Lord of Rot

”Wait, I still have a Meat Ticket,” Old White Hair said, quickly pulling out the ticket and holding it up. ”It’s good for a pound of meat!”

”We don’t do exchanges here.” The man pointed to an empty shop next door. ”Go there to get your meat.”

”Right, thank you!”

He walked out carrying his oats and hurried to the butcher shop next door.

The few blacksmiths behind Old White Hair also successfully traded for meat, sparking another round of amazed cries.

”I’m going to find the steward to exchange for grain tickets!”

’Exchange for grain tickets?’ A thought struck Old White Hair. ’If I can really get more grain tickets at a cheap price, it’s a guaranteed profit.’

He went with the others to find the steward but was told the steward had already gone to the inner fortress, which was guarded by Soldiers and inaccessible to them.

They would just have to wait until tomorrow to make the exchange.

Exhausted from a long day’s work, the blacksmiths turned and headed home.

Old White Hair, however, circled back to the street with the shops and walked toward the butcher. This time, he was much more confident. ”I have a Meat Ticket. I want to trade for meat!”

The man, who had been dozing off, opened his eyes at the sound. ”Let’s see the ticket.”

”Here!”

The man reached out and took the Meat Ticket.

THUD!

A piece of ”pork” that was mostly a large bone with very little meat was thrown down in front of Old White Hair.

Even though it was mostly bone, Old White Hair was overjoyed. He could finally eat something savory.

Old White Hair asked, ”What’s the price of meat?”

”We only take Meat Tickets,” the man working there said. ”The Lord brought all the meat from outside. There isn’t much, so it’s not for sale, no matter the price.”

The man’s attitude was a bit impatient, but Old White Hair thought it was perfectly normal. ’If I were the one in charge of a shop full of meat, I’d probably be even more arrogant than him. After all, the fat glistening on your hands each day would be enough to keep you full.’

”Thank you.”

Carrying the meat and grain, Old White Hair walked briskly toward home.

His neighbors stared in amazement as they saw him carrying a bone with meat on it, wondering where he had gotten it.

He pushed open the door to his home, and his little grandson ran over. ”Grandpa! I’m hungry.”

”Haha, we’re eating meat today!”

”Eating meat?” The little grandson hugged Old White Hair’s leg, his eyes wide.

”That’s right, meat!”

The meat and oats were tossed into the pot to stew. Though nothing else was added, the aroma drifted far...

”Lord, Hay is completely disobeying your orders,” Lacy said. He was standing on the ramparts with Leech, who was gazing out at the forest beyond the castle. ”You told him to promote the grain tickets, but he’s actually selling the ones you provided for free and pocketing the money.”

”Don’t be so tense, Lacy,” Leech said calmly. ”He’ll only take promoting the grain tickets seriously if he sees the benefits for himself. Only then will the people of Iron Wall Castle see the benefits of the tickets. He’s just making a paltry profit.”

At most, Hay could only make a dozen or so Silver Moons.

For the sake of that small profit, Hay was racking his brain to figure out how to promote the grain tickets, which saved Leech a great deal of effort.

All he needed was for these people to survive. If he could establish his authority during this time, it would be a clear win.

”There’s also a group of people buying up large quantities of grain, planning to hoard it,” Lacy asked. ”Should I take some men and arrest those bastards? Your merciful sale of grain is keeping them from starving, but these people are betraying your kindness, only thinking of profiting from the chaos.”

”No need,” Leech said. ”If they want to hoard grain, let them. If anyone tries to rob them of their grain, make sure the Soldiers protect them.”

Lacy was confused.

Leech asked, ”Lacy, how long do you think this situation will last?”

”Not long,” Lacy replied, shaking his head.

Regardless of where those vine corpses came from, one thing was certain: they weren’t truly immortal. Destroying their heads would kill them, and they couldn’t resurrect after being killed a second time.

Secondly, they couldn’t leave Iron Valley. At its peak, the entire valley only had twenty to thirty thousand people, so there was a cap on the number of potential vine corpses.

Lastly, they feared armies.

It might seem like Leech’s forces were trapped in Iron Wall Castle, but that was only because he was still dealing with the castle’s internal affairs. Settling the daily needs of over 3,000 people—food, drink, and sanitation—would take a few days at least. He simply hadn’t had a chance to turn his attention outward yet.

It had only been two or three days since he had stormed Iron Wall Castle.

If this were a war between legions, they wouldn’t have even gathered enough nobles for a council meeting yet.

”Exactly. This won’t last long. If they want to buy our grain at high prices, then sell it to them,” Leech said. ”I’ve already written for help. Grain and reinforcements will come. There will be no shortage of food.”

「Nightfall.」

A corpse bird flew from Iron Wall Castle under the cover of darkness, heading northeast.

Leech’s consciousness was completely immersed in controlling the corpse bird.

Flying high in the sky, he could see the beach beyond the cliffs of Iron Valley.

After flying a bit further, a small cluster of buildings on a low hill caught Leech’s attention.

’A monastery!’

With a slight tremor of its wings, the bird dove toward the monastery.

’Hiss... so many?’

Even before reaching the monastery, he could see from a distance countless corpses wrapped in thorny vines, wandering about aimlessly.

A quick count put their numbers at one or two thousand, at least.

And that wasn’t even counting the ones hiding in corners or the vine corpses in other villages throughout Iron Valley.

’There must be at least ten thousand in the entire Iron Valley!’

Unlike the rabble of the Wado Eighteen, these monsters’ only weak point was their heads. They didn’t fear death, and their combat strength was no less than that of an ordinary Mercenary.

Well-prepared Porcupine Soldiers might be able to kill a few with their muskets, but once entangled by the vines in close combat, death was the only way out.

’Good thing I wrote to Guy and asked him to bring the monkey soldiers. Two hundred elite, fearless corpses should be able to hold them off for a while.’

’Exterminating the vine corpses is a must; otherwise, it will affect the oil extraction.’

Although using the two hundred elite monkey corpses this time might reveal that Waterfall Land wasn’t truly under control, Leech couldn’t afford to worry about that now.

The corpse bird lowered its altitude, not attracting the attention of any of the vine corpses.

He even tried landing on the shoulder of one of the vine corpses, but it didn’t react.

’This means they don’t rely on sound for direction, but on some more magical reason.’

It spread its wings and took flight again.

Among this batch of vine corpses, a large portion were male and female farmers. Their common feature was a small flower growing on some part of their body, and vines that had burst through their skin.

Another portion of the corpses were actually Mercenaries.

Members of the Red Stone Mercenary Corps, who had once clashed with Chuina in Iron Stone City, were clearly among them. Although Leech couldn’t recognize their flower-covered faces, he recognized their mercenary insignia.

’Did all two thousand of those Mercenaries die here?’

No wonder that group had arrived in Iron Valley without causing any stir, as if they’d vanished into thin air. It turned out they had been completely wiped out here.

FLUTTER FLUTTER.

The corpse bird folded its wings and perched on a branch, peering into the monastery through an open window.

A woman in a red dress stood with her back to him.

Under the cold moonlight, the woman’s body was wrapped in a floor-length, bright red dress, looking both bizarre and beautiful.

’The woman from the Black King’s memories?’

Leech controlled the corpse bird to fly into the monastery, wanting to get a closer look at her.

The woman in red didn’t move, as if she hadn’t noticed Leech’s approach.

When he was in front of her, Leech’s heart seized violently.

Her skin was covered in holes the width of a little finger, so numerous they were impossible to count.

From these holes sprouted countless vine tendrils, upon which bloomed small, bloody, and grotesque flowers.

Countless holes grew countless grotesque flowers, and these flowers were woven into what Leech’s eyes had perceived as a beautiful ”red dress.”