Work Prophet
Chapter 651 - 24: What is British Virtue?

Chapter 651: Chapter 24: What is British Virtue?

The Wing Tribe army came on ferociously in the first few days, but as time passed, their offensive gradually slowed down.

This was mainly because they had flown directly from Crab’s Corner to Lion Heart Castle. While fast, their supplies and military provisions could not keep up.

Food was still manageable as they could raid nearby villages for provisions, but military supplies were not so easy to come by, especially pine resin and various flammable materials used for arson.

Gars, the new Emperor, hadn’t been idle while waiting for the enemy to arrive. He even had people chop down all the trees within a thirty-mile radius.

That way, even if the Wing Tribe people were to gather branches, they would have to fly thirty miles away, significantly increasing their consumption.

Furthermore, Gars had prepared another surprise for them.

The Emperor divided the second and third Royal Knight Orders into squads of four, dispersing them in the surrounding woods to maximize evasion from aerial scouts.

If the Wing Tribe people landed and there happened to be an Empire squad nearby, an ambush was quite likely.

Of course, if those Empire squads were exposed, they too would face encirclement by the Wing Tribe people.

Looking at the casualties on both sides over the past few days, it was about half and half, with around a hundred dead from each side.

But the problem was that the Wing Tribe army totaled just over ten thousand. If they continued this mutual attrition, they were definitely at the greater disadvantage.

This was also why, despite the effectiveness of fire attacks, the Wing Tribe people had stopped using them.

As Romero had predicted, the situation had temporarily stagnated.

Irleya could then afford to be slightly less anxious.

Besides listening to the radio on schedule every day, she turned her attention back to her own territory.

Miss Rabbit was now glad that Li Yu had advised her to stockpile plenty of food earlier, especially when the prices were low just after the harvest in the western territories.

As the situation started to destabilize, food prices soared.

The Lady now needed to do nothing but sell what she had on hand to make back half of the purchase price.

Unfortunately, while she had an abundance of food, she also had many mouths to feed, having brought back over twenty thousand new citizens from a trip to the Royal Capital, and now she had an additional ten thousand captives. The stockpiled food was just enough for her own use.

Thus, there was no profit to be made in this aspect, and Miss Rabbit had to shift her focus to the Dwarves, thinking about how to make these fellows spit up double what they had consumed.

She had originally planned to send these Dwarves to the mines, but because of the sudden arrival of the Wing Tribe army, the fall of Crab’s Corner, and the subsequent siege at Lion Heart Castle.

The Lady then made a temporary decision to send half of the Dwarves to dig tunnels. They weren’t as densely packed as in the movies, but at least it would provide a place for the city’s inhabitants to hide during attacks.

Miss Rabbit personally took charge of the tunnel excavation and construction while leaving the mining site to her aunt, Alisa.

After half a month of intense work, one afternoon the Lady visited the west of the city to inspect the progress of the project.

She encountered a Dwarf standing with hands on hips at the entrance of the tunnel, shaking his head as he looked on.

At first, Miss Rabbit thought someone was slacking off, not working properly, and idling around, but then she noticed that there was no prisoner’s mark behind the Dwarf’s neck.

There had always been trade between several nations on the Bratis Continent, and some individuals from other nations had settled in the Red Lion Empire for various reasons.

Having lived here for a long time, some of these people even developed a sense of belonging here, and the Empire had accepted them, granting them citizenship.

There were quite a few such Dwarves in the western territories, and ever since the battle in the Dragon Ridge Mountain Range, their situation had been somewhat difficult.

However, Miss Rabbit didn’t take her frustration out on them, but to distinguish the captives from the normal dwarves and to prevent the dwarf prisoners from sneaking away, she made a mark on the back of their necks.

According to the tradition of the west, some lords would brand captives with a hot iron, but Miss Rabbit felt this was a bit cruel, and once branded, it was for life.

So she went to inquire if Li Yu had any other methods.

Fortunately, Eco-friendly Frog had picked up a seal, and Li Yu, without much thought, gave the lady a bottle of gentian violet dye and asked her to get the seal from Clara and use them together.

By the time the Prophet of the Double Rest Sect remembered about it, it was already too late.

Li Yu discovered that the napes of those dwarves now sported round seal marks.

The top had "Hai Feng County Large-Scale Food Products Co., Ltd," in the middle was the date "May 26, 2016," and below was "Inspected - Passed" in big characters.

The design looked very familiar.

But by then, it was too late for Li Yu to say anything else, he could only remind the lady to re-apply the seal every two weeks, because the secretion of oils and sweat would cause the seal to fade, or even disappear.

However, this actually made the dwarves much more docile.

Becuase when they heard that the purple mark on the back of their necks was the masterpiece of the Prophet who made the sky burn that night, summoned light pillars, and summoned a mountain full of mice, they all believed it was some mysterious and terrifying alchemy array.

Once controlled by the array, they could never escape again, as no matter where they fled, they would be found, and their bodies might even explode spontaneously without cause.

Li Yu, as the person involved, had no idea where this notion came from, but the dwarves spread it as if it were certain, and all believed it unquestioningly.

In short, this person had no mark on the back of his neck, so he probably wasn’t one of those ten thousand slaves.

But seeing him standing there for so long, Sir Irelia thought he was distressed seeing his compatriots suffer, so she approached him proactively.

"It was your people who started the war first, and their current plight is to atone for their past sins."

"Ah?" The dwarf seemed to be startled, turned his head to look at Miss Rabbit for a while, and after a moment, he finally spoke, "What did you say?"

"I said, they got what they deserved."

"Deserved what?"

"They got what they deserved."

"What deserved?"

For a moment, the lady wondered if the dwarf was deliberately playing with her, as her voice wasn’t quiet and the fellow didn’t look so old as to have hearing issues.

But soon she saw Clara running over from across the street, shouting as she ran, "Sir Irelia."

"Mary, it’s you, when did you come over?" Miss Rabbit also called out.

"Well, around noon, I brought some students here for a social studies class," Clara said, panting.

"Students," the lady thought of something, speaking of which, she had felt that the dwarf looked a bit familiar, and now she finally remembered.

He seemed to be the new servant of the Double Rest Sect, and his appearance was because he used the body of a dwarf nicknamed Molten Giant Axe.

Speaking of which, they had met before, but to Miss Rabbit, dwarves all looked somewhat similar, and with He Chaoyang having changed clothes, the lady hadn’t recognized him.