"Your Highness, urgent report — Commander Earl has successfully captured Jeepses City. According to prisoner interrogations, the next fortress city, Robertvia, is similarly defended by only a thousand city guards. Moreover, it is reportedly the Commercial Alliance Armed Forces' medical base for treating wounded soldiers, storing large quantities of medical supplies. Commander Earl requests permission to launch a surprise assault on Robertvia. He is confident he can seize the city before the Commercial Alliance Armed Forces can react..."
Genorio looked somewhat haggard as he read aloud from the freshly arrived messenger hawk dispatch, yawning mid-sentence. After the fall of
"Send word recalling Earl — capturing Jeepses City is enough. We have no need to take Robertvia as well.
Lorist's eyes were threaded with faint traces of bloodshot red. Even as a Sword Saint with an exceptionally robust body, sleep was a fundamental human need. After enduring this long, he was deeply fatigued — yet he could not afford to collapse now. He had to press on.
"Tell Commander Earl that if the Commercial Alliance Armed Forces at the front learn of Morant City's fall and that Thomas City and Jeepses City have fallen into our hands, they will certainly mass their troops and march back to retake Morant City. Cut off from the logistical supply lines in the rear, the Commercial Alliance Armed Forces at the front won't last half a month. So, if they don't want their entire army annihilated, the Commercial Alliance Armed Forces must retake Morant City within half a month. All we need to do now is concentrate our forces and hold Morant City. Leave the rest to the Flying Tiger Corps and the Hunt Riders Corps."
"Yes, Your Highness, I understand. I'll send the message to Commander Earl immediately." Genorio rallied his spirits and hurried off with brisk steps.
"Your Highness, Lord Taggler requests an audience," a guard announced as he stepped inside.
"Send him in," Lorist said.
Taggler, his face equally lined with exhaustion, appeared before Lorist.
"Is everything arranged?" Lorist asked.
"Yes, Your Highness. The executives and families of twenty-nine trading guilds, seventeen Sword Saints and their relatives have all boarded the ships. At the same time, ninety-two nobles of the Commerce League and a Golden Sword Saint's family have come aboard as well — a total of one thousand seven hundred and forty-eight people. On top of that, six hundred and forty-eight handmaidens, servants, and attendants have also boarded. Lord
"Whew..." Lorist let out a long breath. "At last, everyone can get a good night's sleep. You should go and rest properly too. These three days have truly been exhausting for everyone."
The surrender of the inner city district and the capture of Morant City did not mean everything was settled. On the contrary, Lorist and the Norton Family's higher-ups had grown even more vigilant. The reason was simple: the inner city district had housed seventeen Sword Saints retained by the various trading guilds and roughly forty Golden Sword Saints — a formidable fighting force that Lorist could not afford to ignore. Even though they had laid down their weapons and surrendered, Lorist could not simply leave them unattended off to the side.
While Lorist was present, nothing would happen. But if he was absent, those Sword Saints and Golden Sword Saints could suddenly rise up in rebellion, and no one would be able to stop them. The problem was that Lorist couldn't personally watch over these high-value captives forever. After much deliberation, it was Taggler who finally came up with a solution.
Taggler suggested placing the captives on ships. Hidden Gold Bay was already under the Norton Family fleet's control, and housing the Commerce League's elite fighting force on ships would reduce the number of guards needed. If they were kept on land, defending against these captives alone would require at least a full legion.
Lorist was delighted. Inspired by Taggler's proposal, he immediately ordered the two captured Sepnium-class dreadnoughts from the Fourth Fleet of the Invincible Armada's surrender to serve as the center. Surrounding them, he arranged a ring of damaged large armed warships, and on the outer layer, connected the captured medium-class fast armed warships. All masts were removed, and wooden planks linked everything together to form a three-tiered flotilla platform. This was then towed to the center of Hidden Gold Bay and anchored in place. All the Sword Saints, Golden Sword Saints, guild executives, and League nobles were relocated to this linked ship platform.
Hidden Gold Bay's waters were calm and still, so there was no need to worry about the massive platform being tossed about by wind and waves — walking on it felt just like solid ground. To keep the captives from feeling too wretched, Lorist even had large quantities of fine living supplies brought over from the inner city district. Expensive carpets were laid across the platform, and the high-born captives were permitted to bring their personal attendants, handmaidens, and servants with them to spend their captivity on this enormous vessel.
Eight large armed warships were anchored around the platform, and Jim, the deputy commander of the artillery battalion, was ordered to position five land-variant bronze cannons on each ship aimed at the platform. Only then did Lorist feel certain that nothing could go wrong.
"Your Highness, the distinguished captives on the platform have been properly settled, but the roughly one hundred thousand inner city residents held in the fleet's prisoner camp have filed a protest with us," Taggler said with a bitter smile, having not gone to rest after all.
"Protest? What are they protesting? We've already done everything we promised!" Lorist's lips curled upward. After separating the surrendered trade association executives, nobles, Sword Saints, and Golden Swordsmen from the ordinary trade association members and armed guards, these common prisoners were left entirely at Lorist's mercy.
"They're protesting that the food we provide is too sparse to fill their stomachs..."
"Heh heh..." Lorist laughed heartily. "If they can't eat their fill, they can take out gold coins and buy more — we haven't violated their sacred private property rights. After all, when they left the Inner City, they all brought their wealth with them. As prisoners, they should have the sense to endure hardship. We've already provided them with food and clean water for free, guaranteeing they won't starve. This is wartime, and they should know how precious food is. They can't seriously become prisoners and then demand that we provide them with wine and meat — there's no such logic in this world."
Lorist had always been a man of his word, and he had indeed kept his promise — providing these hundred-odd thousand Inner City captives with free food and drink and guaranteeing that their personal property would not be touched. But what he provided was only two bowls of thin gruel so watery you could see your shadow through it per prisoner per day. Clean water was plentiful enough, though — Lorist had ordered a canal dug to the prisoner camp, so anyone who wanted a drink could simply lie down and drink their fill.
At the same time, Lorist had also opened a tavern inside the prisoner camp. As long as the prisoners had money, they could eat and drink to their hearts' content at the tavern. Since it was a monopoly, the prices were somewhat steep — outside, a mug of ale cost five copper coins, but here it required one large silver coin; outside, three horn-shaped honey bread rolls cost a single small silver coin, but here they sold for one gold Fardig... Since the prisoner camp had only been open for three days, the tavern currently had sparse business, but Lorist was in no hurry.
"In that case, I'll order Patchiko to bring a Personal Guard Legion to maintain order in both the prisoner camp and the fleet district. Since the Invincible Fleet is gone now, once Sembawood delivers those Invincible Fleet prisoners to Silovas Island and sends over the prisoner roster, we can split the families of the sailors and crew in the fleet district into two groups — those whose relatives are still alive can have their families sent to Silovas Island, while the families of those who died in battle will be consolidated into the same camp as the Inner City prisoners. I believe Patchiko's twelve-thousand-strong Personal Guard Legion will be more than sufficient to deal with these hundred-odd thousand unarmed prisoners."
Lorist pondered for a moment and made his decision. These hundred-odd thousand members of the Inner City prisoner camp were all backbone members and diehards of the Trade Alliance's various chambers of commerce — either management personnel or armed guards. Lorist had no interest in winning their allegiance or service. In his eyes, these captives were nothing more than gleaming gold human-shaped wallets, and what he was figuring out was how to squeeze every last coin from them. To get them to surrender, he had offered generous terms and promised not to seize their private property — but that didn't mean there was no way to empty their wallets...
If this were the Outer Twenty-Four Districts, Lorist might have needed to think twice. After all, those twenty-four communities boasted a population of over a million, and if they revolted, even putting down the uprising would leave both sides badly wounded. But these hundred-odd thousand from the Inner City had already been removed from the Inner City and placed in the fleet district's prisoner camp — they were like fish and meat laid out before Lorist, to be carved up however he pleased. If trouble happened, all the better — Lorist could use it as a pretext to tear up his promise, slaughter them wholesale, and plunder their wealth. None of these people would ever be of use to him anyway, so he might as well kill them all and be done with it.
"Oh, right — have the surrendered sailors and crew from the Fourth Fleet and their families all boarded the ships?" Lorist asked.
"They have, Your Highness. They departed this afternoon at three o'clock for Silovas Island," Taggler replied.
The dock district of Morant City was a public area, but the fleet district was an exclusive residential zone for the Invincible Fleet's members. Lorist had already set his sights on those surrendered sailors and crewmen of the Invincible Fleet — they were all seasoned mariners. In his plans going forward, Lorist needed a massive transport fleet, and lacking manpower, he turned his gaze toward these surrendered Invincible Fleet crew members.
Sending the surviving surrendered crew members and their families from the fleet district to Silovas Island to reunite wasn't an act of goodwill on Lorist's part. It was a way to compel those surrendered sailors and crewmen to pledge their loyalty to the Norton Family and serve him, in exchange for better living conditions for their families. At the same time, their families served as hostages — as long as they had ties to hold onto, these sailors and crewmen would work diligently and wholeheartedly at whatever tasks they were assigned.
"Also, Your Highness, the Rock Legion's regiment commander Beluneck has led one regiment to secure the warehouse district outside the eastern gate, and regiment commander Jaders has taken three battalions to occupy the trade district. Lord Reddy has gone to the Outer Twenty-Four Districts to maintain order, and Lord Bodfenger is holding the Inner City with one battalion. Morant City is essentially under our control now..." Taggler summarized.
"Lorist let out another long sigh. You never realize how few soldiers you have until you need them. Two legions, eight regiments, ninety-six thousand troops — yet when spread across a city of over a million people, it was woefully insufficient. Every place needed manpower, every position had defensive gaps. He'd been dreaming of plundering wealth, but now he didn't even have enough hands to clean out the vaults of the merchant guilds in the Inner City.
One regiment had been dispatched to raid Thomas City and Gypsies City, and Sword Saint Hughes had taken a regiment to defend the outer city walls. Of the remaining two regiments, one was guarding the dock district while the other, under Commander Pacchiko, was securing the fleet district and the Inner City prisoner camp set up there.
The Rock Legion's four regiments were similarly stretched thin. Reddy had taken two regiments to maintain order across the Outer Twenty-Four Districts, and one regiment under commander Neruneck had seized the warehouse district outside the eastern gate — the largest supply and storage base the Commerce Alliance had established in Morant City, a position that could not be lost. The remaining regiment was split in two: Jaders took three battalions to occupy the trade district, the commercial hub of Morant City where the Commerce Alliance had all registered merchant guilds operating their shops and trading houses — a treasure trove of accumulated wealth.
Bodfenger took the remaining single battalion to garrison the now-empty Inner City, where the warehouses, vaults, and armories still hadn't been cleared out for lack of manpower. And there were still the Temple District, the Academy District, and places like Brin Hill that lacked the forces to occupy. Lorist truly had no more troops to spare — at this point, the only people by his side were a single hundred-man guard detail.
"We'll be fine once Er and the others return," Lorist said, deceiving himself more than anyone. "Taggler, has there been any word from the letter hawks sent back to the family's domain?"
"Not yet. I estimate it will take another day or two," Taggler replied.
"So be it. For now, managing to get those Sword Saints onto the ship platform has already relieved a great deal of pressure on us. You really can't help but feel inadequate when compared to others — the Commerce Alliance actually has so many Sword Saints. Just the ones stationed in Morant City by their various guilds already outnumber the total count of Sword Saints in our entire kingdom..."
"Your Highness, why not recruit a few of those imprisoned Sword Saints for our family?" Taggler offered.
Lorist shook his head. "Forget it. It's hard to guarantee the loyalty of recruited Sword Saints. These men were either trained by one of the commerce guilds or they're the same sort as Injelek — cowardly, greedy for their own lives, and with no real skills to speak of. Besides, in a few more years our family will produce a few Sword Saints of its own. Ross the Fierce Tiger and Bodenfeng could both potentially advance to that rank."
As he spoke, Lorist yawned. "That'll do for now. I'm going to lie down — I haven't closed my eyes in three days. Taggler, you should get some rest too. Taking care of your own health is how you can best serve the family..."
"Yes, Your Highness. Please rest well. I'll take my leave."
Lorist had said he would lie down for a bit, but once he did, he slept straight through for seventeen hours. When he woke and opened his eyes, he found Genorio standing before him with bloodshot eyes.
Lorist was startled. "What's wrong? What happened? You haven't rested at all?"
"Your Highness, it's bad news. After Lord Beruneck seized the storage depot outside the eastern gate, he conducted a census and found that the grain reserves there are far from sufficient to feed Morant City's million residents — and most of it is rough grain at that. He estimates it can last at most another fourteen to fifteen days." Genorio delivered the grim report to Lorist.
...