A heavy silence fell over the square.
"Is what she said true?" Raven asked, looking toward the woman. Like the other villagers, she was skin and bones, her clothes little more than tattered rags. She wore no undergarments; through the holes in her tunic, her gaunt flesh and prominent ribs were visible.
No one answered.
Raven took two steps toward the woman. Immediately, a small boy—no older than eight or nine—stood up and spread his arms, silently shielding the woman.
"We will get to the bottom of this," Raven said, coming to a halt. He noticed a bundle of rags beside the woman containing an infant. His gaze lingered on the baby for a moment before he turned to the mercenaries. "We—"
"Boss! We found food!" A mercenary ran over with a wide grin. "On the way in, we saw some horn-cattle in the fields. I took a few brothers out for a quick scout, and sure enough, we found them."
Raven turned around to see a group of mercenaries approaching, laughing and chatting. The men in front each carried a large, dead bull with massive horns over their shoulders, already bled out. They marched into the camp at the square and dropped the horn-cattle heavily onto the ground, raising their hands to meet the cheers of their comrades.
Lansang had long since wandered away from Raven's side. She was now circling the cattle, her ruby-red eyes sparkling as if she couldn't wait for the meat to be cooked before taking a bite.
The mercenaries hadn't found individual cooking utensils in the villagers' homes; the entire village shared a single communal kitchen house containing several large iron pots. However, these massive cauldrons were perfect for stewing meat for an army.
"Ooh!" Lansang watched with great interest as the mercenaries began field-dressing the cattle. Turning to see Raven approaching, she wiped a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth. "Raven, I like roasted tenderloin. Make sure they save some for me."
"Prince Raven!" A mercenary leaned in sycophantically, cradling a small, struggling calf that looked to be less than two weeks old. "Those older bulls are draft animals—the meat is too tough and won't taste very good. But this calf is perfect for a roast suckling veal. We saved it specifically for you, Highness."
Raven raised a hand to decline, but Lansang snatched the calf away first, hoisting it up by its hind legs with one hand. "Excellent! I'll thank you on the Commander's behalf."
"Since you have meat now, distribute the dry rations to the villagers," Raven said in a tone that brooked no argument. "I will be back later to check on the distribution."
A temporary cooking crew was already busy in the kitchen, pouring well water into the large pots and waiting for it to boil. The more impatient mercenaries began to grumble loudly.
"How long is it going to take for a pot that size to boil? Don't these villagers have any smaller pots?"
"In the poorer villages, the whole community really does share a few big pots," an older mercenary explained. "They only light the fires once a day or even once every few days. They cook everything at once and distribute it to everyone to eat as cold rations for several days. If you can't wait, just build a fire and roast it."
While waiting for the water to boil, the mercenaries used ground Fire Blossom as tinder to skillfully start several campfires. They cut strips of beef, skewered them on their swords, and held them over the flames.
Sitting around the fires, the men laughed and talked loudly. Someone started a rhythm, beating weapons against shields, and a chorus rose up.
"Good friends, good brothers, come join the fray. Let us sing together, chase the sorrow away. For we may never meet again, after today. Legends of fate, melodies so grand, Shield and spear, grace across the land. Oh oh oh, echoes evermore. Oh oh oh, the Erdtree calls us to war..."
As the mercenaries finished their song, Lansang skipped to the front of a fire. She propped a Misericorde skewer—loaded with tenderloin—over the flames and began singing a "roast meat song" she had made up on the spot. Though her body was small, her voice was crystal clear and soared high, eventually carrying a sense of grand, desolate majesty that seemed to pierce the very clouds. The mercenaries cheered wildly, rhythmically hammering their shields in accompaniment.
"Humans... also like fire," a troll remarked, crouching in the darkness at the edge of the square, watching the celebrating mercenaries. "Giants... worship the Flame Peak cauldron. But humans... they seal the fire away."
"Before the Erdtree, humans also worshipped the flames of the Crucible," Raven said. "The human pursuit of light has been constant from the beginning to the end."
He glanced at the two trolls. "If you want to join them, go ahead."
"We... can?"
"Yes," Raven said. "Lansang understands the Giant's tongue; you can ask her to help translate. Just tell them you've joined my order."
The two trolls grunted happily and strode toward the fires. Raven returned to lying on a rooftop. Unfortunately, the stars were obscured by the golden canopy of the Erdtree, leaving him unable to see what the true night sky of the Lands Between looked like.
The roof vibrated slightly.
Raven sat up. On the Altus Plateau, a long dragon of torchlight was approaching from the direction of the Capital.
The Lordsworn Army had arrived.
"We encountered the second wave of messengers on the road saying that Windmill Village had been reclaimed," the leading general said. "Lord Godwyn, the King is aware of your march and has asked me to thank you for your assistance to our forces."
"I wouldn't call it assistance," Godwyn said, remaining mounted. It seemed neither he nor the general intended to be the first to dismount. "I am also a member of the Lordsworn Army, in command of the Capital's garrison. Purging the Frenzied Flame cultists is my responsibility."
"True enough," the general conceded. "However, massing mercenaries on such a scale for an armed operation on the Altus Plateau is, in the end, somewhat inappropriate. Since the regulars have arrived, I must ask Your Highness to disband the mercenaries as soon as possible. My forces will take over from here."
Godwyn let out a short laugh.
"General Connaught, you may have missed the messenger I sent to the Capital later. We have discovered some vital intelligence regarding the Frenzied Flame in the village, and the implications are vast. For safety's sake, we should remain stationed here together and wait for further representatives from the Capital."
"The King has given me full authority over this matter; no one else is coming," General Connaught said, frowning. "What intelligence have you found?"
Godwyn turned his horse around. "Please, General, come inside and we can speak."
With a wave of Connaught's hand, the Lordsworn soldiers flooded into Windmill Village. The general followed Godwyn to the small house where the documents were stored. Not long after he entered, a roar of fury erupted from within the building.
"This is a slanderous lie!" Connaught was shaking with rage, his armor clattering. "I never wrote this letter! This isn't even my handwriting!"
"I know," Godwyn said calmly. "This is very likely a plot by the Frenzied Flame cultists."
"Of course it's a plot! Your Highness, you surely don't take this seriously?" Connaught said, then suddenly asked suspiciously, "Who was the first to find this letter?"
"A squad of mercenaries found it and immediately notified me and Prince Raven. Those mercenaries' backgrounds are clean, and besides, even if they could forge a single letter, it's impossible for them to have forged an entire house full of documents," Godwyn said. "Many of these files are encrypted and require professionals from the Capital to crack. For now, the intelligence we have is still very limited."
"Prince Raven is here as well?" Connaught said, sounding surprised.
"I am here," Raven said from the doorway. "At the invitation of the Golden Prince, I participated in this campaign to recruit members for my newly formed order. I know very little about the Frenzied Flame, so I cannot offer much of an opinion."
Connaught donned his helmet again and took one last look at the documents scattered across the floor. "I won't stay here then. My men will assist in guarding this room to prevent any remnants of the cult from tampering with the evidence. Speaking of which... have all the cultists been eliminated?"
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(87 Chapter - Ongoing)
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