Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 1528: Chapter 106: Hiring the Undead Tribe as Bodyguards

Count Stelter quickly confirmed that the unfortunate maid had indeed died a week ago... Since then, the hunting dogs suddenly split into two factions, constantly fighting with each other.

When Paris went to check, she discovered that the massive kennel had been artificially divided into two parts with wooden boards, preventing the hunting dogs from seeing each other.

It took several lashes before the male servants responsible for feeding and guarding told the truth.

In the past, it was only Lind from the Stelter Family who would frequently come to see these dogs. During this time, everyone was busy, and Lind was ordered to stay by Yanos’ side to learn spells, so after checking several times and finding no hidden dangers, they decided to conceal the matter.

They thought it was just the new-grown hunting dogs competing with the old dogs for power... After all, the dog king of the Stelter Family was the same age as Lind and was starting to age.

And the intelligence of these hunting dogs has never been low, so it’s not surprising that they would suddenly form packs and split into two factions.

Had it not been for the worry that Lind would find his companions dead when he came to see them, they wouldn’t have cared about the fight among these hunting dogs.

These weren’t pet dogs; they were raised on raw meat from a young age. Although not as hard to tame as wolves, their wild nature always remained.

The reasons they gave were far-fetched... Hunting dogs would indeed expel aging peers, but they wouldn’t want to kill them like this.

This only proves that after tasting human flesh, this new generation’s perception of humans changed... and the old dogs that stopped them from hunting human tenders were essentially stopping them from feeding, which is why these dogs fought each other.

Since Lind particularly liked this group of hunting dogs and had been feeding them from a young age... Normally, the young master wouldn’t get too close to the hunting dogs; it was usually enough to let these dogs learn the common scent of the Stelter Family from a young age.

This meant that a person with a certain scent was considered an ally. If there was a mistake, these dogs would detect it.

Every family’s spices are closely guarded secrets, absolutely not to be shared outside.

And indeed, being a dog keeper is quite dangerous because it requires them to drag invaders caught by the dogs out of their jaws... They must never let the dogs think of humans as food.

But their treatment was among the best of the family’s servants!

Count Stelter was extremely furious.

These people didn’t dare to tell the butler what happened, simply out of concern that their generous treatment would be revoked.

But... No one spoke out about this matter, despite the Stelter Family’s generous treatment of servants!

If... Lind unknowingly came to see these fifth-level, highly aggressive hunting dogs alone?

Even if the other half of the old dogs would protect him, then... Damn it!

Count Stelter furiously executed these people directly, and expelled all their family members associated with them from the castle.

As for those distant relatives who cried and shouted that they had no connection to the ordeal and how they treated the relatives who implicated themselves, the Stelter Family did not care.

The fact that they were not being vengeful towards these people was already a testament to their magnanimity.

When hunting dogs eat, they gnaw the bones clean, so it’s impossible to determine when the impersonator took the place of the deceased.

Count Stelter could only invite the priests and mages from Basia City to thoroughly inspect the castle again.

Fortunately, these individuals couldn’t believe that the various defenses they meticulously arranged lost their effect at the outset, so they all brought good stuff to the castle.

Even the Grand Rune Priest brought a Holy Prayer, baptized before the Master of Runes statue, requiring everyone in the castle to answer his questions within a meter of the sacred platform where the prayer was placed.

However, aside from helping the Earl uncover a few embezzlers and some guards romantically involved with castle maids, nothing was learned about how the intruders got in.

In the end, it was the High Priest of the Silvermoon who, amid fury and moonlit rain, found gray traces of some extremely tiny creatures on a carriage wheel.

Thankfully, as the Grand Rune Priest watched Count Stelter’s angry and sorrowful face, he returned to the temple to pray to his main deity... finally receiving the message ”it is no longer there”.

Only then did the people of the Stelter Family breathe a sigh of relief... After sincerely thanking the World Master, they quickly began a second round of renovations.

At least this method of intrusion proved that their city walls hadn’t failed.

So they reinforced all travel tools with metal mixed with moonlight stone shards.

Even the horseshoes for the horses were changed entirely.

All roads and buildings were coated with two layers of this metal liquid.

Now, from the outside, the entire Stelter Castle looked like a steel fortress... The moonlight stone, under the moonlight, reflected even when shattered... It was a kind of pale blue glow.

Thus, at night, Stelter Castle became a haunted house in the mouths of the undead.

Hill, while watching the scenery from the terrace at night, felt a peculiar eeriness whenever he saw that castle... It resembled a vampire’s home even more than the Vampire Castle on Snowfall Island.

Logically, the glow of the moonlight stone shouldn’t be so... bleak.

But the Stelter Family used the residue left after mining and cutting the moonlight stone, so... well...

However, it was said that even this material nearly bankrupted their family, and Ellie was already preparing to host a large auction at this time.

The Stelter Family was preparing to sell their possessions.

Hill didn’t pay much attention to the auction, even though Ditte personally delivered the invitation to the cliffside, asking a friendly undead to deliver it to the castle respectfully.

Having gained enough understanding of alchemy’s history in this world, Hill didn’t think Aesces had anything worth coming down the mountain for.

Especially with Rose’s presence.

Of course, Hill was mentally prepared for Rose’s arrival... Aesces directly requested an audience with Coron and informed him of the reason.

And within the Elf Deity System, nothing could be hidden from the Spider Queen.

The Elven Pantheon knew it themselves; they even had a sense of who would tip off the former queen in the Abyss, but they simply didn’t intend to deal with it.

Although Hill didn’t understand their thinking, he respected it... In any case, it didn’t have a major impact on him.

As long as Rose maintained a sliver of sanity, she wouldn’t personally make a move against Hill, who was under the protection of the World Tree... Of course, she would certainly incite others to attack.

But as long as the Zholar Elves hadn’t all turned to necromancy, still needing to eat and drink, relieve themselves, she wouldn’t do something to anger the World Tree.

Notice she doesn’t even greatly offend the Toril Natural God System.

Of course, colluding with enemies of the Natural Divine System is another matter entirely.

Not directly striking doesn’t count as being true enemies in that world.

Yet Hill was somewhat surprised that Count Stelter would directly invite the Undead Tribe as external guards for the auction.

This nobleman from a military background indeed had quite a way of doing things.

He only painted several layers of the moonlight metal liquid in the auction hall. The other floors and the outside of the Hall of Abundance, their family didn’t have the financial resources... Even if they did, they wouldn’t spend family money to ensure others’ safety.

After all, many shops inside were actually indirectly sold to other families for use.

However, if something were to go wrong during the auction, the Stelter Family would lose face.

Particularly since their family had been invaded by silk spiders once, a repeat situation would lead to a complete loss of trust from the noble class... The auction, under the guise of liquidating assets, was meant to prove their family merely had a temporary oversight, not a complete decline.

But the Undead Tribe was different.

Firstly, they could detect the presence of silk spiders.

Secondly, even if chaos ensued due to the undead not completing their task, their family had an excuse... Who would have thought the Undead were as unreliable as the Moon Clan?

This style truly was noble-like, considering the blame-shifting before the event even commenced.

Yet, typically, one would have chosen to shift the responsibility to the army.

For example, the garrison at Basia City... They had a duty to protect the City Lord’s safety.

On significant occasions, the City Lord sometimes had valid reasons that even a reluctant army would have to assist.

But Count Stelter hadn’t considered doing so at all, often striving to avoid any military losses.

Certainly, if not deploying the military meant doom for their family, he would intervene.

But until then, he’d rather spend money than have soldiers in such dangerous, blame-worthy situations.

Initially, Hill thought that there was poor rapport between him and the military, leading him to avoid involving them, but Hill later realized that wasn’t the case.

Their family and the military had great relations.

Otherwise, when Prince Alexis tangled with the Moon Clan, that military unit wouldn’t have played dead for so long.

The Stelter Family was evidently withdrawing from Basia City during that time, yet they had every opportunity to seize power.

This world is not strictly binary, indeed.

Their relationships are incredibly tangled.