"Sir, a group of cavalry is coming."
Landen hadn't expected anyone to actually show up less than an hour after Neil had gone out on patrol. He hurried to the camp entrance with his men and saw a small cavalry unit approaching from the south. The leader carried a strange banner. Its pole was thin and long, with a strip of cloth tied to the top and many feathers attached to it.
"Neil, what's that thing the man at the front is carrying?" Landen had never seen such a strange banner.
"Chief, that should be a messenger from the Grey Goose."
"I see. Make sure you all remember this: we're the Gallop Tribe. We recently merged with the Wandering Badger Tribe, and now we're ready to head south to support the Gray Goose Leader." Landen gave his men a quick refresher on their tribe's backstory.
Before long, the Grey Goose messengers had reached the camp entrance. The Barbarian at the head of the group saw the Gallop Tribe's banner and paused in surprise. He asked Landen, "Which tribe are you? Why didn't we see you at the gathering before?"
"Messenger of the Grey Goose, we're the Gallop Tribe, from the southwestern plains. On our way here, we heard about the great feats your Grey Goose Tribe performed in the southern Human Kingdom.
"We joined up with many other tribes and the Wandering Badger Tribe. During a duel, I defeated the Wandering Badger chief, and decided to lead everyone south to support the Gray Goose Leader." Landen recited the story he'd prepared. Every word was true, though he'd left out a few less important details.
"Oh, so you're the former Wandering Badger Tribe. I knew this camp looked familiar." Mergers and splits between tribes were commonplace on the Gallop Plains, especially in spring and autumn. The Grey Goose messenger quickly accepted Landen's explanation.
To the Barbarians, what the Humans called the Gallop Plains were simply the Great Plains, the Grassland, or home. Only the chiefs of a few tribes with long histories or frequent dealings with Human nobles knew that "Gallop" referred to the plains where they lived. To most Barbarians, then, Landen's Gallop Tribe was just a newly risen tribe.
Landen welcomed the messenger into his tent.
"Messenger, how is our Gray Goose Leader faring in Human territory?"
"Hahaha! You wouldn't believe it. When we headed back to the plains, our leader had already taken the castle south of the southern mountain pass. The Humans call it Rothe Castle. We've also captured several Human outposts nearby and taken a great many Human slaves. Our leader said that if you bring your entire tribe south, you can share our food, gold, and slaves!" The Grey Goose messenger spoke with bold enthusiasm, seeming like a Barbarian who didn't sweat the small stuff.
"Ah, wonderful! The Grey Goose Tribe really is the strongest tribe on our Great Plains! Don't worry, I'll get my people ready and head south right away." Landen had been prepared for the Grey Goose to occupy Rothe Territory. They'd gathered a force five times the size of Rothe Territory's army; they certainly hadn't gone there to trade.
But Landen didn't know what fate had befallen his distant kinsmen. "I heard the Rothe family was quite powerful. Has our leader captured them all?" he asked, testing the waters.
"What? No. The leader killed them all, except for one bastard child!"
"What?" Albert suddenly spoke up. In his heart, although the Baron Gallop family had been deceived by Viscount Rothe, the two families were still kin. Blood ran thicker than water.
Albert's sudden outburst froze the atmosphere. Some people had even laid their hands on their sword hilts, waiting for Landen's command.
"You old fool! The Gray Goose has avenged us!" Landen dashed to Albert's side. "Without the Gray Goose Leader, who knows when we'd have been able to storm that castle and take our revenge? Hurry up and pick out two Long-Haired Sheep to slaughter for the messengers' lunch!" As he shouted, Landen pushed Albert out of the tent and ordered someone to slaughter sheep to entertain the Grey Goose messengers.
Before anyone had time to react, Landen was back in the tent, chatting cheerfully with the Barbarian messengers. "Hahaha! Don't mind him, messenger. Our tribe was once badly cheated by that Rothe noble you mentioned. The old man's held a grudge ever since and wanted to take revenge himself. He never expected us to get our revenge today." Landen tossed out a few casual words.
In his previous life, Landen had no idea how many plausible but misleading things he'd had to make up every day. He could come up with a few lines in an instant to handle the Barbarians in the tent. The Grey Goose messenger didn't find fault with his story, and even Albert, after thinking it over, couldn't spot anything wrong with it.
"I should be thanking the Grey Goose Tribe for avenging us. You must stay here for lunch today."
"Wonderful! Then I thank you, Chief of the Gallop Tribe." Barbarians on the Gallop Plains didn't bother with the kind of courtesies practiced by Human lords. The hierarchy between large and small tribes was clear, and strength was what mattered. In the past, the Wandering Badger Tribe had simply dragged the men of nearby tribes back to their camp by force. Even if they provided food and lodging, their chief wouldn't personally entertain them.
Now Landen was a chief of a large tribe, but a chief personally arranging a meal for a messenger was something common among Humans and almost unheard of among Barbarians.
The Grey Goose messenger had been traveling from Rothe Territory for more than ten days, stopping to visit small and medium-sized tribes along the way. They'd slept rough and eaten on the road, never once getting a proper meal. A few tribes had agreed to head south, so he'd escorted them for several days, seeing them through Korniko Pass before turning back north. Only today had he found Landen. Naturally, when Landen offered to prepare a feast, the Grey Goose messenger wanted to eat his fill before moving on.
Roasting a sheep the usual way took half a day for ordinary Barbarians. Not long ago, Landen had started cutting the sheep in his territory into large chunks, skewering them on wooden sticks and roasting them with salt and spices, which drastically reduced the cooking time.
"Messenger, take a good rest here and move on to the next tribe after lunch," Landen urged. "By the way, which tribe are you planning to visit next?"
"Ah?... Oh, we're heading east, then north. We'll talk to whichever tribe we come across." None of the messengers sensed anything amiss.
"Perfect! I heard there's a large tribe to our east called the Eagle Tribe."
"Oh? The Eagle Tribe? I know them. They're a large tribe and our Grey Goose Tribe's staunch allies."
Landen didn't get to eat the special feast. Before he could sit down with the Grey Goose messenger, Neil and Albert stopped him. No Barbarian chief would eat with the elders or lower-ranking members of another tribe. The hierarchy within Barbarian tribes was just as strict.
To avoid exposing himself, Landen could only watch as Raul represented him, joining more than a dozen Barbarians in eating skewers. He had to make do with leftovers from the day before. It broke his heart.
During the meal, Raul also gleaned plenty of information about the Grey Goose Tribe's front lines and rear. For example, the Grey Goose had gathered at least 200 Barbarian cavalrymen and around 500 Mana-Less people. There were at least two other messenger groups, and this group's final destination was the area near the Salt Mine.