And so it happened. As soon as the chieftain saw how pitiful creatures in armor attacked his soldiers and killed them, he forgot about the village. Drawing attention to himself with shouts, the main goblin forced the family to attack a new target. This was a fatal mistake. As soon as the small creatures moved away from the walls, they were attacked by a crowd of vampires.
The feeding process was quick; each vampire had only two goblins, but several liters of blood at once were much better than a liter per week. This amount was indeed necessary for a vampire to sustain itself. Semen genuinely tried his best, always exceeding minimal norms. Sometimes, he ensured up to two liters per week for each villager, but even this paled in comparison to approximately five liters consumed in ten minutes per brother that night.
The frightened peasants standing on the walls initially didn't even understand why the goblins started shrieking and retreating. The night had just begun, and many had already perished in the village. Moreover, the strongest group of men was working at the quarry during the attack. No one in Peski hoped to survive this night.
The attack on those storming the warehouses was simply unheard; the goblins were making too much noise. When the horde of goblins suddenly ran off into the night, it became clear that something unusual was happening. In the darkness of the night, a battle was clearly underway, but it was strange. There were no shouts from commanders, no flashes of magical spells, no torches.
Only the goblins were screaming in terror, killed by an unknown enemy. Then, a figure in armor emerged from the darkness and quietly knocked on the village gates. The wary peasants looking down at him didn't even flinch. The warrior removed his helmet and turned out to be Knight Blood, cheerfully looking at them.
"Open the gates!"
The Baron arrived at noon. Not only did he not hesitate to use horses, but he also took only ten soldiers as an escort. The reason for such heroism became clear almost immediately.
"Pleshina was also attacked last night."
Alex nodded and continued watching the goblins' bodies burn. Despite the clear day, he had to stay and observe the disposal of the "evidence." Fortunately, none of the peasants expressed surprise at the absence of blood in the bodies of the fallen enemies.
"But the baron is brave indeed, even considering that the second goblin family also attacked, there was still a minimum chance of encountering them, and here he is with a dozen soldiers... Well done."
"Pleshina repelled the attack?"
"Naturally."
Asking this was unnecessary, but the conversation had to be maintained somehow. Pleshina was a village on the other side of the road and was quite close to the mountains. There was a stone quarry, and the village was surrounded not by a measly palisade or wooden wall but had a full-fledged stone fortification, three meters high with towers and even a moat.
The goblins couldn't take the village by storm, even with the clan's forces, and considering that Pleshina had its own mage and no forests around for stealthy approaches and attacks... In short, the village had stood for centuries, and the Savoyardi barons could rest assured about its inhabitants.
Finally, the Baron asked the question for which he had come here.
"Who helped Peski defend themselves?"
The question was not rhetorical. It was again about local rules. If Sir Alex Blood were a vassal of Baron Savoyardi, there would be no question. As a faithful servant, he should have come to help, and the suzerain didn't even have to thank him. But the legal status of the newly minted knight hung in the air and remained unclear.
Therefore, if this almost independent knight helped defend a village on the baron's lands, a village that the baron was supposed to protect, then the situation was quite different. First and foremost, it was an insult. Not direct, but this act was a public statement to the world that the lord of the local lands was so insignificant that he couldn't fulfill his duties, and someone else had to do it instead.
Secondly, if Mr. Alex were equal to or higher than the baron in title, everything would be fine, and Savoyardi would only need to pay for the work. However, being lower in title, he could turn to the suzerain of the landowner and, on the grounds that the lord could not fulfill his direct duties to protect, demand a change of power and even offer his candidacy.
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