Lord Ironwood

I immediately froze in my place!

* SMACK *

I take a punch in the ear. 'WHY ALWAYS ATTACK ME WHEN I'M DISTRACTED!?' I settle down and take a fight stand! To my surprise my opponent is one of the brothers of the Haiyu family!

"YOUR BASTARD SLAVE! WE RECEIVE A MESSAGE SAYING YOU REBELED! TRAITOR!" He prepares a punch with his left hand, I can deflect by pure reflex but I lose balance. Seeing the opportunity he gave me a Spartan kick in the chest!

BOOM *

I'm flying about 2 meters until I fall to the ground, some guards of the Haiyu family and the town are approaching the scene of the fight! I immediately try to get up and run! But I take another kick in the face! I feel an immense pain, I think my jaw cracked! The ferrous taste of blood and the double vision makes me unable to fight for the moment!

"HEY! FOREIGNER! WHY ARE YOU HURTING AN IRONWOOD VILLAGER?"

The city guards wear leather clothes, have a dagger and a wooden spear which metal tip, are somewhat better equipped than Haiyu guards, who have only normal wooden spear and a clothing of vegetal fibers.

Situ Haiyu, my aggressor, looks at me a little surprised that I'm still conscious, but his attention shifts to the guards. He speaks as releases his entire aura of Cultivator's (not strong enough to suppress anything bigger than a mouse, but still it's scary for villagers and guards)

"I am an Elder from Haiyu village, this is a slave who escaped from the village, do not interfere with our problems"

The guards are all shocked! they do not know what to do! but a voice is heard and they all relax

"Elder Haiyu, you are in Ironwood territory, even though he is a fugitive slave, he belongs to us now!" The voice is of a young man in well-kept blue clothes!

"Your ... Do you want to get in trouble for a slave?" his eyes are red with hate

"Of course not Elder, in this world everything is negotiable! Come to my mansion, today you will be my guest!" the young man has a friendly attitude to Situ Haiyu. "Of course, for the time being, the slave will stay in the dungeon under our care!" he nodded at me, the guards of the town immediately attacked me multiple times with punches and kicks. Then they lifted me up by the arms. At this moment I hear screams!

"HEY! STOP THAT! Young Master, he is a good person! He works with us cutting trees!"

"He's working for the city! He's not a slave!" The lumberjacks yell in my favor, the loudest voices are from my two friends.

"SHUT UP! Do not confuse who owns this city, your ungrateful ones, we strive to give a good and safe life to you and now this is how you return? with voices of dissatisfaction and rebellion?" he looks at the assistant mayor, who appeared on the scene. "No woodcutter will receive the salary for a month, if they dare to have other rebellious thoughts throw them in the dungeon too!" the assistant shyly shakes his head and speaks in a attempt to calm the situation "Friends, you have heard what the situation is, go back to your houses, do not go to the tavern tonight, reflect on the good life that the lords provide for us!" he begins to appease the situation while I'm carried to the mansion, my cure is still working but I do not stop feeling pain! after hearing all the conversations I do not stop feeling the friendships of the woodcutters! but I finally lose to the pain and faint!

-------- Pov Situ Haiyu ------

After that trash is taken to the Ironwood family dungeons, I have no choice but to go to dinner at the mansion.

after a few moments,

The wealth of the Ironwood family is truly enviable, they have a mansion twice as big as ours, twice as many guards, inside the house there are several rugs with colorful prints and the candles are of better quality and do not leave that black smoke like our candles.

I continue to admire the mansion and wonder when my family can reach that level! I am guided to a large room with a fireplace, several armchairs, one of them larger and with a red upholstery, in this room there is also a painted picture of a man on top of a horse! It's the first time I see a picture so well done, the only ones that arrive in Haiyu village, are made of charcoal and red earth, but this one has other colors like blue and green! is really admirable!

"This is the Great Elder of the Ironwood family, when that picture was made he was the head of the family! Now he no longer cares for small activities like this and is always cultivating, leaving the situation under my care!" The owner of the voice is a slightly fat man, with a large mustache, he has sharp eyes and thin headbands, although I feels that he is a Cultivator's, he dresses like an archivists, wearing a long gray robe and black shoes!

"Lord Ironwood! If we can solve this little problem quickly it would be ideal, I still have commitments!"

He passes by with an arrogant look, and sits in the big red armchair, he looks at the other armchair and casually says "sit down" that pisses me off! But I still sit with the veins of my forehead almost bursting! I try to speak calmly, but my anger is visible:

"Lord Ironwood, what's the meaning of this meeting? Are not we just trading a slave?"

"Haha, a slave is not enough for me to talk to you, but everything happened in good time! I was about to send a letter to your family's village!" he signals, and the young man who brought me here comes with a tray and tea. it serves us and then it goes away

"What's the matter then?" I do not like this situation, I feel in the den of a tiger, everything is under his control!

"Oh" he enjoys the tea. "The subject is quite simple, it is about the survival of your family! Your brother is dead, several people are already eyeing the village, but since we have been neighbors for so long, I have decided to protect your family under my wing! Which you have the right to refuse, but ... "he has a smirk on his face

What he tells me paralyzes me in shock! Is my brother dead? How would he know that? and who would kill my brother? he is the strongest of us all! I feel anger and then despair!

It's a lie, it has to be! But why would Lord Ironwood lie? When I get back I'll easily find out the truth!

I control my emotions and ask

"In the letter I received I only said that there was a problem in the family and that the slave escaped. How do you know what happened? How is my family now?"

"Everyone in the area knows that you nephew has broken the 2nd ranking, so no one has attacked so far, but he is struggling to make friendships and alliances with neighboring villages, it is not difficult to send someone and find out what happened. Although, you family hid the reason for your brother's death"

"Why you do not want an alliance with us?"

"Don't be silly, I do not need an alliance with your little village, I need to grow in strength and you can join me, the stronger I am, the greater the benefit the Haiyu family will have! What happened to your brother is not going to happen again!"

I can not respond to his invitation, but it's really tempting, without my brother, our village is very fragile and at risk of multiple attacks! And he has a hidden threat in that sentence, he can still ally himself to others to destroy us, against the Ironwood family, we have no chance!

"Are we going to remain independent if we join you?"

"you will be recruited as guards, your possessions continued as yours, but you are not allowed to start another business until you get the confidence of the town! Not only that, as there are certain restrictions, you can not compete with Ironwood family products! there are no other restrictions! "

Not bad terms, the only form of money my family gets is our technique of making special dried fish, we sell to neighboring villages! ironwood family, make wood commodity!

"I'm going to talk to the family, and convince them to join the Ironwood town!" The family always dream of being independent, but it is better be a live servant than a dead chief!

"you're free to go! Do not forget, you better convince them!" he says as take a sip in the damn tea.

I hold my anger and adjust my way of speaking "my lord, about the promised slave ..." he interrupts me

"Just pick him up in the dungeon maybe he'll have information about his brother"

my eyes shine in the moment! perhaps it actually has some relation with the slave, after all, why would the family mention him in the latter??

I bow to the lord and am guided to the dungeons!