In the gentle spring sunshine a proud four-story stone mansion stood out like a glowing white pearl among scattered charcoal, this building had a dirt road leading to a maze of leaning dilapidated wooden huts at its rear housing pale-faced and dirty despairing commoners.
The creaking and rattling sounds of the constant traffic of wooden wagons was abundant in the air, the dirt and stained-riddled robes of the commoners fluttered in the spring breeze as they maneuvered these wagons and moved around the estate in a zombie-like state, ferrying agricultural produce from the fertile fields off in the distance to the storehouses of the main manor.
Every now and then the scowl-bearing foreman overseeing the work would bark orders and lash out at the tired and hope-deprived commoners, ramming the butt end of his spear from his position atop his sturdy horse into their backs and sending the odd commoner sprawling off a moving wagon and to the floor screaming for mercy in agony.
This was the infamous House Wan located in the fertile, windswept flat lands about two hundred miles west of House Hartley.
A place of notorious extremes, from the below zero temperatures of the bitter icy and powdery high snows in the winter.... to the stifling boiling heat and humidity in the summer....from the extravagant luxurious lifestyles of those who resided in the mansion..... to the bare-bone existence of the commoners living in the huts.
Anyone currently residing on these premises were either living in a bubble akin to heaven on earth or experiencing the closest thing to hell they could possibly imagine.
Inside the mansion Baron Hongtian was sipping fragrant fruit wine from a crystal glass sat on a red cushioned chair facing a balding fat man who was as wide as two adults standing side by side.
"Baron Hongtian, What are we going to do about this little vicious runt. Are you telling me my nephew's life is just going to go like that?" The fat man's eyes bulged with rage as he addressed the Baron in agitation without a lick of formality.
"My innocent nephew didn't even die with an intact corpse, and to make matters worse there are murmurs circulating among the commoners that the western hills is a paradise for commoners. The lord of the western hills has to be stopped, he cannot be allowed to run wild or else we might have a rebellion on our hands. What is the eldest prince doing, sitting around twiddling his thumbs?"
Pa! The fat man slapped his hand against his own thigh in disgust leaning forward as he blurted out the last line of his rant.
"I don't care if the young prince is backing him, I want him gone! The sooner the better!"
"I understand how you feel Elder Wan but I must caution you that this boy is not easy to handle. You must thread carefully until we know the full extent of his strength and his backers."
A soothing and calculating voice came from the opposite chair.
"I wouldn't advise you to send any of your people into the western hills. I sent one of the best shadow crawlers after him once and the assassin hasn't been found yet. Also that brutish commander seems to be fond of the boy."
The relaxed Baron spoke in a calm tone as he took another sip from his glass, hiding the fact that he was the one who had encouraged San Wan and elder Juntao to enter the western hills in the first place.
Elder Wan finally calmed down and slumped backwards in his cushioned chair when he heard the anecdote about the shadow crawler, this struck a nerve within the fat man, he knew these were assassins trained from childhood only to kill.
They had no other interest in life other than perfecting the art of killing as efficiently as possible, if one of them couldn't kill the boy then he was definitely biting off more than he could chew.
"Then how do we move forward?"
He asked hoping the Baron had an answer he wanted to hear....
The Western Hills were now enjoying a period of peace and calmness. After the incident with Elder Juntao and San Wan, no one has dared to poke their head out again, to everyone's surprise even House Wan had stayed quiet seeming to sweep the incident under the rug.
The story of the losses suffered by Elder Juntao and House Wan had spread like wildfire through the aristocratic circles. This had instilled a fear within certain nobles that Hartley had no qualms about slapping their faces without care or fear of any repercussions.
Some nobles even began labeling Hartley as a rogue-noble, the youth was as fierce as a wolf and didn't practice the conventional etiquette of those in the aristocratic circles, nor did he come out to the glamorous banquets thrown by the nobles. Sir Hartley didn't even pay attention or participate in the gossip and petty politics that these people usually used to maneuver and raise themselves to the top.
Other nobles who could forsee the rise of the lord of the western hills took a gamble and sent their well wishes to House Hartley allying themselves with the youth, they assumed that the young prince must have seen something extraordinary in the youth and would be one of his biggest backers in the future, committing his full strength to the lord of the western hills. Based on that alone they could hope to reap some benefits in the end.
For the first time in his life Hartley had taken time off from cultivating to enjoy his beautiful wife, the couple had a whirlwind of a time in their honeymoon period.
Weeks went by as the Western Hills enjoyed peace, prosperity and a breathtakingly fast development rate. They grew in riches with the first payment they received from the gemstone mines in Tivoli.
Hartley was finally beginning to understand the importance of affiliate countries and the resources they could provide, no wonder those from Sasko were so desperate to take over the country.
The new residential buildings for the migrating commoners were finished and allocated to the new commoners who turned up and started working first, there were still people left to be housed but they had to hold on until the next phase of development. These commoners didn't mind, the temporary housing they were placed in were more than adequate for their current needs, even so, they still dreamt of having their own stone houses. It was a motivating factor that led to them working their hardest for House Hartley.
The cobble stone roads were now finished, it joined all sectors of the manor making it more efficient and easier to ferry things from one place to another. The miners rejoiced at the this development, now their loads could be easily driven on an open wagon from the beginning of the back-mountains all the way to the manor, no longer would they be affected by muddy terrain.
The forces of House Hartley were now strong enough to start practicing weapon techniques. They had been training in the rough terrain of the mountains for weeks under the watchful eyes of the burly captain Houlang. They first ran laps in the mountain until the strength in their bodies were expended leaving some crawling back to the residential areas.
When they got used to that, they were then strapped with weights and ran even more laps. The days had been arduous but the men were still in good spirits, motivated by the show of force displayed by their god-like young lord.
Before the men could even touch any weapons Fu Qian made them pledge their allegiance to House Hartley. In this short amount of time spent in the western hills these commoners had started to feel a special affinity to the place. This was the first time most of them had been treated fairly, when they returned home in the evenings they were greeted by smiling well fed families.
This was something worth fighting for and soon the western hills started to feel like the land of their birth. The sight of two hundred men dropping to one knee and shouting out their pledges to the young lord of the Western hills made Fu Qian smile.
During this period Viscount Sanzu came to visit, Hartley had marked him as an untrustworthy person but in the end he had an unwilling alliance with the shrewd man, following the old adage of sticking with the devil you know.
The viscount agreed to supply the western hills with the latest information on the noble factions, their strength and intentions. He was also going to send an apothecary to be stationed in the western hills.
"The man was a former genius who got a little bit too obsessive and over indulgent." was how the viscount vaguely described the man he was sending.
At that time Hartley was trying to develop his fief and that was one of the skilled positions that he needed filled so he happily accepted the viscount's generosity without shame.
Viscount Sanzu knew that him and Hartley's fate were both tied together, as long as Hartley shone bright the viscount's reputation would also increase.
With this incentive the viscount decided to back Hartley to the best of his ability.
He felt guilty for the ordeal Hartley might experience with the demented apothecary but it was still better than not having one.
The man that was sent to Hartley a few days later left Hartley and the others in shock, the man was as slim as a skeleton with a hunched back. He wore one of the most worn out robe Hartley had ever seen and was about 1.6 meters tall with his loose thinning white hair running down to the center of his back.
The man's grey eyes squinted as if he couldn't see five meters ahead of himself. When introduced to Hartley the man kept mumbling gibberish at the floor about a random formula.
He kept gesturing wildly, then contemplating silently for a few seconds then went on talking about how he was so close to perfecting his fomula.
The man then had a moment of lucidity and introduced himself when he saw everyone in the hall staring at him.
"Ah when did you all get here? I'm Alrick, destined to be the most famous potion maker to ever walk the continent, nice to meet you all."
The hunched back man then gave an extravagant and comical bow with his forehead almost touching the ground like a kowtow.
Hartley was dumbstruck, he stood there stiffly and speechless. This wild man was half way to being insane, what use could he be to the Western hills? He had a feeling once again that he had been duped by Viscount Sanzu. Hartley had no confidence in this man to produce anything of worth but he had already accepted the man and had invested a couple thousand gold coins in equipment and raw materials.
He sighed from his stomach in disappointment, maybe if he can produce a few rank 1 medicinal dans it might be ok.
In The receiving hall Zhi Ruo was close to bursting out with laughter, Qin Li looked on with bulging eyes while the serving staff gave the man a wide berth having witnessed his lunacy....
The second week the man was at the manor, there was a huge explosion that rocked the entire structure, people scattered like ants running around and screaming wildly.
After receiving instructions from Viscount Sanzu Hartley had prepared a room away from the General staff of the manor in the basement for Alrick's experiments.
Hartley and Qin Li rushed to this part of the building instantly knowing that the disturbance had originated from here, there was black smoke swirling from beneath the door of the little room.
Hartley was suddenly having second thoughts about harboring this mad scientist in his fief and in his manor no less.
As soon as they kicked in the door of the little room thick black smoke billowed out and up into the ceiling of the hallway, they then heard hysterical laughter and the man came crawling out of the room as black as soot.
"I almost got it this time," the man cackled in madness while coughing.
"I don't think this is a good idea," Qin Li said to no one in particular. Hartley standing beside him was feeling the same way, if this madman was left to his own devices the man would eventually unwittingly kill them all with one of his experiments.
Hartley had had enough of this circus now and was about to dismiss this whole mad affair, cut his losses and send this man back to where ever he came from.
Alrick staggered to his feet in another rare moment of clarity seeming to read Hartley's intentions. He coughed a couple times and exhaled a lung full of black smoke like he had puffed on a cigarette.
"I've not cracked it yet," he said while using his palm to brush back his messy soot-filled hair in a dignified manner as he staggered around while addressing Hartley and Qin Li.
"But" he continued with his index finger pointing to the sky.
"The bi-product of this experiment might be useful." He walked hunched over out of the building and toward an open area of an empty field and rummaged through his pockets coming out with two vials.
One filled with a thick blood-like substance and the other with a blue thin liquid.
Hartley walked out with Qin Li to see what the madman was about to do next. Alrick put a single drop of the blue liquid into the red substance and it immediately started to sizzle, returning the cork to the vial of red substance he then threw it out as far as he could, then...
Boom!....
As the glass vial landed among some shrubbery an explosion thundered out incinerating the greenery that was standing there a second ago, raining dust and pebbles everywhere sending black smoke rising up into the sky and leaving a pit in the earth like a meteorite had fallen from the sky...
Alrick started cackling again. He turned, this time his hair was filled with small pebbles and dirt, "imagine that against infantry." he said as if he was completely sane and sober with a sinister evil-genius smile plastered across his face.
Hartley's and Qin Li's jaws dropped to the floor.