Chapter 44: 16 The Beautiful Scenery of Hongdu River

Chapter 44: 16. The Fine Scenery of the Red Venom River

The party had not traveled far when they saw Druchi, dressed as a Thornfamily servant, waiting for Wate by the roadside.

Ryan looked at Wate and teased, "Your servant."

"Ryan, go check it out. Be careful."

Ryan flipped off his Cold Lizard immediately, gripping his sword hilt in his left hand as he approached warily. The servant respectfully offered a gold-velvet pouch. Ryan drew his noble rapier, hooked it onto the drawstring of the pouch, and said, "You can get lost now!"

Dacus nudged Ryan with his chin and said, "See that? Learn from it. This is most likely sent by your dear brothers."

Ryan walked back, drew the serrated short dagger from his boot, slit the edge of the velvet pouch, and emptied the contents. There were no needles or blades, only a letter. Ryan took a pair of gloves from the saddlebag, put them on, and carefully inspected the envelope.

Alisha also dismounted and leaned in to check the letter for magic or poison.

With a serious expression, Ryan said to Dacus, "My Lord, it should be fine." Having said that, he handed the envelope forward.

The envelope was of high quality, sealed with an exquisite and beautiful wax stamp bearing the Thornfamily crest. Dacus opened the letter, scanned it a few times, and handed it to Wate with a frown. "I am not feeling very well right now. This was written to you by your dear brother."

Wate opened the letter and glanced at it; the handwriting was hurried, as if it had just been written.

*To my dear brother:*

*I hope you are having a pleasant time under the command of His Excellency Dacus Hell-Calamity. May you enjoy health and longevity.*

*Give my regards to His Excellency Dacus Hell-Calamity.*

*Your brother, Byson Thorn.*

There were only these two sentences in the letter. After reading it, Wate said, "My Lord, this was written to me by my third brother." He then folded the letter and placed it back into the saddlebag.

"Hmm, you should keep that. What a fine souvenir. If I were you, I would frame it and place it in the most prominent spot."

Wate froze for a moment, then replied, "My Lord, you are right."

Upon exiting the noble district, a squad of city guards was waiting there to guide Dacus's party out of the city. The procession wound through twisting, narrow streets where pedestrians were sparse and moved with hurried steps.

Early in the morning, the sounds of clashing blades and battle cries echoed from the alleys beside the commoner streets. The city's gangs were beginning their daily morning drills, yet the passing city guards seemed deaf to it all, continuing their march forward.

Dacus observed the buildings on both sides of the road; there wasn't even a single streetlamp, only the dim, yellowish candlelight filtering through small windows of the roadside houses. He could faintly hear the sounds of children crying, cursing, screaming, objects colliding, and groaning coming from within.

"Holy shit! What kind of hellhole is this? The local customs are certainly... 'simple.' If I were walking alone, I'd definitely get lost in a loop. Good thing I started as a Company Dog; if I were a street urchin, I'd be dead by now."

The policies and decrees of every major city in Druchi were different and bizarre. For instance, the headquarters of the Cain Sect in Hal-Gansi had the best security; there, murder, theft, and public debauchery were considered crimes, and there was only one punishment for offenders: sacrifice to Cain. This was a source of great agony for the Druchi living there, who could only release their inner joy through death at midnight. Kalonde-Kar forbade the hunting of Harpies; Haig-Grave had strange rituals; and the southernmost Kracallonde was free and open, where anything went.

So, exactly how many people lived in Druchi?

After passing through the Screaming Gate, there were two roads. One ran along the south bank of the Red Venom River toward the distant forest camp, which was Dacus's destination for this trip. The other led to the Venom Woods, a small town populated by military families or commoner Druchi escaping the big cities; it housed barracks and supply distribution centers that regularly replenished the various forest camps.

The Red Venom River originated deep within the Black Spine Mountains. About eighty meters wide, the river cut through the Shadow Forest, passing through Kracallonde before flowing into the Malice Sea. The water was filthy and turbid. The cold mountain wind whistled past, tossing Dacus's hair, and walking along the riverside road, one could smell a faint scent of sulfur.

Every Tuesday was Wood Day. Soldiers would direct slaves to pull large wagons to the riverbank and push black pine logs into the water. The black pine would drift down the Red Venom River to the shallows at the mouth of the river on the eastern bank of Kracallonde. There, slaves would haul the timber ashore. The dried wood would be used to construct various ships, ballistae, and chariots, adding bricks and mortar to Druchi's war machine.

Dacus admired the surrounding scenery. The black pine forests that had been stripped bare by logging over thousands of years had now turned into endless noble estates and plantations. By connecting the underground sea of Haig-Grave and Nagalonde to the Malice Sea, they provided a continuous stream of food to the northern cities; the fields were already sown with crops similar to winter wheat.

"Like the barge pullers on the Volga and the Helots of a southern paradise."

The nobles rode their Cold Lizards, trailing behind the main party. Dacus nodded to Alisha, who, accompanied by two beast tamers, took to the sky on Dark Pegasi to begin reconnaissance.

"Wate, do your dear brothers have estates south of the Red Venom River?"

"My Lord, they do. Eight kilometers outside the city, my second and third brothers both have estates there."

Dacus gave a sinister laugh. "Do you think we will be ambushed?"

Flaneys said steadily and calmly, "My Lord, I do not believe there will be an ambush. It is winter, and the adjacent fields are bare. Even if ambushers were hiding behind haystacks or woodpiles, they would be too conspicuous—unless they had dug soldier pits in the fields beforehand."

Ryan added, "Could there be barges setting out from the city, heading upstream? And then the ambushers charge out from the estates?"

Dacus shook his head. "Unlikely. The risk is too high, unless those ambitious families banded together to go all-in with every card they have." He paused and stretched. "Boring. Let's not talk about that. I want to try my 'Gale of the Claw' now. Don't control your mounts."

"Big Guy, turn around."

The Great-Horned Cold Lizard beneath Dacus was a size smaller than the others. The Great-Horned Cold Lizard let out a low neigh, and the five nobles' Cold Lizards instantly turned in place.

"Big Guy, charge!"

The five Cold Lizards began a trot and gradually accelerated. Once they gained speed, Dacus ordered them to slow down. Big Guy glanced at him, seemingly asking for clarification, but the speed did indeed gradually decrease. He then tested several more difficult tactical coordination maneuvers.

The Takaya brothers and Wate were used to this, and Ryan even raised his hands exaggeratedly. Baine asked curiously, "My Lord, are you a beast tamer?"

Dacus burst into laughter. "You could say that."