Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Seeing the other party's shivering figure, Winters sighed.

"Your wife is truly... remarkable," he said with emotion as he addressed the prisoner. "When she heard you were still alive, your wife, holding one child and leading another, blocked the entrance to the garrison every day to petition for your pardon. From morning until evening, she blocked the way every day—I don't even know what she ate or drank, it was utterly exasperating."

Upon hearing Winters' words, Ivan's gaze became fixed, his limbs stiff, as though his soul had been shattered.

"What in the world are you two suffering from?" Winters, propping his chin, asked with interest, "I've heard that whenever you drink to excess, you beat your wife so loudly that even the neighbors across the street can hear. Despite this, your wife remains unwaveringly loyal. And despite having such a good wife, you beat her every now and then. Are you possessed, or is she?"

Ivan hung his head deeply.

Winters turned to look at Sopujin, "Is this some kind of peculiar custom among you Paratu People? Alcohol abuse, wife beating, and the other desperately seeking to save?"

"How can you say 'you'? I'm deeply aggrieved," Sopujin said. "My family moved here just ten years ago!"

"Alright," Winters chuckled as he picked up a paper from the table and tapped it against the prisoner, "This is the first list of pardons, and you were not originally on it. In my opinion, you should have continued to be detained, until you had served enough work hours to be released."

Ivan tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry.

"But Sopujin said you've been quite diligent and your attitude is good," Winters picked up a quill, hastily wrote the prisoner's name at the bottom of the list, and said indifferently, "It's also in consideration of your wife's petition—you're free."

Ivan still stood rigidly in place.

"What are you still standing there for?" Winters raised an eyebrow lightly, "Go on, leave!"

Sopujin stood up, patted Ivan on the shoulder, and escorted him to the door, saying, "The pardon will be officially announced tomorrow, and then a carriage will take you back to Revodan."

Ivan nodded gratefully.

"Go," Sopujin waved his hand, "Go get yourself together."

Winters watched Sopujin leave and return, his expression calm, but his mood somewhat rippled. His concern was not for the prisoner but for Sopujin.

Sopujin Sopujin was one of his old subordinates from Wolf Town, one of the ones he trusted most and found most capable. When he had only thirty or so men, Sopujin was already a Centurion, one of the first three Centurions he had picked out.

The other two Centurions were Vashka and Tamas, the latter now having become the first company commander of the Iron Peak County infantry.

If Sopujin had gone to Revodan, that company commander position should have been his. But at the time, Wolf Town had a large number of captives needing control, and Sopujin was the only one capable of managing them, so he had been in charge of the prisoners all this time.

That's why Sopujin stayed in Wolf Town, missing the battle of Revodan, the battle of Hammer Fort, and the reorganization of the troops.

For Sopujin, Winters felt guilty.

He had many things he wanted to do when he returned to Wolf Town. The initial motive to look for the brick-burning Shaun and Shaun Ping brothers became a secondary concern.

He wanted to see Bard, he wanted to abduct Caman, he wanted to hold a public trial for Bunting in Wolf Town, he wanted to chat with Ronald and the others... And, he intended to take Sopujin to Revodan.

"I've seen too much of this kind of thing," Sopujin chuckled as he walked back in, "Everyone in the village knows, if you intervene in a couple's quarrel, you end up getting scolded by both of them. You really don't need to speak up for Ivan's wife. Since that woman sought you out to petition, if she gets beaten to death, she has only herself to blame."

"As long as she doesn't block the door, it's fine," Winters gave a wry smile, "Blocking the entrance to the garrison every day, she made me have to climb the wall to get around."

Sopujin burst into laughter.

Winters, looking at Sopujin, reflected, "Managing a few hundred people with just a few dozen, and still getting productivity out of them. You really run this labor camp very well... better than I imagined."

"Just messing about, it's good as long as you don't blame me," Sopujin said, scratching his head embarrassingly, "There are things lately that have been troubling me, not knowing what to do about them."

"Like what?"

"Too many people," Sopujin said, gesturing towards the prison area with resignation, "There are people starting to form cliques—those from Revodan, North Eight Towns, and South Eight Town. There was a brawl just last week, and I wonder if I've been feeding them too much!"

"The fact that you've noticed this shows you're stronger than all the company commanders," Winters was not just satisfied but pleasantly surprised, and he wanted to give Sopujin some advice, "I remember something I didn't understand before but now can see a bit clearer. Do you know about the docks of Sea Blue?"

Winters went on to tell the story of the competition, undercutting, and strife among the Montans, Vaughan People, and Paratu People on the docks of Sea Blue.

Sopujin listened attentively and asked, "Do you mean that those above the dockworkers deliberately divided them into three groups so they would fight each other? So here I should also..."

Winters flipped the paper over and drew a triangle on the back, "Not necessarily 'deliberately', it might be more 'permissive'. Customs doesn't want to manage all the dockworkers directly and doesn't want to see the dockworkers form a unified front. So gangs and trade unions filled that space."

As he spoke, Winters divided the triangle into three layers, writing customs, gangs, and dockworkers on each layer respectively.

"What are the benefits of doing this?" Winters guided the question.

Sopujin bit his lip, "Uh... it's easier to manage people when they fight among themselves?"