Town before I was cured. I've always remembered the taste of that sap — I've never forgotten it. When that barrel of gluevine sap burst just now and drenched me like that, some happened to get into my mouth, and the taste was exactly the same as the vine sap I'd tasted before..."
"You said that deep ravine was very damp?"
"Yes."
"No snakes or insects? You couldn't find a single ant?"
Old Father Baileck nodded vigorously.
"Those vines were enormous?"
Old Father Baileck raised a hand to indicate the height, meaning the vines towered half again as tall as he was.
Lorist stroked his chin in thought. From Old Father Baileck's description, the vines really did sound like the rubber vines of the Roman Empire. If they turned out to be genuine, the fief's future development would gain a flagship product. Not only could it provide for the construction of his family's territory, but any surplus could be sold off to obtain much-needed resources.
"Old Father Baileck, keep this to yourself and don't tell a soul. Once the front wall is finished, we'll go together to that deep valley you mentioned to take a look and find out whether it really is rubber vine…" Lorist instructed.
The messenger hadn't said anything else and had come straight to see His Lordship.
"Then let's leave it at that for now. The most important thing right now is to get that wall built."
……
When Butler Boris returned with the transport caravan, he didn't just bring his family along — he also brought Lorist some wonderful news. He and Cedricamp had discovered a hidden secret chamber in the Red River Valley manor castle, inside which were stashed a hundred thousand gold fudes and a hundred and twenty thousand imperial portrait gold coins. Added to the other vaults brimming with silver and copper coins, the conquest of the Red River Valley manor castle alone had netted Lorist nearly two hundred thousand gold fudes in financial gains alone. The news made Lorist grin from ear to ear. Sure enough, the fastest way to get rich was through plunder — and you had to pick wealthy merchant families with deep roots, because that way the money came both plentiful and fast…
……
Ovikis had been nursing his injuries for over twenty days and was now back to his usual lively self. Having apparently grown tired of lying in bed day after day, he pestered Lorist, insisting on going to the Red River Valley manor for a visit. He even performed a few somersaults in front of Lorist to prove he had fully recovered. Lorist, worn down by his persistent nagging, finally relented and had him replace Reddy to escort the caravan.
……
Seeing Ovikis reminded Lorist of what had been nagging at the back of his mind — he still hadn't punished Master Xiroba, that madman on the hillside who had shouted out and exposed the trap he had set. Lorist had asked the guards about it, and it turned out that due to the mercenary Jim's suggestion, all the guards in iron armor had been busy finding places to hide that day, and Master Xiroba had simply been forgotten. So Master Xiroba had casually strolled out, noticed something was off, and hid himself, waiting until the Feathers mercenary group had mostly entered before jumping out and letting out that shout.
Master Xiroba was dragged before Lorist by two guards like a heap of wet mud. Looking at Master Xiroba lying on the ground trembling uncontrollably, Lorist asked in puzzlement, "What's wrong with him?"
The guard replied, "My lord, he was frightened — I should say, frightened by you..."
"Frightened by me? Is that even possible? I'd practically forgotten about him and only just remembered today. How could I have possibly scared him?"
"It's true, my lord," the guard answered. "After the battle that day, we remembered this Xiroba and wanted to beat him up. But when we found him, he was lying on the hillside shaking, muttering something about demons. Later we realized the demon he was talking about was you, my lord. We gave him a good beating and threw him in a cell. Then we heard from the guards watching him that this lousy master would have nightmares in the middle of the night every single night, waking up screaming about demons, crying and begging the lord to spare him, not to eat him, and so on... After that, the guards had nothing better to do than use your name to scare him for fun, and every time he would cry and whimper. It was quite entertaining..."
Come to think of it, Master Xiroba had been rather unlucky. That day, when he discovered that the Norton Family, who had captured him, was targeting the Feathers mercenary group, his joy knew no bounds. As a prominent figure from Windbury, the capital of Iberia, he was no stranger to the Feathers mercenary group — the two sides had even crossed paths on several occasions. Master Xiroba knew full well the strength of the Feathers mercenary group and believed the Norton Family could never be a match for them, which was precisely why they had resorted to an ambush.
Master Xiroba figured that if he exposed the Norton Family's scheme, the Feathers mercenary group would crush them without fail, and in return, he would gain his freedom. So Master Xiroba boldly stepped forward, shouting warnings at the top of his lungs. Before long, Ovikis knocked him out with a single blow.
The problem was that Ovikis's blow hadn't been hard enough. Master Xiroba came to his senses quickly and, just as he had hoped, saw that the Feathers mercenary group and the Norton Family's soldiers were already locked in fierce battle below the hillside. Having learned his lesson, Master Xiroba did not reappear on the hillside to cheer on the Feathers mercenary group. After all, getting cracked on the back of the head once was painful enough, and Master Xiroba had no desire to suffer a second blow.
As a greenhorn who had never set foot on a real battlefield, Master Xiroba had never imagined that war could be so bloody and cruel. His mind had been filled with images of battle drawn from chivalric novels — the brave protagonist cutting his way through thousands of soldiers to rescue the fair maiden, and thereafter living happily ever after... So when Master Xiroba saw the dead mercenaries and soldiers scattered below, he trembled with terror, so frightened that he even threw up bile. Desperate to look away, he raised his head — only to see Lorist bring down the two gold-tier shield-bearer brothers.
Then, Master Xiroba watched as Lorist charged into the chaotic crowd, cutting down Feathers mercenaries one after another with effortless ease. One, two... Master Xiroba quickly lost count of how many Feathers mercenaries had met their end beneath Lorist's sword. A chill that pierced to the bone shot up from the base of Master Xiroba's spine, and in moments his entire body was seized by ice-cold dread. He realized he had miscalculated — he had provoked a truly terrifying existence.
When Lorist beheaded Adams, the leader of the Feathers mercenary group, with a single stroke of his sword, Master Xiroba collapsed where he lay on the hillside. The last image seared into the deepest recesses of his mind was that of Lorist, drenched head to toe in blood. He was terrified, deathly afraid that Lorist would appear before him at any moment to settle the score. In his heart, he had come to see Lorist as nothing less than a bloodthirsty demon...
After being beaten up by several guards, Master Xiroba was thrown back into his cell. But from that day on, Master Xiroba could no longer get a good night's sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw countless mutilated corpses — broken heads, or simply headless bodies — crawling up from the ground and walking toward him. In the end, these bloody corpses would always merge into the form of Lorist, transforming into a giant demon who tormented him in every conceivable way…
He begged for mercy, but the moment he closed his eyes, the nightmare would begin anew. Had Master Xiroba been in a situation where family members could stay by his side, comfort him, and take care of him, it wouldn't have taken long for his mind to slowly recover and for the nightmares to drift away.
But now he was locked in a cell, and many of the guards watching over him were former bandits. Upon discovering his condition, they took Master Xiroba as their plaything. Knowing he feared Lorist, they concocted all manner of fake orders — claiming that Lorist had commanded he be deep-fried in oil, have the soles of his feet sliced off, be castrated, have his nose and ears cut off, and so on. Every single time, Master Xiroba was scared out of his wits. As a result, his nightmares grew increasingly frequent, his mind increasingly delirious, until today when the guards were ordered to bring him before Lorist and Master Xiroba was so terrified he simply collapsed into a limp puddle on the spot.
Lorist was vexed. Well, now looking at Master Xiroba's wretched state, he didn't even have the heart to punish him anymore. Who had ever seen someone this frightened? He hadn't even opened his mouth yet, and Master Xiroba, sprawled on the ground, had already scared himself into soiling himself on the spot.
Lorist waved his hand in disgust, signaling the guards to drag Master Xiroba away — the stench was too much. He casually tossed out an order: "Get him washed and cleaned up…"
Unexpectedly, Master Xiroba on the ground misunderstood. In a deathbed burst of energy, he leapt to his feet, seized Lorist's leg, and wailed: "My lord, no… please spare me! Don't deep-fry me, don't roast me — I really don't taste good! My lord, I'm useful! I can build houses, I can construct castles, I'll serve you — I'm begging you, please don't eat me…"
His wailing was absolutely heartbreaking, deafeningly loud, to the point that people not far from the large tent gathered around, thinking something terrible had happened.
Lorist's face was lined with dark frustration. Looking at the guards snickering under their breath, he didn't even have the energy to scold them: "Look at what you've done — a perfectly fine man reduced to this state by your bullying…"
The guards wore faces full of innocence: "My lord, it's not our fault. He's just far too timid…"
Lorist couldn't be bothered to argue. He nudged the Master Xiroba on the ground with the foot that was still being clutched: "Get up. If you don't get up, I really will roast you and eat you."
"No, my lord..." Master Xiroba obediently got to his feet.
"I'll give you a chance," said Lorist. "Go take a bath first, then report to Lady Tresti. Assist her properly in the construction of my castle. Do well, and I'll let you off. Do poorly, and..."
Lorist bared two rows of snow-white teeth: "You know what happens..."
Master Xiroba dropped to his knees with a thud: "My lord, I will serve you faithfully. I will absolutely satisfy you..."
"Radi, take him for a bath, then bring him to Lady Tresti. From now on, this Master Xiroba is one of her subordinates," Lorist said.
...