The carriage rolled into the family's manor castle around two in the afternoon, long past the lunch hour.
The young maid Ilina was mending a white garment with needle and thread. When she saw Lorist come up, she was so frightened her whole body trembled — she shivered like a small quail caught in the rain…
Lorist sighed inwardly, doing his best to keep his voice gentle and approachable so as not to startle his timid little maid. "Ilina, come downstairs with me. I need your help with something."
He brought Ilina to Beruneke's room on the floor below. "Ilina, I'm entrusting Brother Bek's care to you. Go find Steward Kreis and have him send a maid to look after Brother Bek personally. Then set up a small kitchen downstairs — Brother Bek's meals are to be prepared according to the recipes I'll give you. Actually, we may as well all eat from the small kitchen. If you need more hands, hire a cook and another maid. Remember: they must be loyal people with no ties to Northwild Town. Also, every time Brother Bek eats, have the maid taste the food first to make sure it's safe. Do you understand?"
Ilina carefully stole a glance at Lorist, then nodded.
Lorist said, "Make a list of everything you need and give it to Manager Sper. Have him provide it all, and he can also oversee the conversion of the downstairs room into a small kitchen…"
Sedekamp came in and said, "My lord, Steward Kreis has sent someone to find you. It seems quite urgent."
"All right, Ilina. I'll leave everything here in your hands then. If there are any problems, let me know tonight, all right?"
Ilina clenched her teeth and nodded.
"Sedekamp, go find Pat and have him post a few guards here. They are to follow Ilina's instructions. Brother Bek, get some rest. I'm going to see the old steward first," said Lorist.
……
Old Steward Kreis was furious, mainly for two reasons. First, Lorist had gone to Northwild Town without bringing any guards. The old steward nagged on and on about how, if anything had happened, the
Lorist clearly understood the old steward's concern for him. He pushed the wooden wheelchair the old steward sat in while walking and recounting his experience in Northwild Town. The old steward was outraged to hear of Beruneke's plight — poisoned and bedridden for two years. If not for Lorist's grasp of pharmacy, who knew how long the deception might have gone on.
On Lorist's decision about expanding the garrison, however, the old steward raised objections. He firmly opposed any expansion, believing they absolutely must not let the garrison grow stronger. Lorist shook his head — perhaps this was the stubbornness of an old man. After so many years of guarding against the garrison and remaining vigilant, the old steward could not shift his thinking so quickly. Lorist found it very difficult to make him understand the principle of "if you would take something, you must first let it grow," so he simply fell silent.
At that moment, Lorist was pushing old Steward Kreis toward the family's restricted grounds. This was the other reason the old steward was so angry. The previous night he had reminded Lorist repeatedly that as the new head of the Norton family he must visit the restricted grounds on his very first day to pay his respects to the ancestral spirits. Instead, Lorist had run off to Northwild Town and come back late — clearly not taking the matter to heart at all. It had truly disappointed the old steward.
Lorist pushed the wheelchair, listening to the old steward's grumbling as they headed toward the back mountain of the manor castle, his mind wandering. What would the family's restricted grounds be like? He could find no impression of them in Little Rok's memories. Last night was the first time he had even heard the old steward mention them. What was inside? Would it be like those TV dramas and novels from his previous life — countless treasures, formidable martial arts manuals, divine weapons and keen blades, or perhaps a ghostly old grandfather figure?
Lorist was somewhat disappointed. Under old Steward Kreis's direction, they arrived at a cliff face at the back of the manor castle. The place was not only remote but also damp and chilly. Lorist looked around. In novels, restricted grounds always had family experts lying in ambush as guards, but he couldn't spot so much as a ghost. Did that mean the Norton family's restricted grounds were actually unguarded?
Old Steward Kreis fished around in the wheelchair for quite a while before producing a bronze key roughly a foot long and quite thick. He handed it to Lorist, gesturing for him to insert it into a small hole in the cliff face. Lorist did so and, following the old steward's instructions, gave it two twists. Then a "click" sounded from somewhere inside the cliff.
"Push that big rock to the left…" the old steward said.
The big rock slid aside, revealing a cave mouth in the cliff face. A faint stench of decay surged straight into Lorist's nostrils, making him sneeze several times in succession.
Old Steward Kreis seemed entirely unaffected by the smell. He turned the wheels of his wooden wheelchair and headed toward the pitch-black cave entrance on his own. Lorist hurried forward to push from behind.
The old steward instructed Lorist to go inside and light all the torches mounted on the cave walls.
After Lorist had gone in and lit a few, he finally had a chance to take a proper look at his surroundings.
Bloody hell, was this the family's restricted grounds? To be precise, it was a charnel house — stone platforms built throughout the cave, and upon them lay row upon row of skeletal remains.
Lorist felt so nauseous he wanted to retch — he really couldn't take it. The scene before him reminded him of a film from his previous life. The male protagonist had been searching for a treasure hidden by the Nazis in Italy and had stumbled into an underground public ossuary. It looked just like this cave, with skeletons and bones everywhere, and hordes of rats…
At least there were no rats in this cave, Lorist thought.
Old Steward Kreis waved Lorist over. On a platform before them sat a large iron box caked with rust. Opening it, the old steward pulled out a thick, heavy tome bound in animal-hide parchment and solemnly placed it in Lorist's hands.
"Little Rok, this records the heroic deeds of three hundred and twenty-seven Norton ancestors spanning two hundred and forty-eight years, and they all rest now in this very cave. Their numbers correspond to the remains within. Now I entrust this book of the Norton family's glorious history to you. I hope that, under the protection of our ancestors' spirits, you will not tarnish the Norton name, but become an outstanding lord and lead our family onto the path of prosperity."
Lorist accepted the thick animal-hide tome with a solemn expression, thinking that, having completed the tour of the family's restricted grounds, he could finally leave this cave full of corpses. But to his dismay, old Steward Kreis had grown enthusiastic and had Lorist push him around the cave while he casually recounted the glorious deeds of each set of remains.
At that moment Lorist couldn't help but suspect that old Steward Kreis had spent countless idle days wandering around this very cave in the past — how else could he rattle off the life stories of these corpses so effortlessly? After what felt like an eternity, more than an hour in all, the old steward said he was tired and ordered Lorist to push him out of the cave, roll the great boulder back into place, lock it shut, and head back.
"Grandpa Kreis, why are the remains of our Norton ancestors all kept in this cave instead of being buried in the ground like other people's?" Lorist asked.
"Hmm, it all started over two hundred years ago, when the first baron of our family was granted this territory and chose to build the manor castle here. Just as the castle was nearing completion, it was attacked by the mountain barbarian tribes. The first baron and his two sons died heroically in battle. His eldest son inherited the title and the lands, and led the family's armed forces to continue resisting the mountain barbarians. It was winter at the time, and the ground was hard as iron. On the one hand, deep burial was nearly impossible; on the other, there was fear that a magical beast tide would destroy the graves and the bodies. Conveniently, there happened to be this cave in the mountain behind the manor castle, so the remains were placed inside. The plan was to arrange proper burials once spring came and the weather warmed. But eventually everyone realized this arrangement actually worked quite well, and the cave was turned into the family's burial chamber. All direct-line descendants of the Norton family, upon death, have their remains placed inside, just like the ancestors. One day, Little Rok, you will be no exception," said old Steward Kreis.
Well — Lorist imagined himself dying one day and having his corpse left to slowly rot in that cave, and suddenly felt it was an extremely disgusting and terrifying prospect. I refuse to let that happen, Lorist told himself — this was something he would have to keep in mind, and when the opportunity arose he would find a way to change the tradition. The so-called family restricted grounds had thoroughly ruined his appetite and left him utterly demoralized.
Back at the main building, Lorist found that Pat had sent over eight guards who had awakened
Going upstairs to check, he found Beruneke sound asleep and Ilina gone who knew where. Lorist went back down, called two of the guards, and instructed them to tell Sedekamp, Pat, Steward Sper, and Steward Hansk to come to the main building that evening for a meeting.
Before long Lorist saw Sedekamp and Ilina arriving with three girls, pulling a large flat cart. They were laughing and chatting as they unloaded items from the cart with the help of several guards. As it turned out, Sedekamp had assigned four of the eight downstairs rooms as dormitories for the newly arrived guards. Of the remaining rooms, one had been converted into a small kitchen, another into a small dining hall, a third into quarters for the two new maids, and the last into a storeroom for the kitchen. Among the three girls, the tall and slender one was Beruneke's new maid.
Lorist nodded in approval. Sedekamp was now handling matters even more thoughtfully than Lorist had imagined, which left him quite satisfied.
That evening Pat reported that the manor castle had a total of two thousand two hundred and forty-five residents. Excluding the women, children, and elderly, only just over four hundred were young and strong enough to serve as family soldiers. With the assistance of Steward Hansk, he had already selected two hundred and forty-eight men. After dispatching the eight guards to the main building, the remainder had been organized into two guard squads. However, of those two hundred and forty men, fewer than twenty had awakened Combat Force. In truth, they were nothing more than two squads of farmer-militia — in Pat's eyes they possessed not a shred of real combat capability. Furthermore, the newly formed guard squads had no armor, no weapons, and couldn't even manage to equip every man with a single spear. The best they could do was to hand each man a wooden stick.
Lorist said they would gather in the evening to discuss matters, primarily concerning Northwild Town. The next day, Sedekamp would take a few men to Northwild Town along with Steward Kedan to handle the population registration. There were two key points. First were the families of the family soldiers who had fallen, as well as the dispossessed residents — this group was to be relocated to the castle construction site in the Morgan Hills. The second group consisted of the garrison soldiers who had been pushed out by the four major families. They were unreliable and would need to be registered separately. Lorist intended to send these people to build the other town he had spoken of near Northwild Town, in order to set the four major families' minds at ease.
Lorist did not plan to disband them. Instead, he had Steward Hansk pick out about ten of them to serve as instructors for the two newly formed guard squads, first teaching the recruits basic military regulations and drill. As for Combat Force instruction, Lorist intended to take charge himself — he was eager to enjoy once more the thrill of being a Combat Force awakening instructor.
Steward Hansk's second task was the same as Sedekamp's: to tally up the families of the fallen soldiers and the surplus labor within the manor castle. Lorist intended to send them to the castle construction site in the Morgan Hills as well.
Lorist instructed Pat to go to Knight Josk the next day and tell him to deliver the sixty-odd surrendered mercenaries in custody, along with the surplus leather armor, iron armor, weapons, and carts, to the family's manor castle before March 4th.
Finally, Lorist handed Steward Sper a piece of paper, instructing him to follow the recipe written on it from the next day onward to provide meals for the newly formed guard squads. In addition, Lorist asked Steward Sper to pay extra attention to Ilina's needs, since Beruneke's convalescence and recovery were now in Ilina's hands.
Lorist clapped his hands. "All right, it's getting late. Everyone get some rest — there's plenty to do tomorrow."