Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 299 Atypical Knight

"Hey! Hey! Get up! It's time for dinner!" The jailer slammed the iron bars on the cell door and handed in several lunch boxes through the square window in the middle of the iron door.

Ambichi's bed was close to the cell door, so he took the stack of lunch boxes and distributed them to the rest of the people.

When they opened the lid of the lunch box, they found that today's lunch was soft potatoes soaked in broth and cooked wheat rice. They couldn't help but sigh in unison.

It has been more than half a month since they were sent here and imprisoned after being defeated by the army of the Northern Frontier Lord outside Jackdaw Town.

Ambichi was originally worried that he would be escorted to the northern wilderness and imprisoned, and would freeze to death in the cell in the cold winter within a few days, but it seemed that he was still some distance away from death.

The environment of this cell was much better than the rumored cold and damp dungeon in Grizzly Castle - there were bunk beds with wooden frames, and thick straw and a blanket on the bed, so there was absolutely no chance of leaking in.

Imprisoned in the cell with him were two other minor nobles from Grizzly Castle, both of whom were scion of vassal families under Earl Feigen's fiefdom, and one of them was the legitimate son with the right to inherit the baron title.

As for Ambichi himself, his status was relatively not that noble - his father was just a knight in the Earl's family knights who retired early due to injury. He fought for the Fagan family for half his life and was only rewarded with the title of non-hereditary baron, and a lame leg that could no longer allow him to ride a warhorse.

"Damn it! How long will we be imprisoned? My foolish brother and mother, haven't they raised the ransom yet?" The oldest noble cursed softly, throwing the food in his hand aside. "Eating food worse than pigs and dogs every day is an insult to us!"

Ambichi glanced at the other party secretly and muttered in his heart that pigs and dogs could not eat such rich food. They usually ate a mixture of cassava tubers and decomposed fruits and vegetables, which was much more disgusting than the food in front of them.

The baron's son rolled his eyes at the elder nobleman and sneered, "Ransom? Do you really think this pioneer lord will spare our lives, waiting for us to be redeemed so he can rally his army and seek revenge on him? Humph, when Earl Fagan's head was brought to the prison cell and displayed to us a few days ago, wasn't his intention obvious enough?"

The young nobleman's eyes widened in horror as he asked, "What do you mean? Is this Wasteland Lord really so audacious as to... execute all the captured nobles?"

He stood up and nervously paced back and forth in the small cell of less than ten square meters. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he rushed to the cell door, put his head as close to the iron bars as possible, and shouted and begged, "Someone! Someone! Please let me see the Lord! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

The Baron's son spat on the ground and cursed, "Cowardly wretch! We are the Earl's honorable knights, not those despicable mercenaries! Look at how you look now! You've brought disgrace upon the nobility!"

As he said this, he grabbed the young noble and pulled him towards him, cursing, and raised his fist to hit him in the face.

Ambichi quickly stepped forward and pulled the two apart, whispering, "Stop it! Don't fight. If we attract the jailers, none of us will be in any trouble."

The Baron's son narrowed his eyes, carefully examined Ambiqi, and sneered, "Hey, the shepherd knight of the Kenny family in Mill Town, what's wrong? You don't seem to be worried about your life being held in their hands?"

Accustomed to being ridiculed, Ambiqi sighed and patiently explained, "I've observed for a long time. Those knights and nobles who were captured with us and who were the loudest in their outbursts were the first to be taken from the cells and never returned... They should have received severe sentences and may have already been hanged on the gallows. But you see, people like us... who are neither the Earl's loyal confidants nor the ones who fought stubbornly, should not be sentenced to death."

The Baron's son was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, what you said makes sense."

The frightened young noble finally breathed a sigh of relief, left the cell door, and lay back on the wooden bed, his face still pale. Seeing this, Ambiqi also sat down against the wall and pulled a rough blanket over himself.

He was not really afraid of death, but he felt that begging for mercy seemed to be of no use. It would be better to make the best of it and wait for God and the lord to decide his future fate.

Ambiqi knew very well his own capabilities. He was not cut out to be a knight. If his disabled father had not given up the delusion of reviving the family and forced him to join the Earl's coalition, he would prefer to stay with his herd of livestock rather than ride his horse into battle, and gallop freely on the pasture outside the mill town every day.

Because of this, he was known as a good-for-nothing among the knights and small nobles, and was naturally given the insulting nickname of "Shepherd Knight". During the battle charge, he was placed at the tail end by the Knight Commander, but unexpectedly he saved his life by accident.

The jailer who had just delivered lunch suddenly came back and shouted at the cell door, "Is Ambich Kenny here? The officials from the city hall want to see you!"

It's over! I had just comforted others, and the next second, it was my turn to be taken away. I didn't know whether it would lead to a trial for punishment or my family with a ransom...

Ambichi couldn't help but tremble slightly, and he forced himself to get up from the ground and walk out of the cell.

Leading the way was a young soldier wearing a thick black fur-lined uniform and a pair of shiny leather boots. He also carried a strange silver metal spear on his back - it was this thing that caused the Earl's army to suffer a tragic defeat.

After walking out of the cell, Ambichi was handcuffed with iron chains as usual and his eyes were blindfolded with cloth. He could only stumble forward in confusion following the soldier on the other end of the chain. However, for some reason, the ground roads in this wasteland were unusually flat, so he didn't have to worry about tripping and falling.

The journey had taken quite a while, and Ambichi couldn't help but whisper, "Excuse me, sergeant, where are you taking me? Are you going to convict me without a trial?"

A calm voice came from the front, "Who said I want to convict you? I'm only responsible for sending you to see the chief steward of the city hall. Don't ask any other questions."

Ambichi shut his mouth rationally. These soldiers gave him a very strange feeling. Judging from their accents, they all seemed to be refugees from the wilderness. Their dress and appearance were completely unlike those of people from the southern border. However, they did not seem to be afraid of the nobles at all. Instead, they acted proudly and looked down on them. It seemed that compared with himself, they were more like knights of honor and distinguished origin.

Although he couldn't see as he walked, he could hear the constant chatter and hurried footsteps of passersby, the ringing of bells, and the occasional child's laughter. This was the height of winter, and shouldn't ordinary people be huddled in simple houses for warmth, doing everything they could to save money and survive the harvest? Why did he feel that everything around him was full of vitality, as if spring had arrived?

With a lot of doubts in his mind, he was finally sent to a seemingly spacious and crowded building lobby. Then, at the soldier's reminder, he groped his way upstairs and entered a separate study.

After taking off the blindfold, before Ambichi had time to adapt to the sudden bright stimulation, he immediately squinted his eyes and stumbled back a few steps in fright.

Sitting behind the desk in front of him was a tall, terrifying humanoid monster made entirely of metal and machinery. On its silver-white metal skull, two dark eye sockets flickered with crystal blue flames.

"Are you Ambich Kenny?"

(End of this chapter)