Er Mu - Release that Witch

Soon a maid arrived to help him up so that he could sit in the bed. Then another maid came holding a basin and sat down next to him and immediately began to help him clean his face. In his whole life Brian had never experienced such comprehensive personal service, plus the maids were all young women, which made the situation really awkward for him.

Fortunately, the situation did not last long. As soon as the 4th Prince entered the room, everyone else left.

Brian could feel a surging heat within his heart. He had too much to ask, but then, when he tried to open his mouth he didn’t know from where to begin. But contrary to what he had expected, Roland nodded and said, “I already know of all your past achievements, and Brian, you are worthy of the title of a hero.”

Hearing the word “Hero”, Brian suddenly felt his eyes begin to tear up. He began to sob and his voice choked, “No… Your Highness, my friend…is the real …”

Roland patted him on his shoulder so as to comfort him.

It was exactly like Nightingale had predicted. After Fierce Scar was dragged into the torture chamber, he began to tell everything he knew before the warden even put his hands on him.

The one behind this group was not his sister or any other of his siblings, but Longsong Stronghold’s Elk family. Count Elk got in contact with his distant relative Hiller Dmitry. Afterwards, Fierce Scar gained control over most of the town patrol with the lure of a reward. In addition, he also sent an assassin to replace one of the members in the team to prevent an accident from occurring in the course of action. The purpose of this group of people was not to assassinate Roland like he had thought, instead they intended to burn the food reserves so that he would obediently go back to the stronghold.

Their conspiracy resulted in the death of an innocent person — Greyhound. He tried to stop Fierce Scar when he heard of his criminal intent, but he was stabbed to death with a dagger by one of his own subordinates. The whereabouts of the patrol member who was replaced by Viper was unknown. When he didn’t see fire on the castle ground and noticed that Fierce Scar failed to come back, he probably realized that the plan was discovered and fled..

To help stabilize Brian’s mood, Roland promised him, “Your friend Greyhound, he’ll get a funeral fitting for his sacrifice, and his family will be properly cared for, they will no longer need to worry about food in the future.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Brian took a deep breath, “I have to know. Fierce Scar… is he dead?”

“No, he is still alive.”

Brian painfully closed his eyes. He would rather have had them not rescue Fierce Scar so that he would have been dragged to hell than both of them staying alive. But now, the chance to fulfill his wish became slim… There was no doubt that Fierce Scar was guilty, but the sins committed by nobility could always be redeemed with money. As long as his uncle was willing to protect him, it was very likely that Fierce Scar wouldn’t die. It was most probable that he wouldn’t even need to go to prison.

Roland could naturally guess his thoughts, “Hiller Dmitry, the uncle of Fierce Scar, is also a distant relative of the Elk family in Longsong Stronghold. The head of the family is Luke Dmitry, a vassal under Duke Ryan, but the fact that he is the distant uncle of Fierce Scar…” here he paused for a little moment, “will not affect the final verdict. Fierce Scar has been sentenced to death by hanging, and there are only three days left until his execution. If you can restore your body by then, you’re invited to witness it if you wish to. “

Brian became startled, “But… But Your Highness, members of the nobility can have their freedom bought, this rule you cannot offend — “

Roland waved his hand dismissively, indicating Brian shouldn’t concern himself with it, “He is a Noble? Maybe for you, he was born in a branch family of the Elk family, so the status you and he have are as much apart as heaven and earth. However, it’s a fact that he has neither a title nor a any land, so he simply cannot be considered as nobleman. In addition, even if he were a nobleman, to lead an invasion into the prince’s temporal royal residence and attempt to burn the food stocks, ignoring the fate of the two thousand people in Border Town, carried enough guilt. Adding these three sins together, he could simply not be forgiven.”

At the time when Roland ordered the death of Tyre, he felt a little hesitant within his heart, but Fierce Scar belonged to the entirely inexcusable category. If he were successful, all of Roland’s own future plans for Border Town would be destroyed, and he would never get a chance to turn his situation around. This was more hateful than a direct assassination attempt at Roland himself.

As for the possibility that his action would annoy Longsong Stronghold? Who cares! Since the other party did not want to cooperate with him, of course he would not compromise with them, they even tried choosing underhanded tactics to entrap the entire population of Border Town. At the same time this incident also taught Roland a lesson — this world’s political struggle was different than what he knew from his former world, there they would mostly concentrate themselves on competing under the table, but here they were more inclined to set the table aside and use a much bloodier method. “Rest well. You lost too much of your strength, so don’t leave the castle. I have arranged for other people to take over your patrol’s work, and at the end of the Months of the Demons, I’ll hold your canonization ceremony. “

“Your Highness,” after hearing the words ‘canonization ceremony’, Brian looked at the prince with disbelief, “You mean…”

“Yes, you will become one of my knights, Mr. Brian,” replied Roland with a smile.

***

“Prepare — stab!”

Van’er stabbed a wooden dummy with a pike, and on both sides his team members also did the same, with the same force and also from nearly the same angle.

This time, it was already his one-hundredth stab.

He only had a tingling feeling left in his arms and he already thought that he would never survive this training. Despite the fact that he began to have this thought after his fiftieth stab, he still endured. After one week of conditioning it was already his natural reflex to obey every given order. Honestly, he himself was the most surprised that he could still endure.

“All — rest!”

After Iron Axe shouted his command, Van’er could suddenly hear the sound of exhaling from everywhere around him. Van’er let also exhaled, and then he put down the pike as he sat on the ground.

Now, he finally realized that their own militia was not responsible for being the errand troop for the guards or the knights. After one week of eccentric training, the training changed more to the fighting portion. For example, now they were standing on the city wall and were thrusting out their pikes according to the captain’s orders — although these pikes were replaced with wooden poles, anyone could imagine their roles in the future.

The logistics team would never do such exercises, so this also meant that they would confront the evil beasts on the wall. Naturally thinking about this, Van’er felt fear. He had even thought of sneaking away, but he didn’t know why, seeing his teammates around himself with the thought of three meals a day and a good salary slowly changed his mind.

Not even a quarter hour rest later, Iron Axe clapped his hands and shouted, “Everyone stand up, His Highness, the 4th Prince is coming.”

Van’er soon returned to his place, due to the special training he had before. He had learned to follow orders almost subconsciously, so he took his pike dummy and assumed the ready position for stabbing with his wooden staff.

The Prince and his followers were walking behind them on the wall. Van’er noticed from the corner of his eyes that the prince had slowed down his steps when he was near Van’er.

Roland sighed silently, the sayings ‘a late evening will destroy the morning’, and ‘to get up too early will ruin the whole day’ were really true. Just when he had finished processing the aftermath of the raid on the castle, he was reminded that he had to inspect the militia’s training results. Roland pitied himself. He hadn’t slept the whole night, so now he was sleepy the whole day. But he had to come, since now the team had been transferred to the stage of combat training, and he, as the highest commanding officer, if he didn’t show himself for a long time, the morale of his team would become unsteady.

Well… What would someone usually say when reviewing the team? Roland thought for a bit, ‘Are we only comrades only during good times or are we also comrades during hardships’? If he did not get an answer after shouting this slogan, the whole atmosphere would be very awkward. Maybe it would be better to just pull someone aside and talk with him, asking him for his impression and earning a good reputation.

So he begun to implement his new plan, and patted a young man who looked fairly sturdy on the shoulders.

“Is the training to hard and do you feel tired? Is eating three meals a day enough?”

Based on his past experiences of watching the news, his response to his questions should be a loud shout, “Not tired, and very good!”

But the result was completely different than what he expected. The man turned directly towards him and went down on one knee, which really shocked Roland.

Van’er felt that he had been blessed, His Royal Highness the Prince actually cared for him and even cordially asked him if he was tired from the training! When talking about the royal family or even only ordinary nobles, they were usually all reluctant to speak a word with their soldiers. He unconsciously imitated a knight’s salute to honor His Royal Highness. Regardless if this ritual was appropriate for him, he only had one thought: later when he returned to the streets, he could be considered a new person.

When he was asked to stand up, his brain was still a mess, so he couldn’t even remember what he had answered.

In the end, His Royal Highness had asked all of them. If someone had any comments or suggestions about the training, he would step forward. Suddenly Van’er’s mind was completely clear once again — this was a good opportunity! If his thoughts were true and His Highness’ militia had to guard the walls alone, they couldn’t afford the heavy responsibility. Maybe my worries of running away or staying are unnecessary, right?

He carefully thought about how to phrase the sentence, “Your Honor… Your respected Highness, the current numbers of the militia is too small. If we line up in the same way that we have trained during training, when the demonic beasts strike, we will only be able to defend one-third of the whole wall and won’t survive… “

Even if the prince began to recruit several groups of militia now, Van’er was afraid that the training time wouldn’t be enough. In addition, the weapons used by these people would also be a big expenditure, it was already difficult to supply for the 100 soldiers in the time left.

Even now they were still holding their wooden staffs to train.

If His Royal Highness Prince could also realize this point, maybe he would recruit a group of mercenaries from other towns as their main defense. At least they would not need training and could be directly sent on to the battlefield, and they were already carrying weapons and armor, but the price to hire them was relatively high.

Roland thought for a moment, nodded and said, “Yes, you’re right, with our current militia force to guard the whole city wall, isn’t very realistic.”

Van’er felt very delighted, His Highness actually… agreed with his view?

But he did not expect the next words the prince said, “Demonic Beasts are in a sense only a variant of normal beasts, they don’t become more intelligent, right?”

“Yes, Your Highness, their base forms are only ordinary animals, so the demonic beasts are still the same, even their habits are basically the same as they were before the change… but I have not seen many of them, so I’m not sure that this is true for all of them.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Although there are nearly six hundred feet between the Redwater River and the foot of the Northern Mountain Slope, we could lure them to attack a specific area which we prepared beforehand.”