Chapter 30: Post-War Stocktaking (2)

Knight Eric Bernard knew the island well, having brought the surrendered Red Beard Hel with him when he raided the pirates' hideout. Also, the pirates' hideout relied on secrecy, and there were no guards at all. As a seventh-level knight, he single-handedly killed all the dozens of pirates left behind and seized their belongings.

Knight Eric Bernard was rewarded with 500 gold coins for his bravery and excellence in battle. Well, mainly for bringing back the pretty little lady for Christine.

The other soldiers who took part in the battle received no reward for their lack of achievement. Christine allocated extra fields to the soldiers as military supplies, so they were obliged to fight for their master. Therefore, they were rewarded for their efforts and compensated for their deaths.

Salzao Harbour, Harbour Master's Office.

The two fox girls had been well fed and cared for since their capture, and although they had fallen into the hands of pirates, they had not been mistreated. But they knew their lives would be miserable in the future, and the mental pressure made them look depressed, which made them seem even more pitiful.

Kristin, who was sitting in the main seat, said, 'I am Baron Stewart of the Kingdom of France. What are your names?

My name is Milisa and hers is Misa,' replied one of the fox girls.

Since they were to be sold to nobles, they had been trained beforehand, of course, and were not without a backbone to resist. However, the professional slave catchers had many ways to punish them, and in the end not many of them managed to hold out, so they obediently answered the human nobleman's questions.

You were captured by me from pirates, which means that you are my booty.

Orcs and humans alike treated slaves as objects, so the fox girl didn't feel badly about Kristen speaking like that, and could only secretly lament their fate.

Then Christine said, 'As a woman, I can understand your situation, so I will allow you to write to your family, as long as you can pay a sufficient ransom to let you go back.

Despite the hostility between Orcs and Humans, there are still channels for private communication. On the battlefield, whether it is an orc capturing a human noble or a human capturing an orc leader, prisoner exchanges can be made in secret.

It's not a civilised war. For the human nobles, no one can say for sure that there won't be accidents on the battlefield, so it's seen as leaving themselves a way out. For the orcs, killing the human nobles is not as good as trading them for supplies, so this is considered an unspoken rule.

Now that Christine has asked the twin sisters to write a letter to the family to pay the ransom, this can be considered a great favour.

However, after hearing this, the fox girl's face showed a sad expression, and she said, "Thank you for your kindness, but we no longer have a family, and no one will pay the ransom for us.

Judging by their appearance, they were not from an ordinary fox family, but that was none of Christine's business. She had already shown kindness, and she could not let the twins go for nothing if the other party could not pay the ransom.

So she summoned the priest of the God of Order to issue a certificate proving that the fox twins were the slaves of Baron Stewart.

It didn't matter which raiding party or mercenary group had captured the fox girls, or which nobleman had bought them and paid the ransom. What Christine had taken from the pirates belonged to her.

Besides, Red Beard Hel was there, and the whole story was clear.

Of course, if you were buying something like jewellery or cultural relics, and a nobleman came knocking on the door with proof that it belonged to the other party, the buyer would have to agree to let the nobleman buy it back for the price he paid.

This is because there are many nobles in the mainland countries, and often thieves, robbers or pirates steal from nobles and sell their family heirlooms elsewhere.

That is why there is such a clause in the Noble Convention. After all, no one dares to say that their family will not be robbed by thieves, and how can they face their ancestors if they lose their ancestral objects? After believers die in this world, they go to the Kingdom of God. In principle, the direct descendants of a family all believe in the same God. When they meet their ancestors in the Kingdom of God, they will really slap them with their round arms and big mouths. This is not all. The longer the history, the more ancestors there are, and there are still people queuing up to be slapped.

Thanks to divine magic, neither the noble who lost the item nor the noble who bought it can lie, which ensures that this rule is enforced.

However, the fox slave does not fall into this category. Even if the noble who bought it really did pay first, she has no right to ask for it back. After all, no family can own an orc slave who is in her 20s.

The fox girl was prepared for her fate. Now that she had discovered that her owner was a beautiful and kind girl, she felt that it was much better than being sold to an unknown buyer, and her attitude became much more obedient.

Christine took the fox girl back to the castle and sold the goods she had taken from the pirates on the spot.

To prevent such attacks from happening again, Knight Eric Bernard stationed his squires at Porto Salvo until the Mage Tower was completed.

Stewart Castle, Tower Laboratory.

Christine knocked on Master Adalbert Morningstar's door.

'Good afternoon, Master Adalbert.

'Christine, come in.

'Master Adalbert, thank you for saving Sarzow Harbour.

'Christine, you are too kind. I was there, so of course I couldn't just stand by and do nothing.'

Then thank you very much.

Christine then had her servant bring in two boxes which, when opened, were full of shining gold coins.

'Master Adret, these are 20,000 gold coins, as a token of my gratitude for your help and as a reward for your efforts.

'Thank you very much.

There is no prevarication or false modesty in this world. If you don't want something, just say no. If you want something, just take it.

Master Adret, then I take my leave.

Asking a master mage of 15th level to lend you a hand for 5,000 gold coins is the most basic of things. And as anyone can see, in the blink of an eye, more than 500 pirates were killed and the Wizards' Tower construction site was left unscathed.

The four three-masted sailing ships and six two-masted sailing ships that carried the pirates over are considered spoils of war, and Christine could have kept them for herself, but she chose to give them to Master Adret for 15,000 gold coins, half of their estimated value.

Her aim was to bring the two sides closer together. After all, the other party was a 15th level mage, and she would inevitably need to ask for advice in the future.

Although 20,000 gold coins were spent on this raid, the haul included five three-masted sailing ships, eleven two-masted sailing ships, 5,000 gold coins worth of goods, a pair of magnificent twin fox girls, and more than 200 pirate slaves. It was a bloodbath.

Christine had originally set aside nearly 80,000 gold coins to build the Mage Tower, but later spent 5,000 on the ceremony to inherit the title, and Count Rainer paid 10,000 in compensation. After adding the 5,000 from the pirates and subtracting the 20,000 given to Master Adret, she was left with 70,000 gold coins, a shortfall of 50,000.

But this was no problem. Even the Baron of Lorient had tens of thousands of gold coins, not to mention the wealthy Stewart family.