Chapter 150: Secret Village, Men With Duties

“Responding to Your Grace—”

“Our investigations into the chancellor have unfortunately not seen any important discovery regarding his agenda, just more uncovering concerning all the other areas in which he’s been siphoning the duchy’s resources, which I’ve prepared in a separate report.”

“However, we are certainly getting close to something.”

The man informed, his gaze on the ground as silence reigned in the room for a few seconds after his words, Faerwyn taking her time to digest this news before speaking again.

“And the other thing I asked of you?”

“As commanded, Your Grace, I had personally shadowed master Hardwood, and after spending the night at the temporary residence of the Silverwinter’s white widow—”

At this junction in the man’s report, a sudden chill pervaded the room as a deep scowl creased Faerwyn’s brow. The man swallowed hard before continuing carefully—

“The morning after— they went around Tellon before spending some time at the beast race arena, then master Hardwood headed back for the Wolfe estate. He encountered no danger throughout, however—”

“I was always getting the feeling that someone else was keeping tabs on him—someone probably stronger, and with better stealth ability than I.”

“Is that so ?…Hmm”

Faerwyn muttered calmly as she thought about who else could possibly be keeping an eye on Hardwood. It wasn’t difficult to arrive at the conclusion that it would be one of Dongwhisper’s men, since she still recalls his obvious dissatisfaction at being devoid of the pleasure of cutting the young man’s cock off.

There was also the possibility that he might have discovered just how special he was. This made Faerwyn decide she needed to hasten her plan as well.

“Continue to keep an eye on him when next he goes out, or send someone dependable from your team to do so.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“As for Dongwhisper, double your efforts; I need results. You may leave.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

The man intoned, standing up and bowing one last time before backing out of the room. And as soon as he did, the twins who had gone out previously came inside carrying trays containing some fruits and wine, going to set them up on the duchess’s room table.

“Cecille— leave what you are doing to Denie, and go bring that young man over here.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Cecille, the taller and older of Fearwyn’s gorgeous attendants, bowed calmly as she left the set to Denie before making her way out of the room, going to do as the mistress had commanded.

Somewhere else, on the fringes of the Wolfe Duchy, inside the separating black forest that leads all the way to the cold mountains, perpendicular to the Grand Duchy of Whimbrook, the vast territory governed by the Whimbrooks.

In an opening inside a seemingly ordinary mountain base, a handsome young man walked calmly with a large dead beast resting across his shoulder, the beast weighing several hundred pounds, yet this man carried it inside as if it were nothing,

This young man had on simple brown clothing that seemed overused, with traces of blood and scars on his body; clearly, he had just engaged in a battle; his form was toned and his strong muscles evident as he took strong steps through this cave pathway illuminated by glowing fire lamps on either side.

As the man reached what looked to be a simple rock wall, like a dead end, he simply passed through it, his body phasing through the rocks like an illusion. On the other side of this was a vast opening of what looked like a thriving, vibrant village, consisting of men and women going about their day as well as children. The houses were built into rocks, and rocky pathways hung midair between one end of the cave walls and the next.

This handsome young man continued to walk on with his kill over his shoulder, heading in the direction of one of the houses in the walls along the edging pathways overlooking a deep fall below, but guarded structurally with safe bricks and ropes.

Men, children, and women went to and fro freely as the young man passed by several ladies who looked at him in admiration, greeting him and trying to get his attention while his sights were set on his destination.

A few things stand out about this inside mountain village, and that is that the ratio of men to women was one to ten. For every man seen, there were ten more women. As well as the fact that none of these men had any branding on their hands or their foreheads.

Aside from this, everything else looked normal, like a normal small village.

The young man reached his modest accommodations and dropped the large beast to the ground as he began the process of skinning, cleaning, and butchering the beast into several pieces. As he worked shirtless outside his cave abode, a lot of passing females stared in clear lust, gawking and greeting with clear intent, but this young man paid none of them any mind and simply focused on his work.

As he carried on, an old man who looked to be in his late seventies or eighties walked over with his cane, and he said to the working man—

“Ah—you got a big one today, I see.”

“That I did.” The man answered simply, but with a respectful tone and a little smile to the old man, who helped himself to a seat next to him as he worked at butchering the beast into smaller chunks.

“Whatever would we do without you?”

“Starve?”

The young man responded cheekily, smiling for the first time since coming into this secret cave dwelling with the beast.

“Don’t you get cocky now— you aren’t the only one pulling their weight, yungin.”

“That aside—you know you can’t continue like this, right ?” The old man suddenly said in a serious tone.

“I don’t understand what you mean, elder.” The young man responded, avoiding the elder’s gaze.

“You know what I mean already —”

“What’s the point of joining us in our crusade when you won’t even touch any of the fair maidens that are obviously interested in you?”

“You might as well allow yourself to be captured and be castrated at this point since you aren’t using your tool.”

“I mean—look at me— even I have ten lovely beauties under my care.”

“Tsk tsk tsk… such a waste.”

The old man said in disappointment as he stood to leave, but not before turning and saying to the man.

“It is now our duty to keep this world alive— stop being hung up on your past romance, and do your duty—fuck some beauties…”

“Vemir”