The Old Witch stayed at the castle to study the corpses of the Children of the Forest who had been infected with human plague, while Yveta led his people to the castle stables.
A group of knights waited outside the stables as their squires brought their warhorses out.
Yveta counted them. Knight Tawil was there with seven knights, and behind them were the forty-five armed infantrymen and more than two hundred peasant soldiers they had brought along.
With only a little over a hundred and twenty guards in the castle, these forces were already extremely important.
Yveta couldn't let them go and get themselves killed.
He went over to Knight Tawil, who haughtily refused to look at him.
"Knight Tawil, have your servants feed your warhorses in the stables. We'll soon have a hard battle to fight. My men saw an army of foreign people in the forest. If you go after them now, you'll only bring disaster upon yourselves."
"My advice is that we let them come to us."
"We stay and defend the castle."
"Have the peasants retreat into the castle. Tell the peasants in your villages to take shelter in the manor, or come here to the castle."
Knight Tawil turned to Yveta with a sneer. "You're just an adventurer. What gives you the right to give orders here?"
"Your men saw an army in the forest? And we're supposed to take your word for it?"
"Pursuing the remnants of an enemy is how you win the greatest victories. Chasing down a fleeing enemy is how you earn the most merit. You people aren't knights. You don't understand these things."
"Your adventurer tricks won't work on the battlefield."
Yveta frowned. He really didn't have much experience. Someone with a distinguished record could easily persuade others by citing examples from wars they had fought in.
But his strange status and young age made it impossible for him to win the respect of a middle-aged knight.
Knight Tawil brazenly shouted at Yveta, "Get out of my way, adventurer!"
"I'm going to hunt down the bastards who killed Moro, my comrade-in-arms. Moro and I grew up together. We learned swordsmanship together. I can't accept... I can't accept that he died just like that!"
Yveta felt stuck.
There was no talking sense into this fool.
Seeing Tawil's bloodshot eyes, Yveta made one last attempt. "If you go after them, you'll die."
"They've already regrouped in the forest..."
Knight Tawil suddenly drew his Knight Sword and swung it at Yveta.
Clang!
Black Wolf's sword intercepted Knight Tawil's.
Black Wolf could tell that Tawil hadn't used his full strength. It had only been a threat.
That still infuriated Black Wolf. "Tawil, don't push it."
Yveta looked at the crossed greatsword and Knight Sword before him, entirely unafraid. "Tawil, are you going to raise your sword against the people who saved you?"
Tawil's expression shifted several times. He knew he still owed Yveta a favor.
If not for Yveta, he would have fallen for the Children of the Forest's poison plot.
Knowing he was in the wrong, Tawil said, "Anyone who tries to stop me will be cut down."
His squire led over his horse, and Knight Tawil mounted.
He rode straight off, and the troops followed.
Yveta frowned and called out to the soldiers, "Think about your families, everyone."
"I promise you, the Children of the Forest's army has already regrouped out there. Going after them now would be suicide."
"If the standing soldiers die out there, at least they can call it a warrior's glory. But many of you are just peasants who were conscripted to fulfill your feudal obligations."
"Your wives and children are waiting for you at home. Don't leave the castle to die!"
Some of the peasant soldiers hesitated.
The lord of Ambrose could conscript serfs in his territory for ten days of military service each year.
In other words, these peasants could only be conscripted for ten days a year.
That was because the system of serfdom in Ambrose had grown far too weak.
Yveta's words made some of the serfs, who had been reluctant from the start, hesitate.
Quite a few stayed where they were instead of following the troops.
These serfs had never received any military training. In truth, they didn't want to follow Tawil to pursue the enemy.
They simply had no way to resist their lord's call to fulfill their feudal obligations.
Now that Yveta, who seemed to be the actual ruler of the Baron's Territory, had spoken, some of the bolder serfs really considered staying behind.
Knight Tawil looked back with a sneer. "Anyone who wants to stay is nothing but a coward."
"All the spoils from this battle are yours. Those Children of the Forest took plenty of things with them when they fled."
Greed was hard to resist.
After he said that, some of the peasant soldiers who had wanted to stay behind changed their minds and wanted to follow him after all.
In the end, a little over fifty peasant soldiers stayed behind.
That was good enough.
With that, the number of soldiers in the castle came close to two hundred.
Their quality, however, might not be very high.
The peasant soldiers' term of service really was only ten days, but if the Children of the Forest laid siege to the castle, they couldn't just leave it and return home.
At least these fifty or so were healthy, strong adult men.
They would still be of great use inside the castle.
Yveta had managed to persuade some of the soldiers to stay.
He told Leili and the steward, Akalanda, to assign them suitable positions on the castle walls.
Then he sent Black Wolf to check how many bows, arrows, and sets of armor remained in the castle, as well as how much food they had.
If the Children of the Forest really laid siege to the castle, these supplies could mean the difference between life and death.
Yveta returned to the castle's second floor with Branton, then called for the Old Witch and went to what had once been the baron's study.
In the study, Yveta sat on the wooden chair with a backrest where the baron usually sat. "Branton, do you think we can write to Ambrose, the Great Viscount, in the name of the Moro Family and ask him for help?"
"Of course we can, my lord," Branton replied at once.
The Old Witch spoke frankly. "You could have before. After all, this is the Great Viscount's country. But not anymore."
"Because... look. The Viscount Country seems to have split into two factions. They can barely manage their own affairs. I think that's exactly why the Children of the Forest dared to show themselves again."
Yveta frowned. "What rank of professional is that ancient soul?"
"Third Rank at most, the same as me," the Old Witch said. "With the Thousand Year Fire here, the Children of the Forest can't use power beyond the Third Rank in this place."
"Even if they're all Third Rank professionals, they each have different specialties, so their strength can't be the same."
Branton suddenly grew curious. "Then what are you good at?"
The Old Witch spoke frankly, with a hint of pride. "I'm best at running away."
Branton's eyes widened. He looked at Yveta, then at the Old Witch. "Well..."
Yveta sighed. "If they can only use power up to the Third Rank, then I don't need to worry too much."
The Old Witch said, "Your Grace, are we really going to fight the Children of the Forest here? That should be the responsibility of the nobles and the City Council of the Viscount Ambrose's Independent State. What does it have to do with us?"
"Hearthstone Witch," Yveta said, looking at her seriously, "rights and duties go hand in hand."
"Those who enjoy rights must fulfill the corresponding duties."
"A lord who abandons his land and his people will only be abandoned by his people in turn."
"If I leave now, the Baron's Territory we worked so hard to obtain will slip from our hands."
Hearing this, Branton felt that Yveta was a royal with a strong sense of responsibility.
He had been right to entrust the territory to someone like him.
The Hearthstone Great Witch rolled her eyes. On the surface, she seemed not to have taken his words to heart.
But just then, she suddenly thought of Hearthstone Fortress, and for the first time, she found herself wanting to return there.
She wanted to go back and see what had become of it after all these years.
But she quickly put the thought aside.
Witches belonged everywhere and nowhere!
Yveta asked the Old Witch, "What exactly is the Thousand Year Fire? You've mentioned it several times, and the Children of the Forest seem afraid of it too."
"The Thousand Year Fire... that has to do with Ambrose's history," the Old Witch replied.
"All I know are a few legends, but I can tell you about them."
Before you continue