Chapter 432 — The Noble Virtue

Viscount Kangsike gritted his teeth and spoke: "We can dig more traps out on the plains ahead of time, send druids into the hills to scatter poison, and besides—we can throw the carcasses of diseased livestock into the Whitewater River, or even have the druids spread plague through the water itself. We've already filled in and buried all the wells on the plains in advance; if the Cecils want water, they'll have to rely on the Whitewater River. However formidable their weapons, men still fall ill…"

"Say no more," Sir Maqi suddenly cut him off in a loud voice before Kangsike had finished. "Viscount, where did these… insidious notions of yours come from? If we did such things, what shred of noble spirit would be left to us!"

"Sir, these schemes may be insidious, but they are truly effective," Viscount Kangsike argued. "The Cecils care nothing for virtue or rules, and their lord is the foremost among those who trample noble propriety. There is no need whatever for us to observe any noble spirit with them…"

Sir Maqi looked at Viscount Kangsike with astonishment, as though seeing the man for the first time. He had not expected such downright insidious schemes to come from the mouth of a noble—yet in his heart he acknowledged that Viscount Kangsike's schemes would indeed be effective. Still, after some deliberation, he could not refrain from saying: "Do you realize that the Cecils' army is not the only thing downstream on the Whitewater River? The river flows on, and countless people depend upon it for their livelihood."

"What have the lives and deaths of those common folk to do with us? While we lay sleepless and sick with worry out on the wasteland, those commoners had likely long forgotten their lord and were busy welcoming their new Cecil masters!" Viscount Kangsike spoke with some agitation, as though the pressure accumulated over all these days had finally burst out of him. "Sir, I know what worries you—the Whitewater River flows south, and over by the hills lies a portion of your own domain. But don't forget, further down still are my manor and castle! What we must do now is make a glorious sacrifice—commoners are like wheat: cut this crop down, and next year it grows again. But if we die, who will remain to keep order in that land to the south?"

Viscount Kangsike waved his arms about, and by the end there was even a note of fervent eloquence in his words. What left Sir Maqi most dumbfounded was that the Southern nobles present responded one after another—nodding in agreement with Viscount Kangsike's proposals, all because of a single phrase in his speech, "a glorious sacrifice." A scheme that utterly violated noble spirit had somehow become a lofty plan.

But just then, Viscountess Luopeni suddenly spoke, her voice cold and clear: "Gentlemen, I fear you are taking things too simply."

At this moment, Luopeni Gelan carried considerable authority among the Southern nobles. The moment she opened her mouth, the nobles who had just been stirred up fell quiet one and all, and even Sir Maqi put on the air of an onlooker enjoying the show, waiting for what Luopeni would say next.

"I fear you have forgotten what the Cecils built their fortune upon."

Luopeni Gelan tossed out this one cold sentence, and more than half of those present quickly took on a thoughtful look.

"Alchemical potions—they have so many alchemical potions they could practically drink them as water. Is a disease-curing compound such a precious thing?" Luopeni Gelan swept her gaze around the room. "Even if you used druidic magic to turn the entire Whitewater River into poison, the Cecils likely wouldn't even care—you would only be wasting a great deal of effort for nothing!"

The Southern nobles exchanged glances, Viscount Kangsike was struck dumb, and Sir Maqi spoke up in timely fashion: "Indeed so, Viscount Kangsike. That is no good idea of yours."

Then he continued: "But we do indeed need to make a response, while the Cecils have not yet gained a firm foothold…"