The longsword plunged into his chest, the tip punching clean through his backplate.
Knight Chevani's entire body went rigid, his sword falling lifelessly from his hand…
Blood-tinged foam bubbled at the corners of Chevani's lips. "A de-feated gen-eneral's death… is no great loss. It… it was my in-ineptitude that led to the to-total annihilation of this expedition… Only… only through death can I atone before His Grace the Duke…"
"It wasn't your fault," Lorist consoled him. "His Grace the Duke made the gravest mistake the moment greed clouded his eyes and he reached out his claws toward the
"Is… is that so?" The light in Chevani's eyes faded swiftly. He spread his arms wide and toppled backward, a smile of relief settling on his face.
Lorist silently watched Knight Chevani lying on the ground. After a long, long moment, he said softly, "Rest well on your journey…"
…
On the twenty-ninth day of the eighth month, year 1767 of the Galentean Standard Calendar, Duke
The commander of this expeditionary force, the legion commander of the Northland Legion and Duke Lukins' chief Family Knight, the Gold Three-Star Knight Chevani, had fought a death duel with the Norton Family's new head and new lord, Norton Lorist, when the expedition was cornered by the Norton Family with no way out, dying heroically at the age of fifty-three.
…
When the
For Lorist, dealing with Chevani, a Gold Three-Star Knight, was not difficult, and he wanted to force Knight Chevani to drop his sword and concede. But Knight Chevani was determined to die, and without regard for his own safety, adopted a mutually destructive fighting style, attacking wildly and causing Lorist no small amount of trouble.
For the onlookers, this was the first time they witnessed Lorist's formidable skill and superb swordsmanship. Wassimas and the four mercenary company commanders were all dumbstruck. Who could have thought that Lorist, a Black Iron tier who couldn't even produce a blade aura, could fight on equal footing with a Gold Three-Star Knight and even gain the upper hand, suppressing Knight Chevani's attacks the entire time? If not for Lorist holding back and not wanting to take Chevani's life, the latter would have been chopped to pieces long ago.
The more Knight Chevani fought, the colder his heart grew. He already understood that he was no match for Lorist at all, and the other's mercy only made him feel all the more ashamed. So when Lorist parried his final slash and thrust straight at his chest, forcing him to retreat, he did not dodge. Instead, he charged forward, catching Lorist off guard, and the long sword in Lorist's hand pierced through Knight Chevani's chest…
…
Over a thousand surrendered soldiers of the Northland Legion were disarmed, stripped of their leather armor, and had every last trinket on their person searched and confiscated clean, then set to making camp under the supervision of Family soldiers. The Silver Knight who had surrendered told Lorist that the previous day, when the soldiers had discovered there was no way forward, their provisions were nearly exhausted, and they had no way out, a mad brawl had erupted in a dark mountain cave, and they had begun slaughtering one another. By the time Knight Chevani arrived with men to restore order, more than four hundred soldiers had already met violent deaths. That was why Knight Chevani had decided to surrender—to secure a way out for the surviving soldiers—while he himself was resolved to die. Even if he had defeated Lorist, he would have taken his own life…
Lorist stayed in that unnamed valley for three more days, ordering the surrendered soldiers to re-enter the cave and, under the supervision of Family soldiers, collect all the corpses of the dead soldiers within. They were buried in the unnamed valley, and the surrendered logistics officers were made to inscribe the names of the dead soldiers and mark them properly, so that their families could come to pay their respects in the future. He also named the unnamed valley Chevani Valley and had a stone tablet erected with an account of the events to commemorate Knight Chevani.
Lorist felt that war itself was not troublesome—what was troublesome was putting things right afterward. Especially after the massacre of North Wild Town, the matters needing his attention seemed to multiply endlessly. No sooner had he returned to North Wild Town than a messenger arrived from Pinnacle Castle.
Fortunately, this campaign was already over, having taken about twenty days in total. Lorist had Jost and Paulbins take two squads of Family soldiers to escort the prisoners back to Pinnacle Castle first, while he himself would remain at North Wild Town for another two days to wrap up matters before returning. Lorist then issued orders to several of the managers back at Pinnacle Castle, instructing
He ordered old Barlek to take a group to accompany that Master Hider in surveying the mountain ranges near the copper mine on Morgon Hills, searching for iron ore and other mineral resources. He ordered Manager Codan to set up a prisoner camp and take over the management of the batch of captives when Jost and the others arrived with them, assigning them to labor. Finally, Lorist also wrote a greeting letter to Miss Tessie. Aside from the saccharine love words, the news he shared with her was that the crisis on the fief had been resolved, and she could now begin planning and designing the mountain city he had promised her, once the construction project at Pinnacle Castle was underway.
All things considered, Lorist felt that Miss Tessie was very well suited to become the Baroness Norton. First, while Miss Tessie was no peerless beauty, she was certainly very pretty—slender of figure, fair of skin, and most importantly, she possessed a unique intellectual elegance that greatly suited Lorist's aesthetic sensibility. Moreover, Miss Tessie was not one of those noble ladies who did nothing but pout, dress up, and flirt; she was a female scholar. As the saying went from Lorist's previous life, she could have been a goddess by her looks alone, but instead she chose to earn her way to academic excellence through her own effort. The strength of character and self-reliance Miss Tessie embodied were something Lorist greatly admired.
In his interactions with Miss Tessie, Lorist could sense her affection for him, which was why she tolerated his presumptuousness—the embraces and deep kisses. Though she was always angry afterward, it was more a mix of shy vexation and inner conflict. She was unwilling to break the vow she had sworn: to remain single for life, pursuing knowledge and truth. This was also Lorist's greatest source of frustration—why swear such an oath of all things? Of all the vows one could make, she had to pick the most inhumane one. It was infuriating.
Lorist had Manager Spell, who had rushed over upon receiving his summons, take charge of cataloguing and registering the provisions, grain, and other supplies at North Wild Town. He intended to haul every last usable resource from North Wild Town back to Maple Forest Castle and abandon the town entirely. The most pressing priority now was completing the construction of Pinnacle Castle, and once that was done, begin building a mountain city on Morgon Hills. As for the more than twenty-seven thousand mu of cultivated farmland at North Wild Town—it would be a pity to leave it fallow, but the Family currently lacked the manpower to work it, so it might as well be left to restore its fertility on its own. They would figure out what to do with it once
The hire fees for the four mercenary companies had also been fully settled. This time, all four companies felt that accepting the Norton Family's commission had been well worth it—the pay was generous, and their personnel losses were minimal. Unlike other lords who liked to use mercenaries as cannon fodder, this young lord of the Norton Family always led from the front, which left the mercenaries more like spectators and hangers-on. Even in the final battle defending North Wild Town, where the mercenaries served as the main defensive force, they had done so entirely of their own volition, because the spoils looted from the attacking soldiers had already stuffed every mercenary's purse to bursting with coins.
Vasimma, with
There was still one more problem to resolve: the disbandment of Hosky's mercenary company. Over twenty mercenaries were willing to join Lorist's Family armed forces, and another thirty-odd who had recovered from their injuries were unwilling to say farewell to the mercenary life, joining those four mercenary companies over the past few days. The problem was that this left Lorist with no garrison candidates for his military outpost at the edge of the Dragonmaw Mountains on the Family's territory, situated where two ranges met. If he dispatched a small squad from the Family forces to man it, that would disrupt his subsequent plans. After much deliberation, Lorist decided to select one of the four mercenary companies to take on the commission.
The company Lorist favored most was the Sharp Spear Mercenary Company, because it was composed entirely of retired soldiers and civilian officers, making it the most disciplined in its operations. The just-concluded campaign had demonstrated this clearly—the Sharp Spear suffered the fewest losses while reaping the greatest gains. However, Captain Sandello politely declined the commission after hearing Lorist's request, explaining that he already had two engagements lined up and would need to set off to fulfill them once he returned.
The second company Lorist approached was the Cromwell Mercenary Company, seeking out Captain Richard. Likewise, Captain Richard also declined the commission; his concern was that fighting the mountain barbarian tribes would result in heavy losses among his men. After some thought, he decided not to accept. The third company was the Night Bat Mercenary Company, whose captain was Ulprus Maxin. As an old hand among mercenaries, Ulprus Maxin did not refuse Lorist's commission outright, but he considered the bounty too meager. He demanded a hire fee of one hundred gold fudis per month, with the reward to be doubled.
Lorist nearly laughed from the sheer absurdity of it. The hire fee he had previously paid Hosky and his men was one imperial gold "old-head" coin per month for Silver-rank fighters and fifty small silver imperial coins per month for Black-Iron and Bronze-rank fighters — the annual total barely came to around one hundred gold fudis. Yet the Night Bat Mercenary Company's membership was only twice the size of Hosky's squad, but they were demanding roughly ten times the fee. It was absolutely preposterous.
The Five Swords Mercenary Company agreed to Lorist's commission at once, but they raised another request of their own. They hoped to relocate the families and relatives of their company members to the Norton Family's territory, and they were willing to become Lorist's serfs. Lorist was quite surprised.
Though they were not openly oppressed, the taxes were inescapable, and moreover, their villages were situated near Windbury, the royal capital, where they frequently suffered harassment from the kingdom's garrison soldiers stationed nearby. Life had become utterly miserable.
This time, in accepting Lorist's commission to fight against the Duke's army, the five leaders of the Five Swords Mercenary Company had kept their eyes open. Through their interactions with the Norton Family soldiers and retainers, they discovered that the Norton Family's treatment of its serfs was vastly more benevolent than that of other lords. When they saw the farmland near North Wild Town, recently devastated and on the verge of being abandoned after the massacre, they conceived the idea of bringing their villages over as well.
Lorist was delighted — what his Family's territory lacked most was manpower. He welcomed the idea of the Five Swords Mercenary Company relocating their families and even those entire villages over, promising that anyone who came would be given a house and farmland, with taxes set at only thirty percent of the harvest from their fields and ten percent for miscellaneous levies such as fishing, hunting, and firewood collection. Anyone who joined the Family's armed forces or contributed to the Family's endeavors would be eligible for further tax reductions.
Duboff was equally overjoyed. In his village, the lord demanded seventy percent of the harvest as tax and fifty percent on all miscellaneous levies, meaning his family and relatives could no longer keep themselves fed — life had become unsustainable. Lorist fanned the flames further: since the Five Swords Mercenary Company had accepted his commission, once their relatives arrived they would be taken care of under the same terms as the Family's own soldiers, and should any of the hired fighters fall in battle against the mountain barbarian tribes, they would receive the same death benefits as Family soldiers.
Well, the only remaining question was how the Five Swords Mercenary Company's relatives and villagers could escape their lord's control — Duboff said he was confident he could manage that. Lorist gave him two months and an advance deposit of fifty gold fudis, and Duboff and his men set off in high spirits.
With this matter settled, Lorist could finally breathe a sigh of relief. He handed over the transport of North Wild Town's supplies and assets to Vasingma, Sphell, and
…