When Lucius's butt touched that thing, he even felt like he was dreaming for a moment.
Leather, definitely stuffed with cotton and down feathers underneath. A sofa. Even in the life of the civilized world of the past, it would be considered premium furniture.
He never imagined he would be in this forest, letting his ass sit on this creation of civilized society once again.
"Something to drink?"
Harold got up, pulled open a cabinet, and asked without looking up.
Everything in the outpost left Lucius somewhat dazed. He instinctively gave a polite response: "Thank you, no need." He quickly snapped back to reality and regretted it. However, Harold still took out an unidentifiable bottle of liquor, picked up a cup rolling on the floor, lined it up with the cup on the table, and filled both to the brim with the golden liquid.
He swallowed hard and hurriedly took it from Harold's hand.
The supply officer sat on another chair, his short, fat body sinking entirely into it. He raised his glass to him, and the two drank a toast across the space.
Lucius took a careful sip, suppressing the desire for more, carefully feeling the taste of beer spreading in his mouth.
Harold smiled at this and took the initiative to speak:
"I came to see you before, Lucius."
Lucius instantly understood that today's real business had arrived.
Feeling slightly reluctant, he put down his glass, placing it on the table.
"Yes, I explained it, Mr. Harold. I want to stay with my family."
The supply officer frowned and yanked open his coat, revealing a chest full of body hair.
"And then? Let them go hungry?"
"The situation is so difficult right now..." Lucius suddenly stopped; he felt something was wrong.
"Let's be frank, Lucius. I value your abilities. You are a useful person." The supply officer walked over and sat down beside Lucius again. "You shouldn't be mediocre, busy and exhausted for nothing but a bite to eat, like most people."
"Try stepping out! You are a warrior! The bravest of the Estalian
Tercio soldiers!" The supply officer's voice
suddenly rose. He slapped his thigh, encouraging Lucius.
"You deserve more, you deserve a better life!"
Lucius fell silent. After a short while, under the supply officer's gaze, he spoke with difficulty: "I don't know, sir, I don't know what else I can do."
Harold laughed heartily. He handed Lucius's cup back to him, filled his own cup, clinked glasses with him, and downed it in one gulp. The liquor ran down his chin onto his chest hair, which made Lucius's heart ache. Harold wiped it away carelessly.
"Work for me!"
Lucius sighed, troubled. "But I don't want to be a soldier anymore."
Harold grew somewhat displeased. He slammed his empty glass heavily onto the table.
"I said work for me! Join me! Understand? Join me!"
He stood up, feeling the room was a bit stuffy, so he walked over to the side, pushed open the wooden window, leaned against the sill with one hand, and looked back at Lucius.
"Let's be frank. If you pledge loyalty to me and become my subordinate from now on, right now, immediately, you can take away ten days' worth of food. I will give you a slip, go find the warehouse keeper, he will know what to do."
Mentioning the warehouse, Lucius clenched his fists. The previous humiliation, he endured it silently.
"Isn't there a severe shortage of food right now?" He still caught the main point and questioned: "Taking away food like this, won't it..."
"Haha." Harold sneered, laughing aloud without any reservations:
"What do you think? Lucius. The warehouse, the guards, the managers, they are all my people. What do you think!?"
"In this place!"
He spread his arms, raised his head, and closed his eyes. His entire being exhibited an exaggerated, arrogant emotion that made Lucius feel ridiculous, as if watching a circus clown perform.
"I name it—the Kingdom of Harold Bull Skanis!"
For a moment, Lucius thought the supply officer was drunk.
"I control everything here! Everything, do you understand!"
He suddenly walked over, pushed Lucius—who was trying to get up—back onto the sofa, took a few steps back himself, and slumped back into his chair.
"Now I decide who gets to eat full, later I decide who gets to eat at all, and finally—the lives of the more than fifteen hundred people here, from birth to death, will all be controlled in my hands!"
"I am the King here!"
Harold yelled wildly, looking manic, while the guards outside acted as if they hadn't heard a thing.
If Lucius had been very tempted before, now he only wanted to leave as quickly as possible. He thought the supply officer was either drunk or insane. This was all too exaggerated.
Harold suddenly raised his hand, speaking to him in a teasing tone: "Hey, Lucius, do you know how many women I've slept with during this time?"
He raised an eyebrow at Lucius, pointing his finger at the premium sofa Lucius was sitting on.
"Twenty! The one who just walked out was the twentieth!"
"All healthy, glamorous women, wives, mothers, virgins, haha, hahaha!"
The supply officer tilted his head back, his gaze blurry.
"I make them go hungry, and they have to come over, find me, beg me, accept my conditions... serve Harold!"
"Very soon, I will be able to make them do even more. They will be my mistresses, and their men will work for me!"
"I plan to find eighty to a hundred more mistresses, and select the finest women among them to be my wives and concubines, to bear me excellent offspring to inherit my kingdom!"
"You really are..."
Lucius didn't want to listen anymore. The supply officer's shameless words made him feel a profound sense of absurdity. He downed the remaining beer in his cup in one gulp and got up to leave.
"Go! Lucius, go! Go on!"
The supply officer sat in his chair shouting neurotically, then suddenly changed his tone and calmed down.
"Where else can you go? Very soon, you will step onto the battlefield, enlist in the army, wash away your shame, reclaim lost territory, and restore your honor; Aha! What wonderful words. I hope someone will take care of Grace and her two children, and her crippled brother can also get a new brother-in-law."
Lucius clenched his fists, grinding his molars.
Outwardly, he remained impassive. "What do you mean?"
The fat supply officer Harold chuckled, got up, pulled a pouch out of a cabinet, and tossed it onto the table.
"The conscription order from the Kingdom. Everyone with military experience must enlist to form a vanguard legion to march south and attack the Greenskins."
A cruel, ugly smile appeared on his face.
"You must immediately head to the tribal camp in the south, and accept reorganization and training from the Kingdom's generals there."
"Now?"
Lucius shook his head. "Where's the food? Has the Kingdom's aid arrived?"
"Not a single grain of food will be distributed to you. Only those who begin their service will receive their own rations." Harold laughed: "I told you, I am the King here, this is my Kingdom! I let whoever I want eat full. Think it through, Lucius. I can make whoever I want go!"
"And after you leave, before you die under the Greenskins' butcher blades, Joel and Grace, and those two children, who do you think will starve to death first?"
"Absurd!"
Lucius stepped forward, burning with anger. But he didn't realize when the guards had entered the room, tightly gripping their spears, warily watching his movements.
Lucius was
momentarily caught in a dilemma, frozen in place, looking at that ugly face.
"Alright, don't lose your temper at me. Everything is an order from the Kingdom, and I am merely executing my orders!"
"Including withholding food? Forcing women to become prostitutes?" Lucius shouted indignantly. How he wished the guards would suddenly turn their spearheads and join him in denouncing the supply officer's corruption and depravity, bringing him to justice and handing him over to the council for judgment.
But the guards merely stared at him maliciously, seemingly ready to poke a few holes in him at any moment.
Lucius realized that the supply officer's claim that "the warehouse guards and managers are all his people" was not an empty boast. All of them were running dogs controlled and bought off by the supply officer using his power!
"Otherwise?!"
Harold opened his arms, as if inviting him, saying: "Those stupid, brainless beasts handed the supplies over to us; and the people handed the distribution and management over to us; is this not my rightful power? I can do whatever I want! Here, I am the King! You are all my generals, my ministers, my dukes!"
One guard deliberately tipped his hat to show respect. "Salutations to you, Your Highness Harold, the great Tribal Prince."
Laughter erupted.
Lucius found it incredibly absurd.
He only wanted to leave now, take Grace, Joel, and the children, and move somewhere else! Move to another camp to live!
Clearly, Harold and the guards would not agree.
"I've had my eye on you for a long time, Lucius..."
The supply officer gathered the wine glasses, poured a glass for everyone in the room, and then spoke to him in an admiring tone, as if everything was just beginning.
"You've been in the army, achieved merits, even served as an officer. I need you. You are a talent."
"Be my 'General'."
Harold invited, then opened the cabinet against the wall. It was full of various liquors, and a fragrant aroma spread through the air.
"Look at my collection. It cost me a lot of rations to trade these things with those folks from the Tulip Merchant Guild." He took a deep breath of the exquisite fragrance of the liquor. Everyone in the room couldn't help but reveal looks of desire.
But Lucius only felt disgust.
"We won't lack food either, at least we won't."
The supply officer shouted with extreme excitement: "Join me, and all of this, the wealth of my kingdom, will be shared with you! Owned together! We are the masters here, not the distant council, not the stupid beasts! Us! It's us! Only us!"
"Long live the Kingdom of Harold!"
The guards echoed him one after another. Only Lucius remained in place, silent.
"I have invited you three times, Lucius, three times."
The supply officer's face turned unfriendly, and the guards slowly stepped forward, adopting an offensive stance.
"There are many beasts in the Piña Forest. The road here passes through a stretch of forest. I believe it would be very easy for beasts to bite a man to death, a 'deserter' at that."
The supply officer delivered his final ultimatum. Lucius's tightly clenched fists tightened even further, then loosened.
The man's spirit seemed to collapse instantly. He lost all his strength, exhaled a stale breath, and looked up with difficulty:
"Harold, long live King Harold..."
He took the wine glass handed over by the supply officer, tilted his head back, and downed it in one gulp.
The atmosphere became harmonious.
"His Majesty the King" pulled out a box filled with a dazzling array of bottles and cans, several loaves of white bread stacked together, and two hams.
Harold opened a jar, dipped his finger in, tasted it, and showed a satisfied expression.
"Come try this, Lucius, fresh caviar. It took half a month's rations for a man to trade this jar from those profiteers of the Tulip Guild."
"As long as you follow me loyally, you will have all of this and more!"
He handed the jar to Lucius. The man stood frozen, looking at that familiar glass jar, not even knowing if he should raise his hand to take it.
"Try the 'King's' grace, Lucius. Relax."
A guard put down his spear, put his arm around his shoulder with a cheeky grin, and pushed him forward.
"'Your Majesty', can I have a bottle of wine?" Another guard asked tentatively: "That guy Wenger said whoever can give him a bottle of wine can sleep with his wife!"
"I bid two bottles! On the condition that when I sleep with his wife, he has to watch from the side!"
"Haha!"
In a daze, Lucius joined this grand banquet.
That jar of caviar was gripped tightly in his hand, and from beginning to end, he never let go.