HTLCCBFT Chapter 129

Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 129

Since Oliver had entrusted his safety to the Cat God, he no longer paid attention to his surroundings.

With single-minded focus, he swung the pickaxe in his hand, rapidly repeating the motion of striking the stone wall.

Any sign of loosening meant the pickaxe was effective.

Ever since he had leveled his Mining skill to 7 and unlocked the method for smelting gold blocks, he had paused gaining experience in this area due to resource constraints.

As his skill level increased, his efficiency in breaking down and collecting ores had significantly improved—stones judged by the system as “small” could be shattered with a single strike, while “large” ones required only three hits.

But these reinforced corners clearly far exceeded the “large” category.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes…

Oliver patiently repeated the strikes, counting silently in his mind.

When he reached the thirty-fifth strike, the faint vibration transmitted through his palm finally felt different.

Almost there.

He paused briefly, exchanged a glance with the serious-looking golden-haired deity, then turned to the soldiers behind him and said succinctly, “Step back further and be prepared.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Butler Fosse, who had arrived later, bowed deeply and immediately led everyone to retreat a few more steps.

It should be almost done.

Thinking this, Oliver swung the pickaxe once more at the seemingly unmoving corner of the wall—

After a “clang” that everyone had grown numb to, a terrifyingly large crack suddenly appeared on the wall, which had previously shown no gaps!

“Your Highness!!!”

Fosse’s eyes widened.

The moment he realized the massive stone wall was about to burst and collapse, he felt no instinctive fear. Instead, he instinctively took a large step forward and shouted, “Please step back quickly!”

“Stay back!”

But Oliver barked the command and, without hesitation, struck again with the pickaxe!

The stone beneath his feet suddenly shattered, and a terrifying sense of weightlessness caused the rebels on top of the wall to let out panicked screams: “Aaaaaah—!!”

The wall, already at its breaking point, could no longer withstand any more attacks, just like all the large stones shattered by the pickaxe.

This final strike of the pickaxe directly tore off a large piece of the mottled wall surface, exposing the brickwork beneath, now covered in a web of cracks.

Those who witnessed this scene felt a chill run down their spines.

—This tall, majestic wall, which had seemed indestructible, had actually been smashed open by their lord, using only his slender arms and a single pickaxe, creating a hole two people high and one person wide!

Deafening rumbles and crashes mingled together as a massive amount of debris, shrouded in dust that blotted out the sky, threatened to rush toward the crowd.

But in the next moment, Oliver, without a second thought, stored all the rubble in his system backpack.

—The noise abruptly ceased.

Only the dust, harmless to them, remained, causing the unprepared soldiers to cough incessantly.

What followed, of course, no longer required Oliver to handle personally.

His intention had never been to completely demolish the castle and destroy the efforts people had poured into it over centuries.

It was simply to assist the soldiers in smashing open an entrance large enough for the army to charge into the castle, without the need for large siege equipment.

The rest could be entirely left to Fosse and the knights.

“I didn’t want to cheat originally.”

Returning to the town area where the slaves were laboring to rebuild, Oliver sat down in the residence—originally belonging to a wealthy merchant of Albury—that Fosse had ordered cleaned up beforehand.

He closed his eyes, yet he couldn’t erase the twisted, agonized faces of the women who had died horribly.

He sighed, as if talking to himself, or perhaps lamenting to the deity beside him: “But their actions were just… too despicable. Unbearable.”

As a noble who benefited from the system, he couldn’t break the inherent class structure, but at the very least, he could minimize the disparity in treatment between the ranks.

Make the commoners more prosperous, alleviate their discontent.

Then, by increasing arable land, optimizing productivity, and developing side occupations, ensure the slaves had enough to eat, and allow a small number among them the opportunity to learn, thus gaining the possibility of upward mobility.

When pushed to the extreme, rebellion was inevitable.

Oliver felt not an ounce of sympathy for the former lord Butor, who ignored the lives of the slaves just to buy wine and indulge in pleasure.

If the rebels, after rising up, had shown even a little kindness to their former slave companions—not accepting, but also not killing the commoners who were once among the beneficiaries, and purely targeted the abusive stewards and noble class instead…

He originally hadn’t intended to sentence them—or rather, not all of them—to death.

The deity quietly gazed at his beloved believer, his heart stirring slightly.

He felt it very clearly.

…He was deeply sad.

Why?

The deity felt somewhat confused and uneasy.

…Clearly, the “people” who were harmed weren’t Oliver’s favorite “Laina people.”

When he came to his senses, he found he had naturally taken Oliver’s hand.

Hesitating slightly, he still followed his heart, leaned in, and gently kissed the slightly furrowed brow.

Every time Oliver did this to Him, his mood would improve greatly.

He hoped Oliver would also be cheered up by this.

Oliver opened his eyes in slight surprise.

He heard this deity, who didn’t think He had done anything remarkable at all, clumsily and earnestly speak words of comfort: “Don’t… don’t be sad, Oliver.”

He said, word by word: “I will use my divine power to protect you always.”

“Thank you for your comfort.”

Oliver smiled softly: “I’m fine, just wanted to rest a little.”

The dead cannot be brought back to life, and the living still face severe trials.

Starting tomorrow, he had much to do.

Having lost their only somewhat knowledgeable leader and deputy commander, the rebels in the castle became a complete rabble.

Even armed with fine weapons, they didn’t know how to use them.

Before the high-spirited Laina army, they scurried about like frightened rats, pitifully begging for mercy, utterly incapable of resistance.

One by one, their faces shed the ferocious, cruel exteriors, as if reverting to the cowering figures they once were under the stewards’ whips.

A slave who could only curl up, silently weep while holding his head, utterly timid and weak.

Yet the Lord of Laina, who had once gently accepted refugees from Albury, showed no trace of mercy toward their tearful pleas for forgiveness.

Behind those seemingly pitiful faces lay hands stained with sinful blood and hearts filled with bullying cowardice and shamelessness.

The only one qualified to forgive them had already had his throat slit by them, pushed off the city wall, and smashed into unrecognizable piles of flesh.

Their punishment was as swift as their judgment: all sentenced to death.

Oliver, breaking precedent, did not choose the relatively “merciful” hanging but instead adopted the cruel method of “beheading.”

The blood of those who had incited the rebellion in Albury City flowed across the ground, and their corpses, along with their severed heads, were thrown into a large pit dug by slaves.

Torches were cast down one by one.

The rebels, who had wrought evil for a time, were completely devoured by raging flames, just like the crops they had once burned to ashes in the farmlands.

To prevent the spread of disease, Oliver had his men collect the bodies of those unfortunate women and the abandoned corpses of freemen left to rot in the houses throughout the town, unattended and decaying.

There was neither time nor means to identify and distinguish each of the decomposed bodies.

They could only be buried together, laid to rest beneath a massive memorial stone.

Oliver hoped that if any survivors who had fled to other cities ever returned to Albury… they would at least have a place to mourn their families.

The news that “Albury City had been completely conquered by the Laina army in just one day” quickly spread back to Laina City.

And the details of how the beautiful divine messenger Lord, enraged by the tragic fate of those women, shattered the incredibly sturdy city walls with that divinely empowered pickaxe under the blessing of the Cat God, opening the path into the city… also spread far and wide.

After an entire winter, the Albury people, who had gradually integrated into Laina City and expanded their range of activities, were suddenly stunned.

They were, of course, ineligible to join the guard corps. Though they had heard early on about this military campaign, aside from praying to the great Cat God, there was nothing else they could do.

Moreover, the vast majority of them had witnessed their own family members brutally killed by the rebels—those who could flee had long since escaped, and those who couldn’t had mentally prepared for the worst.

Even so, they couldn’t help but worry about the happenings in their former homeland.

Had the Lord… truly won?!

“So quickly!” someone murmured. “It’s only been a few days since they set out!”

“I heard that the great Lord Oliver took both the town and the castle in just one day!”

“What should we do? Are we going to be sent back?”

“I’ve been living well here; I don’t want to go back anymore… Who knows if there might be a second time! It’s too terrifying!”

For the time being, they had no mind for work, all eagerly discussing how this event would affect them.

Soon enough, Kane the knight arrived at their settlement with the stewards and officially announced the news: “Anyone who does not bear Laina’s debts may return to Albury at any time.”

To Kane’s surprise, the people who heard this supposedly great news did not show much excitement or eagerness on their faces.

They exchanged uneasy glances, their expressions filled with anxiety.

Finally, Gennaro stepped forward, mustering his courage to ask, “Honorable sheriff, may we choose not to return?”

Kane raised an eyebrow slightly. “You may. But you’d better think carefully—if you return to Albury, you will remain Albury’s commoners. However, if you stay in Laina, you cannot directly obtain the status of Laina’s freemen; you must first pass the Cat God’s assessment.”

Upon hearing this, many hesitant Albury residents couldn’t help but lean toward the choice of “returning.”

Yet, on Gennaro’s young face, there was not a trace of retreat. He asked firmly, “May I ask what kind of assessment it will be?”

Kane hesitated.

…He didn’t know either.

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