95 - 101

Family's Forbidden Area

By the time the carriage returned to the bastide, it was already past two o'clock in the afternoon and lunch hour was already over.

Lorist personally carried Belnick on his back to a guest room on the floor where Shadekampf and Patt stayed and went downstairs after helping him settle down.

The young maidservant Irina was currently mending a white gown with a sewing set. Upon seeing Lorist get up the stairs, she started shivering all over again as if she had been standing for hours outdoors during a cold, rainy night.

Lorist sighed in his heart and used the kindest voice he could muster to avoid startling the maidservant to say, "Irina, please go downstairs with me. I have something I need your help with."

He brought Irina to Belnick's room on the second floor and said, "Irina, I will leave the care of Brother Beck to you. Later, please go look for Butler Gleis and ask him to assign another maidservant for you to help out with his care. Also, set up a small kitchen downstairs and make Brother Beck's meals according to the recipes that I will give you. In fact, I think I will have my meals cooked at the small kitchen as well. If you don't have enough people helping you out, you can find a cooking lady or another maidservant to help out. But remember to look for only the most loyal ones who have no ties to Wildnorth Town whatsoever. Also, make sure to let the maidservants taste everything that will be fed to Brother Beck just to make sure there's nothing wrong, understand?"

Irina carefully glanced and Lorist before she nodded.

Lorist continued, "If there's anything that you need, please make a list and hand it to Supervisor Spiel so that he can prepare it for you. You can also leave the setting up of the new kitchen to him."

Shadekampf entered the room at that moment and said, "Milord, Butler Gleis has sent for me to get you. He seemed to be in a really urgent mood."

"Alright. Irina, I'll leave the matters I mentioned to you. Tell me about any problems you have at night, okay?"

Irina bit her lip before she nodded.

"Okay. Shadekampf, go look for Patt. Get him to send a few guards over and have them follow Irina's arrangements. Brother Beck, please get some rest first. I'll go see the old butler now," said Lorist.

...

Butler Gleis was in a furious mood for two reasons. The first was the fact that Lorist had went to Wildnorth Town without any guards. The old butler kept nagging on about the consequences that would befall the Norton Family should Lorist come to any harm. He mentioned that given that he was already in his final years, a shock like this would be very bad for his heart and pleaded that Lorist pay more heed to his own safety in the future.

Lorist understood the old butler's worries for his own good and recounted the events that had happened at Wildnorth Town to him as he pushed the butler's wheelchair along. The old butler was especially enraged at what had happened to Belnick. Had Lorist not had any knowledge in the field of herbalism, the injured knight of the family might have had to suffer for far longer than two years from being fed force-dispersing toxin without anyone knowing better.

However, the old butler made an objection to the expansion of the garrison force and believed that they couldn't be allowed to further strengthen themselves. Lorist shook his head and thought, perhaps stubbornness is just innate in old people. Though, given that he's been on his guard against them for such a long time, it wouldn't be weird for him to be unable to accept this sudden change. Lorist chose to not comment on the butler's words as he thought it would be hard to explain that his move was made in an effort to lower the enemy's guard.

Currently, Lorist was pushing the old butler towards the forbidden area of the family. This was the other reason why he was so mad at Lorist. Ever since the day after the inheritance ceremony, the old butler had been nagging nonstop that during Lorist's first day as the family head, he had to go to the forbidden area to pay his respects to the heroic souls of his ancestors. But Lorist had ended up returning at night after visiting Wildnorth Town instead, causing Gleis much grief and disappointment.

As Lorist pushed the wheelchair forward while listening to the ramblings of the old man, he wondered, what is the forbidden area like? I can't seem to remember anything like this from the young Lorist's memories and only heard of the place for the first time when Gleis mentioned it to me yesterday. What is inside? Don't tell me it's like the mysterious caves often shown in fairy tales or TV shows where treasures and riches, high-ranked technique manuals and godly weapons are kept? Would there be a spirit of an old sage there as well?

That train of thought only left Lorist disappointed when he arrived at a derelict cliff behind the mountain where the castle was built. Looking around, Lorist thought, the forbidden areas depicted in novels usually have high-ranked experts secretly guarding them right? Why don't I see even half a soul around here? Is the Norton Family's forbidden ground really left unguarded?

After fumbling around on the wheel chair for quite some time, Butler Gleis finally brought up an old bronze key which he gave to Lorist and indicated for him to use it on the small keyhole on the wall of the cliff. After turning it twice as per the instruction of the butler, a clack rang out from beyond the wall.

"Push that huge rock away to the right…" said the old butler.

After the rock was pushed aside, a hole could be seen from the wall of the cliff. A slight smell of rotten flesh drifted into Lorist's nostrils, causing him to sneeze involuntarily a couple of times.

As if he didn't smell anything weird at all, the old butler rolled the wheels of his wheelchair on his own and entered the dark cave. Lorist hurriedly caught up to him and continued pushing the wheelchair.

After that, the old butler instructed Lorist to light up all the torches on the walls the cavern.

With the torches lit, Lorist was finally able to get a good look at the interior of the cave.

Good Sol… So this is the forbidden area? It's practically a cemetery! Within the cave were several platforms which were stacked up from stone on which corpses were placed.

A strong stench wafted all over the area, which Lorist soon realized to be coming from three of the corpses that were still in the early stages of rotting.

Thoroughly grossed out, Lorist could barely take it anymore and felt an urge to vomit. The scene before him was like something that came straight out of a movie he had seen that was about a person who went to Italy in search of a treasure that had been hidden by the Nazi and somehow found his way into an underground graveyard where skeletons and groups of rats could be seen all over the place…

Phew, good thing there aren't any rats in here, thought Lorist.

Further away, Gleis was waving for Lorist to come over to a platform where a large, intricately-patterned metal box was placed. Following its opening, a thick beastskin book was brought out by the old butler who then passed it to Lorist.

"Little Locke, this book holds the records of the heroic exploits of the 327 seniors of the Norton Family throughout the 248 years of the our reign at this land. Now, the seniors are all at eternal rest within this cave. This book also has their respective numbers which indicate which body on the labeled stones belong to who. I will now pass the ownership of this record of the glorious history of the Nortons to you and hope that under the blessings of your ancestors, you will be able to become a magnificent dominion lord that will not put the family's name to shame and lead it to a brighter future."

Lorist stretched out his hand with a serious look and accepted the thick book, effectively completing the task he had come to the cavern to do. Finally, I can leave the cave now. The moment Lorist thought that, however, the old butler had him push him around the cave and excitedly recited the stories of each ancestor that was enshrined within the cave.

At that moment, Lorist suspected whether the old butler had spent most of his free time loitering around the cave, as he could casually tell the story of each ancestor within it just by memory! After enduring an arduous one hour plus storytelling session, Lorist was delighted when the butler finally said that he was tired before he instructed him to push the stone back and lock the place up before returning to the castle.

"Grandpa Gleis, why are the ancestors of the Nortons' bodies placed within that cave instead of being buried in the ground like that of most other people?" Lorist asked.

"Well, this goes all the way back to 200 or so years ago when the first Baron Norton was enfeoffed this land and picked this location to build his bastide. Just when the bastide was nearing its completion, the mountain barbarians attacked, causing the first ancestor and two of his sons to die a heroic warrior's death. His eldest son naturally succeeded the title and the land and led the family's warriors to resist the barbarians. It was around winter during that time, so the frozen earth was hard as steel. Due to the difficulty of digging into the ground and the fear that the magical beast migration would cause the animals to dig up and mutilate the corpses of his father and two brothers, the second Baron Norton decided to place their bodies within a cave that was behind the family's castle, with the intention of giving them a proper burial when spring came along. Later, he felt that the cave was not so bad after all and decided to change it into a mausoleum for the descendants of the Norton family and it soon became tradition for anyone of Norton descent to be given eternal rest within. You will not be exception to that as well, Little Locke," said the old butler.

Lorist suddenly felt that having his body placed within the stuffy cave and allowing it to slowly rot inside was a very scary and disgusting thought. I don't want to be buried like that! He then made a mental note to think of a way to change the family's traditions. Nevertheless, the visit to the mausoleum had upset his appetite, causing him to feel rather unenergetic.

Upon returning to the main building of the castle, Lorist noticed that Patt had sent over eight guards who have already awakened their Battle Force. Even though they were only of the Bronze rank, they could be considered to be elite soldiers of the family given the state of its military force.

He went upstairs to check on Belnick only to see him sound asleep with Irina not being in the room. Lorist got down and asked two of the guards to inform Shadekampf, Patt and Supervisors Spiel and Hansk to meet up at the night for a meeting.

After a while, Lorist saw Shadekampf, Irina and three other girls pushing a trolley over. It seemed that Shadekampf had decided to allocate the eight rooms downstairs for the new guards who had just arrived and renovated another two into a kitchen and small dining hall. One other room was to be used as living quarters for the two new maidservants with the last one being converted into a pantry for the small kitchen. Among the three maidservants, the taller one of the bunch was apparently Belnick's new personal maidservant.

Lorist nodded in satisfaction with Shadekampf's considerate arrangements that he would have neglected.

That night, Patt reported that among the 2245 people within the bastide, aside from the women and the elderly, there were only about 400-odd youths who were fit to join the family's forces. With Supervisor Hansk's help, he had temporarily recruited 248 of them, 8 of whom were the ones who were just now sent to Lorist with the remaining 240 divided into two squads. However, among the 240, fewer than 20 had awakened their Battle Force. In actuality, it was akin to only having two squads of farmer soldiers as both of the squads did not have much combat ability given their lack of proper armor and weapons. They couldn't even obtain a pike and had to settle for only one wooden stick each.

Lorist told them that the meeting that was scheduled for the night would mainly concern Wildnorth Town and instructed Shadekampf to bring a few men with him there to conduct a population survey. He also stressed that the family members of the deceased family soldiers who have lost their farmland to be sent to the construction site at Morgan Hills and also reminded that the garrison soldiers who have been expelled by the four great families to be registered separately to be sent to build the new town to appease the four great families as their allegiance was still not yet certain.

Supervisor Hansk on the other hand was given two tasks. The troops currently protecting the bastide were mostly retired soldiers in their forties. Lorist instructed him to not disband them and instead select ten from the bunch to become trainers for the newly-formed squads. As for matters relating to Battle Force, Lorist said that he would personally take charge for their classes.

The second task Supervisor Hansk was handed was similar to Shadekampf's: he was to do a survey on the number of family members of dead soldiers within the bastide as well as any others who were available for labor and prepare to send them to the construction site at Morgan Hills.

Lorist also instructed Patt to look for Knight Josk the next day to tell him to send over some unused armor and weapons as well as the 60-odd captive mercenaries to the bastide before the 4th day of the 3rd month.

Lastly, Lorist gave Supervisor Spiel a beastskin that contained recipes for meals and tasked him to prepare food for the new squad recruits according to his instructions. Additionally, Lorist also reminded him to help Irina with anything she needed for taking care of Belnick.

With all that said, he clapped twice and adjourned the meeting before telling his men to get some rest for the busy day ahead.

Whitedeer Mound, Bread and the Slave Camp

Lorist went upstairs and noticed that his maidservant, Irina, was staring listlessly to the distance from the window.

Approaching her quietly from behind, he looked in the direction in which she was staring. Lorist let out a slight voice of surprise as he saw the small mound not far away in the distance which was illuminated by the light of the silvermoon. Upon the mound stood several long blades of grass which swayed with the gentle night breeze and several white-colored deers could be seen jumping and playing around in the night; the whole scene was like witnessing a group of magical white fairies having fun.

Irina noticed his presence and tried to pretend that she was still unaware. However, her body started to shiver uncontrollably again.

Lorist wrapped his hands around the girl and took her into his embrace. He laughed lightly as he said, "Am I that scary? I won't eat you, you know? Why are you shivering? Oh, why are there white deers on that mound? What a weird sight."

After hearing his calming voice, the maidservant gradually calmed down and started to lean deeper into Lorist's chest. Upon hearing his question, she meekly replied, "That… That is Whitedeer Mound. Every time when the silvermoon hangs high in the sky, white deers will appear there. In… In the past, some people within the family had wanted to hunt those deers down, but they couldn't find them no matter how long they camped. Right after they left, however, the deers magically reappeared. That's why the people within the family believe that the white deers are the of Daphlyn, the Silvermoon Goddess herself. It's already fortunate for mortals like us to be able to see them from afar, much less touch them."

Giving Irina a light kiss on her cheeks, Lorist said, "Irina, you did pretty well during the afternoon. Keep this up tomorrow as well. Go ahead and sleep first tonight. I still have other matters to attend to."

...

Lorist was once again awoken by the ear-piercing sound of wood being sawed. He stretched his hand to his side only to notice that Irina had already long awoken and went downstairs before him. Sitting up on the bed and dressing himself, he looked out of the window and saw the illegitimate son of his father and the cooking lady, Eidelwoke, sawing away. However, Lorist noticed that he was currently sawing a tree stump now instead of a wooden plank like he did yesterday.

The first thing Lorist did after leaving his room was to visit Belnick. Seeing that he was in good spirits, he read his pulse while the both of them chatted. After telling the tall maidservant to take good care of his knight, he left the room and went downstairs to retrieve his swords. At the yard outside, four guards could be seen training hard: the Iron ranked squad leader, Moss, was showing the other three Bronze ranked guards the basics of sword and shield combat.

Lorist nodded towards Moss and went to the well nearby to wash his face with the bucket of water he had retrieved. Just as he was about to start his training, he noticed Eidelwoke watching the guards' training enviously as he continued with his task.

Lorist went up to him and asked as he pointed towards Moss, "Do you want to train like them?"

Eidelwoke gave him a look without making a sound and merely sped up the rate of his sawing.

"Oh, I've been wanting to ask you what you wanted to achieve by sawing every day," said Lorist.

"Nothing in particular. I only need the sawdust," he replied.

"Sawdust? What would you do with it?" asked Lorist curiously.

"For food. It can be mixed into flour and made into bread," Eidelwoke said.

"Mixing sawdust into bread?" Lorist almost fainted upon hearing that. What's the meaning of this? Is sawdust supposed to be edible? Whose idea is it? Also, does the bread I eat have sawdust in it?

"Wait, stop sawing. Tell the one who instructed you to gather sawdust to meet me," Lorist said.

At that moment, Supervisor Spiel appeared before Lorist and said, "Milord, this is a tradition of the family. Roughly a hundred years ago when the barbarians laid siege to our bastide, the family was short on food. The Lord Baron of that era ordered for sawdust to be added to the bread of the soldiers defending the bastide so that their hunger will be sated for a longer period of time. In the end, the family's forces managed to outlast the barbarian army as they had run out of supplies and had no choice but to retreat. It was then when the Lord Baron gave chase and managed to cause the enemy's forces to be largely annihilated, thus earning himself a magnificent victory. Ever since then, the mountain barbarians could no longer muster an army of more than 1000 people to face the Norton Family's forces. To commemorate that glorious event, the Lord Baron ordered that the ratio of flour to sawdust when making bread to be 9 to 1. It is also a great method to save supplies.

"That's why, ever since then, the post of a sawdust collector whose only purpose is to collect them for bread-making was created," explained Spiel.

"Does the bread I eat have sawdust in it too?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, your bread naturally doesn't contain any. Bread with sawdust is only handed to the guards and servants," answered the supervisor.

"Sol, they only did that out of desperation because the family was short on food back then. Now that the family has so much excess food in store, only the insane would continue that practice to save food. Supervisor Spiel, heed my orders. From today onwards, I forbid the addition of sawdust into the bread of our troops and servants so that they can have a proper and wholesome meal. Also, Eidelwoke, your position as the sawdust collector is now revoked. You don't have to saw wood anymore," said Lorist as he made his decision.

"Milord… This is… This is against the tradition of the family…" said Supervisor Spiel hesitantly.

Lorist gave him a cold stare and said, "Supervisor Spiel, what I'm doing now will also be tradition for the future generations of the family. Do you have any other questions?"

"No… No, milord. I have no questions at all and will carry it out as you say," said the supervisor respectfully with his head lowered.

Lorist touched his chin and continued, "Even so, we cannot forget the glory of our ancestors. How about this, Supervisor Spiel, go check on the date my ancestor attained that huge victory. Every year, we'll celebrate that event on that day itself by eating sawdust bread. This way, we won't forget the glorious victory of our family, right?"

"Milord, that was a very wise decision," he said as he bowed down deeply.

"Then, what about me?" asked Eidelwoke, who had just lost his job.

"Go report to the new defense unit. You have a rather good physique and it's a shame if you don't become a soldier of our family. I will personally be in charge of the Battle Force training of the unit too. Eidelwoke, when you break through to the Silver rank, I will allow you to bear the Norton family name and let you form a branch family. What do you think?" Lorist asked.

Eidelwoke scratched his head and thought before he said, "Then… Alright. I will do my best."

...

That afternoon, Lorist went to the camp of the two newly-formed defense units which was located at a plaza near the vineyard behind the castle. Hansk had already been waiting over there and had picked 12 retired soldiers of the family to carry out simple drills for the new recruits.

Pajik walked over at that moment and saluted Lorist before he said, "Milord, the slave camp is already prepared to leave at any time."

Lorist nodded and said, "Knight Pajik, tell me more about the slave camp."

"Milord, there are 382 people in the slave camp with 67 soldiers who have had their Battle Force awakened and 244 non-combatants, most of which are family members of the soldiers. They're already geared up for travel. Where are we headed for, milord?" Pajik asked.

"Don't worry, we're in no rush. We'll set out in another two days," Lorist responded. "Also, Supervisor Hansk, I recall that our family didn't practice slavery. Where did these slaves come from?"

Hansk gave a bitter laugh and said, "Milord, in actuality, nobody in the bastide treats them as slaves. These slaves were mostly gathered up during the military campaigns of the First Young Master. Like Pajik, many of them are surrendered soldiers who have been brought to the bastide after they were taken captive."

Pajik nodded and added, "That's correct. These 'slaves' are mostly prisoners during the civil war years ago like me. After I was captured, the First Young Master had once told me that he intended to use the people within the slave camp to construct a new town where they can live in and become free citizens of the Nortons. That's why the First Young Master paid so much attention to them and even bought over many slaves from other nobles as well. He once said that once the slaves form their own families, they can settle down in the dominion. The First Young Master had originally planned to start the town construction project once the slave count reached 3000. But, he passed away far too soon��"

Supervisor Hansk said, "Milord, after the passing of the First Young Master, nobody knew what to do with the slave camp. These past few years, we've had them help out with some farming and grape-plucking at the vineyard. Other than that, they mostly have their free time to themselves. As long as they remain within the dominion and not cause any trouble, we won't intervene in their activities and even provide them with food and clothing. It was later that Butler Gleis felt that leaving them without supervision was not ideal. That's when he allowed Pajik to manage the camp."

"Since that's the case, let's not call them slaves from now on. Treat them as the citizens of our dominion and provide them with more food and better shelter," said Lorist.

"Also, I've just noticed that there are some flaws in the arrangements that I've handed you yesterday. I was too rushed when I planned them and only considered the formation of the new defense units while neglecting the staffing of various other activities within the bastide. It was entirely my fault. Supervisor Spiel, I shall trouble you to come up with a new estimate that details the manpower needed to effectively run the bastide. This time, include Pajik and the people managed by him into your calculations as well as the youths who have joined the defense units including their family members. This way, we can get a rough grasp of the population within the bastide and can send the extra people to the construction site at Morgan Hills. That will definitely be an important place to the family in the future.

"Knight Pajik, help Supervisor Hansk out with his task and combine the original retired soldiers of the current defense unit with the new recruits who have awakened their Battle Force to form a new defense squad of 120 people which you will lead. Other than that, let the retired soldiers who are above the age of 40 to be instructors for the newly-formed defense units. From tomorrow onwards, I will personally supervise the Battle Force awakening of the new recruits of the defense unit as well as anyone from the guard squad who wishes to participate as well. Don't stop them from joining, they'll reintegrate into the guard squad once their training is done. Understood?"

"Yes, milord," said Pajik as he stood straight and saluted.

On the other hand, Supervisor Hansk thought for a bit before he nodded in agreement.

The next couple of days saw Lorist working up and down without rest as he read the pulses of anyone who wished to awaken their Battle Force within the bastide and organized the 400 or so people who did come to participate into more than 20 groups which he allocated to the elderly instructors to be trained. Lorist also designed meals according to the needs of the different groups and also had Pajik monitor the progress of the trainees intensely. By the time Lorist was finished for the day, Josk and Patt had already arrived at the bastide with their convoy escort.

This time, Josk brought over 124 four-wheeled carriages and 67 surrendered mercenary captives to Lorist as well as 20000 imperial silvers, 100 buckets of green vine glue, more than 700 assorted leather armor sets, 170 chain mails and more than 1000 weapons.

Lorist and Josk hugged passionately before he asked him about the situation at the construction site. Josk said that everything was going fine and that Telesti had already started having the slaves dig the moat for the castle and started the construction of the castle walls and told him not to worry too much about it.

He then asked Lorist why he was requested to come over to the bastide. Lorist said that he wanted Josk to escort a couple of people to the construction site after two days of rest. He also mentioned that he would be going along, but only after he settled the matters of the family bastide and the mercenary captives.

Mercenaries and Metal Armor

The 67 surrendered mercenaries were currently having their meals at an open space within the bastide. They were each given only two pieces of black bread, but there was another huge pot of meat soup which could be refilled as they pleased.

When Lorist and Josk went over, two mercenaries greeted their arrival.

Josk introduced them and said, "The older one is Hausky and the one with the blonde beard is called Jim. They are the leaders of this mercenary group."

Hausky and Jim approached and saluted Lorist and Josk, to which Lorist waved and said, "Alright, the two of you, follow me into the castle. I'll tell you what I've decided for your mercenary group."

Upon entering the castle, Lorist picked a room and brought the two mercenaries inside. After all of them were seated, Lorist said straightforwardly, "Even though your mercenary group surrendered to us without resistance, you still gave me quite some trouble when it came to deciding your fates. Killing you would defeat the point of accepting your surrender in the first place, but to not do so would be wasting resources and manpower on keeping you fed and under supervision, given that most of your men have already awakened their Battle Force and are at least of the Iron rank. Even if you want to join our side, we wouldn't be able to trust you either since your lot has surrendered to us so easily. What's to say the same won't happen again?"

The two mercenaries started blushing as they looked downwards in shame speechlessly because Lorist had just told them the cold, hard truth.

"I can't kill you, nor can I let you go scotch-free. There is always the possibility of you joining the enemies and giving us more trouble after all. And locking you guys up would waste too much of my resources. After giving it some thought, I've decided to… hire you with money," Lorist said.

The two of them lifted their heads up in great surprise. "Mi… Milord, you're going to hire us?"

"That's correct," said Lorist as he nodded. "However, don't worry. I'm not hiring you to go fight against your previous employer. I believe that your pride wouldn't allow it, and there's no point in forcing you to do so since you��ll probably not make any effort in it anyway. I even have to worry if you would backstab me for making that arrangement."

The two mercenary leaders nodded in an embarrassed manner as Lorist had read their intentions perfectly. Hausky, who was the elder and more experienced one, asked, "Milord, what are you hiring us for then?"

"Someone, get me the map of the dominion," shouted Lorist.

After retrieving it from a servant, Lorist spread the map out on the table and motioned for the mercenary leaders to take a look. "This is the family's bastide and over there is Wildnorth Town. I'm prepared to build a new town over there at Poplar Coast which is situated right next to a river. I believe that you know that the Northlands is plagued by the mountain barbarians who love to come over here to plunder and pillage. To prevent the construction project from being interrupted, I have decided to set up a military base at the entrance of the valley over here.

"I'm hiring you so that you can defend this military base. Naturally, I won't ask you to do the impossible. If there are too many barbarians, just hold your position and start a smoke signal and the Norton Family will send out necessary reinforcements. If the barbarian troops are low in number, just wipe them out. Given that your men are mostly Iron or Silver ranks, it shouldn't be too much trouble. Naturally, I won't be asking you to do this for free. For every mountain barbarian you capture alive, I will reward your group with one imperial gold coin. And for every barbarian killed, you will get 50 imperial silvers."

The two mercenaries looked at each other before Hausky asked, "Can we survey the terrain over there first? Also, what kind of military base do you wish to construct?"

"Of course, go check out the terrain as you please. You can even pick where the base will be constructed. I will definitely not do his half-heartedly; if we're going to build a base, we'll make sure it lasts. The 100 buckets of green vine glue that I've just received will be used for the construction of the base," Lorist said.

"Okay, we'll accept your request," said Hausky. "However, how will we come to an agreement of our fees?"

Lorist laughed and said, "Don't worry. I'm far more generous than Viscount Kenmays. Every Silver ranked mercenary will receive 1 imperial gold coin each month whereas each Iron rank will receive 50 imperial silvers. The reward for catching or killing barbarians will be given out as an additional bonus. The term of employment will be 1 year, and after that, you're free to either continue working for us or leave. Other than that, the construction of the base is not that urgent and we can start planning for that in the coming 10 days. After all, I have to get the materials ready as well. However, if you sign the agreement with us today, we'll start paying you from this month onwards."

Hausky and Jim stood up from their chairs and said, "Milord, we're honored to be in your service."

"Good. Then, I'll ask for someone to draft out the contract and after signing, you can bring your men to Poplar Coast and start setting up camp there. I will have someone lead you there and send the necessary supplies over as well," Lorist said.

"But, milord, we'll be needing weapons and other equipment, as well as horses…" mumbled Hausky in a stuttering voice.

Lorist slapped his forehead and thought, how can I forget something this basic? After surrendering as captives, they've already handed every piece of their equipment to us… "How about this? After signing the contract, you can let your men collect the weapons they are most proficient with. I will also be providing you guys with 30 sets of chain mail, 50 sets of leather armor, 50 mounts and 4 large carriages. These items will only be loans, but you can claim them with the reward money you get. Also, I'll be giving you clothing, bedding, tents and other miscellaneous supplies for free. Is that acceptable?"

Hausky revealed an ecstatic expression before he bowed deeply to Lorist. "Milord, your grace and generosity is akin to that of the great sun in the sky, giving warmth to the hearts and souls of us lowly mercenaries…"

"Buzz off! If you don't know how to flatter, don't. Did you think I wouldn't know that you plagiarized the words of the Song of Singwa to praise me? Supervisor Hansk, send these two fellas away and I'll be leaving the contract signing to you. After that, ask Supervisor Spiel to provide them with the equipment."

After the two mercenaries left, Lorist let out a breath of relief and said, "It's finally settled. Josk, let's go. I'll bring you to see Old Butler Gleis."

...

That night in the study, Lorist was chatting with Josk about the matters of the dominion while savoring some fine wine. Lorist mainly complained about how the methods he used that was perfectly fine at Morante City was frowned upon in his own dominion, which caused him to feel uncomfortable and restrained sometimes.

"I really don't understand why the family holds the traditions spo close even though they're already in this state. Didn't you notice when we went to see Gleis just now? He was even lecturing me to not let the servants learn to awaken their Battle Force. According to him, it was supposed to be some kind of reward for loyal servants when they are promoted and the way I'm freely teaching them the basics is against tradition. If it were me, I would even not hesitate to help all the maidservants awaken their Battle Force right away. Otherwise, how else would the family regain its power? Only 2 to 3 servants get taught how to awaken their Battle Force per year according to the old ways. And whether they succeed in doing so or not is a completely different story altogether. What would that even accomplish?"

It was apparent that Lorist had drunk quite a bit from his crass speech pattern.

Knocks sounded on the door at that moment and Lorist responded with, "Come in."

Patt entered the room and said, "Milord, Supervisors Spiel and Hansk are here."

Lorist rubbed his face to freshen himself and said, "Let them in."

What Lorist didn't expect was that both the supervisors have come to raise an objection because Lorist had agreed to give the mercenaries thirty sets of chain mails.

"Milord, metal armor is far too expensive in the Northlands. Many families even treat them as treasured assets and refuse to use them! Even though we only have 170 with us, you gave the mercenaries 30 sets all at once! That's too wasteful! Milord, do you think there would be a way to get them back?" said Supervisor Spiel without holding back.

Lorist and Josk gave him a stare before the both of them laughed out loud uncontrollably. Lorist laughed so hard that he was arching his back in pain, causing the two supervisors to feel rather befuddled at that response.

After struggling to keep his laughter in check, Lorist said, "Let's put that matter to rest and not ever mention it again in the future. Supervisor Spiel, you should understand that metal armor is only a very basic and common piece of equipment. If you go to the construction site at Morgan Hills, you will see that most of our troops there are equipped with a chain mail inside and another scale armor on the outside. To our family, the most important thing is the lives of our soldiers and not the armor themselves.

"I should also mention that the armor were all produced by a Grandmaster Armorer we picked up along the way. My only worry now is that the family dominion still doesn't have an iron mine, Otherwise, we can definitely produce armor and other equipment nonstop and will be able to fill up our warehouses within a short year. Should that happen, your main worry would definitely be the lack of soldiers to use the armor we have stocked up."

The two supervisors gave themselves another look of confusion. They would never have dreamed that the armor had been produced by the family itself. And the fact that Lorist got a Grandmaster Armorer to work for him was even further out of expectations. This was extremely good news to their ears.

"I forgot to ask, Supervisor Hansk. How many sets of armor did our family use to have?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, the warehouse currently has 17 sets of armor. Among them include 2 full body armors for knights which belonged to the Old Master and the First Young Master, 12 chain mails, 2 scale armor sets, and 1 plate armor," reported Hansk from the back of his mind without referring to any written record.

"Tomorrow, bring 6 chain mails and 2 scale armor over for the eight of my personal guards. The six Bronze ranks will be given chain mails as well as leather armor to wear on top of it. The Iron ranks, Moss and Yajj will be given scale armor instead. Other than that, notify Knight Pajik to pick one set of armor for himself from the warehouse. Oh, and don't forget to tell Patt the same as well. After giving the mercenaries 30 sets, the 170 sets of chain mail included within today's shipment should be left with around 140. I plan to use them for the new 120-man-strong defense squad, so distribute the armor to them tomorrow. As for the remaining 20, keep them in the warehouse for now. I will have some more armor sent back from the construction site at Morgan Hills and will reward each of the soldiers above 40 with one set for staying with our family during such difficult times," Lorist said as he stood up and paced about the study.

Supervisor Spiel nodded and said, "Alright, milord. I will do as you wish."

"Also, didn't we also have a shipment of around 700 sets of leather armor? Pick out 400 sets that have a similar design and prepare 400 pikes and also pack 4800 imperial silvers into a chest before loading them all onto carriages. Joe, I need you to accompany me to Wildnorth Town tomorrow to urge the garrison force for the new recruits soon so that no 'accidents' will transpire if they drag on for too long," said Lorist as he touched his chin.

"Milord, aren't you giving Wildnorth Town too many benefits by presenting all these equipment to them?" Hansk asked.

"If we don't do this, they wouldn't let their guard down. It's just like fishing. To catch a fish, you must first use some bait. These weapons and equipment are exactly that. When they take the bait, we will have a way to wipe them out. For now, we can only wait and endure. Worry not, when the time comes, I will make sure we get everything back with interest. Additionally, our family soldiers are already equipped with metal armor, so keeping these leather ones around is kind of pointless. It's better to use it to placate the garrison force," Lorist explained.

"Alright, as you will, milord."

Lorist's Plan

Lorist and Josk stopped their horses on top of a small hill and looked towards Wildnorth Town from afar.

The gates of the town were currently open and streams of carriages could be seen moving out of the town as cries and chattering resounded throughout the open fields.

"Milord, I've never seen such an arrogant and disrespectful garrison force that even dares to be so calculative while negotiating with its overlord. No wonder you said that they were a troublesome one. However, I don't understand how you were able to tolerate their existence and didn't wipe them out for treason long ago when you first arrived at the dominion," said Josk.

Lorist laughed and said, "So now you see it for yourself. It's been 200 years and the Norton Family would never have dreamt that the loophole in the regulations made in the past to benefit the citizens would be exploited to the point that it would cause the descendants of the family so much trouble. Even so, our excursion this morning was not for naught. Look, aren't they sending those people out already? As for their punishment, that will have to wait for now. When Charade and Potterfang gets here with the convoy, we will have the necessary force to wipe them out."

...

The first thing that morning, Lorist and Josk went to Wildnorth Town with 5 carriages carrying the pikes and leather armors as well as the imperial silvers. However, the Dunbarsen family head was not present at their reception. According to the Mollin family head, he has been struck with a cold and has to rest and recuperate since two days ago and could not be present.

But when the Mollin family head handed over the name list for the garrison force members, Lorist noticed that part of his plot had failed. Most of the names on the list were people from the Mollin, Hassen and Qubim families with not one of them being Dunbarsen family members. Even the previous vice captain from the Dunbrasen family had left the garrison force.

Pretending to be concerned, Lorist asked why the vice captain had left the force. The Mollin family head's reply was that the Dunbarsen Family had decided to move over to the new town and that the Dunbarsen squad leader would serve over there as the leader of the garrison there.

Lorist greatly praised the Dunbarsen Family for its generosity and grace to allow the other families' members a chance to join the garrison force. And after many pointless pleasantries, Lorist handed the equipment to the Mollin family head and told him that it was meant to be used for the formation of the new garrison force. He also mentioned that he brought the salary the family owed the force as well before showing him the chest filled with imperial silver coins. However, he also said that the garrison force's pay would be given once every three months from now on because he had too many matters on his hands and couldn't be bothered to make a trip to Wildnorth Town once a month to pay that small sum of money and hoped that the people of Wildnorth Town would understand his troubles.

After that, Lorist asked Supervisor Kedan whether the population survey was completed. Kedan reported that the records for the family members of the fallen family soldiers as well as the citizens who had lost their land had all been accounted for: approximately 1400 people can leave the tonw right away. However, he mentioned that due to the reshuffling of garrison members, many people of the town related to the people who were kicked out of the force had been emotionally affected by the change and were not willing to cooperate with the survey and he could only estimate their numbers to be around 2000 people.

It was at that moment when the Mollin family head asked Lorist to empathize with those who had been deemed unfit to continue their service in the garrison and tolerate their unwillingness to cooperate and suggested him to build a new garrison force at the new town so that those people who had been kicked out would be able to serve there. By then, he said, the people would definitely be placated and will cooperate with the population survey.

Lorist gave a cold laugh and thought, they actually do have a pretty good plan up their sleeves. They must be aiming to let their family members sneak into the new town and prompt me to form a new garrison so that they can enjoy the same benefits they already do in Wildnorth Town. Hmph, don't think you'll be able to hit the jackpot without putting in any effort.

Lorist responded by shaking his head in futility and said to the three family heads that due to the current situation the Norton Family was in with Viscount Kenmays's forces, the family has decided to build a border wall at Morgan Hills to keep the Kenmayses out of the family dominion. That's why the family needed a lot of manpower and the people to be sent out of Wildnorth Town will be helping out with the construction at Morgan Hills instead and that the workforce for the construction of the new town will have to be sourced from the people of Wildnorth Town who are not members of the garrison force nor their family members.

Lorist continued that the reason the family decided to allow the garrison force to expand was not so that they could stay cooped up like cowardly turtles at Wildnorth Town but instead help out at several other areas where they are needed. However, he assured the family heads that he would not ask the garrison to face the forces of Viscount Kenmays because he knew that the garrison force would definitely not be willing nor have enough strength to overcome the viscount's forces anyway.

His insult had caused the three family heads to redden with anger. However, the cunning, thick-skinned Mollin family head pretended that he didn't hear anything and instead asked where the garrison force members would be asked to serve.

Pointing at the map of the dominion which was laid out on the table, Lorist said that he has already hired a mercenary group to defend Poplar Coast, where the new town would be constructed. As long as Wildnorth Town was able to send out 200 garrison troops, they will be able to setup a new military base at a valley there. The mercenaries will mainly be responsible for defending the base while the garrison force members only had to help supply them once every ten days and watch over the construction of the town at Poplar Coast.

Naturally, Lorist said that the Norton Family will definitely reward the people of Wildnorth Town for their efforts and increase the salary of the garrison members who go to Poplar Coast to 10 imperial silvers per month, which is easily ten times their normal pay. Other than that, the bonus which the mercenaries had for capturing barbarians alive or killing them would also be applicable to the garrison force members.

That declaration caused the three family heads to argue for quite an amount of time without giving Lorist a clear answer. In the end, Lorist got annoyed and said that he would give the three family heads one month's time to consider the issue and mentioned that the family would not force them to do that if they weren't willing. But he added that the construction of the new town will have nothing to do with Wildnorth Town anymore should that happen and stressed that the family did not care about what the townsfolk had to say about that matter.

Lastly, Lorist requested that he be allowed to borrow some carriages to help move the people who were leaving Wildnorth Town to the bastide, but he didn't expect that it would be met with the joint refusal of all three family heads. This caused Lorist to fume with rage and question whether the three family heads were intent on committing treason against the family. If that was the case, he said that the family was willing to surround Wildnorth Town with their forces and wipe them out regardless of the cost.

His sudden aggressive attitude deeply shocked the three family heads to the point that they quickly begged for mercy as they stammered to explain why they had refused to sell the carriages: they were worried that once the carriages were used to transport the people back to the bastide, they wouldn't be returned and cause the town to incur heavy losses.

Lorist didn't expect that the reason would be something as trivial as that. It was extremely ludicrous that the three family heads had dared to risk offending their dominion lord for the sake of tens of carriages and Lorist didn't know if that was a sign of bravery or merely a foolish focus on short-term gains and losses.

"Alright," Lorist said. "Then I won't force you to lend me any. But you'll be fine if I rent them, right? It's only a short trip of one hour and I will pay a rent of one imperial silver for each carriage per trip made to the empty fields outside the bastide. Other than that, I promise on the name of the Nortons that I will definitely return your carriages after transporting the people to the bastide."

Upon hearing Lorist say that, the three family heads started arguing again. However, this time, it was about how many carriages each family would provide so that they would not miss out on this chance to make extra money. After a couple more moments, the family heads finally agreed on the carriage arrangements and proceeded to order their men to organize the transport of the 1400 or so people.

...

"Milord, I still have something I don't understand. I feel that with our current forces, we'll definitely be able to destroy the garrison force of Wildnorth Town. There's no need for you to placate them like that. The more you let them be, the more they will take you for granted," said Josk as he looked towards the town.

Lorist nodded and said, "You're right about that, Joe. If I wasn't troubled with Viscount Kenmays's forces and the construction at Morgan Hills, the soldiers I brought back to the dominion would definitely be enough to wipe out Wildnorth Town. However, we can't afford to do that now as the garrison over there is unlike those within other dominions. They have a history of over 200 years. The 200 garrison force members is only the official number; they may be able to rally up more than 2000 fighters should we actually decide to take them out. And all of those people will definitely not surrender easily and fight to the death as their family members and livelihood depend on it. Even if we manage to wipe them out, our losses would definitely be huge and we will not be able to spare any more soldiers to defend the construction site at Morgan Hills.

"As the Wildnorth Town is the only problem in the dominion, we can afford to delay their demise and compromise with them for now. My decision to expand the garrison force of Wildnorth Town so that we can make the population of the town decrease as people leave it and cause strife within their own ranks. The true aim of my decision to construct a new town at Poplar Coast was to tempt the ruling families to send out the dissidents within the town so that the ruling families will be able to take complete control over Wildnorth Town. That way, I can effectively halve their fighting force as well.

"And providing with the pikes and leather armor as well as paying the salary we owe them is mainly to placate them as well as to let them think that we're not prepared to antagonize them so that they won't cause trouble for me in the dominion. What we need most now instead is time, especially with the case of the construction of the castle at Morgan Hills, the issue with Viscount Kenmays, the training of the new defense unit within the bastide as well as waiting for the main convoy led by Charade to arrive. What I'm trying to do now is to stabilize the situation within the dominion first."

"Milord, are you really serious about building the new town at Poplar Coast?" Josk asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Lorist said as he laughed. "My father and brother had long had a plan to build a new town within the dominion so that we can build the foundations to one day shake off the burdensome Wildnorth Town. It's a shame that they weren't able to complete the plan when they were still alive, and the place they had decided to build the town at before they passed away was at that very spot. Building a new town there is akin to expanding the area of influence of the family within the dominion by two times. The main problem with that place is the occasional attack from mountain barbarians and that is exactly why I hired the mercenaries to be stationed at the military base there.

"But I have to admit that until very recently, the construction of the new town was merely an afterthought of mine that was also a very convenient to use as an excuse to cause the people of Wildnorth Town to turn against each other. For now, I will still be prioritizing the construction of the castle at Morgan Hills and following that, the mountain city within the valleys there according to the Kenmayses' original plan. After the completion of the castle, I plan to use that as my headquarters and proceed with the construction of the city, defeating the Kenmays Family, and finding a way to connect the Northlands to the outside world so that we can start trading as well as await the arrival of the main convoy. Those will be the main goals I plan to accomplish in the near future.

"As for the construction of the town at Poplar Coast, if the people at Wildnorth Town are willing to fork out some manpower, we will be able to start the preliminary work such as gathering stones, wood, green clay and other building materials which will take at least two years. Within that time period, the people from the town who had been sent out to work will definitely have some conflicts with the garrison soldiers watching over them. After that, Wildnorth Town will definitely be in chaos and much easier for us to deal with."

"Milord, you're a devious one, aren't you?" Josk said.

"Oh my, you truly flatter me," replied Lorist.

Maplewoods Bastide

At that moment, Supervisor Kedan and Shadekampf arrived at the top of the small hill and approached Lorist.

Lorist asked, "Do you know why the Dunbarsen Family left the garrison force?"

"Milord, last time when you brought Knight Belnick away from their town, something seemed to have happened within the Dunbarsen Family. However, we were unable to find out what as they had tried rather meticulously to keep it secret. However, I do remember that back then, the Mollin, Qubim and Hassen family heads had visited Master Dunbarsen to discuss something. It was after that when the members of the Dunbarsen Family left the garrison force," replied Kedan.

"What about you? Did you notice anything of interest?" Lorist asked as he turned to Shadekampf.

Shadekampf shook his head and said, "Yesterday night, I had invited an ex-member of the garrison force who had just left it recently to have some drinks together and after he downed quite a few cups, he told me that the four families were actually hiding their true military might and that each of them had several Silver ranked members as well. That is also the reason why they had the galls to test our family's patience. However, their Silver ranks did not have any access to proper Battle Force training methods above the Silver rank and had no choice but to rely on themselves to research it. That man even told me that this time, the Dunbarsen Family had incurred a rather heavy loss as for some reason, they had lost 4 out of 5 of all their Silver ranks all of a sudden as well as two other Three Star Iron ranks, causing them to fall from the second most powerful family to the last overnight. I believe that they had left the garrison force because of pressure from the other three great families."

Lorist laughed out loud and thought back at the six who had come to assault him when he was on the way back to the bastide with Belnick and Shadekampf. Originally, he had thought that all four families had been involved in that attack as Belnick had only recognized two of them who belonged to the Dunbarsen Family. Little did he know that the other four were members of the Dunbarsen Family as well, causing them to instantly suffer a huge loss as if they had been crippled from having their spine broken. He even thought that the four families would scramble for the three knight titles that he was going to give out and didn't expect that one of them would be out of the race so quickly as a result of his own actions of killing off every single attacker at once back then.

"Then, is there reason enough to suspect Belnick's squire, Casey?" Lorist asked once again.

Shadekampf replied, "I've asked a couple of people and most of them only knew him but never really interacted much with him. I also talked to a few of the former garrison soldiers and all of them said that they weren't close with Casey nor did they know which family he was aligned with. According to them, Casey only spends his time taking care of Belnick at the dominion lord's mansion. Other than Master Dunbarsen, he has never met the other family heads either, so I believe he should be clear."

Lorist mumbled in a low voice, "What I'm curious about is during the two years Knight Belnick was poisoned by Master Dunbarsen to the point where he couldn't leave the dominion lord's mansion, didn't Casey suspect anything was going on? That's the main reason I can't be certain of his loyalty. However, since both of you didn't notice anything strange, when we return to the bastide, I'll have Casey join the squire unit and teach him how to awaken his Battle Force as a reward for his two years of care for Knight Belnick."

"Milord, this time, you were really too generous with Wildnorth Town's garrison force. Not only did you pay them the salary, you even gave them weapons and armor. What I'm worried of is that they won't do according to what you have told them," said Supervisor Kedan.

"They will, because they have no other choice. Did you forget that I changed the regulation for the allocation of farmland?" Lorist said.

"Do you mean the one that states that each garrison force member's family will be allocated around 40000 square meters of farmland?"

"That's right. 400 garrison force members will need around 16 million square meters of farmland, which is the area of most of the farmable land of Wildnorth Town. The Mollin, Hassen and Qubim families already occupy all the garrison force positions, so do you think they will not jump at the chance to claim the farmland? That way, the garrison soldiers which were kicked out would also be deprived of their share of the land as well. What do you think would be their response?"

"To cause trouble?"

"That's a given. The three great families had originally intended to send those they kicked out to the new garrison force that they expected to be formed with the construction of the new town to placate them while spreading their own influence there as well. However, what they did not foresee was that I won't be forming a new garrison force for that town right away and told them that I would only do so after the completion of the town. That way, these people would lose their hopes of getting back their positions as garrison soldiers. Given that they had lost their previous benefits, do you think they would sit still and take it silently?"

Lorist gave a cold laugh and continued, "The reason I gave the three families 3 months to decide was because I hoped that this would cause the people who were kicked out to turn against the three families, which will in turn result in the three families sending their garrison soldiers to force the people who cause trouble to go to Poplar Coast to participate in the construction of the new town so they don't continue to cause trouble within Wildnorth Town, effectively halving their population there. I expect that all that's left of the three families within Wildnorth Town would be only three to four thousand people. Take the women and elderly out of the equation and they will at most have a fighting force of 1000-odd people. By then, the family only has to face a force of over 1000 instead of the original 7000 people."

Supervisor Kedan was stunned at that revelation.

Lorist looked back at Wildnorth Town and saw that the last carriage had already exited the gates. "Let's go. Supervisor Kedan, you will be put in charge of settling these people down at the empty field outside the bastide. Shadekampf, inform the family members of the dead soldiers of our forces about our new pension policy and ask them not to worry as the family will definitely not abandon those who are loyal to us, understand?"

"Yes, milord. I understand," replied Shadekampf.

...

Currently, the fields outside the bastide was packed with people with Supervisor Kedan making arrangements for tents to be set up and Supervisor Hansk calculating the cost of renting the carriages from Wildnorth Town whereas Supervisor Spiel was reporting something to Lorist.

"Milord, Sir Josk has brought over 124 carriages to the bastide. The bastide on the other hand has 87 carriages available to use which were mostly utilized by the family merchant convoy and military force in the past. However, the family also has a lot of two-wheeled carriages which were mainly used to transport supplies in short distances or workers to the farms. If milord needs them, we can provide up to 135 units."

"Supervisor Spiel, how much extra manpower does the bastide have?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, Supervisor Hansk's survey reports around 748 people."

"That means that including the 1427 people who have just arrived from Wildnorth Town, we can send 2175 people to the site at Morgan Hills, which mean we will require around 200 four-wheeled carriages. How much food and supplies can the remaining carriages transport?"

"Milord, the supplies you need to transport there are mostly food and textiles. While we do have food in abundance in the warehouses, the opposite is true for textiles. However, we can still use them to make some clothing to be sent over. If we use the two-wheeled carriages as well, we will be able to transport 5000 kilograms of food and a bunch of clothes," replied Spiel.

Lorist turned his head to look and saw that Josk, who was beside him, was spacing out as if he was thinking of something.

"Hey, Joe, what do you have in mind?"

"Oh, milord, I was just wondering about something. I remember seeing a large plaque with 'Wildnorth Town' engraved on it at the gates of the town when we visited this morning, but I don't remember seeing something similar at the bastide. Why doesn't this place have a name?"

That's right! Lorist suddenly recalled that most people only referred to this place as the 'family bastide' as if it didn't have a name of its own. That's weird, the family has been around for more than 200 years, why didn't anybody name this place?

"Supervisor Spiel, do you know the reason for this?"

Spiel shook his head. At that moment, Supervisor Hansk was just walking by them after completing his task and Lorist asked him the same question.

"I recall that someone else asked the same question before. At that time, the Old Master's response was there was no need to go through so much trouble to name the place as the family only had one bastide within the dominion. He believed that calling this place the family bastide would be more affectionate," explained the supervisor.

Lorist shook his head and said, "That won't do. The family will have many more territories in the future, so this one needs a name to avoid confusion. Let me think of one then. Since the surrounding mountains are filled with maple trees, let's call this place Maplewoods Bastide from now on. Seek out a stonemason immediately to have that name carved on the castle."

"Milord, what an apt name for the place! It is definitely fitting of the landscape around here. I will instantly ask for someone to start carving the name up," replied Supervisor Hansk.

Lorist then called out to Spiel, who was just about to leave. "Hey, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to prepare the supplies and carriages as soon as possible during these two days. It's already the 5th day of the 3rd month, and I hope to be able to depart on the 7th. That way, we'll be able to arrive at the construction site by the 8th day of the month."

"Milord, please be assured that it will definitely be ready by the 7th," said Supervisor Spiel before he left in a hurry.

"Milord, there's plenty of time for you to prepare, you don't have to be in such a rush you know," said Josk.

"No, Joe, did you forget what we had talked about with Butler Boris back there? Around the 10th day of the 3rd month, there will be a shipment from the Kenmays Family to the construction site as well as an escort of many more slave laborers there. I plan to arrive by the 8th and see if we'll be able to swallow up all that for ourselves," Lorist said.

...

On the 7th day of the 3rd month during 9 o'clock in the morning, a supply convoy formed from 211 four-wheeled carriages and 135 two-wheeled carriages left Maplewoods Bastide for the construction site at Morgan Hills.

This time, Lorist was accompanied by Supervisors Hansk and Kedan. Hansk also picked the 200 or so youths who were previously preparing to awaken their Battle Force from the bastide to be coachmen for the moment. After the trip, they will once again return to the bastide to resume their training.

Patt on the other hand brought 60 soldiers from the newly-formed defense unit that had all awakened their Battle Force along with them while Josk returned with the 60 guard squad members that came with him and served as a scout unit for the return trip.

Lorist was currently complaining to Shadekampf, "Why do I feel that I've been entangled with nothing but convoys recently? You see, I formed a convoy back at Morante City to head to the dominion. After leaving it behind at Geldos City to travel lightly and quickly, Patt managed to get another formed for me at Fenyata Town. And now, after only spending a couple of days at the dominion, I'm leaving it with yet another convoy. I'm so sick of convoys, you know?"

Shadekampf knew that Lorist was only joking around and merely laughed it off without bothering to continue the conversation.

Josk however laughed out loud and said, "Milord, you know you could always depart a day later. I can lead the convoy and wait for you to catch up tomorrow."

Lorist waved his hand and said, "No way, I've noticed that I'm a workaholic who can't leave anything unattended. I wouldn't be able to sleep soundly at night if I'm not here with you on an important occasion as this."

The trip Lorist had taken with Patt and Shadekampf back then with only one carriage from Morgan Hills to Maplewoods Bastide had taken up to 7 hours. Given the size of their convoy, it would take up twice as much time for them to complete their journey.

After traveling for six hours, it was already two in the afternoon. Josk who was at the front of the convoy sent someone to the back to ask Lorist whether they should stop the convoy to rest at a small lake up ahead.

Just as Lorist was about to head to the front to check that lake out for himself, he suddenly noticed smoke signals coming from the mountains around them as ten riders emerged from the mountains while brandishing the weapons in their hands and screaming out an eerie war cry as they approached…

Barbarians, Gold Mine and Plotting

"Barbarians!" screamed some at the front of the convoy. The convoy instantly broke into a huge chaotic mess…

"Shadekampf, help restore order to the convoy. There's nothing to fear about 50 or so barbarian riders. Guard squad, march forward on my lead!" roared Lorist.

Just when the 120 mounted guards scattered throughout the convoy gathered into a line formation near Lorist, a chestnut brown horse rode out from the group towards the barbarian riders with its rider holding a great green longbow. When he was around 150 meters from the barbarians. the thunderous sound of the bowstring rang out repeatedly…

One barbarian rider after another was struck down by the emerald-colored arrow-bolts. After both parties traveled for another 30 meters towards each other, more than 20 barbarians had fallen from their mounts…

The remaining 30 or so barbarian riders stopped their mounts in terror. All of a sudden, another savage cry sounded from far away, causing the riders to turn back and retreat…

Josk breathed in a huge gulp of air while lightly shaking his hand which was slightly numb from all that firing before he once again lifted his longbow and circulated his Battle Force. But this time, he didn't shoot rapidly and instead relaxedly shot at the 3 barbarian riders who were at the back of their retreating group, swiftly ending their lives. Seeing the rest of the barbarians escape into the trees, he kept his longbow and stopped his assault.

However, one of the riders turned around and started cursing and gesturing. Even though Josk didn't hear that barbarian from far away, he figured that the savage was probably saying something derogatory to him and shot out another arrow in rage.

That barbarian immediately tried to evade the incoming projectile and successfully did so, with Josk's arrow taking the barbarian's feather-decorated helmet off and pinning it onto a tree not far away. The tree shook so hard from the force of that arrow that it actually snapped into half and gradually fell towards the ground.

After seeing Josk's arrow snap a huge tree's trunk, the barbarian who had managed to evade certain death looked up and locks of long golden hair could be seen falling over that person's shoulder now that the helmet was absent. It appeared that the barbarian rider was a woman. Even though that female barbarian rider had escaped with her life, she fainted from sheer terror of almost losing her life and laid unconscious below the shade of the tree. However, a few other barbarians helped to carry her to safety and led her mount deeper into the forest.

The slowly falling tree eventually crashed onto the ground, causing a cloud of dust to obscure the area from sight. When the dust settled, there was no longer any trace of the barbarians at the edge of the forest.

Apart from the 20 or so barbarian corpses and their riderless mounts, the scene from before seemed to have been nothing but a dream.

Josk turned his horse and returned to the convoy, only to be received by a sudden loud cheer, "Divine marksman! Divine marksman!"

Lorist went up to Josk to receive him. He patted his shoulder and said, "You did great!"

Then he raised Josk's right hand and cheered towards the convoy, "Josk! Josk!…"

The people of the convoy responded with great fervor. "Josk! Josk! Divine Marksman Josk!..."

Josk rubbed his nose and said embarrassedly. "Milord, this is a little too much…"

Lorist said, "Joe, you deserve it."

...

Due to encountering the patrolling barbarian cavalrymen, Lorist decided to not rest at the lake up ahead and continue their travels just in case the escaped barbarians called for more reinforcements.

Shadekampf brought a few guard squad soldiers to rally up the dead barbarians' mounts and loot their corpses. Lorist on the other hand called Supervisors Hansk and Kedan over and asked them whether barbarians were commonly sighted in that area.

Hansk shook his head and said, "Milord, I've never heard of any barbarian sightings here and there is no such instance stated in the family records either. Commonly speaking, barbarians are usually seen around the Magical Dragon Mountains. This place is quite far from there and is actually closer to the Black Forests and the Desolate Hills and the family troops have never noticed the presence of barbarians here for the past 100 years even though not many from the family ventured much to this area. I believe it must've been a rare coincidence for us to have encountered those barbarian cavalrymen."

After cleaning up the battlefield, Shadekampf let the guard squad members continue collecting the mounts and rode over to where Lorist was.

"Milord, take a look at this," said Shadekampf as he handed over a small leather pouch.

After opening it, Lorist reached his hand inside and took out a handful of golden dust.

"Gold dust!" cried out Supervisors Kedan and Hansk.

"Milord, the barbarians that were killed by Sir Josk mostly had a pouch on them that was filled with gold dust like this, I even noticed this on one of them," said Shadekampf as he took out yet another piece of gold that was about the size of a thumb.

"A gold nugget!" exclaimed Lorist as his eyes brightened.

"Milord, I suspect that there are some gold deposits around the forest or the hills which is also the reason for the presence of the barbarians. I suggest we send some people here to conduct a survey of the land. If we really do discover a gold mine, then the family will definitely not lack any funds to develop the dominion in the future," said Supervisor Kedan passionately.

Lorist took the gold nugget from Shadekampf, weighed it in his hand, before he gave it a closer look. He then looked towards the mountains in the distance and then to the forests where the rest of the barbarians had escaped to and shook his head. "At this point, we still don't have enough military prowess nor manpower to start developing this area. Even if there is a gold mine, there is no guarantee that we will be able to sustain the mining operations and may even cause the family to be entangled with the barbarians because of this. There is a possibility that the price we pay for the gold mine will far exceed what we actually get from it, so let's put that idea to rest for now. It's not like that mine will one day leave the place anyway, so it won't hurt to wait for a while until the northbound convoy arrives. By then, we should have more than enough manpower and resources to do so."

...

Lorist's convoy only managed to reach the construction site at around 10 in the night. Having been given an early notification, Telesti had already instructed the laborers to set up a camp and also prepared some food to receive the people who had traveled for almost a day straight.

As Lorist was biting into a piece of bread, he asked Reidy, "Where's Miss Telesti?"

"Milord, she has already gone to sleep at 10 o'clock and left me in charge of the place. Do you need me to wake her up?" Reidy asked.

"It's alright, I only wanted to ask about the progress of the construction. I'll be able to see it tomorrow anyway, so there's no need to bother her right now. Oh, and, ask for Butler Boris to come over. I have something I want to ask him about," Lorist said.

Butler Boris was brought over to Lorist without much delay with a sour look on his face.

"Huh, Butler Boris, what's with you? You look like you're about to cry. What's going on?" Lorist asked curiously.

The butler instantly kneeled before Lorist and said, "Milord, please save my family members. If Viscount Kenmays knows that I surrendered and started working for you, he'll definitely prey on my family."

Shocked, Lorist said, "Please stand up, Butler Boris. Tell me where your family is and I'll see if I can help reunite you with them."

But the butler refused to stand up and continued to kneel. "Milord, my family are all living at the Redriver Valley Bastide within the viscount's dominion and the shipment convoy will be coming over within two days. If they notice that this place has already been occupied and send word back there, it will be the end for my family. They will definitely be punished in my stead by the viscount! Given that I've failed my responsibilities as the chief manager of this place, he'll definitely release his anger onto my family regardless of whether I'm still alive! That's just how his temperament is! I've already lost sleep for the past couple of days because of this… Milord, I beg you…"

"Please get up first, Butler Boris. The reason I asked for you was to get some information about the incoming shipment convoy. How many carriages would they have and how powerful is their escort? I need that information in order to know if I can swallow them whole. After that, you can tell me more about the bastide so that I can see if there's some way I can save your family," consoled Lorist.

Now that his family members' lives were at risk, Butler Boris revealed every detail he could about the shipment convoy. According to him, the convoy that would arrive on the 10th would have around 400 carriages and based on their previous shipments, 200 of them will be carrying 3000 buckets of green vine glue with each carriage holding 15 buckets and each bucket weighing around 50 kilograms, so each carriage would weigh around 1000 kilograms including the weight of the wooden buckets. The remaining 200 carriages would mostly transport food ranging from smoked meat to alcohol and other supplies like clothes and building tools.

The escort that was in charge of the shipment was the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. They were considered to be one of the more active mercenary crews during the time of the civil war and had around 200 members in total with their insignia bearing a white goose feather. The crew leader Adams was an old Three Star Silver veteran with tens of other members of the crew being Silver ranks as well with the rest being at the Iron or Bronze rank. They had been paid quite a huge sum by the Kenmays Family to serve as their main fighting force.

The Redriver Valley Bastide of the Kenmayses was approximately 1 day of travel away from the construction site at Morgan Hills and it would take around 6 to 7 hours on horseback to cover the distance. Now that the bastide had become a central supply distribution point, a huge amount of resources were stored within and was managed entirely by the head butler of the Kenmays Family, Pelador, who was aided by tens of other guards of their family.

Not far away from the bastide was the immigrant town the Kenmayses had paid a huge price to recruit vagabonds to build, which had a population of around 2000 people that was defended by a garrison squad of 100 soldiers. However, if the Kenmays Family intended to send the 1000 slave laborers along with the shipment to the construction site, the garrison soldiers would join the escort as well.

After Butler Boris told Lorist all that information, he was asked if there was a possibility of baiting the escort of the shipment convoy into the area of the construction site and force the mercenary crew to surrender so that the Norton Family can obtain all the resources of the shipment.

The butler replied that it would definitely be difficult as Crew Leader Adams was a cunning and careful man. Given that he knew many of the mercenaries who were previously stationed at the construction site, if Adams noticed their absence when he approached, there was a huge possibility that he wouldn't enter the site.

Lorist looked at Josk who was chomping down at a bone and asked, "How about it? Are you confident with being able to trick them?"

Josk placed the bone down, wiped his mouth, and said, "Milord, there's no need to do so much plotting like that. Just give me a squad of guards and I will be able to eradicate the whole mercenary crew in an open field battle and take the whole shipment for ourselves."

Lorist laughed out loud and said, "No way, I worry that our losses would be huge if we were to engage in an open field battle. Think about it, most of the guard squad members used to be common bandits who have never received any formal military training or drills and know nothing about strategic formations other than rushing straight at the enemy like how most bandits fight. If we were up against weaklings, then there wouldn't be a problem. But our enemy is an experienced mercenary crew which has weathered many battles, so it is almost guaranteed for the guard squad to be at a severe disadvantage given their lack of understanding of military tactics."

Ovidis, who was just sitting beside Josk, exclaimed in a dissatisfied tone. "Milord, we're your family's soldiers, not a band of lowly bandits."

Lorist waved towards him and said, "Come on, don't be sour about that. I was just making an example."

Lorist continued, "If we manage to trick the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew to enter the construction site, it would be akin to us locking up a rabid dog before beating it. We could even use the ballistas on the walls to pressure them into surrendering. Doesn't the leader of that crew recognize some of the mercenaries who have yielded to us? It wouldn't be too hard to carry this out. Patt…"

Patt stood up in response and awaited his orders.

"Rush to Poplar Coast tonight itself and ask the mercenaries there if they want to make some quick money. As long as they manage to lure the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew into the construction site, each one of them will receive 10 gold Fordes. I only need twenty people, and no matter if they accept it or not, I want you to make it back here by the morning of the 9th, which is tomorrow, understood?" Lorist instructed.

"Yes, milord. I will set out right away."

"Good, I'm counting on you. Please be careful on your way there."

Mistakes

By the time the sky brightened up, Lorist exited his tent to do some stretches. Shadekampf who was standing right beside brought over a linen cloth for Lorist to wipe his face with. When Lorist was done, Shadekampf handed him some gargling water.

"Milord, breakfast is ready,' said Shadekampf.

Lorist waved his hand and said, "There's no need, I only want two pieces of bread to bring with me when I go take a quick look at the wall ahead."

As he slept quite late the day before, Lorist woke up in the late morning. When he got to the walls, he noticed Old Man Balk standing there. Upon seeing Lorist approach from afar, Balk bowed and greeted him.

As Lorist went up the walls, he saw the slave laborers working away to dig up a moat. After the laborers dug out the earth for the moat, they placed it within a rectangular wooden mold before they sprinkled some water within and covered it up with another wooden board on top. Following that, the laborers would then step on the wooden board repeatedly to compress and flatten the mixture within before dismantling the wooden mold to create a block-shaped piece of clay. After that, the slaves would stack the clay blocks together and repeat the whole process again.

"What are they doing?" Lorist asked.

Old Man Balk replied, "Milord, they are making clay bricks. After adding some green vine glue and letting them dry for a day or two, they will be nice and tough. By then, building structures is just as easy as stacking them up. As long as a proper foundation is built, the toughness of walls made with bricks like these is not one whit inferior to those made from stones. It is worth mentioning that a slave came up with this idea and he has already been selected to become Miss Telesti's personal aide…"

Lorist nodded and said, "If one has talent that serves the family well, then they naturally should be rewarded. Telesti made a good call on this matter. Hm? What are those people doing?"

Lorist then pointed towards the scaffolding by the walls where a couple of laborers could be seen working.

"Milord, they are evening out the surface of the walls to prevent enemies from being able to climb up and pose a threat to the defenders. This was also the idea of the aforementioned slave laborer. The rocks that are chipped off in the process can also be used to fill up the internal walls. It really is a pretty nifty idea," said Old Man Balk.

"Not bad, I see that the moat is almost done too. When does the wall construction officially start?" Lorist asked.

"In another two days. The foundation for the walls can already be laid. We already sent some laborers to start collecting the stones that we need for establishing the foundation," said Balk. He then pointed at a line drawn on the ground with limestone and said, "Look, milord. That will be where the foundation will be laid."

"Good work. That aside, doesn't Miss Telesti come to the site in the mornings?" Lorist asked.

Balk shook his head and said, "She usually doesn't come over in person as most of the workflow has already been established. I'm the one who supervises all work in this area, so unless there is any urgent matter, Miss Telesti usually wouldn't come to the site itself as it is too messy and dirty around here."

"Alright, I'll leave you to your business and go discuss something with her," said Lorist as he patted Balk's shoulders before he turned and left.

...

Lorist went up to the rear wall and headed towards the middle of the 5 buildings. Upon entering, he saw the busy scene of four laborers carving away at something delicately using small chisels. Beside the table that was placed in the middle of the room lay Telesti's maidservant, Vinny, who was currently looking intently at a model house she held within her hands.

"Little Vinny, what are you up to?" Lorist asked.

Vinny gave Lorist a look and quickly stood up. "Milord, this is a model house I made! Look, isn't it pretty?"

Lorist gave it a quick look before he noticed that the sand table in the middle of the room had been replaced by another one which had another replica of the city layout. It seemed that Telesti had remade the model of the mode according to what she had in mind.

Lorist recalled that the main purpose of the city was to serve as a citadel, but the model seen on the table right now seemed more like a trade city than a military facility. Aside from the two walls on each side of the valley as well as the castle that was built along one side of the mountain range, Telesti had remodeled the whole replica of the valley into vast stretches of trade sectors and residential areas, which were even separated by small parks. Lorist could already imagine that if the city was built according to Telesti's plan, it would definitely be a beautiful place.

However that was not what Lorist had intended the city to be. He praised the beauty of the replica of the city before asking Vinny where Telesti was.

Vinny pointed to the door of the next room and Lorist went over to give it a knock. "Come in," Telesti's voice rang out almost instantly.

"Lorist opened the door and noticed that there were three tables within the relatively small room. The sand table that was originally placed in the room outside was at the far corner of the wall, with Telesti's workdesk placed right beside it. On the workdesk was a beastskin book and some writing materials. Beside the workdesk was a square table on which several pieces of blank canvases were placed. Telesti's Iron ranked butler and another short-haired, tanned middle-aged man were standing beside the square table.

"Milord…" said Telesti and her butler in unison as they made a deep bow and greeted Lorist. The middle-aged man beside them on the other hand looked a little panicked and didn't know what to do.

"Who's that?" asked Lorist as he looked at the middle-aged man.

"Milord, he is Zanben. He was originally one of the slave laborers who I picked to become my aide after I noticed his decent drawing skills and deep understanding in construction methods. Zanben, quickly greet the lord," explained Telesti.

Zanben hurriedly paid his respects to Lorist, who waved and said, "It's alright, you don't have to be so courteous. I heard Old Man Balk praised you quite highly. As long as you give it your best as a loyal subject, the family will definitely reward you for your efforts."

Telesti then asked, "Milord, did you see the replica of the city and the moat outside?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Miss Telesti, I was just about to discuss that matter with you. I've already seen the replica outside and to be honest, I'm not too happy about it. The main reason for that is because you've misunderstood the purpose of this place."

"But milord, you didn't explicitly tell me what you wanted this place to serve," she interjected.

"And that is admittedly my fault. Since it's your first time doing city planning, I didn't tell you the aims I had for the city in detail and I don't blame you for getting it wrong. Let's go outside to talk more about it."

Lorist and Telesti walked outside together and he pointed to the replica and said, "Miss Telesti, look at the construction site here. This is an important opening for our dominion and it is one of the ways the people within the dominion can leave for the outside world. As long as we can take control of this place, our family will be able to control what and who goes in and out of the dominion. However, if we lose it to our enemies, we will be trapped within the Northlands for sure. Back then, Viscount Kenmays had intended for it to be a complete military installation, but that doesn't suit my needs perfectly. What I wanted it to be was a defense citadel and also a normal city, but I didn't expect you to decorate the residential and trade sectors so much to the point that it basically seems like a recreational park now. While its beauty is definitely undeniable, it doesn't do anything for the defense of the place at all, leaving our only line of defense to be the two walls. The moment an enemy captures either wall, the whole city will effectively have been occupied."

Telesti breathed a sigh and said resignedly, "Alright, milord. Tell me how you want the castle and city to be constructed. It is fortunate that it is currently still at the planning stage, so it wouldn't be too late to change it now."

Lorist then overhauled the whole layout of replicas on top of the table. "The core of this valley city will be a castle, which will serve as the final line of defense for the city. The location of construction will still remain unchanged at the mountain side, but it definitely has to be able to hold its ground against all invaders. As for how it will achieve that, I will leave it to you, and you can even beautify it how you want as long as it doesn't compromise its defensive capabilities. In front of the castle will be the main plaza and two walls will stretch out from the left and right of the castle that will connect with the walls at the two ends of the valley. That way, should either of the walls at the valley's openings fall, we only have to lower the portcullis of the walls from the castle within the valley to cut off the enemy's route and entrap them, giving the defense force of this area ample time to resist and even retaliate.

"On either side of the castle, there should be some storehouses for supplies and weapons. There should also be some stables outside of the castle walls. And in the middle of the walls here will be the main route to pass to the other side of the city where two thirds of that spot will be used as the trade and residential sectors, the specifics of where to allocate will be left to you. I have no further specific requests, aside from by the time of completion of this valley city, it should be able to house up to 15000 people. Oh, you should also pay some attention to how you organize the underground waterways. That should be all."

Telesti's old butler has been noting down all the specifics the whole time and handed the document to his mistress. After taking a brief look, Telesti put her signature on the document after making sure it was as Lorist had instructed and gave it to Zanben as she said, "Zanben, let's change the design according to the lord's requests."

"Understood," Zanben said respectfully.

Little Vinny on the other hand was tearing up upon seeing her precious little replica city messed and moved around by Lorist to the point that it was already unrecognizable. She said in a crying voice, "Mistress, the lord is a mean person! He messed up all the models there…"

Lorist said, "I'm sorry, Vinny. I wasn't paying much attention…"

Telesti rubbed Vinny's tears off with her napkin and said, "It's okay, we can always make a new, more beautiful one. And milord, didn't you say you had something else you wanted to tell me about?"

Lorist brought Telesti back into the room she was in before.

"It's like this…" Lorist started explaining his intention to lure the forces of the Kenmayses into the construction site and try to force them to surrender and hoped that Telesti would cooperate with him on that by changing the schedule for the construction.

"Sigh, milord, you know I hate to dabble in matters of killing and whatnot. You men are all about wars and battles. Why can't you just sit still quietly and focus on the construction of the castle first?" said Telesti as she sighed loudly.

Lorist shrugged and said, "I don't really have a choice. If I don't exterminate this escort of theirs, the Kenmays Family would definitely find out that we have already occupied their construction site and will instantly send more of their forces to take it back. And given that the first defensive walls haven't completely been constructed yet, it will be extremely difficult for us to hold our ground and we will definitely incur huge losses. Whereas if we manage to exterminate them, we will be able to keep news about this place being occupied from them a little longer. By the time they find out, we will have already completed construction on the walls and will have a much easier time defending ourselves from their soldiers."

"Alright, milord. I will do as you wish and amend the schedule," said Telesti.

"There's also another matter that needs your attention. I have a supervisor from our family, Hansk, who is well-versed with inventory and supply management and he will be helping you with this construction project. I will ask him to report to you later," Lorist said.

Telesti nodded and suddenly seemed like she has remembered something. "Milord, what will you name this castle when it is completed?"

Lorist gave it some thought and said, 'Let's call it Firmrock Castle. I hope it will be as stable and firm as a rock and will not shake no matter what is thrown at it."

Telesti suddenly seemed rather unhappy and pouted.

Lorist was stunned at the sudden change in her expression, but he understood why almost immediately. He smiled as he said, "Miss Telesti, I see what you are getting at. I'm really sorry, but as this will be a really important base for the family, its naming will also be a really serious matter. If you are willing to take charge of the construction of the castle, I will allow you to name the valley city after your family name, Nico City, or even Telesti City if you prefer, what do you think about that? If you have anything else in mind, i will even leave the naming of the city to your complete discretion. Is that okay with you?"