Chapter 121: Smuggling Warehouse
Jessia shook the blood off her daggers and inserted the two blades back into the deer-hide pouch at her waist.
She glanced back at the corpses of the Lizardmen Faction strewn across the snow. The Lizardmen Faction was a militant organization, far larger in scale than the Black Cat Society. These people made their illicit fortune through smuggling operations.
Unlike the Lizardmen Faction, the Deer Blood Faction lacked their own maritime routes. Their business was limited to transporting goods from Tania to various small countries and chaotic zones across the Dragon’s Spine.
To evade tariffs and bans imposed by lords, they crossed borders to secretly transport salt, high-quality wool, and weapons and armor produced in Tania.
Salt was monopolized by the powers of lords and kings everywhere, with heavy salt taxes. The Deer Blood Faction bought cheap black salt from small countries, then smuggled it into Tania by land to reap considerable profits.
Wool in Tania was also a strictly controlled commodity. While ordinary residents faced fewer restrictions, large-scale wool exports and trade were tightly regulated because countries like Thornvik and Vitali, closer to the central and western seas, demanded massive amounts. Tania imposed heavy export taxes on wool to boost state revenue.
In recent years, the King of Tania even banned raw wool exports; it had to be processed into cloth before foreign merchants could purchase and transport it.
Weapons were even more scarce—high-quality weapons were rare everywhere.
The Deer Blood Faction’s business was massive throughout the Dragon’s Spine. Between the Lizardmen Faction and the Deer Blood Faction, one controlled maritime smuggling while the other dominated land routes, virtually dividing the most profitable smuggling trade between them.
Even with Jessia, a Silver-rank thief, holding the fort, the Black Cat Society’s overall strength paled in comparison to the Deer Blood Faction.
But Jessia never imagined that one day, she could effortlessly swallow up a smuggling warehouse belonging to the Deer Blood Faction.
She glanced back at the dragonkin controlling the slave marks on her, recalling what the dragonkin had done over the past ten days.
The day after Jessia sent the intel, the dragonkin decided to strike the Deer Blood Faction’s warehouse.
These people who had come up to the snowy mountains were the last resistance left in that warehouse.
The dragonkin had Jessia deliberately leak the location of the Black Cat Society’s base to lure the Deer Blood Faction into launching a surprise night attack.
To make the ruse convincing, the dragonkin even sent the puppet behind her to be captured by the Deer Blood Faction during the battle.
That puppet’s acting was truly astounding. As soon as the Deer Blood Faction captured him, his face went pale. He wet himself in the snow, steam rising from his pants. When threatened with a knife, his nose ran and tears poured down his face.
If Jessia hadn’t known that the dragonkin was an envoy of the lich, she wouldn’t have believed that such a cowardly display could be faked.
No, calling him cowardly is an understatement. Even the ratfolk were more honorable than that puppet. It was hard to imagine how the lich created such a lifelike cowardly puppet.
In any case, after being captured, the puppet had clearly completed the dragonkin’s mission perfectly.
The Deer Blood Faction fully trusted the intelligence gained from interrogating him and indeed launched an attack on the Black Cat Society at night, hoping to catch them off guard.
They had no idea that ratfolk crossbowmen existed. After all, since Jessia trained the ratfolk crossbowmen, they mostly guarded this final stronghold.
The dragonkin had also kept the ratfolk’s presence hidden during these ten days of skirmishes, only sending a few catfolk and herself into battle.
The enemy misjudged their opponent’s strength. This was all a trap meticulously woven by the dragonkin; everything unfolded exactly as she had calculated.
The dragonkin didn’t even have to act or call on the lich’s power; she simply toyed with the enemy through strategy alone.
She anticipated every move the enemy made; everything developed exactly as she expected, as if she could manipulate human hearts.
Perhaps she really could. Jessia always felt the dragonkin could see through her thoughts. From their first encounter, the dragonkin had already grasped the habits of the opposing leader, concluding he was someone long accustomed to a superior position, who liked to control the initiative and was emotionally impatient.
Truly worthy of being the lich’s envoy—anyone who worked under the lich couldn’t be a simple character.
If even the lich’s envoy was this formidable, what kind of monster was the lich itself, who saw through human hearts so deeply…
Jessia tugged her hood and felt a chill rise from deep within her when she thought of that skeleton.
She always felt as if the lich were watching her from somewhere. She hurriedly shook her head, pushing those irreverent thoughts away.
Silently, she recited, “Lord Lich, I will always respect you, adore you, and obey your commands. Please don’t turn me into a skeleton soldier or zombie.”
After calming herself, Jessia returned to report to the dragonkin.
“Lord, all the enemies have been eliminated.”
The dragonkin nodded. “Cut off their leader’s head. Take the ratfolk and occupy their warehouse. Bring back my puppet and the overseer. The reindeer trainers must be kept. Also, secure their trade routes, maps, and intelligence. Search their warehouse thoroughly. Control everyone except combatants as much as possible.”
“As you command, Honored One.” Jessia turned and began organizing the ratfolk and her catfolk subordinates.
Igna personally escorted her team down the mountain, directing Number One, Number Two, and other non-combatant catfolk, foxfolk, and rabbitfolk to clean up the battlefield.
Igna had already recorded all the Black Cat Society members’ names and specialties. After ten days of coordination, these people were accustomed to following her orders.
She controlled this small organization but still felt uneasy inside.
She could not relax in front of these people; she had to constantly maintain a strong and in-control image.
Because Lord Wade was asleep, without the aid of the Spirits of Valor, she had lost her backing. The only ones who truly knew her background were three unreliable Icelandic slaves.
Without the slave marks, Igna had no doubt those three cowardly men would sell her out at the first sign of trouble.
Without Lord Wade, in this unfamiliar place, she couldn’t find anyone she could trust.
Even catfolk branded with slave marks could not be fully trusted.
Using slave marks to control the catfolk was extremely risky. Igna had seen Jessia’s history and knew the catfolk had killed the previous noble who was their slave.
Though slave marks prevented catfolk from openly rebelling against her, they could not restrain her subordinates.
Other catfolk and ratfolk could rebel at any time.
For ten days, she had lived under a false identity, in a place where no one could be trusted.
To be honest, it was exhausting—she had to monitor every word and action at all times.
But now, she finally felt that invisible connection again.
She looked toward the snowy mountain watchtower. Lord Wade had awakened, and a huge weight lifted from her heart.
After supervising the battlefield cleanup, she hurried back to the ratfolk’s cave.
Number One and Number Two were left standing guard outside the room.
Pushing open the door, she saw that skeleton. She felt no fear, only relief, letting out a long breath.
“Lord Wade, you have returned.” Igna said softly.
Wade nodded. He still didn’t know what had happened in these ten days, so he sat down and let Igna recount everything.
Igna nodded and began to tell him about the ten-day conflict with the Deer Blood Faction.