Chapter 231 – Unyielding
Although the blood-colored Eagle Virtuous Phantasms couldn’t talk, they could still understand Zhao Hai’s words. As such, it took Zhao Hai a few days to teach them simple ways to pass him information like changing their posture in flight and through the sounds they made.
As if following a flight ratio, executing several spins in the air would tell the number of people while with a few cries it would report the number of cavalrymen, and so on. In the end, these blood-colored Eagle Virtuous Phantasms could now act as the simplest of airborne scouts.
Zhao Hai carefully watched the blood-colored eagle until it flew away, then turned to Laura and said, “The eastern area has a situation. There’s a thousand cavalrymen approaching us, and they aren’t beastfolk.”
Laura gawked and her complexion changed as she said, “I understand that the Benniu Guards would leave the walls of Ironwall Fortress every two weeks to patrol the area. It seems we were unfortunate to have crossed them today.”
Zhao Hai wrinkled his brow and asked, “Then what should we do? Should we go back into the Space and hide?”
Laura shook her head. “We shouldn’t do that. We can just give them some money and let them go. After all, everyone is aware that the beastfolk buy food here. Moreover, the Purcell Duchy also hopes that everybody can go and sell food to the beastfolk. For the beastfolk, as long as they have food and drink, they wouldn’t move. The main purpose of the cavalry patrol is to check whether or not some beastfolk tribes had ventured here[1].”
Zhao Hai nodded. “Since you have experience on these sorts of things, how much do you think we should pay in order to cross the border successfully?”
Laura smiled faintly. “For this, I fear we will need a thousand gold coins. Moreover, I can’t just go there and pay it myself. It’s better for Grandpa Green to do it. After all, he’s a Rank Eight expert so those knights wouldn’t make it too difficult for him. If I go and they see that I’m a woman, then they will make it difficult for me.”
Zhao Hai’s complexion changed. “How come? Do they dare be so rude?”
Laura forced a smile and said, “Don’t forget, if they really want to be impolite to us, then they could just kill us all. Like that, they could just explain that we were killed by beastfolk. This place isn’t that deep into the Beastfolk Prairie, nor is it a part of Ironwall Fortress. Those elite Benniu Guards could easily become robbers here.”
Zhao Hai sighed. “Does Grand Duke Evan not have any control over this?”
Laura smiled. “Control? How could he control them? The soldiers here in Ironwall Fortress must maintain their wildness since they’re situated on the border adjacent to the Beastfolk Prairie. This is a place lacking in commodities. Adding in the fact that they’ve been here for a number of years, their hearts are probably low and would need a way to vent. Therefore, even if they see it, this matter has become something that those in power would turn a blind eye towards. As I was saying, a merchant wanting to do business here in the Beastfolk Prairie would, to put it bluntly, smuggle as they are supporting the enemy. This is illegal, so even if the soldiers killed them no one would say anything[2].”
Zhao Hai nodded and he shifted into the Space. He then went to Fort Iron Mountain and called for Green and explained the matter to him.
He then took an ordinary pouch and placed a thousand gold coins in it and gave it to Green. Then he appeared with Green on the carriage.
Zhao Hai released a wind-chasing horse and let Green ride it, but the caravan didn’t stop and continued on. He knew they couldn’t move faster than those elite Benniu Guards. This place was too open and those elite Benniu Guards[3] weren’t that far. Soon they would be approaching them.
Sure enough, in less than an hour, a light rumbling sound could be heard approaching from the east. Experienced soldiers would know that this was a brigade of cavalrymen in action. Zhao Hai and the others turned their heads to take a look and saw a team of a thousand cavalrymen coming in from the eastern area at a fast pace.
Zhao Hai’s caravan immediately stopped. They didn’t, however, move normally like a caravan should and into a circle formation as it was irrelevant.
Laura and the other two ladies didn’t come out. Those three were rare beauties. If they came out, then it would attract the attention of those cavalrymen and cause trouble[4].
Zhao Hai had heard of a few stories from Earth. When the soldiers in the army were serving for three years and suddenly saw Diaochan[5], they would compete to get her. Those cavalrymen may have been stationed there for longer than three years. If they saw Laura and the other two ladies, then while their might couldn’t add up to Diaochan, whether it would be enough to hinder their trip to the Beastfolk Prairie was hard to say[6].
Leaving the carriage, Zhao Hai moved slowly to the front of the caravan and silently stood there. He wore the black magician robe and held his Ghost Cane in order to bluff the cavalry.
Green stood at the side of the carriage. He didn’t put on his full body armor and instead wore simple warrior’s clothing. No mask adorned his face, and his hair was combed neatly. With his Spiritwind Sword at his waist, he looked like the typical expert warrior.
Zhao Hai wanted this kind of imposing manner since it would be impossible for Ironwall Fortress to know of Green[7]. His imposing manner would make it so that those who didn’t know of their bottom line wouldn’t act too unreasonably towards them, else they would battle. Zhao Hai wasn’t afraid of these cavalrymen, but he didn’t wish to come into conflict with them. No matter what, Evan had still been good to them[8].
Soon the team of cavalry arrived before Zhao Hai. They were about a hundred meters away from them and didn’t attack, rather, they stopped and were sizing up Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai also watched these people. They sat astride the Rank Three magic beast, flaming horse. These flaming horses wore heavy armor and those atop them wore heavy cavalrymen equipment. The helmet on their head had two bull horns and an iron mask covering the helmet which wasn’t put down.
Although those cavalrymen had traveled for a long time, no matter if it were the men or the horses, neither looked tired. While their full body armor didn’t look neat and there were even some parts that were damaged, it didn’t affect their imposing manner.
The bodies of those soldier gave off an imposing atmosphere with a great deal of pressure. Zhao Hai felt the murderous air around them and knew that it was the killing intent released by soldiers that had experienced many life and death battles.
Leading the cavalry was a bearded man with a massive body. His face had a scar that made him hideous to look at, and he stared coldly at Zhao Hai and company.
Zhao Hai didn’t say anything and instead waved a hand at Green. Saluting, Green rode his horse towards the team of cavalrymen. At around twenty meters from the cavalry, Green saluted them and said, “Everybody, military gentlemen, please. My clan knows that everyone has put in a great deal of patriotic labor. This little one offers a meager gift and invites you to laugh.”
After he said those words, he took out the pouch filled with a thousand gold coins and shook it.
Green didn’t do this to insult them. Since the patrol group had experienced this a lot, once they saw the pouch was shook and heard the sound it made, they knew it was filled with either gold or silver coins. So long as they got their hand on that pouch, they would be able to know how much was inside of it. As such, Green gently shook the pouch to let them know it contained gold coins.
The cavalry captain heard the sound and obviously knew the pouch contained gold coins. His eyes became more enthusiastic. Looking at Green, he said, “Oh, so your master understands the rules. A routine check still needs to be done, however.”
Green’s expression changed. He’d heard what Laura said. So long as they paid them some money, then the cavalry wouldn’t inspect them. Yet why were they now checking? Were they trying to find some kind of fault? As he thought of these matters, Green couldn’t help but change his expression into a cold one.
Straightening his body and with eyes shining brightly, he looked at the cavalry captain and said, “Oh, so the military captain will do such a thing. This is probably irregular, right?”
Green’s voice wasn’t loud, but those cavalrymen still heard it clearly. With the addition of Green’s imposing manner, his words and his changed expression had turned him from an ordinary man to a person with the aura of a Rank Eight expert that exuded a powerful momentum. This made the cavalry captain’s complexion change.
The cavalry captain was still a Rank Six knight. Since he hadn’t felt Green’s strength earlier, he’d tried to speak that way and test them. Unexpectedly, they’d found that Green was a Rank Eight expert. Moreover, he wasn’t an ordinary one. Green exuded a thick militaristic aura that made the cavalry captain understand that the opposite party wasn’t affable. This was a group one couldn’t annoy.
He immediately said, “Haha, I’m just cracking a joke with you, sir. Since sir knows the rules, then naturally sir can pass.”
As Green heard the cavalry commander, his imposing manner vanished instantly. He showed a faint smile to the cavalry captain and said, “I shall thank the military captain.”
After saying those words he bent at the waist and placed the pouch on the ground. He then turned his horse around and returned to Zhao Hai’s carriage.
Zhao Hai waited for Green to arrive by the carriage before waving his hand. The carriage then began to slowly make its way towards the depths of the Beastfolk Prairie. The cavalry captain didn’t move to pick up the pouch immediately and was instead looking thoughtfully at the carriage.
A cavalryman riding beside the cavalry captain asked, “Captain, what just happened?”
When he recovered, the cavalry captain looked at the knight and said, “Nothing, I just remembered something. Some time ago, news had spread from Casa City. During the crisis, our Purcell clan had been helped by a black magician. That black magician had a Rank Eight warrior following him, right?”
The cavalry captain was also a clan member of the Purcell clan, so he’d said ‘our Purcell clan’. After hearing what the cavalry captain had said, the cavalryman gawked for a moment. “Captain, what do you mean? Was that magician in the caravan the one that had helped the Purcell clan resolve the crisis?”
Nodding, the cavalry captain said, “Rank Eight… well, don’t think about it too much. Go and pick up the money.”
The cavalryman complied immediately and clipped the horse’s side to move forward. He circled the pouch and then got off his horse to examine it. Once the pouch was in his hand, he returned to the cavalry captain’s side and reported, “Captain, it should be a thousand gold coins[9].”
He nodded and turned around, then shouted loudly, “Brothers, this trip wasn’t in vain. When we go back we’ll take the day off and everyone can go have some fun.”
The cavalrymen cheered loudly. Clipping the horse’s side, the cavalry captain moved forward and everyone followed behind.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
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-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1] This isn’t really a reason for not hiding… ↩
[2] So, again, what was the reason for them not hiding in the Space? You explain it in a way that shows that the better idea was the hiding one, yet you stay for what? ↩
[3] The use of elite is getting tiring. Let’s just call them robbers and be done with it. ↩
[4] Trouble that could have been avoided by, I don’t know, hiding in the space. ↩
[5] No actual idea about if this was real. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaochan ↩
[6] Again makes me question why any country would have a standing army of such disposition. It’s basically asking for someone corrupt to come and use them for a coup or something. ↩
[7] Again, no evidence for this statement. Green was a person who fought the beastfolk, no? How would he not have relations with Ironwall Fortress??? ↩
[8] Urgh, don’t throw the Evan card. If you didn’t want anything to happen, you would have hid in the Space. And if these guys are crap human beings, then you’d really be doing Evan a favor in the long run… come on… ↩
[9] Question, I’ve been wondering for a bit, but how heavy and large is a gold coin? Just a thousand pennies seems a bit heavy, nevermind gold coins from this medieval-esque era…