Horus Arrives

For the next three days, everything was calm. Aside from using his six Level 1 Commands daily to gain experience, he led all the men, young and old, in reinforcing the outer walls of the farmstead.

He had a strange feeling about construction, as if he had been an excellent architect in a past life, or even the life before that. However, this inexplicable feeling didn't grant him any practical combat ability.

The midday sun was scorching. Not wanting his handsome face to get too tanned, Ergons declared a lunch break and sat down on the parapet.

He took the waterskin handed to him by his cheap brother-in-law, William Adena, and took a few sips. He checked his attributes panel: Level 25, Experience: 27634, Experience needed for next level: 29200.

He would level up tomorrow. Once he leveled up again, he wanted to focus on coaching, because for his subordinates to gain combat effectiveness, the personal skill of coaching was very important.

He still had three Level 2 Permit commands left, and he needed to use them sparingly. They should be enough for the daily training of his soldiers to help them level up.

He hadn't invested in skills like Iron Bones, Power Strike, Shield, or Defensive Running because he always adhered to the principle of fighting big battles with his subordinates.

Only when his subordinates had secured victory and controlled the situation would he ride his horse, spear in hand, to experience the thrill of slaughter.

When playing Mount & Blade, he wouldn't rush for a long time. After playing Strength/Agility builds, he would eventually gravitate towards Intelligence/Charisma.

"Young Master! They're here!"

Adamson, who had been assigned to lead five mounted light infantrymen on patrol, galloped back to the outer wall. "They're here! People from the County of Tervain are here!"

Ergons stood up and looked into the distance. Indeed, surrounded by five mounted light cavalrymen, three men who clearly looked like foreigners were slowly approaching in a horse-drawn carriage through the swirling yellow sand.

This group appeared on the map: Pirates (3) were heading to Tervain Village.

"Still lacking experience, aren't you? You've already revealed everything about yourselves, and you're still gloating? I ask you, besides discovering these three, did you find their main force?"

Adamson was taken aback and stammered, "I was following your orders, Young Master, patrolling the tidal flats fifteen miles away. When I encountered this group, there were only these three. They looked like they were about to dehydrate. They only recovered after drinking our water. They said they were meeting someone and didn't find anyone else?"

He paused, then realized, "This group lied to me! I'll go find them!"

"Alright, come back! Are you not embarrassed enough?"

Seeing Adamson stunned and hesitant to retort after being reprimanded, he continued, "Bring them to the manor to rest. You did very well to arrive."

He sat back down by the parapet and said to his cheap brother-in-law, "These six rookies really acted like total noobs. They didn't even see the 27 pirates following behind them."

"Should we show those people something fierce?"

"No need. Sending them out was precisely to lure them in while appearing weak. How are those three young men you brought along doing?"

Old teaching new was the most traditional method. Translating game abilities into reality, training soldiers wasn't just about a group of people fighting with wooden sticks while shirtless. William, having already been a knight, was now meticulously passing on his experience to these three young men who dared to step forward and offer their service.

"The effect is quite good. They basically have the ability to fight on horseback now."

He opened the troop panel. These three men were indeed close to leveling up. Once they leveled up, they would truly become heavy cavalry, marking a qualitative leap.

"Go and train them more. Don't just ride horses. Set up some dummies on the ground and have them practice slashing and spearing. They haven't experienced actual combat yet, so their current strength might not translate into real combat effectiveness."

William nodded and left with the three young men.

He looked at the map. The three pirates who had entered were now staying in a civilian residence next to the granary that he and Adam had conspired about earlier. As for the group of pirates in the distance, their purpose remained unknown.

"What are these people doing in the desert? Eating sand? Besides, shouldn't it be regular troops from the County of Tervain coming? Why are they pirates?"

"Captain, what are we doing here? It's all sand around here. We're about to dehydrate, and we're just going to wait it out like this?"

In the vast, rolling Gobi Desert, under a relatively sheltered mountain pass, a group of people dressed in exotic fashion were squatting behind a pile of rocks, seeking shelter and resting. A one-eyed man, clearly a pirate, irritably stuffed a piece of flatbread he couldn't brush the sand off into his mouth and grumbled to another man sitting cross-legged with a calm demeanor.

This man was in his early thirties, clearly younger than the other pirates. His clothing and appearance were also much more refined than the weathered look of the others.

He tightened his grip on the longsword resting on his knees almost imperceptibly, then relaxed it before opening his eyes and replying, "Shut up. If you don't want to rest, then get out and stand guard. But if you cause any unnecessary trouble, I'll bury you in the sand!"

After chasing away the whiner, the captain once again entered a meditative state. In reality, his mood had been ruined, making effective meditation difficult. His restless thoughts couldn't be suppressed.

He was originally the heir of a minor noble family in the United Kingdom of Hogrem, a peninsular nation. Raised as a noble heir from a young age, he was sent to his main family as a page at the age of six. At fourteen, he became a squire to the heir of the main family. After turning twenty-two, he left his hometown due to personal grudges and went to seek adventure.

But how could he have been encountered by the private trading fleet of a Count of Tervain, another vassal state of Hogrem? The Count claimed to cherish his talent and hired him with a large sum of money to captain the private trading fleet. However, he never imagined that the so-called trade of this fleet was actually human trafficking.

The so-called private trading fleet was a legal private slave ship. Besides capturing slaves from the coastal areas of inland countries to populate the peninsula, they also engaged in activities like attacking pirates from other shipping systems.

He was drawn into this life at twenty-three. Now, at thirty, although his hands were stained with the blood of innocents and he had personally caused countless families to be torn apart, he always believed he was different from these pirates. He didn't want to associate with them, yet he spent the pirates' wages with a clear conscience.

His ambition lay elsewhere, but he was forced by circumstances to mix with these pirates.

He admitted that he had lowered his standards for himself and acknowledged that he seemed to have fallen, but this was no reason for the Count of Tervain to send him to his death.

The Holy Light Church was clearly using their invasion to increase their importance within the Duchy and enhance their influence. The Count couldn't possibly fail to see such a simple matter.

Without sufficient strategic depth in the North Province, the so-called invasion would be baseless and rootless.

And for a County to attack a Duchy, inevitably facing the Duchy's fierce counterattack, the Count of Tervain would have to have ulterior motives if he weren't.

Therefore, regardless of what benefits the Count sought in this mutually understood exploitation, he felt he might be sacrificed here.

This was also what dissatisfied him the most.

Thus, he made a decision. Throughout the entire process, he would not easily show himself, even preparing to sneak away at any time.

As for the wife he married and the children he had in the County of Tervain?

As long as there was money, where were the women? As for children? Horus had traveled far and wide over the years, leaving many offspring. Did he ever care for any of them?

He didn't care about one more.

So, according to his plan, he would wait until dark. When it was dark, his men would split into two groups. One group would go to that village, and the other would follow him and disappear into the mountains and forests near Tevalinburg.

He didn't want to risk his life anymore.