A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 202: Chapter 161: Commission from the Lord (Ben Meow starts gaining weight for winter)_2

Usually, those Thalmer Elves would have already apprehended any human brazen enough to sing that song, using various reasons to justify their actions. But now, with the destruction of the Thalmer Fortress, these arrogant High Elves could only cower in the embassy, trembling in fear, refusing to step out, for fear that they might be the next ones to be impaled by a spear and displayed in the snow.

Understandably, this occasion was met with applause from the people of Sky Province, who relished the opportunity to vent their pent-up frustrations.

Amid the cheerful exclamations of the tavern patrons, however, Duanmu Huai noticed that the tavern owner approached him with a serious look on his face. Walking up to Duanmu Huai, he spoke in hushed tones.

“Apologies for the interruption, warrior, but the Lord requests your presence……”

“Oh?”

On hearing about the message from the tavern owner, Duanmu Huai paused. While this continent did have adventurers, there were no organizations such as the Adventurer Association. Typically, if adventurers wished to find commissions or work, they would approach the tavern’s owner, who would usually get hold of bounty papers or rewards of some sort from the Lord’s subordinates.

Fuxis, where Duanmu Huai currently resided, was one of the nine territories in Sky Province. Located deep within a densely forested region, it wasn’t easy to reach, but it was an excellent place for recuperation. Thus, Duanmu Huai chose to stay in Fuxis during the time it took for the Thalmer to wage war. Of course, occasionally he also undertook a few commissions to exterminate brigands or to eliminate beasts the locals couldn’t handle, earning him a fair amount of fame in the region.

However… why might the Lord be seeking him out?

Could it be that he intends to ask him to investigate the murderers of the Thalmer Elves? As hilarious as that sounds… surely not?

“Understood, I’ll check it out.”

With that thought in mind, Duanmu Huai rose, exiting the tavern in the company of Greiya, heading towards the Lord’s Hall.

Having stayed in Sky Province for this long, Duanmu Huai had developed a preliminary understanding of the place. In simple words, it was — ‘vast and sparsely populated’.

Take Sky Province for example, it was divided into nine territories controlled by nine lords, all of whom reported to the Supreme King of the Sky – a fancy title when it essentially meant the Governor. As for the nine lords, they were equal to the mayors of nine cities.

Typically, each domain governed by a lord comprised a central city and two to three villages. Each village inhabited by little less than a couple of hundred people and cities housing slightly more, but never exceeding a thousand individuals.

One can imagine that with such a small population, there were hardly any soldiers. A lord’s direct force consisted of only a few hundred soldiers, and each village’s security team maxed out at a few dozen.

In comparison, the Holy City Area where Lorena resided had a central city population exceeding fifty thousand people, with surrounding towns and villages each accommodating three to four thousand residents.

Manaria’s two central cities had a minimum combined population of a hundred thousand, not to mention that the small towns and villages around had at least a population of one or two thousand.

Even if they can’t be compared to the modern megacities that have hundreds of millions of inhabitants, it is evident that Manaria and the Holy City are, at the very least considering the current level of civilization, head and shoulders above Sky Province – even the Imperial – in terms of both population quantity and quality.

In other words, the Imperial was just high on land, and practically didn’t have enough soldier reserves due to years of warfare.

The same was true for Fuxis. The total population of the entire city of Fuxis was less than three thousand, even less than the population of a school during Duanmu Huai’s era.

Shortly after, both of them arrived at the Lord’s Hall and met the lord of Fuxis, Sidger.

Compared to other lords, Sidger was relatively young, looking to be in his twenties. The lordship was initially held by his uncle, but as his uncle aged, Sidger had become the new lord.

Well, that wasn’t important.

“Are you the Steel Warrior from the rumors?”

Seeing Duanmu Huai, the young lord was taken aback. He widened his eyes in surprise, sizing Duanmu Huai up and down before nodding his head.

“I’ve heard a considerable number of rumors about you. I thought they would have been exaggerated, but it seems that might not be the case.”

Duanmu Huai chose not to respond to Lord’s comment — that’s the advantage of looking fierce after all, people would believe he had slain a dragon.

Indeed, he had killed before.

“Let’s get to the point.”

Saying this, Sidger composed his expression, gazing seriously at Duanmu Huai as he explained his commission.

In short, it was a commission concerning the small town he governed — Locques.

According to Sidger, bizarre occurrences had started in Locques several months ago. First, bodies in the graveyard began to disappear inexplicably. Their graves were dug up, and the bodies inside were nowhere to be found. When the furious townsfolk went looking for the graveyard’s priest for answers, they found that the priest had also vanished.

Afterwards, in an effort to figure out what was happening, the townspeople formed their own patrol groups to guard the town at night. Yet… more people went missing.

And so now, nearly the entire town had descended into a state of panic. Every night, people locked their doors tightly, not daring to step out, and they had sent a number of pleas for assistance to Sidger.

“Although I’ve dispatched soldiers to investigate numerous times, suspecting that perhaps a necromancer was behind all this, we haven’t managed to uncover anything. Not only that… even my uncle was killed!”

Say, at this point, a furious Sidger slammed his clenched fist down onto the armrest of his chair — during the last patrol, his uncle, a martial guard, had led a team to investigate. However, a day after his arrival, he was found silently deceased in his bed by a guard.

“This is a blatant provocation against Lord Siefrig! We absolutely cannot tolerate such behavior!”

Under such circumstances, Sidger, of course, wouldn’t choose to back down. Coincidentally, he’d recently heard about Duanmu Huai’s deeds as a “Steel Warrior,” and summoned him.

“My request is simple; thoroughly investigate this matter and find out who is responsible. The one who killed my uncle must also be apprehended. If you can complete this task, I will specially allocate a piece of land within Siefrig for you! And appoint you as a Baron!”

Look, with an expanse and small population, land is easily given away.

It’s not worth much anyway, right?

“Understood, I’ll go and take a look.”

While he wasn`t too concerned about the reward, Duanmu Huai was indeed interested in this commission. After all, wasn’t such a storyline more interesting than dealing with bandits or wild beasts?

“Sir Knight, are we really going?”

After leaving the Lord’s Hall, Greiya looked somewhat pale. It’s fair to say that the story told by Sidger had genuinely terrified her.

“Of course, don’t you think it’s interesting? Besides, we’re free anyway, isn’t it good to pass the time with such an interesting commission? Better than dealing with bandits and robbers.”

“…Indeed.”

Duanmu Huai did not tell Greiya that the reason he accepted this commission, aside from it being an interesting story, also triggered a system task prompt.

[Activate Hidden Task “Dark Haze”]

[Task goal: Investigate the secret of Locques] n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

[As you embark on this journey, you cannot imagine what you will face is no ordinary adventure.]

Didn’t you just spell it all out?

Seeing the system prompt in front of him, Duanmu Huai couldn’t help but retort silently.

Regardless, it was clear that the events happening in Locques were not as simple as they seemed.