Lightning crooked head and asked confused, “Why me?”
“Keke, it’s nothing.” Theo coughed twice. “What are you going to do next?”
“Next we will set up a camp in the south of the dock to control the area, and then in the afternoon we will start the rescue mission.” Iron Axe said, “If the ships could be here by then, that would be for the best.”
When Brian led his men into the refugee area, he could not help but frown.
Everywhere he looked he saw dying people. Their skin had split open at many places, with black blood continuously flowing out of them and attracting swarms of flies. However, those ill people didn’t even have the strength left to drive the insects off, simply letting these flying insects crawl all over their body and drink of their blood.
Seeing all this, he couldn’t help but think of the Months of Demons, when the people of Border Town were trapped in the slums of Longsong Stronghold. Having to face death by hunger and coldness, but being utterly helpless against it. If all this was really done by the Church, it was a simply unforgivable crime.
“Let’s call the first group,” Brian said. “We depend on you, Miss Echo.”
If they rashly went within the crowd and announced that they were in possession of medicine to cure the ill, it would most likely cause a ruckus. And when a large group of refugees went into the direction of the docks all at once, their small group of dozens of people would simply not be enough to suppress them. Because of this, they had to make sure that the information was always only spread to a select small groups at the same time. Considering this problem, His Highness had decided to specially sent Miss Echo along. With her ability, Echo was able to control the area within which her voice would be heard, or she could also just put her voice next to a person’s ear.
Even though Brian saw how she opened her mouth to speak, he was unable to hear any sound, while the fugitives turned around and looked over.
Soon, a group of them came over, more stumbling than running, “Your honor, is what you said really true? As long as you can cure the disease, I am willing to follow you to the Western Region!”
“Of course it’s true. Our ships have stopped at the pier, so gather your family and come with me!”
Other soldiers also stepped forward to help the patients who laid on the ground and were unable to move. Their small group instantly expanded to several hundred people, who walked together in the direction of the pier. Many people who noticed this scene, also began to follow, doing their best to catch up with them.
Back to the pier, soldiers of the First Army had already filled with bags with purified water and placed them on a long table. At the gangway to board the ship stood Iron Axe with a squadron, only letting only two people through at the same time, and ensuring that all the people who wanted to embark had first drunken the curing water.
“Everybody listens, these water bags are filled with medicine that treats the illness, so as long as you drink from it, you will immediately recover.” Next, to the long table, they had set up a stage on which stood the one with the highest standing amongst the soldiers, constantly preaching His Highness’ manuscript, “What the church has called the ‘Demonic Plague caused by witches and could only be dispelled by their Holy Elixir’ is a groundless statement, nothing more. They just want to earn more money and also make you kneel to them, thanking them for their graciousness in saving your life. Instead Lord Roland not only brought the medicine, he also doesn’t charge you any fees for it! Yes, you don’t even have to pay a copper royal for it!”
These words immediately heated up the crowd, but when the first person drunk the purified water, he quickly felt how his body changed. Unable to believe it, he tore open his clothes only to see how the dark spots quickly faded away, “This medicine is indeed effective! I’m healed, I’m healed!”
“Me too, God above, the wounds no longer bleed!”
“God you say, where is it? I only see a group of liars!”
“That’s right! This medicine has nothing to do with the Church!”
“Long live His Highness, Roland!”
As more and more people were healed, the witnessing crowd also became more and more excited. If the First Army to hadn’t been there to control the order, the water bags placed on the table would have immediately been washed away by the flood of fugitives.
“At the moment, His Highness is busy with developing the Western Region, for this, he requires a lot of manpower to cultivate fields, build houses, build roads… he does not charge you anything for the medicine, and he also doesn’t force you to go with us to the West.” The soldier responsible for the propaganda continued to shout as loud as possible, “But His Royal Highness promises, that as long as you are willing to follow us to the Western Region and work for him, you will get food, shelter and payment! No matter what your specialty is, you will get a matching job! If you are willing to take the first step into a new life, just step forward and follow the mercenaries on board, they will take you to your new home! If you are unwilling that is also okay, we will still be here and provide help for the next three days; after that we will leave. During these three days, food will be given out free of charge by the caravan!”
“Is there really a new home and work with salary waiting for us?” Someone asked loudly.
“Of course, that is the condition offered by His Highness!” The soldier nodded in response.
“Please let me on board; I am willing to serve His Royal Highness!”
“Me too!”
“And I!”
“I’m a blacksmith!”
“…”
Brian was very pleased to see that within this group of hundreds of people, no one chose to stay in King’s City and instead they all decided to board the ship to the West. The moment a vessel was full, it would immediately depart and then be replaced by an empty ship. Under Margaret’s command, there wasn’t even the slightest pause between.
Afterward, Brian continued to lead refugees from the camps to the dock, always relying on Echo sound transmission technique to draw in a new batch of Eastern Region refugees. The number of refugees under her control would be between 300 to 400 every time. As he returned with a new team of patients to the pier, he suddenly saw how the First Army stationed in the wheat fields in the south began to move. A team of them rushed out at flying speed into the direction of the northern bank of the canal, while carrying their guns in their hand.
“What happened?” Brian asked into the direction of Iron Axe’s men.
“Scout Miss Lightning said that someone had secretly jumped off the ship and run away,” one of them offered while saluting. “Maybe there’s a rat which had hidden itself between the refugees?”
Chapter 225 The Avengers
In fact, there was more than one of those rats, so once again, Iron Axe stood in front of a man they had captured and looked at him expressionlessly, “You are the third person who’s tried to escape by jumping off the ship, the refugees also told us that you haven’t come from the Eastern Region. So, what will be your important last words, will it be a confession?”
The two people who had previously been caught, after using a dagger to cut off a finger, of both of them immediately confessed their origins and purpose in coming. Of course, their corpses were still thrown into the canal afterwards, since Iron Axe had never been a person who had a soft-heart. His experience of struggling for survival in Iron Sand City was that when dealing with an enemy that was hiding the head and showing the tail, the best response was to cut off one exposed limb after the other. However, what surprised him was that the prisoner with his after being pushed down on his knees and getting his hands tied to his back, still looked very healthy, nothing like those other sick people.