Post-Battle Lull

Victor sat on a large stone platform at the foot of the city wall slope. He wiped his longsword briefly and then sheathed it. It wasn't that he didn't cherish his weapon, but time was indeed very tight, and there was no need to waste time on such a small matter.

"Take off your leather armor and outer garments, as well as your boots. No weapons are allowed on your person. Violators will be executed!" A soldier was addressing the prisoners of war. As per Victor's orders, the prisoners had their equipment and weapons removed, their hands tied behind their backs with ropes, and then they were herded into a room that had just been cleaned.

At this moment, Alex took off his helmet and walked over, handing Victor a water pouch. "I've opened the city gates. The brothers who stayed outside told me they didn't see anyone run out of the gates. As for whether there are any tunnels, I don't know."

The castle is not large, covering an area of nearly 20 acres. The internal structure is very simple, with the main buildings independent of the city walls. The main castle divides the city into two areas, one large and one small.

The main battlefield where the battle just took place was located in the large open space on the east side, which should normally be used as Drill Ground. Alex led his troops into the city from the west side, and Alex's Cavalry circled around from behind the main castle and directly attacked the flank and rear of the War Department.

Victor opened the water pouch, took a sip, and frowned.

Seeing this, Alex quickly said, "I got some sweet wine from the trading post. We can share it between the two of us, so everyone can have some. It's not very strong, and it can help replenish our energy."

After listening, Victor took a few more sips. This kind of sweet wine is a low- Grape mixed with sugar or honey. The alcohol content is indeed very low, and it can definitely be drunk as a beverage.

Victor tossed the water bag back to Alex. "I didn't have time to count them earlier. What are our casualties?"

"I'm doing alright on my end, but when I came out of the canal, I saw a small squad of garrison soldiers, which was a bit troublesome. Three of them died. When we charged into their formation, their formation broke apart, and we suffered almost no casualties. The losses you brought in were quite heavy. Fourteen of them died, six were seriously wounded, and nine were slightly wounded. The six seriously wounded probably won't last much longer."

Victor sighed. He had brought in 49 warriors, and 29 of them had been killed or were about to die. That meant that two-fifths of his men had been lost. Fortunately, these warriors were the elite of Iron Birch Territory and his personal guards, and their fighting spirit was extraordinary, which was why they were able to keep fighting despite such high casualties.

"Did you find out where the Diplomatic Delegation members are? And Baron of Woven Fern?"

"The Diplomatic Delegation should be trapped on the second floor of the castle, where our men are guarding it. There are also many servants and relatives of Baron of Woven Fern inside, and there may be a few assassins among them. I haven't sent anyone in yet, and I wanted to discuss this with you."

As for Baron of Woven Fern, he's probably dead!

Victor looked surprised upon hearing this. Could it be that the current Baron of Woven Fern was attacking him from within the garrison just now?

This is already the behavior of an exemplary nobleman!

Alex, seeing Victor's expression, knew he had misunderstood. "The garrison I encountered behind the castle was Baron of Woven Fern and his guards. They tried to escape through the water gate, but I caught them red-handed. However, there were a few veterans among the Baron's guards. Plus, my Cavalry charged up from the canal earlier, so we couldn't deploy properly. It took quite a bit of effort to take them down, and Baron of Woven Fern was also killed in the process."

Victor nodded. "Have you confirmed their identities?"

"Not yet. I was just looking for you. I was planning to select a few prisoners of war to examine the bodies and verify their identities."

"Alright, I'll go with you." After saying that, the two of them led the soldiers to select five prisoners of war from among them and took them to the back of the castle.

Victor then saw the full view of the open space behind the castle. This should be the kitchen that connects to the castle. There was a lot of firewood piled up on one side of the open space. Next to the firewood pile was the water channel extending from the water gate. This area was much narrower than the water gate, only wide enough for one person and one horse to pass through. No wonder Alex said that he couldn't deploy his troops.

Victor looked at the chaotic battlefield, with the carcass of a fallen warhorse, but no bodies of his own soldiers; they must have already been taken to their graves.

The other 15 corpses, most of which were from the private army of the Woven Fern Territory, were dressed the same as the other guards, except that their leather armor had been replaced with iron armor. Two of the corpses were different, wearing standard noble-style fine linen clothes with a fox fur coat over them.

One of the bodies was that of a relatively young boy who looked only seventeen or eighteen years old, and the other was that of a middle-aged man who was about forty years old.

Alex pulled over a prisoner, pointed to the two corpses, and asked, "Who are they? What are their names?"

"Ah... ah..., he is..."

The prisoner of war looked very young, and was probably terrified; he was also speaking incoherently.

Alex was angered by this. He nodded to the guard behind him, who then drew his longsword and stabbed the prisoner through the chest.

Then, Alex stepped over the prisoners' corpses and said to the other four, "I don't want to waste time. You all better hurry up and say what you've got, don't force me."

"I said!" "This is Baron Mosley and his son, Lord Winter." "Yes, the Baron and his son." "I spoke first!"

The prisoners of war started talking all at once, and Alex asked a few more questions to confirm the information before ordering the soldiers to take the prisoners back.

"It should be true. This is indeed Mosley Weaver Fern and his son Winter Weaver Fern!"

"So, the Woven Fern Territory is now extinct!" Victor asked curiously.

"Pretty much. The former baron had a daughter, and after Mosley succeeded to the throne, he married her off to the central region. She has already changed her surname. Mosley was the former baron's only brother, and he only had one son. The Weaver Fern family line is now completely extinct!"

Victor shook his head and said to Alex, "In that case, let them go to dust."

"What about the Diplomatic Delegation? Their guards also participated in the defense of the city. Most of them surrendered, but a few guards are still hiding on the second floor with the members of the Diplomatic Delegation."

Victor looked up at the castle. "There's still time, but I don't want to waste time with them. Find a few loud-voiced prisoners of war and have them shout for everyone in the castle to come out. If they don't, set it on fire."

"Are you really going to set the fire? What about the secret agreement?"

Victor looked at Alex and explained with a speechless expression, "Our goal is to intercept the secret pact. As long as the secret pact doesn't reach Silver Maple City, we don't need to care how it disappeared."

"You're right, I'll go find someone to move some firewood."

"Let the prisoners of war do it, don't waste our soldiers' energy."