Chapter 20 Envelope
Gervis retracted his sword and placed the tip of the sword against the man's neck before looking forward. At this moment, Benny had already escaped from the inner castle.
"My lord, my lord! Are you okay?" At this moment, the guards who were let in by the servants also rushed to the stairs. These guards were in disheveled clothes, but they all had torches and weapons in their hands. When they saw Gervis in the corridor with the light of the torches, they all asked.
"I'm fine. That man should be Benny. He ran out of the window! Hurry up and chase him! There will be a reward of 10 silver coins if you catch Benny." In the light of the fire, Gervis finally recognized that the person pointed at by his sword was Benny's men.
Although I didn't know why Benny sneaked into the castle at night, I definitely didn't want to let Benny run away.
So he offered a huge reward to the guards, 10 silver coins, which was equal to their annual salary. Gervis was worried that these guards would not work hard, and they were the only ones in the territory who were familiar with the terrain, so they had the possibility of hunting down Benny.
Gervis also wanted to lead people to chase after him personally, but Ike was still in the corridor and he didn't know how badly he was injured. The medical level in this world was extremely poor. Normally, if you had a headache or a fever, you would basically go to the church to see the pastor. Just like when Gervis fell and injured his head a month ago, it was the pastor who came to treat him.
Apart from the priest, if you get sick, you either go to a witch doctor, who is similar to the rope skippers on Earth, or you just find some herbs and endure the disease yourself.
It was just because the population in Gervis's territory was too sparse, there were no churches or priests at all, so Gervis found a witch doctor who was good at skipping rope. He thought it would be better to check it out himself. After all, if it was not serious, at least he knew how to stop the bleeding and clean the wound.
"Yes! My Lord!" The guards did not dare to say much. After receiving the order, the guards, led by Audrey, walked down the stairs.
After the guards left, Benny's men on the ground had been caught by Laurie, who also put a long sword against Benny's men's necks.
Seeing that Laurie had grasped the man firmly, Gervis retracted his sword and walked to the window below, because he saw a cloth bag dropped on the ground by the window. This should have dropped when Audrey hit Benny's belt just now. Gervis picked up the bag and found it was quite heavy. He opened the bag and found five bright orange gold coins inside.
"Good stuff." Gervis exclaimed in his heart, then stuffed the cloth bag of gold coins into his chain mail.
After stuffing the gold coins, Gervis was about to go to the second floor to check on Ik. But when he turned around, he saw that Ik had stood up by himself and walked to the stairs. He held the sword in one hand and covered his stomach with the other, and blood was dripping from his palm to the ground.
Although the fight was fierce, the whole process actually took only about ten breaths. It took only eight or nine breaths from Ike falling to the ground to Benny running away. Seeing so much blood oozing out of Ike's abdomen, Gervis was horrified, "Ike, don't move, the enemy has already run away!"
After speaking to Ike, Gervis turned to Jimmy who had just come running over and said, "Jimmy, hurry up and boil some hot water!"
"Yes, sir!" As a cook, Jimmy's resting place was a little far away, at the back of the kitchen. There were several compartments specially for the cooks to live in and guard the stored food to prevent it from being stolen or tampered with, so he was not woken up immediately.
"Thomas, you and Laurie tie this man up with a rope first, and then you go to the town to find some needle and thread!"
"Yes, my lord Baron!" Thomas and Laurie immediately pushed the captured Benny's men downstairs. In addition to Johnny, another servant held a torch in front of them to provide them with light.
After arranging everything, Gervis hurried forward to support Ike and took him to the guest room on the second floor. Johnny held a torch and kept lighting the way for Gervis. He followed behind Gervis without daring to make a sound. This was the first time he had encountered such a thing in his twenty-three years.
After pushing open the nearest guest room, Gervis quickly helped Ike to lie down. Ike's hands were shaking a little at this moment, and his lips looked pale due to excessive blood loss. Gervis did not dare to neglect it, and quickly opened the buckle of Ike's leather armor and took it off.
Because Ike was standing in the corridor at that time, higher than Benny and his men, the sword stabbed directly into Ike's belly button, two inches below it. The sword pierced through the leather armor and then stabbed into Ike's body.
After taking off the wallet, Gervis took a quick look at it, then pressed a large piece of cloth tightly on Ike's wound, and at the same time heaved a sigh of relief.
There was a long wound on Ike's abdomen, and although there was a lot of blood, because he dodged to the side in time, the sword only passed through his abdomen instead of directly piercing into his abdomen. Although the wound was a bit deep, as long as his internal organs were not injured, he still had a chance to survive.
"What's your name? Come here and help me press on Ike's wound. I'll go upstairs to get some medicine!" Gervis turned his head. The hot water had not been boiled yet, so he wanted to go to his room and get some medicine to treat the knife wound.
"Okay... okay, Baron! My name is Johnny!" Johnny heard the Baron's order and hurried forward, imitating Gervis's behavior and pressing the cloth hard on Ik's wound!
"You did a great job, Johnny!" Hearing the servant's name, Gervis realized that he was the one who discovered Benny and the other two sneaking into the castle at night, so Gervis praised him. Then he took the torch from him and walked quickly upstairs.
When Gervis came, Gandalf prepared some powder for him to treat knife wounds. It should be similar to the ancient golden wound medicine on Earth. Although it is not known how effective it is, since Gandalf prepared it, it means that he can still use it. It is better to have it than nothing.
When Gervis returned to the guest room, Thomas and Jimmy had already returned, and needlework and hot water were ready.
Gervis didn't have much experience. As an Earthling, he had only read a few more novels than these people and had more common sense.
Gervis first wiped Ik's wound carefully, then gritted his teeth and sewed up the wound. Although the wound sutured by Gervis looked so ugly that it was unbearable to look at, at least Ik's bleeding had stopped. Gervis picked up the cloth boiled in water again, wiped the wound, and then applied medicine powder on the wound. After everything was done, he wrapped it around Ik's waist for more than ten times.
Thomas and his friends were stunned when they saw Gervis's operation. It turned out that needles and thread can not only sew clothes, but also sew wounds. This overturned their three views.
"Thomas, remember to have someone change Ike's dressing every day!" After everything was done, looking at Ike who had already fallen asleep, Gervis had nothing else to do. There were no antibiotics in this world, and Ike could only rely on himself from now on!
"Yes! Sir!"
"I'll go to the study first. You and Laurie interrogate the guard and find out what happened tonight!" Gervis rubbed his temple. He could never have imagined that he would encounter such a thing on his first day in the territory. Fortunately, Benny was not targeting him, otherwise he might have really capsized in the gutter.
"If only there were muskets!"
Gervis suddenly remembered the sharp weapons from his previous life. In this narrow corridor, if he had a musket, he could definitely knock down Benny and the other two.
I am not a titled knight yet, and in fact, I am no different from an ordinary person.
"It seems I have to practice hard, but I don't know if the original owner's weak talent can practice fast enough!"
Although he had eaten the golden fruit, Gervis still felt a little guilty. But no matter what, after arranging the affairs of the territory in the next few days, he must start practicing as soon as possible so that he would have the strength to ensure his own safety.
As for the musket, Gervis had the blueprint in his mind, but it was a pity that there was no saltpeter in this world, otherwise he could make a few for self-defense.
…
In the study, it was already late at night. After more than an hour of interrogation, Benny's men had told everything, including how he had followed Benny to rape the girl, how he had lived in the guest room of the castle, and how he had gone to the mountain village today to rape someone else's bride in the name of exercising the right of virginity.
"So these three people are truly unforgivable! The funny thing is that they are only worried that I will hang them for living in the castle's guest rooms, but they don't think they will die for their misdeeds in the territory!" Gervis had a gloomy face and was furious. It had only been more than a month since he came here. Although he instinctively realized that under the feudal aristocracy system, common people would definitely be exploited by the nobles, he did not expect it to come to this point.
A small captain of the guards, without any title, dared to do such a heinous thing, and the victimized serfs did not dare to take any action, not even to come forward to question him.
Did the girl's parents not love their daughter? No, it was because they knew that even if they came to question Benny, it would be in vain. Benny held the highest authority in this territory, controlling their life and death, just like the right of first night in this world. It seemed incredible to Gervis, but such an incredible thing could prevail in this world.
When an excessive rule appears for the first time, it will certainly be met with strong opposition and resistance. However, when this resistance is extinguished again and again, and the excessive rules are implemented day by day, then over time, people will silently accept it and get used to it.
"Yes, sir!" Thomas stood trembling in front of the desk. Although the time he was assigned to Gervis by the Earl was very short, as an experienced butler, he was very good at observing people's words and expressions. In just three or four days, he had a general understanding of Gervis's character. Gervis was kind to others and not as mean as those nobles. This was the first time he saw Gervis so angry.
"Sir, should the other guards be arrested and punished as well?" Thomas asked carefully.
"No need. Since they didn't follow Benny to do anything harmful to the territory, I will spare them this time. You can tell them when they come back." Civilized thinking still dominated Gervis's mind. He would not kill other guards just because they were forced to live in the guest rooms. This kind of thing was not a big deal to Gervis, especially since the castle did not belong to him at that time.
"Praise your kindness, sir! I will tell them about your kindness to them." After hearing that Gervis did not punish the guards, Thomas praised him generously.
After praising Gervis, Thomas handed an envelope to Gervis, "Sir, this is the envelope I just found in the guest room where Benny stayed!"
Gervais took the envelope. There was no signature on it, and there were traces of sealing wax on the outer shell. It was obvious that Benny had read the letter because the sealing wax on the envelope had fallen off.
So Gervis opened the envelope, took out the letter and read it.
"Thomas, come and take a look!" After reading the envelope, Gervis's face became even gloomier. He put the envelope on the desk, said something to Thomas, and then began to think.
The wax on the envelope indicates that the envelope is very credible, because only nobles would use wax to seal letters when delivering important information. As long as someone opens the envelope during the delivery process, the wax will fall off, letting the recipient know that the information has been leaked.
There was not much content in the envelope. It was a letter from a Viscount named Lanny to Benny. The main content of the letter was that Viscount Lanny would mine ore within the buffer zone.
This was actually a very normal thing. As a viscount, it was not unusual to mine the buffer zone on the edge of his territory. However, this viscount wrote a letter to inform a small guard captain.
The reason lies in the location of the mining. The mining location is not in the buffer zone on the side of Viscount Lanny's territory, but a large part of it is in the buffer zone on the edge of Gervis' territory.
And the most intriguing thing is that Viscount Lanny mentioned that in order to prevent wild beasts from attacking miners, he will build a wooden wall in the buffer zone and station a small number of soldiers to guard against wild beasts.
(End of this chapter)
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