Chapter 326 Calling Your Name

This chapter is an extra one sponsored by Wu Ma Wei Yang, with nine more chapters to follow.

On the first morning of April, Gort's son was born.

On his first day in the world, there was no fanfare. The forest didn't call his name, and even the midwife didn't know what to call him.

Only the elderly servant Gort had hired, after cleaning the infant, placed him by Frya's bedside: "Frya, it's a boy. Master Gort will be pleased when he knows."

"Hmm." A motherly glow flickered on Frya's pale face as she looked at her son, his tiny wrinkled face. "His name is Donald, Donald Mast."

The elderly servant smiled. "Donald, what a lovely name."

"Frya, you need to rest well, and I will help with anything you need," said Mrs. Mossen, the castle's housekeeper, sitting by the bedside.

"Thank you, Mrs. Mossen."

"Mr. Gort is Lord Liszt's advisor, and his son's birth is significant. Unfortunately, Lord Liszt and Mr. Gort have important duties and cannot witness Donald's birth. Lord Liszt has mentioned that Donald Mast will become his squire someday."

"I look forward to that day with great anticipation." A smile appeared on Frya's face as she imagined the scene.

As a secret lover, although she had given birth to a noble's child, she still had no status. Yet, as a mother, she naturally hoped her son would have a bright future—something Gort could not or would not provide, but Lord Liszt could bestow.

One day, her son would live and grow healthily under the sun like everyone else.

She turned and kissed her sleeping son on the forehead, whispering, "My son, I've been calling your name every day since before you were born..."

Outside.

The sun was shining brilliantly, and the weather was gradually getting hotter.

……

"You seem a bit restless, Advisor Gort." Liszt stood at the construction site of the river trap, watching the serfs struggle with their loads of dirt, and asked casually.

"Indeed, Freya's due date is approaching."

"You may return home by noon."

"Thank you for your generosity, Lord!"

"The river trap is almost complete, and there's not much work left for you here. Now, I'm assigning you a new task."

"Please give your orders, Lord. I will complete it with utmost dedication."

"Recently, quite a few free citizens have settled in Flower Town, as you know?"

"A total of one hundred and fifty more people have been registered in the town archives, as per your requirement, Lord." Liszt had requested an identity file for each resident of Flower Town, similar to a household registration.

"Some of them might be curious about Flower Town, so I need you to identify any rats disguised as free citizens." Liszt said seriously. "I need you to find them within three days. If I'm not mistaken, there are three of them. But be careful not to alert them prematurely; just confirm the list first."

Once the rats were caught, the smoke mission would be completed, and Dulmicita might launch an attack.

He hadn't asked Acheronides to enter the water and spread her "scent" to lure Dulmicita, so the likelihood of an attack was unclear. However, considering the appearance of the invisible dragon, the smoke mission had a powerful influence on fate.

If Dulmicita attacked before the river trap was finished, it could spell disaster.

"Rats?" Gort exclaimed, startled. "There are rats in Flower Town? Lord, I need to help!"

"Carl from the patrol team will assist you."

"Yes, with Carl's assistance, I will find all the rats, leaving none!" Gort replied loudly, though he felt a little uneasy in his heart. He hadn't realized that rats had infiltrated Flower Town.

This was a lapse in vigilance.

He also wondered if the rats had discovered any information about Black Horse Island.

Nobles were no strangers to rats. They always lived in the dark, doing the dirty work that nobles didn’t want to do. Ever since Flower Town began to attract foreign merchants for trade, it had been hard to ensure that no rats were mixed in, especially with so many freedmen settling down.

What truly unnerved him was that Liszt knew the exact number of rats. It was clear that everything in Flower Town was under his control.

Gort felt that he had probably been a bit lax recently. He worried that he might have left a bad impression on Liszt.

He needed to make amends, Gort thought to himself, "I must be more vigilant in dealing with the rat situation!"

The pupil he once taught was just a timid boy, easy to deceive with a few words. However, after coming to Flower Town, the boy had changed dramatically. Gort could genuinely sense the fear a subordinate felt toward a superior. This young lord seemed to enjoy life and delegate authority, but he had a strong desire for control.

He had no doubt that Liszt would rise to even greater heights, perhaps even rivaling an Earl.

The glory of knighthood seemed to favor him more than anyone else.

And.

Looking at the busy construction site, Gort had initially thought that hunting an intermediate sea monster was an unwise choice, thinking Liszt had been overconfident from his string of successes.

Now, he was starting to believe that Liszt really had a plan to hunt the intermediate sea monster.

"If the hunt is successful, Coral Island might no longer be able to hold him back," Gort thought, looking at Liszt's tall figure, letting his mind wander, "But is an intermediate sea monster really that easy to kill?"

As he watched the traps being dug and set up, Gort felt both worry and hope.

……

By now, the river had been widened to accommodate more water flow, though it was still just a small river with water only deep enough to reach the knees.

About a kilometer away from the sea, the river had been dammed.

The surrounding area was naturally higher ground, and it had been piled even higher with the soil dug from the river. Around the slopes were large and small rock spikes, forming a vast stone forest that enclosed the entire river segment. These were Hiddleston's hard work over a few days.

This would become the slaughterhouse for hunting Dodomichita.

Marcus was leading the Earth Knights on patrol, familiarizing themselves with the terrain.

Behind them, a group of squires followed, each carrying several quivers of arrows, the arrows inside coated with wasp venom, a highly toxic substance.

Marcus also had quivers on his back. His arrows were of two types, one unpoisoned and the other poisoned.

These were his precious falcon-feathered arrows, made from the feathers of wind-riding falcons, originally crafted for Liszt but then given back to him.

The poison on his arrows was not ordinary venom but a Soul Disruption Potion. It wasn’t exactly poison coating; the Soul Disruption Potion was encased in pine resin on the arrowhead, designed to break upon the arrowhead's sharp impact, thus injecting the Soul Disruption Potion into Dodomichita.

As long as Dodomichita's magic could be disrupted, even a powerful intermediate monster would just be a tough piece of meat on the chopping block.

Now, everything was in place!