With the death of Commander Eric, Clyde achieved an interim victory. After he killed Eric, Clyde directly looted Eric’s base camp without scruples as if he were a player picking up equipment after finishing off a BOSS.
Cromwell Principality belonged to a comparatively prosperous principality, so Clyde was able to collect a large number of exquisite gold ornaments within this command tent. From the workmanship, it could be guessed that these ornaments were expensive. However, when Eric had come to fight this war, other than these gold ornaments, he hadn’t brought any other valuable treasures. Thus, Clyde could only collect those trinkets and some sealed good wines, nothing more. After all, Eric wasn’t quite that hedonistic.
Clyde had no intentions to sell these gold ornaments for money. He had many female companions around him, so he could just give them these as presents, thanking them for their contributions towards Steinbeck Fief. There was nothing to be embarrassed about. This time, he just happened to give the things he looted from Eric to those girls. He scratched the back of his head while blushing. Okay, perhaps it was a bit like presenting Buddha with flowers given by another.
After plundering the tent, Clyde turned around and entered the rear tent. This was the banquet site where Eric and those high-ranking military officers had indulged in debauchery before. Now, all those senior officials had disappeared from here, leaving just leftovers on the tables as well as a few broken wine bottles that had been abandoned in their haste. Apart from this, those beautiful maids were also still here. They had nowhere else to go, and their entire bodies were in bare states with both hands shackled behind their backs while they kneeled on the ground. They also had metal collars around their necks. Iron chain connected to these collars with the other ends tied to the legs of a table, allowing them no path for escape.
The aristocrats of “Clark Alliance”’s member nations were all old gentlemen who knew how to play with slaves due to great experience. Each one was more formidable than the other. In fact, few in this world could claim to match their skill. Although Eric had left midway, these beautiful maid-servants had been offered no way to escape. Their elastic and ample snow-white bodies had magic brands that symbolized their slave statuses. With this brand on them, they basically couldn’t obtain regular statuses in any nation of “Clark Alliance.” They only had the fate of having their masters changed nonstop.
After the maids saw Clyde wore a mercenary armband, they were so scared that they shivered. In their impressions, the image of a mercenary was very bad. They were a bunch who would do basically anything for money. Clyde was too lazy to explain himself. Considering these maids’ beautiful faces, he gently swung his heavy sword, and the iron chains connected to their collars were cut off. With a few flicks of his hand he also carefully broke through the shackles binding their hands.
“Eric is already dead. You all are free.”
“What’s wrong? Don’t believe my words? That fellow’s corpse is still lying outside. Merely, it is split into two halves, and you all might not recognize it.”
“No, that can’t be. Lord mercenary, we don’t have anywhere to go! Can you… we can do anything.”
The maids’ face didn’t show any traces of happiness. Freedom was already an extravagant hope for them. Even if Eric had already died, their slave status would still be unchanged. According to the rules of Clark Alliance, if a slave had the same slave master for over three years, then the slave would have the chance to apply for redeeming oneself. However, once the master was changed, this count would restart once more. Most slave masters had absolutely no intention to give slaves any chance to redeem themselves. They would exchange slaves just before the deadline. Therefore, as time passed, the slaves would gradually give up any desires for freedom.
Thinking of this, many maids guarded the collars around their necks with their hands. Seemingly, it was their only support. With a collar around their necks, they would still appear to have a master. It was dangerous without a collar as anyone could bully ownerless slaves. Facing those pleading expressions of these maids, Clyde hesitated for a moment but was unable to bear their misery and decided to help them.
If he didn’t help them, these maids who had become ownerless after Eric’s death might be divided by those high-ranking military officers under Eric if they were lucky. However, if they were unlucky, then they might be divided by the soldiers or those mercenaries, and they would have a cycle of tragedy. Although Clyde was still disguised as a mercenary, the maids could still see that this man had at least some aspects of a respectable demeanor and pinned all their hopes on him.
“Forget it. I will take you all with me, but you all must listen to me. After leaving this place, I will arrange a place for you all.”
“Lord mercenary, please don’t give us to other people.”
“Eh, you all don’t need to worry about this.”
After promising repeatedly not to give them away, Clyde finally satisfied these maids. Quieting down, they then wore cloaks according to his request and set out with this mercenary. They were completely bare beneath the cloaks. Now, since they didn’t have enough time, Clyde could only arrange for them like this. He didn’t have time to look for suitable clothing for them. Undergarments, panties, and so on could wait until they left Evan Fort and returned to the safety of Stanley City.
In order to completely make these maids at ease, under their repetitive requests, Clyde used enslavement magic to replace the magic slave imprints on their bodies, exchanging Eric’s family imprint for Steinbeck Fief’s imprint. This enslavement magic had been taught to him by Princess Natalie. All aristocrats of Clark Alliance, regardless of their professions, had grasped this basic magic. It was the method to imprint their family’s slave mark.
This kind of imprinting was differentiated on the basis of time, indicating the duration of the slave status. A magic imprint lasted for a three year time period, an original imprint lasted at least five years, and a supreme imprint was permanent. Because the three year period made things convenient for trading slaves, aristocrats of Clark Alliance usually used magic imprints. Only for those slaves who were especially liked by the owners and who the owners didn’t want to trade or share were branded with an original imprint.
This was not the first time Clyde had done this. In the past, at Lucifer’s request, he had set up similar magic imprints on those beautiful mercenaries and adventurers, all of which would last for three years. After the new magic imprints were finalized, those maids finally showed peaceful expressions as if they had found a new home to return to.
With the help of these maids, Clyde’s gain was plentiful. In the rear area of the command tent, he found Eric’s hidden private collection. That fellow had actually deceived Duke Krend since his private collection was so great only because it contained the money and goods that had originally been meant to be sent to Duke Krend as gifts. He even dared to embezzle bribes to his father; Eric could be counted as a truly unique person.
What surprised Clyde more was that in the list detailing who had sent what gift to Duke Krend, there were names of several of Adrain Empire’s more influential officials. Adrian Empire belonged to Victor Alliance, and Cromwell Principality belonged to Clark Alliance, so they should have a hostile relationship. Toward this kind of political action of giving gifts to hostile forces, Clyde temporarily decided to turn a blind eye; he just wrote down the namelist on a seperate sheet of paper. Later, he would deliver this to Princess Alyssa and see how she would handle this.
After finishing looting the entire tent, Clyde left along with these maids who he had disguised as soldiers. Then he snatched a carriage and went towards the outskirts of Grey Fort. The entire Grey Fort was still in a chaotic state. The armed conflict between mercenaries and Cromwell Principality’s army was still ongoing, and no one paid any attention to this carriage.
Occasionally, several people who didn’t have eyes had tried to intercept the carriage, but regardless of whether they were mercenaries or Cromwell Principality’s soldiers, Clyde had cut them into halves with a single sword swing. After killing several hapless fools, the remaining people realized that they couldn’t afford to offend this carriage. When they saw this carriage approaching, they made way on their own initiative, letting Clyde’s party smoothly leave.
At the rear area of Grey Fort, the contest between Jenny and Princess Natalie was also near its end. Jenny who had originally been moving quickly by relying on her assassin profession could still stall Princess Natalie for a decent period of time. Jenny’s plan was to stall Princess Natalie, waiting for Eric to dispatch troops to assist. Steinbeck Fief had just 5,000 or so militia. If Eric dispatched troops, then with Princess Natalie’s intelligence, she would definitely choose to withdraw the troops.
However, Eric had already been killed, and those senior military officers under him had never had any intention to dispatch troops to aid her. They were busy scheming on how to properly sing from the same hymn-sheet, shifting the blame of Eric’s death to those mercenaries. Basically, no one even remembered Miss Jenny who was fighting here in the granary.
A blood-curdling scream distracted Jenny and almost got herself chopped in half. At the last moment, Princess Natalie timely stopped her hand, stopping the sword which nearly cut into Jenny’s shoulder. As it turned out, many demons had appeared on the battlefield, and these demons suddenly attacked Cromwell Principality’s rear-service personnel who were still resisting and killed them. The killing methods of these demons were very bloody. They directly used their claws to pierce an opponent’s chest and tear them to shreds.
All those maids who had followed Jenny for many years had marital skills and could be regarded as female guards. However, they were similarly subdued by those demons. The demons had received orders beforehand not to kill women and instead to use methods similar to slave capturing techniques. Now, those female guards’ hands were forced onto their backs, making them unable to move.
“Little Big Sister, don’t struggle. Come with us!”
“You… when did you appear?”
Ancient Demon King Andrisno flashed behind Jenny. Her movement speed was lightning fast. While Jenny was in a stunned unguarded state, this silver-haired Lolita seized the dagger in the princess’s hand. In addition to snatching the dagger, Andrisno also grabbed Jenny’s wrist and emitted dark energy, making Jenny felt like she had been electrocuted, instantly paralyzing her.
“Natalie, you… you really…”
Jenny felt complicated. She hadn’t lost to Natalie; however, a little Lolita had subdued her. However, she didn’t feel too disgraced. With the demon king strength of this Lolita, among the princesses of all the human nations, there were not many who could last even a few rounds against her. Even Ophelia, that kind of War Princess, would also be at a disadvantage against Andrisno. The Human Race had an upper ceiling; they weren’t comparable to Demon Kings.
“Little Big Sister, relax a bit. Don’t bite your tongue. It hurts. I must tell you though that if you commit suicide, then the guards of Little Big Sister will be given to the demons…”
Jenny’s face stiffened. Before she could react, Andrisno gently pried open her teeth and took out a pill especially used to commit suicide by those of the assassin profession concealed behind a tooth. Jenny looked at those captured female guards. They had all followed her for many years. Remembering their great loyalty, she helplessly lowered her head and admitted defeat.
“Andrisno, can you let Jenny go? She was just fulfilling her duty, nothing more.”
“Princess Natalie, this depends on Lord Clyde’s intentions. However, it’s not impossible as long as she becomes one of us. Do you understand what I mean?”
“I understand. I will help. I will make her agree.”
“Wait, Natalie. I don’t want to…”
“Be quiet! I am helping you!”
Originally, Jenny had still wanted to show off and stubbornly refuse to admit defeat, but Princess Natalie directly covered her little mouth so that she couldn’t speak. She could only use her eyes to protest. At that time, Clyde’s carriage just happened to arrive at the burning supply granary behind Grey Fort.
