Suspicious Floridaman

The ruins of Duke Hera's fief

Redwater Strongholds

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Ashes...

Everywhere.

The ground was scorched, the stone buildings blackened with smog and on the verge of dilapidation.

Duke Hera's castle was burnt to the extent that even a large part of its walls had begun to show signs of collapse.

And while the knights and their squires had already cleared the bodies and tried to cover up all the signs of the battle there was still the lingering smell of blood and burnt flesh in the air and quite a few suspicious-looking brown stains scattered haphazardly all over the place...

"Really..." Levi muttered blankly staring at the dilapidated castle.

"The plan wasn't meant to turn out like this."

He had thought that only the duke's castle would be burnt down and at worse a few surrounding noble residences

But failing to take into account the dry vegetation that came with the autumn, his first attempt at arson was an overkill as the flames quickly spread out of control.

Thankfully though the walls built around Redwater to defend the stronghold contained the flames, preventing it from escalating into a full-blown wildfire with the potential of inflicting real damage.

All the homes within the walls were burnt down, unrecognizable and about a hundred commoners excluding the knightage listed under the Heras died in the fire...

At that thought, Levi suddenly felt nauseous. A heavy sense of grieve filled his heart, weighing him down.

Somewhere in the depths of his soul, a nagging feeling pestered him.

Out of the blue, he had a thought.

'What if I had made different choices? Maybe things might have not ended with so many lives being lost...'

At that thought, his footsteps halted and a slight sneer crept on his face.

"It's you again, isn't it? you little imp!" He muttered derisively.

"What was that young lord?" Robert who was walking two steps behind asked hearing Levi's voice.

"It's nothing."

Smiling resignedly he asked himself.

"What is it you want now you little twerp?"

Even though James has total control over his new body, Levi, the real Levi was still somewhere in there subtly influencing his thoughts and emotions, hence sometimes his decisions.

It appeared that transmigration was not how he envisioned it to be.

A few days from his transmigration he discovered this phenomenon. For reasons unknown to him James suddenly became aware of the original Levi's presence.

His soul or appropriately named Will was apparently left behind preceding James transmigration and assimilation with the body.

The young nobles memories, likes, dislikes, pains, and pleasures all became James's.

But he also inherited alongside these the original Levi's ideals and values which manifests as some sort of subconscious.

In essence, He was no longer Levi,

Nor was he James but a weird fusion of their personas that are dependent on one another to exist but are still somewhat parallel to one another.

'You hate me?' James asked.

'Then hate me. No one cares.'

'Guilt? Of course not why would I feel guilty about the death of some random folks I never cared about in the first place.'

'Ok! Fine! I agree that a lot of innocents were hurt by the fire, but you also have to acknowledge the fact that it was an accident.'

'Besides people die every damnable hour of the day, and of various reasons to boot.'

'And as for the folks who died in the fire, well it's their unfortunate luck they died. It wasn't like I had any better ideas.' James muttered under his breath, blandly replying to the voice throwing a tantrum in his head.

'Even if I knew this would happen, I would have definitely still chosen to do this.'

'It was either me or them,'

'And I would definitely choose them!'

'Under any and all circumstances!' At these words, the voice went silent giving James a moment of reprieve.

Sighing, he unclenched his pale knuckles.

Quietly looking around the burnt ruins with smoke rising from some still smouldering scrap, the transmigrator thought to himself.

'Was there really a better alternative?'

But then he shook his head again derisively at the thought.

Unlike the naive, immature teen hiding in the crevice of his mind, James before his transmigration was a well-informed adult.

Despite spending the remaining last few months of his life on earth painfully degrading away he still retained a vivid memory of how the world truly worked.

Since time immemorial conflicts have usually being accompanied by death. Only occasionally would there be rare cases where conflict was resolved without loss of life.

But such cases were definitely rare. Usually, in fact, the ones who suffered more from major conflicts were usually the innocent.

Take for example, during WW1 nine point seven million soldiers were killed while over ten million civilians died due to the crossfire with about twenty million more injured.

WW2 was an even more staggering affair, with over twenty million military personnel killed and over forty million civilians murdered, it was truly one of the greatest calamities in human history.

And while both cases were extreme examples, they vividly showed that civilian loss during an armed conflict was usually unavoidable.

James felt that if anyone is to be blamed for their deaths the Heras were most suitable to carry that cross. They pushed him to a corner, forcing him to make such radical decisions without considering too much about the aftereffects.

"The best I can do for the deceased is to provide relief for the families they might have left behind." He said that further placating his restless mind.

With his mind cleared of unnecessary thoughts, the turned his attention back to the treasure trove laying in front of him.

With almost every structure within the walls burnt to the ground, there was not much to be recovered from the wreckage. Cognisant of that Levi turned his attention outside the walls.

Beyond the four-meter tall bastioned fortification were strips of fertile farmlands. Although the farms had long been harvested and the harvest within the walls burnt into coal, the farmlands themselves were still fertile and had even being seeded with next autumn's harvest.

Asides from the farm, Redwater also owned a small harbour along the Strega river that managed all trades in this region including Greenfield's ore trades with the rest of the kingdom.

While the residential areas suffered extensively from the fire the harbour and farmlands remained in perfect condition.

"Robert, how many people remained after the fire? " Levi turned around to face the butler escorting him through the ruins.

"Seven hundred and twenty-one, Young master."

"Mostly women, children, and old people who couldn't travel far and decided to return when the fire died down remain." He replied.

Expecting less he was surprised.

Remembering clearly he knew Redwater had a populace numbering around slightly over a thousand if the knightage was not included.

And he also knew that only about a hundred people among the commoners died during the fire and stampede since most of them fled at the first notice of the battle.

So only slightly over a third of the total population actually left Redwater.

But despite this potentially elating news Levi showed no happiness on his face.

He knew he couldn't stay here to actually be able to make good use of these resources.

He had long planned on fleeing this place after looting enough wealth to start anew, probably as a merchant in a relatively stable kingdom elsewhere.

From the castle ruins and what remained of the noble residences, he had managed to scrape up a sizeable amount of wealth to facilitate his plans.

While the flames had destroyed almost everything, some valuables managed to slip away relatively undamaged. Items such as valuable furs, tapestry, glassware, clothing, and furniture. that could have fetched a lot of money were all destroyed.

Only things like Gold Trites issued jointly by the Chamber of commerce and royal families of the seven kingdoms, gems, and other non-perishables survived the flames. At the end of it, all about two thousand Gold Royals worth of goods were scavenged from the wreckage.

While it might not be a lot compared to the previous wealth held by the Von Greifenbergs, it was very much welcomed by Levi into his empty coffers.

As they stood there surveying everything and taking stocks they heard a fluttering sound overhead.

looking up, Levi saw a carrier pigeon searching for a perch. Instinctively he stretched out his hands and received the fluffy animal in his open palms.

The bird was grey, like rock grey with dark rims decorating its wings. On it's back was a leather strap containing a thin scroll presumably made from a rabbit's pelt with a few words written in elegant handwriting written on it.

It read:

[Dear Gilbert, I am writing so soon to inform you that my return from the capital may be delayed until next spring.

The prince of Hertalese presumably had a sudden issue to attend to so the allocation of rewards would be delayed until winter.

Take care of yourself and your mother as I would be returning greater than I left.

Stay foxy and much love...

Josh Hera. ]

'Stay foxy...?'

'How weird.'

'Sounded like one of my favourite metuber's catchphrase, Graystillplays from back on the earth.'

'Hmm...'

Preoccupied harbouring suspicions questioning the Floridaman's true origins, he subconsciously passed the letter to Robert

Walking a few steps forward, a thought finally clicked in.

Backtracking, he snatched the scroll back and read through it one more time...

And another time just to be sure.

Then suddenly.

Tears brimmed his eyelids as he muttered looking upwards, towards the sky in search of an illusionary voluptuous figure.

"Lady Luck..." He croaked.

"Is that you?"

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A.N.: This chapter is dedicated to Gray...