Mount & Blade: Wind of War

That day, late at night, in the military tent, Rhodes was adjusting and testing a light military crossbow.

"Lord Rhodes!"

"Well, Janice? It's so late, you haven't rested yet."

Hearing the voice, Rhodes turned around and saw a young woman in a black robe but with fair skin and beautiful appearance.

For this woman, Rhodes originally planned to find a mistake and kill her directly to establish his authority. After all, the art of ruling lies in the combination of kindness and force, not to mention that in Rhodes' eyes, Janice is not a good person.

However, during this period of time, Janice's performance has been very good. Whether it is Moken or Qiao Lin, these people have their own problems, but this Janice, it was clearly rumored that she was crazy and had mental problems before, but after getting along with her for this period of time, almost no one really hates her.

"Lord Rhodes, I... I actually never had the habit of eating babies."

"... Let the past go. As long as the future is good, why bother talking about the past? You lived in a deformed environment during that period. No matter what crimes you committed in that environment, I will consider lenient punishment."

"No, sir, that's not what I want to say. Some of those gnoll guards especially like to eat our human babies. There was a time when almost no children could survive in our mining area. When I gave birth to my daughter, she died just after she was born due to lack of nutrition, but at that time With me, there were other mothers and other children!"

"I... I had no choice at the time. I thought, as long as I could save the child, it would be good to save one more child."

"So I ate my daughter and cut her into pieces... woooo"

"When the guards came to grab the child, I pretended to be crazy. My daughter... If she could survive, I would rather die myself."

In Janice's somewhat stumbling and slightly chaotic narration, Rhodes gradually understood that in that harsh living environment, Janice played herself as a crazy woman who liked to eat babies, but was able to hide and protect other people's children.

In this process, one after another, the fathers and mothers of the children gathered around Janice to help her complete this lie.

Therefore, among the four human forces at the time, although Janice had few people around her, she was the most united, because they were guarding a lie together.

As for those lizardmen and wolfmen, they also liked to watch such a "farce" to kill their long and boring time.

Until now, those children were hidden in the underground mine by Janice. She didn't even trust Rhode. After this period of contact and understanding, she saw that Rhode really intended to defend the Mountain Fortress and really intended to protect this place. Janice told all the secrets that had been hidden for many years.

"That's a good thing. It's a good thing that so many children are still alive. As for your concealment, Janice, I can understand it. After all, this secret is related to so many children and so many lives."

"No, Lord Rhode, what I actually want to say is that during that time, I met a "human" witch in the underground mine. Although she asked me to conceal her existence, otherwise she would die a bad death, but if those children can grow up in a beautiful and safe place, then it doesn't matter whether I die a good death or not... After my daughter died... I live in hell every day."

At first, Rhode thought Janice came to him to confess her previous sins and hope to be forgiven.

Then, Rhode thought Janice came to explain the situation so that those hidden children could appear openly and live in the Mountain Fortress.

It was not until the end of the conversation that Rhode really understood what Janice meant:

It turned out that this guy still didn't believe that he could defend the town, so he didn't hesitate to break the oath and hoped that he could get the help of the witch to defend this human city in the wilderness.

Now that the oath has been broken, there is no point in refusing, so Rhode smiled bitterly and asked about the location of the witch's residence and other information.

"I only know that her name is Caitlin, a woman, about 40 or 50 years old, and she should not be from the wilderness, but an outsider. She can control skeletons and make hallucinogenic powder. We have been able to deceive the lizardmen and gnoll guards many times before, all relying on the help of her hallucinogenic powder."

"Caitlin, 40 or 50 years old?! I think I understand..." Janice paid a huge price for her kindness, and Rhode did not refuse.

That night, after the conversation, Rhode took the little girl Cress who lived with him in the military tent and followed Janice to the underground mine.

Although Rhode was very confident in his current strength, he still brought Cress along. On the one hand, he hoped that she would gain more experience. On the other hand, Cress looked easy to be ignored, but in fact, even her brother Raymond might not be her opponent if she really fought to the death.

Cress's explosive power was too strong, and her bloodthirsty genes flowed in her veins. She could make anyone who looked down on her pay a terrible price in close combat.

Cress was very happy that the master took her out to "play". During this period, Rhode was too involved in training new soldiers, and even had less time to discipline herself, which made Cress feel a little lost.

Now that she can go out with her master to work again, the little girl is very excited. She filled her favorite dress with all kinds of knives and is looking forward to today's adventure.

Although there are a large number of soldiers in the mountain fortress, the new recruits have been trained to death by Rhode these days. They have rarely relaxed for the past two days, and the barracks are full of snoring.

The elite veterans that Rhode brought out from Redwood Town were arranged in various important areas in the fortress. More than fifty people are really not enough.

Therefore, Janice held up the torch and the hem of her skirt, and led Rhode and Cress into the huge underground mineral vein area very familiarly.

She first took Rhode and Cress to the small cave where she hid the children. In the not-so-big cave, there were more than 20 young children. If Rhode was still a little wary of her before, now all these vigilances are gone, because the light in the eyes of more than 20 young children, the trust and closeness when they called "Mom", these are difficult to fake.

If all these can be faked, then Rhode will admit defeat.

"Master, sister Janice is so pitiful!" Cress stood behind Rhode, looking at the children who surrounded Janice, and couldn't help but say so.