Chapter 54 : Chapter 54
Chapter 54. The Sound of Rain, the Silent Forest
Early that morning, Eli was awakened by a fine, unbroken pattering sound.
It was not a horn. It was not human voices.
It was raining.
He opened his eyes. The room was dim.
Outside the window, the gray sky hung low, and countless strands of rain had woven themselves into a boundless net that covered the whole of Black Territory Valley.
Rain fell on the newly turned earth, on the roofs of the wooden houses, and among the dense branches of the distant forest, merging into a vast, monotonous rustling sound.
It was as if all things had gone dormant beneath the curtain of rain, leaving behind only the most primal white noise between heaven and earth.
Eli sat up and leaned against the headboard.
Aila, whom he had gathered into his arms and laid down beside him, was still sleeping peacefully at his side, her breathing steady.
He turned his head toward the window, his gaze passing through the veil of rain to the blurred outline of Nightsong Forest in the distance, softened by mist and moisture.
A rare sense of tranquility wrapped itself around him. The noise of his recent days—running about, schemes, negotiations, and trade—seemed, for the moment, to have been washed away by the sound of the rain.
He closed his eyes, clearing away the last traces of sleepiness and distraction in his mind, and let his consciousness sink inward.
A pale blue screen silently unfolded.
Then a beam of deep violet streaked across his vision like a falling star.
【Purple: Deep within Nightsong Forest, a large number of wild beasts are gathering in the core region, restless and uneasy.】
“Gathering in the depths of the forest?” A trace of puzzlement passed through Eli’s mind.
In weather like this, beasts would normally seek shelter from the rain on their own. Such a large-scale abnormal gathering...
He frowned, but since the intelligence did not indicate any direct threat to the Black Territory, he suppressed his doubts for the time being.
He slipped carefully out of bed without disturbing Aila, quickly dressed himself in a leather cuirass and outer robe suited for movement, and stepped outside.
The moment he pushed open the door, a cool, damp wind carrying the sound of rain rushed toward him.
He took no umbrella and walked straight into the fine drizzle.
The rain was cold against his face, sharpening his senses.
With steady steps, he crossed the muddy camp roads and headed for the large newly built wooden-shed area at the edge of the camp, the place specially set aside to house the newly arrived slaves.
At this moment, it held eight hundred unfamiliar faces who had arrived only yesterday.
Eli looked at the shed district, which was at least large enough to keep them out of the rain, and quietly let out a breath of relief.
At least for now, they had somewhere to shelter.
At the entrance to the sheds, the slave overseer Ulu was shouting at the top of his lungs, directing a few older slaves to maintain order and arranging for the new arrivals to line up for breakfast.
He was short and sturdy, with dark skin and a face marked by the shrewdness and severity of someone who had dealt with the lower ranks of society for years.
The moment he saw the white-haired figure approaching through the rain, his whole body jolted.
The stern expression on his face instantly turned into profound respect mixed with a hint of panic, and he hurried forward at a trot.
“My lord! Y-You... why have you come here in person?”
Ulu’s voice trembled with alarmed astonishment. He bent his waist so low it was almost folded in half, while rainwater dripped from the brim of his hat.
“This place is dirty and chaotic. If you needed anything, you only had to give an order!”
“I came to take a look,” Eli said calmly, his gaze sweeping across the somewhat crowded but still orderly scene inside the sheds.
“Have all the new arrivals been settled properly?”
“Yes, my lord! They have all been settled!” Ulu answered at once, speaking so quickly that the words nearly ran together.
“According to the usual rules, the eight hundred men have been divided into eight squads, a hundred to each, and a temporary squad leader has been appointed for every group.
“Including the ones from before, there are now seventeen slave squads in the camp altogether!”
“Everything is still in order. It’s just that the newcomers are still a bit confused and will need time to adapt to the rules.”
Eli nodded and let his gaze fall upon the long line inside the sheds.
At the far end of the queue, several large pots were bubbling with thin wheat porridge, while rough black bread was piled high in nearby baskets.
The slaves stood in silence, most of them wearing expressions of bewilderment, numbness, or faint unease about the future.
The air was thick with the scent of wet earth, mixed with the smell of food.
“I’m hungry,” Eli said suddenly.
His voice was not loud, but both Ulu and several nearby slaves who heard him froze in place.
Ulu thought he must have misheard and stammered out a question.
“M-My lord? You said...”
“Go get me a portion too,” Eli said, still watching the food line. “The same as theirs.”
Ulu went utterly blank, his mouth falling open wide enough to fit an egg inside.
Feed the distinguished baron the same black bread and thin gruel the slaves were eating?
This... this was simply unheard of!
He stood rooted to the spot, utterly at a loss, his face flushing red as though Eli had ordered him to commit some shocking outrage.
“Go,” Eli said, his voice carrying a note of unquestionable command.
Ulu shuddered, then dared not hesitate any longer. He ran in a panic toward the food line, shoved his way to the front, and hurriedly whispered a few words to the old slave responsible for distributing the meal.
The old slave was stunned too. Fumbling in confusion, he ladled out a full bowl of thin porridge so watery that there were barely any grains to be seen.
Then he carefully picked through the bread and chose one that looked slightly less hard than the others, passing it gingerly to Ulu.
Ulu carried the bowl and bread back with both hands, as though he were holding some priceless treasure—or perhaps a red-hot burden.
He hurried back to Eli and spoke in a voice on the verge of tears.
“M-My lord... this... this is it...”
Eli said nothing. He simply reached out and took the rough wooden bowl and the hard black bread.
Then he walked to an open window in one of the sheds, his back to the crowd inside, his face turned toward the curtain of rain outside.
There he stood, one hand holding the bowl, the other the bread.
Like the most ordinary soldier or farmer, he ate in silence, taking a mouthful of porridge, then a bite of hard bread, with only the rainy view beyond the window before him.
Ulu stood a few paces behind him.
He did not dare move closer, yet he did not dare leave either.
He stared at the straight back of that shockingly young white-haired lord. Rain had dampened the cloak on Eli’s shoulders, tracing the outline of a frame that seemed almost a little slender.
A feeling too complex to describe suddenly surged through Ulu’s chest.
Yes... setting aside all those awe-inspiring titles and that frightening strength, their lord was still just a youth—young almost beyond reason.
He was not even much older than many of the slaves’ own children in the shed.
And yet it was this young man who had built this camp on the wasteland, taken Lucerne City, become a baron, and yesterday purchased eight hundred people without so much as blinking.
He was so different. So... great.
Ulu had spent half his life struggling at the bottom of society. He had seen all sorts of nobles and overseers—greedy ones, brutal ones, hypocrites, the cold and indifferent...
But he had never seen anyone like Eli.
A lord who would personally come to a filthy, chaotic place like this.
A lord who would calmly eat the same food as the slaves.
Ulu felt his nose sting. He sniffed hard and forced that sour ache back down.
Silently, he thought to himself:
I, Ulu, do not have any great ability, nor can I help my lord in any major way.
All I can do is manage these newly arrived slaves well on his behalf—make them keep the rules, make them work properly, and keep them from causing him unnecessary trouble.
That... is probably the only way I can repay my lord.
Eli quickly finished the simple breakfast and handed the empty bowl back to the still-dazed Ulu.
“You settled them well. You’ve worked hard.”
Leaving behind those few words, he turned and stepped back into the fine rain, heading in the direction of the lord’s keep. Before long, his figure vanished into the curtain of rain.
Ulu stood where he was, holding that empty bowl, and did not move for a long time.
There was still a trace of warmth left on its inner surface, warming his rough palms.
......
At some point, the rain stopped.
The sky was still overcast, but the air after the rain was especially fresh, carrying the damp fragrance of soil and growing things.
It made one’s mood lighter as well.
Eli was in the council hall dealing with a backlog of documents, most of them concerning the allocation of materials for the city wall construction and the preliminary planning of the trading post in Lucerne City.
The sound of the wooden door opening broke his train of thought.
Wolfgang’s tall figure strode in. Tiny droplets of water still clung to the tips of his silver-gray fur, and there was an unusual gravity in his icy blue wolf eyes.
He did not bother with formalities and walked straight to Eli’s desk.
“My lord, the hunting party has returned.”
Eli set down his quill and looked up.
“How was the harvest? The newly arrived slaves need meat to replenish their strength.”
Wolfgang shook his head, his wolf muzzle parting slightly.
“There was no harvest. We did not encounter a single prey animal.”
“Oh?” Eli’s brow furrowed.
The wolf-kin hunting party under Wolfgang’s command was experienced and possessed keen senses. Even after a heavy rain, they should not have returned empty-handed.
“My lord,” Wolfgang said, his tone growing heavier still. “It is not only that there was no prey.”
“The forest... was too quiet. Quiet in a way that felt... wrong.”
He paused, as though recalling that deeply unsettling sensation.
The birdcalls that should have been there, the chirping of insects, the rustling of small beasts moving through the undergrowth... all of it was gone.
“It was as if... every living thing had vanished overnight.
“Or... hidden itself away.”
“Quiet in a way that felt wrong...” Eli repeated, and a sharp light of thought flashed instantly through his blue eyes.
He suddenly remembered the purple warning from the intelligence system that had appeared that morning through the rain:
【A large number of wild beasts are gathering in the core region, restless and uneasy.】
The abnormal gathering of beasts... the core region of the forest... and now the hunting party had gone in, only to find an eerie deathly silence...
What had seemed like two unrelated pieces of information instantly connected in Eli’s mind.
Could it be... that the gathering of the beasts had created a vacuum in the outer region?
What were they avoiding?
Or rather... What was driving them, forcing them to gather in the core of the forest?
A sense of foreboding, cold as a serpent, silently crept up Eli’s spine.
Could it be...?
“Wolfgang,” Eli said, his voice suddenly turning grave.
“Go bring Old Hadi here. Immediately!”