Chapter 351: Father? (2/2)

“Father, they will listen obediently from now on.” The little skeleton pointed at the three trembling evil knights, saying to the silently pondering Han Shuo.

“Heh heh, you can take them back. My mind is a bit of a mess right now.” Han Shuo smiled with the little skeleton. Then, when he was about to cast the spell, Han Shuo suddenly looked at the undead creature that was the little skeleton’s steed and asked, “Right, what is this strange fellow? Why have I never seen it before?”

“Oh, he was originally a bone demon. Father found me lots of good bones last time. I dismantled this bone demon and used some of those fine bones to create its wings, so it turned out looking like this. Father, did I make it ugly?” After answering, the little skeleton asked Han Shuo, somewhat embarrassed.

“No, it looks very nice.” Han Shuo replied, before sending the little skeleton and the three evil knights back to the strange world. With his connection with the little skeleton, Han Shuo sent the three evil knights to the little skeleton’s territory. From now on, those three were destined to become its underlings, to be its vanguard in battle.

“When did you have the ability to refine undead creatures?” After the little skeleton and three evil knights disappeared, Han Shuo muttered with a heart filled with shock.

Although the little skeleton’s enhancement on that bone demon was a simple dismantling and reassembly of the bones, Han Shuo could see from this action that the little skeleton was simply incredible. He was sure that the little skeleton had received that enhancement method from his memory. Otherwise, the little skeleton certainly wouldn’t have had this ability.

That the little skeleton had unconsciously grown into this existence was a big, pleasant surprise for Han Shuo. For someone who had personally created this miracle, the little skeleton’s rapid development had astounded Han Shuo in the beginning. Now it had transformed to excitement and ecstasy. The more he thought about it, the more satisfied he was of his masterpiece.

Deep down in his heart, Han Shuo had truly regarded the little skeleton as his child, so he was supremely excited when the latter had called him “father”. He had some difficulties adapting at first, but after the little skeleton had left for the other dimension, Han Shuo felt a kind of longing. Han Shuo suddenly realized that he’d seen the little skeleton as his child from very long ago. His doting and worries for the latter were indeed the behavior of a father for his child!

“Ahh, child. I finally have a child!” A while after the little skeleton left, inside the Cemetery of Death, Han Shuo threw back his head and let out an insane laugh to the heavens. His laughter was full of joy and excitement.

The three evil knights had emerged, but the twelve mystical demons still needed some more time to take shape. The evil knights only needed to absorb some energy, so this process naturally didn’t take much time, However, the twelve yin demons were an evolution to another form. This process was much more complicated than a simple energy absorption. Accordingly, the time taken was longer.

After dark dragon Gilbert swallowed the magic core of the green dragon, he nested in the Cemetery of Death and fell into hibernation. His huge body curled up into a ball, his scales and skin sometimes overflowing with stinky liquid and some lights began to flash deep within his body.

Gilbert’s evolution might take quite a while, and Han Shuo didn’t continue studying archmage necromancer rank magic anymore. Seeing that everything was proceeding in a good direction in the Cemetery of Death, he once again returned to Brettel City.

Having left Brettel City for some time, Han Shuo was surprised to see life had suddenly become more bustling than when he had left it. The streets were pathetically deserted in the past, and it was practically impossible to see anyone walking back and forth.

However, when Han Shuo released the yin demon to make a quick scouting trip upon his return, he suddenly saw many changes had occurred unknowingly in Brettel City. As city lord, these changes greatly pleased him.

Because the mountain people on the surrounding mountains had migrated into Brettel City, the city’s population had increased. In addition, the merchants outside had flooded the city in pursuit of profit. Not only did they bring various daily necessities, some of the bold merchants had even opened up shops in Brettel City.

After the demand for food was met, those merchants started to sell luxurious clothes along with daily necessities. The population of Brettel City wasn’t high, but the young men who’d joined the city guard had earned a good monthly salary.

Every month, the honest young men in the city all received gold coins which were used to improve the originally poor life of their families. As long as each family had a young man at the right age, the entire family could live in style in Brettel City. Enthusiasm for enlisting in the military was unprecedented. Some young men in Seamist City even took the risk to come here to enlist as their life’s last chance.

Unknowingly, the number of city guards had increased from the original three thousand to five thousand. With the war crazy Dorcas stationed there, Jack didn’t need to spend gold coins to forge equipment for the soldiers. Dorcas was pushing his men to compete with Faulke’s elite knights, seeing who did the best in punishing the bandits around Brettel City.

Dorcas and Faulke were extremely effective as a pair. Not only did they wipe out two bandit organizations, the gold coins that came as the spoils of battle were enough to equip the soldiers. Brettel City had gone from its passive turtling, suffering humiliation here and there, to actively striking out, visiting retribution on the bandits. The city had gradually risen up within the span of a few months, attracting the attention of the seven grand duchies. The seven grand duchies who were originally tangled in the chaos of small wars suddenly called a truce.

The seven grand duchies all had the same feeling – the wolf is coming!

After the yin demon finished touring around Brettel City, Han Shuo listened to a report of the city’s current situation from Dick and Chester. Dorcas and Faulke were still personally leading a thousand city guards in a sweep through the some of the large bandit groups in the surrounding area.

Dorcas had outstanding military strategy and stood as the military’s head, while Faulke and his knights held all the power and equipment of a standard knight brigade. Their furious pace of raids against the nearby bandit camps almost seemed like a competition to see who could wipe out more bandits. The soldiers were forged in the crucible of constant warfare, becoming increasingly adept at battle.

“Bryan, the number of merchants coming to the city isn’t small. According to the current situation, Brettel will definitely become a big city and attract more immigrants.” Jack laughed, his cheeks wobbling at the effort, and carried on, “I can already see the mountain people coming down soon. Now that the benefits and treatments in Brettel City are this good, it’s much more profitable than their mining job.”

“We don’t have to wait for long. The five mountain chiefs have already made this decision. Except for Adleman who lacks ambition in his old age, the four other chiefs all want to lead their subordinates down to become the official army of Brettel City.” Dick looked at Han Shuo and smiled wryly, “Those four fellows have been urging me so many times already. They wanted me to tell Your Lordship about this, but Your Lordship hasn’t been in the city. So this matter was delayed.”

Han Shuo’s mind raced when he heard Chester’s words. He asked with a seemingly very interested expression, “What is this about? Aren’t they doing very well with mining ore?”

“This depends on who we compare it with. To the native civilians, their mining income is pretty good. But to compare with the city guards’ benefits, their money from mining isn’t enough to support the daily expenses of their subordinates.”

“Up until now, the mountain people had not been faring too poorly, but since Your Lordship’s come, that’s taken a quick turn. The income of a soldier is now far better than the income from mining. Moreover, Dorcas and Faulke have collected a great deal of weapons, armor and even gold from wiping out the bandits. This supplemental income from raids far exceeds that from mining.”

“The seven grand duchies are locked in chaotic fighting, which make it a place of easy profit. Be it selling weapons, warhorses or directly robbing the bandits, they are all the fastest means to accumulate wealth. My Lord, Brettel City developing this quickly is also due this reason – plundering the wealth of others.”

“Hehe, to the mountain people, following Your Lordship is obviously much more promising than mining. Not to mention that Dorcas and Faulke also brought some bandits back to be slaves. With these slaves, the mines don’t need too much manpower. The mountain folk are all good fighters with their strong bodies. It’s a matter of course that they have the idea to join the army.” Dick explained to Han Shuo.

As Dick finished speaking, Han Shuo smiled and said, “It seems everything is for ‘profit’. However, how is the loyalty of these mountain people?”

“My Lord, with you here in Brettel City, do you think they’d dare to be disloyal?” Chester suddenly asked back with a smile.

Chester’s boot licking was perfect timing. Han Shuo smiled and mused for a moment, saying, “The number of mountain people capable of fighting from the five mountains is about ten thousand. That number alone will double the amount of Brettel city guards. If they decide to join, all the war chariots and stone-throwing catapults at the city gates’ can be put in operation.”

“Brettel City currently is overflowing with capital, so the prospects of future development goes without saying. This matter of expanding the army is imperative! Ten thousand mountain people will make truly fine soldiers. They’ve been clashing with the bandits for many years, so there’s no doubt about their fighting ability. I think this is very interesting, but I just don’t know if the mountain people are actually sincere.”

“My Lord, regarding their illustration of sincerity, I think they are sincere.” Dick immediately guaranteed.

“Oh, how do you know that?” Han Shuo smiled superciliously, looking at him and asking again, “You can make the decisions in their stead?”

Dick was about to say that he was a mountain man but upon hearing Han Shuo add the question at the end, he couldn’t help but smile wryly, “My Lord, although I cannot make decisions for them, I know how they think. As long as Your Lordship acts with moderation, with their current level of trust and gratitude towards Your Lordship, they will definitely be willing to listen to your orders.”

“Is that so?” Han Shuo fell silent for a bit before speaking to Dick with a smile, “Well then, help me pass my words to the mountain people, I’m also glad to let them join the army, but their squads must be split up, and their original leaders no longer their commanders.”

“In addition, all of the mountain army leaders will start from the rank of captain, and can only return to their original rank through meritorious battle service. For now, all of the mountain people must be under our lead. I will allow them to join the army if they can agree to these conditions, sharing the same treatment as our soldiers.”

Han Shuo was thinking for himself as well. Taking all five mountains into account, there were about ten thousand mountain fighters. If they were still left under the control of their original leaders, it could bring about unbearable damage if they nursed the idea of rebellion after entering Brettel City while outnumbering the city guards.

One absolutely needed to defend against the hearts of people. Even if he wasn’t thinking of himself, Han Shuo’s position was one that demanded that he act responsible for the city’s people. Though he believed that the mountain chiefs wouldn’t dare to rebel, there was no guarantee for anything in everything. Everyone could have this kind of wild ambition. Han Shuo didn’t want to risk the lives of the civilians.

Moreover, the mountain chiefs were still young. Whether or not they were suitable to command so many soldiers needed to be judged through their true abilities. In the low likelihood that these young chiefs were useless good-for-nothings, not only would Han Shuo lose his gold, it might create a latent danger in Brettel City.

Since becoming the city lord of Brettel City, Han Shuo’s attitude and bearing had also developed alongside him assuming his position. He was becoming increasingly careful and mature. There was no longer any of that single minded ruthlessness he had in the past.

“Good, I will definitely pass on Your Lordship’s words.” Dick didn’t dare guarantee anything else after hearing Han Shuo’s words, because his conditions were indeed somewhat harsh.