Chapter 213: Night Raid on Stormhold

"Good heavens, are you sure this isn't a magical artifact? Why does it feel as miraculous as a magical ornament?"

"Yes, when I look through this monocular at the coconut trees below, it's as if the coconuts are right before my eyes, within arm's reach!"

"Incredible, truly incredible!"

The nobles, unwilling to end their awe, continued exclaiming and discussing.

Meanwhile, Viscount Ellis's face had turned as black as ink.

No further words from Leo were needed—the victor and loser of this contest were now glaringly obvious.

What a waste of his eighty gold coins spent to show off those bracers—they had become a laughingstock!

"Viscount Leo, where did you obtain this thing? How can it be so miraculous without any magical power?"

"Yes, Viscount Leo, could you help me get a few? I wish to present them to my family—my family owns three merchant ships; if equipped with these miraculous items, we could detect dangers on the sea long in advance!"

After marveling at the monocular's wonder, the nobles' hearts burned with desire.

Especially Viscount Farek, who had already recognized the practical value of the monocular.

Viscount Leo himself had never seen the monocular's marvel before, so he could not answer.

He immediately gave Cooper a signal.

Cooper naturally would not miss this opportunity: "Honorable sirs, this monocular is a product of the Stormhold on the southern border, priced at only five gold coins and twenty silver coins each!"

"However, due to limited production, they are hard to acquire—you must place advance orders…"

"Stormhold? That sounds familiar, but it's only around five gold coins? Leo, your subordinate often passes through Stormhold, right? Have him order five for me!"

"Viscount Leo, I want to order one!"

"Viscount Leo, I want one too…"

…

That night!

An armed force slipped silently into the borders of Stormhold.

"Brave warriors, this… this is Stormhold! Please, don't kill us!"

"Hmph, if you behave and lead us to that noble castle, we'll spare you!"

"Yes, yes, brave warriors!"

This group, of course, was the tribe's avengers seeking revenge against Gervas.

In the darkness, several humans were forced forward, their throats held by tribal warriors' long knives.

Of course, don't feel sorry for these fellows.

If they hadn't been so unlucky as to mistake the tribe's disguised caravan for an ordinary merchant group and tried to rob them, they wouldn't have ended up like this.

The fact they were still alive was because the savages truly needed guides.

Otherwise, even if they reached this southeastern border, they couldn't have identified where Stormhold was!

After another hour and a half of walking through the night, a silhouette of a castle atop a high ridge finally emerged ahead.

"Brave warriors, ahead… ahead is Stormhold Castle! Please, spare us!"

"Spare you? Dream on?" Ironclaw sneered, raising his blade to kill the human captives.

This instantly terrified the bandit captives into wetting their pants.

"Wait!"

At that moment, a clear, melodic voice—like a savior—brought a glimmer of hope to the bandits.

"Freyja, what's wrong? They just tried to rob us—they deserve to die, and since they're humans, they deserve it even more!"

"Ironclaw, these people are refugees from the Chaos Wastes, not nobles' men; they've never harmed our tribe before!"

"And we already promised that if they led us to Stormhold Castle, we'd spare their lives!"

"So, make them swear to their gods that they'll never commit robbery again—then knock them out and, as promised, let them go!"

"Fine, Freyja! But you really don't need to be merciful to humans—they're all shameless, despicable creatures!"

"Ironclaw, I'm not being merciful—I'm keeping my word. If we don't keep our word, how are we different from these despicable humans?"

Thus, the bandits never expected they'd survive after all.

They immediately swore oaths to every god they could name, vowing never to rob again.

Whether their oaths meant anything, only they knew.

"Freyja, from the torchlight on the wall, this must be the noble castle's rear garden—the perfect spot for us to infiltrate!"

"Good. Then we climb here. Brave warriors, if we succeed in assassinating that damned Gervas, I'll repay you well!"

"And I'll keep my promise—each of your men will receive two hundred pounds of dried meat and one hundred pounds of wheat upon returning!"

"Freyja, we also hate that damned, despicable Gervas—this is our duty. As for the dried meat and wheat, we'll settle that after we've dealt with him!"

"Exactly, Freyja! The dried meat can wait until we've killed that damned Gervas! His subordinates are powerful—far beyond ordinary humans, or else we wouldn't have been captured by him last time!"

"So, be careful and strike swiftly!"

"I know!" Freyja nodded seriously, then lifted the bone whistle at her neck.

Squeak!

The whistle sounded—not loud, but strangely resonant, like the chirp of some insect.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The next instant, the sound of flapping wings came from above—a first-rank white-feathered owl with a wingspan of four meters slowly descended from the sky.

Once the owl landed, Freyja swiftly fastened several ropes to its talons, then climbed onto its back.

"Whitecloud, let's go!"

Whoosh!

Wings beat, and the white-feathered owl soared upward toward the castle's cliff, dozens of meters high.

To Freyja's delight, there were no guards on the castle's rear garden wall.

"Hmph, the shameless fool probably never dreamed anyone could scale a sheer cliff forty to fifty meters high to reach the castle!"

Thinking this, Freyja ordered Whitecloud to land swiftly on the wall, then looped ropes over the battlements.

Soon after, Ironclaw and the others climbed up the ropes to the cliff!

…

"Oh? You didn't kill the bandits who led you?"

"Yes, my lord—they only knocked them unconscious. They're now scaling the castle's rear cliff and should all be inside within ten minutes."

"Is this still the savage tribe I know? Fine. Have Lei Meng and Ironbear prepare."

"Yes, my lord!"

With intelligence in hand, Gervas had long made his preparations.

He had spotted their approach the moment they entered Stormhold's border.

Had it not been for their flying beast companion, Gervas could have had the Magic Swift Eagle shadow them the entire way.

But now, it was close enough—the tribe's every move remained under surveillance.

Gervas's subordinates crouched in the tower, secretly watching everything.

After the reporting subordinate left, Gervas himself rose and stepped out of the parlor.

"My lord!"

Along the corridor, dozens of fully armed guards stood in formation.

"Come. The show's about to begin—follow me to the balcony!"

…