Chapter 171: Playthings

The next day, Owen ordered Lusha to lead the Lizardman troops to bring the captured mercenaries back to Bianshu Town first.

The reason why they didn’t bring the Lizardman troops to Dongsheng Fortress was that they were worried that their sudden appearance on the streets of Dongsheng Fortress would cause panic among local civilians.

It took Bianshu Town an entire winter, coupled with cooperation between the two sides against the undead monsters, to gradually establish basic mutual trust with the Lizardmen. Other places still did not accept the subhuman race.

Although the new faction in the church has been promoting new ideas, the effect is not good.

The main reason is that many subhuman races that lost their homes still have strong resentment towards humans and are still harming innocent civilians in retaliation, which makes many people feel that peaceful coexistence between the two sides is almost impossible.

As for the punishment of those mercenaries, Owen planned to put them in the mines to mine for a few years to atone for their crimes.

The specific number of years of sentence will have to wait until Irving returns to make a decision.

According to Winston, this practice seems to be called labor reform, and for this purpose, Viru needs to build a prison near the mining area to provide closed management for the prisoners.

In this way, only a dozen or twenty mining managers and prison guards need to be retained to supervise the prisoners’ work.

The employment problem of the original miners is easy to solve. There are now many employment opportunities in Bianshu Town, and the labor intensity is even lighter than mining.

By the way, the artillery team doesn’t have to go to Dongsheng Fortress.

Their mission has been completed, and the next step is to send the artillery back on a cement ship.

The remaining soldiers were all musketeers, who led the nobles, knights and peasants southward, and a group of them arrived directly at the north gate of Dongsheng Fortress.

Since the farmers were forcibly conscripted to transport supplies and not voluntarily, Owen disbanded them after arriving at Dongsheng Fortress.

Upon seeing the captured Duke Eddie and other nobles, the guards in charge of guarding the city gate did not dare to be negligent and immediately opened the city gate to welcome them.

After entering Dongsheng Fortress, Owen led his troops straight to the lord’s castle.

As expected of the most prosperous city in the East, the lord’s castle is very majestic. The tallest main tower seems to be five stories high, and it has all kinds of supporting facilities. In any case, the small castle in the border town is definitely not comparable to it.

Only some soldiers using old muskets were left to guard the nobles and knights.

Owen asked Viscount Jarvis to escort Duke Eddie and break into the lord’s castle with the soldiers.

Seeing that Duke Eddie was in the hands of the enemy, the guards, servants and others who stayed in the castle did not dare to act rashly and could only obey Owen’s order and surrender.

A few soldiers were sent to guard the front and back doors, while the rest of the soldiers quickly spread out and drove everyone in the castle to the central hall on the first floor.

Duke Eddie’s family members didn’t know what was going on. When the soldiers rushed over, they kept shouting that they were Duke Eddie’s so-and-so and that they dared to treat them so rudely, and they would definitely make the soldiers regret it.

It was not until they saw the captured Duke Eddie and Owen standing beside him that they realized that the Duke who went out to fight had been defeated, and lost completely.

The lord’s castle was quickly taken control, and the People’s Army took over the castle’s defense under the arrangement of Viscount Jarvis.

While Owen was thinking about what to do with the people in the castle, a soldier came running over in a hurry.

“My Lord! I have something important to report.”

Turning around, Owen remembered this soldier. He had been very active in cultural training and exercises before, and was even promoted to squad leader when the militia was reorganized into the People’s Army.

“Hmm? Kadir, what’s up?”

Kadir was slightly surprised that the lord still remembered his name, but he quickly put away his expression.

“Our squad discovered the dungeons while searching the castle. They held… uh, a lot of women.”

“Women?”

Owen frowned slightly and glanced at Duke Eddie, only to find that the latter was avoiding his gaze and not daring to meet his gaze.

“Yes!” 

Kadir continued.

“Many of those women were half-naked and had scars all over their bodies. When they saw us, they huddled in the corner, terrified. If I’m not mistaken, they must be nobles, uh, no, the Duke’s playthings.”

Saying that he was a plaything of the nobles seemed to include the lord as well, so he immediately changed his words and said he was the duke.

Tsk! Owen had heard that some lustful nobles would lock up women as playthings, playing with them whenever they felt like it, and even invite some like-minded people to play with them together, calling it group sex.

It seems that Duke Eddie is also a noble of this kind.

“You guys retreat first and guard the dungeon entrance.” 

Owen said to Kadir.

Considering that the women in the dungeon have been toyed with by the nobles many times, they may have a strong resistance and fear of men, so it is better to let the same sex rescue them.

So, Owen looked at the women who had followed him in this operation.

“Mapel, Theresa, and Fanny, I look forward to your help.”

Theresa also uses magic healing techniques to heal the wounded in the dungeon.

“Okay.” 

The three of them nodded with worried expressions.

In addition, Owen also ordered several soldiers to search for clothes in the castle and send them to the dungeon.

Mapel and the others quickly ran to the dungeon, while Kadir quickly called his teammates out.

The dungeon was not as dark, damp and smelly as everyone imagined. Instead, it was very clean.

Well, after all, it’s a place where that kind of thing is done, and Duke Eddie doesn’t want to do it in a dirty place. What if he gets infected with a strange disease?

The quality of the cells is not all the same. Most of them are empty. There is a cell that is specifically used for that kind of thing. The bed is very large and is equipped with whips and other strange props. Some of the innermost cells are equipped with various furniture, including beds, cabinets, oil lamps, etc.

The innermost cell should be where the nobles are imprisoned, and the etiquette is well prepared.

However, the Duke’s playthings were not treated so well. They were all imprisoned in empty cells.

Mapel glanced around the dungeon and shouted.

“Please rest assured, Duke Eddie has been defeated and captured alive by Lord Owen. We are here to rescue you!”

“Really?”

Seeing that the newcomers were also women, one of the women in the cell mustered up the courage to step forward, holding onto the railings with both hands. Her clothes were tattered, barely covering her vital parts.

“Are you really here to rescue us?”

“Yes, I didn’t lie to you.”

Mapel walked towards the woman and drew the magic sword at her waist.

“Please step back. I’m going to force the door open.”

The woman nodded and did as she was told. Mapel raised her sword and slashed hard, cutting the chains wrapped around the prison door.

After opening the cell door, Theresa went up and asked with concern.

“Are you injured? I’m a priestess and I can use healing techniques to treat external injuries.”

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