Chapter 34: Chapter 33 – A bloody five years

“Eight hundred dead,” the Lead Huntress said, sitting on the ground, her head tucked into her legs to hide the tears beginning to form around her eyes and trickle down her face. The Lead Forger said nothing as she chose not to talk to try and subdue her anger.

“Eight hundred?” Charlie said quietly, having an idea of what she was referring to, but also not wanting to find out.

“Eight hundred is the number of our people who have been sacrificed and eaten in the past five years, ever since the Region Lord claimed the land and said he had brought it from the grandmother of the Chiefess,” Nolkonoe said, looking to the Chiefess as she stared down blankly.

“The sacrifices were taken from the Huntresses who had failed to find anything for the tribe to eat. That was about two hundred of the deaths. Another four hundred have come from the Forger clan due to their passion as artisans and forgers in our more warrior-based tribe as Artisans. They were deemed as the least important despite being the biggest, as such, we have taken many of their own as a substitute for Huntresses as sacrifices. The rest came from the other clans,” Nolkonoe said. Placing her hand over her mouth as she struggled to not scream in a mix of pain and sorrow.

“So many are dead, all because we were tricked into paying tax to the Region Lord. All because we thought he had brought the land from one of our ancestors,” the Lead Warrior said, not knowing whether or not to comfort the Lead Huntress or allow her to simply sit in the arms of her equally distressed daughter.

“You were scammed, lied to. He exploited your heritage and lack of understanding of imperial legal documents,” Charlie said, now starting to feel his list of reasons to hate the Region Lord begin to grow.

“I regret to say, but I think we can use this to our advantage,” Charlie said, feeling all stares fixed onto him. A mixture of hatred at what he had just said, and intrigue were present in their glares.

“In imperial law, if a person dies due to a mistake made by the Union or by a crime committed by a union member, the family, or in this case the clan, are entitled to one crowned coin for every person dead. One crowed coin being one hundred thousand coppers. In all, that means your tribe is entitled to 80,000,000 coppers. This combined with the other debt of thirty-eight million I have found would mean the Region Lord and Merchant Union owe your tribe 118,000,000 coppers,” all sat dumbfounded as he said this.

That was far more money than any of them had ever seen, let alone heard of. One Dragona coin was worth one hundred million, and they had spent that on buying Charlie, but now they would have that money back as well as a profit.

“We can also probably try and make them give another hundred million to cover any deaths that were inadvertently caused by the lack of action taken by the Merchant Union in making sure the Region Lord didn’t act out of place. This will be more than enough to bring down the Region Lord. God, we could ruin him completely,” Charlie said, now having the evidence needed to finally be to fight back.

“So then, we can begin to move,” the lead huntress said, standing and wiping her tears from her eyes.

“Yes, but my horse, it would take three months to go to the imperial capital from here. And that’s even considering you have Firm Born horses like we did which can go at a good fifty miles an hour. And you would have to be going all day and night if you don’t have those horses if you want to even get there in three months,” Charlie said, knowing how long it was going to take to enact this revenge.

“Ok then, how long is it until we reach the Region Lords tribe?” the Lead Forger asked.

“Well, if we had the Firm Born horses, then the journey may take a few hours. After all, he was about two hundred miles away and they go at fifty, so yeah, about four horses,” Charlie said, not taking into account how they would have to battle against the sands of the desert, which would add another hour or two to the journey.

“We shall take the Desert Claimers. Show us the direction and I’ll personally deliver the papers to the imperial capital,” the Lead Forger said, staring down Charlie, daring him to challenge her.

“How fast can the Desert Claimers go? And I assume they are those large centipede-like things covered in white fur?” Charlie asked.

“They can go at least ten times faster than a horse at full speed, and yes, they were those creatures with the white fur,” The Lead Forger said.

“Now give me a map and show me where to go,” the Lead Forger said, looking to Nolkonoe who she knew had one. Nolkonoe nodded and ran off. A minute later, she returned. Sprawling the paper on the table, the group gathered around. The map of the continent that they had was quite dated, not showing all landmarks, but showing enough to make their route clear.

“I’ll take this, and I’ll go to the capital and hand-deliver our revenge,” the Lead Forger said, her eyes buzzing with hate and lust for a sadistic want. The Chiefess said a few words in their native tongue, and the Lead Forger sprinted out the door with her heir in tow, and map in hand. Next, the Chiefess said something to Nolkonoe.

“The Chiefess said she would also like to deliver their message to the Region Lord today. So come, let's pay our friend a nice little visit,” Nolkonoe said, getting up and retrieving a spare map.

“Wait what?” Charlie said as the Chiefess scooped him up and threw him over her shoulder.

“I said we are going now, and we need you to make sure we don’t get scammed!” Nolkonoe said as the Chiefess carried him off to his unknown fate.

“Can I get something before we go?” Charlie said, deciding to make the best of a bad decision.

“They all seem quite fired up, so tell me and I’ll decide whether or not it is worth translating,” Nolkonoe said, looking very excited at the prospect of seeing the Region Lord’s face when they present that fact they know about his scams.

“I want to try and write up a contract quickly, I have a surprise,” Charlie said. Nolkonoe thought for a few seconds before translating.

 

An hour passed.

Sitting on the Desert Claimer’s head, the Chiefess angrily stared down at the Lead Huntress. She knelt in front of the creature with a small army of her huntresses.

“I’m not taking you with me!” the Chiefess yelled down at her.

“Take us with you! We want that pig's head!” the Chiefess looked to Charlie who was keeping his contract tucked against his chest. His eyes showed his tiredness as did the bags forming under his eyes. She had no clue reading and writing documents was so exhausting. The Vultures and warriors on the other hand were loading a few large blocks of salt onto the back of the creature.

“I said to take us with you!” the Lead Huntress yelled again.

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“We can’t get our money back if that pig is dead!” the Chiefess yelled in return.

“We don’t care about money! We want his fat ass cooking on a spit!” Klipesia yelled.

“Ah! What did I just say? We will boil him! We can then get more food out of his meat!”

“But he will be in more pain when his ass is spiked with a wooden spear!” The Lead Huntress yelled up to the Chiefess.

“Or really? You want to bet?” The Chiefess retorted. 

“Yeah! Roasting him over a fire is far more painful than boiling him! more people can also watch!” Klipesia yelled.

“How about this, we’ll boil you both, and then decide which is more painful!”

Seeing how the three were only going to become more heated as the argument on how to cook the Region Lord went on, Nolkonoe stood from her seat and walked over to the Chiefess.

“You two, stop being children! We need the money to buy food for the tribe, as well as give back to the clans affected most by him. Your clan is one of the ones receiving the most money, so shut it and move. Charlie said he will probably be disowned by the Union and Empire, so once he pays, we can do what we wish to him!” Nolkonoe screamed down to the women. Each looked embarrassed as they blushed and shuffled off.

“And we are not cooking him!” Nolkonoe yelled after them. Sitting upright, the Chiefess’s soon formed in a smug smile as she deemed herself the victor of the battle. Lifting a hand, Nolkonoe slapped her on the head.

“Don’t you think you are in the right either, idiot,” Nolkonoe said, walking back over to the confused Charlie as he tried to figure out what the argument had been about.

“Don’t worry, they were just exchanging cooking recipes,” Nolkonoe said, sitting down next to him as the last of the hundred warriors and Vultures got onto the war beast. Seeing everyone was steadied in their eats, the Chiefess got into her seat. Grabbing the reigns, she raised them into the air before snapping them down onto the creatures back.

Without sound, the creature began to move through the sand. Villagers waved as the warriors left. Looking back to the village, Charlie saw an annoyed yet hopeful looking Klipesia watching after them. Despite any dislike, he may have had towards her before due to the entire trying to hunt him for fun thing, still, he gave his nod and smile to her of comfort.

The warrior cast a few spells in their thick native language. Red and white mist moved around them, shrinking them down in size to that of a regular human, as well as hiding their tales and ears. The creature went at a steady sixty or so miles an hour. Charlie wasn’t good at measuring speeds as he didn’t ever go to a gun powder school to learn about mechanics and measurements of speed. For one thing, he did know was that the creature was defiantly faster than a horse as it crashed through the seas of sand.

Two hours later.

In silence they rode, the vultures and warriors preparing themselves for a potentially hostile reaction from the Region Lord. Charlie sat in silence as he was too busy trying to make sure that the contract didn’t slip from his hands as the Desert Claimers picked up in speed. Seeing Charlie starting to rock as the creature increased in speed. It moved at what Charlie could only guess to be a hundred or so miles. Its spiked feet seemed to not be slowed in the sand as it began to somehow move even faster.

 

Seeing an opportunity to tease her new pet, she made the creature buck. Assuming Charlie was going to wrap his arms around her as he had in the past, she found herself annoyed as she realised Ourupadia had already wrapped her arms around him. But weren’t all huntresses meant to be back at the tribe?

Ourupadia noticed the glare she was getting from the Chiefess and returned the look in equal force as she clutched Charlie against her chest. Both exchanged snarls before Nolkonoe slapped Ourupadia on the head. Before the Chiefess could revel in a victory, Nolkonoe slapped her as well.

“Idiots, the both of you,” Nolkonoe snapped. Looking at the very confused and worried Charlie, she placed a soft hand onto his head.

“Calm down, they are just being idiots to try and show off to you,” Leaning closer, Nolkonoe whispered into his ear.

“They also do it to take their minds off the fact they are about to meet a man they wish nothing more than to kill, but are prevented from doing so,” Nolkonoe said before pulling away and sitting by his side. Leaning her head against his, she looked up to Ourupadia.

“Don’t worry young one, we shall arrive in another hour, I can promise as well that I shall not allow him to come to any harm,” Nolkonoe reassured the nervous-looking Ourupadia.

Holding Charlie tighter, she looked to the Chiefess. She was a good warrior, but she doubted even the Chiefess could defeat someone with a small army of mercenaries. All they could do now was pray that he left the majority of his army at his home, and not at the outpost they were heading to. Turning her gaze from the Chiefess to Charlie, she planted a soft kiss onto the top of his head.

Looking up a little wearily, as he had been stricken by motion sickness from the at least couple hundred of mile speed they were now doing, he smiled despite his Illness at Ourupadia. She returned the smile. There was no telling what he had planned, and what made the contract he clung to so important, but she hoped and held her faith in his skills regardless. 

 

 

 

 

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