Chapter 1502: Relieved
“Wait, even if you want to find MacDuff, where is he?” Older Brother Jayad asked, pulling me along.
“It’s very simple. After you knocked him out last time, the guards locked him up in prison. But it wasn’t a serious crime, so he should be brought out with other prisoners to do labor now,” I said.
Cando City was short-handed, especially for repairing the city walls and the defensive fortifications in the outer districts, which were constantly damaged by monster attacks and required a lot of manpower to fix.
Apart from the refugees I recommended to the Knight Captain last time to be responsible for this labor, I heard the Knight Captain mention that they had already released prisoners serving light sentences to do hard labor and atone for their crimes.
“The problem is, how do we know where he is? And during wartime, we can’t just approach those armies and fortifications, can we?” Older Brother Jayad said.
“That won’t be a problem for me. I’ll just get an order from the Knight Captain,” I thought of this old friend immediately. It happened that I also had other matters to discuss with him.
“Alright, but why is Parul so eager to know our background?” Jayad found it very strange. Parul had never cared about such matters before, or rather, none of them, including him, had ever thought about it.
I didn’t answer, because I didn’t care about the original owner’s identity. I was a transmigrator. Parul was originally a different person, and it had nothing to do with me.
However, if it concerned Older Brother Jayad’s lineage, it was a different matter. I had to figure it out. So, Older Brother Jayad and I rode our packhorses and galloped towards the Lord of the City’s residence.
The Lord of the City’s residence was currently hosting a grand banquet for guests, entertaining the Crown Prince who had just arrived in the city. The Knight Captain was also at the table, and Albrisque, sitting beside him, raised his cup to him: “Brother Numanuer, thanks to your kind words, I was able to hunt monsters and welcome the Crown Prince. Cheers!”
“You’re too kind. I just felt it was a waste not to use your great martial prowess during this critical time,” the Knight Captain said politely, clinking his cup with Albrisque’s.
Albrisque thought the Knight Captain was praising his martial skills and laughed heartily. In reality, the Knight Captain was filled with displeasure and annoyance.
He recommended Albrisque to clear out the monsters because he knew the city was short of manpower, and Albrisque was at least a moderately strong individual.
In his original plan, the monster hunt was supposed to be led by several great lords. Although Cando City, a small barony, was the host, they were only supposed to send some troops to make a show of participating in the joint operation, without suffering any losses.
However, he hadn’t expected Albrisque to be so eager for glory, desperate to prove his worth, regain his former position, or to show off his fame in front of the great lords and the Crown Prince.
He actually volunteered to take charge of a large area and went deep into enemy territory alone, separating himself from the other lords’ teams. Although he eventually eliminated a large number of monsters through his personal bravery and his flying dragon mount, his soldiers suffered heavy casualties.
These losses were completely unnecessary. With the lack of troops and manpower in Cando City, hundreds of soldiers died and were injured, which was unacceptable.
These casualties among the lower-level soldiers were exchanged for nothing more than Albrisque receiving praise for his bravery from the lords and a word of affirmation from the Crown Prince.
What was even more outrageous was that the Lord of the City, who had suffered losses, did not hold Albrisque accountable for his reckless actions because the Crown Prince was pleased. Instead, he praised him for bringing him honor, showing a strong tendency to favor him again.
In the end, the Lord of the City simply didn’t care about his subordinates. He treated them as his personal property. If these properties could be exchanged for what he considered appropriate value, such as praise from the Crown Prince, then their lives were irrelevant.
Furthermore, even though the food distribution for refugees in the city was becoming increasingly tight and the soldiers’ military supplies were also beginning to cause problems, the Lord of the City still spent a large amount of money and food on a grand welcoming banquet.
The Crown Prince held banquets on this scale in every city he visited, and his daily accommodation and food would not be a small expense. This was all a waste. The Crown Prince coming to the front line was meaningless.
Therefore, the Knight Captain was in distress, hating this extravagant and wasteful banquet and the people bragging about their achievements. Yet, he had to accompany them with a smile.
Just then, a fly landed on the Knight Captain’s collar. The Knight Captain’s expression changed, and then he smiled, “You all please continue drinking. I have some military affairs to attend to, so I’ll be excusing myself for a moment.”
With that, the Knight Captain left the table and walked briskly towards the exit. Seeing him walk away, a lewd man in a ridiculous outfit sat down beside him. It was the Jester Rodrigo.
“You need to be careful of Numanuer. He’s different from before. He used to be reckless and pedantic, completely unlike his current self. I suspect he’s received guidance from a higher power,” the Jester said.
“I think he’s still the same as he was before, no changes at all. Moreover, he could speak a good word for me, while you did nothing during my exile,” Albrisque said with great dissatisfaction.
Rodrigo’s expression faltered. He had indeed thought that Albrisque had no room for maneuver and was a discarded piece. Therefore, he had focused on saying nice things to the Lord of the City, separating himself from Albrisque and shifting all the blame onto him.
He hadn’t expected Albrisque to return. Now, a rift had formed between them, and they were no longer in league as they had been before.
Knowing that Albrisque no longer trusted him, Rodrigo could only leave in frustration. He secretly pressed one of his eyes, which had turned purplish-blue, and feathers had even grown around the corners of his eyes.
He was secretly trying to spy on Numanuer, but soon he angrily dropped his arm, and his eye returned to normal. It turned out Rodrigo could no longer track the Knight Captain’s movements.
“As expected, he has someone backing him,” Rodrigo said through gritted teeth. However, he couldn’t be sure who was backing him. Being able to interfere with his detection, it must be a powerful faction. He felt as though the situation was gradually slipping out of control.
At this time, the Knight Captain had returned to the milk tea shop from last time, to the same private room on the second floor, with the same brother and sister. He sat down as if he were familiar with the place and picked up the milk tea prepared for him, drinking it directly.
“Why do you look so relieved?” I asked, puzzled. He clearly didn’t like milk tea last time.
“Because I feel relaxed and at ease with you siblings, unlike those hypocritical nobles,” the Knight Captain said.
