Black Pine Territory (5)

After Santos agreed to Shang Ye's proposal, he immediately left Santos's tent to prepare for the night's guard duty.

Santos remained alone in his tent, carefully studying the map and muttering to himself, "This Black Forest is so vast. I wonder how far it extends with the Frost Fury Mountains. If only I had a more detailed map."

It was evening at the Black Pine Territory Viscount's Castle, and the castle servants were serving Lord Macut his dinner.

After a brief inspection of the lunchbox the servant was carrying, the two guards let him into the house, while they stood at the doorway observing the interior of the study.

After the servant entered the room, he said to Markut, "Your Excellency, your dinner is ready."

Markut was still very agitated. He picked up a book and flipped through it quickly in front of the bookshelf, then pointed to the desk and said, "You can just put it on the desk. I'll eat it later."

Upon hearing this, the servant placed the lunchbox on the table. As he put the lunchbox down with his back to the door, he subtly tapped the bottom of the lunchbox with his hand. "My lord, the bottom of the lunchbox contains soup. Please drink it as soon as possible, before it gets cold."

Markut noticed the servant's subtle movements, but said nothing and continued reading his book.

The servant turned and left the study, and the two guards closed the door behind him.

Marcus quickly put the book back on the shelf. He went to the desk and opened the lunchbox layer by layer until he reached the bottom. When he tried to touch the bottom of the lunchbox, he found a hidden compartment.

He opened the wooden panel on the hidden compartment and found a letter inside.

Markut opened the letter, read it briefly, and then Markut expression became very serious. He then took the letter aside and lit it with the oil lamp on his desk.

Then he picked up all the food and began to eat. After he finished eating, he rang the bell, and the study door opened again. The servant from before came in and took away the lunchbox.

After the servant went downstairs, he returned to the kitchen inside the castle, handed the lunchbox to the kitchen helper, and then left through the back door of the kitchen.

After leaving the kitchen, he went to a small room at the corner of the castle, pushed open the door, and went inside.

The room was small, with only one table and four chairs. One of the chairs was occupied by a young man in his early twenties. When he saw the servant enter, he quickly stood up and asked, "How is Lord? Was he harmed? Did you deliver the letter to him?"

The servant took off his coat, revealing a thin shirt underneath. "Don't worry, Lord is perfectly fine. He's just under house arrest in his study. The letter has already been taken by Lord."

"That's good. I was worried that Viscount Perez might hurt you, sir."

"No, Viscount Perez is Lord Lord's father. Even tigers don't eat their cubs, how could he harm Lord Lord Lord?"

"Lorak, you're not from Black Pine Territory, you haven't seen Viscount Perez's cruelty."

Viscount Perez had personally led troops to fight against the Barbarians before. Back then, the Barbarians had even reached the heart of Black Pine Territory, and their forces outnumbered those of Black Pine Territory several times over. The Black Pine Territory's troops suffered repeated defeats, Viscount Perez was forced to lead his troops to fight the Barbarians in the Black Forest. The battle lasted for more than a month before the Iron Birch Family came to their aid and finally defeated the Barbarians.

It is said that Viscount Perez and his troops had been without food for a long time. Initially, they survived by eating the carcasses of Barbarians warhorses. Later, when the warhorse carcasses ran out, they ate the corpses of the Barbarians. After the battle, he also had over a thousand captured Barbarians soldiers buried alive.

"Pudas, you talk as if you've seen it all. These things all happened before Lord was born!"

"But it's true. My parents told me these stories when I was little. However, Viscount Perez was indeed very cruel. I personally witnessed a serf being whipped to death by him for being lazy."

Had Lord Perez not stopped him, Baron Perez would have wanted to kill the serf's family as well to intimidate the other serfs.

Lorak shuddered after hearing this. "Viscount Perez is terrifying. Fortunately, Lord is not like him."

Pudas nodded. "I am also very fortunate that Lord is such a kind person. If it weren't for Lord's help, I wouldn't have had the money to save my mother. From that time on, my life belongs to Lord.

Lorak nodded in agreement. "Me too. If Lord hadn't saved me from the bandits, I might have been sold into slavery and died in the arena."

"Now that Lord Cohen has seen the letter, we can just wait here. Cohen and his men will not launch their attack until after nine o'clock tonight. We can simply wait for the flames to be lit and then meet up with them."

"Indeed, we have all received the Lord's kindness, and we must do our best to repay him."

Around 9 p. m., a fire broke out in the storeroom on the south side of the Black Pine Territory Viscount's castle. Soon, the castle became lively as a large number of guards and servants rushed out, carrying all sorts of tools to try to put out the fire.

The soldiers who rushed out of the castle did not notice that someone was going against the flow of people and entering the castle by hugging the wall. The people who came in went directly to the small room they had been in before.

They pushed open the door, and the leader went in. When Lorak and Pudas saw the newcomers, they immediately stood up. "Cohen, you're here. How's it going outside?"

"Don't worry, they won't be able to put out the fire anytime soon. I got some Black Oil Pine coke, it burns really fast."

Pudas hurriedly asked Cohen, "Did you bring the things?"

Cohen tossed two light crossbows to the two men from behind. "Here they are. The arrowheads are coated with rosemary-derived anesthetic. They were provided to us by the people from the Two Rivers Territory. As long as they don't hit a vital spot, they won't die. The anesthetic on the arrowheads is enough to make someone unconscious for five hours."

Lorak breathed a sigh of relief. "This is enough. Lord Lorak certainly wouldn't want us to kill two guards."

Pudas pushed Cohen with one hand and pulled Lorak with the other, saying, "What are we waiting for? Let's hurry and save Lord."

The group tiptoed toward the study where Markut was being held captive. Sure enough, neither of the guards had left. Lorak, Pudas, and two other men took light crossbows and aimed at the two guards. With two "whoosh" sounds, the arrows struck both guards directly.

After realizing they were being attacked, the two immediately tried to call for help, but they soon fell to the ground, their bodies, limbs, and mouths out of control.

The group pushed open the study door, and Markut saw the door open and the people entering the room.

"Why did you guys come to save me? Are you really not afraid of death?!"

"My lord, no difficulty can stop us from saving you!"

"Don't waste time, my lord, let's take advantage of the chaos and escape!"

"That's right, the fire won't keep them occupied for long. There are still hundreds of guards in the castle. We can't handle them."

Markut also made a quick decision, "Okay, let's go quickly. I need to find the army in the Two Rivers Territory as soon as possible and find out what's going on. Otherwise, once the two sides start fighting, it will be out of control."