Translator: Wuxia Dog Editor: Wuxia Dog
According to Reg, the village that his father was born in had no name in the past. His father named it ‘Green Garden’ after becoming the regimental commander. Just like the name implied, the village was a place full of greenery. His father had tried his best and finally obtained a tax exemption license for the villagers, turning the village into a real land of ease and comfort.
In the morning, they finally arrived at Green Garden. Reg looked at the scene before him quietly with his chest heaving up and down dramatically. Apparently, he was very excited to be back. Green Garden was not exactly an isolated village. Due to the protection of the former Regimental Commander, Conrad, the municipal officers never dared to harass the villagers, which allowed the villagers to live life in peace for over ten years.
It might be that the farmers had fewer chances to receive favors. Therefore, they were much more grateful than nobles and more easily moved. The day when Knight Conrad was buried, all the villagers, both men and women, young and old, came to bid farewell to him and wailed at his tombstone sincerely. Their grief was by no means less than that of Reg’s. Some even wailed there for several days, something that even Reg himself didn’t do.
Reg’s eyes turned red when talking about the past. He said he couldn’t understand his father until the day he saw the villagers.
By right, Knight Conrad should have been buried near the headquarters of the Riptide Regiment in Beit City since he had spent most of his time there and made many contributions to the Riptide Regiment; plus he was well respected there.
But Reg understood faintly that his father didn’t want such kind of life at all. He didn’t take the position of regimental commander willingly; the cruelness of reality had pushed him to it. It might be that… his father had always wished to go back to the small village and live under the company of blue sky and white clouds when he was busy with the affairs of the regiment. Otherwise, why would his father not blame him when he made such a decision which was despised by the entire family? His father had tolerated him because his father felt that it was too tiring for him and hadn’t wanted his own son to take the same disastrous road.
Perhaps Reg’s inner heart was filled with complex feelings or too much guilt as he came back to his hometown because he had almost stepped into a morbid mentality as he spared no trouble telling them his father’s story.
Han Jin and the others all felt curious. They had never thought there would be such an extraordinary man in this world.
The Riptide Regiment was the top regiment of Beitman; it had an extremely strong force that allowed it to maintain its freedom from any of the four castellans. Otherwise, if any of the castellans took control of the regiment, the other three would try to start a war against him because if any of them had gotten the support of the regiment, he would be able to conquer the entirety of Beitman sooner or later. No one would resign themselves to extinction. That’s why the Riptide Regiment stood outside the force of the four castellans all the time. This was the only way to exclude the possibility of a civil war.
A man who took control over such a regiment could, of course, do many things such as taking over manor estates and gather fortunes. These were easy for Knight Conrad but he never tried to obtain profit for himself. Even after his death, Reg, his only son, had to sell his family properties to buy a coffin for his father and escort him back to his hometown. Reg also moved his mother’s coffin and buried her beside his father. These had almost cost him all of his fortunes which meant that the weapons and soft armors that Reg had now were all earned by himself and were not inherited from his father.
An honest leader will be well respected but a leader that was honest to such an extent was pitiful.
The giant tortoise broke into Green Garden and ran on a hillside under the sunshine. Beneath the slope was the small village where the villagers lived. Han Jin suddenly felt that something was wrong. Why was there no smoke rising from any kitchen chimneys?
At the same time, Reg shouted, “Wait, wait!!”
Han Jin stopped the giant tortoise immediately. Reg jumped down, ran along a path and went into the woods. Han Jin knew that inside the woods was the tomb of Reg’s parents. Out of courtesy, he left the giant tortoise outside and walked into the woods together with the others.
There was no graveyard but only a large hole in the ground, from which a large amount of yellow-brown water was flowing out. Around the hole were numerous broken bricks scattered about in a mess. Reg stood beside the hole blankly, not knowing what had happened.
“What’s the matter?” Moxinke exclaimed.
“Who did this? Who did this?!” Reg suddenly growled. His eyes turned blood red and blue veins were popping out on his forehead and neck, especially when he was growling. He looked desperate and as if he was going to bite people around him.
Han Jin and the others were all stunned and didn’t know how to calm him down when they saw the nearly crazy Reg. Suddenly, at this moment, Steelberg’s screams came from outside the woods, “Young master, enemies! The enemies are coming towards us!”
Han Jin and the others dashed outside immediately, only to find the giant tortoise surrounded by a group of villagers, who held forks and sticks in their hands, knocking on the tortoise violently. Some were even trying to climb onto its shell. Sylner and the other two mercenaries were desperately defending themselves. The attackers were all the elderly and the women from the village, thus they dared not to attack back. All they could do was push the attackers away, but the villagers kept coming back regardless of the consequences and kept hitting the tortoise with their forks and sticks.
“You heartless beasts… give back our men!”
“Such beasts! You have already robbed the old master, why have you come again?!”
“Kill them…”
“Kill them to revenge for the old master! Kill them…!”
The hoarse and sharp sounds of the elderly and the women mixed together with the cries of the children. Sweat was dripping down from Sylner’s forehead while the villagers below were mad. An old man bit her on her wrist when she tried to push him aside. In her eagerness, she threw the old man away heavily due to extreme pain and found several teeth stuck on her wrist. However, the old man didn’t stop. He opened his bleeding mouth and pounced forward again. Such a tough fighting spirit shocked her and gave her a headache.
Sylner could not fight back, nor could she unsheathe her long sword against them. If the situation became even more uncontrolled, the tortoise would be occupied sooner or later! When Sylner saw Han Jin, she screamed immediately, “Help… help us!”
Several women turned around and saw Han Jin as well as the others. Before they shifted from their main battlefield, Reg rushed out of the woods like a fierce tiger and roared, “Who did this?! Who destroyed the graveyard of my father?!”
“Young master Reg?” an old man shouted and showed the expression of both surprise and excitement when he saw Reg. He stumbled up to him, “Young master Reg is back… It’s great! We have help…”
But Reg was still in a crazed state. He grabbed the collar of the old man and lifted him up into the air, “You did this, didn’t you? Tell me! Did you do this?!”
The old man was almost curbed out of breath, his eyes turning white and his lips stuck open but no sound came from his mouth.
All the villagers came to surround Reg, crying and whining. Though Reg looked terrible at this moment, he was still considered their main pillar of support.
From the gabbles, Reg knew that the graveyard of his father was destroyed by Rudolph, the new commander of cavalry of the Riptide Regiment. The coffin of Reg’s father had been taken away and his mother’s was burned on the spot. The men in the village had intended to negotiate with Rudolph at that time, but the negotiation failed and ended very badly. Seven or eight male villagers were killed while the remaining were captured.
Some of the women cried and pointed at the woods, where there were some more mounds of yellow earth under which were the men who had been killed in the conflict. The elders in the village said that since they had received so much favor from Lord Conrad, they must do something to repay him for his kindness. Now that the men died protecting the Lord, they should be buried beside him in the woods.
Reg’s face turned ghastly pale upon hearing this. He turned around and walked toward the woods but with a stumbling of his body, he thudded down straight onto the ground. To Reg, it was a strange feeling; he was actually sober before falling down onto his knees and clearly knew what he should do. The first thing was to find his mother’s remains and bury her again. Then he must discuss with Han Jin and seek help to find out where his father’s coffin had been taken, and get his remains back. Though these were his thoughts, his legs didn’t follow his mind. He wanted to move forward but his legs disobeyed his will. He tried to turn around but couldn’t help himself from falling down again. When seeing the ground getting closer and closer to him, he felt anxious and suddenly, everything turned black before his eyes—he lost consciousness.
Han Jin rushed into the crowd and pushed the villagers aside while Moxinke followed. Han Jin put his fingers on Reg’s wrist. “What are you doing? How is Reg?” Moxinke asked confusedly.
“He’s fine. He was just too agitated.” Han Jin loosened his fingers.
“Why did you not wake him up?”
“Don’t you think that it’s better for him to have a rest at this time?” Han Jin sighed.
“In fact… Reg should have expected this earlier,” Sunier said in a low voice.
“What do you mean?”
“Since those guys already dare to kill him, of course, they dare to do the same dirty things to his father. Anyway, what can a coffin do to them?”
“But Knight Conrad was a very influential man in the Riptide Regiment, wasn’t he? How could they do this?”
“He was only influential when he was still alive. A dead man counts for nothing,” Sunier said with a bitter smile.
They all turned silent. Conrad had contributed so much to the regiment but was treated in this manner after his death. The harsh reality disappointed them all.
Suddenly, Steelberg came and shouted, “Young master, I know where Knight Conrad has been taken. The Ninth Town!”
“How do you know?”
“They told me this,” Steelberg said as he pointed at two women, “Their men have also been taken to the Ninth Town. They went there two days ago sneakily and found the coffin of Knight Conrad in the square. Rudolph gave the order that anyone who spits saliva on the coffin would be rewarded a copper coin and…..”
“Hush!” Han Jin stopped him and looked at Reg. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Reg was still unconscious. God knew how Reg would have reacted to these words if he was awake!
