"Your Highness, I have returned."
After fifteen days, Tager appeared before
Tager's journey to
"Have they found Knight Lemard's whereabouts?" Lorist asked.
In the
During the journey north, Knight Lemard hadn't done anything particularly outstanding. The apothecary team under his charge faithfully fulfilled their duties — treating injuries and illnesses and preventing epidemics — ensuring that the ever-growing northward caravan wasn't plagued by widespread sickness. Lorist's trust in him grew with each passing day.
After enduring countless hardships and returning to the Norton Family territory, Lemard became a Norton Family Knight. He then refused the important position Lorist had offered him — head apothecary for the entire family territory — and instead went to the newly established women's battalion to teach those female soldiers the fundamentals of alchemy, as well as basic battlefield nursing and emergency first aid for the wounded.
What happened next left everyone's jaws on the floor. In less than three months at the women's battalion, Knight Lemard had gotten seven of the female soldiers pregnant, and all seven insisted on marrying him to start a happy family. The commander of the women's battalion, Miss Baisha, was so furious she nearly exploded. She dragged Knight Lemard before Lorist to lodge a complaint, and in the end, Lorist announced his punishment for Knight Lemard: all seven pregnant female soldiers were to marry him and become his wives.
From that point on, Knight Lemard lived in a state of constant turmoil. He had maintained several records among the Norton Family Knights.
First, the most wives — seven. Perhaps Fierce Tiger Ross had many lovers, exceeding Knight Lemard's count, but Fierce Tiger Ross had only one wife, and that was Miss Baisha.
Second, Knight Lemard was known as the number one henpecked knight of the Norton Family. There was no helping it — anyone with seven fierce, tiger-like wives would end up just like Knight Lemard.
Third, the most children. Seven wives had already borne Knight Lemard seventeen children. Knight Lemard had been working himself to the bone to earn milk money for his kids. No matter how late it was, if there was a patient, he would grab his medicine kit and set out regardless of rain or wind, season or weather, all to earn a few extra silver coins. He was hailed as the most diligent apothecary of the Norton Family. Considering Knight Lemard's exceptional constitution, and that he was only in his forties, many people were placing bets on how many more children he would have before turning fifty...
Fourth, the poorest Norton Family Knight. After starting his family, all of Knight Lemard's income was confiscated by his wives. He was lucky to have even a single small silver coin on his person — just enough to buy a small bread roll and a mug of barley wine to stave off hunger and thirst on his travels. Note that this single small silver coin was his entire monthly allowance. There was no helping it — a large family with many mouths to feed: new clothes for seven wives, milk money for seventeen children, daily household expenses and so on. It was like a mountain pressing down on Knight Lemard's shoulders.
Every Norton Family Knight received a generous family salary and welfare benefits each month. Even without any other income, a Silver Rank Norton Family Knight earned roughly ten gold Forde a year. For other family knights, those ten gold Forde were more than enough to live comfortably. But for Knight Lemard, that sum could barely keep his enormous family fed and clothed.
What's more, Lorist — to punish him for not being able to keep his lower half in check — hadn't allowed him to take on any side jobs, cutting off a substantial portion of his supplementary income. This forced Knight Lemard to wander the streets with his medicine kit, becoming a roaming apothecary. This actually made him something of a celebrity in the family's territories, deeply beloved by the common folk. After all, this apothecary knight put on no airs — he would treat patients even if they had no money. A chicken, a piece of fur, a basket of wild berries — anything could serve as payment for treatment.
Fifth, Knight Lemard suffered more domestic violence than any other Norton Family Knight. Others only had to deal with one or two wives, but he had to contend with seven. What's more, all seven of his wives had exceptional talent for combat force cultivation. Back in the women's battalion, they had all been key prospects for advanced training — but Knight Lemard had scooped them all up in one fell swoop.
The seven wives stayed home to raise the children, while Knight Lemard had to endure the hardship of supporting the family single-handedly. Their home was always incredibly lively. If one wife got a new dress, the other six would demand the same treatment. Likewise, if one wife broke through in her combat force cultivation, the other six would absolutely not accept being outdone, and they would compete fiercely against each other. Knight Lemard thus fell into the most miserable position of all.
After all seven of his wives broke through to the Silver Rank, Knight Lemard's own combat force level remained where it had been since his Academy days — Silver One-Star. Moreover, his swordsmanship was nothing to speak of, so even when he wanted to resist his wives' tyranny, he was effortlessly suppressed... The most amusing part was that when all seven of his wives broke through to the Silver Rank in combat force, the commander of the women's battalion, Miss Baisha, tried to persuade them to return to the battalion. All seven of Knight Lemard's wives gave the same answer: "No."
Well, one had to admit that all seven of Knight Lemard's wives were fine, virtuous women — devoted to their husband, nurturing their children, and keeping the household running smoothly. The only issue was that there were perhaps a few too many of them, and the daily jealousy-fueled squabbles were rather frequent. In truth, they had refused Miss Baisha's invitation because they feared that leaving home would give the other hussies the upper hand. After all, Knight Lemard was responsible for providing for the family, and life at home was perfectly comfortable — why on earth would they want to go to the women's battalion?
I remember once at an old students' gathering, Knight Lemard held a mug of ale and wept bitterly, saying that his family life was truly heartbreaking to witness and tragic to hear about. Then, because it was getting late, one of his wives came looking for him, and with a single shout at the tavern entrance, Knight Lemard bolted out like a rabbit. In that moment, everyone in the tavern finally understood the profound meaning behind what Lorist had once said — that making Knight Lemard marry seven wives would be the greatest punishment of all.
Later on, the Norton Family established a sea route from Northland's Oxhorn Bay to Shilowas Island, and once the maritime passage was open, they could reach Morant City directly. In the beginning, Lorist relied on two channels to obtain intelligence from the Commercial Alliance: the Peterson Trading Company and Old Gar at the Red Crow Tavern. However, the Peterson Trading Company was one of the seven major trading houses of the Forde Commercial Alliance. It could barely provide general commercial intelligence, but anything related to the Alliance's civil affairs or military was simply impossible to obtain — and there was even a high risk of arousing their suspicion.
The owner of the Red Crow Tavern, Old Gar, had a good relationship with Lorist, and was also Alei's uncle, which made him quite close to Reddy as well. But Lorist considered that since the Norton Family technically belonged to the Andinak Kingdom — not outright enemies on the surface, but fundamentally adversaries — any activities conducted by the Norton Family in Morant City should be as low-key as possible. To avoid implicating Old Gar's family, Lorist decided to set up a new intelligence outpost to gather information on all aspects of the Commercial Alliance. It was under these circumstances that Lorist deployed Knight Lemard.
The reason Knight Lemard was sent to Morant City to establish the Norton Family's intelligence outpost was that he was the most suitable candidate. First of all, he was an apothecary who had built a modest reputation in Morant City. Those who knew him had no idea that he had followed Lorist to Northland and become a Norton Family Knight. They would simply assume that after his falling out with the Professor, he had gone traveling across the continent, and now, having married, his return to Morant City was perfectly natural.
Secondly, his profession as an apothecary meant he could open a treatment clinic and an apothecary shop in the commoner district of Morant City, and his wives could serve as his nursing assistants while living alongside him. It was worth noting that his seven Silver Rank wives were far more formidable than he was himself, so there was absolutely no need to worry about his personal safety or the security of his clinic and apothecary shop.
And so, Knight Lemard went to Morant City with four of his wives, while the remaining three stayed home to look after the children. To prevent domestic disputes, Lorist promised his wives that they could rotate on a yearly basis, taking turns going to Morant City to stay with Knight Lemard and returning home to raise the children...
Knight Lemard's work in Morant City proved extraordinarily effective, and from that point on, all manner of intelligence and information about the Commercial Alliance flowed steadily into Northland. At the same time, the treatment clinic and apothecary shop that Knight Lemard had opened in Morant City's commoner district earned an excellent reputation and steady profits. For Knight Lemard, this was nothing short of a revolutionary transformation. The commoners of Morant City had far more money than the peasants on the Norton Family's lands, and all of those earnings went directly into his own pocket. Combined with his intelligence-gathering expenses and position subsidies, Knight Lemard's personal wealth began to grow considerably.
However, because Lorist had previously brought three allied lords from Northland to visit Morant City and ended up offending the son of Marquis Bieshanluo — the chairman of the Luoshanji Trading Company and president of the Commercial League Council — they had been besieged in the Dowesleg Grand Hotel. In the end, Lorist set fire to the Luoshanji Trading Company's grain warehouses and fought a bloody battle to break out of the siege, beginning a state of hostility with the Commercial Alliance. He also withdrew all overt personnel linked to the Peterson Trading Company, keeping only Knight Lemard's covert operation as the sole remaining channel.
Over the following years, Knight Lemard provided the family with a continuous stream of intelligence about the Commercial Alliance, serving as the Norton Family's watchful eye planted in Morant City. It was also during that period that, over a single messenger hawk, Knight Lemard inadvertently offended a noble merchant of the Commercial Alliance.
To speed up the transmission of intelligence, Tagel had equipped Knight Lemard with a messenger hawk, which was publicly explained as a birthday gift from a distant relative of Knight Lemard's. But to his surprise, within just a few days, a merchant noble had taken a fancy to the hawk and forced Knight Lemard to sell it to him. Fortunately, the hawk was well-trained, and on the very first occasion the merchant noble released it for flight, it flew straight back to the family's territory.
After losing the messenger hawk, that merchant noble brought men to search Knight Lemard's home from top to bottom, confirming that the hawk had not returned before finally letting it go. But the merchant noble had no intention of letting Knight Lemard off the hook — once war broke out between the Commercial Alliance and the allied forces of the Central and Southern Kingdoms, he used the pretext that the front lines lacked pharmacists to forcibly conscript Knight Lemard and send him to the front.
The moment Knight Lemard left, the Norton Family's intelligence line fell into chaos. The two wives who knew about Knight Lemard's secret mission for the family happened to be on their rotation back to family territory to look after the children, while the four wives who were still in Morant City had no idea what to do, since Knight Lemard had left in such a rush that he hadn't had time to explain anything. It wasn't until Tagel dispatched two intelligence investigators to Morant City under the guise of being Knight Lemard's relatives that operations returned to normal.
Secret intelligence — far more reliable than the propaganda published in the Commercial Alliance's newspapers.
Last August, the war between the allied forces of the Central and Southern Kingdoms and the Commercial Alliance had reached a bewildering stalemate. A strike force from the allied army launched a surprise raid on a Commercial Alliance logistics base. It was supposed to be an insignificant skirmish with no bearing on the larger picture, except that Knight Lemard and his young relative-guardsman were both stationed at that logistics base. After the battle ended, the Commercial Alliance troops mopping up the aftermath discovered that Knight Lemard and his young guardsman had both gone missing, suspecting they had fallen into the hands of the allied raiding force.
As soon as the news reached Morant City, Knight Lemard's four wives fiercely packed their belongings and prepared to set out to find their husband. The old intelligence investigator couldn't stop them at all, so he sent one last message back to family territory and then set off on the journey to find Knight Lemard alongside his four wives. Upon receiving the message, Tagel had no choice but to bring a capable team to Morant City to clean up the mess.
"Your Grace, we've located Knight Lemard. He did indeed fall into the hands of that allied raiding force from the Central and Southern Kingdoms, but it appears he and his four wives will have to stay with the allied army. That's because the Commercial Alliance announced just last month that Knight Lemard is a traitor..." Tagel gave Lorist a bitter smile as he relayed this almost unbelievable answer.
"What on earth happened?" Lorist was stunned.
"It went like this: the Commercial Alliance troops captured a batch of prisoners of war, and among them was the First Prince of the Jiekarno Kingdom, a key figure in the anti-Commercial Alliance faction. He was captured after sustaining serious injuries, and at the time the Commercial Alliance didn't realize they had caught such a big fish. Knight Lemard, out of the goodness of his heart, saved the prince's life at the logistics base. Meanwhile, the prince's subordinates launched a raid on the logistics base to rescue him, and in the chaos, Knight Lemard and his guardsman were both brought along and treated as honored guests...
Because of the trail of clues they had left behind, his four wives — accompanied by the old investigator — tracked them to the front lines and reunited with Knight Lemard. That scene happened to be spotted by the Commercial Alliance's scouts. So the Commercial Alliance nobles concluded that Knight Lemard had been acting as a mole for the allied forces of the Central and Southern Kingdoms, pinning the blame for the logistics base raid squarely on his shoulders. It was a result that suited everyone: they shed their own responsibility, while Knight Lemard became the Commercial Alliance's traitor..."
Tagel provided a concise account of how Knight Lemard became a traitor in the eyes of the Commercial Alliance, which left Lorist torn between laughter and tears. "It looks like Lemard can't stay in the Commercial Alliance anymore. We'll need to figure out a way to bring them all back."
"Yes, Your Highness, but there's no reliable route at present. We'll have to wait until the war between the Forde Commercial Alliance and the allied forces of the Central and Southern Kingdoms is over before we can find a way to bring Knight Lemard and the others back to the Northland," Tagel said.
"So did you gain anything from your trip to the Commercial Alliance?" Lorist asked.
Tagel was silent for a moment, then answered hesitantly, "Your Highness, I suspect this war between the Commercial Alliance and the allied forces of the Central and Southern Kingdoms is a grand conspiracy..."
...