Chapter 38: Matthew Castle
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
As Abel and the Knight of Marshall were traveling back towards Harry’s Castle, Abel suddenly noticed a fire from a distance.
Abel immediately informed the knight of Marshall, “Look, uncle Marshall, there is a fire there”.
The Knight Marshall glimpsed over towards the direction of where the fire was and said, “That’s the direction of Lord Matthew’s castle.”
Lord Matthew’s fiefdom was sat within the middle of the knight estate between Knight Marshall and Knight Bennett. The relationship between Knight Marshall and Lord Matthew wasn’t too great. This was because Lord Matthew did not acknowledge knights as a noble position. Although in most parts of the world where humans lived, the knights were considered as nobles. However, in some rare parts of the world, some people did not consider them as nobles. Lord Matthew was one of them.
Although Lord Matthew and Knight Marshall were neighbors, the relationship between them was pretty much limited to ceremonial meeting and saluting. Now that the Knight Marshall acknowledged the fire was originating from Lord Matthew’s Castle, he began to hesitate whether he should try to help them or not.
There were a lot of reasons that caused Marshall to hesitate in assisting Lord Matthew’s castle. Firstly, he could not expose his own identity. If he was caught and found to have left his territory, he would’ve been in big trouble.
Secondly, he had to protect Abel. This meant that he was not assured that he could save Matthew’s Castle as he had to stay alongside with Abel to guarantee his safety.
Abel remained in silent, he gazed directly at Knight Marshall and thought to himself. He was going to let the Knight of Marshall decide this himself. Abel had never met Lord Matthew before. He had never heard his name being mentioned by someone else. Frankly, he didn’t know what kind of person he was, and he didn’t even know what he looked like. To Abel, he wasn’t going to risk his life to assist a castle that he had never heard about before. Unless he was guaranteed that he was completely safe, then he would’ve gone and helped them.
However, Knight Marshall decided to assist Lord Matthew’s Castle, “We will go and help them, but you must stay with me at all times. I cannot expose my identity in there, that’s why you must step in and use your status as a master blacksmith. “As Knight Marshall carefully instructed Abel with a serious tone.
Abel quickly obeyed Knight Marshall’s order and said “Okay, Uncle Marshall. I will do as you say.”
Abel then took Harry’s Bow out of his horse saddle… Although he struggled with using Harry’s Bow due to its’ tough laborious efforts, shooting only around three to four shots should’ve been fine for him.
At the same time, Knight Marshall was holding his very own Harry’s bow. As he placed an arrow onto his bow and was about to draw the bowstring, he quickly discovered another superior advantage of Harry’s Bow. The bow was especially suitable and advantageous when riding on a horse.
When using a regular bow, one must use both legs—each on one side of the body to properly control the horse. Then, the majority of energy and strength was needed to continuously pull the bow, while all at the same time trying to aim and shoot.
However, Harry’s Bow was capable of holding the arrow with very little effort. By doing so, it allowed the operator to allocate more power to control their horse as well as being able to have sufficient time to aim and shoot at their target without ease.
The two warhorses that Abel and Marshall rode were very agile. As the two approached closer and closer towards the castle, Abel was the first to notice that the castle was in complete chaos. He saw that four wolf troopers were attacking the people who are trying to escape.
When the four wolf rider heard the sound of hooves from the horses, they immediately shouted very loudly and two of the wolf rider equipped with long knives instantly began charging directly towards Abel and Knight of Marshall.
“Watch out! There’s one right in front of you, and there’s also one behind me.” Knight of Marshall said.
Abel aimed with care and precision at one of the Wolf troopers that were charging directly towards him and immediately pulled the trigger… The bow was so powerful that it instantly shot through the wolf trooper’s brain and created a hole. Shortly after, the second wolf trooper was promptly shot down by Knight of Marshall.
The two wolf troopers who were still chasing the people down realized that their allied troops were shot down by Abel and Marshall. They then started to howl extremely loudly… Abel knew exactly what they were doing as he understood the Orc language… The wolf troopers were summoning their allies inside the castle to come out and prepare for battle against Abel and Knight Marshall.
Abel and the Knight of Marshall continued with their killing spree, as the two quickly killed the other two wolf troopers that were hunting down the people who were trying to escape. The wolf troopers did not stop charging towards Abel and Knight Marshall when they saw their allies being shot down. Instead, they charged furiously and madly towards them.
The Knight of Marshall calmly shot down another four wargons. He then turned around to look back at Abel and said, “See, that’s the nature and personalities of these wargons. They are very loyal.
Abel nodded his head and promptly replied; “Alright Uncle Marshall. Thanks for letting me know.” As he glanced over towards the four wargons that had been shot by Knight Marshall. For Abel, he wasn’t shooting at the wolf troopers and the wargons since he felt a sense of resentment but also couldn’t bear the cruelty of killing these Orcs. However, he held his trust in Uncle Marshall and believed that he would take care of them.
Suddenly, 6 wolfriders were rushing out of the Matthew Castle who were all hanging large packages on them…
When Knight Marshall saw the six wolf riders coming out from the castle, a light flashed in his eyes and he hummed; “Your all dead.”
These wolfriders who were charging towards Abel and Marshall were still carrying the valuables from the Castle, and their greed ultimately led to a much quicker death since they were much slower.
Abel’s and Marshall’s knights’ had both shot their arrows towards their enemies, and the last arrows that had been shot were around 30 meters away from them. The six wolf troopers were all killed while they were charging towards them, including their wargons.
As Knight Marshall watched the wolf riders, who have died on the way from charging towards them. He sighed and said, “This was a party of ten. These Orcs are very strong, but they lack the protection of Armor…” He then glanced back at Abel and explained; “The blacksmith union had strictly forbidden anyone from the blacksmith union to forge armor for these Orcs. Moreover, the Orcs themselves had no skills or experiences in forging armor, so the only option they had was to use their bodies to block our arrows.”
The frightened crowd from Matthew’s Castle slowly discovered that all wolf troopers who were attacking them had been killed. As the crowd slowly gathered together, a middle-aged man who wore a suit approached Abel and Knight Marshall… Knight Marshall acted as if he was only assisting Abel as he stood behind him so that Abel would’ve looked like the person who had killed most of the Orcs and he would’ve just been an assistant for him.
“Hello, Sir Knight, thank you for saving our lives. My name is Ken, Matthew’s butler .” Although he looked frightened while he spoke, the deep etiquette that Ken possessed made him appear extremely polite and full of courtesy. He then gave Abel a grateful salute…
“I’m Abel Harry and I accept your gratitude. May I ask where your master is?”
Abel was very displeased and disappointed that Lord Matthew did not appear to thank them for their effort after their rescue. He and the Knight of Marshall risked their lives to assist Lord Matthew, but Lord Matthew did not even appear. Such a response seemed rude and puzzling to them.
“Master Abel, my master has… ” When the butler heard Abel’s question, he was already too shocked and tearful to even speak… The manner and courtesy Ken had displayed was suddenly gone, which was extremely peculiar for a noble classed butler.
Abel’s name was spread so quickly throughout Harvest City that even the nobles knew that there was a young master blacksmith who lived in the area around Harvest City.
When Abel heard the butler answering his question with tears, he already knew that something has happened to Lord Matthew. Abel then got off his horse and supported the butler with his hand to prevent him from falling. Currently, Abel’s appearance was far beyond his age. He was 13 years old with a height that was nearly 1.7 meters tall.
As Abel had just saved the nobility of Matthew’s Castle. He was able to temporarily act as the director to issue orders and various commands. This was one of the noble regulations, it applied when there was no noble to command a castle, and if the castle was rescued by other noble.
Alright, I’ll need you to arrange men for law and order to be kept within the castle. Lord Matthew’s message will be sent to the Lord of Harvest City. The Lord there will decide what happens after that.” Abel said directly to Ken.
“As you will.” The butler Ken, held back his tears while Abel decided to keep Matthew’s castle safe and stable from the evil and theft. Abel’s command also meant that there wouldn’t be anyone robbing, murdering and stealing from the castle during these terrible times.
Abel did not stay for too long. Within an hour or so, Matthew’s castle was all quiet and peaceful again. The orcs ‘bodies were all piled up in the public square in the middle of the castle. The bodies of family members of the Matthew family were placed in the hall, and the other civilians that had deceased were placed in the side chambers.
Everything within the storeroom was added with an additional iron lock to ensure that it was well protected and safe. Abel appointed the butler and five intact bodyguards to securely protect Matthew’s family valuables and belongings until the owner of the property come forward and deal with the situation here.
All the members within the Mathew family were killed during the orcs’ attack. As the orcs rushed into the castle, they always looked for the most valuable and gorgeous room to rob and kill. The Matthew family was the owner of the castle, so it meant that they were the first noble victims of the attack. All of them were massacred.
Since everything has been arranged by Abel, he had asked Ken to depart from the castle. Although Ken wanted Abel to stay until a new ruler was sent by the capital city, he didn’t dare to oppose or criticize Abel’s decision to leave, since Abel was a master as well as a noble too…
As Abel departed Matthew’s castle, Abel and Knight Marshall looked directly at each other in the eyes… The event that occurred here today made both of them very emotional. A long-continued generation of the Matthew family was all gone in one attack.
If something like this happened to the Knight of Bennett or Knight of Marshall, Abel didn’t even want to think about or imagined the consequences of that. From this event, he was now more acutely aware of the true cruelty of this world.
The figure of Abel and Marshall knight gradually was slowly disappearing into the night as they rode back towards the Harry Castle. Ken, the butler, watched Abel’s back from a distance and his heart was filled with gratitude for Abel and Marshall’s assistance and rescue during these current circumstances and conditions.
Abel thought to himself, “These were the true and real knights that the world needs.”