Chapter 704.1: Not Only Do They Not Want To Surrender, They Want To Play Even Bigger
Chapter 704.1: Not Only Do They Not Want To Surrender, They Want To Play Even Bigger
Inside a dark ruined shack.
Dampness and mold crawled over the surrounding walls, as if even the air itself had been contaminated. The dim candlelight illuminated only a small patch of the floor, while most of the space was swallowed by darkness.
The place looked exactly like a rat hole.
The stench of rot and mildew bored into his nostrils as Rajesh, tied to a chair with hemp rope, slowly opened his eyes. The memories from before he lost consciousness surged back like a tide. He instinctively struggled, but aside from provoking a creaking sound, it was utterly useless.
He raised his head and squinted, barely making out the young man standing before him through the faint light.
It was none other than the kid who had found him earlier and claimed he was taking him to meet the boss of the street.
Now it seems... He had probably been sold out.
All he could hope was that his other two teammates were sharp enough to carry the intelligence mission about residents near the Governor’s Manor being bought off out of the city.
“How much did you sell me for?” he asked.
Axin replied calmly, “Gifts don’t cost money.”
“Looks like the New Alliance gave you plenty of benefits,” Rajesh sneered, glancing around him. “Where is this? Your place for disposing of corpses?”
Axin answered expressionlessly, “My home.”
Rajesh’s expression stiffened for a moment.
People can live in this dump?
But he soon narrowed his eyes, staring at the young man. “You are a subject of the Empire.”
Axin snorted, “Yes. And I’m the kind you despise the most, a Ratfolk.”
“No one despises you,” Rajesh replied, breathing lightly as he glanced at the ropes binding his arms, then back at the youth before forcing himself to speak calmly, “You despise yourselves... isn’t that right?”
“Look at what you’ve done. When brave Wolffolk fight for the Empire’s interests, a little rat sneaks up and stabs them in the back. No one likes a bunch of sneaky rats, not because they’re called rats, but because they’re shameless, despicable, base, because their eyes hold nothing but profit. They can sell their daughters and wives into prostitution. None of you have a trace of righteousness in your hearts. If you were me, would you like people like that?”
He expected to see shame on the young man’s face. Even if it was just a flicker.
Instead, after hearing him out, Axin merely let out a cold laugh and even mimicked his tone, speaking slowly. “Is that all you wanted to say?”
He had heard far uglier insults. This kind of roundabout cursing did not even count as scratching an itch.
“It’s not too late for you to turn back now,” Rajesh said, still holding on to a sliver of hope. “Your intelligence should be used for the right path. His Majesty will forgive your momentary confusion. You don’t want to carry sin and disgrace onto the road of reincarnation, do you?”
Unfortunately, he had hoped for the wrong thing.
“It’s too late. I’ve already decided what kind of beast I’ll be in my next life.” With a trace of mockery in his voice, Axin coldly left those words before turning to the iron man in an exoskeleton behind him and said respectfully, “Sir, it’s him... When we were demolishing the slums, he brought two others sneaking in, poking around and trying to ask about you. They thought they were hiding well, but people who eat meat and rats that chew dirt don’t even breathe the same air. No matter how much ash and mud they smeared on their faces, we recognized them at a glance.”
Coincidence nodded in satisfaction. “Good.”
Finally seeing the exoskeleton clearly, the blood drained from Rajesh’s face. His trembling lips turned pale. However, he was still a man with backbone. He stiffened his neck and said coldly, “... I won’t say anything.”
But the man clad in an exoskeleton before him only shrugged indifferently. “Doesn’t matter. We didn’t expect to get anything out of you anyway. You’re not an officer who makes operational plans, at most, you’re a scout. Catching you was just a pleasant surprise. Our original expectation was for the locals to not cause trouble. We even assumed we might have to fight a street battle with one-sided information disadvantage. We just didn’t expect... them to be this enthusiastic.”
As he spoke, Coincidence looked at Axin and smiled, patting him on the shoulder. “Well done. He’s exactly who we were looking for. I’m very satisfied with this gift. Next... could I trouble you to make him disappear? Keeping these three alive isn’t good for you either, right?”
From what had just been said, it was already clear they hadn’t caught the wrong person. He had only come to take a look to prevent this kid from grabbing random civilians and killing them just to curry favor with the New Alliance.
Axin understood immediately and nodded respectfully. “Leave it to me.”
Coincidence nodded in satisfaction and stood up to leave the shack. He was starting to like this subordinate.
Soon, the rotten door shut. As the sliver of moonlight leaking through the crack vanished, despair gradually crept onto Rajesh’s face. He looked at Axin standing by the door and gulped in fear. Driven by sheer survival instinct, he finally couldn’t help begging. “Don’t kill me. Can you spare my life...?”
Feeling that wasn’t enough, he swallowed and continued, “I still have five children to raise. Jatin is about your age, Taren is only seven, and there’s also Amy... Please, for their sake, spare me. I won’t tell General Alyang about you. We can pretend we never met.”
In truth, he wasn’t afraid of death. But if he had to die, he would rather fall on the battlefield than in a filthy gutter like that, with his throat torn out by a disgusting Ratfolk.
Axin simply looked at him with an expressionless face, then suddenly raised his head to glance at the ceiling that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
“Do they live in a hellhole like this too... like my brothers and sisters?”
Rajesh froze. By the time he snapped back to himself, the young man had already turned and walked out of the shack...
At the entrance of the dilapidated building, a dense crowd stood packed together, blocking the brick-strewn path completely.
Led by the Dogfolk Kunal, the impoverished people stood in a line, gazing respectfully at Axin as he followed closely behind the iron man out of the shack.
It was as if they were looking at a king.
Axin paused at the doorway. He first glanced at the barren ruins around him, then looked back at the tattered shack draped with red cloth.
He had stopped living in the shack days ago. Before the Grey Wolf Army arrived, he had already moved his family to Tulip Street near the port.
A Wislander merchant who had lost everything in business had sold off his property there, a three-story, finely finished villa covering two to three hundred square meters, priced at only 50 double-headed cattle or the equivalent in Xilande Coins.
Axin was the only bidder, and in total he spent less than 2,000,000.
Just a little over a week ago, a Ratfolk youth buying a house there with Xilande Coins would have been pure fantasy. Most of the buildings near the Governor’s Manor had already been demolished, even the rubble carted away, leaving only this lone structure standing.
He had planned to demolish it after the others were gone, but the more he looked at it, the more it offended him.
Too ugly.
Even a dead dog fallen into a sewer would say the shacks were where corpses were disposed of.
“Demolish it.”
Hearing the cold command, Kunal bowed respectfully. “As you command!”
...
It had already been three full days since the Grey Wolf Army advanced on Port Gallon in full force. And in those three days, the officers and soldiers of the Grey Wolf Army had truly experienced what it meant to be the will of the people, the favor of public opinion.
The suburban residents of Port Gallon, welcoming the royal army, had used just three days to dig all the fortifications for these noble Wolffolk warriors.
What was even more amazing was that they hadn’t taken a single coin.
Deep trenches encircled the port like gigantic pythons coiling tightly around the settlement.
However, the survivors who had taken money did not feel at ease holding it, fearing that the soldiers of the empire might actually win. If these soldiers took a loss at the New Alliance’s hands and then thought back to the trenches, they might cause trouble for the residents.
Moreover, for some reason, the price of beans had risen sharply lately. What used to cost five or six Xilande Coins per pound now costs seven or eight. If prices rose any further, buying beans would be worse than buying black bread, and the poorest would have no choice but to eat dirt for a few more meals.
A suffocating atmosphere hung over everyone’s heads, except for the thrill-seekers inside the settlement and the soldiers outside.
The situation looked excellent, yet General Alyang, commanding the entire army, could not shake a growing unease.
His capable subordinate Rajesh had been missing for five full days. Information from inside the city was shrouded in a mist of uncertainty.