Nighttime Words Before Departure

Nighttime Words Before Departure

Late at night, the cold wind sweeping through White Bear Territory still carried a trace of biting chill.

In the bedroom on the second floor of the Castle, the fireplace blazed brightly, making the room feel like warm spring.

Yagna curled up in Lynn's broad embrace, several strands of disheveled golden hair clinging to her flushed cheeks. Her eyelashes drooped slightly, revealing a hint of languor and weariness, yet the lift of her brows and eyes unmistakably held traces of delight.

She was no longer the shy little deer she had once been.

Under Lynn's instruction, this young Northern Kingdom girl was rapidly transforming into a mature, alluring Little Doe.

"My lord, please be sure to watch out for danger in the forest, especially the Wild Tribes."

Yagna had long been deeply won over by Lynn's bravery.

But whenever she thought of the dangers lurking within the vast forest, unease still surged from the depths of her heart like a tide.

Lynn rubbed her firm, supple young cheek. "Don't worry. I'll bring enough men this time. If I really run into any Wild Tribes, I'll capture a few and bring them back for you."

"My lord, I don't want any Wild Tribes. As long as you return safely, that's enough."

Yagna could not understand Lynn's attitude toward the Wild Tribes, much less his obsession with the forest.

What treasures could possibly be hidden in the northern forest, enough to make a lord risk exploring it even while his fields were being cultivated?

In her mind, those uncivilized, filthy Wild Tribes were enemies of the entire Northern Kingdom, people who needed to be exterminated.

However, Yagna did not openly show her hostility toward the Wild Tribes. She was perceptive enough to sense how much the man beside her valued them.

"Just stay obediently in the Castle, and remember to keep the accounts straight. If I come back and find that they don't add up—"

As he spoke, Lynn's other large hand suddenly slipped deep beneath the blankets and gave a hard squeeze. "You know the consequences."

"Ahh~"

Yagna cried out and hurriedly begged for mercy. "M-My lord, don't worry about the accounts. I definitely won't make any mistakes, mm."

Lynn did not keep idlers around.

Yagna had to serve him at night, and during the day, she was responsible for all the territory's income and expenses.

When the serfs cultivated the lord's public fields, they had to bring their own livestock and farming tools, but the seeds came from the lord's storehouses.

Not only that, the lord also had to provide a filling lunch every day. Otherwise, the serfs would have no strength to work in the afternoon.

As he teased Little Doe, Lynn's movements seemed somewhat absentminded.

One hand casually kneaded her body, but his eyes remained fixed on the dark ceiling.

Thinking back on all he had seen and heard in the Northern Kingdom over the years, he became increasingly certain that the noble class of the Northern Kingdom generally harbored a deep, gulf-like hostility toward the Wild Tribes.

After conquering the Wild Tribes' land, these nobles seemed never to have considered ethnic integration.

Even when their territories were desperately short on people, even when they had to spend large sums buying serfs, they would still exterminate any Wild Tribes who appeared on their lands.

Not only that, they would erase every trace of the Wild Tribes' existence as thoroughly as possible.

The Wild Tribes' language, customs, and even the objects and tools they had used had suffered almost devastating destruction.

The Wild Tribes had lived and multiplied in the Northern Kingdom for thousands of years, yet Lynn had traveled throughout the entire kingdom and still found it difficult to locate any evidence that this people had ever existed.

It was only in a small city in the southern part of the kingdom that Lynn had been fortunate enough to meet an elderly scholar who could speak the Wild Tribes' language.

According to the scholar himself, he was most likely the last scholar in the entire Northern Kingdom who understood that language.

He had learned it from a Wild Tribes female slave.

And now, it was difficult to find even a living Wild Tribes slave anywhere in the Northern Kingdom.

In the nobles' subconscious minds, perhaps the Wild Tribes were not people at all, but animals that could be hunted and killed at will. If the upper classes were hostile toward the Wild Tribes, then the lower classes feared them.

Old Albert's attitude toward the Wild Tribes alone was enough to show that.

Of course, the lower classes lacked education, so this fear probably

came from stories passed down by word of mouth within their families, from fear of the unknown.

Like the ghost stories parents told when scolding naughty children.

The last large-scale war between the Northern Kingdom and the Wild Tribes had taken place more than thirty years ago, and the main battlefield had been on Wild Tribes land. Most of the Northern Kingdom's lower classes had never even seen a living member of the Wild Tribes.

This fear clearly did not come from "understanding."

But no matter what, Lynn wanted to accept the Wild Tribes. He desperately needed people.

In his view, as long as they were human, they would always long for a prosperous and peaceful life.

The Wild Tribes were human too. There was no way they could be content with the bitter cold and barren wasteland.

The excavation marks found around the Salt Mine also showed that one Wild Tribes tribe had left the Northern Wasteland and migrated south to the northern part of White Bear Territory.

Lynn hoped to accept this Wild Tribes tribe, provided that they could put aside their hostility.

In his eyes, there was no hostility or rift that a bowl of fragrant hot porridge could not mend.

The Wild Tribes were uncivilized. They did not even have a proper writing system, only a primitive and vague language.

Without written records, hatred between peoples was actually difficult to pass down through generations.

Thirty years had passed, and these Wild Tribes had already multiplied for two generations.

Given the harsh cold and scarce resources of the wasteland, the older generation of Wild Tribes who had experienced the war had probably all died out long ago.

To the new generation of Wild Tribes, the terror of the Northern Kingdom was likely no different from a "ghost story."

At least, that was what Lynn believed.

But what the actual situation was could only be determined after he had come into contact with the Wild Tribes himself.

If this Wild Tribes tribe would rather die than become subjects under Lynn's rule,

then they could only die.

Lynn would never allow anyone on his land to remain unwilling to submit to him.

At that moment, Yagna's soft voice interrupted Lynn's thoughts. "My lord, I heard that you want to establish a school in the territory."

Lynn stroked her head. "I do have that idea. What about it?"

Although Lynn had not yet revealed confidential matters such as the Salt Mine to Yagna, with his tacit approval, she had gradually begun participating in the management of the territory.

When Lynn had inspected the cultivation from the watchtower today, Yagna had been standing nearby, so she had naturally heard his conversation with Lao Liu.

"My lord, the Duchess once told me that it was actually a good thing for serfs not to learn or write. The more they know, the harder they are to manage."

Lynn had been getting sleepy, but the moment he heard that, his interest was piqued again. "Really? The Duchess talks to you about things like that?"

"Yes. She also said that writing is a very special medium. It can transcend time and place. Our lives are very short, but writing can endure forever."

"And then?"

"So she believes not everyone is qualified to learn writing. To use writing properly requires a certain degree of aptitude and breeding. If everyone were qualified to leave behind words, the world would become a garbage dump."

"That's quite an interesting idea."