Chapter 37: Just Didn't Pay

"There are no sheep near this farm of theirs."

Arthur was about to leave to torture Yuehan, but heard Yule say this.

Arthur was puzzled: "You might as well speak more clearly."

Yule revealed a look of 'those who know, know', and gave a greasy smile: "I have already spoken clearly enough."

The young lord was taken aback, and suddenly understood his uncle's meaning.

"It had to be you; you actually noticed this detail."

In the West, sheep are a symbol of evil.

The reason is simple.

Someone would use a sheep to do bad things, and after being discovered, would lie and claim they had been bewitched and seduced by the sheep.

Thus, a tacit understanding was reached: the sheep is the devil walking on earth.

And Yule mentioning this suddenly was to make Arthur notice certain things.

Suddenly recalling what the ten gamblers said outside the house, he had an idea in his heart.

Yuehan was likely a crafty, weak man.

Perhaps the other nine were all birds of a feather.

If he could get a grip on the gambler Yuehan loved most, wouldn't the whereabouts of the Gold Dragon be revealed without a fight?

He walked into the farm, entered the room, and began to test them.

"Whichever one I point to, drag them out to be beaten," Arthur announced.

The Spinach Laymen on the ground instantly began to clamor.

"Master, I have no money."

"Stop hitting me, the money is all in Yuehan's hands."

Although Yuehan had been beaten until his face was bruised and swollen, his spirit was still quite good.

A moment later, Arthur discovered the clue.

Whenever he pointed to two certain people, Yuehan would start making small movements, such as blinking frequently, swallowing saliva, and so on.

"It's you two. Drag them out; as long as you don't beat them to death, beat them to death."

The two soldiers received the order and dragged the two designated men out.

Arthur moved a chair and sat down next to Yuehan.

"Where is the money? Where is my Gold Dragon?"

Yuehan's eyeballs rolled around, but he did not reply.

Soon, painful screams that pierced the clouds rang out from outside the house.

"Yuehan, just say it, people are going to die."

"Master, it was all Yuehan's idea, it has nothing to do with me, it has nothing to do with me, Master."

"Are our lives so unimportant to you? I've treated you well all this time."

At first, Yuehan was able to hold out and pretend to be calm, but gradually his expression became both tormented and ferocious, as if he were wearing a mask of pain.

Until he could no longer bear it, "Make them stop, I will hand over your Gold Dragon."

This servant's son shouted thus.

After Arthur had the soldiers stop, he looked up and said: "Speak, where is it?"

"In the cow pen behind the house, there is a loose stone slab there, the Gold Dragon is hidden under it."

Arthur had Javier and the remaining soldiers keep watch over the Spinach Laymen, while he and the two men from outside went to find the Gold Dragon.

With the hint, the Gold Dragons wrapped in a cowhide bag soon appeared before Arthur's eyes.

And there were some extra gains: leather shoulder guards, an exquisite money pouch, a black velvet cloak, and other unrelated personal belongings.

"You two, count them."

Before long, the two soldiers had each finished counting their own piles, which added up to a total of six hundred and fifty-five.

Adding the thirty-some in the house, there were over six hundred and eighty in total.

That is to say, this gang of gamblers had actually spent nearly twenty Gold Dragons in one month.

To plow land for a maiden only costs one Gold Dragon.

Arthur did the math and saw twenty maidens before his eyes being ravaged in a line by these gamblers, and was instantly furious.

He had to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Arthur grabbed a handful of Gold Dragons and stuffed them into his own money pouch, and tossed one to each of the two soldiers.

"Thank you, Lord Arthur."

"From now on, we are at your command, without a word of complaint."

They were guest soldiers from Stone Hedge, and had to be given benefits from time to time.

Now that there was such a large pile of Gold Dragons, if Arthur had thrown a Silver Stag to them, and they then went back and told their companions...

I fear that when war broke out, few guest soldiers would be willing to fight for Arthur in earnest.

As a lord, besides showing his benevolence to his subordinates, he must also let them obtain benefits at the right time.

Benefits are the most stable adhesive for power.

After having them carry the cowhide bag and the unexpected gains, the three returned to the house.

"There are quite a few good things here. Where did you steal these from?" After giving each of the remaining guest soldiers a Gold Dragon, Arthur asked.

Yuehan looked at the personal items the soldiers were holding, "This was definitely not stolen. Please believe me, I just didn't pay for them, or rather, I haven't paid for them yet."

"My, you have quite a few problems!" Arthur exclaimed.

"Instigating your own father to steal the lord's money is disloyal; murdering others is unkind; murdering your own father is unfilial; stealing other people's things is unjust. These four charges are enough to sentence you to death, right?"

Yuehan, lying on the ground, was stunned for a moment, then sneered, "You nobles are truly hypocritical. If you want to kill, then kill; why all this nonsense!"

His entire body still ached unbearably, and he could barely move.

But upon hearing Arthur's insufferably hypocritical words, he still turned his head and scoffed to express his disdain.

"What, you're not convinced? Is what I said not reasonable?"

Yuehan rolled his eyes, "Yes, yes, yes, it's reasonable. Your words naturally have the logic of you nobles, but they don't have the logic of us commoners."

"Oh? You, a hoodlum, have your own logic now? Tell me, what is your commoner's logic? If you can convince me, I'll let you meet the Seven with one blow of my Great Hammer; otherwise, I'll have to make you lie there for seven days and seven nights before you die."

Arthur said this.

Yuehan felt jealous and disgusted by the lord's words, "If I had a Septon as a teacher, Hui Pao An Bo as a Master-at-arms, the family Maester to treat my illnesses, and subjects to do the work for me like you do, I could also grow up to be someone worth envying. But I don't have that. I only have a father who hides in a basement, a father who acts as a dog for the nobles."

Arthur thought for a moment: "Just because you weren't born as well as others doesn't mean you should complain about heaven and blame others. Didn't your father also try his best to make you a better person? Didn't he have you learn from a Septon and a wandering warrior? Cyril didn't have you hanging out with gamblers either!"

"Find a Septon to teach me how to lick someone's asshole, and a wandering warrior to teach me how to stick my butt out, right? That kind of 'better,' I can't afford to enjoy!" Yuehan retorted sarcastically.

"The ridiculous thing is, the gamblers you despise with your mouth and look down upon in your heart are the very people who have been best to me in all of the Riverlands, not the Septon or the wandering warrior."

Arthur was a bit surprised; so he had been treated like that since he was a child, no wonder he was like this.

"But you still shouldn't have killed your father; he was sincere in his kindness toward you."

"His own life was unsatisfactory, so why force his pointless efforts onto me? Is the simple logic that a salted fish is still a salted fish even after it flips over something he couldn't understand?" Yuehan said urgently, as if he had been holding his breath for a long time.

Arthur thought about it, and it was true.

The commoners on the Westeros continent truly had no path for advancement; in times of peace, they were just fat sheep for the lords to shear.

The kind that couldn't even run away.

After all, the rest of the continent was the same, and the Essos continent to the east offered no guarantee of safety.

Yuehan relaxed for a moment, feeling that his body didn't hurt quite as much, and said slowly: "Before you, my lord, deliver your hypocritical critique, you should first see if he had the superior family conditions that you have!"

Although he didn't feel pain anymore, Yuehan suddenly caught a glimpse of his father's remains.

That basement servant who had hoped his son would become a dragon was now lying in the corner; although his eyes were closed, they seemed to still be staring at his son.

And at this moment, that "child of someone else," that child his father had always compared him to, was using their noble mindset to humiliate him one last time before he died.

In the next life, I want to be the father and let Cyril be the son, so I can show him how I educate children.

Yuehan thought to himself.

"Just hurry up and let me die. End my wretched life with one blow of the Great Hammer, so as not to dirty your eyes and ears."

Arthur couldn't think of a way to refute Yuehan, so he raised the Great Hammer and smashed him into a pulp with one blow.

The other gamblers remained silent.

"My lord, should we kill them too?" Javier asked for instructions.

"Our manpower isn't exactly abundant. Taking them back, there are at least nine adult men; they can still move stones." The lord, who was not in a good mood, ordered thus.

"Thank you for your magnanimity, my lord."

"May the Seven bless you!"

The remaining Spinach Layman expressed his gratitude.

The eight men packed up quickly, placed the gamblers who couldn't walk onto an ox cart, and returned to the Red Mill with the other gamblers.

After all, this was the territory of the Ward family, and the Blackwood lands were not far away; it was not very safe for Arthur to stay here for long.

Most of the money had been recovered, but Arthur's mood did not lift.

He was a soul who had received nine years of compulsory education and had a normal set of values. Although he sometimes wanted to indulge in the fantasy of being a lord, he had absolutely no intention of bullying his subjects like slaves. However, for peasants with no path for advancement, their essence was not much different from serfs.

Arthur felt this conflicted with his own thinking, but he was powerless to change it.

He was just a small, low-level noble; how could he change the social structure of the entire Westeros continent?

What he could do was fulfill his duties as a lord better and better protect his two thousand or so subjects.

Only then would he not be failing them for the taxes they paid.

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A Mount and Blade joke every day:

Me: "I heard you and Lord Xiaolin are not on good terms?"

Old Lord Wang: "I heard he is pursuing Lady Xiaofang, so I plan to give him a taste of my power."

Me: "I heard you and Lord Dahei are not on good terms?"

Old Lord Wang: "I heard he is pursuing the young nun, so I plan to give him a taste of my power."

Me: "I heard you and Lord Palaven are not on good terms?"

Old Lord Wang: "I heard he is pursuing my wife, so I plan to give him a taste of my power."

(End of chapter)