Days passed, but the chaos in the Wilderness, far from subsiding, grew ever more treacherous and unpredictable.
A great tribe was moving south—and a tribe of hot-tempered brutes like the Minotaurs, at that. For this small corner of the world, it was like releasing a thousand-pound tiger into a pasture with a thousand sheep and cattle. The impact on the entire area would be devastating.
Until they were dealt with, chaos would reign supre in this part of the Wilderness.
Countless small tribes were helplessly driven south. If they remained where they were, they would face an inhumanly brutal slaughter at the hands of the Minotaurs.
So races, possessing only production skills and no combat ability, were in an even more miserable state without the protection of a suzerain. On their journey, they were first plundered by other races, then captured and taken as temporary rations for the road.
It reached a point where their primary goal was no longer just to escape with their lives, but to find a powerful suzerain willing to take them in.
Coincidentally, in the Wilderness, there happened to be one—and only one—erging power that had both the reputation and the strength.
Countless non-combatant Goat-n and Rabbit People traveled toward this renowned faction, their numbers snowballing along the way.
...
"For a mont there, I thought so other blind fools had the audacity to attack High Cliff Castle!" Levi said, exasperated, and waved his hand to dismiss the assembled Guards of High Cliff Castle.
Behind Baisitina were at least four or five hundred people, every one of them staring at him with expectant eyes.
The group was a motley crew, a mix of Goat-n and Rabbit People.
These two races were rather timid and had little combat prowess. They typically served as vassals, handling production tasks for a powerful suzerain.
"My Lord, the cruel Minotaurs have destroyed our peaceful hos. We are now but holess, wandering souls. Even a newborn lamb in the Wilderness knows of your great renown, so we have co here to beg you, like one of the Gods, to take pity on us poor folk."
The one speaking was an old Goat-man with a goatee and two horns. He described their bleak situation, and when he ntioned the Lord, his voice beca as devout as a believer about to fall into Hell who had just been greeted by the god he worshipped.
"Damn it... Each of you, grab a sickle and go cut grass in the livestock pens."
Levi had wanted to refuse, but his better nature won out. He could only curl a corner of his lip, waving his hand with a feigned look of disgust.
Just as the old Goat-man was about to leave, the Lord couldn’t hold back. He called him over and asked gleefully, "Among you locals, doesn’t this Lord have many resounding titles that imply things like ’kindness’ and ’rcy’?"
The old Goat-man hesitated. Looking at the Lord’s expectant face, he finally decided to embellish a little. "The Demon from Hell, the Bloodthirsty Demon, the Crimson atgrinder..."
"Are those really the ones? Aren’t there any... positive ones?" Levi asked, unwilling to accept it.
The old Goat-man blinked his eyes, looking very innocent.
"Damn it!" Lord Li cursed, sounding just like a common shrew from Debei. "This is blatant prejudice and discrimination against !"
Beside them, Baisitina covered her mouth, stifling a giggle.
It was no wonder the Lord had earned such titles. Every ti a battle began, he was the first to charge, and not a single one of his opponents ever left behind a corpse that could be pieced back together.
One could say these "grand" titles were already the embellished versions. Rumor had it that the re ntion of the Lord of High Cliff Castle’s na could scare a crying baby silent in the Wilderness.
With winter approaching, a thick layer of clouds had shrouded the Wilderness for the past few days, creating a sense of oppressive doom, as if black clouds were bearing down on the city, threatening to crush it.
Aside from preparing for war, the most important matter in all of High Cliff Castle was awaiting the arrival of an important personage from Debei. But instead of Liya, what Levi received was a letter from the Debei Noble Garden.
The ssage was carried by a black raven that possessed a faint amount of Magic Power. This type of bird could sense the location of a specific Magic Item it had been trained to rember, even from hundreds of miles away.
And the Noble Badge issued by the Noble Garden was not just a symbol of status, but also a Magic Item. Each Noble Badge was custom-made for its owner on the spot, and a black raven was trained to rember the aura of that specific badge.
This was to make it convenient for the Noble Garden to contact these lords in a tily manner whenever sothing ca up.
’As usual, those high-and-mighty pigs at the Noble Garden didn’t disappoint,’ Levi thought. ’The entire letter was filled with honorifics and formalities, with the actual ssage consisting of just a few short sentences.’
The gist of it was a warning to the Pioneer Lords in the Northern Wilderness, telling them to retreat back to Debei territory as soon as possible.
The raven, its feathers as black as ink, drank a little fresh milk and set off again. The Wooden Tube on its leg, now empty of the letter, was one Gold Coin heavier.
’That’s right, this warning letter wasn’t free. To expect those pigs to voluntarily worry about the Pioneer Lords’ safety without getting anything in return is like expecting a john to go easy on a prostitute!’
"Fucking hell, they must’ve made at least a thousand Gold Coins from this trip. Even robbery isn’t this fast."
Levi was both envious and jealous.
The Wilderness was vast—so vast that even after all these years, Debei had yet to reach its end.
Pioneer Lords were scattered across the land like sesa seeds, spread throughout the Wilderness. By a rough estimate, there were currently over a thousand Pioneer Lords in the Wilderness.
The minimum paynt for a raven’s delivery was one Gold Coin. After all, sotis getting information one step ahead of others had a value that couldn’t be asured in money.
’But to use the raven ssengers to cash in on sothing that anyone even slightly alert could have noticed... stringing these pigs up from the lampposts wouldn’t be enough to atone for their sins,’ the Lord fud inwardly.
Of course, it wasn’t as if no noble had ever refused to pay. But once, during a major tribe’s southward migration, everyone who paid received the news and retreated to Debei. Only the one noble who hadn’t paid was left in the dark out in the Wilderness, becoming the sole unfortunate soul of that incident.
This case of "killing the chicken to scare the monkey" made the nobles understand one thing: the information you paid for might not be useful, but when you *didn’t* pay, that sa information could suddenly beco very useful indeed. So, despite the heartache, they all paid their Gold Coins.
Although the letter had been received, High Cliff Castle remained High Cliff Castle. Nothing changed. The Warriors continued their patrols, training, and hunting, and the common folk continued to herd and fish.
For Levi, retreating back into Debei territory would be tantamount to letting all his recent efforts go to waste, and that was sothing he could not tolerate.
High Cliff Castle had been built on a hill, with gentle downward slopes on three sides. At its back was a natural cliff face, a sheer drop of over a hundred ters.
Levi had originally chosen this place as his base precisely because it was naturally easy to defend and difficult to attack.
After taking captives and slaves, he had them continuously dig out the gentle slopes on the left and right sides, turning them into vertical earthen walls. Finally, the Feder Blacksmiths personally used stone transported from the Kas Mountain Range to build a proper wall, reinforcing these vertical earthen ramparts.
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