Chapter 217 – Poison
Ten days. For an entire ten days, the people of Casa City watched as various commodities streamed towards Faith Mansion. The whole of Faith Mansion seemed like a giant beast that ate and ate without worry about being full. It just kept devouring things and never let any of it out.
Although the people of Casa City felt it was strange, they didn’t say anything. Laura, on the other hand, selected those items with a great deal of discretion. Aside from the belongings taken from Faith Mansion, there were commodities that would be of use within the Beastfolk Prairie.
One must know that there were many commodities within Casa City that weren’t suitable for trade within the Beastfolk Prairie. This was due to the fact that the needs of the beastfolk were different from the needs of Casa City commoners.
It was because of this that Laura’s actions didn’t cause much change in the prices of the Purcell Duchy’s daily necessities market. Furthermore, those firms were more than willing to sell their wares to Laura.
The hands of those large firms weren’t necessarily clean. When they did business with the beastfolk, they resorted to smuggling. This matter was something they always did, so when they saw the items Laura had bought, they understood Laura’s intentions. They didn’t stop her. Although they wouldn’t earn much by selling to her, it was still an instant transaction. These were also goods that could be quickly transported from the back, so there wasn’t anything strange about it.
On the tenth day after Zhao Hai’s arrival in Casa City, Zhao Hai, Laura, Quinn John, and Green had all gone to Laura’s study.
Laura received a report about their current situation. With that in her hands, she faced the others and said, “I just received a report with regards to the situation in the Purcell Duchy. Today, a few mercenaries entered the Purcell Duchy from the back. They’re moving towards Casa City and have unknown intentions.”
Quinn John snorted coldly. “It’s nothing unclear. They’re here to deal with us. Since they definitely know Zhao Hai is also in Casa City, they want to deal with all of us in one go.”
Green nodded. “I also think this is the case. Let them come. We’ll tidy them up before withdrawing immediately. I want to see what they can give us.”
Laura turned towards Zhao Hai and said, “Brother Hai, what about resolving Alodia’s matter? Why haven’t we moved on them these last few days?”
Zhao Hai nodded. “I need to resolve them. These past few days, they found out too much. I wasn’t resolved to killing them since I didn’t want to kill those who don’t have the power to fight back, but I have no choice now.”
When Zhao Hai said this, Laura and the others understood. Zhao Hai needed to find an excuse for himself, an excuse that allowed him to kill them.
This behaviour might seem ridiculous and self-deceiving. On the other hand, this behaviour also had some good points. At least it would allow them to feel a bit better.
* * * * *
After eating their evening meal, Alodia and the others returned to their rooms. All of their weapons had been taken away. Through their observations these last few days, Alodia understood that Laura had the determination to kill them.
Unfortunately, Alodia couldn’t do anything. They didn’t have any weapons and were surrounded by all those undead. No one could escape from such a thing.
All they could do was stay in their room honestly. If Laura really wanted to kill them, then all they could do was go all out against her.
Sadness. Alodia felt unprecedented sadness. He was thinking about how high-spirited he had been before. No matter where he went within the Aksu Empire, so long as he revealed his ident.i.ty as Carlo’s subordinate, no one would dare to undermine him. Now, however, he had fallen into a situation where he could only wait for his death. It was like he were a blue-eyed rabbit taken to the slaughterhouse, waiting as they readied their knives. This was a very unpleasant feeling.
He was thinking of resisting, but it would be of no use. No matter how restless they became, the undead could easily contain them. So long as they approached the undead, they would immediately be attacked. They wouldn’t even attack to kill, instead, they’ll be disabling them twice before tossing them back into the courtyard. It was as simple as that.
If they were dealing with humans, then Alodia could have tried to communicate with them. He could have tried to take advantage of them and have them spare his life. Right now, however, they were not dealing with humans, but undead. He wouldn’t even waste his breath with them—undead couldn’t be bought. Even if he had all kinds of schemes, they wouldn’t be tricked.
These last few days, Alodia looked aged as his spirit was constantly tormented. He didn’t expect such a day would come. What’s more, he never would have thought Laura would be the one to hold them. She could easily kill them at any time.
Alodia, however, still held some faith within him. For the past several days, he firmly believed that Carlo would send people to rescue him. As Carlo’s most trusted aide, Alodia was clear about some matters. Behind Carlo wasn’t only the Markey Dell clan, but also Southern King Boric. At this crucial moment, Carlo would certainly ask Boric to move. This was what Alodia’s spirit was hanging onto.
For the last few days, Alodia had been diligently gathering information about Laura. This was possible to do so long as they didn’t leave the front gate of the yard—they could still move around inside Faith Mansion freely. Alodia wanted to collect information about Laura that could be of some use in the future.
Laura’s actions these last few days were clear to Alodia since he could see her movements. This had boosted his confidence to go on living. What Laura had shown clearly stated that they were going somewhere else, that they had to run. There was only one explanation for this: enemies had come.
He knew Laura had one enemy, and that was Carlo. Since he saw this, his determination to live was strengthened.
At the same time, Alodia noted several warehouses in the rear yard of Faith Mansion. Seemingly, these warehouses were constantly being filled. Carriages continued to pull up and fill the warehouse with commodities, but it was like the warehouse was a bottomless pit.
Alodia didn’t suspect the use of spatial equipment within the warehouse. He instead thought that there was a secret pa.s.sage inside. That they were using that to s.h.i.+p commodities out. He secretly wrote this down in order to inform Carlo.
Alodia knew, however, that this would be difficult. He knew Laura wouldn’t let them off. Since he was able to notice the commodities entering Faith Mansion, he knew Laura didn’t try to avoid their attention. As such, he knew Laura decided not to let them off. Yet, he was still holding onto the belief that, somehow, they would be able to go on living.
That night, as per usual, Alodia observed and counted. Since the time Laura had begun transporting commodities into Faith Mansion till now, it had been a full ten days. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the amount of commodities was enough to fill the whole of Faith Mansion. Oddly, everything that entered Faith Mansion seemed to have disappeared. Alodia didn’t truly understand how Laura was able to move those things.
Alodia lay quietly on the bed, thinking about Laura’s recent actions. He didn’t understand why Laura was doing such things so suddenly. Why did she suddenly dare to challenge Carlo. Who was it that she depended on? Was it only due to the virtue of Evan’s few words? That’s highly unlikely, no?
As he thought about this, Alodia suddenly smelled a fragrance. The smell grew stronger and stronger until he found it difficult to breathe. Alodia woke up fiercely. He wanted to jump out of bed and tell everyone that Laura was poisoning them.
Even though his mind issued the jump, his body wasn’t able to carry it out. His body felt as though it weighed half a ton[1]. He wanted to shout, but found that he couldn’t, that it was too strenuous to do so. Alodia couldn’t help but marvel at what kind of poison this was. It was truly too fierce. These were his last thoughts.
* * * * *
This poison was naturally derived from the toxin of the seven-coloured flower. It was Zhao Hai who had Cai’er place this poison. Since Alodia and his team had to die without much noise, Zhao Hai decided to let Cai’er use the poison.
The poison taken from the toxin of the seven-coloured flower was further strengthened due to the s.p.a.ce. Compared to how it was before, it wasn’t only just formidable. Before, it could be regarded as a simple chronic poison. Now, however, it was merged with the toxicity from the s.p.a.ce’s pesticide and could now be described as highly poisonous.
That night, the silent execution of Alodia and his team didn’t cause too much noise. Zhao Hai turned them into undead afterwards. Unfortunately, Alodia didn’t seem to know much. Aside from his knowledge of the relations.h.i.+p between Carlo and Boric, Lycra knew more than him.
Although Alodia shared some information on Carlo’s situation, this wasn’t very important to them. Compared to the powerful Southern King Boric, Carlo was, at best, a jumping clown.
On the eleventh day, Laura didn’t transport anything to Faith Mansion. The commodities they’d transported the last several days had already been excessive and might soon affect the necessities market within the Purcell Duchy. Laura didn’t want to offend the Purcell clan in their last moments.
Laura started to send people away. If they wanted to be free commoners, Laura gave them severance pay and allowed them to go home. The rest were the most loyal part of her subordinates and would follow Laura. Quinn John had already counted them before and, altogether, they amounted to a total of fifty-four people. Twenty-two of them were warriors while the rest were slaves Laura had bought when she first started out in the Purcell Duchy.
These people weren’t stewards and the matters they handled couldn’t be considered important. On the other hand, it could be said that they were the most loyal of her subordinates. Three of them were carpenters, and another three were blacksmiths. There were also six who were specialized in raising magic beast, also called grooms if they were on Earth.
Besides those people, the remaining individuals were clan members. The men were generally servants while the women were maidservants or cooks.
Adding in Laura, Quinn John, Nier, Karen, Kiel, and Searle[2], there were a total of sixty people joining the Buda clan. Starting today, they were no longer members of the Markey Dell clan, but people of the Buda clan.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
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-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1] 千斤 – Qiānjīn. 1000 jin, with Jin being half a Kilogram. As such, I just stuck with “half a ton”, a ton being 1000 Kilograms. Just sounds better. 500 Kilograms is about 1100 pounds. ↩
[2] It’s either Searle or someone new named Sean… 肖恩 – Xiào ēn, are the characters.