The Lord Of Blood Hill

After leaving Blood Hill Manor, Henwell leads his team on a forced march for two days.

Crossing hundreds of miles, they finally arrive at Cloud Tree City for a brief rest.

During this time, Henwell visits Count Doyle of the Gilbert family.

Doyle doesn’t come back from the Peace Haven wedding banquet alone.

He returns with a team of several hundred, carefully assembled over more than a year of training in Peace Haven.

These hundreds aren’t just fighters, they include administrative personnel as well.

From commerce to industry, from military to governance, these people have interned in various Peace Haven departments for over half a year.

Now back under Doyle’s command, they effectively dominate every aspect of the Gilbert family’s affairs with overwhelming force.

Doyle invests half of the Gilbert family’s cash reserves to outfit a thousand-strong unit.

Following Peace Haven’s example, he trains his guards and militia rigorously.

At first, the family pays no mind. After all, those peasants dressed in coarse cloth, wielding wooden sticks as spears, and running drills daily hardly seem like soldiers.

But once Peace Haven’s equipment arrives, family members are shocked to discover Doyle commands two battalions, over a thousand armored warriors.

Even more alarming is the elite cavalry unit of more than two hundred men Doyle has brought back.

Doyle doesn’t immediately clash with family members. Instead, he buys time, letting the officers trained in Peace Haven familiarize themselves with the troops.

During this period, Doyle bickers with family factions and even enlists the Cloud Tree City lord as a shield.

But stalling can only go so far, especially when the family learns Doyle spent nearly two hundred thousand gold coins, half the family’s treasury, on this equipment.

Suddenly, various family factions demand Doyle distribute the gear.

At this point, Doyle clearly sees the true faces of these so-called family members.

Most of the family’s money now comes from Doyle’s own earnings.

When he first started, the Gilbert family couldn’t even scrape together fifty thousand gold coins.

If not for his leadership in Peace Haven trade, and during the last Transformation Battle, the family would have been stuck fighting with poorly equipped peasant soldiers.

He fought hard to convince the family to purchase simple metal weapons from Peace Haven.

If he hadn’t personally commanded on the battlefield, the family wouldn’t have had a chance to earn great honors.

His soldiers were brought back from the front lines and armed with his own money, yet now he’s accused of damaging the family’s property.

Still, Doyle suppresses his anger, using the pretext of how to allocate the weapons to delay for nearly another month.

Finally, when some family factions try to band together to challenge his position, Doyle leads over a thousand troops into battle.

This internal family conflict barely qualifies as a war, it’s more like a brawl.

The thousands of soldiers rallied by rival factions never even engage Doyle’s infantry in a proper fight.

Two volleys of arrows shatter the opposing peasant ranks.

Over a thousand cavalry assembled by family members face Doyle’s charge of more than three hundred horsemen but hold out for only a single round.

Those knights, usually famed for their bravery, quickly lose their nerve when it comes to life-or-death cavalry clashes.

Cavalry charges are a gamble on life and a test of courage.

Clearly, these knights, accustomed to indulgent lifestyles, lack the resolve to risk everything.

The key to cavalry combat is maintaining formation and charging speed.

If either side falters in fear, they’re doomed to be hunted down and slaughtered.

In this widely watched family civil war near Cloud Tree City, Doyle earns the nickname Count Cruel.

Before the battle even begins, Doyle orders his men to kill as many family members as possible.

In a family war, the losing side will be spared, even the family head is not spared.

Doyle breaks with tradition, he refuses to show mercy or take prisoners among the rebellious family members.

Of course, this harshness applies only to family members, not to the ignorant peasants or soldiers.

Half of the Gilbert family members fall dead on the battlefield.

Most of the survivors have their titles stripped by Doyle.

Many beg for mercy, but Doyle shows no favor, not even to the lord of Cloud Tree City, his own mentor.

This ruthless stance earns Doyle the infamous title of Count Cruel.

But Doyle has no regrets about his ruthless actions. If those disobedient nobles remain, how can his own men rise through the ranks?

They block Doyle’s path as well as the advancement of his followers.

Though he doesn’t completely annihilate them, Doyle uproots many nobles and demotes their families to slavery.

These slaves are sold off to the Western Regions or to Arius’s domain.

With this brutal purge, Doyle firmly takes control of the Gilbert family.

Now Doyle is extremely busy, every decision falls to him. He only manages a brief, hurried meeting with Henwell.

Henwell holds no grudge. While the troops rest, he goes to Cloud Tree City to visit Lord Keynes, the city’s ruler.

Though Keynes belongs to the king’s faction, he is fundamentally a principled soldier.

Keynes also shares a good relationship with Duke Jansen and once lent Henwell support during the battle with Billie.

Moreover, Cloud Tree City sits at a crucial spot along Henwell’s trade routes.

That’s why Henwell went to great lengths to position Doyle as leader of the Gilbert family.

For both personal and practical reasons, Henwell must pay respects to this old acquaintance.

But Henwell almost gets turned away at the door.

The guards outside the reception hall are visibly tense. They’ve watched Henwell sit on the cold bench for a long time and fear he might suddenly lose his temper and cause a scene.

Yet Henwell calmly admires the artwork inside, showing no sign of offense.

Two hours later, Lord Keynes finally arrives with an expressionless face.

Henwell greets him, “Uncle Keynes, are you done with your business?”

Keynes sizes up Henwell, then sighs, “How do you manage to be so shameless?”

Henwell laughs, “Uncle Keynes, you flatter me. You’re my elder. I would never be angry just because I had to wait! That would be terribly uncultured. Besides, you have a good relationship with my uncle and have helped me before. How could I ever be upset with you...”

Keynes waves his hand impatiently. “That’s not what I mean. You know exactly what I’m talking about, the brat from the Gilbert family! You’ve played me for a fool! I thought he was just a business partner, but I didn’t realize you two were already in cahoots!”