Chapter 552 — Spring
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
A cavalryman on a tall, fine horse—wearing armor of strange design bearing runes, a black single-handed sword at his waist—was halted at the village entrance. Seeing Sam and the others, the cavalryman at once flicked the whip in his hand: "You there, come here!"
Sam's heart instantly tightened.
Collecting grain again? Winter has only just passed... where would the family have any grain?!
But he still did not dare be slow; he hastily led his children before the cavalryman and stopped at a distance where they would not be kicked by the horse or struck by the whip, then bowed deeply: "Knight lord."
This was merely a soldier on horseback; judging by that fully armed look, he was at most a squad leader among soldiers, certainly not the same as a true "knight lord" of noble birth. But even knowing this, Sam still had to address him as "knight lord"—it greatly pleased mounted soldiers, and even if someone later took issue with it, he could cover it up by claiming to be dull-witted and ignorant of the rules.
The cavalryman was indeed pleased; the corners of the fully armed man's mouth turned up, and he nodded in satisfaction, then pointed his whip at the two sons behind Sam: "You have two sons?"
"Y-yes..." Sam nodded repeatedly. "They're both honest, hardworking young men..."
"Honest and hardworking is good—that's just what we want," the cavalryman said, lifting his chin. "Pick one. Your son has been conscripted."
"Ah... ah?" Sam raised his head in astonishment, and after a brief moment of shock, he finally became flustered. "Lord, they... they can't fight! Look at their arms and legs, and the way they can't even stand up straight. If they go to the battlefield, dying would be the least of it—I fear they couldn't even lift a weapon, and they'd bring shame on the lord!"
"The battlefield? As if they're worthy?" The cavalryman slashed the whip through the air and said impatiently, "They're going to do labor!"
Sam was startled by the sound of the whip but still dared to ask: "Labor... what labor?"
"Road-building," the cavalryman said loudly. "By order jointly signed by Regent Grand Duke Victoria Wilder, Baiyu Franklin, and the Prince of Wales, the Royal Shao Road is to be repaired—the loyal Viscount Hancock has already placed your household on the list. You may not disobey!"
The cavalryman rode off.
It was the fifteenth day of the Month of Revival, the traditional Ansus festival of Revival Day. On this day, the Royal Shao Road, abandoned for a full century, finally began to be repaired once more.
On that same day, after a period of intensive preparation, the "White Sand Mining Company," established under the leadership of Commerce Minister Patrick, finally selected its first excavation site in the White Sand Hills of the Eastern Region.
The young knight Belk Loren stood atop the tall watchtower, watching the Cecil people bustling about among the distant crags: as an envoy liaising between the Eastern and Southern Regions, and as the "representative" appointed by Prince Edmund, this young man carried out his duties with scrupulous care, keeping close watch on the Cecil people's activities in this land—naturally, observing the excavation site of the Cecils' first mining operation was part of his work as well.
Toward the Cecil people who had come from the southwest, Belk Loren always maintained three parts trust and seven parts vigilance. He knew what that founding duke had done in the Southern Region: a man who had violently and forcibly destroyed the entire aristocratic system of the Southern Region within a single year, who had stormed and occupied Bedrock Fortress within three days, could never be any sort of kind-hearted soul. He had sent a "White Sand Mining Company" here—on paper merely to mine, but who knew whether these Cecil people would seep in everywhere, whether through gradual encroachment and nibbling they would turn the lands around the White Sand Hills into something belonging to the Cecils themselves?