He reined in his horse and saw Steward Codan along with two mercenary leaders, Hosky and
Lorist had come today to finalize the location of the garrison at the junction of the two mountains so that construction could begin as soon as possible. Yesterday, he had received Steward Codan's report that the mercenaries had already surveyed the site and were just waiting for Lorist to give the final word.
Upon entering the command tent, Hosky produced a beast-hide map and pointed out the location they had chosen to Lorist. However, the map had been surveyed and drawn by the mercenaries themselves and was far from standard. It took Lorist a good while to realize the terrain depicted was a cliff face.
"Let's go see the site in person," Lorist said.
The ride from Poplar Flats to the junction of the two mountains took over three hours. The terrain there was nothing like the converging slopes of
The site the mercenaries had chosen for the garrison was on a cliff beside the stream. One look and Lorist shook his head, rejecting it outright. "Hosky, did you really think I spent so much hiring you just to set up a lookout tower? You and your seventy or eighty men were going to spot some mountain barbarians, light a signal fire to let me know, and call it done? I want you planted here as the first line of defense against the mountain barbarians. When there are only a small number of them, you're to take the initiative and attack, earning yourselves generous bounties. Building the garrison on a cliff may give you strong defenses, but you lose all ability to sally forth. By the time you climb down from that cliff, the mountain barbarians will have long since scattered."
Hosky's face reddened, but he still pressed his argument. "My lord, we're short on men. If we set up the garrison down in the valley, it'll be hard to withstand a large-scale siege by the mountain barbarians. You wouldn't want us all to perish here, would you?...Up on the cliff, we can spot the mountain barbarians' tracks in time. Sure, it's not convenient for going on the offensive, but our survival and defense are guaranteed..."
Lorist let out a derisive laugh. "Wrong. Building the garrison on a cliff is exactly what would put your survival and defense in serious jeopardy. Let me ask you a simple question — how do you plan to get water up on that cliff?"
"My lord, isn't there a stream right below this cliff? That's precisely why I chose this spot along the stream. If we're besieged by the mountain barbarians, we can lower buckets from the cliff and draw water from the stream…"
"Don't assume your enemies are so foolish. The mountain barbarians may be savages, but that doesn't mean they're brainless. All they have to do is block the stream on both sides of the cliff or divert its course, and where will you be drawing water from then?"
Hosky was left speechless…
Without food, they could still slaughter horses, boil leather, and scrape by for a while. But once they ran out of water, they wouldn't last three days. Lorist had struck at the mercenaries' greatest oversight in choosing this location with pinpoint accuracy.
"Let's go take a look over there." Lorist pointed toward several small earthen mounds in the valley.
The largest mound still bore traces of crumbling walls and broken ramparts. Steward Codan rode up to Lorist's side and quietly explained that over the past century, predecessors of the
"Then this is the spot. This mound is barely eighty meters from the stream. Dig a well on top of it and we'll have a clean, reliable water supply. That solves the biggest problem." Lorist made his decision.
"My lord, but what about the defensive issue?" Hosky's face had turned pale after overhearing Steward Codan's account.
"Heh, don't worry. I'm not going to have you defend some ramshackle camp. I plan to erect two towers here and surround them with walls seven or eight meters high. Manpower and materials won't be your concern — your main job is to keep watch. Give me one month, and you'll have a military stockade with formidable defenses," said Lorist.
Hosky was about to speak again, but Jim beside him patted his chest and declared, "My lord, once you've built the stockade, we'll stake ourselves here solidly and not let so much as a small band of those mountain barbarian savages set foot in your territory."
...
Having decided on the location for the military stockade, everyone relaxed. Lorist planned to rest here for two hours before heading back. The mercenaries lived up to their reputation as skilled outdoorsmen — some went hunting, others went fishing, and before long they had gathered a large haul of game and begun roasting it by the stream.
Jim came over with a flushed face, dragging Hosky and several mercenaries along with him.
"My lord," Jim said excitedly, "I told them you killed Captain Adams and his men in a single exchange, but they don't believe it. They say you just caught Adams's company at a disadvantage because they were worn down from a prolonged battle. They say you're not even Silver-ranked, so how could you have killed so many Flying Feather mercenaries? They even want to spar with you..."
Lorist tossed aside the pheasant bone in his hand, stood up, and laughed. "If they don't believe it, then they don't believe it. What does it matter?"
"But my lord..."
"The fact that both twin brothers fell to your sword is truly hard to believe. If my lord doesn't think it presumptuous of lowly mercenaries like us to ask, could we perhaps witness your swordsmanship..."
"You—" Pat bristled with anger, rising to his feet to rebuke the mercenaries.
"Pat!" Lorist waved his hand. "It's fine. We have time, so let's have a spar. Captain Hosky, mercenaries are not lowly — please remember that. I myself served as a mercenary for five or six years in
Hosky and the other mercenaries had assumed Lorist meant to fight them one at a time. Although it would be a rotation battle, when they thought back to Jim and the others' effusive praise, they figured Lorist must genuinely have the strength to back up his bold words. So they began selecting who would step forward to fight.
Since they all knew each other well, nine mercenaries were quickly selected and stood alongside Hosky. The rest of the mercenaries gathered around and started placing bets on how many Lorist could handle. Jim was the bookmaker, and he and the mercenaries who had returned from Fort Rockstone all bet on Lorist winning every round.
"Reddy, lend me your sword," said Lorist.
Because of Reddy's great strength, Lorist had a heavy sword custom-forged for him. This was only a spar, and several of the selected mercenaries were only Iron-ranked—they couldn't channel their
After testing the weight of the heavy sword in his hands a few times, Lorist said with satisfaction, "Come at me together."
"What?" The mercenaries were stunned. Wasn't it supposed to be a rotation battle, one-on-one? Why was he telling them to all come at once?
"If His Lordship says so, then we do as he says. Everyone, stay sharp—show off your best techniques. Don't let His Lordship look down on us, and don't disappoint him either…" Hosky was seething inside. Isn't this just too disrespectful? One against ten, and he won't even use his own sword—clearly, he doesn't think any of us mercenaries are worth taking seriously.
Hosky was shrewd enough to use his authority as the squad leader. He had a few mercenaries move in first to test the waters. Once they figured out Lorist's true strength, they could adjust their strategy accordingly.
What Hosky hadn't expected was that those four capable mercenaries were sent sprawling one after the other the moment they engaged Lorist. It happened so fast—barely the blink of an eye—and no one could even make out what Lorist had done.
Immediately after, Lorist charged toward the remaining six mercenaries. The two at the front swung their swords, slashing one after the other at the oncoming figure. This time, Hosky finally saw it clearly—Lorist held the heavy sword horizontally and deflected both strikes, but his body slipped through the gap between the two mercenaries. The one in front took a backhanded blow from Lorist's sword to the back of his skull and staggered, toppling to the ground.
The mercenary behind suddenly realized Lorist was right on top of him—practically face to face. In a panic, he stumbled backward, trying to create some distance. But before he had even pulled back a foot, the pommel of Lorist's sword, already drawn back, swept across his chin, and this mercenary too went crashing to the ground.
Hosky was utterly stunned—it was far too fast. In the blink of an eye, six mercenaries had fallen to the ground, leaving only four of them standing. Hosky hurriedly called over another silver-tier mercenary and two black-iron-tier mercenaries to form a defensive battle formation, facing Lorist's assault together.
The four mercenaries adopted a diamond-shaped formation. As long as the point at the front came under attack, he could retreat while the two on the flanks pressed inward, and the rearmost point could swap positions with the front in rotation to take turns weathering the attacks. This had originally been a defensive formation mercenaries used to deal with powerful magical beasts attacking singly, but now it was being deployed against Lorist.
Lorist was, of course, no magical beast—he wouldn't fixate on a single target when attacking. He circled around the formation, his movements elusive and unpredictable, directing every thrust at the two black-iron mercenaries positioned at the flanks. As a result, Hosky at the front and the silver-tier mercenary at the rear were left in an awkward position, able only to extend their swords to help their companions parry. The formation quickly fell apart—three mercenaries ended up engaging Lorist directly while the last one was stuck at the back, unable to bring his strength to bear.
Lorist continued fighting while drifting rightward, his speed increasing all the while. The silver-tier mercenary who served as the pivot clearly couldn't keep up with Lorist's rapid swordwork and involuntarily retreated a step. The moment he withdrew, the three-man coordination collapsed, opening a gap. Lorist slipped into the space among the three without a moment's hesitation.
Hosky sensed danger immediately. He tried to thrust his sword forward, but his companion was blocking his path. He scrambled to shift sideways, but the instant he moved out of the way, he saw all three of his comrades in front and around him topple to the ground in rapid succession—and standing right before him was Lorist…
Hosky glanced left and right, then let his sword fall from his hand. With a bitter smile, he said, "We've lost…"
In this bout, Lorist had barely drawn on his inner energy at all, winning purely through footwork and speed. Had he used his inner power, he could have simply brute-forced a frontal breakthrough. But that would have left the mercenaries with too much bruised pride—and causing that sort of humiliation was something Lorist had no desire to do. After all, this was only a friendly spar, not a battle to the death.
…
The mercenaries dispersed, chattering about the spectacular display they had just witnessed, but Hosky stayed behind. "My lord, I have a question…"
"Go ahead." Lorist patted the large boulder beside him and gestured for the mercenary captain to sit down.
"It was like kicking an iron plate. I'm glad we mercenaries jumped out of that vortex early and didn't have to keep opposing you, my lord. What I don't understand is, if the Norton Family clearly has such formidable strength, why did you still hire us? I've been wondering whether you deliberately sent us to our deaths…"
"So that's why you chose to set up a military camp on such a high cliff to look out for yourself? Tell me — where exactly did you get the impression that our Norton Family is so powerful? The truth is, I hired you because I had no one else to use," said Lorist.
"No one else to use? Impossible, my lord! Among those two thousand or so laborers at Poplar Beach who are preparing to build a city, two or three hundred young men have already awakened Combat Force. And that's not even counting the two-hundred-strong garrison — several among them are Silver-rank…" Hosky nearly raised his voice. He didn't believe Lorist's words.
Lorist smiled bitterly. "Captain Hosky, no wonder you can't believe it. But didn't you notice that the relationship between that garrison and our Norton Family is rather strange? I can explain the reason to you, but I must ask that you keep it to yourself. This isn't exactly something the Norton Family can be proud of."
After Lorist explained the relationship between Northwild Town and the Norton Family, Hosky listened as though hearing a fantastical tale from some distant land. "My… my lord, I don't even know what to say. I've never heard anything so absurd. I… I can only say that your ancestors were far, far too lenient. Meeting a lord like that is a blessing, and only a lord like that could have let such an eccentric garrison run wild."
"I can actually understand my ancestors' reasoning. You know what the situation in the Northland is like — what was always lacking was people. No matter whether those garrison ancestors were refugees, thieves, swindlers, bandits, or criminals, as long as they were human, they were treasures in the Northland of that era. My ancestors wanted them to settle down peacefully in the territory and contribute to the family, which is why they offered such generous conditions. They simply never expected that the garrison would exploit the loopholes, and it has been dragged on generation after generation until now…" Lorist sighed.
"Then with the strength you currently hold, my lord, you should be able to wipe out those garrison troops in Northwild Town, right? That knight Josk can cleanly suppress all the Silver-ranks in the garrison, and we can help as well…" said Hosky.
"If we concentrated the family's full strength and added you mercenaries, we could indeed eliminate the garrison at Northwild Town. But the cost in casualties would be far too steep. Don't look at me like that — no matter how skilled I am, could I possibly slaughter a thousand or even a hundred people in one go? Besides, the people of Northwild Town are deeply entangled with our family. Many people in Maplewood Manor have relatives among certain Northwild Town families. I'm worried that using force would scatter the family's loyalties. Even though the garrison is what it is, they still nominally belong to our Norton Family. Without an open rebellion, I can't very well go on a killing spree. That's why I have to take the soft approach and squeeze them into submission step by step. If they openly rebelled, I'd actually welcome it — that would give me the excuse to carve out this tumor for good."
"Then everything my lord is doing now is part of a deliberate plan. I understand. A few days ago, several of the laborers who had awakened Combat Force came wanting to sign on as mercenaries. Worried about triggering a conflict, I turned down their requests," said Hosky.
"That's fine. If they can handle the hardships of mercenary life, they can be accepted. In a while, our family will also select a batch from among them to form a newly established family guard unit. Building this military camp here is also a test for them…" said Lorist.
"Alright, thank you, my lord. Rest assured, we will be like nails hammered deep — the Norton Family's first line of defense against the mountain barbarians," Hosky said with solemn conviction.
…