Perhaps it was the presence of a strong wizard in the city that had deterred the numerous bands that had been prowling the roads of the duchy that fall from uniting and storming Savoyardi. As Constantine had rightly noted, the city's warehouses were overflowing with valuable cargoes, from the spoils of battle to two tons of lunar silver, for which any king would have given his left arm and thought it was cheap.
The vampires, on the other hand, were not concerned with the problems of the locals. As usual in these parts, after the cold weather had set in, the clouds disappeared from the sky. None at all. And though the days were already short, they were clear. And therefore deadly for the small population of bloodsuckers.
The number of prisoners, after the battle, exceeded two hundred people, among whom was the archmage. Accommodating such a large number of prisoners and keeping them with guards became a huge headache. When making plans to capture them, no one had somehow thought that people were more than just tasty blood.
When the whole pile was brought to the village, all that was left to do was scratch their heads and curse themselves for their greed. Fortunately, they were ordinary workers, and they were simply placed in tents a kilometer away from the village, on the royal side of the river, around, at some distance from this camp, dug dug dugouts, and all winter and fall suffered with guards and feeding, receiving small bonuses in the form of human blood.
The village itself was completely finished before the cold weather set in, or rather its above-ground part. All through the late very and winter the underground work continued. Olga could be content, her Napoleonic plans had been fully realized. The main building, which rose three stories above the surface of the ground, had as many as six more underground.
Each house, except for the basement, also had an underground floor and all these underground floors were connected by a network of tunnels. A separate tunnel led to the other side of the river, where a "subway station" was being built subway. That was how, with the light hand of one of the children, everyone began to call the huge space in the granite, which with the help of magic was "hollowed out" there. The ceiling was twenty meters high, and the area was large enough to easily accommodate all the vampires. On the plans, it was all marked as a "sanctuary".
The granite blocks seized during the construction of the underground part of the village were used to build the castle. Olga swore that the castle would be ready by mid-summer. It was a small castle by local standards. But its strength was not in its size.
The army that invaded the kingdom had the task of capturing the capital of the duchy. And then had to hold the city under siege for a long time against the forces of the royal army. The city of Kas was poorly fortified, so originally among the cargo, there were various protective artifacts. And some of them went to the vampires. The rest were abandoned on the passes by the Orodians themselves. Naturally, the castle was not able to repel the attack of a real army, but it could hold back almost any army for a day. The vampires were not going to resist the whole world and at the first symptoms of danger they were going to simply disappear into the forests. Where, by the way, a luxurious reserve base was planned, the construction of which was planned for summer and fall. The route in case of danger was simple - all to the castle, from there to the shelter, and then to the forests.
In the tower already built for the castle Alex received the delegation of frowning Konstantin and embarrassed headman. Snow was still lying in the forests, but the warm breeze and plus temperature at night guaranteed that soon it would disappear too. The roads had been passable for a couple of weeks now, and the vampires had taken advantage of that a few days ago, visiting a neighboring village in a fairly large delegation for a spring festival. And here is the return visit.
- Let's start at the beginning. What happened? Has your daughter been raped, my good man?
- That's right, Your Grace, raped.
- It's unfortunate, but what do you want me to do?
- To punish the villain and make him accountable. The girl is spoiled now. Who'll take her!
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