"Baron's Treasury was a small room, but it was filled to the brim with gems and gold. We also found a few artifacts, not very powerful. Additionally, we discovered an underground prison beneath his castle, filled with slaves from a bunch of different races." Walking through the destroyed town, I listened to Sylvanas' report.
I looked around and saw houses destroyed, blood everywhere, along with human corpses. But something made me angry. Most of the human corpses had singular wounds, indicating that knights and rangers aimed to kill them as quickly and painlessly as possible. It was understandable to a point since we planned to ambush them, so we needed to be as sneaky as possible. However, we couldn't actually follow the plan since Sylianner just rained fireballs on the humans as soon as we entered the town, blowing our cover. Even when I said "no mercy," our soldiers showed mercy that the humans never gave us.
"In our raid, I wasn't able to spot any priests. What happened to them?" I asked Sylvanas since we never encountered any priests in our raid.
"They tried to flee via a secret passage that was inside their church, but they couldn't make it far since they encountered our scouts that killed them on sight."
What a pity since I wanted to torture those priests until they cursed their god. Maybe another time.
"Could the gems and gold in Baron's treasure bring us any benefits?" I asked her, not wanting to dwell on the priests.
"If we use it for the city, the amount of gold and gems won't make a difference, but we can use it to support Blood Rangers and Shadow Scouts expenses for a few decades."
"Hmm."
While discussing what to do with Baron's treasure, we arrived in front of the Baron's castle. Looking at its gates, I saw a fat man and a woman hanging upside down, still alive and without clothes. It was an utterly disgusting sight to see those things naked.
"They are?"
"Human Baron and his wife, thanks to Alleria sending her scouts to the human castle beforehand, we captured them while they were escaping through a secret passage. I originally wanted to kill them, but that goblin-looking fat man actually didn't show any fear. He just threw insults at me, so I had him stripped naked and hanged, and I waited for you to wake up to kill him since I know your vast imagination in torture," Sylvanas said with a smirk, clearly enjoying the humiliation she gave to the human and the pain he will be in later.
"He is fat like his predecessor. Does his lineage have any curses?" Looking at the human baron, I asked Sylvanas since the previous ruler of this territory or the one killed before was a fat human too.
"No, but I'm sure after you're done with him, he will become all bones, hehe," Sylvanas had a dark smile on her face.
"You've changed, Sylvanas," bringing her closer. I put my hand around her shoulder and embraced her. "But in a good way, I like it."
"Hmmm," she happily hummed as she snuggled closer to me.
***
Inside the castle study, I looked through the documents of the human baron. Most of them were irrelevant and useless, except for one. It was an agreement between him and the duke, an alliance that involved the human baron sending a certain amount of gold every month in exchange for the human duke not breaking the arrangement.
"Find the human responsible for transporting and make sure that he continues to deliver the necessary gold." I handed the document to Sylvanas. If the payments were to suddenly cease without explanation, the human duke would become suspicious and send someone here.
Sylvanas took the document and whistled as her hawk entered the room through the window. She tossed the document in the air and the hawk caught it before leaving through the window.
"Let's go to the dungeon."
***
Entering the dungeon beneath the castle, this place was well kept. It still looked like a prison, but it was probably cleaned and maintained.
I looked at the creatures inside the cells. There were many other races: dwarfs, gnomes, beastkin, orcs, trolls, ogres, and, surprisingly, a mermaid. They all had a sluggish look on their faces and collars on their necks.
"The human was constantly drugging them to prevent them from escaping, and this collar," Sylvanas showed me a collar that slaves had on them.
"It's a magical tool; it's really nasty but useful and really easy to make. It consumes the slaves' stamina and magic power to strengthen itself, essentially making them," she pointed to the slaves in the cells, "both prisoners and jailers."
"Do any of them possess a special identity?"
"Only the mermaid; she is nobility, not high in hierarchy but still noble. As for the others, they are either just adventurers that the baron lures here by making a request, then captures them, or using the same tactic with slight differences, using human adventurers to capture other races," Sylvanas said as I reached towards the mermaid and grabbed her by the collar as I lifted her up.
I looked into her eyes; they were empty, without any light. She also had some tattoos on her arms, indicating her status in the mermaid race.
[IMAGE]
"When the baron first captured this mermaid, she refused to turn her tail into legs, which angered the human baron. He just pumped her full of drugs and made mages cast spells until her mind was destroyed. But from the looks of it, she still retained some of her consciousness enough to not give in and transform her tail," Sylvanas said before I could ask why she was like that.
"Is it possible to save her?" I wanted to save her, not out of kindness in my heart, but to use her as a bridge to possibly subject mermaids. If not, I could be their ally for now. Once I am done with this continent, I need to sail to other continents to conquer them. Mermaids could be pretty useful in the open sea and naval battles if we encounter any.
"It will take some time, but we can save her mind," Sylvanas said as I tossed the mermaid back into the cell.
"It's not urgent. My plans for her are in the long run."
Lifting my hand, I beckoned one of the knights who was guarding the dungeons.
"My prince."
"Tell Alleria to send some of her scouts that specialize in interrogation to interrogate those slaves to find out if they have any valuable information that could aid us. If they don't have any, kill them."
"But my prince, they are innocent beings who did nothing wrong. They were captured and tortured for being who they are. Killing them like this..."
This era's elves' softness and kindness were getting on my nerves. When I was an elven guardian, they were far crueler than any other race. They would raid other races' homes just for sport, then they would build a tree from their corpses just to burn it and dance around it, treating the massacre they made as a festival.
Grabbing his throat, I lifted him up as I looked into his eyes.
"You will do as I say," I said coldly with my usual emotionless voice as I choked him a little, looking into my red eyes that had no light in them. He shuddered in fear to the point that his mouth began to foam and he wet himself. I let him go as he fell to the ground while Sylvanas waved to another knight who was also there to guard the dungeons.
"My apologies, my prince," the knight hurriedly lifted the other knight and left the dungeon.
"Mirwa, you shouldn't treat him like that. It's in our nature; we can't help it," Sylvanas slowly rubbed her face against my chest through my robe.
Since the raid was over, I was wearing my robe, and my armor was heavily damaged, but it didn't matter since it was enchanted to repair itself over time.
"It's because of our nature that we are facing a danger of extinction, but it doesn't matter." Waving my hand, I dismissed the matter.
"Tell me, does any of them other than the mermaid have any worth?" I asked Sylvanas as we continued to walk through the cells.
"Actually, yes, now that you mention it, I remember that the human baron had three mines - one gold mine and two iron mines - located half a day away from this town."
Then Sylvanas led me to a cell with a female minotaur in it. "The human captured this female minotaur to use her as a milk cow at first," she explained. It's pretty disgusting, but what can you expect from a human.
[IMAGE]
Looks like he was blinded by greed and lust. Drinking minotaur milk is no different than cow milk, unless they are pregnant. That's when they produce special milk that enhances strength. But I don't see any male minotaurs, and humans are not compatible with minotaurs.
"Then he changed his mind and did something utterly stupid and reckless. He made this minotaur a slave master for the slaves he used in the mines." Hearing what Sylvanas said left even me astonished. Capturing a minotaur to satisfy your perverted tendencies and then letting her be in charge of your manpower for your main source of income is something that not even an empty cave for brains orcs would do.
"If she were to supervise the slaves, why is she in this condition?" I asked because Minotaur, like the rest of the slaves, had a sluggish look on her face and blank eyes. Additionally, she was also chained.
"Because she tried to lead a rebellion but failed, thus leaving her in this state after they tortured her."
"Sylvanas, take a few rangers with you and inspect the condition of the mines. See if we can continue to mine or if the resources inside are too few for us to even be bothered by it."
I looked at the cell. Using the Minotaur's resentment towards humans, I could control her. Just like the human baron, I could make her a slave master, since she has experience as a slave master. Of course, there will be a few elves watching her, and instead of slaves in the cells, I will give her human children to do as she pleases.
Those human children will be slaves to elves, and when they breed. Their offspring will be born as slaves, and in a few generations, they will be nothing but slaves to elves.
I will also give the Minotaur this castle with human servants, by giving her a life of luxury from before when she was nothing but a slave whose initial purpose was to satisfy humans' perverted desires. I will probably earn her loyalty to some extent, enough for her to do her work. I will not waste elves' strength and time when I can use humans.