Lord of Caldera - Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Chapter 138

“So, what will it be? Meal? Lodging?” he asked, clearing his throat.

“Both,” Sylas said.

“My lord!” Ray and Toby protested, but Sylas simply flicked a coin toward Bjorn.

Bjorn, catching the coin mid-air, stared at Sylas in shock. He hadn’t expected Sylas to actually pay. Sylas added a little extra, making Bjorn’s eyes widen further.

“And if we add warm bathwater to that, how much?”

“…Five silver coins?” Bjorn muttered uncertainly, almost embarrassed by his own words.

Toby jumped to his feet, slamming the table. “Now you’re being outrageous!”

But Bjorn looked as though he hadn’t fully processed his own audacity; he had assumed they’d turn him down but gave it a try anyway. Sylas tossed another coin.

“Half a gold coin,” Sylas said calmly.

“Uh… oh,” Bjorn stammered, mesmerized by the gleaming coin. His two vassals were also stunned by Sylas’s willingness to spend. The middle-aged men nearby watched with wide eyes, likely wondering what kind of man they were dealing with.

“Mind if I ask something before our meal?” Sylas said.

“W-What?” Bjorn managed to say.

“What happened to this territory?” Sylas asked, his question loaded with implication. Bjorn’s shoulders tensed at the mention. It was a painful story he was reluctant to share, but it felt wrong to hold back from someone who had already paid so generously.

“What exactly do you want to know?” Bjorn asked.

“Everything,” Sylas replied. Why a noble by birth was running an inn, why the Veldyne family had been mentioned in the earlier argument, and why Henrik had made strange comments.

“You met Henrik?” Bjorn asked, sighing as he dragged a chair over.

“Yes, by chance. We ended up crossing paths.”

“That guy, always saying things he shouldn’t.” Bjorn sighed, sitting down.

“Where should I start?”

“From the beginning, preferably with why you’re working as an innkeeper here,” Sylas said. He already knew the story, as Bjorn had shared it before Sylas’s return. But he wanted to hear how Bjorn felt about it now.

Bjorn’s face turned somber as he began his story.

The Veldyne viscountcy was a noble family with a long history. It had existed since before the Empire absorbed the region, back when the lands were organized in tribal structures. For this reason, the family enjoyed great respect among the local people. However, things began to unravel around the time Bjorn reached adulthood.

“I suppose it was just bad luck. Everything seemed to go wrong all at once.”

Bjorn’s father, already elderly, had fallen ill, while his uncle, eager for power, sought the title of family head for himself. To make matters worse, a cunning leader had arisen among a nearby barbarian tribe. This new tribal leader covertly reached out to Bjorn’s uncle with an offer of alliance, and the uncle accepted.

“Joining forces with the barbarians? Was that even possible?” Ray asked, surprised.

“It’s not impossible,” Bjorn replied. “The barbarians may not be monsters; they’re people, after all.”

“Still, barbarians don’t typically strategize or cooperate like that,” Ray commented, sharing the common perception that Northern barbarians were reckless raiders who repeatedly attacked civilized lands and fled.

Bjorn clicked his tongue. “You seem to misunderstand. The Northern people and the barbarians share the same bloodline, for the most part. They’re not that different from us.”

“Oh? I didn’t know that.”

“The only difference is that when the first Emperor founded the Empire, they didn’t join,” Bjorn explained. “Barbarians can strategize if they need to. Their culture’s excessive admiration for brute force usually prevents it, but this new chieftain was exceptionally crafty—hard to believe he was a barbarian.”

The man had made a simple promise to Bjorn’s uncle: if he shared inside information, the chieftain would leave the uncle’s loyal followers unharmed.

“It was a dream come true for my uncle, who was already coveting the family title. It essentially meant the conditions were set for him to stage a rebellion.”

Bjorn’s uncle took up the barbarian’s offer, and soon after, the barbarian forces invaded their lands.

“Your father and you must have been crushed.”

“No need to say it. With information leaking left and right…” Bjorn clenched his teeth, the frustration evident as he recalled that time.

“By the time I realized something was wrong, it was too late. My father had passed, and I’d lost most of my loyal soldiers.” Everything unraveled quickly from there. Bjorn’s uncle pressed him to give up his position as head of the family, an offer that was barely disguised as a threat. Bjorn was furious, but he had no real options. Refusal would only lead to a civil war. Nothing could be more horrible than friends and family raising swords against each other.

In the end, Bjorn surrendered his title to his uncle. “My uncle sent me here to Falun, a village long ruined, supposedly to ‘keep an eye on the barbarians.’ But it was exile, plain and simple.” Bjorn’s loyal soldiers were exiled alongside him, effectively reviving the abandoned village as their prison.

But that wasn’t the end. His uncle colluded with Baron Greve’s family, ensuring that any supplies to Falun went through them, placing Bjorn under watchful eyes and at the mercy of those who harbored resentment. “Falun is dependent on Baron Greve’s family for food imports. With my uncle pulling the strings, they can act as they please.”

“So, that guard and that smug man earlier are part of that group?” Toby asked.

“Exactly. Those men were sent by my uncle and Baron Greve.” Bjorn gulped down a glass of cold water he’d poured earlier, slamming it down in a display of simmering anger.

“What’s worse,” he continued, “is that my uncle still conspires with the barbarians. Whenever things get too tense here, he sends them to attack, just to remind everyone who holds power.”

Any attempt to preemptively strike against the barbarians was out of the question; doing so would be instantly labeled as an act of rebellion. Bjorn had to sit tight, an enemy right on his doorstep.

-“Unfortunately, there’s no barbarian here you can defeat,” Henrik’s words echoed in Sylas’s mind. Bjorn couldn’t make the first move against the barbarians without risking everything.

“So, you did nothing all this time?” Sylas asked.