Chapter 15: Noble Women and Children
Who can resist witnessing a live broadcast of catching a thief?
Olivia was no longer sleepy. She sat cross-legged at the head of the bed and watched intently. The footprints on both sides spread out and closed in, forcing the thief into the open space little by little.
The thieves had to gather together. Suddenly, two of them moved forward quickly, as if they wanted to rush out.
However, soon after coming into contact with the patrol, they stopped and appeared to have been subdued.
Oh, it's over so soon?
She shrugged, crawled back under the covers, and fell into another nap. It was not until half an hour later that she heard Lucy knocking on the bedroom door.
Olivia got up sleepily and answered. Lucy opened the door and hurried in.
"Madam, several fleeing Lenyas have been found in and around the woods. Your Excellency has brought them back and tied them up at the mill."
Olivia pretended not to know, stood up and changed her outer skirt, then asked in surprise: "Lenians? How many are there? Are they here to rob?"
Lucy shook her head, quickly took out a robe from the suitcase and put it on Olivia.
"No, it looks like they are some nobles who have fled here into exile. There are only two or three guards around them. My Lord has already sent George to deliver a letter to the Baron."
"Really?" Olivia didn't expect that those people would be of such identities.
No wonder. If it was a thief, he probably wouldn't surrender so quickly and would definitely resist for a while.
However, after the neighboring Baron of Forles was attacked, their Baron Bergru ordered the knights to leave as many enemies alive as possible if they encountered them during patrol. He said that this was the Earl's intention to find out the situation on the other side, and there would be a reward for capturing a living person.
These noble women and children of the neighboring country are much more valuable than the lives of a few thieves. More information can be obtained from their mouths.
Lucy took down the kettle hanging on the fireplace, poured some warm water into the pot, and wiped the lady's face. She said, "This time, the Earl and the Baron will definitely give some rewards."
Olivia searched the system for a long time but didn't trigger anything, so she felt relieved. It seemed that this matter had nothing to do with a small person like her.
After packing up, she and Lucy left the manor in the snow and walked slowly to the stone bridge.
The women, children and their guards were tied up in the mill, where many soldiers were gathered and bright light was shining through the cracks in the windows.
Olivia walked in and found four soldiers stationed outside the mill and two soldiers standing at the door. They nodded at her and said that Caesar and her father were inside.
The miller's house had a large hall, which was usually used to store grain. Now that the grain had been processed, it was empty. There were just a few wooden stakes where they could tie up the group of people with hemp ropes. There were also two soldiers guarding nearby, so it was absolutely impenetrable.
"...George, please go there quickly and bring people here soon." Caesar was discussing something with his father. Olivia patted them and looked at the people being guarded by the soldiers.
Caesar turned his head, and Olivia asked in a low voice: "Who are they?"
There were three soldiers who had been stripped of their armor and weapons, two middle-aged women, one old and one young, and three children, one boy and two girls.
Most of them wore velvet robes with fur collars and beautifully embroidered belts. The two women had gold rings in their ears and soft shoes made of a kind of hard silk and leather. They also had pearl ornaments hanging on their heads and necks.
They did not have time to throw away or hide the valuables on them. It is very likely that they were suddenly wanted in the enemy country and ran away without any preparation.
It was still snowing outside. Seeing that his wife was not wearing thick clothes, Caesar pulled her to sit by the fireplace.
"They are the family of Count Constant of Lenya."
Her cheap old man was standing by the fireplace, too. He took a handful of cumin seeds from the miller, chewed them to refresh himself, and then he said:
"I never thought that Lenya would become so chaotic. Count Constant was beheaded by the rebels."
Olivia also knew that Count Constant was the lord of the valley across the river. If he died, the other side would be in turmoil, and the rebels might even reach the capital of Lennia.
She rose from the fireplace and waved to the miller's children. When the boy named Ethan came over, she said casually:
"Give them some food. Since these people have status, don't let them starve to death."
After receiving the order, Ethan went to his own bakery and took out two sourdough loaves, cut them into pieces and brought them over.
The women who were tied up were not gagged. They had been hungry all day and could only chew on snow on the road. They had originally planned to steal some food from the village at night, but they were caught because they couldn't find any. So, they didn't refuse and wolfed down the food.
The older woman seemed to be the count's mother, but at this moment she seemed to have completely given up struggling, closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Caesar had just returned from the Count's side and didn't know much about the neighboring countries. Olivia hadn't read the subsequent plot and had no idea about the setting of the rebels, but old Renault had been on the border for decades and knew everything about them.
The miller and his wife were busy for a while, serving homemade ale and cider to the few people. Old Renault took a sip of the cider, cleared his throat and explained to the two.
"The rebels in Lennia were originally a group of pirates and bandits. They killed people without blinking an eye and plundered everywhere. Two years ago, they caused a commotion and almost occupied half of the county. They were suppressed, and the remaining rebels hid on an island east of Lennia for two years to catch their breath.
Now they are taking advantage of the civil unrest in Chelenia to stir up trouble again. I suspect that the murderers in the village that was broken into in Barony of Forles were these same people."
After hearing this, Olivia could feel that this group of pirates had almost grown to a level that Lanisi could no longer suppress.
However, the change of dynasties in neighboring countries had little impact on the Kingdom of Alta.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves was heard far away outside the mill. The soldier pushed open the door. It was George who came back. He hurriedly arrived with the baron's confidants and soldiers.
This is a sheriff named Grien, who is mainly responsible for managing the knights without fiefs around the baron. He is an old acquaintance of these knights with fiefs.
Green walked in, exchanged a few words with Old Renault, Caesar, and Olivia, and after asking about the whole story, he told the soldiers following him to take the people away, with no intention of staying.
Before leaving, Green did not forget to tell everyone in the room, "Don't let the news leak out. Just tell everyone that we only caught a few thieves."
"Remember!"
After he said this, he left with the soldiers accompanying him.
...
The next morning, it was snowing lightly, and a string of crystal clear icicles hung under the long eaves.
The housekeeper got up before dawn, packed up, and prepared to go to Renault Manor to borrow breeding sheep and cattle to breed the cattle and sheep in the pen again.
In fact, he did not get a good rest last night. After the group was taken away by the sheriff, the butler and George took all the chain mail, swords, daggers, sword bags and other items seized from their soldiers back to the storage room in the manor.
This is also a matter of adherence to the rules. Whenever a suspicious person is captured, the weapons seized will be kept by the knights, and the gold, silver and jewelry on the enemy will be left to the higher level to take away.
After being polished and cleaned by the blacksmith, these weapons would be presented to the knights for distribution, or given as rewards to soldiers, or kept by the knights themselves.
The housekeeper walked out of the house and first knocked away all the icicles with a long pole before going into the kitchen.
At this moment, the fire pit had already been lit in the kitchen. The cook had gotten up two hours earlier than him and prepared breakfast for the knight who had finished his night patrol.
Now that things have calmed down a bit, they are cooking a more substantial big pot of rice for the craftsmen who are about to start working on tamping the earth to build the foundation.
After the workers finished eating and started working, my wife was almost up and had to prepare a more exquisite meal.
The cook was very busy, so she took a basin of coarse oats and went to the well outside to wash them.
The butler went to the earthen kiln and got a piece of bread. He used the unwashed butter and salt left in the pot when he grilled meat for the knight yesterday, and quickly finished his breakfast.
Although life was still as stressful as before, there was none of the gloomy look that existed when the old knight was around.
After the meal, the housekeeper hurried out to supervise the people working.
…
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