Chapter 130 - Arbeit's Whereabouts

was in charge of maintaining order in the southwestern side of town. When he saw Claude driving his carriage out of the wood and down the hill, he would wave to greet him for a talk.

“Good morning, Second Lieutenant.” Claude drove the carriage over to him and parked it. He removed his scarf and said, “It’s the last day before the new year tomorrow. What are you all so busy with?”

Abram shrugged with frustration. “We have no choice. Orders from above necessitates that we keep alert even as new year is upon us. We have to defend against the pirates that are heading the town’s way, so we’re busy fortifying the walls of the town and the streets. But just look. We’re unable to even dig properly now that the ground is all frozen up. We have to clear the snow away first and warm the ground with fire before we can make trenches. I doubt we’d be able to finish by today.”

Claude received a cup of hot red tea from the second lieutenant and smiled. “Tell me. I knew you had something in mind when you called me to stop. Is there anything I can help with? I’ll do my best as long as it’s within my capabilities.”

Abram shot him a thumbs-up. “Aren’t you the supervisor of the wood? I want to ask you whether you have some timber there we can borrow. It’d be much faster for us to make wooden barricades than it is for us to dig trenches.”

Claude shook his head regrettably. “If you’ve been asking around, you’ll know that the no tree has been felled in Normanley Wood for the past two decades or so. No timber is produced there either. Even though we have some aged wood, it’s far from enough to be used to make barricades for the streets and the walls. And without the baroness’s permission, it won’t bide well for us to fell trees there. I’m afraid I can’t help you with that.”

“Sigh, looks like we won’t be able to avoid the fate of digging trenches,” Abram said with disappointment, “We were thinking of felling some trees nearby the town, but the town hall forbade us from doing so and said that the trees were public property and that we had to pay the town for every tree felled. We didn’t include that in our budget. The soldiers are already frustrated enough that they have to work through the new year’s, and it’d be going overboard to ask them to pay up for the materials we need.”

Claude looked at the five soldiers nearby. They were using iron shovels to dig the warmed-up ground and packing the dirt into sacks, which they stacked up into walls about as tall as half a person. But so far, they only had ten or so of those sacks. It was no wonder Abram was so troubled about not being able to borrow wood from Normanley wood.

“Are the barricades you build going to be permanent ones?” asked Claude.

Abram shook his head. “How would that even be possible? No matter how stupid the higher-ups are, they wouldn’t give such an order. We’d have to factor in the blueprints for permanent fortifications and hire professionals for the construction. It’s not something stacking sacks of dirt together can achieve. Since we’re going to retreat anyway after your town forms a garrison clan, we’ll be leaving the fortifications to them. Whether it turns out good or bad won’t matter to us.”

Claude pondered for a moment before he said, “Since that’s the case, there won’t be a need for your comrades to dig up trenches. It’s the winter season and snow will fall quite often. You can simply stack the snow up into walls. Press the snow into bricks and stack them up before sprinkling them with water. They’d be harder than metal once it freezes up. Not only is this much faster, it provides much better defense. If there really is a shootout, the bullets won’t be able to shoot through these frozen bricks.”

He finished his tea in one go and returned it to Abram. With a smile, he said, “As for the duration these ice walls will last, I think they’ll only start to melt during the 2nd month. By then, the garrison should’ve been formed already and you’ll be moved back to the prefectural capital. The defenses here will no longer be your concern.”

Abram wore an expression of awe and joy. He gave Claude a deep hug. “Thank you, Claude! You’re a true friend! You’re far too smart. I can’t imagine how you came up with something like that so quickly. I’ll get the soldiers to stop digging and do as you say!”

Claude continued to drive the carriage towards home. He was in a good mood after being showered with praises by Abram, however, he thought that the quality of military officers the kingdom employed left something to be desired, given that they weren’t able to come up with such an elementary idea. Even though they were firearms-wielding troops, they were trained to become blockheads that only obeyed orders and didn’t know how to think outside the box.

But his mood took a complete turn when he reached home. Angelina cried as she told Claude of their troubles. Arbeit had barged into the home this morning and gave the snowhound a harsh beating, sending it flying to a corner on the ground and rushed up to the second floor. He then broke into his parents’ bedroom and ransacked it, leaving with his mother’s jewelry case.

Though Madam Ferd tried to stop him, she was pushed aside and couldn’t get up from the fall. Arbeit then vanished with the jewelry.

Fuming with rage, he really wanted to head to town immediately to find that pitiful excuse of a human, but he had to see to his family first. The snowhound’s hind legs were broken and Bloweyk hugged it as he bawled. His mother was bedridden and couldn’t get up due to the pain in her waist. Angelina, on the other hand, was fine, but she was at a loss for what to do. Fortunately, Claude returned and she finally had someone to rely on and stopped panicking.

After getting her to make breakfast for the family, Claude drove to the apothecary and invited the sinister-looking herbalist to his home.

The snowhound was fine. After having its legs fastened to a stick, Claude fed it some perfect-quality first-grade healing potion and applied some topically as well. It recovered within three days and could run and jump around as usual. The truly troubled one was his mother, whom the herbalist said had only sustained some light physical injury such as a sprained waist. She would recover with some ointment in a day or two. What was truly concerning was the worries that weighed heavily on her mind. She was in a constant state of anxiety and her body was affected by her shock. She would recover a good amount of rest before recovering and had to regularly consume supplements.

After the old herbalist left, Claude went to the kitchen and made three steamed eggs, one each for his mother and two siblings. After feeding the snowhound and tossing it a bone to nibble on to make up for some calcium so that its legs wouldn’t break as easily the next time someone hit it with a stick, and that someone was the physically weak Arbeit. It was embarrassing to even think about.

He excused himself by saying he was going out to buy some things and drove his carriage to town to locate Arbeit. After asking the soldiers on duty, he got confirmation that Arbeit hadn’t left town yet. So, he went to the jewelers’ and some other shops to ask whether Arbeit pawned any of the jewelry there.

There were three jewelers’ in Whitestag, but more than ten common shops in town. He spent more than two hours to do a full run through all of them, but none were said to have been visited by Arbeit.