"Heh heh, hahahaha..."
Inside a small burlap tent somewhere in the Lumberjack Camp, Ajax looked down at the twenty-odd lively rats in the large cage at his feet and let out a cold, smug laugh worthy of an archvillain.
Ajax was feeling rather pleased with his own cleverness.
During his time in the camp, Ajax had tried to lead the lumberjacks away, but every attempt had failed.
Ajax could not persuade the lumberjacks. When he told them they would have full bellies if they left, they did not believe him.
Where was the proof?
Where was all this food?
Some people believed Ajax and wanted to escape too. The problem was that, unless he could take every lumberjack with him, he considered the operation a failure.
After several attempts, Ajax abandoned the idea of convincing all the lumberjacks to leave with him willingly. Instead, he changed his approach... if they would not volunteer, he would volunteer them.
The living creatures in the cage at his feet, along with the kerosene in the sheepskin bag beside it, were the solution Ajax had devised.
He had bartered with the lumberjacks for the rats.
The food the Restoration Army provided these laborers consisted almost entirely of unhulled barley. Meat was out of the question.
The lumberjacks performed strenuous physical labor. If they ate nothing but barley, with no protein or fat to supplement it, people really could starve to death.
So whenever the lumberjacks went out, they tried to find ways to supplement their diet.
Without hunting equipment, the laborers usually set small traps to catch little animals such as rabbits, birds, and rats.
With just one bag of mixed grain hidden inside a hollowed-out log, Ajax had successfully traded for these rats with five lumberjacks.
At first, Ajax had actually wanted to