Stands of people filled the small plaza in front of the main building of Slov Manor. This was the third morning since Lorist and his companions had occupied Slov Manor.
Right in the middle were over seven hundred slave soldiers holding long spears, a group of their family members stood on the left, the slaves rescued from the slaver camp stood on the right, and the thousand or so people squeezed together at the very back were the slaves responsible for grape cultivation and daily chores in the manor, along with their families.
Lorist appeared on the second-floor balcony of the main building, holding a rolled-up tin horn. Two days had passed since they took Slov Manor; the weapons, equipment, and goods had already been transported, and all the miscellaneous chores had come to an end. Next came the reorganization of the troops. Today, Lorist was going to address all the slave soldiers and slaves, giving them hope and instilling firm confidence in everyone to embark on the northern journey.
"I think I should introduce myself. I am Baron Norton Lorist, head of the Roaring Raging Bear family of the north." Lorist shamelessly bestowed the yet-to-be-officially-inherited baron title upon himself.
"I believe you all know the purpose of why my knights spent a heavy price to rescue you from the despicable slave traders in Port Nubite: it is to form our own Norton Family army, along with your families to journey north back to our domain, and to promise you freedom once we reach the north. But what we didn't expect was that before we even took our first step north, we were attacked by these despicable slavers. They even wanted to turn you into slaves, into goods, and into the bloody gold coins in their hands."
*"Before the family's