Lord of Rot

”Lieder?”

Leech froze.

’My son has the same name as my father?’

The naming taboo was a part of the Chinese culture ingrained in Leech’s memory. Not only was it forbidden for a son to share his father’s name, but even sharing a single character was out of the question.

But here, giving a child an elder’s name was an honor.

Lady Jie Lin’s mention of Lirde Wadu was just an excuse. Old families like his, with centuries of history, would only grow stronger as long as they didn’t pick the wrong side and managed to survive one war after another.

In contrast, the tale of Lierde Clarence, the Baron Porcupine who rose from a blacksmith’s son to become the Baron of a territory, was the truly brilliant one.

Therefore, who the child’s name, ”Lieder,” truly came from was an unspoken secret between the two of them.

”Get some rest. I’ll have someone help Yi Lin clean up the aftermath.”

Leech leaned down and placed a light kiss on Lady Jie Lin’s forehead, then bent again to gently touch the sleeping little one’s head before turning to leave.

There were too many follow-up matters to deal with, and his presence was required.

Watching Leech’s departing figure, Lady Jie Lin breathed a sigh of relief.

She and Leech had no real emotional attachment. That one night had been a product of the wild excitement of turning a desperate situation around, as well as the best means of self-preservation she and her sister, Yi Lin, could devise.

She had thought that, at best, this would allow her to maintain a friendly relationship with Baron Porcupine, but she never expected it to truly transform him into a powerful ally.

She turned her head, her eyes filling with adoration as she looked at the little one sleeping soundly beside her.

...

Leech arrived at the council hall of Longship Castle, where ten of his noble Knights were in the middle of a heated discussion.

Yi Lin occasionally interjected a few words from the side. As for the minor nobles from Waterfall Land, they were all shrinking back and burying their heads in the sand like ostriches, none daring to speak up.

”My Lord!” The room fell silent the moment they saw Leech arrive.

A quickly handwritten post-battle statistical report was placed in Leech’s hands.

Having worked with him for a long time, they all knew that it was best to accompany work reports with a summary table to save time.

In this battle, the Porcupine Soldiers suffered zero casualties.

Longship Castle, however, was left with only a hundred men, having suffered heavy losses.

A total of 641 Monkey Soldiers were captured.

Loot included 830 sets of equipment such as weapons, armor, and shields, with over 300 additional miscellaneous pieces that could not be assembled into full sets.

Leech couldn’t bring these captives back to Iron Valley, so they would be left in Waterfall Land and converted into slaves. As for how Lady Jie Lin planned to deal with them, that was not his concern.

He would only provide a certain amount of assistance.

A maidservant hurried over, a letter in her hand.

”What is it?” Yi Lin asked.

The maidservant instinctively glanced at Leech before saying, ”It’s a letter from Roaring Castle.”

Yi Lin took the letter, opened it, and after a quick glance, handed it to Leech.

Not a single noble present dared to show any dissatisfaction; in fact, they found it perfectly normal.

Leech looked down at the letter.

When Longship Castle had been under siege, Lady Jie Lin, unable to hold out on her own, had proactively requested aid from the Duke. Losing her castle was better than losing her life.

Only now had the reply arrived.

’He sent a mediator? To persuade the monkeys to go back first?’ Leech found this very interesting.

He looked at Yi Lin, whose expression was now extremely grim.

’She was being besieged right at her own gates, yet the Duke said he would only send someone to mediate.’

In other words, the Duke had little intention of getting involved.

But events had developed differently than anyone had anticipated. Not only had Longship Castle not been breached, but the Monkey Soldiers had been either killed or captured.

Even if the person sent wanted to mediate, they probably wouldn’t be able to find anyone to negotiate with.

”I’m going to interrogate the prisoners,” Leech said, handing the letter back to Yi Lin.

His subordinate nobles remained behind to continue haggling with Yi Lin and the others. There were some minor benefits that Leech himself didn’t care about, but his men needed them, and he couldn’t be generous at their expense.

Everyone had played a part in this victory, and the distribution of spoils could not be neglected.

He made his way to the dungeons of Longship Castle. Inside a secret room that Leech had previously instructed Guy to use for creating corpses and Corpse Ghosts, coffins were stacked. Guy and Rabbit were still animate, but their injuries looked too frightening, so it was inconvenient for them to appear in public again.

Leech controlled the two corpses, having them perform simple treatment on each other.

Guy pried at Rabbit’s ribs, tearing his chest open and forcefully pulling out the bone that had pierced through his body.

’Is there even a point in healing them?’ Leech thought, looking at the bloody Corpse Ghost. The broken ribs needed to be repaired, and the suturing would also require gold—a cost of at least fifty gold Jinri.

He wouldn’t even earn that many Jinri from this entire war.

Guy’s condition wasn’t any better. Repairing the bodies of both Corpse Ghosts would likely cost over a hundred gold Jinri.

Leech turned his attention to the other corpses.

Among them was the corpse of a muscular man, with only half of his body left after being blown up by cannon fire.

Then there was the ’woman’ Leech had cut in half at the waist. He had been stripped of his clothes, revealing he was, in fact, a man.

’Someone even more effeminate than Guy, huh.’

There was also a pair of twin corpses. Their injuries were severe as well, but the cost wouldn’t exceed 20 gold Jinri, which was still within a range Leech could accept.

’But I don’t have that many curios on hand anymore, nor do I have any Extraordinary Magic Potions.’

After a simple examination of the bodies, Leech began to suture their wounds with a needle and thread. Although he wasn’t doing it with his own hands, it required him to use his Spiritual Power to control a Corpse Ghost to perform the task, which was no different from doing it himself.

The bodies could be permanently preserved in Magic Antiseptic. He would wait until he acquired more curios before creating new Corpse Ghosts.

’I haven’t been to the Black Market in a while. And there’s the Round Table.’