Chapter 346 - Subjugating Barbarians- Part 1

"My Lord, um-i surely will be able to convince the soldiers with the help of my brother, but there is a slight problem. My husband brought over three hundred warriors from the Barbarian tribe, and I think no one apart from him could deal with them-" Marla thought it was best to notify the young man now, but Alex interrupted her in between with a wave of his hand.

"I know. Leave them to us. You should think about how to persuade your brother in the meantime. Because as much as I have come to know about him through intelligence, he is very loyal to your husband, and I think the idea of establishing an alliance with the Barbarians should have come from him." Alex revealed this because he also just got to know about it just now from his puppets.

They were analyzing the feasibility of Marla successfully convincing the enemy forces to lay down their weapon.

It seems Marla also knew about this and replied immediately, "Yes, he did suggest allying with the barbarians, but he didn't know that the Viscount would sell-off of her nieces, my daughters in exchange. I'm sure he is still not aware of this matter because he was sent to guard the north gate before the viscount took away my daughters to the forest through the south gate without my brother's or mine knowledge. When he came back last night, it was only then that I got to know about their fate upon confronting him about my daughter's whereabouts."

Alex stared down at her face, checked her heartbeat with his spiritual sense to see if she was telling him the truth.

Though the puppets stationed in this castle had ruled out the possibility of her lying, it was better to check it himself with his spiritual sense.

Seeing that there was no abnormality in her facial micro-expression, eye movement, etc., he said, "Well, I will give you a chance. I will have someone ring the summoning bell atop the castle to call your brother here. He should in about fifteen minutes, and also the other officials that served Viscount Bardrick would also be arriving about that time after they hear the bell. Make them surrender peacefully by the time I come back from dealing with the Barbarians camping outside the southern city gates. My subordinates that are here in this castle will help you subjugate anyone unruly, so try your best." 

Alex gave a mental command to the maid to look after Lady Bardrick and deal with any trouble she faced. 

With that, Alex walked out of the room. After getting out of Lady Bardrick's sight, he switched with a puppet, positioned in a hiding spot someplace outside and south of the city. 

. . .

Seven tall Barbarians were sitting in a circle, happily munching on cooked meat and drinking expensive liquor, 'gifted' to them with gritted teeth by the human chief that had to lead them here yesterday night. 

"Karakh, when will we fight? My hands are itching to smash those runts skulls, " asked one of the Barbarian as he turned his head to look at another one sitting to his right.

He gave a loud burp at the end as he had just eaten cooked meat worth of almost two adult cows. Barbarians are widely known for their voracious appetite.

The more they will eat, the faster they would grow stronger.

And as they grow stronger, they will spend more energy than a typical human or even a cultivator; they will need a massive amount of daily energy to maintain that strength to an optimum level.

That is why in the past, whenever the Barbarians had attacked any city or human settlements, they would go after food rather than expensive weapons and leave no food behind. 

No city can host more than five thousand barbarians inside of it for a longer period of time without getting themselves into a food crisis themselves. 

The forest of Caragan is rich in high and low-level Demon Beasts, which is why the Barbarians haven't gone extinct due to their gluttony.

But due to the danger level of the Caragan Forest, the Barbarians had never been able to have enough food to go by every day or have conditions to increase their population as humans.

Most Barbarians die while facing powerful Demon Beast or succumb to injuries afterward. 

"Soon. . . Chief is on his way. He will attack the human settlements of the enemy, and when he does that, we will ride with the human Chief that we had allied with to defeat his enemy entangled in the north direction. Until then, we had helped him guard this city against any invaders by land or saltwater." The tallest and the brawniest of the seven Barbarian replied to his subordinate while cleaned his teeth with the thinnest bone he could find. 

"Argh, we should have stayed behind rather than coming here with that human rat. I could have joined Chief Anthral in the raid against humans and smashing their heads into the mud. If I had known, I would never come here with you guys." Stated another one of the Seven Barbarian. He had the smallest build of the seven.

Norakh, the oldest among the seven Barbarians, laughed aloud before he said, "Kakakaka, we will get plenty of that. This is going to be a long battle, going for days, maybe even months. In short, we will be out here for a long time. You will get plenty of chance to shine and get merit in the battle." He gave everyone a knowing smile. As if he knew some plans of the Chief. 

The eyes of the Barbarians sitting around shined when they heard him say that.

"Do not tell me; he is really planning to occupy human lands. But that's. . . We will offend Ullesis and the rest of our brethren," Karakh, who was also the bandleader of the three hundred Barbarians, asked in a respectful tone when he faced Norakh, his predecessor Norakh who led the band of three hundred Barbarians before him. In fact, Norakh was the one who taught him fighting gave him his name.

Norakh is also one person who sits the closest with Chief Romethra, so he should know more than Karakh, the new and upcoming leader.

Hearing the term 'Ullesis' caused some of the Barbarians to flinch visibly.