Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1638 1610. Supervisor
'True Nilfgaardians'.

Even within the Nilfgaard Empire, only a few people can call themselves this group.

Specifically, it refers to the city of Nilfgaard and the generations of families in the Alba River basin.

People from the province of Vicvaro, which is close to both of them, can barely be considered Nilfgaardians in the eyes of people in these two places.

Apart from these few regions, even the old provinces that have been incorporated into the Nilfgaard Empire for more than a hundred years should not be allowed to call themselves so in the eyes of those "real Nilfgaardians".

And vassal states like Ebbing and Toussaint have no right to shamelessly call themselves Nilfgaardians.

Nasir is also a province of Nilfgaard, but it was actually conquered by the Empire thirty years ago and incorporated into the new province.

Over the past thirty years, there have been constant rebellions, and the Nilfgaardians have continued to suppress them.

Besides, thirty years ago, Nilfgaard was ruled by a usurper, and the incorporation of this province into the empire was, strictly speaking, the usurper's contribution to the empire.

But the flags on the city walls have changed, and now Emperor Emhyr is in power, and he hates the usurper so much that he has set out to delete all traces of his existence from all historical records!
Then Sayre's situation will only become more embarrassing.

The people of this land think themselves nobles in front of the Nilfgaardians?

This seemed almost ridiculous to the Nilfgaardian officer who came to tell Hans and Henry to work.

Hans was extremely furious. Even though he usually got along well with Henry, the illegitimate son of a noble family, he would become very angry if anyone pointed fingers at or disrespected his noble status.

Even if he is a Nilfgaardian officer, it won’t work because his noble status is recognized by the Nilfgaardian Empire!
Although this was Hans' first time going abroad, he was determined to maintain his dignity.

But on the other side, the Nilfgaardian officer untied a hideous whip from his belt.

The whip had twisted iron nails and broken iron pieces mixed in during the weaving of the leather rope.

If you hit a person with too little force, the objects may not slide away smoothly. Instead, they may pierce into the skin and flesh and get stuck on it!

You have to pull it very hard to tear off several pounds of flesh together!

Just looking at it was enough to make the throats of young people like Hans and Henry, who had never been out of Nassel, dry.

Hans still had the determination to defend his noble dignity, but most of his courage was gone.

Right now in the city of Vergen, Nasir's auxiliary army and the Nilfgaardian army are basically divided into half and half, but it is self-evident who has the command.

Although he was just talking back, Hans was sure that he would not be executed on the spot, but... look at this whip, how scary it is!

So, following Henry's movement to block the way, he stopped moving.

"Sir!" Henry stood between two people who were about to clash. His simple voice became an advantage at this moment, as he seemed honest and sincere.

But he speaks clearly and fluently, and doesn't look like an honest fool. I just feel that he must be truly sincere.

"Please forgive Sir Hans! He is indeed a noble of Nasser, one that is recognized by the Empire."

"But this year is the first time we've gone out with the Empire's army. He was just a little scared during the day, and now he's still excited. We will definitely go to supervise! For sure!"

Listening to Henry's words, the Nilfgaardian officer in front of him sneered: "Humph, the nobles of Sayre."

But he just sneered, and after Henry's intervention, he had no intention of pursuing the matter further. It might also be because he was trapped in Vergen and it was difficult for him to get angry.

"Snapped."

The whip was still thrown out, but not to hit anyone, but directly into Hans' arms.

At present, Sir Hans is wearing plate armor, mail armor and cotton armor, so he is not afraid at all.

However, in the process of catching it in a hurry, the barb on the whip tore a piece of his bright yellow cotton armor.

"Sir, what is this?"

Hans was pulling the horrible whip off his body when Henry turned and asked tentatively.

The Nilfgaardian officer's expression returned to its stern state, as if he was too lazy to bother arguing with them, and simply gave them the task in a straightforward manner.

"You are here to supervise, and a supervisor should take care of his work."

"You said this is the thing used by the supervisor?!" Hans was so shocked that he froze in his tracks as he pulled the whip off his body. "It could kill someone! How is this different from torture?"

"Then you can beat those dwarves to death." The Nilfgaardian officer said as a matter of course, "They have a lot of people and they control the food."

"We need stones to defend the city, and the city is built on a damn abandoned mine. Let those dwarves dig as much as they can."

"They will die eventually. Either they will die of exhaustion while digging stones, or they will be beaten to death by you. The worst thing is that they will starve to death. Anyway, we will never waste our food rations on those dwarves, even a small bite."

"We." Henry also looked at the whip, his face a little numb, but his mouth still moved by inertia and said, "We will, we will supervise, sir."

"You'd better be serious. The stone produced tonight must be at least fifty loads. The nobles of Sayre, huh, I don't know how high a reputation you think you have." Finally, after repeating Hans' identity in a sarcastic manner, the Nilfgaard officer turned and left.

People were coming and going in Vergen. Eight hundred people were not considered a large number, but under the pressure of the siege, they were constantly on the move. The frequency of movement was very high, making Vergen appear to be much busier than in previous peacetime times when it served as a trade transit point.

Everywhere there were the sounds of armor moving against each other, the cries of the wounded, and calls for the movement of weapons or the arrangement of shifts.

Amid the coming and going of people and the flickering of firelight, Henry and Hans looked at each other beside the stable.

"You," Henry asked tentatively, "Hans, do you know how to supervise?"

"Yes, I know." Hans' face was frozen.

"Generally when I need people to work, I will watch from behind and scold them from time to time. When I need to leave temporarily to do something, I will also threaten them in advance. I warn them not to be lazy and not to think about stealing things, but..."

He raised the hand holding the terrible whip.

"At that time, I only had a stick in my hand, and I could beat their thick-skinned buttocks with it, and it wouldn't even leave a bruise. Using this thing to supervise the workers? Wow."

"This is torture. Using people as slaves." Henry pursed his lips and remained silent for a while, then spoke with difficulty, "This is really disturbing. I, I don't know how to use this thing at all."

"But we in Nilfgaard are an empire where slavery is legal, Henry." Hans said with difficulty.

He sounded like he wanted to convince himself and his friends, but in the end, he just sighed dejectedly.

"But... No, I never used slaves in Nasir."

"But what if we act fiercely and powerfully enough? Those dwarves will get scared and accept their fate? Then we won't have to resort to such dirty tricks, you know?"

Henry was not optimistic: "But I heard that dwarves have stubborn and hot tempers."

"What can I do?" Hans raised his voice uncontrollably, then lowered it again after realizing it. He looked around nervously, "I don't even know how to torture others!"

"For things like this, nobles usually let their servants do it, you know?"

Henry spread his hands helplessly: "But now, the servant is obviously..."

He didn't finish his words, but Hans helplessly continued: "It's us, yes, my God, how could I be involved in such a thing?!"

There is no use complaining or wailing, you have to do what the order says, that's the military.

The two men dragged their tired bodies towards the quarry.

Many soldiers have begun to eat and sleep quickly after their shifts.

There were a lot of blood and corpses in the city of Vergen, not only the casualties from the siege during the day, but they actually didn't take long to capture the city.

Otherwise, Sakia's intelligence wouldn't have been so inconsistent that he would have thought this was a Kaedwen-controlled area.

There are corpses of humans and dwarves on the ground. No one has the strength and energy to bury them right now, so we can only wait until everyone has a break.

In fact, Hans was a Nasser noble, so it was not impossible for him to ask a few soldiers from the Nasser auxiliary army to supervise him.

But who made the Nilfgaardians come directly to him just now, and both of them got angry and argued with each other?

If he dared to refuse the order given to him after talking back, the Nilfgaardian officer would definitely not let him off easily.

Vergen, as a dwarven mining colony, has been abandoned for a long time. Now it can only mine stones in the open air. It can't be called a quarry at all.

When Henry and Hans arrived at the place, they saw a dozen dwarves holding pickaxes. Their thick beards could not cover the bruises and cuts on their faces, not to mention the wounds on their bodies.

The weather was still very cold, but they were only wearing the clothes that covered their skin, nothing else.

A dozen dwarves were chained together with an iron chain.

Everyone was sweating profusely and no one knew how long they had been working.

It was time to catch my breath and rest. I should take advantage of the supervisor's shift change to take a break.

At this time, they also saw the two people coming over with whips, but they had no expression or words, just looked at them coldly on the open gravel ground.

Henry and Hans looked at each other, they were both unsure and nervous.

But according to the plan agreed upon in advance, Hans still stepped forward, holding the whip and shouting ferociously.

"What are you looking at? Get to work! Dig rocks! You shorty guys!"

As he said this, he whipped his hand in the air in a ferocious manner.

But after pretending to be brutal and shouting, Hans was embarrassed to find that all the dwarves just continued to look at him coldly without any signs of moving.

(End of this chapter)