Chapter 350: The Undercurrent
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren and his group spent half the day doing nothing in their guest room. Even though they had marched across the Gnarled Grove the previous night, none of them were regular beings, hence they were not exhausted by the journey. A short rest was all they needed to recover and they soon started to busy themselves.
Y'zaks and Wuyue had no interest in running about, so they stayed in their rooms to nap. Vivian took the free time to knit a scarf for Hao Ren using Lily's shed fur. Becky was still fantasising about how she would soon be a filthy rich noble and she walked around her room in that dazed state. It took a while before Becky got on Wuyue's nerves and she piped down after the siren started to complain. Lily as always was ever capable of finding something to do. After a short while in her room, she ran out to play. Nobody knew where she went, but she was lugging a whole bag of food items when she got back. She started yapping happily as she saw Hao Ren, "Mr. Landlord! Mr. Landlord! I brought us some good stuff to eat! There's a market on the southwest side of the town!"
Hao Ren was busy going through some old tomes and his table was a mess with all kinds of scrolls as well as books. It was tough work trying to research these old, foreign tomes. Even with the translation plug-in helping him, it took a lot of concentration to even remotely understand the arcane language used. Deep in concentration, he did not even lift his head when Lily called him. "I know, I know. You and your food. Just don't get a stomach ache."
Lily did not think too much of it and happily stuffed a sweet pastry into Hao Ren's mouth. "Eat! Eat! Say, Mr. Landlord, what are you looking at?"
Hao Ren pointed towards the scrolls and tomes on the table. "Books about Dragonspine Ridge, and the chronicles of the Beinz region."
Lily flipped over a few books. "Oh, they are. Where did you get them?"
"Borrowed them from the monks. There's a library in the church." It was only then that Hao Ren lifted his head. "These are all books open to the public. I just told them that I was a magician interested in history and legends. Then, they just got me the whole stack.... Oh, this pastry is pretty good."
Lily then joyfully stuffed another piece into his mouth. "Right? Right? I have exquisite taste you know! Say, Mr. Landlord, what did you manage to get out of all this?"
Hao Ren gobbled down the pastry and grabbed Lily's tail to wipe his mouth. "Nothing special so far. The legends behind Dragonspine Ridge are the same; an ambitious mage emperor twisting nature to his fancy and the mountains were cursed with the mage emperor's hatred. The power of the goddess in the Beinz Blood Lake has been thwarting the curse for 10 millenniums. The well-known legends are all somewhat like this, but some less popular stories are just as interesting. Some say that Dragonspine Ridge and the Blood Lake are the same thing. Some say that the Gnarled Grove is a seal for a different creation by the mage emperor. Some even say that the mage emperor did not die and is simply entombed in ice under the mountains. Once the mountain collapses, he will resurrect and renew his reign of terror. While these stories don't contradict the doctrine of the Disciples of Glory, the unease they bring is enough for all of them to be labelled as baseless, thus bringing them under control..."
As he said this, he lifted the big tome in his hand. "Like this one here. It pretty much consists of baseless claims from head to tail without much details to boot."
Lily just uttered a long, "Ooooooh.
"Oh... this could explain the stuff that's been happening lately. Almost everyone's on edge. I even heard on the streets that a couple of reinforcements have already been sent, and the threat of the rock monster is still present. Even with more numbers it's still a stalemate."
As the two chatted, the the shouting of men and the neighing of horses could be heard from the window. It seemed like something happened on the main road in town. Hao Ren pushed the window open and saw a group of lightly armoured soldiers as well as a group of mages on the street. There was no tolling of bells, so it was not an attack. Hao Ren knew Lily had just returned from a trip outside and he took the opportunity to ask her, "What's the ruckus about?"
Lily popped her head out of the window under Hao Ren's arms as she tried to get a good view. "Seems like the patrol unit of the royal knights has just returned Oh yeah, oh yeah! I met my kind on the street. There was a female werewolf. She's a vanguard who's part of the royal knights. We talked for a bit. She looked so good in her armour!"
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Hao Ren muttered to himself about this husky was able to really ignore her actual husky origins and call pure-blooded werewolves her kin. But, he knew that her fangs were sharp and he did not dare voice it out. He was not surprised that Lily ran into her kin though. The Plane of Dreams was the home of unusual creatures; vampires, werewolves and the like were all common races there. While it was harder to tell a vampire apart from your usual man, some of the werewolves in town had their wolf ears out in full view. The only thing was, the Kingdom of Holletta was a nation of man, and most unusual creatures were either migrants, or descendants of scholars who had stayed behind. Having an unusual creature in the army was even more uncommon, so Lily was naturally happy that she ran into one of her kind amongst the royal knights.
The husky lass noticed that Hao Ren was not interested in the topic and she used her tail to smack the latter on his back to show her dissatisfaction. "Can't you just play along? Aren't you interested to know what we talked about?"
"The taste of bones and ways to sharpen your fangs?" Hao Ren surmised.
The fur on Lily's tail bristled as she bore her fangs at Hao Ren. "What? You think I'm all about food?"
Hao Ren quickly denied it and the husky was happy again. "While we did talk about pork ribs... we mainly talked about the fighting during the past two months. I told her I was the deputy of a mercenary group and the werewolf happily talked about the fighting with me. She even grumbled about the church military being old, stubborn fools, and the royal army not seeming to be all too happy about how things are going..."
Hao Ren was originally not interested in the nonsense Lily had ran into when she went out earlier, but that last part piqued his interest. "Stop right there, what did you say happened?"
"Seems like something to do with mission allocation." Lily's ears twitched. "The church's forces were in charge of battles within the sacred lake's vicinity, while the royal army was fighting in Dragonspine Ridge. The more pious in the royal army thought that it was unfair for them to be relegated to just sweeping the mountain range. And oh, I heard that Marshal Ophra already tried speaking to Bishop Gelton about this a few times, to let a part of the royal army assist in the fighting around the Blood Lake. But, nothing really came out of that. Something to do with doctrines..."
Hao Ren recalled the situation at the Gnarled Grove yesterday. Almost 90% of the soldiers in Leyton's defensive perimeter were comprised of the white-robed army from church. The "government's military" or royal knights were only allowed to operate on the outer perimeter due to certain religious doctrines. He ruffled his chin as he laughed. "Seriously... but, those knights are sure looking for a fight. There are actually people complaining about their fights being too easy. Won't most people scurry away to the safest possible posting if possible?"
Lily wagged her tail. "Religion... Who knows what they're thinking anyway. The whole Blood Lake is considered sacred after all. Even if a blood toll needs to be paid everyday, both armies will be fighting for the right to go in first. It also seems like whoever dies here will get the tile of 'martyr', a pretty glorious one by the sound of things."
Both Hao Ren and Lily agreed that they probably will struggle to ever understand the mindset that is so dictated by one's religious doctrines and after a short while they stopped bothering about the small friction between the two forces. They then started on the matter of pork ribs and Lily was soon to drool all over the floor before they heard clanking footsteps along the corridor. At the same time the voices of the servants greeting and welcoming was heard.
After a moment a servant pushed open the room door announcing, "Lady Ophra visits, and wishes to see the captain and the deputy of the Dogs Have Gotten All the Good Names Mercenary Group.
"Marshal Ophra?!" Hao Ren was surprised but he quickly recovered. "And I told you how many times not to mention our company's name!"
The arrival of the marshal herself had shocked everyone into motion and Becky had ran like a whirlwind to bear the message to everyone else. Hao Ren got to the small parlor in the room and saw that the marshal was already seated on the centremost tall chair. Her poise heroic as ever.
Ophra was blunt, "I'm here to inform you. Get ready tomorrow, we will depart the next day to the royal city, the reward and knighting will also be done in the royal city."
Becky literally lost it when she heard the news as she leapt up and down cheering. Hao Ren was however perplexed: Just because of this, that the marshal herself needed to personally come to the quarters of some new mercenary group?