parentshiftbook Chapter 51: Family
Chapter 51: Family
As he stepped out of the tent, a Gren ran up to him and reported that the surviving elderly, women, and children were huddled on the north side of the camp, asking him what to do with them.
Thun glanced at the huddled group of old and weak goblins, paused for a moment, and then said, "Drive them away. Tell them the Two-Headed Bone Tribe is gone."
The inventory of supplies took up the entire morning.
The granary of the Double-Headed Bone tribe is a half-buried earthen cellar filled with dozens of sacks of grain.
It wasn't potato starch; it was wheat and black beans that had been seized from nearby settlements. They were relatively dry, and roughly estimated to weigh nearly 20,000 jin (10,000 kg).
After all, the Double Bone tribe was a medium-sized tribe with more than 3,000 people at its peak.
The armory contained several bundles of short spears and thirty or forty scimitars, all Northern goods seized by goblins from human caravans. The blades were chipped but still usable, and could be reforged to make a batch of new blades.
There were several iron tools, dozens of animal hides, several bags of coarse salt, and several jars of unidentified animal oil.
Duolong directed the militia to load the supplies onto the trucks.
Bags of grain were loaded onto the cart, short spears were bundled together and tied tightly with hemp rope, and animal hides were folded and stuffed into the gaps in the wooden boxes for shock absorption.
The laborers had been moving the carts from morning until noon, and they were still not even half full.
Duolong stood by the grain cellar, looking at the sacks piled up like a small mountain inside, and said, "No wonder these barbarians haven't been wiped out for so many years, they're really rich."
A militiaman nearby chimed in, "It's not theirs, is it?"
"It wasn't like that before, but it is now," Doron said.
The captured women burst into tears upon seeing Doron.
"Sir Knight, please save us!"
Looking at the large group of women, Duolong felt a chill run down his spine.
The male-to-female ratio in the territory is currently perfect, but look at the women and children in front of us, there are at least a thousand of them. The territory is really going to become unbalanced.
However, Doron still arranged for people to send them back to their territory. After all, they were young laborers, and even if they couldn't do most of the men's jobs, they could do other things.
Children are the future of a territory.
After settling everyone in and loading the last piece of supplies onto the cart, Duolong turned around and glanced at the territory. It was almost completely emptied, with not even a single piece of wood left. If it weren't for the traces of life still remaining on the ground, no one would have guessed that this place was once a tribe of two or three thousand people.
Doron patted Thun on the shoulder: "Go back quickly, the lord is very worried about you."
Hearing that the lord was concerned about him, Thun, who had been listless, suddenly brightened up, nodded solemnly, and returned with the group.
Seeing this, Doron breathed a slight sigh of relief. He was really worried that Thun wouldn't come back with him, and he would have to clean house.
Of course, the lord would never say such a thing. It was Old Hall's arrangement before he left that if Thun was unwilling to return, the Green people present would not need to come back either.
Thun held the wooden box, looked at the firelight, and did not turn around.
In the distance, towards Ashwood Territory, the city walls gleamed with a bluish-gray luster under the midday sun.
The newly rescued women and children were even more moved when they saw the sturdy city walls.
They will also become part of this city.
When Thun entered the pit courtyard, he was carrying that wooden box in his arms.
He knelt down on one knee in the center of the courtyard, placed the wooden box at his feet, opened the lid, and took out the silver ring from inside.
"My lord," he looked up and handed over the ring, "could you help me see what's written on this? I can't read."
Ron took the ring, walked to the oil lamp, and used his Conversion spell to conjure a small magnifying glass on his fingertip.
The extremely fine writing on the inside of the ring was finally clear. The writing was hand-carved, with each stroke short and shallow. He looked at it for a moment, then returned the ring to Thun.
"Theresa Ashwood," Ron said with a strange expression. "That's our family name."
The cave dwelling remained quiet for a long time.
Old Hall stood at the door, his hand gripping the doorframe suddenly clenching tightly.
Ashwood, the bloodline of the old master who had been separated from his family, were the clansmen who were kidnapped by goblins the year the family was wiped out.
Thun knelt on the spot, his mouth opening and closing. He looked down at the ring in his hand, then looked up at Ron, as if to confirm whether he had heard correctly. A few seconds later, his eyes reddened.
Ron's mind was racing with countless thoughts of alpacas.
The Green man in front of him was actually one of his family members.
Ron had no choice but to pull him up from the ground.
Thun's grey-green skin, his fangless face, and his life that can never find a place between humans and goblins.
The moment the surname Ashwood was uttered, everything became clear.
He is not of mixed race; he is a child with Ashwood family blood flowing through his veins.
His mother was not a nameless prisoner, but Tracy Ashwood.
She lived alone in the Blackthorn Wasteland for over twenty years, raising a group of children who spoke human language and used human weapons, only to be thrown into a food pile after losing her fertility.
Ron looked at old Hall outside the door: "Old Hall, do you know someone named Theresa?"
Old Hall pondered for a long time, then shook his head helplessly, while looking at the eagle on the wooden box.
"Young Master, more than twenty years ago, the Ashwood family was at its peak. In addition to the main family, there were five direct branches and dozens of other collateral branches. Ashwood family members were found almost everywhere in the kingdom. There were two Ashwood family branches in the Treda province. Theresa should be one of them. As for more detailed information, I don't know, and I guess it can't be found now."
As for the eagle mark on the wooden box, he ignored it completely. What powerful family could they be that came to the Blackthorn Wasteland twenty years ago?
In his memory, no noble in the kingdom used an eagle as their mark.
Ron nodded, walked over to Thun, and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Since your mother and I are from the same family, you don't need to ask me if I will drive you away. Just remember one thing: the Ashwood family will not abandon the Ashwood family."
Thun lowered his head, his shoulders trembling. He had been silent for many years, living silently in the goblin tribe, silently wielding his sword on the day he betrayed them, and silently sheathing his sword when he stabbed his enemy into a sieve with his own hands.
Now he stands in the courtyard of the pit-dwelling, clutching his mother's only keepsake, and for the first time realizes that he is not alone.
His name is Thune Ashwood.
His tears fell silently onto the wooden box lid, his shoulders trembling incessantly.
Old Hall walked over and put his hand on Thun's shoulder, without saying a word.
The hand was placed very gently, as if afraid of breaking something.
But he didn't look Thun in the eye.
In reality, even though Old Hall knew that Thun had Ashwood blood, he still disliked the Greens, and even more so because Thun had Ashwood blood.
The existence of Thun was as if it tainted Ashwood's bloodline.
However, since the young master acknowledged Tuen's bloodline and accepted him as a family member, he could only pretend to be welcoming.
After a long time, Thun's shoulders stopped trembling.
Ron closed the wooden box and handed it back to him: "These things are yours."
Thun shook his head: "I don't know... how to put it."
"Then put it in your room for now," Ron said. "You can look at it yourself when you learn to read."
He paused.
"Starting tomorrow, you and Sanlier will learn to read with Old Hall."
Thun raised his head, his tears still wet, but something new had appeared in his eyes—light.