Troublesome Troggs

Jaina was far too stingy. She had only given him three days.

To persuade Jaina to stay, Rowan had to get up early and head to the Whitewater Forest Smelter.

The morning sunlight had barely skimmed across the sea when Rowan and Leonard arrived at the smelter.

It was only six o'clock, and the morning mist among the trees had yet to disperse.

Today should have been another day full of energy, with the blacksmiths happily hammering away and Rowan cheerfully working on his power project.

Yet the sight before him left Rowan unable to feel the slightest bit happy.

The smelter's makeshift blast furnace had gone out. Coal from beside the furnace lay scattered throughout the yard, all the wooden fencing had been knocked down, and the entire smelter was in utter chaos.

Leonard pushed open the small warehouse's door and saw Byron treating the wounds of Esenk, the blacksmith Lusen's son.

The glow of Flash of Light clung to Esenk's deep wound. Young Esenk clenched a piece of linen between his teeth as sweat poured from his forehead.

Byron's face was injured too. He forced himself to stay alert as he treated the blacksmiths and the two soldiers stationed there.

"What happened?" Rowan followed Leonard into the warehouse.

Gone was Byron's usual goofy expression. He steadied himself and dispelled the Holy Light spell in his hands.

After patting Esenk's head, Byron stood and answered, "Young master, the troggs from North Mountain attacked our smelter. We defended the warehouse all night to protect the iron ingots we'd smelted. Esenk tried to haul the freshly cast ingots back into the warehouse, and those damned troggs smashed his leg."

Esenk was still young, only about fifteen or sixteen. After Byron's treatment, the wound on his leg had healed considerably. At least he no longer had to endure the agony of a broken bone.

"You could have left the iron ingots and run." Seeing such a young boy suffer a broken leg to retrieve his iron ingots left Rowan with a bitter feeling.

Lusen wiped the sweat from Esenk's face with his coal-stained sleeve. The old father looked at his son with aching concern, his eyes reddening. He pressed his right hand against his forehead, full of guilt.

The atmosphere was heavy. Seeing his father's dejected expression, Esenk broke into a grin.

The coal dust on his father's sleeve had left Esenk's face completely black.

Esenk's clean white teeth stood in sharp contrast to his face, making him look rather comical. "We couldn't run, Young Master Rowan. That was half a day's work. If we'd run, all our work would have been wasted. We'd have taken your gold coins for nothing, too."

"Your lives come first. If this happens again—no! This must never happen again. Leonard, go back to town right now and bring our soldiers here. I want these troggs gone from Morris Town for good." Rowan was still moved by Esenk, this earnest young boy. This was the kind of fine youth who would build Kul Tiras, a promising young blossom of the maritime kingdom.

At noon, Leonard arrived at the Whitewater River Smelter with Morris Town's soldiers and militia.

The garrison troops and militia Rowan had brought from Kul Tiras numbered thirty in total.

Their investigation revealed that nearly a hundred troggs were hiding in the abandoned coal mine tunnels in North Mountain.

These troggs visited Morris Town every month, stealing everyday supplies and wreaking havoc. Although they had not committed murder or arson, they had injured people and stolen food on plenty of occasions.

Rowan also wondered why no army had come to clear out the troggs when they had been terrorizing Morris Town for so long.

Already seething, Rowan was about to demand why the Norwington Family's guards were drawing pay while neglecting their duties when Leonard answered his question.

"Young Master Rowan, the Norwington Family has actually organized at least three extermination campaigns in response to the trogg attacks on Morris Town. But the abandoned mine tunnels in North Mountain are very old. Their internal layout and routes are incredibly complicated. Without detailed maps, the soldiers sent to wipe out the troggs couldn't effectively strike at those hiding inside." Leonard served as Lord Aldrius's personal guard in the Norwington Family and often helped him handle local military affairs.

He had a particularly vivid impression of incidents such as the frequent trogg attacks on Morris Town.

"So after three failed campaigns, you gave up fighting the troggs in Morris Town because you couldn't find a way?" The more Rowan thought about it, the angrier he became. How could the mighty Norwington Family fail to deal with even these troggs?

There were practical reasons, of course, but those were no excuse to abandon the campaigns. The people of Morris Town were still suffering at the troggs' hands. What were they supposed to think of the Norwington Family?

Still, Rowan was the Norwington Family's only son. As its future heir, he could hardly stand here and berate the family's army for its inaction.

When faced with a problem, solving it was what mattered. As for those military officers who pocketed military funds without doing their jobs, leaving them for his father to handle was the wise choice.

What Rowan needed to do now was clean up the mess left by those useless fools who had failed to wipe out the troggs.

I refuse to believe there's really no way to deal with these troggs.

Aren't they just hiding in mine tunnels?

Wouldn't poison, thick smoke, or flooding all be good ways to finish them off?

"Young master, our thirty soldiers alone cannot threaten the troggs entrenched in North Mountain Mine, especially when ten of our men are militia." After weighing their options and making a simple comparison of their forces, Leonard concluded that Young Master Rowan taking their current troops to clear out the troggs would be nothing short of throwing their lives away.

Beside him, Byron said angrily, "What's there to be afraid of? Every one we kill counts."

"If it really were that simple, why didn't you kill them all when they attacked the smelter last night?" Leonard shot back.

Leonard's concern now was that Young Master Rowan would act on impulse and lead the soldiers to North Mountain Mine to take revenge on the troggs. His sole task in accompanying Young Master Rowan to Morris Town was to protect him.

That idiot Byron clearly had never fought in a large-scale war. Whenever trouble arose, all he knew was to charge in headfirst.

"You! Anyway, I'm not letting this go." Left speechless by the rebuke, Byron fell silent.

"Whatever happens, the troggs in North Mountain must be dealt with. Drop everything else, both of you. Go to North Mountain now and find out what the troggs are doing. I want a report first thing tomorrow morning," Rowan ordered.

Byron was still furious. He wanted nothing more than to find the trogg leader right now, string him up, and beat him.

Seeing that Young Master Rowan was not immediately leading the soldiers out to wipe out the troggs, Leonard let out a long sigh of relief.

As long as they did not go after the troggs just yet, they still had room to maneuver. Dealing with these cunning troggs would require careful planning.