Chapter 258 The Irises in My Hometown Are Blooming

In a manor outside the town of Mayo, although it was late at night, the log cabin was still brightly lit.

"Seven! Seven! Seven!"

"Oh, why is it five?"

"If you're out, move aside and don't get in the way."

Huddled at the door, Laurent's face was gloomy, and he huddled himself into the wool blanket his mother had sewed for him to avoid the cold.

With his head resting against the door frame, he could clearly hear the sound of his father, a tanner, shaking the dice.

The foul smell of stinky socks, alcohol, and rancid oil were the secondary ingredients, and the smell of vomit was the main ingredient. Countless smells seeped out from the crack in the door and swirled around Laurent's nose.

These 800 mercenaries have been stationed in Mayo Town for more than three months. They were specially left by the Imperial Order to guard the exit of Black Bone Swamp.

Prince Kongdai originally kept them behind just for early warning and interception to prevent these short-haired people from escaping again.

These mercenaries were fine at first, just occasionally stealing and eating without paying.

But later on, especially when some rumors and hearsay came from Grand Duke Meliati, the situation gradually began to go wrong.

They began to set up private casinos outside the town, luring townspeople to gamble, and then lending money at high interest rates, and then forcing people to sell their children, homes, and land.

Under the threat of swords, the entire town of Mayo had to give up other orders and provide them with 300 helmets free of charge.

The leader of the mercenaries, Cléante, used casinos and loan sharks to turn more than a dozen young girls in Mayo into prostitutes, forcing them to receive clients in order to pay off their debts.

Damn you, Cléante, when are you going to leave?
Savior Army of the Groove, when will you come?

The door of the wooden house was opened and a hot and smelly smell hit me in the face.

The drunken mountain mercenary kicked Laurent to make sure he was alive: "Hey, what are you daydreaming about!"

Laurent stood up tremblingly and lowered his head: "What's wrong with you?"

"What kind of tone is that!" The mountaineer slapped Laurent so hard that he took two steps back. "Master Cléante is itching to hang out. Go to the bird cage area and call the two girls over."

At this time, Laurent's father also poked his head out of the cabin: "Laurent! Are you itching for trouble again? Didn't you hear me?"

"understood."

Laurent dug his fingers into the cracks in the floorboards of the cabin. He clenched his teeth and tried to hide his anger in his trembling voice.

"It's useless." Laurent's father retracted his head and continued to pick up the dice.

Walking in the dim starlight, Laurent stumbled forward.

He was originally doing well as a tailor's apprentice in Jeanne d'Arc, but this old rookie broke into his teacher's house and smashed everything, forcing his teacher to return the tuition and take Laurent back home.

If he had known this, he should have gone to Blackbone Swamp with the Saviors!
Laurent walked desperately in the wild, and the bushes made rustling sounds, as if coyotes were passing through.

He walked near the "bird cage" in anger and sadness, and his mechanical walking suddenly paused for half a second.

For some reason, he smelled a pungent smell of blood, which seemed far away, yet seemed very close.

Is it a coyote?

No, such a strong smell of blood must come from a large beast.

Although he had no idea what was going on, Laurent knew it was time to run.

He took a few more steps forward, as if he had noticed nothing, then suddenly turned a corner and ran straight into the woods.

After all, there is a lot of open space outside, and if you encounter a large beast, you will have nowhere to run.

"stop!"

"Fuck the goat!"

Laurent hadn't taken two steps when his ankle was suddenly grabbed by someone. Another sturdy man with body odor tackled him from behind and pinned him to the ground.

"Gua, let me go, let me go--"

With a rag stuffed in his mouth, Laurent punched and kicked weakly. He was turned over and only then could he see the man in front of him clearly.

Both of them were wearing simple linen and animal skin clothes, and had a pair of furry gray animal ears on both sides of their heads.

Beastman!
Laurent struggled even harder. There were quite a few beastman bandits in the Thousand River Valley, but there were none in Jeanne d'Arc originally.

However, ever since the church took over Fort Joan of Arc, it has been entangled with the Royal Knights and the distant relatives of the Duke of Darnay and has no time to maintain law and order. As a result, many beastman bandits have appeared near the originally peaceful Fort Joan of Arc.

Two beastmen held down Laurent's limbs, and while he continued to struggle, they carried him on their shoulders and ran towards the "birdcage" in small steps.

Being carried on his shoulders, Laurent did not continue to struggle, but stopped wasting his energy and instead observed his surroundings, looking for a chance to escape. To his surprise, the two beastman robbers actually took him into the birdcage.

Everywhere I looked, the dead and injured were the guards of the birdcage, and the bodies of the guards were lined up on the ground.

To Laurent's surprise, the women in the birdcages did not suffer any abuse. They sat aside in their coats and were comforted by a special priest.

Inside the birdcage, there were special soldiers maintaining order and resting quietly against the wall. They were wearing silver breastplates and uniform black and red coats.

Is this a bandit?
Before Laurent could figure it out, he actually saw a familiar figure among the patrolling black-clad soldiers.

Jourdain, the cloth vendor on the street, was wearing a black coat and looked much more energetic and stronger than before.

"Mmmm--" Laurent understood instantly that this was the Savior Army, and the Savior Army was attacking.

Laurent's constant struggle attracted the attention of the division captain, Jourdan. He walked forward curiously and shouted in surprise: "Laurent? Is that you, Laurent?"

After the rag was removed from his mouth, Laurent's first words were: "I know where Cléante is!"

Cleonte poured the butter mead into his mouth, threw the dice on the table drunkenly, and watched the gamblers wailing with smugness.

Even when he was drunk, he could still control the dice perfectly.

"Gold content, this is the gold content of the gambling god in Qiyushu Town. Do your dice have such gold content?"

Amidst loud laughter, Cléonte gathered the chips on the table one by one to his chest.

After traveling for so long, Cléante finally lived a relatively comfortable life for some time.

Since the Prince of Condé had formed a verbal alliance with Barnifos, he had interceded with the royal agent to whom Cléante owed debts, extending the time for Cléante to repay the debt.

This undoubtedly gave him more time to turn things around, but it was only an extension after all, and Cléante still had to repay his debts.

Mayo Town is not rich, but if you know how to make money, you can make up a large amount of interest.

At first, he just wanted to use a small casino to build his business slowly, after all, he had to save face for Grand Duke Meliati.

But recently he heard some rumors that Grand Duke Meliati had actually revolted under the banner of fighting against church corruption.

Okay, okay, young man, this is how we play it, right?

Cléante nearly fainted from laughing, and that day he stepped up his efforts and started the "bird cage" as well.

Thinking of this, he kicked Laurent's father, who was sorting out his pitiful number of chips, and said, "Hey, where's your son? Did he run away?"

Laurent's father climbed up with the help of the chair, half-knelt on the ground, and said timidly and flatteringly: "He doesn't have the courage to do that. Maybe he was bitten by a coyote. If you are anxious, I will go find it for you."

"That's enough." Waving his hands, Cleonte yawned, "I'm going to take a piss, you guys can have fun by yourselves, don't worry about me."

After he walked out of the cabin and felt the chilly spring breeze blowing across his face, he sobered up a little.

"Iris, iris ...

"The irises in my hometown are blooming, and my little boy has grown into a big fat guy..."

Going around to the back of the hut, humming a vulgar tune from his hometown, he happily unbuttoned his trousers and opened the floodgates to release the water.

The chirping of birds could be heard in my ears, and the whimpering of dogs could be heard in the camp. Everything seemed so quiet at night.

So quiet.

Cléante's humming stopped abruptly, and his years of battlefield experience made his hair stand on end.

His whole body stopped moving for a moment, and he forced back the remaining one-third of his urine. He hurriedly pulled up his pants, and ran to the front of the house while holding onto the wall.

"Hey, everyone, come out, go to the sentry post and take a look—"

"Master Cleonte, what did you say?"

"I mean--"

"Whoosh-"

Cléante first felt something flying past his head, and only after the thing had passed did he suddenly retract his neck in response.

A warm liquid flowed down my cheek, and a tingling pain came from the side of my head.

He subconsciously touched his right ear, but found nothing. His ear had disappeared without a trace.

Without even a moment to mourn the loss of his ear, Cléante turned and ran back.

"Enemy attack! Quick, blow the horn, blow the horn!"

(End of this chapter)