This was the tallest and most magnificent building in the Hamidas royal capital — the former seat of power of the Haneabada Kingdom, the grand hall where Luther III summoned his nobles and ministers to handle the kingdom's administrative affairs. The massive pillars alone numbered thirty-six, all constructed from lapis lazuli, their surfaces carved with exquisite patterns and motifs drawn largely from the myths and legends passed down among the common folk. This was the famed Hepitla Palace of the Haneabada Kingdom, also known as the Hall of Thirty-Six Pillars.
At this moment, the grand hall of the Hall of Thirty-Six Pillars bustled with activity and overflowed with jubilation, for
"The first cup of wine — let us raise it to the warriors who fought bravely in this war of conquest, who sacrificed their lives to restore our family's honor and to liberate the slaves!" With a solemn expression, Lorist poured a full cup of fine wine onto the ground.
Nearly a hundred Family Knights in gleaming armor and more than a dozen officials in splendid ceremonial robes poured their own wine onto the ground in kind.
"The second cup — to the slaves who have suffered across the Haneabada archipelago for nearly a century. They were oppressed, exploited, and enslaved. With their own hands, they transformed this wild overseas archipelago into the paradise it is today. Do you see this magnificent Hall of Thirty-Six Pillars? But who knows that beneath its foundations lie the bones of countless slaves! They lost their freedom here, their lives here were worth less than those of beasts — in the eyes of those demon-like slave masters, they were nothing more than cattle and sheep to be slaughtered at will..."
"But now we have come. Our Norton Family's armed forces have destroyed this sinful kingdom! The slaves have finally gained their freedom, their dignity as human beings — though we came too late, and many more slaves perished on this distant overseas soil. Let us pay tribute to these suffering souls buried far from home. This second cup is dedicated to them..."
Lorist poured his wine onto the ground once more. There was no help for it — even though his true objective was to plunder the nearly century-old treasure accumulated by the Haneabada Kingdom, outwardly he still had to present himself as an angel liberating slaves from their suffering. That was simply political correctness.
As for the liberated slaves who refused to join the harvesting and farming teams assembled by the Norton Family and instead chose to sit idle in the camps around the royal capital, subsisting on two thin bowls of wheat porridge a day and enduring their hunger — Lorist couldn't be bothered with them. He had already granted them their freedom; they could go wherever they pleased, so long as they didn't interfere with the Norton Family's requisitions and looting. They could do as they wished...
But now, all the former kingdom's assets across the Haneabada archipelago nominally belonged to the Norton Family — not so much as a single grain of wheat was anything less than sacred, inviolable Family property, to say nothing of the sea vessels capable of carrying people off this archipelago on their journey home. Without Lorist's written order, no one was setting foot on a ship.
There was a group of slaves who had been enjoying the taste of freedom in the camp. When they got hungry, they took farming tools and headed out to the fields to cut some wheat for themselves, only to be stopped by patrolling Norton Family soldiers the moment they stepped outside the main camp — because now, on the entire archipelago, virtually everything except these freed slaves belonged to the Norton Family and Lorist…
The slaves were indignant and argued that they were the ones who had planted the wheat, so why couldn't they eat it? They were then escorted to the Norton armed camp, where they were first made to view the bodies of nearly a thousand Norton Family soldiers who had heroically sacrificed their lives for the cause of slave liberation. Then, twenty lashes each taught them why they couldn't eat the wheat they had planted, and why everything on the island apart from the slaves themselves belonged to the Norton Family. After the whipping, though, these slaves no longer had to go hungry — the Norton Family armed forces were humane enough to fill their bellies, and the very next day they were forcibly added to the harvesting teams to labor in the wheat fields.
Just as
Every Norton Family soldier found Fatty Shi's words to be eminently reasonable. Besides, the Norton Family was not simply abandoning these freed slaves — as long as they were willing to labor with their own hands, they would not only eat their fill and dress warmly but also receive monetary compensation. That was virtually a world apart from when they had to toil as slaves without even the guarantee of their own lives. As for those slaves who refused to work, the Norton Family soldiers resented them deeply, considering them ungrateful and shameless, and treated them none too kindly.
"This third cup of wine I offer to those gladiators who fell before the dawn arrived," Lorist said, nodding to the several dozen former slave gladiators seated to one side, led by Great Swordmaster Hughes. "Without their bloody battle, our Norton Family could not have captured this magnificent royal capital with so few casualties. They held back the enemy's last frenzied counterattack within the capital with their own blood and lives, secured the arena, and held it until our Norton Family forces arrived. Let us use this cup of wine to honor their bravery and sacrifice…"
Dazzling dances and spectacular acrobatic and magic performances were presented for the conquerors of the Haneabada Archipelago, and cheers and cries of approval filled the air.
Today was a day of celebration. All the Norton Family forces in the main camp received generous rewards — every Family soldier who had gone on the campaign was given a bonus of ten gold Fordes, with the wounded receiving double, and all enjoyed a lavish feast. The slaves who had participated in the labor and willingly served the Norton Family each received a large mug of wheat beer and a big piece of dried smoked meat. As for the slaves idling about in the camps around the royal capital, they also received a so-called "sandwich" — two slices of dark bread with a slice of dried meat between them — as a gift…
The next day, Lorist once again assembled the important Family knights and civil officials for a meeting. This time, the conference was to decide the final plan for the disposition of the Haneabada Archipelago.
No one had any objections to making the Haneabada Archipelago an overseas territory of the Norton Family, and no one had any alternative thoughts regarding Lorist's arrangement for the four hundred-odd thousand freed slaves on the archipelago. The only point of divergence was the resolution concerning the disposition of the Hamidas royal capital, on which those present held various different opinions.
Hickde and several other civil officials advocated preserving the royal capital. Such a magnificent and spectacular giant castle was a rare architectural marvel — though it had been built upon the bones of countless slaves, it could still be considered a great structure worthy of being passed down to future generations, and should be properly maintained and preserved.
Hughes, the Great Swordmaster, along with the two golden gladiators Jadeth and Mason, who were participating in a Norton Family meeting for the first time, unanimously demanded the destruction of the royal capital — especially the arena. That place was the greatest source of pain in their hearts. How many slave gladiators and their close friends had fallen in that arena? Only its complete destruction could ease the anguish in their souls…
Bodefinger believed that destroying the royal capital would make it easier to win over the hearts of the slaves. When he had been responsible for organizing ten security battalions from the slaves, he had learned that every single one of them loathed the Hamidas royal capital, regarding it as a demonic den — hell itself where devils dwelled. If the royal capital were torn down, the slaves would rejoice and be far more obedient to the Family's commands.
Malick, on the other hand, argued that since they were going to dig up every inch of ground searching for the treasures buried by those great slave-owner nobles, deciding to destroy the royal capital would actually be more beneficial to the treasure-hunting operation. At the very least, they wouldn't need to worry about carefully preserving the integrity of the buildings…
Fatty Shi approached the problem from yet another angle. He believed that demolishing the royal capital would be more beneficial to the Norton Family's rule over the Haneabada Archipelago. First of all, the archipelago was situated far overseas, and maintaining such a magnificent and enormous castle there would be a tremendous burden on the Family. Moreover, the Family could not possibly shift its center of gravity to this archipelago, so there was absolutely no need to preserve the royal capital.
Just like the Hebitra Palace — the Palace of Thirty-Six Pillars — maintaining such a palace cost no less than two to three hundred gold Fordes per year. While that was indeed a trivial sum compared to the enormous spoils they had seized, the total maintenance costs for the entire royal capital added up to one or two thousand. Over ten years or a hundred years, that would amount to a colossal fortune. Spending those gold coins on maintaining this royal capital was like tossing them into the water — not even a sound.
Secondly, the Haneabada Archipelago was too far from the Family's territory. With such a royal capital standing intact, it would be all too easy for the military commander left behind on the archipelago to develop unnecessary ambitions. As a precaution against such a scenario, destroying the royal capital better served the Family's rule over the archipelago. Even if a rebellion occurred, the Family's forces could suppress it without suffering excessive casualties.
The final point, in accordance with Lorist's arrangement for the freed slaves, was this: although nearly a hundred thousand slaves would remain on the royal capital plain to settle down, be assigned farmland, and build homes, the Family's military force left to garrison the royal capital would number at most a single battalion of around three thousand men. Such a force was virtually useless for defending the vast royal capital. Therefore, the defensive area had to be drastically reduced. From now on, the royal capital would serve only two functions: first, as a marketplace for imported goods, and second, as a granary and supply depot.
The three arguments put forth by Fatty Shi became the final resolution to destroy the royal capital. Lorist immediately decided that, with the exception of preserving the commercial district in the eastern city for future renovation, all other areas of the royal capital would be demolished — but only after Malick led his excavation teams through a thorough search and extraction of the treasures buried in the noble quarter and the royal court district. Only then would the demolition and burning proceed.
After some thought, Lorist added that they should try to leave at least half of the thirty-six pillars and half of the arena's spectator stands as ruins, so that future generations would know that two great structures built by slaves had once stood here. As for the rest, do as they pleased.
Having decided the fate of the Hamidas royal capital, Lorist announced that Hickde would serve as the first governor of the Haneabada Archipelago, with a term of five years. His primary task during those five years would be to distribute farmland and build homes for the hundred-odd thousand slaves left to settle on the archipelago, helping them establish themselves and become loyal subjects of the Norton Family's overseas territory.
Golden Knight Jost and
Golden Knight Malick was responsible for searching for the treasures buried beneath the royal capital and transporting all material reserves from the western city district. With the exception of some grain stores left behind, all other materials were to be transported to Nubit Port for shipment back to Shilowas Island.
Half of the Norton Family's main armed forces, under Golden Knight Tiger Ross, would remain garrisoned in the royal capital to assist Malick in transporting treasures and materials, while the other half would be responsible for driving the slaves surrounding the royal capital toward Nubit Port. Only those slaves who intended to settle permanently on the royal capital plain would be permitted to remain; all others were forbidden to stay. The Norton Family promised those driven-out slaves that any who wished to return to their homeland would board sea vessels at Nubit Port dedicated to transporting them back to the Galentea Continent — free of charge, with safe passage guaranteed throughout the journey.
Finally, Lorist assigned two golden gladiators, Jeds and Mason, to serve as Bowdefinger's assistants. Their duties were threefold. First, to assist Bowdefinger in reassembling ten guard battalions — the sixteen silver-ranked gladiators and over four hundred bronze and black-iron-ranked gladiators willing to defect to the Norton Family would all be incorporated. Second, to march nearly one hundred thousand Haneabada Kingdom nationals captured at the royal capital to Nubit Port, where they would join forces with the twenty-odd thousand prisoners already held there. Third, to clean up the battlefield — supervising the newly assembled guard battalians in beheading enemy corpses, applying preservation treatment to the heads, and shipping them to Nubit Port, while the remaining bodies would be burned.
Perhaps because Lorist's order to sever the heads of enemy corpses was somewhat peculiar, Fatty Shi curiously asked Lorist what he intended to do with the hundred-odd thousand Haneabada Kingdom prisoners?
Lorist sat with a grim face, silent for a long while, before finally speaking his decision in a quiet voice: "Execute every last one of them..."
Everyone present was stunned. Hickde and Fatty Shi's faces changed dramatically as they leapt to their feet. "My lord, you cannot! That is over a hundred thousand people—"
"They are not people — they are nothing but beasts wearing human skin!" Lorist slammed the table and rose to his feet. "They never once regarded slaves as human beings. They are the demons of this accursed kingdom. Even their common folk have the blood, tears, and vengeful spirits of slaves on their hands. I once swore an oath: for every Family soldier who died in captivity, I would bury a hundred Haneabada Kingdom nationals with him. These hundred thousand do not yet suffice to honor our Family soldiers and knights who died so bravely in the arenas! This is my final decision — I will bear whatever consequences follow!"
With that, Lorist swept out of the room...
On the twenty-fourth of October in the year 1773 of the Galentea Universal Calendar, the head of the Norton Family, Count Norton Lorist, ordered the beheading of nearly one hundred thousand Haneabada Kingdom nationals on the beach outskirts of Nubit Port. One hundred seventy-six thousand two hundred forty-three severed heads were piled into a pyramid standing thirty-three meters tall, dubbed the "Jingguan" — a tower of heads.
At the time of the beheading, Lord Shiched, then the governor of the Haneabada Islands, knelt before Lorist's great tent and pleaded bitterly for seven hours. He finally obtained Lorist's agreement to save twelve thousand young women from the blades, and they were later distributed as wives to the liberated slaves who remained on the Haneabada Islands. Thus the Haneabada Kingdom was destroyed as a nation and annihilated as a people, reduced to nothing but an echo.
It was not until March or April of the year 1774 of the Galentea Universal Calendar that the rescued slaves who had returned from the Haneabada Islands set foot on the Galentea Continent, and only then did the news that the Norton Family had destroyed the Haneabada Kingdom spread far and wide. Lorist's feat of building a tower of heads from some hundred and seventy thousand severed heads became known in every nation across the continent. For a time, the fearsome reputation of the roaring bear of the Northland Norton Family even became a primary means for housewives to frighten disobedient children...
In May of the year 1774 of the Galentea Universal Calendar, news of the Haneabada Kingdom's destruction finally reached another island kingdom — the Kingdom of Shaiisiya. This island kingdom, famous for its spice production, had a queen who was the sole first cousin of the former Haneabada king, Luther III. Upon hearing that the Haneabada Kingdom had been wiped out as a nation and a people, she collapsed in grief on the spot and fainted. Her son, the current young king, immediately ordered his royal uncle to assemble an army and march to the Haneabada Islands to avenge his mother.
The so-called expeditionary force of the Kingdom of Shaiisiya numbered eighteen thousand in total. By the time they arrived at Nubit Port aboard more than forty sailing vessels, it was already late June, around mid-morning — and from a distance they could see that towering pyramid of heads. At the time, Nubit Port was garrisoned by only a single battalion of three thousand men from the Norton Family. The wall defenses were far from complete, and the knights and Family soldiers of the garrison had steeled themselves to fight to the death and perish together with the enemy...
But no one had expected that the Shaiisiya fleet merely circled around the pyramid of heads once before turning and setting sail out to sea, never to return — as if they had only come to sightsee the monument. Not a single person set foot ashore...
In August, the Sembarwood sea fleet's six sailing gunships were on patrol near the Haneabada Islands when they learned of the incident. Enraged, they launched a distant expedition against the Kingdom of Shaiisiya. To their surprise, after just one round of cannon fire, the Kingdom of Shaiisiya raised a white flag. Subsequent inquiry revealed that everyone had been terrified by the pyramid of heads at Nubit Port. No one was willing to see another tower of heads erected on the Kingdom of Shaiisiya's soil — they had figured it was better to surrender early.
The Kingdom of Shaiisiya thus became the first kingdom to voluntarily submit to the Norton Family, the first kingdom in the history of Galentea to kneel before a noble house. It was a precedent the likes of which the continent had never seen.
This is no joke.
... (To be continued.)