Heimarian Odyssey

Chapter 119: Looting

Chapter 119: Looting

The celebration of the Faustian soldiers lasted for three days, but some accidents happened during that period.

On the second day, there was a big explosion in Felippe's mansion, causing Falcon to suffer approximately a hundred casualties. Though, this caused the divisions to tone the plundering down a little. Nobody wanted to be blown into the sky unexpectedly.

After the caster troops intervened in the follow-up investigation, they concluded that there had been dozens of magic crystal bombs being buried under Felippe's mansion.

These were timed bombs that were set to explode in anticipation of looters. The margrave still managed to set the Faustians up even though he was dead.

Other than causing unnecessary casualties, the explosion had also turned the mansion into rubble. Even rigid steel couldn't withstand the powerful explosion.

Much of Felippe's assets turned into dust after the explosion; the god of prosperity's mansion reduced to nothing in a matter of seconds.

There was another matter that most ordinary soldiers didn't know about.

"A secret tunnel?" Kenzir looked at the caster in front of him suspiciously.

The caster seemed to be in his forties. He was wearing a navy blue robe, and his sleeves seemed to float even though there wasn't any wind. He was a wind caster.

"Yes, it's underground in the palace's backyard," replied the caster.

The underground crypt that Shalor's royal family had used for evacuation had been discovered on the night the Faustians seized the palace.

Kenzir had no intention of capturing all of Shalor's royal family members. They had been ruling such a huge kingdom for hundreds of years, plus, they were proficient in magic. The prince wasn't surprised at all when he was told that they'd fled.

However, the prince didn't take this matter to heart. Shalor had already been defeated and even Aomar acquiesced to Faustian's expansion in that territory. So it wasn't a big deal even if they'd let some escape their grasp.

Other than the escape of the royals, a convoy comprising many Shalorian nobles also broke out of encirclement on the day the city had been breached. Although the prince had sent a cavalry platoon to go after them, most of the nobles still managed to escape.

These were just small losses and Kenzir had no time to deal with them now. His top priority was to quell the riots in Audis.

Ever since the day of the city's breach, there had been many incidents of robbery, arson, wounding and humiliation in Audis. These were really not the doings of the Faustian soldiers; they were all done by the Shalorian gangsters and the crooks with ulterior motives instead. They just wanted to blame it on the Faustian soldiers.

The Faustian army had already hanged more than a dozen rioters, but the situation hadn't calmed down; the violence was exacerbated instead. It seemed like Audis' residents were currently very hostile towards the Faustian soldiers who'd occupied their city.

After all, this was a big city with a population of over a hundred thousand. The Faustian army couldn't kill too many people as they still needed to rule over this city.

These people would become Faustians in ten or twenty years' time, so the Faustian soldiers couldn't kill them.

Locke was quite satisfied with what he'd done in the past two days. He led the cavalry platoon together with Wyr to take down the wealthy merchants and nobles.

The Faustian soldiers would never do anything to the civilians, but the nobles and wealthy merchants were an exception. Nobody cared about them; even the Shalorian civilians would applaud in their hearts when they saw the Faustian soldiers taking from the Shalorian nobles -- a classic example of ever-constant class conflict.

"How did you know where they were?" asked Wyr, riding next to Locke.

The cavalrymen were passing the both of them by, each carrying something with a smile on their faces. There were numerous goods on the warhorses.

Locke adjusted his helmet and replied modestly, "It's pure luck."

"But it's impossible for you to get so lucky every time, right?" Wyr obviously didn't fall for it. In the past two days, Locke had brought the cavalry platoon around Audis to seize goods. The spoils they'd gotten from it even made a noble like Wyr astounded.

"Uh, I found out thanks to scrutinising certain details that stood out." Locke didn't specify what those were.

"Oh." Wyr was deep in thought. He believed Locke this time, since having such keen observation SKILLS, could explain his lucky strike.

After figuring that out, Wyr valued Locke even more. Every successful person had their tricks.

No wonder Locke was favoured by the division jarl and Angelina. Before this, Wyr thought that it was because Locke was lucky enough to have been the one that rescued Angelina. He'd changed his mind about him now. Locke was indeed a capable person.

The soldiers from the cavalry platoon had gotten tens of thousands of silver thalers' worth of plunder in the past two days. After splitting all the fortune among the unit, each of the platoon jarls would end up getting ten thousand silver thalers.

A noble with a knighthood like Wyr had two manors and a village in his domain, and yet he could only earn less than ten gold thalers yearly from them.

Ten thousand silver thalers was approximately a hundred gold thalers, which was a lot for Wyr. Plus, it had only been two days; they would probably get to seize more in the future.

As for Locke's lucky break, it was all thanks to Glace and Laffey who had lived in Audis for many years.

Although Glace was a socialite among the kingdom's elites, there were several minor nobles who had a stash hidden in their houses in Audis.

Glace brought up a few locations easily, all of which belonged to nobles below the rank of a baronet. It was just right for Locke and Wyr to plunder, as that was the right amount of wealth that wouldn't incite the elites' envy. Not to mention, it wasn't too surprising for them to find that amount of spoils.

Laffey was familiar with the sector where the rich lived. Most of the nobles' homes were filled with precious handicrafts. As Locke and Wyr were simple folk with no appreciation for them, they sold most of the handicrafts to the baron's caravan.

On the other hand, they found a lot of gold and silver Shalorian coins that could be exchanged for acceptable rates. Locke and Wyr preferred gold coins compared to antiques and handicrafts which had less concrete value.

Speaking of Glace and the others, Locke brought them out of the city on the second day of the city's breach.

Glace and Laffey seemed a little muted, and Locke didn't know how to comfort them. Although Kristin was still energetic, he could tell that deep down, she was sad.

Locke grabbed Glace and Kristin's hands tightly in each hand; he was fulfilling his promise.

When the explosion occurred at Felippe's mansion later that day, Locke happened to be next to Glace and Kristin.

As they heard the explosion in the distance and saw thick smoke wafting above the city, Glace felt heavy-hearted and Kristin teared up. The young Kristin had probably figured out what happened.

"I'm fine, Big Brother," said Kristin to Locke, who was about to comfort her, as she wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes.

Locke hadn't seen Angelina in the past few days. They'd just occupied Audis, so Angelina, one of the elites, would definitely be busy. As Kenzir's sister, each and every move she made was being watched by those with ulterior motives.

Since Angelina didn't have the chance to meet Locke, he was happy to mingle with Glace and the others. Despite quitting smoking these few days after the war ended, he felt rather relaxed.

Locke and his platoon had left their camp and went to Audis to plunder in the morning, only to return when the sun was about to set. He bade farewell to Wyr and led his horse to his tent.

When he passed by the tents of other platoons, he realised that neither Hans' 3rd Platoon nor Yoshk's 2nd Platoon were back.

"They're still working hard." Locke smiled.

This profitable plunder of the whole city wouldn't last long. He reckoned that the soldiers would be ordered to stop in about two or three days.

Locke wouldn't be surprised if Hans and the others took advantage of this moment and ransacked people's houses all night long.

They weren't like Locke who had planned ahead for all his targets; they just followed their intuitions. Their earnings were probably not much after dividing them among a platoon of approximately a hundred men.

It was also inconvenient for Locke to tell Yoshk and Hans where the profitable locations were because he couldn't explain how he knew about them.

After tying his horse to the doorpost of his tent, he lifted the drapes and walked inside his tent. There was a square wooden table placed in the middle of the tent. Glace, Suzanne and the others each sat at a corner. There was a hole in the centre of the wooden table with a fire underneath and an iron pot above it. The iron pot had all kinds of food in it, and the air was filled with a savoury and enticing aroma.

As soon as Kristin saw Locke, she stood up joyfully and offered her seat to him. Locke walked straight over, sat on her seat and lifted her onto his lap.

The thirteen-year-old Kristin wasn't half as tall as Locke. She was naturally exquisite, like a porcelain doll sitting in his arms.

In the past two days of plundering, Cardoj had even sent the logistics department out to the city. Of course, there wasn't anyone to cook for them. The soldiers had to prepare their own meals themselves for three consecutive days, and they always had a way to do it.

It was quite impossible for these soldiers to starve to death in such a large city. The unlucky Shalorians would just have to suffer for the soldiers to remain fed.

This meal was made by Laffey. She was a maid from the margrave's mansion, so her skills were exceptional. Locke never had the opportunity to taste Laffey's cooking before, and after eating this meal, he felt as if he'd come upon a treasure like her.

Suzanne didn't slack off either. She gave Laffey a hand before the meal, served Locke food during the meal, and washed the dishes after. She was indeed suited to be a caring wife.

Only Kristin and Glace had nothing to do. The former kept asking Locke to tell her a story, and the latter just sat there all night with a book she'd gotten from who-knew-where.

Glace had a tender and composed look when she was reading, which made the illiterate Locke's heart itch for her. He'd only relished in her once, but he was always thinking about doing so again.

They lived like this for the past few days. Glace and Kristin were still coping with their grief. What annoyed Locke was that Glace wouldn't let him touch her.

Although he could do it by force, he felt that it was inappropriate to do so.

"Give me two days, okay?" Glace said Locke, who was getting very impatient on the bed.

Locke had no choice but to seek out Suzanne, who was in the other partition.

Locke's tent was very large and had three partitions. Glace, Kristin and Laffey stayed in two partitions, while Locke and Suzanne stayed in one.