Chapter 411 - 208 - 212

Wooden Shack

Hey guys, starting this week early by presenting all of you with the first regular chapter of the week! I hope you stay and see this arc to the end! It's not as bad as its beginning suggests. :D

This time around, the barbarian troupe traveled for five days straight. Along the way, Lorist managed to gather a good amount of thatch which he used to make a pair of grass sandals for himself. After that, he requested one of the male servants of the female chief to cut off two pieces of beastskin from the one he used to cover himself at night to be used as padding for his sandals, thus solving his problem of having to travel bare-footed.

That male servant actually seemed rather fierce. Even though he wasn't that old, being at around 15 or 16 years of age, his large size would suggest otherwise. He was quite curious when he saw Lorist working on his sandals and squatted down to look for a good amount of time. That skill was actually learned by Lorist during his days as a mercenary and the sandals he made were based on the cloth shoes from his previous life, meaning that the left shoe was slightly different from the right, unlike most other grass sandals worn by the commoners of Grindia.

The finished grass sandals was taken by the male servant for him to satisfy his curiosity. But he didn't claim them for himself and returned them to Lorist after giving them a good look, with the condition that Lorist teach him how to make those sandals. Lorist was quite eager to do so as well and he chatted with the barbarian throughout the lesson.

According to the barbarian servant, the gold-crowned barbarian woman saved Lorist because she was worried that he would be ravaged to death by those ravenous women. If he had died, she wouldn't be able to show him off to her father, since Lorist was the only flatlander that wore a gold badge that signified his relatively high status.

This explanation made Lorist understand why the female mountain chief had ignored him even though she bothered to save him. He took that chance to ask that young male servant whether there was another person alongside him when he was first found. He really wanted to know where Reidy was.

The male barbarian nodded and said that there was an idiot with great strength that caused even two Six Ringed Ulay to be unable to hold him down. However, apart from his strength, that idiot wasn't good at anything else, so they tossed him to the rear end of the troupe and had him take care of the workhorses.

Ulay was a term made by the mountain barbarians to describe warriors. The number of rings was an indication of their Battle Force power level. The barbarians believed that Battle Force was actually a gift from their mountain deities and they divided the 'power of the mountain spirits' into 12 different 'ring levels'. Each 'ring' represent a unit of strength and the more rings one had, the stronger one would be. A Six-Ringed Ulay was roughly equal to a Three Star Iron ranked Battle Force user.

Lorist was really agitated as he finally got some news about Reidy. However, he didn't understand why that barbarian called him an idiot.

The barbarian then explained that 'the idiot' was also a mute and when they found him, he was injured all over his body and had even used his teeth to bite a magical wolf to death. However, he behaved rather well and was rather obedient as long as he was fed. Apart from being really strong, he didn't do much to cause trouble.

Lorist felt like that description didn't quite fit Reidy, but if it was really him, then something bad must've happened. Even so, Lorist had to prioritize his own safety for now and he was only allowed to roam around the main troupe where the female mountain chief was, so he couldn't go to the rear troupe to check if that idiot was truly Reidy and had to be patient until the time was right.

Perhaps because he had taught that young barbarian how to make grass sandals, his dinner that night was far more luxurious than usual. That barbarian male brought Lorist a meaty thigh. Even though half of it was charred, it was still meat, and Lorist was incredibly glad to be able to have some as he had eaten nothing but the black, musty biscuits for the past few days.

During the night when they camped out in the open, Lorist leaned on the luggage that was offloaded from the horses and covered himself with his beastskin blanket, seemingly asleep. In actuality, he was seated cross-legged and slowly circulating a minor cycle to recover some more internal energy. His current situation prevented him from executing a major cycle as he was worried that some barbarian would come to give him a kick when he was in the middle of it. If that really happened, in the best case, he would lose control of his cultivation. In the worst case, his body would be paralyzed partially and he would truly be beyond salvation.

In the distance, a volcano that resembled Fuji Mountain could be seen. All the barbarians cheered out excitedly as they were about to reach their meeting point.

After another half a day of walking, the volcano seemed incredibly near. However, the troupe didn't travel directly towards it and instead took a turn and headed towards a slightly shorter mountain.

Halfway up that mountain, they arrived at a settlement at the bottom of a large cliff which was surrounded by a wooden stockade. The gates of the stockade were already open and the barbarian troupe marched into it proudly as the elderly and young watched and cheered.

After entering the derelict-looking stockade, Lorist realized that there was a large cave at the bottom of the cliff and that was where the barbarian troupe was heading. However, just as they were about to enter it, Lorist was dragged out of the troupe. According to the male barbarian servant, Lorist wasn't allowed to step into their sacred cave since he was a slave.

That's why Lorist could only stand by the cave entrance and could only watch as the every barbarian from the troupe gradually entered the cave.

This was the first time Lorist got to see the full barbarian troupe. When he was traveling, he only knew that the troupe had hundreds of people and around thousands of work horses. But he didn't know why they ventured into the wildlands in the first place. Now however, he understood that the barbarian troupe was sent to hunt and collect enough food for the barbarians to survive the winter. It became obvious to him when he saw the dried meat packed into beastskin bags that were hung on both sides of the work horses.

"Sol, even though these savages can enter the cave, someone like me can't?" muttered Lorist softly outside the cave. He was quite curious what the insides of that large cave looked like, but just at that very moment, he saw Reidy.

Reidy looked incredibly dirty and was almost completely naked, save for a beastskin kilt that he wore around his waist. He was bare-footed and his hair was completely messed up. Apart from the lack of face paint and tattoos on his body and face, he looked no different from the other barbarians. But the Reidy he saw before him truly looked like the idiot described by the male barbarian attendant. He was quite aloof and only moved when the people in front of him bickered at him.

At that moment, Lorist instantly jumped and called out to Reidy as he tried to run over to him, only to feel a harsh tug coming from the collar he wore, causing him to fall flat onto the ground. One whip-wielding barbarian male immediately rebuked Lorist and began whipping him, causing him to shield his head with both his hands while enduring the searing pain.

After the barbarian whipped Lorist four to five times, the blank-eyed Reidy began to growl all of a sudden before leaping and pushing the whip-wielding barbarian to the ground and trying to bite at his throat, causing the barbarian a huge fright. But with his quick reflexes, he hurriedly stuck the whip into Reidy's mouth and listened to the squishing sounds as it was chewed to pieces by Reidy's teeth.

A few other barbarians came over from the side and pulled Reidy away from the male barbarian, who then got up from the ground with his face reddened with anger. He pointed to Reidy and scolded loudly before having the other barbarians release Reidy with the intent on teaching him a lesson himself.

But out of their expectations, Reidy didn't attack that barbarian after he was released and instead rushed straight to Lorist's side.

With all fours on the ground, he prodded onto Lorist's body with his head much like a dog trying to get its master's attention, though without actually licking Lorist.

Everyone who witnessed that sight was flabbergasted and the male barbarian realized that Reidy had attacked because of the flatlander slave. Lorist sat up and gave Reidy a tight hug as he let out streams of tears. The reason Reidy was like that was because he had suffered heavy impacts to his head. From the look in his eyes, it seemed that he couldn't recall anything else apart from his attachment to Lorist.

"What is going on here? Why is the entrance to the cave blocked?" asked the tiara-wearing woman as she came over with a group of attendants.

The male barbarian hurriedly reported, "Mountain chief, that idiot seems to recognize that flatlander slave and the slave also hugged him while calling him Reiti or something. The slave was blocking the way of our troupe and I wanted to pummel him, but then that mute idiot leaped over and tried to bite me..."

The woman with the golden tiara waved her hands to signal that she understood the situation. Looking at the hugging guys on the ground, she asked Lorist, "Oi, who is he to you?"

With a face full of tears, Lorist raised his head and said, "He's my student and is also my attendant. If he didn't save me back then, I would've been killed by my nemesis., But I didn't expect that we would separate after falling into the river and right now he's become an idiot like this and can't even speak..."

The crowned woman nodded and said, "Since he's your attendant, I will allow you to bring him with you. Don't block the way into the cave. You are my first flatlander slave of high status, so you can bring your attendant with you as proof of it."

Lorist really didn't mind that he was being treated like a flatlander slave as being able to stay with Reidy was already a huge surprise for him. He hurriedly brought Reidy away to the side of the cave to stop blocking the entrance as he wondered how he should inspect Reidy's condition. He needed to know specifically which part of his head was injured.

By the time the sky darkened, everyone from the barbarian troupe were finally inside. After that, the male attendant approached Lorist and brought him to an old wooden hut within the stockade and called an old barbarian man out. After being told something, the hunchbacked old man nodded before he proceeded to bring Lorist and Reidy to a small wooden shack not far away and signalled for Lorist and Reidy to enter it.

But the male attendant from before stopped Lorist and said seriously, "You will be spending winter within this shack and if you might die if you are not careful. Since there's still a little time before winter, go collect some dried grass or something to keep warm. If you need anything, tell me, I will try my best to aid you. Oh, and I'm called Ashu and you can have the guards standing outside the cave to deliver a message to me when I'm inside."

After Ashu left, the hunchbacked old man smiled and said to Lorist, "A flatlander slave with status? Hahaha, how ludicrous. I've never heard of something this laughable., But no matter, since you will no doubt die during the winter. The mountain chief won't bother with two frozen corpses after all."

After saying that, the hunchbacked old man asked Lorist to follow him back to the wooden hut and tossed an old beastskin sack to Lorist. "Take it, this will be your food for the whole month. I hope that you will survive it, haha... Now scram back to your little shack."

The sack contained many kudzu roots. They were plants that were similar to potatoes and contained a high amount of starch. They tasted a little bitter and were harvested from a kind of vine plant, making it a great meal substitute when food was scarce. That sack weighed around 25 kilograms and Lorist finally understood how the biscuit he had been eating for the past few days were made. Basically, the kudzu roots were ground into powder and mixed with meat chunks and vegetables before it was cooked atop a hot rock surface, resulting in the biscuit that was suited for long travels.

The shack was rather small, not exceeding 5 square meters large. The ground within the shack also had a hole that was almost one meter deep. Fortunately, they were halfway up a mountain and the altitude was rather high. Otherwise, if rainwater got into the hole, it would be stay there and be incredibly hard to remove. The shack was basically constructed by a chaotic assortment of wooden branches of different lengths plunged into the ground, forming a wall that was roughly 1.5 meters tall with a makeshift roof on top. Not only was the shack not insulated from the air outside, the starry night sky was also visible from within. There was also a patch of dried grass within the shack that stank with a rotting smell. The ground within the shack was also rather muddy and some feces could be spotted at the corners of the shack. Some shameless person must have used the shack as their latrine just recently.

It didn't even have a door and its entrance was only covered with a piece of torn, old beastskin. Lorist recalled what Ashu said as well as the old hunchbacked barbarian's snickering laugh. It was true that if he truly planned to spend winter within the shack, he and Reidy would end up becoming two frozen corpses by the end of winter.

However, Lorist didn't put that matter to heart and thought, only people with something wrong with their heads would spend winter in a shack like this. Since there was no longer anyone to watch over him, Lorist could finally begin his internal energy recovery undisturbed. By the time he recovers, he would bring Reidy back to the dominion right away and wouldn't bother to continue staying there as a slave.

Even though it was rather cold at night, he decided that it was better to stay outside in the open using his beastskin cloak as a windbreaker than stay within the smelly old shack. Lorist found a few broken pieces of earthenware and brought some water from the water pool nearby and began washing some kudzu roots to make food for Reidy and himself. Lorist consumed two of those biscuits while Reidy ended up eating five.

When dawn was breaking, he walked back into the shack with a solemn look and sat down beside the snoring Reidy. Lorist's condition wasn't that simple as he had thought because after he completed a major cycle circulation throughout the night, he recovered far less internal energy than expected. Additionally, he noticed that the meridians within his body were incredibly withered and dried up with many places requiring recuperation and repair, causing him to have much difficulty activating his ki technique. His internal organs also still hurt quite a bit.

Having successfully executed a major cycle during the night, Lorist had recovered up to 10 percent of his full capacity. On days he wasn't injured, he could execute three whole major cycles within that span of time and could at least recover half of his internal energy capacity even if he had previously used it all up. Right now however, it was as if he had returned to the days when he just began to train in the Aquametal Technique and he had to clear out his blocked meridians and repair the damages they sustained. Lorist estimated that it would take at least two months' time for him to recalibrate his body's condition to return to his former state.

If one were to quantify internal energy, the ten percent of it recovered by Lorist during the night would be more or less equal to 100 'threads'. It was no wonder Lorist had only managed to recover one or two threads after executing minor cycles during the past few days given the level of internal damage he sustained. At that time, he was already incredibly excited at the fact that he could recover any internal energy at all and didn't consider why the rate of recovery was so slow. He finally understood what it meant to lose everything he worked for over the years within one single night.

Lorist sighed deeply before lifting Reidy up and leaning his body against his own. Reidy opened his eyes and looked at Lorist without a shred of hostility and was told to keep quiet and stay still. Lorist then placed his right palm onto Reidy's back and activated his technique and sent in his internal energy into Reidy's body to inspect his state.

Reidy's body turned out to be in a rather bad condition; the Blademaster's double palm strike he sustained on the back before he was pushed down the cliff had destroyed a few circulation nodes of Reidy's hexagonal circulation diagram, causing him to be unable to use Battle Force altogether. And given that he had fallen from the cliff of roughly 20 meters of height, his head sustained severe impact without the protection of Battle Force when he rolled down the sides of the cliff before falling into the river, causing internal bleeding and clotting within his brain. Lorist theorized that it was these blood clots that caused Reidy to lose most of his memory and it was already a small miracle that Reidy had still been able to recognize Lorist.

To treat Reidy, there were two ways. The first involved restoring his Battle Force circulation and using it to clear out the blood clots within his brain. But since Reidy had lost his memory, even if his body was restored, he wouldn't be able to remember the proper method to circulate Battle Force for the recovery. The second method involved using Lorist's own internal energy to first clear out the blood clots within Reidy's brain to restore his mental faculties. However, the effects of that method would take much longer to manifest.

Perhaps, I have no choice but to spend winter in this shack with Reidy, Lorist thought as he turned to look at the derelict walls of the shack.

House-building

Here's the second regular chapter of the week for your reading pleasure!

Lorist was prepared to build a new house to spend the winter. During the morning, just as he was about to look for Ashu, the latter came over to look for Lorist and brought with him two magical goat skins and a sack of dried meat.

He apologetically said that as he had no other valuables and that those resources were the most he could offer and he hoped that Lorist and Reidy would be able to survive the winter.

"Thanks, Ashu. I also plan to build a house over here since we will definitely die if we spend winter within that shack. I wonder if you can help me borrow some tools?" Lorist asked.

"Build a house?" Ashu mused curiously. "But winter is coming in less than 20 days. Do you have enough time? It took tens of people two whole months to build that hunchbacked old man's old wooden house. Do you think the two of you can do better?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Don't forget that I'm a Gold ranked instructor for architecture from the Dawn Academy. If I can't do it, then no one can."

Given the straightforward personality the barbarians usually had, Ashu believed Lorist's words without much debate and nodded before he said, "Alright. I will go tell the mountain chief about it and if she agrees, I will bring you some tools."

He left and returned quickly and said that the mountain chief had agreed to Lorist's request to build a house. But apart from being allowed to borrow tools, the two wouldn't be provided any manpower. On the other hand, Ashu was tasked to supervise Lorist and Reidy while they built the house.

Lorist looked at the building tools Ashu brought with him. Apart from an axe, a shovel, a hoe and two rusted saws of different sizes, the rest were farming tools like sickles and pitchforks. According to Ashu, the barbarians usually didn't farm and would at most would only grow a few vines which they would use for their travels. He also mentioned that the tools were left behind from a long time ago. Apart from seeing them once when he was still small during the construction of the old man's house, Ashu said that the tools were usually left within their storehouse unused.

If Lorist could use his internal energy and Reidy could activate his Battle Force, building a house that would allow them to survive throughout the winter was an easy task. But right now, both of them could only be considered stronger than average normal people. With Lorist also having lost his sword, he could only improvise with the tools he had on hand.

During the first day, Lorist dismantled the shack with Reidy. With the hole within it as the center, they drew up a plot of land of 3 meters wide by 5 meters long and started digging. Ashu watched in stupor before he stopped Lorist and said, "A house this large with so much space would be hard to keep warm! The smaller it is, the warmer it will be."

Lorist laughed and said, "No worries, my house will be warm even though it's large. You'll understand when it's completed."

Ashu could only hold his doubts and wait.

On the second day, Lorist asked Ashu where he could get some clay before sending Reidy to a stream nearby to dig up some of it during noon. In the afternoon, they mixed the clay with the mud that they dug out the night before and added some fibrous vines and dried grass into the mix to make some bricks.

On the third and fourth days, Lorist and Reidy cut down more than 50 trees with diameters up to 30 centimeters under Ashu's supervision. Ashu himself also helped out a lot and brought four work horses to help move the logs into the stockade. Had he not contributed, Lorist and Reidy would have taken at least four more days to move them all there.

On the fifth and sixth days, Lorist and Reidy sawed the tree logs into two halves under the curious gazes of the people of the barbarian settlement. They looked at the both of them work as they wondered what kind of house those 'dumb slaves' would build.

On the seventh day, the both of them stacked up the almost-dry bricks and filled the seams between the bricks with more wet clay. Following that, Lorist had the logs that were cut in half all sharpened and one end before lining them up along the insides of the brick walls. Soon, the wooden logs circled from one end to another and a conical wooden wall could be seen within the hole they had dug out. Apart from the entrance which was left unblocked, there weren't other windows or openings on the walls.

Ashu wondered as he asked Lorist, "Why do you need another wooden wall inside the clay brick wall?"

Lorist was applying some clay into the space between the logs as he said, "When winter comes, the clay wall will freeze up and won't be able to retain as much heat. By adding an extra wooden wall just behind the clay wall, it can prevent more heat from escaping. This is called double insulation."

Ashu nodded as if he understood Lorist's explanation before asking two more questions. "Why don't the walls extend straight up from the ground but slanted towards the middle instead?"

Lorist then drew an inverted v shape on the ground with a stick and said, "If the house is built slanted like that, it won't collapse from the weight of the gathered snow. That's why the walls are built with a similar angle to the roof."

It was then when Ashu's doubts had been cleared.

On the eighth to tenth days, Lorist worked almost entirely on the roof. It extended all the way from the top to the ground at a slanted angle and the whole house looked like a triangle when viewed from the side with a hole right in the middle where the entrance was.

On the eleventh day, Lorist started to work on the fire pit and stove, with the smoke channel having already been dug in the ground beforehand. However, there was no cover above the fire pit and Lorist couldn't just put a piece of wood atop it either as it would easily catch fire. He had to somehow find a way to separate the wood from the fire.

And thus, he tore apart his outer robe and took out the six thin steel plates that were embedded within it to provide better defense for the wearer. Lorist had Ashu ask for the help of an Eight Ringed Ulay, a wielder of the 'power of the mountain spirit', that was roughly equal to a Two Star Silver rank in terms of Battle Force cultivation, and had him use his blade glow to cut out a 1-meter-long, 0.8-meter wide and one inch thick stone slab with which Lorist placed upon the fire pit. He paid the Ulay two of the steel plates for his services.

After that, Lorist traded two more steel plates with Ashu for 30 kilograms of kudzu root, some lamb and a large earthen jar, because the food he had been given by that old man which was supposed to last for that month was almost finished.

Lorist then gifted the last two plates to Ashu as thanks for his help thus far. Troubled by the fact that he received something for free, Ashu got a dagger and gave it to Lorist in return.

The next few days saw Lorist being incredibly busy working on the door of the house, some clothes for Reidy, collecting enough charcoal as well as making two sets of wooden bowls and spoons. Most importantly, he also had to get some food that he will need to survive through winter as well as some salt.

Upon the completion of the house, Ashu fostered a deep-seated respect for Lorist. Never would he dare imagine that a shabby shack like that could be changed into a cosy house within a little more than 10 days. He was especially impressed with the fire pit Lorist installed into the floor and was shocked to find that it could be used to also heat up the bed during the night. Additionally, the whole house was able to maintain its internal warmth, much to his surprise.

During the time he spent constructing the house, Lorist had already understood most of the things about the barbarian tribe that was led by the chief of Whitesnow Mountain. According to Ashu, it was originally called the Nubik Tribe, and Ashu and the mountain chief were originally people of the Habibaba Tribe. A few years ago, the leader of the Habibaba Tribe went to the Smormilgen Mountain to participate in the Kubawesson Festival that was held once every 12 years during which they will make offerings to their mountain gods. And during the Bywessi Conference, a Jambassen would be chosen to be the leader of the tribes in the nearby area.

After that, the leader of the Habibaba Tribe declared himself the Jambassen and led his warriors to conquer the other seven tribes within the mountainous area, one of which being the Nubik Tribe. However, unlike the other tribes that were absorbed into the Habibaba Tribe, the Jambassen had his beloved daughter become the new leader of the Nubik Tribe and gave her control over the nearby barbarian territory before declaring her the chief of Whitesnow Mountain. And so, the Nubik Tribe changed its name to the Whitesnow Tribe.

Ashu was the playmate of the Whitesnow Mountain chief since his childhood and he had naturally become her attendant when she became the leader of the tribe. Ashu told Lorist that there were around 1300 people within the Whitesnow Tribe, but Lorist doubted it because he didn't even see that many people and remarked that he only saw the elderly, women and children when they collected wild fruits and firewood. Apart from the men that Lorist traveled with in the troupe, he didn't see any other barbarian males.

Ashu said that it was to be expected because the Ulays and 400 plus men of the Whitesnow Tribe followed the Jambassen to war. One year ago, the Habibaba Jambassen got into conflict with the Jambassen of another area and both of them plotted to take over each other's territory, causing disputes between the two factions. The Whitesnow Tribe had also sent 400 men to join the war effort and they would only return after the first round of snow that year.

Lorist finally realized that the reason the family's development during the past two years didn't get disrupted by any barbarian attacks was due to that. Apart from the 1000 plus barbarians who attacked the army camp at the intersection point of the two mountain ranges two years ago before they were driven away by Josk's mounted archer brigade and Pajik's garrison company, there were no other reports of barbarian skirmishes. He now understood that it was because the barbarians had changed their target. At that moment, Lorist hoped that the barbarian tribes would be in conflict for as long as possible.

What he found most laughable was what Ashu said about his fate. While Lorist was the first flatlander slave of high status of the mountain chief, he was also the first flatlander slave she caught. And right now, she had no idea whatsoever about what she would do with Lorist.

It wasn't like the barbarians didn't own slaves; the shabby wooden shack was built for the very purpose of housing them. However, as those slaves were other barbarians, after two or three months of foraging and hunting with the tribe, they would quickly assimilate into it and become one of its members.

However, Lorist and Reidy were known to them as flatlanders and after they become slaves, they wouldn't be allowed to join the tribe. Currently, they were waiting for the Habibaba Jambassen to return from his military expedition, after which the chief of Whitesnow Mountain would show Lorist off to him. But in the meantime, she had no idea what to do with Lorist.

Quickly, winter arrived and the barbarians of the Whitesnow Tribe all entered that large cave to spend the winter. And as flatlander slaves, Lorist and Reidy were forbidden from entering their sacred cave. Because of that very reason, the female chief granted Lorist permission to build his house without any objection because she was fine as long as Lorist didn't escape when they were within the cave. In actuality, given Lorist and Reidy's current condition, if they tried to leave during the winter, they would no doubt die, so there wasn't really much of a difference.

Had it not been for their status as slaves, Ashu would have moved into the newly-built house with them right away. According to him, the cavern extended quite deeply and there was even a small subterranean stream within it. But during the three months the barbarians stayed within the cave, the air within would smell progressively worse even though it might be hard to realize it in the beginning.

While there was quite an extensive network of smaller caverns within it and even a few openings for ventilation, the combined waste excretions of the thousands of people and livestock would cause the stink to permeate the whole cave. After winter, everyone who came out of the cave would smell absolutely horrible. While the hunchbacked old man couldn't enter the cave because of his injuries and had to stay outside to monitor Lorist and Reidy, many other barbarians actually envied the fact that the old man didn't have to spend winter in the cave.

Ashu then pointed at the other derelict shacks within the stockade and said, "Look. Apart from your old shack which was built to house slaves, the other shacks here aren't that much better. While they are still habitable during summer and autumn, nobody would be able to survive in those shacks during winter period and the spring rainy season and can only stay within the cave. I hope that after this winter, the mountain chief can order the other people of the tribe to aid you to build more houses like that for us..."

I don't want your help, thank you, Lorist thought. When I recover my internal energy, I will return to my family dominion right away. Who would want to stay here for a few years to help you build your houses? Despite that, Lorist maintained his smile and asked Ashu how he could get enough food and salt for the winter.

Ashu said that the tribe can't give Lorist and Reidy food from their public food stores given their status as slaves and it was already quite hard for them to bring out the month's worth of kudzu roots before. If Lorist needed more food, he would have to get them himself. Ashu said that hunting was one of the best ways and whatever Lorist caught would belong to him. As for salt, he suggested Lorist to travel to a saltwater lake across the mountain where there would be ample salt chunks scattered around the bank. He also added that some people would be sent there for a trip later and he would ask them to bring Lorist an especially large chunk for the time being.

Sigh, so slaves have to rely on themselves to survive too... Even so, Lorist still found it surprising that being a slave of the barbarians was far better than being a citizen of most other dominions of nobles. As a barbarian's slave, the prey one hunted would belong to oneself whereas commoners who hunt within the dominion of a lord are obligated to give at least half of their gains to the dominion lord as tax, with some worse rates going up to as high as 75 percent. For example, if a commoner killed a wild boar, it would be fortunate if he was still left with even the boar's head after the lord came to collect the tribute.

I wonder how many commoners would come running here to become their slaves if this spreads, Lorist thought, before he shook his head and stopped thinking unnecessary thoughts. As a slave, he should be aware of his own status. Since he was a flatlander, he wasn't allowed to venture too far and couldn't carry any weapons with him. The prey he could hunt in the nearby area were also very sparse, with only some wild hares and pheasants which he could catch.

He did however not require any weapons to catch those two animals. Lorist recalled a practical method he learned during his days as a mercenary to make hunting traps. Using a vine and some goat skin, Lorist managed to make more than ten traps which he laid within bushes and shrubs. When he checked the traps on the next day, he found that he had gotten quite a good harvest of three pheasants and four hares. As winter was just days away, these animals were all plump with fat. Lorist was elated and thought that if his gains continued for the rest of the days at that rate, he would quickly be able to gather enough food.

Lorist used a pheasant and a hare to trade 25 kilograms of kudzu roots with the hunchbacked old barbarian and two other hares for a few more magical beast skins. Additionally, he gifted Ashu with a pheasant and cooked one for himself that night for dinner. He then smoked the remaining hare meat to save it for the winter.

After another night, Lorist went to check those traps again and found three captured pheasants and three hares. This time around, he used one of each animal to trade for a wooden bucket with which to carry water and just like that, the house was equipped with the basic daily necessities.

Seeing Ashu looking at the traps curiously, Lorist casually taught him how to make them. However, he didn't expect that after Ashu learned the skill, it spread to all the other barbarian children and when Lorist checked the trap site two days later, he realized that the whole bush was laden with traps belonging to others. With so many traps cramped together, how would the pheasants and hares of the mountain not notice them?

However, after he saw Ashu's innocent expression, Lorist was so frustrated that he didn't know if he should even get mad at him. Without the hares and pheasants, Lorist turned his attention to the stream around the mountains.

The barbarians didn't eat lots of fish were because they didn't have any nets, didn't know how to fish them, and also because fishes had too many fine bones, making them relatively hard to consume. Even if they did want to catch some, they only used the spearing method and could only catch the larger varieties of fish, albeit with little success.

While Lorist didn't have any fishing tools with him, that didn't stop him from using his wit. After spending a day digging a large pit with Reidy at the riverbank, Lorist made a small bypass from the river to the pit he dug and allowed water from the stream to flow into it. On the next day, he made a small wooden 'gate' with the twigs he found and installed it in the middle of the small stream to redirect the fish to swim into the pit. Following that, he cut the pit off from the river before removing the water within with a wooden water scoop and caught more than 100 fish in one go, among which 20 were of rather large size.

Seeing that his method worked great, Lorist woke up the next day with the intention of repeating the process. But just as he was bringing the wooden gate to the stream, he saw the female chief of Whitesnow Mountain head there with her attendants. She then told Lorist and Reidy, "Come with me. I will bring you two to see my daddy."

Barbarians

Hi guys, here's the first bonus chapter of this week brought to you by Alan W. from the USA. I'm glad I am able to release on time this week!

This time around, Lorist and Reidy did not have to walk and instead rode a Northlander Horse surrounded by the rest of the troupe. Perhaps the barbarians were shocked at how skilled they were at building that house and began treating them more nicely. Even the ration of meat they were given during the travels were the same as the other barbarians.

'Perspectives can be deceiving'. Lorist found that saying to be especially true. Even though that Fuji Mountain-like volcano seemed really close to them, the troupe spent more than half a day to arrive at its foot. They had to pass through a black pine forest before circling around two smaller hills before Lorist was able to see their destination. Halfway up the mountain was a large military base which was fortified with a wall constructed from messily stacked up rocks.

As the troupe of the Whitesnow Mountain chief approached the base, a blowing horn could be heard coming from the walls of the base. Ashu, who was riding behind Lorist, told him that the horn signalled that they were welcome and that the base was the meeting point for the Habibaba Tribe. The Jambassen who returned yesterday from his military campaign had impatiently sent for someone to notify his daughter, the mountain chief, to meet him.

When they arrived at the entrance of the base, Lorist realized that it only had a wooden gate sealing the entrance. When he entered, he saw that the setup of the base was not unlike that of normal flatlander settlements with the houses on both sides of the streets having stone walls. But what intrigued Lorist was the structure of the roofs of the various houses which were all over the place.

The talkative Ashu spared Lorist the trouble of asking and explained the origins of the base to him. It was said that tens of years ago, there was a brave, young warrior of the Habibaba Tribe that had always wanted to venture to the flatlands and understand how the people lived. And so, he left the tribe on a journey to explore the world.

But the world he soon found himself in was a cruel one. The moment he arrived in flatlander society, he was captured and turned into a slave and was forced to construct buildings for the towns and cities of the flatlanders. After 40 years of toiling away, he was abandoned due to his old age and disease. But he managed to survive as a beggar and made his way back to the Habibaba Tribe despite the odds.

The former warrior barbarian, now old and sick, regretted his past decisions greatly and felt horrible because he wasn't able to contribute to the tribe that had raised him. So, he decided to use his experience and knowledge of building that he gained during his 40 years of slaving away to construct a mighty base for the Habibaba Tribe. Unfortunately, right after he finished building the main palace and was halfway done with the rest of the base, he passed away and returned to the embrace of the mountain deities. Having lost the guidance of the barbarian architect, the other barbarians improvised and made roofs of all kinds of styles, resulting in the lack of uniformity for the buildings that Lorist saw.

Ashu proudly said that the base, Balibak Citadel, was named after the barbarian architect.

While Lorist was not the least bit interested in what the base was called, he was curious about the palace Ashu mentioned as he didn't know that barbarians would be able to construct one.

After walking for more than half an hour, the palace was right in front of Lorist's eyes.

"Pffft!" Lorist couldn't hold his laughter back and thought, can you even call this a palace? This is obviously a canteen built for the construction workers! The only difference is that the wooden building in the middle is two times bigger than those in normal canteens!

The building in the middle was actually a wooden steeple. Using the wood they got from the Black Forests as its square base foundation, it was built with a pointed roof. On the sides of the steeple were two long wooden buildings that resembled the sleeping chambers of construction laborers, with the only difference being that they were built using timber. Normal construction laborer housing wouldn't use materials that expensive.

Ashu furrowed his brow and said, "What are you laughing about? We're here at the palace, so be more serious..."

Lorist shut his mouth immediately and managed to stop his laughter. What a joke! This is the palace of the barbarians? I really did learn something interesting from this trip after all...

The chief of Whitesnow Mountain at the front dismounted and nodded to her few attendants before pointing towards Lorist and Reidy and telling Ashu to get another attendant to hold both of his prisoners and escort them into the palace.

Lorist later confirmed that the 'palace' was indeed modeled after a canteen. Before they even entered the building, the loud chattering from within could be heard clearly. Once inside, he saw what resembled a large canteen hall. The whole place was lined with 4 long tables arranged in parallel on each side with only a 2-meter-wide walkway between the tables for people to cross. Each of the tables sat 20 or so people and kudzu roots, fruits and roasted meat were served to them. There was an estimated 200 people feasting away within that room, with some getting so drunk that they began to cause trouble by harassing the barbarian waitresses who were serving the food and others standing on their tables and singing out loud. Lorist even witnessed a few big-built barbarian men humping away with a few barbarian women in the corner.

The walkway was rather long and at its end was an elevated platform on which a wide table filled with food stood. Behind it sat a lion-like muscular man who looked at the chaos within the hall with a lazy gaze, occasionally smiling as he drank more alcohol from his silver cup.

Seeing the mountain chief approach him, that huge man revealed a loving smile and began to laugh out loud. His laughter reverberated throughout the canteen, or 'palace' hall, and caused the chatters and laughters to stop. "Oh, my dear, the most beautiful flower of Fire Spirit Mountain and shiniest pearl of Whitesnow Mountain... You're here! Hahahaha, come over quick. Let daddy take a good look at how my beloved songbird is doing..."

The mountain chief said in an annoyed voice, "Daddy, why are you being so loud? You frightened the rest of them," before she leaped into the bosom of the huge man and said, "Daddy, this time you left for such a long time... I wasn't able to see you for a whole year..."

Patting on the shoulder of the mountain chief lovingly, the man said, "My little princess, it's not that daddy doesn't want to get back here sooner, but that old lion Bilulu just didn't want to admit his loss. Had it not been for the winter, daddy here would have stayed there longer and take that old lion's den. I will spare his life for now and if is still defiant to me, I will go there to teach him another lesson next year. Haha, daddy also found a nice husband for you this time around. My beautiful songbird is already an adult and it's about time you got married. Alik, come here."

On the table left to the mountain chief's father, a tall and large barbarian youth stood up and stepped before the mountain chief and her father. With both hands crossed at his chest, he bowed to the mountain chief and said, "I've long heard about the great name of the chief of Whitesnow Mountain. I, Alik, am a fond admirer of yours. May Kubawesson bless you with protection, the prettiest moon of my heart..."

The mountain chief looked at Alik curiously, causing him to lower his head shyly under her intense gaze.

The large man laughed out loud and said, "My beloved songbird, Alik here is really famous and he's already a leader in the Enbri Tribe and is also a Ten Ringed Ulay. If he did not lead his 300 Ulays to penetrate that old lion's defense line, daddy here might have fallen into the lion's trap and won't be able to return. That's why I brought him here to see you, so bring him around and show him our mountains and livestock, understood?"

The mountain chief blushed as her father had called her to show her future husband the livestock they would be offering as dowry. If all went as planned, her wedding with Alik was basically set in stone.

"Huh? Who are those two?" asked the huge man after he saw Lorist and Reidy who were surrounded by four of the mountain chief's attendants.

"Daddy, they are the flatlander slaves with high statuses that I captured. Look, this is his badge," said the chief of Whitesnow Mountain as she gave Lorist's academy and instructor badges to her father before stealing a glance at Alik to see his expression, obviously feeling that her capture of Lorist and Reidy was a praiseworthy achievement.

Her father laughed out and said, "My darling, flatlanders are really cunning, so don't you go around getting tricked by them. Bring them before me so that I can ask them myself."

The mountain chief said, "Daddy, this flatlander is quite skilled and said that he's an architectural instructor and knows how to build houses. But the house he built wasn't as big as the palace and it even looks weird, like a steep mountain."

Lorist and Reidy were promptly brought forward. As the man played around with the two badges, he looked at Lorist like a predator did its prey. "Tell me about who you are... Hmmm..."

Stepping forward, Lorist bowed before reciting the lies he told about his career as a Gold ranked architectural instructor from the Dawn Academy, his grudge with his enemy who chased him all the way into the river up to his rescue by the mountain chief and his reunion with his student that was currently mentally ill and mute.

The large man stopped Lorist before he finished and asked, "What kind of thing is an architectural instructor?"

"Well, respected Jambassen, an architectural instructor is not a thing... You can think of it as a person who teaches others how to build..." Not knowing how to answer the Jambassen, Lorist changed his phrasing to better explain what he meant.

The large man laughed out loud and said, "You? Teaching others to build? Are you fitting enough for that task? You're still so young, who would believe that you can teach others to build? Also, how can you prove that you do know how to teach if that was the case?"

One annoying thing about the barbarians was that they only believed in things they could see.

Lorist looked at the large man's table and saw a huge bowl with one cooked kudzu root within. Taking it from the bowl and placing it on the table, he flipped the bowl over and took the dagger that was pierced into the roasted meat. After that, he cut a few fruits into cubes and placed them on the upwards-facing bottom of the bowl. He then removed the skin from the piping hot kudzu root and gradually turned it into paste form before applying some to the fruit cubes on top of the bowl. In a few short moments, a mini castle could be seen.

The large man, Alik and the mountain chief were flabbergasted when they saw Lorist use nothing but a simple dagger to make a small white castle on top of the bowl.

Lorist then put the dagger back down before retreating a few steps. After bowing again, he said, "Great Jambassen, this is how I teach others to build."

The huge man scratched his head as he looked at the kudzu castle on the table before looking back at Lorist, seemingly at a loss for what to say. Just before, he had mocked Lorist for being young and inexperienced, but he didn't expect that Lorist could build a small beautiful castle like that out of nowhere, proving him wrong without giving him any face. Understanding how awkward it was for her father, the mountain chief said, "Not bad, this castle looks really nice. Can we build something like that too?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Respected mountain chief, it is definitely possible. However, it will no doubt require lots of time, manpower and some resources only obtainable from the flatlanders."

"How long will it take?" she asked.

"Based on your conditions here, I estimate that it will take at least three to four years and more than 10000 workers," Lorist said, greatly exaggerating the magnitude of the project.

Furrowing her brow, the mountain chief said, "If it'll take that long, forget it. What about building a palace like this one that belongs to my daddy?"

Lorist replied, "Oh, this won't take long. You only need three months and 1000 workers. However, respected mountain chief, it is not the right time to build right now and we have to wait until summer comes to begin our work. It is not possible to do so in the snow and rain."

The huge man patted on his thigh and said, "When I was still small, it took Balibak one whole year to build this palace for my father. Since you said that you're almost as skilled as him, then build another palace like this when summer comes next year. It will serve well as my daughter and Alik's new home. Then, it's decided."

The mountain chief began acting spoiled again with her father, who merely laughed out and waved for Lorist and Reidy to be brought away.

In the following five to six days, Lorist and Reidy were kept locked inside an old stone house. Ashu visited them a few times and said that the mountain chief had been bringing Alik around to see the sheeps and cows and their relationship was developing fast after spending most of their time together. In a few more days, Alik would return to his tribe and move them here to merge it with the Whitesnow Tribe before getting married with the Whitesnow Mountain chief.

Lorist noticed that Ashu seemed quite down when he talked about the matter, as the playmate from his childhood was going to marry another man. While jealousy and envy was hard to let go off, when compared with Alik, a Four Ringed Ulay like Ashu really wasn't appealing enough. It was the sad case of a plebeian falling in love with his master.

Two days later, snow started falling near the mountains, marking the arrival of winter. Lorist and Reidy were released from the stone house by Ashu and were told that they would return to the Whitesnow Tribe on that day. He and a few other attendants brought Lorist to a high vantage point where hundreds of people gathered and said that those people were the men of the Whitesnow Tribe who were sent to fight with the Jambassen who would also return to the tribe with them. Currently, the mountain chief was bidding farewell to Alik and after she sent him off, they would begin the journey back to the tribe.

It didn't take long for Lorist to spot the two lovers who were embracing. The mountain chief hugged Alik so tightly as if they were meeting for the last time in their lives. After a long moment, Alik finally got on his horse and left with his attendants while the mountain chief waved her hand nonstop towards him in the distance and only ceased when he was out of her sight.

On the way back, the mountain chief suddenly called for Lorist and asked him about the construction of the 'palace' in the following year over and over again. It was not until Lorist promised that he would build a far bigger palace (canteen), than her father's that she stopped pestering Lorist.

Looks like this lass just can't wait to get married and is already looking forward to her palace even though winter just started... How impatient...

When they returned to the stockade, Lorist realized that the hunchbacked old man had occupied the house he and Reidy built. When Ashu reported that to the mountain chief, she had the old barbarian man whipped. Ashu then told Lorist that taking possession of other people's belongings without permission from the leader was a grave crime. He also said that it was a shame that Lorist was a slave. Otherwise, he could make the old man his personal slave for that transgression.

I finally have some time for myself, thought Lorist as he shut the door of his small wooden house. From that time onwards, he would be spending three months there during the winter. He wanted to use the chance when nobody would bother him to properly treat his injuries and begin restoring Reidy's memories before returning to the dominion.

Departure

Hey guys, sorry for the large release gap in the middle of the week. I'm planning a double release tomorrow to make up for it. Here's the second bonus chapter of the week brought to you by Alan W. and Tyler L. from the USA. Thank you so much as usual!

So it's already the 1st month of the year 1772, Lorist thought as he looked at rows of stars drawn on the wall. The barbarian that was responsible for keeping time was the bushy-haired barbarian witch doctor. Even though Lorist wanted to know only the date, he had spent lots of effort to get it out from the witch doctor who frequently talked in riddles, much to Lorist's frustration.

During the past 30 or so days, Lorist and Reidy basically stayed within the small wooden house, apart from occasionally going out to clear the snow or empty the latrine, as well as one occassion when they went on a fishing trip when the snow stopped temporarily. Despite getting up to 50 kilograms of fish, they met with a barbarian patrol group on the way back and half of their gains were confiscated.

But it was precisely because of that encounter that Lorist discovered a huge weakness of the barbarians. Their military force during the winter was incredibly lacking. During the past two years around this time, Lorist was leading the family forces in their struggle against the magical beast wave and it was quite common for them to operate within the snowy lands at temperatures around negative 20 to 30 centigrade. The main reason his forces were able to do so was their emphasis on winter gear that had incredible heat insulation, which included a fur coat, fur cap, a pair of gloves, an outer windbreaker as well as a face mask. They could be said to be equipped fully from head to toe.

Naturally, a large part of that success was thanks to Lorist's experiences in the frozen frontiers during his past life and his willingness to use the precious furs of the magical beasts to make warmth-retaining clothing for his soldiers without the slightest hesitation. Even though the cotton plant didn't exist on Grindia, these magical beast furs were far better than them in regards to retaining heat. In addition to the fact that the Norton Family soldiers have awakened their Battle Force, their increased circulation also helped to stave off the heat.

Compared to the fur winter gear of the Norton Family soldiers, the barbarians only wore a few layers of beast fur casually tossed over their upper body. They merely hung a few of them on their upper body but left their legs bare. Not only that, the fur clothes they wore also had large sleeves. It was no wonder that an Eight Ringed Ulay, which was the equivalent of a Two Star Silver Battle Force user, was so cold that he felt like dying. They were already complaining badly about how they had to come out to patrol in that weather.

During the days when the snow didn't fall, the barbarians who hid within the cave would send out around a hundred people to patrol the stockade during morning and night, mainly to check if there were any carnivorous magical beasts hanging around. That's why when they met with Lorist and Reidy who were returning from their fishing trip, they were incredibly surprised because the both of them left the stockade without permission. Lorist told them that he had no choice because they were running out of food and had to capture more fish to sustain themselves.

The barbarians were troubled as leaving the stockade without notice was considered to be a grave crime. But it wasn't that they wanted Lorist to starve to death either. After the bearded leader of the patrol team discussed with his teammates, he decided to confiscate half of the fish as punishment. Even though they disliked fish because of the bones, it was still quite pleasing for them to be able to drink a huge bowl of fish soup during the winter. And so the matter was settled and the bearded leader even sent someone to bring Lorist a huge sack of kudzu roots after he returned to the cave. In that regard, the barbarians weren't that bad.

With the passing of the 30 or so days, Lorist had almost recovered halfway from his injuries and managed to save up a third of his full amount of internal energy within his dantian. In another ten plus days, he would be able to completely repair his damaged meridians, and the thought of that relieved him greatly. Also, of the many blood clots within Reidy's brain, only one large one remained as Lorist had been using his internal energy to gradually remove them over time. He believed that Reidy would return to his former self after that last one was removed.

The weather outside on that day was rather bad with a huge snowstorm covering the whole area.

Lorist sat cross-legged above the fire pit on the stone slab with the temperature within the house was as warm as spring. He had just finished another round of treatment for Reidy and the latter was already sound asleep in a corner. After every treatment session, Reidy would turn really sleepy and sometimes would be out cold for tens of hours a time, causing Lorist to sometimes worry that he would never wake up again.

After circulating another major cycle to recover the internal energy he expended on Reidy's treatment, Lorist shut his eyes and recalled the moments when he was fighting Blademaster Zarinan. He found it really laughable that he had felt so confident after defeating Blademaster Xanthi. At that time, he truly believed that no one else within that world would be able to force him into a corner when it came to swordplay and was really full of himself. But an assassination by an old Blademaster had been able to shake him up so badly with no warning. Not only was he personally injured, many loyal soldiers of the family also perished, causing Lorist regret that was hard to put into words.

He had believed that with his good swordsmanship and mighty family forces, he would be invincible and would be able to mess around unabated. But in retrospect, Lorist found that he had been too arrogant and ignorant. If a rank 3 Blademaster was able to push him into a grave corner, what would he do if he was faced with a Sword Saint? He would no doubt lose everything he cared about. He realized that only with personal strength could he be confident and without worries in this world.

Having acknowledged his errors, Lorist gained a newfound realization to take himself seriously from now on and train even harder than before. Currently, even when he was sitting cross-legged to rest, he was recalling every strike of the Blademaster with clarity and mentally simulated how he would block them and make counters.

Bam bam bam! The door of the house was knocked on loudly and Lorist opened his eyes immediately. Weird, who would be coming here on a stormy day like this? I should be careful, it may be some magical beast that's banging on the door. I'd be dead meat if I really opened the door for a magical beast.

"Who's this?" Lorist shouted out.

"It's me! Open the door!" said the person outside.

Lorist then opened the door and the one who rushed within was the hunchbacked old man who wrapped himself with so many furs he looked like a huge meatball.

"So cold... so cold..." he muttered with his face almost green like rusted iron. Some frozen streaks of mucus could also be seen near the old man's nose as he stomped around to rid himself of the cold.

"Why have you come here?" Lorist asked coldly.

"Why? Hehe, kid, this place belongs to me now! You two, scram!" said the old man as he snickered wildly.

As the old barbarian man could no longer resist the cold within his shabby old house, he had decided to get his hands on Lorist's own small wooden house.

"Have you forgotten that time when you were whipped? Also, with the furious snowstorm outside, where would we go?" Lorist said as he stared at the old man without actually considering him a threat.

"I don't care where you go. It'll be even better if you freeze to death. I still haven't paid you back for that time I was whipped. You actually dared to rat me out... I'd like to see if you can find anyone to complain to right now! There is no way that the mountain chief will leave the cave in this weather. You'll have to wait for another two months if you want to complain to her! Now, get out quick!" roared the old man as he raised a thick whip up with his right hand.

The old barbarian man swung the whip against Reidy's back, causing him to wake up and look at the old man, confused at what was happening.

"Are you still gonna stay here?!" shouted the man angrily at Reidy as he raised his whip again for another swing.

It was then when Lorist stepped forward and held the whip tightly with his hand.

"Cursed slave, you dare resist me?!" shouted the rage-filled barbarian man.

Without saying a word, Lorist landed a harsh punch right onto the old barbarian man's chest where his heart was.

"Ugh..." groaned the man before he stopped moving altogether.

Lorist did not use that much internal energy when he punched that old man as he only needed him to stay put for ten minutes or so. After removing the two thick cow skins the old barbarian man wore without any regard, he tossed the old man outside the house onto the snowy grounds. After closing the door, Lorist said to Reidy, "Don't worry, get back to sleep."

"Oh..." Reidy muttered as he lied back down.

After half an hour, Lorist put on one of the cow skins and opened the door to take a look. The hunchbacked old barbarian man had already frozen to death and Lorist removed the snow from the old man's corpse before he brought him back to the shabby old house.

The old house was freezing cold and there was a broken earthen pot within that the old man used as a brazier, but the firewood inside were all cold and wet. Lorist also realized that there were a number of large holes around the walls of the house. Originally, they were covered up by mud and clay, but they had probably fallen off after being frozen stiff, allowing the snow and wind outside to gush into the house from the holes. No wonder the old man wasn't able to stand being in his house and desperately tried to occupy the one Lorist built.

There was a pile of dried grass where the old man probably slept and Lorist tossed his corpse upon it and placed the cow skin he brought with him on the corpse, making it seem like the old man was sound asleep.

After that, he searched the house for a while and discovered that under the pile of grass was a rusted longsword. Apart from some trash and random goods within the house, there wasn't anything else worth noting. The old man still had quite a lot of food remaining, but Lorist didn't touch that and only cut off a wooden plank from the house with the longsword and used it to smudge his tracks when he returned to his own house.

The snowstorm continued for four days and three nights. When it cleared up, Lorist and Reidy immediately proceeded to clean off the snow that had gathered on the roof and after a long while of work, they saw the patrol team emerge from the cave.

The leader of the team was the same bearded man who led the previous patrol. He greeted Lorist when he approached.

Lorist pointed to the hunchbacked old man's house and said, "During the past few days, the old man would ask me to help clean the snow off his roof every time the snow stopped falling. But this time, he still hasn't come out yet. I wonder if something has happened to him..."

And so, the bearded leader made his way to the old man's house and it didn't take long for a commotion to break out.

Lorist went there to join the fray and when the bearded leader saw him, he waved his hand and said, "The old man has already frozen to death. Come here, there are a few skins and furs that you can use as well as a few sacks of kudzu roots. Take them."

Lorist happily returned to his house with the furs and kudzu roots before bringing Reidy along with him to clean up the snow around the broken old house. After that, he dug a huge hole in the ground and buried the old barbarian man within it.

Now that the old barbarian man was gone, only Reidy and Lorist remained within the stockade as all the other barbarians stayed within the cave. Had it not been for Reidy's current state, Lorist would've left the place right away since nobody would be able to stop him.

During the chilling-cold days wrought with snow and storm, apart from helping Reidy heal and further repairing his damaged meridians, Lorist also used the skins obtained from old barbarian man to make leather pants, gloves, cloaks, masks as well as some eye shields to prevent the eyes from freezing over using a small, razor-sharp blade, a long needle and a few fish hooks which he kept hidden within his old outer robe.

Even though his sewing skill wasn't that good, Lorist did manage to make leather equipment for two people in less than ten days. After that, he preserved some food for the upcoming journey and also made some wooden skis for his travels. All he had to do next was to wait until the day Reidy returns to his former self.

In the following days, Lorist would train his swordsmanship in a borderline insane fashion even during stormy days. Even during nights when snowstorms ravaged the stockade and covered the ground completely white with snow, the moment he recalled a scene during his battle with Blademaster Zarinan, he felt as if he gained some insight and would work himself to exhaustion outside in the snow. Just like that, Lorist refined his swordsmanship step by step as the days passed.

By the time the wooden wall within the house was filled with three other rows of small stars marking the days, Reidy's treatment had already reached its last stage. As Lorist tapped on Reidy's pressure point behind his head with his left hand, he used his right palm to support Reidy's back from behind and injected some of his internal energy into Reidy's head in small pulses against the last remaining blood clot. When it was finally disintegrated, Reidy lost consciousness.

But this time around, he woke up within only four short hours. When he opened his eyes, he saw Lorist sitting beside him and said, "Milord, it was as if I was dreaming for a long period of time..."

Lorist laughed out and said, "Do you remember what you dreamed about?"

After furrowing his brow for a few moments, he shook his head and said, "I can't really recall. I think there were many other people around us, but you were always by my side, milord. Oh, weren't we on that cliff back then? I remember shooting that old bastard in the back once. After hitting my head when we fell off the cliff, I can't recall anything else. Milord, where are we right now?"

"We are currently the slaves of the mountain barbarians." Lorist proceeded to briefly explain the recent events to Reidy before he ruffled his head and said, "If you didn't lose your memory, we would've back at the dominion long ago."

Reidy shook his head and said, "Milord, I think you made a mistake. You should've returned to the dominion as soon as possible. While the family can do without me, it definitely can't go on without you..."

Passing the small silver container with rank 2 medicine to Reidy, Lorist said, "Don't worry about things that don't concern you. Do I look like the kind of lord that will abandon my own family knights? Within the container holds the last two or three drops of rank 2 medicine. After you drink it, circulate your Battle Force immediately. I will give you three days to prepare and we will head back to the dominion when you recover. After all, you won't be able to survive the cold outside if you can't use your Battle Force."

Catching the container, Reidy said, "Milord, have your injuries recovered?"

"Don't worry, I'm already fine. All that's left is for you to patch yourself up. Consume the medicine and begin quickly," Lorist said with a smile.

Three days later, Reidy looked at his silver blade glow excitedly and said, "Milord, look! My Battle Force seemed to have grown with the blade glow even lengthening a bit."

Lorist however continued to draw on the wooden wall with a piece of charcoal without saying anything.

Putting his sword down, Reidy asked, "Milord, what are you drawing?"

"Oh, I promised the leader of the barbarians here to build a canteen for them. But since we're leaving soon, I won't be able to fulfill that promise. That's why I'm drawing up a set of diagrams and procedures for the construction here. I only hope that they can understand it well enough to finish the canteen on their own. I'll be done soon, so you should go pack up. After this, we will make our leave," Lorist said as he continued drawing.

When Lorist placed the charcoal in his hand down and brought up the torch to get a better look at his drawings, he told Reidy, "Even the mountain barbarians should be able to understand these simple drawings, right?"

Right after that, a loud knocking on the door cut their conversation short.

Reidy opened the door and saw a person wearing thick furs walk inside. After that person removed the furs, Lorist realized that it was that thick-lipped female barbarian.

Feeling the humiliation well up in his mind, Lorist looked at her with a cold gaze and asked, "Why have you come here?"

The thick-lipped barbarian woman smiled as she said, "I'm pregnant. The witch doctor said that it's your child..."

As if a bolt of lightning had struck him, Lorist began shivering all over. Reidy was completely flabbergasted by what he has just heard.

The barbarian woman continued, "My husband died last year in battle and now I even have your child. That means, I can get married to you and you won't have to be a slave anymore! You can join our tribe and I'll definitely treat you well..."

Before she finished, Lorist's figure swerved to reach for his sword that was placed above the fire pit before he pierced it straight through the thick-lipped barbarian woman's chest.

She lowered her head gradually and looked at the longsword that had passed through her torso before slowly turning her gaze back to Lorist with an expression filled with despair and agony as life slowly left her body. Her pale lips twitched as she struggled to say something with great difficulty. "W... Why..."

Lorist was still shivering as his grip on his sword loosened. He stepped backwards slowly before collapsing into a sitting position atop the fire pit and said, "You... you are the cause of the greatest... humiliation I have ever suffered in all my life..."

As the thick-lipped woman fell backwards, Reidy stepped forward to catch her, only for her to say one last thing before she breathed her dying breath. "My... my child..."

The atmosphere within the small wooden house was so chilling that it almost felt like time itself was frozen. After a long while, Lorist raised his head and said, "We'll leave immediately..."

Reidy looked at the corpse of the barbarian woman in his hands and said, "Mi-milord... What... What do we do about her..."

Sighing, Lorist said, "Bring her with us and find a place to bury her."

Atop a lone mound, Lorist dug through the frozen earth without regard to amount of internal energy it consumed to make a pit to bury the barbarian woman within. After that, he sat by the grave marker for a long while.

"Forget this matter. This has been a long nightmare for me as well," Lorist said as he finally stood up.

Reidy merely nodded.

"Let's go. We should be heading home," Lorist said, before he swung his hands to gain some momentum to ski down from the hill, with Reidy following behind. The two of them streaked through the snow-covered plains as quickly as lightning...

Setting Out

Hi guys, here's the third bonus chapter of the week by Tyler L. of the USA!

There will be another release coming in ten minutes so stay tuned!

From the depths of darkness came a voice that whispered, "My... my child..."

Started awake from sleep, Lorist sat straight up on his bed. He was relieved to find that he was in a familiar room. Oh, I've already returned to the dominion for a month or so and I'm here at Firmrock Castle... I'm no longer that pathetic, oppressed slave. Bu-but... why do I keep dreaming about the last words of that thick-lipped barbarian woman?

But the kid is not mine! Lorist denied with a fervent rage. He still recalled the days when the barbarian woman forced herself upon him. During that time, she also did it with two other barbarian men when she brought Lorist near the stream to bathe. There was no way that the child could so coincidentally be his, and her claim that it was his was based on the witch doctor's arbitrary reading.

It was as if there were two different people arguing within his mind. One of them maintained the view that the child was not his and that it wasn't wrong for him to kill her for leaving a mark of eternal shame on him that will last his whole life.

The other kept doubting himself. She's only a barbarian woman who had lost her husband, and without a child, she wouldn't have any status within the tribe when she gets old. No matter who she does it with or how she forced me to do it with her, she only did it to have a child for herself. What's wrong about that?! She only wanted a child for herself! I shouldn't have killed a poor widow like her! All she wanted was a child...

Leaning on the headboard of his bed, Lorist couldn't help but tremble while sweating profusely.

"Locke? What's wrong?" asked Telesti who was sleeping beside him.

"Nothing, I just had a nightmare," Lorist said as he lowered his head and gave Telesti a kiss on her forehead. "I'm going to start training my swordplay soon. You should get more sleep since you're pregnant right now. Take better care of your health, alright?"

"Okay..." Telesti mumbled before she turned and fell back into deep sleep.

Lorist made a bitter smile and thought, this must be my punishment. When Lorist returned to the dominion, he heard that when he was being assassinated by Blademaster Zarinan, the fainted Telesti was discovered to be pregnant one month later. At that time, Lorist's whereabouts was still unknown, causing her much pain and worry. Every moment she thought of Lorist, her face would be covered in tears. It was so bad for her that she almost had a miscarriage.

By the time Lorist returned to the dominion, the pregnant Telesti who was also emotionally sensitive was especially insistent on staying by Lorist's side, and he also treated her with utmost care and even agreed to her request that the child she was bearing would also inherit the name of her adopted family, Nico, instead of being registered as a member of the Norton Family.

At the same time, every time Lorist saw Telesti's bloated belly, he would recall the pregnant thick-lipped barbarian whom he killed and even dream about her dying words only to wake up shocked and sweaty.

Perhaps, I was wrong and shouldn't have killed that barbarian woman. While Lorist was a little regretful for his actions, he had felt incredible shame when he heard the woman say that she was pregnant with his child back then. With the desire of killing her being fostered throughout the time when she forcefully bedded him, Lorist only knew how to react by feeling anger from the pain and humiliation he suffered, causing him to take up his sword from the fire pit and pierce it into her chest without a second thought.

It was only when he had killed her that Lorist snapped out of his wild fervor and realized that he had just taken a human life, no, two human lives. And that child she bore could possibly be his. That's why he slumped into a blank stupor by the grave marker of that woman after he buried her.

I can't continue like this, Lorist thought as he rubbed his face. Removing his sleeping robe and changing into his normal attire, Lorist left his bedroom and took his sword with him before heading downstairs. I should do something to keep myself occupied and forget this matter as soon as possible. Since it has already happened, there's no point for me to continue wailing like this in regret. If I continue to have nightmares like this, it won't be surprising if I eventually lose my mind.

...

Back then, Lorist's journey home with Reidy was a rather smooth-sailing one. In fact, they actually bumped into a few guards who were looking for them. Upon seeing Lorist and Reidy returning safe and sound, those guards who had searched painstakingly for three months let out loud cheers of joy.

The ones who led the guards were Gold ranked knight Belnick and Els, who both welcomed Lorist and Reidy into the main tent with tears of joy streaming down their faces. After that, they informed Lorist about the situation of the family during his three months of absence.

Upon knowing that Lorist had suffered an assassination attempt by a Blademaster, as well as the injuries sufferd by Gold ranked knights Josk and Potterfang, the four Gold ranked knights, namely, Fiercetiger Loze, Freiyar, Malek and Belnick, headed to the assassination site immediately and began to search for Lorist and Reidy. When they realized that the two couldn't be located and had possibly fallen down to the river below, they had a meeting with Charade, Terman and the others and decided jointly to hide news of Lorist's disappearance from the three allied families. At the same time, they sent a battalion of 500 men to Maplewoods Bastide to ensure the safety of Irina and her son.

"Milord," Belnick said embarrassedly, "During the meetings, we also discussed that if something bad truly happened to you, we would let the young master inherit the position of the Norton Family head and give him authority over the family after he is raised until the age of 18..."

Lorist nodded and said, "It's alright, I can understand that. You guys have planned for this quite thoroughly. How are Josk and Potterfang doing?"

Belnick replied, "Knight Josk's injuries are rather light and they pose no restriction to him at the moment. A few days ago, he even said that he wanted to join the search for you. Knight Potterfang on the other hand is more badly injured and has to rest bedridden for at least two more months. Blademaster Zarinan had managed to make a deep cut from his left shoulder to his chest and Potterfang almost couldn't be saved. That fellow Fiercetiger Loze was incredibly pissed and kept saying that he wanted to go to Windbury City to capture the Second Prince to avenge you, but he was stopped from doing so by Knight Charade."

Els added, "At that time, Charade told Loze that our priority was to find you first and that revenge won't happen right away, managing to stop Loze from pursuing the matter temporarily. We have already been searching around the wildlands for three whole months and were just about to give up hope. Thankfully for the protection of War God Singwa, you returned to us safe and sound, milord."

Lorist suddenly recalled something important and asked, "What is the date today?"

Els replied, "It's the 19th day of the 2nd month of Year 1772 of the Common Grindian Calendar."

"Then was there a magical beast wave within our dominion during winter?" Lorist asked.

Belnick and Els laughed out and Els said, "Milord, are you still worried about the magical beast wave? It's already gone. During last winter, only a couple of magical bulls arrived at Hidebull Mound and even then, they were blocked from entering the dominion by the wall stretching all the way from Tortoise Hill. We mobilized the family forces and killed all the bulls in one go. However, I heard that recently, the number of magical wolves beneath the walls was increasing and the patrolling soldiers complained that the howls were too noisy for them to bear."

As the magical beast wave that had plagued the family had truly been exterminated, Lorist let out a breath of relief for the successful resolution of that huge problem. After he returned to the camp of the guards who were searching for him, he made his way back to the dominion after spending a night there.

When he arrived at the dominion, he received news about Telesti's pregnancy and judging by the time, the child should've been conceived during the 10th month of the previous year when he went to Bladedge Mountains to bring Telesti back to Firmrock Castle. After he heard that she almost had a miscarriage from her grief, Lorist hurriedly went to comfort her and had been stuck with her ever since. He was also constantly reminded of the barbarian woman he killed when he saw Telesti's belly and was haunted by the nightmares frequently.

...

During the meeting held a few days ago, Lorist discussed his experience of the assassination attempt by the Second Prince's Blademaster and expressed his condolences for the family knights and soldiers who had sacrificed themselves heroically. After receiving requests from some within the family to take revenge, Lorist appointed Loze as the head of three pike cavalry brigades and two heavy infantry brigades with Malek as his vice along with two carroballista brigades and the light cavalry scouts led by Yuriy to capture the Second Prince, effectively sending up to 24000 soldiers to Windbury City.

The next thing Lorist discussed during the meeting was the reinitiation of the development of Blackmud Marsh as well as the development of the dominion formerly belonging to Count Spenseid that was renamed the Salus Settlement. Within the next two years, he would prioritize settling down the commoners. If they were able to successfully develop the Felicitas Settlement and the Salus Settlement into the main food providers of the dominion, only then will the Norton Family have a stable footing on their path to prosperity.

Apart from that, another high priority project was the construction of the shipyard. So far, the intersection point between Bladedge Mountains and Blackmud Marsh, which was a shallow swamp, had been filled in and made into level ground. With the path heading to the highlands near Blackmud Marsh already available, the next step was to expand the area of the highlands by carrying out land reclamation on the shallower areas by the coast. It was estimated that the reclaimed land would be enough for a small port for ships to stop within as soon as next year.

Lorist requested Old Man Balk to begin the construction of the shipyard right away alongside the construction of the port instead of delaying it until the port to be completed so that they could learn to build smaller ships in the meantime. He hoped that the Norton Family would be able to set sail on the seas as soon as possible that way.

As for Gold ranked knight Freiyar, he was tasked by Lorist to handle the formation of the navy and said that he would rather having the trained soldiers wait for the completion of the ships than beginning training only after the ships were completed. If they begin training after the shipyard's completion, that would be a little too late. Lorist believed that he had to first have a batch of navy marines ready so that they could set sail right away.

...

After Lorist trained for an hour or so, he saw Howard waiting outside the gate and asked curiously, "Weren't you taking care of your father? Why have you come back here?"

Howard said, "Father said that I'm your attendant, milord, and I have to be by your side at all times. His injuries will recover completely in another month and he can already make some slight movements, so he won't need me to take care of him all the time anymore."

Lorist agreed with that assessment as he had visited Potterfang two days ago and saw that he was indeed recovering well.

After pondering for a while, he asked Howard, "How many days has it been since Fiercetiger Loze and Malek left?"

"They left two days ago and will arrive at the Hendliff Suspension Bridge in another six days. From there, they will launch their attack on Winston Province and will be able to reach Windbury City in roughly 15 days." Howard understood the geography of the land well and was quite accurate at estimating the traveling speed of the family forces.

After stroking his chin in thought, Lorist decided that he would leave the pregnant Telesti alone for now and said, "Howard, after I have lunch with Telesti later, you'll act like you've received an urgent letter sent by Baron Shazin and Baron Felim that calls for my presence at Gildusk City to meet up with them to discuss the deployment of soldiers to the capital, understand?"

Stunned, Howard retreated warily and asked, "Milord, what are you planning?"

"Nothing, really. I only want some time for myself. Dumb child, just listen to what I say and I will bring you with me to the royal capital of Windbury City for a trip. Otherwise, the two of us will be staying here and won't be able to go anywhere else," Lorist rebuked.

After deliberating for a while, Howard agreed and said, "Then you have to promise me that you won't leave me behind. I also want to go there with you to get to know the place."

...

While Telesti didn't suspect Howard's lie at all, she cried out sadly at the thought of Lorist leaving her for somewhere far away. Lorist tried hard to console her for days and said, "My dear, even if you don't care about your health, you have to think about the little Nico that's in your belly. Don't worry, I'm not going to war or anything, I'm just going to meet those two idiot barons. It's not dangerous at all and I'll return quickly. At most, it will take up to 20 days or a month."

Howard clicked his tongue and thought, ah, milord's lying again... It will take at least one month or more for our trip to Windbury City...

After expending a lot of effort to finally calm Telesti down, Lorist sighed as he exited the door and said, "Howard, you should remember this well. The more intelligent a woman is, the more troublesome she will be, especially when she's pregnant when she will be more emotionally sensitive than usual. You should learn from my example and not get in a relationship with a female scholar in the future..."

Howard merely looked at Lorist with a distasteful expression.

Els, Patt and Reidy had long received word of Lorist's plan to leave and had already prepared the guard brigade to accompany him.

Lorist said, "Patt, bring a few guards with you to take Blademaster Zarinan's body with us. Fiercetiger Loze and Malek forgot to bring it with them when they left a few days ago. We will bring this cursed old man's body to Windbury City and let everyone know that the Blademaster sent by the Second Prince was killed by our family forces. With the corpse of the Blademaster, let it be known that others who side with the Second Prince and has hostile intentions towards the Norton Family will end up like the Blademaster!"

"Long live the Nortons!" cheered the guards after hearing Lorist's speech.

Howard thought as he cheered, great, milord has also come up with a good excuse to head to Windbury City...