Faced with the conditions set forth by Perfikot, a few of the Ancestor Warriors from the Wild Mane Tribe quietly discussed in their native language. Finally, Hutton spoke up and said, "Respected Lord, we cannot make this decision. We need to report back to the Chieftain, and the entire tribe will decide together."
From what Perfikot said, the conditions weren’t excessive. To the Wild Mane Tribe, it was no different than submitting to any other powerful tribe.
However, the white people had such a bad reputation that no one dared to guarantee that once the Wild Mane Tribe submitted, Perfikot would fulfill those promised conditions.
After all, white people were capable of all sorts of evils. They spoke well, but things like intending to eliminate others were not unheard of.
Moreover, it is always better to have freedom than to submit to others.
But the people of the Wild Mane Tribe also knew that maintaining their freedom was unrealistic given Perfikot’s words.
They had a clear understanding of their tribe’s combat strength, knowing they were not strong in battle.
Perfikot looked at the people of the Wild Mane Tribe before her, her sharp gaze seemed to see through them all.
When Hutton and the others were on pins and needles, she finally said, "Alright, since you are the first native tribe I’ve encountered, I can give you some favors. Go back and think it over, also relay this message to more people. I give you three days, whether to submit or be destroyed, I await your answer."
After speaking, Perfikot looked at John who brought them in and said, "Gather your banner troop, escort them back, and only return after delivering them to their tribe."
"Yes, Count," John bowed to Perfikot and then prepared to lead Hutton and the others out.
Hutton and the others didn’t dare to linger, but at this moment, Hutton suddenly had a flash of inspiration and noticed Perfikot’s gaze lingering on the mane he wore. So, he thought for a moment and then removed the mane from his body to give to Perfikot as a gift.
Perfikot raised an eyebrow at this, nodding slightly, and said, "Interesting, since you’ve given me a gift, I’ll give you one in return."
As she said this, Perfikot casually grabbed a metal ingot placed nearby, then directly used alchemy to form it in her hand into a very exquisite single-handed battle axe. She even had the finesse to intricately carve patterns and add different colored decorations to the axe head.
And all this took her only a few minutes to create a weapon that could be considered a work of art from any angle.
She then threw this axe to Hutton as a return gift for the mane he gave her.
Hutton gripped the battle axe, feeling its weight, and with a few gentle swings, his face showed a mixture of surprise and delight.
He had never used such a handy battle axe, nor had he ever seen such a finely crafted weapon.
This gesture from Perfikot inadvertently left a very good impression on them.
Subsequently, the people of the Wild Mane Tribe bowed again to Perfikot before leaving her laboratory.
However, it was clear that their attitude had become much friendlier, and it was obvious that the axe held a lot of persuasive power and attraction to them.
After leaving the laboratory, John asked the people of the Wild Mane Tribe to wait for a moment while he went to assemble his banner troop.
Soon, a fully armed troop of White Bear Knights appeared before Hutton and others.
Seeing the troop in front of them clad in iron armor, equipped with sharp swords and various weapons, Hutton and others, who had relaxed because of Perfikot’s friendly attitude, suddenly became tense again.
They could naturally tell that this fully armed troop was akin to the Ancestor Warriors, yet their superior equipment was something the Ancestor Warriors couldn’t possess.
Undoubtedly, this was a show of force by the other party.
Hutton couldn’t help but evaluate in his mind how strong they actually were given the fine equipment the other side had.
The result was depressing, as in Hutton’s view, this fully armed troop could easily defeat all the Ancestor Warriors of the Wild Mane Tribe.
And evidently, this wasn’t the only troop on the other side.
One of the Ancestor Warriors beside Hutton couldn’t help but ask John in broken Victory language, "How many warriors like you do you have?"
John couldn’t understand with the broken language, so he looked to Hutton for an explanation.
Hutton quickly asked, then explained to John, "He wants to know how many warriors like you there are."
Hearing the question, John paused, then thought for a moment and said, "If you’re asking how many warriors like me are on the Count’s territory, there are over a hundred.
The Empire is different from you. A team of about ten people like us is called a banner troop, and multiple banner troops together are referred to as a Knight Order.
The Count currently has only the White Bear Knight Order, with a total of around one hundred and twenty people, but if needed, she can call up ten times the number of knights from the homeland at any time.
In the Empire, there are about fifty to sixty thousand knights registered, though they’re mostly stationed on the Empire’s homeland and various colonies, making it hard to deploy them all.
Typically, the Empire would deploy about three to five thousand knights in a war, which is considered the limit."
This wasn’t confidential information; even ordinary people in the Empire could know this, with just a little inquiry.
In fact, in the past, for the nobles, the more knights one had was a direct measure of a noble’s strength, thus for the Empire, revealing the number of knights was a means of showcasing strength.
So John didn’t see any issue in disclosing this information.
Upon hearing the numbers John provided, Hutton and others turned pale, following John and the others off Eagle’s Beak Cliff in a daze, only coming back to their senses after being hit by the cold wind outside the camp and called by their waiting companions.
They didn’t have the energy to explain much to their waiting companions, only briefly informing them of the situation before heading off toward the tribe with the White Bear Knights following them.
At this moment, Hutton and the others weren’t in the mood to consider whether these White Bear Knights following them would expose the location of the Wild Mane Tribe.
All they wanted was to hurry back and inform the people in the tribe about what had happened. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N()velFire.net