sbdcsierra Chapter 111 Silencing
Chapter 111 Silencing
According to Jakir's narration, as one of the many young men in the family, Lachlan decided to go out and explore. On the one hand, it was to broaden his horizons, and on the other hand, he also wanted to try his luck in a different place. He was a good fighter, but running the family business was not done by fighting. Lachlan's overall strength was not outstanding, and it was basically impossible for him to beat his brothers and sisters if he stayed at home. As for why he chose to come to Skyrim for training, Lachlan was mainly influenced by Resard, and it had nothing to do with his cousin, Hayou.
Although Hayou insisted on the principle of reporting good news but not bad news, it was well known to everyone in Hayou's uncle's family that he had a bad life after leaving Elswell. Otherwise, his parents would not have to live in the old tree. They would have bought a piece of land to build their own family estate like Resard, or bought a house in the city like Madeline's family. Since Hayou's family's living conditions have not improved significantly, it can only mean that this guy did not inherit the wisdom and intelligence brought by his mother's family, but was mediocre and incompetent like his father.
As a tribe that also left their homeland to explore the world, Reshad is much stronger than Hayou. You know, the homeland of the tiger people is in the tropics. The north of Elsweyr is a large desert, and the south is a rainforest. When most tiger people go out to travel, they will choose Valenwood Province where the Wood Elves live, or Hammerfall Province where the Redguards live. The former is full of forests and has a climate similar to South Elsweyr, while the latter's desert environment is closer to North Elsweyr. The worst ones will choose Cyrodiil in the north, which is densely populated and economically developed. As Skyrim is a bitterly cold place, most of the tiger people who can run there are desperate criminals.
But Resard was different. This old cat had no future in most of his life. When he was old, he sold everything he had to scrape together a considerable amount of capital and went to Tianji to play poker. In the eyes of most normal people, such an operation could be called performance art. People with sound minds would not consider such a proposal. But in less than a year, this old guy made a fortune. Not only did he buy a house, but he also continued to recruit young people from his family to expand his team. Those golden coins were not fake. Although Resard himself had not returned home with wealth for the time being, it did not prevent the young people of Elswell from seeing him as an idol.
Lachlan believed that he could completely replicate Resard's success. He was younger and had a very powerful family as a backer. Compared with Resard, who came from an ordinary family and could almost be said to have started from scratch, he was much stronger. If he could establish a foundation in Tianji, it would undoubtedly increase his voice in the family and might even lead to some subtle and pleasant changes in the succession order.
His little sister Ajith, who has always been jokingly called Lahlan's second tail, naturally had to follow her brother. It was precisely because Ajith was leaving home that the family sent two powerful guards, Jakir and Matasa.
"Aigis mastered the Soft Claws two years ago. She is the only one in the family who has succeeded in the past three generations!"
The little cat girl smiled and showed her furry paws and the small wallet in her hand. Everyone was stunned and then reached for their waists. Aigis threw the wallet casually, and it drew an arc and fell into Angie's arms. Angie quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into the very low collar of the savior's leather jacket. After hiding it close to her body, she moved her bow and dagger away from Aigis.
"Considering that Aigis is still so young, there is a lot of room for her to grow. Given time, she will surely become the strongest thief in South Elsweyr, or at least one of the strongest."
Jakir was talking excitedly, and Hayou and Lachlan were also full of joy and pride, as if they were proud of it. However, the expressions of others were very embarrassed. No matter how strong he was, he was just a thief. Why was he so proud? Lydia curled her lips and looked at the three cats who were praising Aigis and the little fool who thought stealing was cool with a look of disdain. This reminded me again of Lund's evaluation of this race: Tiger people despise rules, they are keen on committing crimes, and they are proud of being able to escape punishment. In this way, the thing that really embarrassed Hayou was probably not his previous absurdities, but that he was so stupid that he was caught while stealing...
When I thought about this, I couldn't help but feel a little regretful. Would it really be a good thing to stuff such a person into my team?
The four cats laughed and made noises for a while, and Hayou finally remembered the important matter.
"So, you came to Skyrim to do business? Then how did you get involved in the Blood Moon Hunt?"
After grinning foolishly for a while, Aigis started to eat meat again. Lachlan, who was chatting and laughing just now, immediately wilted and looked at Jakir with a pout. The old cat held his stomach helplessly and continued to narrate their experience.
Lachlan and his group had obviously underestimated the difficulty of doing business in Skyrim. The Nords had always despised the Khajiit and regarded them and the Argonians as beasts. After the two kingdoms of Elsweyr joined the Aldmeri camp, this discrimination gradually escalated into hostility. In addition, the Khajiit were thieving, dishonest, and keen on reselling contraband, so all the major territories in Skyrim banned them from entering the city.
The family had no influence here, but Lachlan felt that he had no shortage of start-up capital and had two capable men under him, so it was only a matter of time before he could gain a foothold. Therefore, he disdained to join Resard's team and become a wage earner, even though this would quickly give him the sales channels he desperately needed. However, he himself lacked business acumen and had never been able to identify the right target customers. He did business with anyone and took any orders. He even bought a batch of goods and then stole them back.
Because the overall credit of the tiger people was bad, and Lachlan, as a novice, basically stepped on every possible pitfall, he soon got into trouble. There were roughly two types of people willing to do business with him. The first type was the poor people who made a living outside the city. These people didn't have much money, and they bought little, and they kept the prices very low, which was a loss-making business. The other type was the robber gangs. These guys were generous, but eight out of ten times they wanted to rob people of their money and kill them. The remaining two times, they only robbed money and killed people.
Lachlan had tried to be as cautious as possible, but he still got into trouble a few times. Fortunately, he only lost some money and property. In short, they were generally in a state of spending more than they earned. With less and less money, they were getting less and less courageous. Jakir and Matasa were not ambiguous in fighting, but their business skills were not as good as Lachlan's, and they really couldn't offer any useful suggestions. Ajith could do nothing except stealing things, and because she didn't care about the occasion and the person when she stole, Lachlan lost those very valuable customers who could have cooperated with her for a long time.
Seeing that the road was getting narrower and narrower, Lachlan had to seriously consider the possibility of joining others. However, this rich second-generation had his own understanding of dignity. Since he regarded Resard as a future competitor, he would not follow this old cat unless it was absolutely necessary. As for the news that Lachlan's cousin was also in Skyrim, Jakir chose to ignore it when narrating. I can only guess that in their alternative answers, joining Hayou was not an option at all.
Hayou learned from his mother that his cousin and cousin were coming to Skyrim. After he dealt with me and Akari, he wrote back saying that he was now working for the nobles in Falkreath. Perhaps when Hayou's letter was sent back, Lachlan and his family had already set off; or perhaps Hayou's uncle's family did not believe this statement at all, after all, they themselves had a clear understanding of the reputation and status of the tiger people; of course, the most likely reason was that Lachlan's family looked down on Hayou, and he was unwilling to bow to his cousin no matter what.
As the saying goes, when someone dozes off, someone hands them a pillow. Just when everyone was at a loss as to what to do, a tiger person who called herself Slasuna came to the door. This girl from Northern Elsweyr was not strictly a fellow villager of Lachlan, but she was very talkative and soon made everyone feel that they had met too late. Slasuna said that she was traveling in Skyrim, following the footsteps of Hircine and hunting the most powerful beasts. She had heard of the glorious deeds of Lachlan and others and thought they were reliable partners. This time she came to persuade them to join her.
Hunting is the old business of the tiger people. Slasuna's price was not high, but considering that his career had fallen into a trough, Lachlan agreed. So the hunting team began to wander around Skyrim, hunting animals and reselling fur and meat. In theory, the main hunting grounds in Skyrim are the private territories of the major lords, but considering the sensitivity of diplomacy, some areas on the edge of the territory, such as the Bletsyn Mountains or the Blackwater River Basin, will not have too many military patrols, so these places have become a paradise for poachers.
The dozen days of hunting with Slasuna were the most comfortable time for Lahlan and his companions in Skyrim. They did not have to rack their brains to think about the next action plan, nor did they have to worry about the sales of the goods, and they did not have to bite the bullet and deal with those unfriendly Nords. As the captain, Slasuna arranged everything properly. They only had to find the prey, track the prey, kill the prey, and then eat meat and drink in the camp, waiting for the captain to come back and distribute the shiny coins to everyone.
So when Slasuna claimed that he had received Hircine's inspiration to participate in an epic hunting operation, Lachlan and others did not raise any objections. They were used to following other people's orders and did not want to make decisions on their own. In the bloated man's cave, the tigers met two other teams of hunters, led by the orc Yagro Ghatak and the terrible Nord Torkild. Because of the honor and spoils, the three hunting teams decided to fight on their own, but they were hesitant and hoped that the "friendly forces" could explore the prey first. After all, they still didn't know what the target was.
After wasting two days, the grumpy orcs angrily accused Slasuna and Torkild of being insidious cowards, and said that even if they managed to kill the prey, they would not be favored by Hircine. In the end, the three captains decided to join forces, each team sent two people to search for the traces of the prey in the depths of the canyon, and the others stayed on the spot. Torkild chose Hrata, the orc Gatak brought the Red Guard Ariana, and the tiger team sent Slasuna and Lahlan.
"This is not a smart choice. You don't even know who your opponent is, and you dare to divide your forces?"
Jakir nodded, acknowledging what I said.
"We have more people left behind, including a mage. We should be a stronger team, but who could have thought that the werewolf would attack us first?"
Skuna must have noticed these uninvited guests long ago. He had been lurking nearby until the hunters split up and launched a surprise attack. These hunters had no intention of really cooperating at all. When faced with a strong enemy in a hurry, they immediately scattered. The wizard, who lost his cover, couldn't even make a small fireball before he was bitten on the neck by the werewolf. Matassa and Jakir fought hard to buy Aigis a chance to escape.
The werewolves chased the other hunters along the canyon and finally cornered them. This guy Schooner was really cunning and bold. Facing three hunting teams, he actually chose to fight alone, leaving the wolf pack as a backup. This move almost trapped our fourth team. After all, he is an officer from the Imperial Legion, and his ability to control the battlefield situation is much better than ours.
"Lahlan, this lord is a knight from Falkreath. I am his personal guard now. Your captain is dead anyway. Do you want to join me?"
Hayu blinked and introduced me to Lachlan.
"Humph! Personal guard! I asked you to protect the master, what were you doing?"
Lydia had been holding a grudge against Hayu for leaving his post and putting me in danger, and she immediately mocked him.
Lachlan lowered his head and said nothing. Agis could no longer eat any more meat and was playing with the fire with a small stick. Seeing that his two masters were silent, Jakir also pretended to be dumb.
"Your Excellency saved our lives, and we are willing to follow you."
Herata and Ariana discussed in a low voice and quickly made a decision. I nodded to the two and sneered at Hayou.
"Hayou, don't you think you should ask me, your employer, for my opinion first?"
"Uh... Lachlan and the others are very powerful..."
Hayou scratched his head awkwardly and wanted to advertise for his cousin, but I raised my hand to interrupt him.
"That's enough! You treat them as your relatives, but don't you consider whether they are willing to acknowledge you as your relative? If it weren't for you, which of the three would have survived? But we have been sitting here for most of the day, and have they ever said a word of thanks? How could they so easily pass over the life-saving grace? You dare to use such a person. Do I think my life is too long?"
Lachlan raised his head and opened his mouth, as if he wanted to refute, but he couldn't say anything. Of course, I wouldn't give him the chance to say anything.
"Eric, today's incident involves the secrets of the Companions. In your opinion, should we silence them?"
Eric glanced at the four cats and slowly stood up.
"Of course it's safer to silence him."