Chapter 12: Interns.
Lee's suffering ended sooner than expected. Most of the pain was alleviated the same evening when Alan smeared another stinky paste on his bottom. But when on the second day the expedition arrived at a mountainous area, the speed slowed down considerably and Lee's jumping in the saddle along with it.
The goal of the expedition was a town to the east of Sunwell, and it took them nine days to get there. Obviously the reason of deploying a whole cavalry regiment wasn't a simple visit to remote place like Elsdon.
According to the latest intelligence, an influential branch of The Hand of God, the religious rebel group Lee and his stepparents encountered in Maryport, was located there. General Strongheart volunteered to weed them out and unexpectedly, the place was the perfect spot to demonstrate his newly developed strategy.
The relatively large town was located next to a mountain, or rather – under a steep cliff, and it made the perfect target for a siege. General's idea was to get every last rebel residing there, and afterwards publicly hang them – half here and half in Sunwell. For that they would surround the place, and afterwards thoroughly comb, checking every street corner and outhouse.
To Lee the whole situation didn't make any sense. It was simply foolish for rebels to settle in a spot with no ways to retreat, but in the end he decided it was not his place to judge. He couldn't ask for people of this world to have his mindset of an ex-scammer.
Surprisingly, with how grand the expedition was, only a handful of people arrived at the cliff overlooking the town. Besides Lee's family there were the emperor, Farcry and his son, and Powel and his daughter.
Only now Lee realized why the other two members of the Imperial council tagged along. Powel, being the Minister of Works, besides the regular duties like construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, was responsible for overseeing the mining operations across the empire. And, looking at the town below, it became clear that the people generated large part of their income by working in the mines, several of which were actually dug into the cliff wall on top of which the group stood.
Clearly, mines alone were enough to make Elsdon an important place, but that wasn't all. The vast irrigated fields on the other side of the town fell under the supervision of Farcry, the Minister of Agriculture. It was amazing how rich the town turned out to be, and it was no wonder rebels had set their eyes on it.
"Alright! Looks like we have a bit of time." The Emperor slowly walked to the very edge of the cliff with hands behind his back, curiously looked down, and asked, "Your opinions, gentlemen?"