Chapter 177: Yes
"And don’t forget to stop those who are looting the village head house. We must meet his treasures." Alex smiled as he said it.
Blac became very still and then he nodded and then crouched to pick up the body’s leg and then drag away.
As he was going Azaroth sent a bit of his chaos essence to him, blending it inside his clothes.
"We can’t trust him." Stallus said flatly. "Him and the Village head are probably sent here by the Greytown anyway and they have been exploiting the villages for who knows when."
"Then why do you tell him not to spill information to them when you know he belongs to them?" Catena mumbled as he munched on a ripe red fruit in his hand.
"Because then he’ll now be afraid to send news of what happen because we are going to know it’s him and then he’ll be in trouble. And now if he disappears as well we’ll know he’s gone to the other side." Stallus said with a smile and then she continued. "But he can’t offend the other side either because they’ll also kill him!"
Alex smiled. "You’ve put him in a difficult position. If he also leaves this village to just run away the Greytown will still be after him."
Azaroth nodded. "His only option is to play both sides. He’ll try to delay them for two months or making us inconsequential and irrelevant. Either way it’s going to be at our advantage because nobody know how strong we are and we must keep that card as close as we can."
Stallus asked him. "Then what’s our next step? Are we going to go to other villages and take their warriors or what. The Greytown will be ready for us then."
Azaroth frowned, honestly he had no idea what to do next. The only plan now is to settle here and then see how it goes and the react according. "We’ll see." Is all he said.
They made their way back to the village and the news seems to have made its way to the villagers so they gathered behind the team to the center of the village.
Azaroth faced them. "I will be your new village head." And with that he waved them away and entered into the room that have been cleaned and cleared of any family members belonging to the other Vila head.
Fortunately there’s a lot of rooms and even a large backyard behind the room so Azaroth turned to the team that’s watching him. "We train. Obviously we can’t practice our skills of the Acolyte rank but we can still practice with our body."
And for the next few days that’s what they do. The villagers already know how they behave in their village so the team just let them be and focus on themselves. Their food is a mixture of vegetables, fruit and meat.
Catena tried to get spices from the villagers but they have only salt and some seasoning leaves but that’s enough. Stallus gave the idea of rewarding good warriors with meat but apparently for now the villagers are busy with eating the bodies of the village head, his two men and Joyce.
So they sleep, eat, train and do that again and again until the fourth day where Blac interrupted them with the reminder that the Tax Captain will send his men out today to collect fruits.
Azaroth told him to give them what they want and just let the process go on as usual. Then when Blac left the room they focus back on their training.
The Tax collector came as promised, ten of them riding on domesticated lizard monsters. They are in the novice rabbit but they carried better weapons and are obviously better trained than the warriors in the village. They shouldn’t even be compared.
Azaroth and the team observed them through a slit in the window and watched as they demand for the tax, kick some villagers around but it wasn’t fun to them because the villagers have lost their will and won’t even react.
Even the warriors are used to such provocations so they just look on with impassive faces.
Then they demand for the village head to show himself when they have stored all the fruits into the pouch in their waist. And that was when Blac showed himself.
It must not be something that happen often because when they saw Blac, the tax collectors flinched. Blac must have a notorious history, Azaroth thought.
"Our village head is rather sick right now to show his face, I hope you understand." Blac said smoothly.
Of course they do, they don’t want to clash with a powerful Initiate level so they made some rude comments and hurried away. Azaroth watched them retreating and said. "Next time they’ll be coming here for battle but the Tax captain won’t take it seriously and he won’t come himself."
"Because Blac would have written to them then?" Stallus said.
Azaroth nodded once. "Yes."
And that was it, their first clash with Greytown. So two days after that he called Blac to attend them and then he asked him. "Can you train the warriors."
He looked pretended to be shocked. "Sir Azaroth. I think I can but it won’t be possible."
Azaroth was siting on the Village head chair and he leaned back a little. "Tell me why."
"Because if we focus on training then the production will suffer since all the warriors have to work too. Their strength is needed for the difficult jobs. And secondly they don’t have enough nutrients to build their body."
Azaroth thought about it, then said. "Pick out the warriors that can actually be warriors and strip the rest of the title of warrior to work permanently on the farm. About that meat and food stuff you can meet Catena, he’ll deal with it."
Then his face darkened and Azaroth said in a voice like growl. "You know how I want them right? As a real warrior and not the shit you have been doing. You have twenty seven days."
