Chapter 130: A New Threat.

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Uliyan wandered along the shingle beach at the bend of the river with Nelson and his attendants, pointing out whatever he could explain to them.

At the same time, he unobtrusively tried to draw them out, hoping to discover why they had come.

If they were merely here to take advantage of the place, Uliyan could endure it for the sake of Nelson’s status as the son of a nobleman, so long as they did not go too far.

From the introductions, one would have thought Nelson was merely a distant relative of Count Frelov, some connection through a great-aunt or a third cousin. In truth, however, he was a man of considerable influence in Isonpol—powerful enough that a single unfavorable remark from him might threaten Riverbend’s very survival.

Uliyan was thoroughly disgusted, but he could only wait upon him with care.

Nelson, however, paid him little attention. Instead, he evaluated Riverbend on his own and offered one directive after another.

Pointing toward the farmland to the north, Nelson said, “These fields are rather an eyesore. Why not level them, fill the area with gravel, and join it to the riverbank? Then build a riverside estate there for entertaining guests. Hmm. The scenery here is very suitable.”

Those northern fields had been reclaimed from the wilderness only through Uliyan’s painstaking efforts alongside the villagers. They were the foundation of everything he had built.

Now the wheat had sprouted, turning the fields a vivid green. Old Raska, the man in charge of agriculture, spent every waking hour among the crops and seemed ready to sleep there outright.

Around the wheat fields, a good deal of additional land had been cleared, and flax and legumes had been planted in time.

Along the northern riverbank, an embankment less than two meters high was gradually taking shape. It stretched from the northern part of the peninsula toward its tip and was still being extended southward.

Uliyan had first visited Riverbend seven or eight years ago, and he understood the local waterways well. When the river rose in summer, the waters of the Anzeno River flooded the entire Riverbend Peninsula, submerging most of the land and joining with the small lake at the peninsula’s center.

That was why no large trees grew on the peninsula: it was a floodplain.

An embankment less than two meters high was not impressive, but it just exceeded the height of the opposite riverbank. With it for protection, even if the river flooded the woodland across the way, it would not be able to drown the peninsula’s plain.

All the villagers’ efforts had been dismissed by Nelson as worthless.

The veins in Uliyan’s forehead throbbed, yet he continued to smile obsequiously.

“Sir, you jest. We are a hundred miles from Isonpol, deep in the wilderness, with terrible roads. No noble lady or young mistress would be willing to cross mountains and rivers to attend a banquet here.”

“That is because your status is insufficient. The fault lies with you, not the location.”

“Yes, yes, of course.”

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Seeing the bustling Wolf Fang camp across the river, Nelson frowned again.

“Is that village yours as well?”

“Yes. We recently took in some refugees and wildfolk, allowing them to earn a living through logging and hunting.”

Nelson shook his head emphatically. “Wildfolk and refugees are nothing but cockroaches and rats! Taking them in merely dirties the land. They should all be driven away. Those serfs need only work in the fields. A lord’s hunting grounds should never be entered by lowborn commoners.”

Then he glanced at Uliyan with a mocking smile.

“My apologies. I had forgotten that you have not yet been invested as a knight. You are still a commoner yourself.”

Uliyan waved both hands hurriedly.

“It is nothing! Nothing at all! Everything you say is correct, my lord!”

As he spoke, he called for Leo and barked, “Did you hear that? His lordship has spoken! Go and drive those damned wildfolk away at once!”

Leo had been thoroughly enjoying the spectacle, but at this he could only scratch his head and leave, taking the opportunity to inspect the Wolf Fang wildfolk camp.

During this period, wildfolk had continued arriving from the north and joining the camp, though they always came in small groups of ten or twenty.

With enough groups arriving, however, their numbers had become substantial. The Wolf Fang camp now held more than a hundred additional people, bringing its population almost level with Riverbend’s.

These newcomers were likewise wildfolk who could no longer survive in the north.

Unfortunately, not every wildfolk tribe had been able to find a safe route of escape before the upheaval. Some had been massacred before they could migrate.

Others had wandered aimlessly through the wilderness as refugees, eventually scattering and perishing.

Of those who had managed to reach Riverbend alive, probably less than one in a hundred had survived the journey.

Magna quietly told Leo that the hundred or so newly arrived wildfolk had come from at least five different tribes.

The most distant tribe had traveled more than five hundred miles and had barely had any contact with the Wolf Fang tribe.

These wildfolk had also brought news: another nonhuman tribe, numbering more than a thousand, had formed once again in the north.

This time, however, the tribe had not crossed the Gravel Hills to advance on Riverbend.

Instead, it had traversed more than a hundred miles of forest and appeared on the World Tree Road north of Isonpol.

The Petukhov family’s knightly domains all lay south of the Anzeno River, southwest of Isonpol.

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Thus, when the united knightly lords organized a patrol force, another banner knight whose fief lay north of the Anzeno River joined Rigolav in taking responsibility for the northern and southern banks respectively.

This nonhuman coalition, numbering more than a thousand, burst out of the forests of Wolf-Driving Plain and massacred two human villages in succession before the other banner knight responsible for the region managed to gather his forces and stop them.

Rigolav’s third brother, the transcendent knight Solovyov, also led troops in the purge, but he did not bring Riverbend’s patrol unit.

Riverbend was too far from the battlefield to arrive in time for a major engagement. Besides, for a battle of this scale, the lords of Isonpol had never expected Riverbend’s few dozen militiamen to participate.

It was not only the wildfolk camp whose population continued to grow. The villager camp and refugee camp were expanding as well.

The villager camp continually absorbed refugees and skilled craftsmen from among Isonpol’s local population. Anyone with a useful trade was readily granted the status of an official resident by Uliyan, along with a full allotment of land.

The refugee camp, meanwhile, was packed with people brought back by the patrols. It had become chaotic for a time, but under military discipline, no major disturbances broke out.

After spending some time being fattened up, performing labor, and undergoing military training, the refugees who distinguished themselves were likewise sent to the Riverbend Peninsula to become full members of the community.

Uliyan had also been afraid that Nelson’s remarks would provoke Leo into drawing his sword at the slightest disagreement. That was why he had deliberately sent Leo away and chosen to deal with Nelson himself.

Nelson went on to offer many more “constructive” suggestions: double the taxes, sell off the useless old and weak, chain up the kobolds whom Riverbend supposedly “enslaved,” and so on.

Riverbend’s military strength was also pitifully weak, in his opinion. The militiamen standing guard and making their rounds were all clad in tattered armor. Not one possessed a proper suit of legion chainmail. Some even wore assorted furs as protection, looking like nothing more than uncivilized wildfolk.

Pointing proudly at his attendants, he said, “To survive in the wilderness, one must possess equipment of sufficient quality. Taking a band of brigands and bandits as one’s followers will never amount to anything.”

His attendants and guards were all clad in fine legion chainmail. They wore iron helmets with leather neck guards, plate pauldrons, and splinted vambraces. They carried steel sabers and swords, as well as iron-bound crossbows—armed to the teeth.

Uliyan expressed his admiration with great enthusiasm.

When they returned to the lord’s hall, Nelson sat down at the table before the hearth and immediately began criticizing the building’s backwardness.

In his view, a manor castle was the proper residence of a noble lord. This traditional northern structure, hundreds of years out of date, was hopelessly primitive and should have been abandoned long ago. It was practically like living in an ancestral temple that had stood deserted for centuries.

Sir Nelson complained, “The moment I become lord here, I will have it leveled.”

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