The side hall ran with blood, the reek of it so thick it turned the stomach. Dozens of naked flesh-worms had already become so many pale corpses.
Wreathed in murderous intent, Lorist left the side hall and strolled through the newly built ducal palace. Before long,
"Have
Terman hurriedly sent men to relay the commands. Josk came up beside Lorist, looking sheepish. "Sorry... I was too impulsive just now..."
Lorist glanced at him. "Jo, don't forget you're a master archer. A good archer must stay calm at all times. Don't let your hatred blind you."
"I understand. I'll remember..." Josk nodded.
By the time El arrived with his men at the ducal palace, Lorist had already learned the general situation in Gildos City from several captured stewards. He first had El send a guard squadron to take over the palace's entire defense, then had El find a steward to guide another squadron to seize the city's warehouses, granaries, and horse farms. After that, Lorist took Josk and Terman's knight squadron to the barracks, disarming a garrison squad left behind and several dozen lancer cavalry, then proceeded straight to the labor camp where the slaves and forced laborers were held.
For Lorist, the greatest problem now was a shortage of manpower. To him, Gildos City was a city brimming with hostility. To turn Gildos City into his own stronghold, Count Corbilly had settled the families of his nearly twenty thousand lancer cavalry and garrison soldiers in two newly built districts. Although Lorist had seized Gildos City by surprise attack, what he feared most was being discovered and having those twenty thousand residents incited to riot — then he would be in deep trouble. So Lorist set his sights on the ten thousand-plus slaves currently building the city's commercial district.
After dealing with several dozen guards, Lorist smoothly took control of the slave camp. Next was the time for Mr. Tim's several hundred soldiers to shine. By chatting about old times, sharing the same lord in the past, coming from the same village or town, having heard of each other, or having distant relatives through convoluted connections, they managed to pull over two thousand slaves over.
Terman selected about a thousand slaves who looked relatively strong from among them and directly took them to the now-controlled armory, giving each a spear. Then he had El pick several dozen veterans from his guard squad to form two spearman companies together with these spear-wielding slaves. One company was sent to the city gates to replace the light cavalry scout squads and Tim's soldiers carrying large bags, while the other company was arranged by El to bolster the garrison personnel at the various warehouses.
With two additional companies of spearmen under his command, Lorist finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, he also knew that these two slave-composed spearman companies could currently only put on a show to intimidate people; whether they'd have any actual combat effectiveness if a real fight broke out was highly questionable. But regardless, with these slaves added to defend the four city gates and guard the warehouses, Yuri's two light cavalry scout squads were freed up and, together with Terman's knight squad, formed a mobile suppression strike force, meaning Lorist no longer needed to worry about the city's residents rioting.
Currently, the slave camp was being guarded by Mr. Tim's eight hundred soldiers, while the thousand-plus slaves who had been brought over, under Mr. Tim's arrangement, fetched grain and pork and mutton from the granary and began cooking porridge and boiling meat in large pots, preparing to give the remaining ten thousand or so slaves in the camp a good meal — first, to keep them docile, and second, to let these slaves fill their bellies properly.
El sent someone to report that, after a rough inventory, he discovered the warehouse storing weapons and equipment contained full equipment sets for two companies of lancer cavalry and over one battalion of garrison troops. Only after questioning the original armory keepers did they learn that all of this had been prepared by Count Corbilly to expand his forces. El had already outfitted the slave company guarding the warehouse with full garrison troop uniforms and equipment, and the leading guards were also hurriedly integrating and getting to know their slave soldiers, issuing them appropriate weapons. Aside from the slaves who knew absolutely nothing and were only given spears, the rest were organized into longbowmen and sword-and-shield squads according to garrison company unit organization.
The purpose of El sending someone was to request manpower from Lorist. He needed people who could keep accounts and write to continue inventorying those warehouses, also needed hands to transport weapons and equipment to the slave company guarding the city gates for re-outfitting, and additionally needed manpower to handle some logistics matters, such as cooking some food for everyone to warm up and fill their stomachs. Having followed Lorist busy for most of the night, everyone had only gnawed on some dry rations in the evening.
He truly admired
Lorist called Mr. Tim over and had him select several dozen slaves who could both write and keep accounts from the thousand-plus slaves cooking porridge and roasting meat, then select three hundred slaves to all go and take orders from El, and also had Yuri dispatch a small squad of light cavalry to escort them. The selected slaves were very unwilling, looking reluctantly at the large pots cooking porridge and meat.
Mr. Tim, furious, pushed and kicked them from behind while shouting: "Hurry up and scram! You know I found you a good assignment? Here, drinking porridge and eating meat is rationed; over there you can eat your fill! Now that you know, why aren't you moving fast?"
Lorist was even amused into laughter by Mr. Tim's enthusiastic performance. At that moment, Josk appeared from who knows where: "My lord, come take a look over here."
Josk brought Lorist to a corner of the slave camp. Here the walls were more like a fortress, and the cells inside were far more secure compared to the wooden houses holding slaves outside — half stone, half iron bars as thick as bowls.
"What is this place used for?" Lorist asked.
Josk replied: "My lord, this is the penal labor camp. It mainly holds those slaves who have awakened
"How do you know so clearly?" Lorist asked in surprise.
"My lord, just ask and it becomes clear. It's all told by those people responsible for guarding these slaves over there." Josk pointed at several men wearing guard uniforms standing outside a stone house to one side. These people were currently nodding and bowing obsequiously under the watch of Mr. Tim's soldiers.
"How many people are imprisoned here?" Lorist walked over and asked.
A burly man with a face full of flesh hurriedly saluted respectfully, then smiled ingratiatingly and handed over a thick beast-skin register: "My lord, currently there are 734 penal laborers imprisoned here, plus their 3,151 family members, totaling 3,885 people."
"Why are so many imprisoned?" Lorist said.
"My lord, this is already considered few. At most there were over 2,000 Combat Force-awakened penal laborers and over 7,000 family members. The one imprisoned longest has been here nearly a year. The shortest just over a month. By convention, even those wanting to defect to the Count must do three months of penal labor here. The Count says if these fellows don't suffer a bit, they won't serve him wholeheartedly." The burly man with a face full of flesh said thus.
"Hmm." Lorist stroked his chin in thought. This Count Cobry truly has a way with manipulating people's hearts. After three months of hard days in the penal camp, for the sake of their loved ones no longer suffering, besides selling their lives for Count Cobry there's no other path. No wonder his army expands so fast.
Josk, standing nearby, took an interest in the penal laborer the guard had mentioned—one who had been imprisoned for a year and still refused to yield. He took the register and, under the guard's guidance, flipped to the last page. After reading the information, he suddenly understood: "So it's him. No wonder he won't submit."
Lorist also grew curious and leaned over to look.
Josk introduced him: "My lord, you must meet this man. His name is Zino Farrea, thirty-one years old, a Gold-ranked mercenary. He's quite famous in the northwest region. It's said that his parents died early in his childhood, and he was adopted by a kind-hearted neighbor aunt. After growing up, he became a mercenary and married that neighbor aunt's blind daughter, with whom he had a pair of twins. According to the records, after Count Cobry's lancers captured the town, they began plundering. When they reached his home, they killed that neighbor aunt, whereupon he killed over twenty of them. In the end, it took Count Cobry's two Gold-ranked illegitimate sons working together to stop him. They captured his blind wife and twins, forcing him to surrender. Count Cobry greatly admired him and wanted him to defect, but he never agreed, so he's been imprisoned until now."
"Good, let's go meet this Farrea. Hey, you take us there. By the way, what's your name?" Lorist asked the burly man with a face full of flesh.
"My lord, my name is Tagel," the burly man with a face full of flesh said.
As he led Lorist and Josk along, Tagel complained: "My lord, they call it imprisonment, but this Farrea is more tyrannical here than I am, the penal camp's chief warden. He's the true boss of the penal camp. I'm only Iron-ranked, so I normally don't dare to manage him. Several guards who offended him were beaten badly by him, and the higher-ups don't care—as long as he doesn't escape. To tell the truth, if it weren't for his blind wife and two twin sons being here, he might have long since gone to seek revenge on the Count. Yet the Count values him especially highly, without considering that he killed someone the man regarded as his own birth mother, and still expects him to serve loyally—isn't that fundamentally impossible?"
"Uh, my lord, the cell up ahead is where Farrea lives. Be careful, there are pits on the road here." Tagel held up a torch and led the way very attentively.
In the flickering firelight, a tall man appeared at the entrance of the cell ahead, warily watching the three approaching figures—Lorist and his companions.
"Greetings, I'm Josk. We met two years ago at the Ximedes Fortress martial tournament." Josk greeted Farrea very warmly.
"Josk?" Farrea, standing at the cell entrance, froze: "Divine Archer Josk? It's you..."
His expression changed at once, and his tone turned grim: "You're in Count Cobry's service now?"
"Pah! I'd sooner eat his flesh and drink his blood — serve him? Dream on." Just mentioning Count Cobry made Josk's eyes go red; the blood-deep vendetta he carried was Josk's deepest obsession.
"Oh? Then how did you end up here?" Farrea eyed Josk strangely. The warden leading the way with a torch wasn't the treatment for a hard-labor convict, and from the look of things, Josk didn't seem like someone who'd been dragged in either.
"Tagel, open the door," Lorist ordered.
Josk introduced him: "Farrea, this is the lord I now serve — Lord
"The Norton Family of the Northlands? The Roaring Raging Bear? I traveled to the Northlands a few years back and heard of them. They're a powerhouse up there. But what brings them here? And they led you to capture Gildos City?" Farrea was baffled.
"Allow me." Lorist stepped forward and greeted Farrea. He then recounted in full how he'd led a convoy north to claim his inheritance, clashed with Count Cobry's lancers when they attacked en route, and covered the current battle situation and the taking of Gildos City.
"That's the long and short of it. We hold Gildos City now, but we're short on hands. Josk spotted your name on the labor-camp roster and brought us here. Frankly, I'm hoping you'll lend us a hand, Mr. Farrea." Lorist said it straight from the shoulder.
(Yesterday my head felt like splitting, smoked too much and got "heaty", couldn't settle down to write — apologies for no update.)