Chapter 763: Chapter 58 Part-time_4 Chapter 763: Chapter 58 Part-time_4 “`
Asko heard a scream, and then he was surrounded by a group of women.
The women and children asked about the news with a flurry of questions:
“What about my father?”
“How are the men doing?”
“Why is the village on fire?”
Asko was so annoyed by the noise that he shouted, “Quiet down!”
No one paid him any attention.
Determined, Asko lightly spurred the flank of his horse, squeezed through the crowd, and after dropping the words “Pack up, and wait for orders to change the camp,” he hurried off.
On the other end of the forest, the battle did not last long.
The bows, fast horses, and scimitars upon which the Terdun people relied could not show their strength in the forest, where the melee depended on numbers and a tenacious spirit.
The overzealous thirty or so light cavalry were quickly annihilated, and the following seventy or more cavalry were repelled by the militia.
“Take away all the horses that can still walk! And take away the living Herders! Leave the corpses,” Major Ronald, leaning on a javelin, commanded the Wolf Town militia to clean up the battlefield.
“What about the horse corpses?” someone asked.
“Take away all the meat that you can take, leave the rest here.” Major Ronald urged, “Hurry up! We need to leave quickly!”
Second Lieutenant Adam, his clothes torn to shreds, unwound his headband and rolled his skirt up to his waist, exposing his thighs. This text is hosted at n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
He muttered curses as he butchered the horse corpses with an ax: “Yeah, hurry up. If we don’t drive off the Herders quickly, how are we ever going to go back to basket-weaving?”
The bracing Terdun people, who had been so excited that they trembled earlier, would surely have mixed feelings if they saw that the “barefoot woman” was actually a Paratu man cursing like a sailor.
Fortunately for them, they didn’t have to see it, because most of them were dead.
Apel walked past Adam and scolded in a low voice, “Speak less nonsense.”
Adam huffed and shut his mouth.
The three officers formerly stationed at the garrison led more than two hundred Wolf Town militiamen to quickly clean the battlefield.
Dozens of Terdun people were stripped naked and lay on the ground; their robes, boots, scimitars, and bows were all reused.
“Should I cut off the ears?” Apel asked Ronald.
Ronald chuckled and shook his head, “No one’s giving us credit for it now.”
“Cut them!” Adam fumed, “One ear reduces one hundred labor hours, isn’t that fair? You can’t let us work for nothing, right?”
Ignoring Adam, Apel continued, “Where are the wounded to be taken?”
“To the women and children’s camp.”
Upon hearing the term “women and children’s camp,” a militiaman tentatively asked, “Sir, when can we be reunited with our wives and children?”
The other militiamen pricked up their ears too.
“As long as the Herd barbarians haven’t left Iron Peak County,” Ronald explained with a smile, “we cannot join the camps. Rest assured, as long as the men’s camp is not exterminated, the women and children’s camp is safe, and so are your wives, children, and parents.”
The militiamen’s faces showed disappointment.
Adam, leaning on his ax, couldn’t bear to see it and rebuked loudly, “If we let you reunite with your wives and children, would you motherfuckers still have the mind to fight? Wouldn’t you all be busy pacifying children and sleeping with your wives? You would be comfortable, but as soon as the barbarians come, you’d all be ready to have your throats slit, right?
This is war! A matter of life and death! What the fuck do you think it is, a picnic? Until the barbarians leave, whoever dares to sneak into the women and children’s camp, I’ll strangle you in front of your wives and children! Don’t believe me? Just try it!”
The Wolf Town militiamen fell silent.
“Officer!” someone shouted from afar, “We have found a survivor! He can speak our language!”
Major Ronald perked up and walked over briskly.
An old Herder sat under a tree holding a string of rose prayer beads, resting with his eyes closed. The man’s face was deeply lined, indicating he was of advanced age.
The recent battle hadn’t reached him because he had dismounted well before he could be enclosed.
Major Ronald eyed the old Herder, “Can you speak the common tongue?”
“Is that what you call it?” the old Herder slowly opened his eyes and said stiffly, “In my youth, we called it the Empire’s tongue.”
“Wow, he really can speak it,” Second Lieutenant Adam marveled, “Where did you learn it?”
“I didn’t learn it, I just naturally know how to speak it.”
“The Herders call me ‘the Horse without a Tail’ — Baldy. The Paratu people call me…” The old Herder smiled cryptically, “Father Saul.”