The sword pierced into his chest, and the tip of the sword came out of his back armor.
Chevani's whole body stiffened, and the sword in his hand fell to the ground …
Lorist looked at him pitifully and sighed, "Why did you have to do this …"
Chevani's mouth was foaming with blood. "The death of a defeated general is not to be regretted. It was my incompetence that led to the annihilation of this expedition … I … I can only atone for my sins in front of His Excellency the Duke with my death … "
"It's not your fault." Lorist comforted him. "When the Duke was blinded by greed and extended his claws to the Norton Family, it was the biggest mistake. Actually, you've already done very well, because I spent a lot of effort to deal with your camp, but I couldn't find a chance. If it wasn't for the fact that the guards of Northern Field Town were careless and we took it down in one fell swoop, I don't even know how long this war would drag on … "
"Is, is it like this?" Chevani's eyes quickly dimmed. He opened his arms and fell on his back, a relieved smile on his face.
Lorist silently looked at Chevani who fell on the ground. After a long time, he said softly, "Rest in peace …"
…
On the 29th day of the 8th month of the 1767 Galinthea General Calendar, the Grand Duke of the North, Duke Lujins, ordered the two companies of the Norton Army, which had a total of more than 4,000 soldiers, to surrender to the Norton Family's armed forces at an unnamed valley in the Blade Peak Mountains. At this point, the expedition team that entered the Norton Family's territory was completely annihilated.
The commander of this expedition team, the Northern Army's Commander, Duke Lujins' chief family knight, Chevani, a 3-star Gold rank, when the expedition team was forced into a difficult situation by the Norton Family and had no way out, he challenged the new head of the Norton Family, the new Lord Norton Lorist, and died heroically in battle at the age of 53.
…
When the Silver-ranked Knight holding the white flag told Lorist that Chevani was willing to order his soldiers to surrender to the Norton Family, but he requested a life-and-death duel with Lorist, Lorist agreed to the request despite the objections of Joske, Vasimir, and the others.
To Lorist, it was not difficult to deal with Chevani, a 3-star Gold rank Knight. He wanted to force Chevani to give up his sword and admit defeat. Unfortunately, Chevani was eager to die and disregarded his own safety. He adopted a suicidal strategy, attacking blindly and causing a lot of trouble for Lollister.
To the onlookers, this was the first time they had witnessed Laurist's strength and brilliant swordsmanship. Vasimir and the four mercenary group leaders were all dumbfounded. Who would have thought that Lollister, who could not even release an Iron-rank sword ray, could actually fight a 3-star Gold-rank Knight so well? Furthermore, he even had the upper hand, suppressing Chevani's attacks. If not for the fact that Lorist showed mercy and did not want to harm Chevani's life, Chevani would have long been in pieces.
Chevani's heart grew colder as the battle went on. He already understood that he was not Lorist's match, and the other party's mercy made him feel even more ashamed. Therefore, when Laurist blocked his last slash and stabbed at his chest, forcing him to retreat, he did not dodge. Instead, he accelerated and charged forward, catching Laurist off guard. The longsword in his hand pierced through the chest of the Chevani Knight …
…
More than a thousand soldiers of the Northern Army who had surrendered were disarmed, stripped of their leather armor, and searched for their belongings. Then, they began to set up camp under the watch of the family's soldiers. The Silver-ranked Knight who had surrendered told Lorist that when these soldiers realized that the road ahead was blocked and their rations were running out, they broke out in a crazy internal conflict in the dark cave and killed each other. By the time Chevalier Chevalier brought his men to stop them, more than four hundred soldiers had already died. That was why Chevani decided to surrender, to find a way out for the remaining soldiers, while he himself was determined to die. Even if he won against Lorist, he would end his own life …
Lorist stayed in this nameless valley for another three days, ordering the surrendered soldiers to enter the cave again. Under the watch of the family's soldiers, they collected all the corpses of the dead soldiers in the cave and buried them in the nameless valley. They got the surrendered logistics officers to record the names of the dead soldiers and mark them, so that their families could come and pay their respects in the future. They named this nameless valley Chevani Valley, and carved a record to commemorate Chevani.
Lorist did not think that the war was troublesome, but the aftermath. Especially after Northern Field Town was massacred, he felt that there were more things that he needed to deal with. As soon as he returned to Northern Field Town, he received a messenger from Monolith Castle. In the letter, Sadekamp reported that the knight tournament called the Peace Cup would end in three days. According to tradition, as the hosts of the tournament, Lollister and Viscount Gammus had to attend the celebration banquet to congratulate and pay their respects to the winners of the tournament. Sadekamp hoped that even if the war was not over, Lorist would still take the time to go, so as not to be seen as rude.
Fortunately, the war had ended. It had taken a total of 20 days. Lorist ordered Josk and Paul Robbins to bring two teams of family soldiers to Rock Castle with the prisoners. He still had to stay in Northern Field Town for another two days, and he would return after settling some matters. Lorist then gave orders to a few stewards of Rock Castle, asking Butler Boris to be in charge of migrating the families of the workers in the city back to the camp outside the city. The war had ended, and there was no longer a threat to the camp outside the Rock Castle, so they could move out of the city to allow the construction work to continue.
Lorist ordered Old Man Barlek to bring some men to accompany Master Sid to survey the mountains near the copper mine in the Morgen Hills in search of iron ores and other resources. He ordered Steward Cordan to set up a camp for the prisoners, and when Josk and the rest arrived, he would take over the management of the prisoners and arrange their work. In the end, Laurist wrote a greeting letter to Miss Tresti. Apart from some mushy words of love, he told her that the crisis in the territory had been resolved and she could start planning and designing the mountain city after arranging the construction of the Monolith Castle.
In all fairness, Lorist felt that Miss Tracy was very suitable to be Baroness Norton. Firstly, although Miss Tracy was not a stunning beauty, she was still very pretty. She had a slim figure and fair skin, and most importantly, she had a unique kind of intellectual beauty that suited Lorist's standards of beauty very well. Moreover, Miss Tracy was not a noble lady who only knew how to act coquettishly. She was also a female scholar. Just like what Lorist had heard in his previous life, she could have become a goddess with her looks, but she had to rely on her own hard work to become a scholar. Lorist admired Miss Tracy's self-reliant personality very much.
While interacting with Miss Tracy, Loriste could feel that she had a good impression of him, so he could tolerate his rudeness to her, such as hugs and kisses. Although he was angry every time, it was mostly due to embarrassment and ambivalence. She did not want to go against her vow to be single for the rest of her life, and pursue knowledge and truth. This was also Lorist's greatest anger. Of all vow, she had to make such an inhumane vow. It was so infuriating.
Lorist asked Steward Spear, who had rushed over after receiving his order, to be in charge of counting and recording the properties and rations of Northern Field Town. He planned to move all the usable resources of Northern Field Town back to Maple Villa and abandon Northern Field Town. Currently, the most important thing was to complete the construction of Rock Castle, and then start building a mountain city in the Morgen Hills. As for the 27,000 acres of fertile farmland in Northern Field Town, it would be a pity to abandon it. However, the family did not have any extra manpower to farm it, so it would be better to leave it here to recover the soil's strength. They would wait for Fatty Shi's northbound caravan to arrive before making further plans.
The four mercenary groups were also paid. The four mercenary groups felt that it was worth it to accept the Norton Family's employment this time. Not only was the salary high, but the loss of manpower was also small. Compared to other lords who liked to use mercenaries as cannon fodder, this young lord of the Norton Family often took the lead, and the mercenaries instead became his followers. In the last defense of Northern Field Town, although the mercenaries acted as the main force of defense, they did so willingly, because they had already stuffed their pockets full of money with the loot from the attacking soldiers.
Vasinma and Jim escorted the surviving women and girls of Northern Field Town back to Maple Villa. In any case, many people in Maple Forest Manor were relatives of these women and girls in a roundabout way. They would first rest in Maple Forest Manor for a period of time, and then escort them to Rock Castle. They would be given the freedom to interact with the young men who were single, and when they got married again, they would be able to forget the past and start a new life.
There was another problem that needed to be solved. Husky's mercenary group was about to be disbanded. More than 20 mercenaries were willing to join Laurist's family's armed forces, and more than 30 mercenaries who had recovered from their injuries did not want to leave their mercenary lives, so they joined the four mercenary groups in the past few days. However, this meant that Laurist's military camp at the border of the Demonic Dragon Mountains had no one to guard it. If he chose a small team from the family's armed forces, it would affect Laurist's subsequent arrangements. After thinking about it, Laurist decided to entrust one of the four mercenary groups.
Out of the four mercenary groups, Laurist liked the Sharp Spear mercenary group the most. This mercenary group was made up of retired soldiers and civilian officers, so they were the most organized. From the battle that had just ended, it could be seen that the Sharp Spear mercenary group had the least losses and the most rewards. However, after listening to Lollister's request, Commander Sandro tactfully rejected the mission because he already had two appointments, and he was going to accept those two missions when he returned.
Laurist's second target was Leader Richard of the Cromwell mercenary group. Similarly, Leader Richard also rejected the mission. He was worried that fighting against the Mountain Barbarians would cause his mercenary group to suffer great losses. After thinking about it, he decided not to accept the mission. The third target was the leader of the Night Bat mercenary group, Ulepumasin. As an old fox among the mercenaries, Ulepumasin did not reject Laurist's request. However, he felt that the reward for the mission was too little. He asked for a salary of 100 gold fords per month, and double the reward.
Laurist was so angry that he almost laughed. In the past, the salary he gave Husky and the others was 1 gold coin per month for the Silver rank, and 50 silver coins per month for the Iron and Bronze rank. In total, it was only about 100 gold fords per year. The Night Bat mercenary group only had twice the number of Husky's mercenary group, but their salary was 10 times higher. It was ridiculous.
The Five Swords mercenary group immediately agreed to Laurist's request, but they made another request. They wanted to move their families and relatives to the Norton Family's territory. They were willing to become Laurist's subjects. Laurist was very surprised.
The leader of the Five Swords mercenary group, Duboff, smiled bitterly. He had no other choice. Their mercenary group was originally formed by the villagers of the neighboring villages. Their goal was to become mercenaries and earn some money to pay for the lord's endless taxes. However, the lord's oppression was getting heavier, and their families were already suffering from hunger and cold. Although they formed a mercenary group to protect the villagers from being bullied, they could not reduce the taxes. Moreover, their village was located near the capital of the kingdom, Winderbury City. They were often harassed by the kingdom's soldiers nearby, and it was unbearable.
This time, when they accepted Laurist's employment to participate in the battle against the duke's army, the five leaders of the Five Swords mercenary group paid attention. In their contact with the Norton Family's soldiers and guards, they realized that the Norton Family treated their subjects much more benevolently than other lords. Especially when they saw the fields that were about to be abandoned after the massacre of Northern Field Town, they wanted to move their villages over.
Laurist was very happy. The family's territory lacked manpower, and he welcomed the Five Swords mercenary group to move their families and even their villages over. He promised that as long as they could come, they would be given houses and fields. The taxes were only 30% of the fields, and other miscellaneous taxes such as fishing, hunting, and firewood were 10%. If they joined the family's armed forces or contributed to the family, they could even be exempted from various taxes.
Dubeuf was also very happy, for in his village the principal tax was seventy per cent of the harvest, and the miscellaneous taxes were fifty per cent, so that his family and friends could no longer maintain a life of sufficient food and clothing, and could no longer support themselves. Laurist added fuel to the fire. Since the Five Swords mercenary group had accepted his request, his family would receive the same treatment as the soldiers of his family. If they died in the battle against the Mountain Barbarians, then the mercenaries who died in the battle would receive the same pension as the soldiers of his family.
Alright, the next thing to consider was how the family and villagers of the Five Swords mercenary group could escape from the control of their lord. Dubov said he was confident about this. Laurist gave him two months' time and 50 gold fords as a deposit. Dubov and the others went back excitedly.
After finishing this matter, Laurist finally heaved a sigh of relief. He handed the transportation of the materials and valuables of Northern Field Town to Vasima, Spear, and Paciko, and returned to Maple Forest Manor with Redi. After greeting Old Steward Clancy, examining Berhunick's body, and spending a night with Elina, Laurist brought Redi and Jim to Rock Castle the next day.
… …
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