Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters-Chapter 864 - 2 Shuffle

Chapter 864: Chapter 2 Shuffle Chapter 864: Chapter 2 Shuffle Before dawn, all was quiet, marking the start of a day for nocturnal creatures.

A hare quietly left its shallow burrow in the acacia thicket and headed out to forage along a hidden path it had traversed many times.

Unbeknownst to the hare, its trail had already been discovered.

After dawn, two robed figures ascended the hillside one after the other to check the trap they had set the previous day.

The hare played dead, its yellow-brown fur blending in like dry grass, but it couldn’t fool the hunter.

“Over there! Brother!” the younger boy behind exclaimed with joy.

The young man ahead also spotted the prey, pressed his lips together, took down his short bow, and signaled for his brother to be quiet.

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It was too late—the hare had already been startled.

It thrashed desperately, leaping up and landing again, trying to free its hind leg.

The thing binding the hare’s right hind leg was a tough leather rope, not so easily broken.

But the trapped prey was a strong adult male. In its death throes, it actually managed to yank the branch to which the leather rope was tied out of the ground.

As soon as it regained limited freedom, the hare took off toward the bushes, dragging the rope and stick.

“The rabbit is escaping!” the young boy shouted.

The young man inhaled deeply, drew his short bow, and shot an arrow like lightning.

Although the bow was a poor makeshift from a tree branch and the arrow lacked even feathers, the young man still hit the target.

The boy, thrilled, ran into the bushes and retrieved the hare.

The brothers found a sheltered spot, where the boy gathered dry branches and leaves for a fire and the young man skinned and gutted the prey, then started roasting it directly.

Unquestionably, the young man and boy were Herders—though, of course, they wouldn’t think of themselves that way.

In the awareness of the young man and boy, there was no concept of “Herders”; they were simply subjects of the “Tie Chi” chief.

After the battle at the Panto River, Iron Peak County didn’t directly imprison the Tie Chi forces, but merely expelled them to the south bank of the Panto River, still governed by Tie Chi himself.

At that time, Winters decided that annihilating Terdun’s horde was the top priority and couldn’t spare additional forces to deal with Tie Chi’s camp.

Thus, Tie Chi’s surrendered forces were “placed” in Lower Iron Peak County, and Winters gave the guarding units at the temporary camp only one order: do not let Tie Chi’s forces enter Middle Iron Peak County.

Tie Chi cooperated and didn’t make any move during the battle between Iron Peak County Military and Terdun’s forces—indeed, Tie Chi probably didn’t even know the situation in Middle Iron Peak County.

As a trade-off, during this period Tie Chi’s surrendered forces were supplied with food and drink by Iron Peak County.

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Since the people of Iron Peak County themselves only had dark bread to eat, naturally, that was all they could offer to Tie Chi’s camp.

However, the daily diet of Herders mainly consisted of porridge, dairy products, and occasionally meat from hunting. Eating dry food day after day was something the Herders’ stomachs couldn’t endure.

To stabilize the surrendered soldiers, Iron Peak County provided a certain amount of meat every day.

But that meat went into the stomachs of the chiefs, while the lower-ranking subjects and slaves had to fend for themselves—such as setting traps to catch rabbits.

The hare had almost no fat and could not be roasted for too long.

Seeing the fire was about right, the young man used his dagger to cut the rabbit meat into small pieces and took out a small leather pouch with lake salt for his brother to dip the meat in.

As the boy gnawed on a rabbit leg, he asked, “Brother, did you hear?”

The young man chewed slowly on the rabbit head as if intending to crush every bone and suck out all the marrow, “Hear what?”

“Bai Yu and De Ji… those guys whisper like sparrows all night long.”

The young man snorted coldly, not responding.

“You and I should join them.” Seeing that his brother was noncommittal, the boy grew anxious, “When will these days end? We should follow Bai Yu and make a break for it!”

The young man still said nothing.

The boy threw the rabbit leg bone down with frustration, “Don’t you want to go home, brother? Nayen is no longer the eagle he was; his soul has been snatched by that wolf! Bai Yu says, Tie Chi, Nayen is going to sacrifice us to that wolf…”

The young man spat out the bone fragments, “Shut up.”

Seeing his brother a bit displeased, the boy obediently fell silent.

“If you can figure out what Bai Yu is thinking.” The young man picked up the leg bone his brother had thrown away, wiped it with some leaves, and began crunching on it, “Nayen will know soon enough.”

The boy’s eyes widened and mouth gaped.

The young man continued, “To go home, we first need a horse. Without a horse, even if we exhaust ourselves, we can’t cross the vast grasslands. And all the horses are in the hands of the leaders.”

On the day of surrender, Winters had men take away the warriors’ horses and weapons, leaving only their personal daggers.

Therefore, the bow and arrows the young man used to hunt the rabbit were makeshift from branches, not fitting well in his hands.

But Winters had specifically left some horses and weapons with Tie Chi himself—for suppressing the Terdun people.

“What… what do we do then?” The boy immediately lost spirit.

The young man glanced at his brother, “Shut your mouth, open your eyes wide. I’ll think of a way; don’t meddle foolishly.”

The boy came to life again, pestering his brother to reveal more.

But the young man knew his brother couldn’t keep secrets, so he steadfastly refused to disclose anything.

Worn out by the pestering, he finally hinted a bit, “It’s not just Tie Chi, Nayen. There are other leaders to the south… leaders with weapons and horses…”