Lord of Rot

The Battle of Iron Valley came to a swift end.

But Leech discovered that the people within Iron Wall Castle remained dazed and numb, as if they were still living in the depths of misery, as if nothing had changed.

Baron Ross left with his legion. Normally, Leech should have gone with them to Roaring Castle to wait for the Duke’s seal of approval to officially become the Baron of Iron Valley. However, to show his "loyalty," Leech simply ordered a raven sent to Roaring Castle with a letter, confident that the Duke of Shining Sun would soon issue the investiture.

The official announcement would only take a few days. He would wait for the letter.

Right now, the only high-level, knowledgeable person he had on hand was Lacy.

A mountain of pressing matters had been dumped on Leech, and he couldn’t handle it all by himself.

Leech said to Lacy, "Lacy, first, go find out if anyone here is literate. If you find any stewards who previously worked in Iron Wall Castle, bring them to me directly."

"Yes!" Lacy nodded.

"Also, have someone gather the craftsmen—blacksmiths, carpenters, masons... oh, and cooks," Leech said. "Our weapons and armor need to be repaired and maintained, and the soldiers need to eat."

After Lacy received his orders and left, Leech turned to Quickblade. "Seal off Iron Wall Castle for now. First, tally the casualties, then arrange patrols. If anything unusual happens at night, fire a warning shot immediately."

Although he hadn’t seen any "dead rising," Leech was being extremely cautious.

"Understood!" Quickblade nodded.

"I want to know why those prisoners defended Iron Wall Castle to the death. Did they know the Black King was dead? If they knew, why did they still fight so desperately?" Leech said. "Also, what orders did the Black King give them when he was alive?"

"Yes, sir!"

After sending the two men off with their tasks, Leech had no time to relax.

’It would be best if I could turn the Black King’s corpse into an undead servant and extract his memories,’ he thought. ’It wouldn’t be difficult for me; I just need to have a Corpse Ghost do it. Find a remote room in the castle, inscribe a Magic Array... but it will take time.’

He wouldn’t get any answers until at least dawn tomorrow.

Soon, a guard named Rob came over, leading two men.

Rob said, "My Lord, it was Mr. Lacy who told me to bring them over. They claim they used to work here in Iron Wall Castle."

Leech looked at the fat, middle-aged man. To have such a physique in the desolate Iron Wall Castle lent no small amount of credibility to his claim of having worked there before.

An ordinary family couldn’t raise someone to be that plump.

"My Lord!" Noticing Leech’s gaze upon him, the portly middle-aged man stepped forward and said, "I am Hay, the steward of Iron Wall Castle!"

’"Hay?"’ he thought. ’What an unusual name.’

Leech asked, "How many people are there in Iron Valley? And in Iron Wall Castle, how many freemen? How many slaves and serfs?"

"Well, uh, a census from three years ago counted about twenty thousand people in Iron Valley. Iron Wall Castle has... has..." Hay nervously raised a hand to wipe away his sweat.

’A three-year-old census, and it’s still just an estimate?’

"I’ll give you one chance," Leech said. "I want you to count how many people there are in all of Iron Wall Castle by nightfall today. By tomorrow afternoon, I want a record of how many people are in each household, with their names, genders, ages, and occupations recorded in detail. Bring that report to me."

He emphasized, "I don’t care if you were really the steward of Iron Wall Castle before. If you do this job well, you will be the steward from now on. Otherwise... I imagine Iron Valley is in great need of quarry laborers."

"Yes, my Lord!" Hay nodded immediately.

Leech then looked at the other middle-aged man. He carried himself with the air of Simon, a castle butler well-versed in aristocratic etiquette, walking with a stiff, formal posture.

"And you, sir. Please introduce yourself."

"Yes, my Lord," the middle-aged man nodded and said. "My name is Lidun. I once served as the butler in Iron Wall Castle."

"Once?"

Lidun nodded. "Yes. After the Black King took control of Iron Wall Castle, no one was needed in the inner keep anymore. We were all dismissed."

"And here I was hoping to hear some stories about the Black King from you," Leech said. "Very well, Mr. Lidun, you’re hired. I want you to quickly select a number of men and women suitable to work in the castle as servants and maids. I will need a room to rest in tonight."

"As you command, my Lord."

...

Alice clutched her bundle and moved along with the crowd.

It was almost dark, but no one was allowed to go home. They had to wait in line to be questioned.

"Are we really safe?"

"How could we be safe? Didn’t you see the armor and swords on those soldiers? They kill without hesitation. Besides... they can’t protect us anyway."

"Never mind that. As long as we can stay in Iron Wall Castle, that’s all that matters. It’s not safe outside."

Listening to the whispers around her, Alice just hugged her bundle tighter.

The line moved forward step by step, and soon it was her turn.

"Name?"

"Alice."

The fat man’s hand wrote quickly. "Age?"

"Fifteen." She wasn’t entirely sure. She didn’t even know her own birthday, so how could she be certain of her age?

"Family members?"

"My sister married into Lilac Village, and I..."

The fat man cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Only those within Iron Wall Castle."

"It’s just me... sir."

She added the "sir" at the last second, having heard someone ahead of her say it.

She was a little afraid of the soldiers in their shiny armor, but today’s events had given her a favorable impression of the nobleman who had saved her.

The fat man waved his hand, signaling that she could leave.

Alice took a few steps forward and heard the people who had already been registered ahead of her discussing in confusion, "Is that all?" "That didn’t seem like much." "Where do we go now? Can we go home?"

In the distance, a soldier in armor suddenly raised his shield and began striking it with his sword, drawing most people’s attention. "The castle is recruiting servants and maids! Anyone under the age of twenty can sign up! You’ll get three meals a day and a daily wage of 5 copper stars!"

But the people present remained unmoved. No one went over.

Alice hesitated for a moment, then walked over. "I’d like to apply to be a castle maid!"

The castle butler, Lidun, looked at Alice and asked, "Could you turn in a circle for me, miss?"

"Yes!" Alice spun around steadily.

The butler seemed to glean a lot of information from that single movement. "Perhaps you are suited to be a cleaning maid for the castle."

"I’m willing!" Alice nodded.

After a while, a few more boys and girls trickled over. But the butler, Lidun, seemed to have his own specific selection criteria. He had each person spin in a circle, and from that, he could pick out the suitable ones and reject the unsuitable.

Alice watched from the side for a long time but couldn’t figure out what his standards were.

By the time the sun set, the butler had finally selected three manservants and three maids.

"Congratulations," Butler Lidun said to Alice and the other five. "Ladies and gentlemen, you have earned the opportunity to work for our new Lord. Because the Lord needs to rest, your etiquette training will have to be postponed for a while, but rest assured, it won’t be for long. Now, you will follow me to clean the castle."

"There are also a few things you need to remember," Butler Lidun said on the way to the inner keep. "Our Lord’s name is Leech Clarence. In addition to being the Baron of Iron Valley, he is also the Baron of Porcupine Territory."

Hearing that their lord actually held two territories, the young maids and servants couldn’t help but gasp in amazement.

Some of them had never left the impoverished Iron Valley in their entire lives, but they knew exactly how impressive it was for a nobleman to be a baron of two territories.

"My name is Lidun. You may call me ’Butler’ or ’Lidun.’ If you add the honorific ’Mister,’ I won’t object to that either."

"Yes, Mr. Lidun!"

The seven of them entered the inner keep and were struck by a sense of their own smallness as they looked at the vast, enormous great hall.

"There are plenty of clean sheets and quilts in the castle," said Butler Lidun. "Gentlemen, you are responsible for carrying out this dusty, dirty furniture and bringing up some water. Ladies, please scrub the beds and floors thoroughly, then make the beds with fresh linens. The purpose of our work is to ensure the Lord gets a comfortable night’s sleep."

"Yes!" they nodded, filled with motivation at the thought of serving their Lord.

They were only halfway through their work when their stomachs started to rumble. Butler Lidun came over and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Lord wishes for you to eat and rest a little before you continue working."

"Long live the Lord!" a manservant cheered.

"Please remember to be elegant," said Butler Lidun. Seeing everyone looking at him, he broke into a smile. "Alright, I want to cheer too, but remember to keep it down."

The manservants and maids smiled. "Yes, Mr. Lidun."

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