Old Leicht slowly woke up, his brows no longer twisted in pain, and he sat up immediately.
He stared at his hands incredulously, as if still immersed in this miracle.
"I...it’s hard to say... maybe it was a silhouette..."
The usually eccentric farmer spoke with astonishment and confusion.
"Congratulations, you’re recovered."
"Miss Divination, was it you who helped me?"
"Me? I don’t have such skills," Rowena quipped with a raise of her eyebrow, "Perhaps your prayers were heard by a righteous god."
Meanwhile, Ethan sneezed in the kitchen.
He hadn’t eaten all day, and was humming a tune, preparing a simple hard bread with sour cream meal.
A horn sounded deep in the night; Baron Gledin was urgently gathering the townspeople. Whenever the town faced a crisis, the baron family would call everyone together, and the residents stopped their tasks to respond.
Soon, the central square of the town was filled with people, including those who had just recovered from the scarlet plague. The people looked solemn, for today was a day of miraculous recovery, but it also meant something significant was about to happen.
It was a pre-war mobilization; as was customary, Baron Gledin spoke of Ximu Town’s glorious past.
Ethan stood in the last row of the crowd, holding hard bread and sour cream.
Soon, Rowena approached, naturally extending her hand, "Meeting means sharing half."
She had been busy all day and hadn’t gotten around to eating either.
Encouraged by Baron Gledin, the people of Ximu Town, who witnessed the miracle, united like never before. More importantly, they had long heard of Wolf Head Castle’s notorious deeds. It was a group of greedy bandits, and they couldn’t let these people take away their homeland!
Pitchforks and axes would become weapons to help them fend off external enemies, and the blacksmith boldly stepped forward, willing to supply the town with weapons from his shop.
The town rallied together to confront the threat, and they learned a critical piece of information.
The leader was a brown egg; the archers should target him first!
Simultaneously, in front of Wolf Head Castle’s camp, the brown egg was conducting a similar pre-war speech, but compared to Baron Gledin’s rally, this felt more like a victory declaration, with frequent references to the spoils distribution after capturing Ximu Town.
"There is ample food and resources there, and of course, the beautiful girls!"
The brown egg raised a wine bottle over his head, and the bandits responded eagerly, impatient to taste the fruits of victory.
"This is a battle that won’t require any great effort. I’ve received reliable news: a plague swept through the town, and striking now, those people have no power to resist at all, the only potential trouble being Baron Gledin’s guards, but for battle-hardened us, they pose no threat!"
A round of cheers erupted.
The brown egg watched the figures moving in the torchlight, feeling a bit elated.
Were it not for Lady Witch bringing this news, he wouldn’t dare to attack Ximu Town. Even if they breached the town’s defenses, it would be a lose-lose situation, but now, those people were sick.
The spy he planted in the town guild recently returned to Wolf Head Castle, bringing back great news—Lady Witch hadn’t lied; those people had contracted some kind of blood-coughing disease, and many had been sent to the hospital to die. Without them lifting a finger, the town residents were already on the verge of death.
Recent rumors made him realize one thing, "The Empire is already finished; they have no strength to manage the border chaos!"
Now, he needed to add the final weight to this impending victory.
With a command from the brown egg, fifteen children with their heads covered in burlap sacks were escorted out like goods, their hands and feet bound with chains, faint sobbing coming from under the sacks.
This honorable duty was entrusted to his most trusted lieutenant.
A strategic map marked with the location was handed to the lieutenant, who led a squad of ten men toward the marked direction before dawn.
Brown egg watched the team leave Wolf Head Castle and vanish into the depths of the night; victory was almost within grasp!
They planned to launch an attack at midnight the next day, and before that, he could have a small drink.
Before dawn, the lieutenant-led squad of ten men arrived at the specified location.
It was a terrace in deep mountains, and upon reaching the designated spot, he was stunned by the large array painted on the ground with fresh blood, filled with cryptic texts.
It was clearly an Evil God’s ritual.
The children seemed to sense their fate, and their cries grew louder.
No one paid attention to the children’s cries; they were born from women they seized, and after selection, only useless ones remained.
Strong children were picked out to learn archery and hone fighting techniques from an early age, living a beast-like life according to the Hunting Goddess’s teachings; the pretty ones were also selected by others, cleaned up, and taken home to be raised.
As for the neglected children, they were seen as useless waste left to fend for themselves.
Most of these children did not live past ten, but now, they had another use.
The 15 pure souls referred to as children who had not yet come of age, with a list outlining detailed steps for the summoning ritual.
The lieutenant spread the list on a stone and began reading carefully.
But soon, he was interrupted by a subordinate who crept over silently, crouching low and pointing into the distance, "Boss, look over there!"
The lieutenant looked into the distance and immediately was captivated by a golden large bird; he had never seen such a beautiful creature. The golden bird seemed to notice them too, observing them from afar.
Or more accurately, it was watching the children with their heads covered in burlap sacks.
I’ve got to find a way to capture it back to Wolf Head Castle!
The lieutenant stared greedily at the magical creature in the distance.
"Miss Keroy, it’s those people!"
A female voice from the forest made the lieutenant feel horrified, and more alarming was the golden bird, after receiving the order, screeched, emitting dazzling light and spread its wings, rising into the sky.
The bandits looked up but could not open their eyes at all.
The giant shadow above their heads had turned into a sun.
In the chaos, they heard the voice hidden in the shadows again.
She commanded the sun, "Peck them!"