NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 5: Hostages Need To Eat Too?
“What did you say?”
The Ink Sea Chief Inspector grabbed his soldier’s neck. “Say that again! Do you know the consequences of taking me for a ride?”
“Chief inspector, I didn’t lie! I don’t dare to lie!” the soldier cried. “They really are Khitans. They attacked the misses’ group. We desperately fought back, but we weren’t a match. We lost half of our brothers in the first clash, and I’m the only one who managed to escape.”
“Scram!” the chief inspector roared.
He pushed aside the soldier before sinking into his chair. He covered his face and cried.
“Sereya, Serena. My daughters!!!”
He dared not imagine what would happen to his beautiful daughters after falling into the hands of brutish soldiers.
The bad news didn’t stop there.
He nearly fainted on the spot when Dilber’s corpse, killed by a single slash to the throat, was delivered to him. When he heard the captured slaves’ accounts, he felt as if he was dreaming.
“The sultana once praised Pasha Dilber’s valiance. Even ten veteran warriors would struggle to match her. Yet, she was killed by a prisoner. This is almost like a joke… I get it now.”
“What did you get?” the chief inspector massaged his chest as he asked weakly.
“This must be the Khitans’ ploy!” the captain of his personal army replied. “They wish to divert our forces to weaken us, so that they can take over our cities. A number of our warriors have disappeared in recent days. The Khitans must have prepared a huge army!”
“Is it possible?” The chief inspector was skeptical. “It’s rare for so many Khitans to appear so far away from where they usually reside.”
Thus, he called one of the cavalrymen and asked, “Did you see how many Khitans there were?”
“Er…” The cavalryman was startled. He gulped down his saliva and hesitantly replied, “Two hundred?”
The chief inspector shot to his feet and bellowed, “Call everyone back! Guard the city!”
Oh god. I know I claimed to have 3000 men here, but only 1000 of them are able to fight. I can always give birth to more daughters, but I’d be left with nothing once my city crumbles!
【My host, this is the perfect opportunity! Why aren’t you grasping it?】
【We have been together for some time now, but you seem to be progressing slower than before. Don’t be afraid. Sereya and Serena might be dangerous, but I’m sure you can conquer them as long as you tread carefully!】
“Weird. I haven’t seen any mobs around for some time now.”
Ever since he learned that the nomads could wear armor, Shu Yichao had been galloping around to farm mobs and strengthen his army. However, the spawn rate of these armored mobs suddenly plummeted after a few days before vanishing altogether.
Shu Yichao could only wander around aimlessly in hopes of finding new mobs, but from the looks of it…
“Did they retreat to the city?” Shu Yichao tapped his minimap and pondered. “I didn’t expect these mobs to gather in the city. The game is forcing me to invade the city…”
Since there were no more mobs spawning, Shu Yichao had no choice but to advance the plot.
“Advance!” Shu Yichao ordered. “We shall raid the city.”
…
“Madam Marti, I found another one.”
A few people dressed in beastskin dragged a casualty up to a brown-skinned woman known as Madam Marti.
Madam Marti had callused hands, and she carried an old hunter’s bow behind her back. Half of her face was concealed behind a piece of cloth.
“Dead or alive?” she asked.
Those in the surroundings trembled upon hearing those words.
“He’s dead.”
“This…”
The others felt goosebumps upon having their suspicions confirmed. A few people patted their chests in fear.
The casualty who had been dragged into the room was an Ottomain scout.
There were no visible injuries on his body, except for his one missing eyeball. His remaining eye stared lifelessly at the sky, reflecting the despair and indignation he felt before his death.
“Yet another one…”
“My lord, I have never seen such a terrifying scene.”
“Did a hell spawn cross over to our world?”
Such corpses appeared every now and then over the last few days. The victims had no visible injuries, except for a missing eye, which, upon closer inspection, they noticed a major fracture in.
This induced an outbreak of panic.
Rumors about a treacherous eye demon lurking in the darkness, plundering people’s eyes and reaping their lives, spread faster than hellfire.
“It has nothing to do with an eye demon,” Madam Marti replied. “Haven’t we figured that the Khitans are behind this?”
“But Madam, is this humanly possible?” someone in the crowd questioned.
“Our people have fought the Ottomain for many years now. It’d already be a formidable feat to strike a stationary target’s eye from five steps away, but this…”
The person gestured to the bruises on the corpse.
“His corpse says that he was shot in the eye while on horseback. Is that possible? And it’s not one or two who died in such a manner, but all of them. This is just not possible!”
“Ah?!”
The soldiers panicked upon hearing the analysis of one of the team leaders.
“The Ottomains can’t do it, but that doesn’t mean the Khitans can’t do it.” Madam Marti’s eyes blazed with anger. “Regardless of the situation, we should work with the Khitans—no, we should seek refuge with them. The Ottomains have been getting arrogant, but all we, Augusts, know to do is to hole ourselves up in our cities. Siding with the Khitans might be our only way out. For now, we should try getting in touch with them.”
…
“Whew, finally a merchant convoy!” Shu Yichao heaved a sigh of relief when he saw ten carriages flying white flags headed his way. “If they were any later, my prisoners would have all died.”
He urgently needed to trade his ‘spoils of war’ to money.
There was a language barrier, almost like chicken squawking to ducks, but it was still a merry atmosphere on the whole.
Though Madam Marti was confused by the leather in her hands.
“Madam.” Her subordinate was equally confused too. “Did the Khitans agree to take us under their wing?”
If they didn’t accept, why did they take away our goods and even demand money?
But if they accepted, why did they stuff us with their spoils of war?
“I don’t know what’s going on too,” Madam Marti replied. “They slaughtered those Ottomains like demons, but somehow their attitude toward us seems much friendlier? Do the Khitans harbor a grudge against the Ottomains?”
“Madam.” Shu Yichao suddenly walked up to Madam Marti and leaped onto her carriage, looking down on her from above. “I forgot to ask. Do you also take prisoners? My prisoners are either strong men or nobles. You should be able to make a huge profit from it.”
Just then, a nomad galloped over to Shu Yichao’s side and whispered into his ears.
“Another two more dead? What in heaven’s name is going on?!”
Shu Yichao rushed back to inspect the prisoners—two more prisoners had collapsed. He looked at the sky and howled in indignation.
“This game’s economy is bullshit! Why is there a bloody countdown to sell prisoners? How am I to earn money like that?”
As Shu Yichao cursed the world for limiting his commerce ability, Madam Marti led her subordinates over out of curiosity. What she saw stunned her.
“Esteemed Khitan Baturu,” she carefully said, “is there a chance that humans need to eat to live?”
Her words were gibberish to Shu Yichao, but she was able to gesture the meaning of her words to Shu Yichao.
Shu Yichao was flabbergasted. He looked at the Ottomain prisoners, who were emaciated from starving for days, and exclaimed in disbelief, “You people need to eat too? You’re saying that prisoners deplete rations too? What trashy mechanics is this?!”
“…”
Shu Yichao gave the matter some thought before remarking, “I can’t sell them, and they are slowing my army down… Should I bury them here?”
Are Khitans that vicious? Madam Marti averted her gaze. A second later, she narrowed her eyes.
【Ding! My host, you just triggered a new side quest!】