...
"You've stolen my property—you don't get to negotiate terms with me."
"If you want forgiveness, come out and submit right now."
Thane didn't budge just because they were backing down, saying calmly: "I can let everyone live, but you're getting punished."
In places like the Northern Borderlands wilderness, compromise often looked like weakness.
Thane could show mercy after dishing out punishment, but he couldn't back down because of a few words from rebels.
Like they say, a lord can give to you, but you can't take from him.
"Alright, we'll submit."
With those words, Ryan and six other hunters finally came out of the back wooden house.
Thane waved his hand, and soldiers quickly moved in to take their weapons.
Then Pamin went into the wooden house to search and sure enough found a secret passage leading outside.
This passage was in the cellar under the wooden house—through the cellar it went straight outside the village.
If not for some of these hunters having family members who'd been captured, they would've already bailed through the passage.
Secret passages were really sweet—Thane was a big fan.
He'd definitely need them in his future castle.
Usually for stashing stuff, but they could save your hide when things got hairy.
"We've already given up—you don't need to treat us like this."
Ryan looked at the soldiers guarding them and spoke up: "We're not gonna fight anymore."
"This is how you're getting treated."
Thane looked at Ryan: "As punishment, all property belonging to you seven gets confiscated, and you'll work for me like slaves for five years. During that time I'll provide food and housing. After five years, I'll give you some property based on how well you do, and you'll get your freedom back to become citizens of Fontdmer Town."
Ryan exchanged looks with the others and nodded: "We accept, but we only know hunting, not farming."
"I'll figure something out and won't waste your skills."
For Thane, whether the mountain folk could or couldn't farm didn't matter much.
He didn't have the energy to develop the Blackstone Mountains big-time right now. The only thing he wanted was the iron ore in the mountains.
A few people could stay stationed here, but most would still need to relocate to Fontdmer Town.
Fontdmer Town had mountains, water, and farmland, with the population nowhere near maxed out.
As for the others who'd surrendered first, Thane only confiscated eighty percent of their stuff as punishment.
As night fell, the village gradually chilled out.
Pamin followed Thane's orders to have people bandage the wounded, while soldiers got the women to cook food.
After a full day of traveling, everyone was starving.
Thane wandered around the village, taking stock of his loot.
These Blackstone Mountain people were way better off than Thane had expected. Just cured meat filled an entire wooden house, plus all kinds of dried mushrooms, wild veggies, nuts, and dried fruits.
On top of that, Thane found a huge jar of honey.
In this era when getting sugar was a pain in the ass, especially in the Northern Borderlands wilderness, honey made everything taste amazing.
What made Thane even happier was a pile of ore under the shelters.
Thane conservatively estimated about 6,600 pounds.
There were also over ninety various animal hides, mostly wolf and deer pelts, both fresh and old.
What they had least of was grain like rye—searching most of the village turned up less than 1,100 pounds. Even rationing carefully, these villagers couldn't make it ten days.
"Baron, I trusted you so much, and you used me!"
Just as Thane was basking in the joy of his haul, Maxim walked over, pissed off:
"You've crossed the line!"
"Is your head made of wax? Or did you move your brain to your ass?"
Thane turned around slowly. Facing Maxim's accusations, he felt zero guilt, instead frowning in puzzled annoyance:
"These mountain people are dumb as rocks—don't you get it?"
"What's my problem?"
Faced with Thane's cold and ticked-off expression, angry Maxim instantly got confused.
"They illegally squatted on my land, mined my ore, hunted beasts in the mountains, like bandits constantly stealing my property, forcing me to put together armies during peak farming season to deal with them."
"And you, as my friend, actually traded with these bandits, trampling Imperial Law and a lord's dignity."
"But I not only didn't call you out on it, I rolled out the red carpet for you."
"Now I just borrowed your caravan to wipe out these bandits and take back my own land."
"You're saying I crossed the line?"
Thane stared at Maxim:
"Mr. Maxim, now please tell me—where exactly did I cross the line?"
"From start to finish, did I demand even one extra gold coin? Did I grab even one extra piece of land?"
Thane's voice was calm but powerful, carrying a hint of bottled-up and released frustration. Not only did Maxim hear it, but the busy soldiers and mountain people around also heard.
They couldn't help but stop what they were doing to look over, and the small stronghold suddenly went dead quiet.
Yeah, the lord just wanted his land back—what was wrong with that?
Clearly born into nobility, yet barely of age he was shipped off to a place like the Northern Borderlands wilderness, now having to rack his brains to defend his own territory.
Was this too much?
In an instant, Pamin and the others all felt like Thane was getting the rawest deal.
He wasn't wrong.
Maxim sighed quietly.
"I apologize for what I said just now. I'm sorry."
Maxim stepped forward and said quietly: "I didn't know they were defying you as their lord, or I wouldn't have traded with them."
"Exactly because of that, I didn't come after you for it and I'm still willing to do business with you."
Thane's expression softened a bit as he said calmly: "I won't drag you into this mess because of what happened. Your caravan can keep trading. I can sell you hides and herbs, plus that cured meat and mushrooms."
Strategic stuff like ore—Thane temporarily couldn't possibly sell any of that.
"You really are a generous and big-hearted lord, Baron."
Maxim breathed a sigh of relief and spoke with slight hesitation: "I also ask that you... don't be too hard on them when you punish them."
"Am I a lord who doesn't keep his word?"
Thane said irritably: "I just said that as long as they work honestly for me, I won't give them a hard time."
"You can explain that to them too."
"That's awesome!"
Maxim felt relieved and smiled happily: "I also hope today's events won't mess up our friendship."
"Of course, we're still friends. I hope you don't forget about those slaves you promised me."
Thane responded readily without hesitation, finally cracking a smile.
The importance of merchants to a territory was obvious.
Thane still had a good opinion of Maxim as a merchant.
As long as Maxim didn't hold a grudge, Thane was willing to stay on good terms with him.
"No problem, next time I'll definitely bring you slaves."
Maxim confidently promised Thane, then suddenly remembered something, bent down close to Thane and whispered:
"There's a surprise here you're gonna absolutely love!"
"A surprise?"
Thane was kind of surprised.
What surprise could there be here?
"Follow me. You'd find it later anyway, but I want to show you right now."
Maxim headed toward the wooden house storing the wyvern eggs, and Thane hurried to follow.
"ROOOAAAAR!"
Just then, a bone-chilling roar suddenly echoed from the forest behind them.
Thane's body immediately went rigid, instinctively looking toward the sound.
Under the dim moonlight, a massive black shadow flapped its wings hovering in the air, gradually approaching the village.
"Maxim, is this the surprise you were talking about?"