220: Chapter 117 Avalon Castle_2 220: Chapter 117 Avalon Castle_2 Jon sighed in sympathy at the words, but he had to harden his heart and said, “It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but after last year’s taxation, Longka has scarcely any stores left, and it’s still early for the harvest.
You know as well as I do that all the food in the warehouse now belongs to the Lord.
“There’s really no way around it, can you wait?
Releasing the stored grain for relief on such a large scale can only be decided once the Lord himself arrives.”
You mean the old master from the Farolis family?
How long will that take?
Some people have already started to faint from hunger,” Boli, a grown man, nearly cried out in desperation.
“Don’t panic, there’s no need to wait too long.
Now Longka has a new Lord, Lokhak lives not far from here, and if we’re fast, he could arrive by nightfall.”
Seeing the past kindness between the two villages, Mr.
could only try to pacify them: “But you can’t enter the village, you have to stay just as you are now, a good distance away, and wait…
I’ll try to find some food to tide you over when I go back to the village…”
Without disbursing the drafting queue, the village official continued to have the militia and archers on the mound surveil the Aiken villagers who had fled from afar.
He returned to the village, managed to get some food for Boli, but that was all he could do.
As for whether or not to keep these refugees, he had no authority to decide on his own and had to patiently wait for the messenger to inform those three knightly Lords.
Upon seeing the Farolis banner from the watchtower, the vanguard troops of the Thorny Flower family stationed within the fortress for many days immediately ordered the soldiers below to open the city gates and welcome Baron Eriv into the city.
A troop of nearly a thousand marched grandly through the village and entered the streets of the fortress.
The neatly beautiful architecture was a spectacle for the soldiers and civilian craftsmen of Farolis; their Lord had not fooled them, there truly was a beautiful town within the Nightmare Forest.
Elegant buildings followed one after the other with water storage pools at the intersections linked by canal bridges, as well as pretty lampposts that could only be seen in a big city and sewer covers that seemed to be part of a drainage system, all of which made Baron Eriv feel as though he had arrived in the Capital “Oran.”
The Thorny Flower vanguard, after a rough understanding of the city, led the formally stationed troops to settle in.
This masterless fortress was designed with a military purpose in mind and had existing barracks that needed no alterations.
Water sources, sanitation, living arrangements, defenses, and guards, along with all kinds of weird and wonderful facilities of unknown purpose were all available.
A thousand-strong army could easily be stationed here indefinitely as long as they had enough food and supplies.
The army and the Guards separated, and Leon followed Eriv to the northeast of the fortress, which was a bastion with turrets at each corner.
This might have been the administrative center which managed the town in ancient times, visible were the yet-to-be sorted heaps of ancient documents within the building, seemingly transported through time with their relatively intact state due to the peculiar temporal characteristics of the Spirit-like Field.
Leon glanced at the various documents scattered atop a desk.
Now, except for Miss Lora in the Mage Tower, there was likely no one who could understand the Lorelette words written there, let alone what content they recorded.
Baron Thorny Flower made a brief tour around, confirmed the room where he would temporarily reside, then proceeded with Leon to the top of the square fortress.
He leaned against the battlements with his hands, gazing down as if deeply moved by an indescribable sentiment towards the beautiful town below.
Just as Leon was considering when to find an excuse to slip away to the Mage Tower to see Lola.
He saw Eriv turn his head to look at him.
“What?” Leon asked, puzzled.
the name of this fortress.” Eriv spoke in a deep voice.
“It shares the name with the castle on your domain?” Leon raised his eyebrows lightly, sensing the connection between the Thorny Flower family and this ancient city, but still feeling somewhat surprised.
“Yes, if the ancient books and maps passed down from generation to generation are correct, this is the ancestral land that the Thorny Flower family has sought for many years.
My ancestors might have been residents of this fortress,” Eriv explained, looking into the distance: “On the large family heirloom map in my castle’s Treasury, this location is marked as the true ancient Farolis, Bauhinia Castle.
And that Farolis City outside of the forest was named by an earlier Family Head to honor the legacy of our ancestors.
According to legend, this true Farolis Castle contains innumerable and inexhaustible treasures of gold…
Baron Eriv laughed softly and shook his head, then glanced at Leon: “You’re one of the first to arrive, have you seen any earth-shattering treasures?”
Leon quickly shook his head: “I swear, I have seen none of the gold and treasures you speak of that belong to Farolis, just an empty city.”
He told this lie without a hint of guilt.
There were indeed some gold and gems in the tower, though not many, but as for treasure…
The Netti Card should be considered one, yet all that belonged to Lady Aphrodite, not to Farolis.
If there were links to be discussed, it was only proper now for that lady’s teacher…
Miss Lora to inherit everything.
As for the ancestors of the Thorny Flower family, if they were merely residents who fled the town at the beginning, there was no way they should have a claim to Aphrodite’s inheritance.
In Leon’s view, the Thorny Flower family having been able to possess this Forest City of the reclusive Mage Lord with his assistance was already a steal.
“Don’t be nervous, I’m not interrogating, just joking…” Baron Eriv looked at the seriousness on the youth’s face and patted him on the shoulder guard: “Whatever treasure there might be, even if real, what harm would it do to give it to you?
Ownerless objects belong to whoever finds them first, as is the proper order of things.
And the opportunity you’ve provided me by offering this city for the southern expansion of the Thorny Flower family is a hundred times more precious than any treasure legend.”
He looked at the young man before him and then glanced down at the fortress beneath his feet.
Ever since he stepped into the forest out of the desolate situation his father and family found themselves in, seeking this last consolation.
Eriv believed that over the past decade or so, he had led his family through thorny paths to rejuvenate from adversity and had long since discarded that cursed obsession.
Now, all he wanted to do was look forward, and under such a tide of emotion, the Baron’s resolve to sever the past from the future grew even stronger.
“Leon, why don’t you name this place,” Eriv said, pressing on the other’s shoulder, suddenly inspired.
Didn’t you say this place was called Farolis?” Leon asked in puzzlement.
“That was its old name, let the past be relegated to the dust of time.
Moreover, the Thorny Flower family already has a better Farolis City.”
Although the family’s current main castle looked much less appealing than this, chaotic and messy, it was indeed much larger, capable of accommodating over ten thousand people and still expanding.
With a thriving agriculture and trade, the wealth flowing from it made it far more valuable than this ancient castle buried in the forest.
Now that the ancestors’ obsession had been realized, and he intended to divide from the past, he naturally wouldn’t let his main castle be renamed for this old town stuck in yesteryears.
“Don’t defer, as the first person to discover this place, there’s nothing inappropriate about you naming it.”
Seeing the Sealing Lord’s insistence, Leon nodded in agreement, his interest piqued.
Leon, arms crossed, approached the battlements and surveyed the huge fortress below, now bustling with people due to the Farolis troops’ presence.
Imagining the symbolism of a forest stronghold, several names flashed through his mind.
Or perhaps, to go further.
Leon pinched his chin, hesitating and then rejecting these three names.
All were fitting, and he liked them, but this fortress beneath his feet wasn’t his property after all.
Such names, so suited to his Sword Wing Badge, should be saved for a castle that truly belonged to him.
As Leon pondered, his gaze suddenly shifted toward the innermost part of the northern fortress.
Looking at the high tower there, now disguised by magic to resemble a cliff face, a more fitting name emerged in his mind.
Could Aphrodite and Miss Lora be considered “Fairies” in some sense?
They should be, from the perspective of the Holy Sun Sect.
To say that Lora was a widely worshipped goddess would not be too far-fetched.
Moreover, one had already returned to the Dead Sea, while the other existed in the world as a Spiritual Body, which indeed had a significant connection to the Netherworld.
From the perspective of a hellish joke, the term was simply a match made in heaven.
Leon looked at Eriv and revealed his choice: “Let’s call it, Avalon Castle.