Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 109 - 13: The Last Lord of Sea Castle

Chapter 109: Chapter 13: The Last Lord of Sea Castle

Roman observed Nillie for a long time.

He couldn’t see anything special about her.

However, the fantastical talent of breathing underwater and moving as freely as a fish should not be fake.

He felt that Nillie was related to witches and had awoken certain Talent Spells, but he didn’t think so completely, as Nillie’s Five-dimensional Attributes were all average, not resembling a spellcaster.

Roman didn’t observe any special traits about Nillie.

He broke the silence and directly asked, "Are you from Sea Castle?"

Nillie was not tall, but her body was well-proportioned, with long legs and a slim waist, potential for modeling, and her skin was exceptionally fair and delicate. She replied, "Yes, sir."

"I thought the residents of Sea Castle were a bit darker," Roman added. Morry had brought over most of the slaves who were constantly exposed to the sea breeze, with rough facial features and darker skin tones, and Kao and Sanna also had healthy wheat-colored skin.

Nillie said, "Some people from the Sea Castle can withstand the wear of the sea breeze."

Sea Castle belonged to the Black Iron Kingdom and also to the Ice Island Kingdom.

But to whom it truly belonged depended on the choice of the Sea Castle’s master.

Although Roman thought that there were seven kingdoms on this land,

This concept was always vague.

If someone thought that the seven kingdoms neatly divided the entire land, like slicing a cake with clearly marked borders, they would be gravely mistaken.

The direct territories of the seven Royal Families combined would be lucky to occupy 10% of the entire land.

In actuality, they likely accounted for less than 5%, not to mention the archipelagos.

The rest of the land belonged entirely to the nobles.

The Kings held a lofty status but had very low control over the entire Kingdom.

If the border nobles didn’t heed you, then the King was utterly helpless.

People just wouldn’t listen to you, they weren’t rebelling.

Unless the King was strong-willed, or for political interest considerations, there was no need to deploy troops and demonstrate royal authority.

Morry had stayed in Sige Town for many days and had described the specifics of the Sea Castle to Roman.

That narrow coast was called Dust Python Coast.

It was winding and undulating, stretching thousands of miles.

Like a giant python lying dead, deep in sleep, its body separating the land from the sea.

Sea Castle was located at the end of the Dust Python Coast — the tail tip of the Dust Python slammed into the sea, from here, a steep mountain range rose from the deep sea.

Its end rose high, thus the further one went, the higher the terrain and narrower the road.

At its end, the cliffs were a hundred meters high from the sea surface.

The cliffs were sharp; below, the white waves were turbulent, ceaselessly battering the hard rock walls, eroding the mountains.

The nameless ancestors of the Sea Castle came to the end of the Dust Python Coast, built the grand Sea Castle, and thus were named.

The tail of the Dust Python rose high, creating large beaches on both sides leading to the land; it was surrounded on three sides by the sea, with the south side connected to the town. It had access to abundant marine resources and convenient transportation, advantageous for both offense and defense, conducive to ruling.

For over a hundred years, Conquerors swept through the land with their swords; the master of the Sea Castle voluntarily submitted, otherwise, the Conqueror’s army would most likely have faced a great defeat at Sea Castle.

Generations of Sea Castle masters believed that their blood contained that of the divine, able to hear the call from the depths of the ocean in their dreams.

They usually would, when old and retired, sail across the sea in wooden boats, led by the tides, ultimately reaching their destined land.

Roman asked Nillie, "I heard that the master of the Sea Castle is a descendant of the ocean?"

Nillie blinked. "I cannot answer your question, sir; only the master of the Sea Castle has that privilege."

She grew up in such an environment, accustomed to those distant legends.

But perhaps the people of the land didn’t think so, especially the inland nobles — Conquest Knights knew nothing of the vast ocean.

Nillie did not want to antagonize her current master, so she avoided discussing it further.

"Do you also have the bloodline of the Sea Castle master in you?"

Nillie pursed her lips; her nose was high-bridged, her blue eyes profound as the ocean, and her features exceptionally defined — a visage that ordinary people could not possess.

"Perhaps, sir, that is not for a servant like me to know, as you know, there is only one master of the Sea Castle."

Roman felt that, although the Sea Castle master had no descendants, the bloodline had not ceased; that land had ultimately flourished, and each generation of the Sea Castle master must have produced more than one offspring, but there was only one master of the Sea Castle, and they did not follow the primogeniture system.

The other offspring either married into other noble families or became commoners, their bloodline mixed.

Therefore, some residents of Sea Castle were quite peculiar; their skin, like fish scales, could resist the wear of the sea breeze and the corrosion of salt, naturally favored by the sea.

He scrutinized Nillie, "Are there many from the Sea Castle in Sige Town like you?"

On hearing this, Nillie immediately straightened her proud chest, exuding the charm of a beauty.

She assured Roman emphatically, "Sir, I swear you won’t find a prettier slave than me."

Roman naturally believed this; if there was another slave of Nillie’s caliber, Sige Town’s expenses would have to increase by at least a dozen more gold coins.

If the entire ship were filled with such slaves, he would have to smash Morry’s head with an account book.

"I am a slave meant to work, not a slave meant to be worked over!"

Roman treated Nillie kindly, as if chatting about everyday matters, "What did you do in Sea Castle? And your family?"

"My father was a boatbuilder, my mother could mend fishing nets and do other tasks, and I have two younger brothers and a sister..." Nillie’s face dimmed slightly, plain yet beautiful. That was until the lord of Sea Castle fell ill and died, and they lost their lord without a competent successor to take his place.

In recent times, heirs of the Sea Castle lords have been sparse, and now it has come to outright extinction, causing endless disputes between the steward and the guards.

They had no choice but to search among the nobles who had marital ties with Sea Castle for someone to take over.

But this decision brought a catastrophic disaster to Sea Castle.

The gates of Sea Castle were wide open as Earl Baley and Lord White Poplar plundered everything considered a treasure of Sea Castle, including her.

"And what about you?"

Nillie bit her lip. "I was a maid to the lord of Sea Castle..."

Roman was not surprised by this answer; Nillie obviously dealt with nobles frequently, so she was poised, confident, and knew how to win his favor.

Roman rested his elbow on the armrest, "Tell me more about it."

Not knowing where to begin, Nillie revealed everything; that past could not be concealed.

Who knows what that slave trader Morry told Roman about it.

"I became a maid to the lord of Sea Castle when I was twelve, serving Lord Deer along with other girls. Lord Deer was ill-health, and to address the inheritance issues; he chose us to be his maids.

"He promised that once he recovered, he would have us bear the next lord of Sea Castle. But he never regained his health; sometimes he couldn’t even stand up and spent most of his time either lying in bed or sleeping.

"His personality, compromised by illness, became increasingly erratic. Sometimes, he would fall into hysterical rages in his sleep as if he was having a nightmare..."

Nillie recalled that gloomy experience, almost as if a sticky, salty substance was being secreted from her mind.

At that time, she and the other maids cared day and night for the frail lord of Sea Castle.

In the past, Deer wouldn’t have qualified to be the lord of Sea Castle.

But Deer’s grandfather had only Deer’s father, and Deer’s father had only Deer.

In the past decades, the lordship of Sea Castle had been transferred from father to only son, making the lineage increasingly fragile.

It was like a seed stricken with disease, the sprouts it bore were delicate and weak.

She still remembered Deer’s pallid and emaciated face; he couldn’t eat anything, and Blood Coral was utterly useless on him. He had to rely on the cool energy contained in pearl powder to sustain his life, consuming a top-grade pearl every day.

But a sieve cannot hold water.

His body grew weaker in the dry air, sometimes he couldn’t even breathe, like a severe asthmatic, a fish out of water.

They called the illness the black plague, a dreaded disease from the depths of the ocean; it was rumored that the Conqueror had also contracted the black plague.

Deer repeatedly asked the Sea Castle steward to release him into the ocean to let the currents carry him away.

But this unreasonable request was vetoed by the steward, for a human will only drown in the sea, and the currents will carry away nothing but a corpse.

Deer became unpredictably furious, having nightmares while asleep, emitting a keen and piercing inhuman roar. When awake, he acted like a mad dog, smashing everything he could grab, venting his repressed and gloomy emotions through frantic actions, further depleting his already scarce vitality.

They were Deer’s maids, and thus entangled, needing constantly to clean up the mess and extremely fearful, praying to the ocean gods for the lord of Sea Castle to recover.

He waved his arms with the strength of a three or four-year-old child, unable to harm them.

But he was still the lord of Sea Castle, capable of torturing others to a miserable existence.

Yet Deer never hurt them.

He was not cruel, especially gentle towards the maids, often softly calling them "dear sisters," "my kinfolk."

He said that the people of Sea Castle had the same blood flowing in their veins, a secret power from the deep sea, enabling them to dream the same visions.

But none of the modern descendants of Sea Castle could do so.

They had the same ancestor, but this blood had been continuously diluted since coming ashore.

To maintain a pure bloodline, one must unite with a blood-relative; perhaps they could breed a revertant bloodline.

He said his lineage was impure, too, akin to commoners; their status should be consistent. If he could be the lord of Sea Castle, then any maid here was equally qualified.

But it was his father who had him alone, perhaps the legacy would end with his generation, and Sea Castle would thus lose the ocean’s favor.

This was fate.

The life of the Dust Python came to an end, and perched on the Dust Python’s tail-end, Sea Castle also met its demise, the ocean losing a protector, the future became even more tumultuous and unstoppable, a time when even the Demon Clan would need to avoid its edge.

But she and the maids felt that Lord Deer had not yet awakened from his nightmare; the lord of Sea Castle was talking in his sleep—her father and mother both had the pale skin of Sea Castle people, and she was merely a person from Sea Castle, she couldn’t be the lord of Sea Castle.

Deer held her hand, asking her to sit at the edge of the bed that reeked of sickness, and summoned her parents, as if trying to prove it to her, tracing her bloodline source, reviewing varied documents, even finding many old Sea Castle folks who had lived for a century.

The conclusion was:

She was the descendant of a Sea Castle lord who had followed the Conqueror on expeditions a century ago; her great-great-grandfather and Deer’s great-great-great-grandfather were the same person—they were true blood relatives—she was supposed to be the current lord of Sea Castle’s aunt or great-aunt.

Later, Deer passed away in agony.

His death was hasty, like someone who had drowned on land.

As he alone bore his wooden boat across the sea, the sky was overcast and the shore was stirred up by unprecedented massive waves, thunderously battering against the mountains.

The indestructible cliffs collapsed, creating a cavity beneath the cliff, rolling rocks tumbled into the sea, making the Dust Python’s tail appear increasingly upturned.

Amidst the crying of the sea, the waves swallowed the last lord of Sea Castle’s body.