He had slept truly refreshingly. Lorist got out of bed, feeling his whole body relax instinctively—even the murderous aura accumulated between his brows had vanished completely. His body was in an unprecedented peak condition. Right now, Lorist found everything pleasing to the eye. He casually threw on some clothes, knocked on the door of the adjacent room, and told Shuwade to get up, bring his things, and go bathe by the well below first.
Shuwade came out with dark circles under his eyes and complained, "My lord, you were too loud last night. I couldn't sleep at all, only dozed off near dawn, and you're knocking on my door again after such a short time..."
In a good mood, not bothering to argue with this idiot, Lorist knocked on Shuwade's head: "Go back to sleep. I'll go wash myself."
Shuwade mumbled an acknowledgment in his daze, closed the door, and went back to sleep.
Lorist carried the copper washbasin from the room with a towel draped over it to the well in the castle's rear courtyard. He began drawing water from the well to rinse his body. Though July's weather was already quite hot, the well water was cool, and pouring it over himself gave him goosebumps.
On the other side of the well was a water trough for livestock. The two four-wheeled carriages Lorist had brought and the four Northland horses that pulled them were drinking water, being brushed and wiped down under the care of two servants. Lorist was just thinking of going over to take a look when he heard someone calling "My lord, my lord..." from behind. A maid hurried over and said, "My lord, the young miss requests you to come have breakfast."
Arriving at the dining hall, he unexpectedly found Shuwade there as well. Lorist was puzzled: "Huh, didn't you say you were going to sleep?"
Shuwade smiled bitterly: "My lord, how could it be that easy to fall asleep! This castle's stone walls are single-layered, the echo is heavy—any movement downstairs can be heard clearly upstairs. The shouting and horses' neighing are too loud. I'll go sleep in the camp outside later."
Shuwade spoke the truth. The castle in Baron Dina's territory followed a bell-shaped layout, like a bronze bell clamped over the ground. Its advantage was that it was easy to defend and hard to attack, a self-contained whole. The disadvantage was the heavy echoes — after all, it was shaped like a bronze bell; any commotion below would reach the upper levels as a buzzing reverberation.
Anna, looking radiant and satisfied, directed several maidservants to serve Lorist and Shuwade a sumptuous breakfast: croissants with honey, cheese, roasted ham, fresh fruit, honeyed milk, and homemade fruit wine.
Aridoli entered the dining hall wearing leather armor and carrying that two-handed greatsword. Trailing behind her were her younger brother and the family's
Aridoli set the greatsword on the weapon rack in the corner of the dining hall, then peeled off her leather gloves, washed her hands in the copper basin nearby, dried them on the rough hemp cloth a maidservant offered, and took the seat opposite Lorist.
Lorist grinned at her. Aridoli shot him an annoyed glare. Just then, Baron Dina's second daughter, Fenna Gali, walked in yawning and plopped down beside Aridoli. "Big sister, where did you go last night? Some wild cat in heat came from nowhere and yowled all night — kept everyone from sleeping. I wanted to find you to check it out, but you weren't in your room. It only quieted down at dawn..."
"Pfft!" Shuwade sprayed his mouthful across the table. "Sorry — I'm full. I'll be going now. You all enjoy..."
Shuwade fled.
Aridoli's face burned red. "Gali, I didn't hear any wild cat calling..."
"Mhm, a wild cat in heat naturally can't hear itself." Lorist chimed in. Last night, both Anna and Aridoli had tangled with him desperately. Anna wasn't one for noise — even at the peak she only let out a soft moan or two. Aridoli, though, was different. From start to finish she sounded like an opera singer, plaintive and tearful, especially at the climax, when it turned into broken, intermittent shouts. No wonder her sister mistook it for a cat in heat...
Aridoli's face flushed scarlet. She gritted her teeth and kicked at Lorist's leg under the table, but he caught her foot between his own and held it fast.
"Ali, have you decided yet? Are you coming with me or not?" Lorist asked while tearing apart a honey-glazed croissant.
Aridoli glared fiercely at Lorist until he released the little foot he had trapped between his own. Only then did a smug smile appear on her face. She shook her head and said, "I don't want to leave. This is the Dinan barony, our family territory. I won't abandon it."
Lorist grew anxious: "Stupid woman, has all that sword training filled your head with muscle instead of brains? Leaving now isn't about abandoning the Dinan barony — it's about preserving your family and bloodline first. Are you really prepared to feed an entire family into this broken valley? Once everyone's dead, there won't be any Dinan barony left. Your brother is still young. Wait until he comes of age and qualifies to inherit the title and territory, then come back. I guarantee your family lands will be returned intact to your family..."
Aridoli got angry too. She threw the bread in her hand onto the table and shouted at Lorist: "Leaving now is convenient, but getting this territory back later will be a thousand times harder. Just like you said, it'll be at least seven or eight years before my brother comes of age. If we're not on our own family lands, who will remember after all that time that this territory belongs to the Dinan barony?"
"What a good memory," Lorist laughed. "With our
Aridoli rolled her eyes at him: "You make it sound like it's actually true..."
Fenna Gali beside them asked curiously: "Count, is your Norton Family very powerful?"
Lorist nodded: "Your sister should know this well enough. In the Andinaq Kingdom, our Norton Family's strength is second to none..."
"Since that's the case, now that the kingdom faces a crisis, why doesn't your Norton Family lend its strength to save His Majesty from peril?" the second miss of the Dinan Family asked naively.
"Uh..." Lorist smiled wryly: "Second Miss, it's not that our Norton Family is unwilling to serve the kingdom. Rather, those in power in the imperial capital have rejected our family's armed forces' request. Not only do they refuse to let our family forces serve on the front lines, they've ordered our family forces to stay obediently in our territory without making any rash moves. Otherwise, I wouldn't have the leisure to come all this way to bring you away..."
"Have you heard of the Glass War that ended last year?
"Later investigation uncovered that these landed nobles had all been guarding their own family territories during the war when they encountered the Trade Union's mercenary bands and private armies sweeping through the countryside to plunder. These private forces and mercenaries exterminated entire clans or hanged them. For the Trade Union's mercenary bands, the more nobles they killed, the more land they seized, and the greater their chances of receiving a fiefdom grant."
"That's why I'm asking you to come with me — to evade these fierce enemies first. Take your family's land deeds and patent of nobility. When your younger brother comes of age, whenever he wishes to reclaim your family's territory, our Norton Family will send troops to assist. We will not disappoint you..."
Aridoli stood up irritably: "Enough, Count. Let me think properly about what to do..."
The girl had always believed Lorist was exaggerating. She trusted that His Majesty the King wouldn't be so easily defeated. Though trapped in three provinces of the Redlis Kingdom, he still commanded an army of 170,000. She reasoned that as long as the King's forces remained, the Trade Union couldn't spare troops to march north.
Lorist spent a leisurely half-month in the Barony of Dina. The young Aunt Anna attended to him so devotedly he had no desire to leave. The girl, however, still couldn't make up her mind. Sometimes at night she would climb into Lorist's bed, driven by who-knew-what passion, and spend the night learning to meow like a cat — yet she simply couldn't decide whether to abandon her family lands and go with him.
Not until late July did the military intelligence report from
The military intelligence report from Morant City was actually the Morant Daily. It carried an article titled "The War God's End." The piece reviewed
Unfortunately, after seizing more than half of the Redlis Kingdom's territory, Second Prince fell gravely ill. He missed the perfect window to unify the two kingdoms. This not only gave the enemy time to reorganize and form alliances, but his own subordinates' arrogance and carelessness led to a string of defeats that severely crushed army morale. By the time Second Prince realized something was wrong and took to the front lines despite his illness, it was already too late.
On the Redlis Kingdom's front lines, Second Prince faced not one enemy, but many. The Vesia Merchant Guild of the Trade Union, for instance, had long advocated bringing the Redlis Kingdom under Trade Union rule. The Four Central Duchies had turned hostile and joined forces against him because he demanded they abolish their royal titles and return to the former Krisen Empire's territory. As for the former Redlis Kingdom's landed nobles, they had been harassing the Andinaq Kingdom's Royal Guard Legion ever since Second Prince refused to grant them favorable treatment. The two sides were locked in a tangled conflict...
On July 13, the Four Central Duchies' allied forces mustered 140,000 troops and launched a counterattack against the 100,000 soldiers Second Prince had stationed on the Handra Duchy border. They deliberately butchered cattle and sheep on the front lines to throw a feast for their men, and the result was that Second Prince's 100,000-strong army collapsed on the battlefield from starvation. The Four Central Duchies' allied forces won a sweeping victory without lifting a finger, marching straight into Magik Province.
On July 21, Second Prince withdrew from Andeva Province, rallying the 20,000-odd soldiers still willing to obey him to hole up in Feltiga's royal capital. The force besieging the capital, however, consisted of 20,000 private troops from the Vesia Merchant Guild, 30,000 other private armed forces from the Trade Union, 80,000 from the Four Central Duchies' allied forces, and over 20,000 private soldiers of Redlis Kingdom nobles — nearly 150,000 in all — trapping Second Prince, the reigning King of Andinaq, inside the Redlis Kingdom's capital. With no supplies within and no reinforcements without, the Morant Daily declared that the War God of old had reached the end of his road; the day the city fell would be the day of Second Prince's doom.
The Morant Daily's report covered Second Prince's entrapment in Feltiga on July 21, but by the time it reached Lorist, it was already August 3 — thirteen days later. At this point, who knew whether Feltiga had fallen or whether Second Prince had met his end...
Picking up the urgent missive from Quinnlin Port, Lorist's fury boiled over at a single glance. What did they think they were playing at? The Royal Guard Second Legion, transferred from the Madras Duchy border, was still dragging its feet en route to the front. They'd only just reached the Imperial Capital, yet had already peeled off 45,000 men to rush to Quinnlin Port, demanding control of the port's defenses, demanding the Norton Family's Firmrock Legion withdraw to Silowas Island, demanding the Norton Family stop accepting refugees, demanding...
Quite a list of demands! Lorist thought, stroking his chin. Those in power at the Imperial Capital needed a lesson, and fast. A single Royal Guard Legion numbered only 75,000, yet they'd dispatched 45,000 just to guard against the Norton Family, while a mere 30,000 were sent to rescue Second Prince. The powers that be in the capital clearly saw the Norton Family as public enemy number one — who knew if Second Prince himself had authorized this beforehand.
Alidoli stared dumbfounded at the Morant Daily and the urgent letter from Quinnlin Port.
"How could this happen?" she murmured.
Lorist let out a cold laugh. "You know, those bastards in the capital don't even know what straits their own King is in, yet they're still busy infighting for power. I've got their number now. They think I marched to serve the kingdom just to curry favor with Second Prince, so they're preemptively blocking our Norton Family from winning His Majesty's grace, lest they fall from favor. That's why they sent the Royal Guard Legion to drive our family's forces into the sea, while they couldn't give a damn that their King is under siege on the other side..."
"Time's short. I'm leaving, Ali. Made up your mind? Don't make me drag you along." Lorist said gravely, fixing Alidoli with a serious look.
"I'm coming with you," the girl said. "But I won't be your concubine — if my Aunt Anna wants the role, she can have it. I'll be your lover, but you have to help me become a female knight, and train my little brother into a proper knight and lord."
"Very well," Lorist said. "Notify everyone immediately. Pack the essentials and depart tomorrow morning. Your subjects can come with you as well — I won't separate you from your people. The Dina Family can train these subjects into your family's future armed forces."
"Thank you, Locke..." the girl said.
……(To be continued.)