Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king

Chapter 223: Hate and Love

Chapter 223: Hate and Love

The worst of winter had swept through quickly this year, with its icy winds and biting frosts seeming to pass in a blink. Now, as March arrived, the last remnants of the cold melted into the air. The days grew longer, sunlight lingering just a bit more each evening. People began to shed their heaviest cloaks, and a tentative energy filled the air, as if the whole world were taking a deep breath, ready to wake from the quiet slumber of winter.

It had been a brutal winter for the coastal villages. The Free Lords, from across the seas wasted no time to relive the best time of their history ,as they had launched relentless raids, sweeping through the settlements with brutal efficiency. Barns were ransacked, filled with the year's hard-earned stores of grain and produce, only to be emptied or set ablaze . For some villages, this meant facing the rest of winter with little to sustain them, and in the harshest cases, nothing at all.

In response, the court had stationed 'The White Company', or as they were called by the various people that saw the mighty of the only southern private army, 'The Black Stripes', along the eastern coast. A name who by the way Alpheo hated.

Now, though the coastline was vast and impossible to fully secure, the presence of these troops shielded key stretches, creating safer zones where villages saw less destruction and where families could sleep with a measure of ease.

Jasmine, seeing the toll taken on her people, ordered grain from the reserves to be distributed to the hardest-hit communities, while buying it from the empire once it proved not to be enough, something they were happy to part with given their heavy need of coins.

Such an act of relief was only possible due to the wealth amassed from thriving trade relations with the Empire and neighboring principalities.