Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

The autumn of 1460, like a veil, slowly enveloped the outskirts of the border city in the eastern part of Brun Province in the Holy Kingdom of Helderland.

The bleak autumn wind blew the fallen leaves around in the empty streets, making a rustling sound.

A group of Helderland soldiers were wielding shovels, busy digging trenches in the land east of the city.

Their foreheads were covered with fine beads of sweat, but their hands never stopped working. With their efforts, the trench gradually became deeper and wider.

On the west side of the trench, another group of soldiers were struggling to drag the chevaux de frise and place them one by one along the trench.

A young soldier stopped what he was doing, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and asked the person next to him in confusion:

"What on earth are we doing here?"

An older soldier glanced at him and said unhappily:

"It's to prevent refugees from Yoda from entering. Yoda has been in turmoil lately, and the war has caused panic among the people. Many Yoda people have crossed the border to seek refuge in our country. Although the army has organized a blockade, there are too many people rushing through the checkpoint. One out of every hundred refugees can get in. We have no other choice."

The captured refugees were definitely not allowed to stay in the country. Many of them were thrown into prisons in border cities and forced to do heavy labor.

They had to get up before dawn every day and carry heavy stones and dig trenches under the scolding of the prison warden.

After autumn and winter, they will be driven back to Yoda.

Inside the prison, a large number of Yoda refugees were trapped in iron fences. Due to years of erosion, the iron fences had become rusty and had mottled traces of rust.

Except for the time they go out to work, they can only stay in the cell.

The cell was filled with a damp smell and the walls were covered with moss, making people feel gloomy and depressing.

However, the prison is relatively "humane" and families fleeing as a group can be assigned to a single cell.

This is a rare treatment for refugees.

Hans, one of the refugees who fled to Helderland, was resting against the wall of his cell.

He was originally a serf, working from sunrise to sunset every day, like a tireless old ox, toiling in the manor owner's land.

However, all his family members died due to famine, leaving him alone.

That’s not all. The war caused by the liquidation in the Yoda Empire was like a raging flood, instantly destroying his already shaky life.

He escaped while the manor was on fire, and then, when the refugees were rushing to the border of Helderland, he shook off the patrol team chasing the refugees and entered the heart of a foreign country.

He had a plan in his mind: after the searching soldiers left, he would go to a sparsely populated village to get some food and eventually settle down there.

Everything that happened afterwards went smoothly according to his plan.

The army that was searching for the refugees left after a week of searching. After escaping from the pursuit, Hans immediately ran westward for three days and three nights. When he was hungry, he sneaked to steal radishes from the farmland and fruits from the trees. At night, he climbed up the trees to sleep.

In this way, he came to a village next to a forest. The village was filled with a peaceful atmosphere, and there were few men. Hans asked the peasant woman here, and the peasant woman sighed and said:

"Most of them are serving as soldiers and stationed in other provinces." At the same time, she also told Hans that this was the Forest Province, which was far away from the Brun Province where he entered.

Hans was delighted, as the distance from the border meant that there were no troops here to capture the refugees.

He said he was a refugee from other territories due to war and asked if he could be given a job in this village.

He still remembered the peasant woman glanced at him with a look of scrutiny and doubt, then she pointed him in a direction and said:

"The village office is right over there. Just go there and look for it."

Hans was also extremely excited at this time, and went there happily without thinking about anything.

When he arrived at the village office, he saw two soldiers standing on both sides of the door. They had serious expressions on their faces and the tips of their spears flashed coldly in the sunlight.

At this moment, Hans thought that he should run away, but he found that the soldiers opposite were looking at him. He felt that if he ran away, he would probably be suspected by them, so he plucked up his courage, took a deep breath, and went into the house.

After entering the house, he saw a well-dressed old man putting a pile of papers into a bag. Hans immediately stepped forward and asked anxiously:

"Uncle, I am a refugee from the war. Is there any work for me here? I have been hungry for a whole day."

The old man glanced at Hans, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, and then asked a question that made Hans regret for the rest of his life:

"What's your ID number?"

Just like that, he was taken away by the soldiers for interrogation because he couldn't answer.

Unlike what he had imagined, the interrogation room was very clean and tidy, and there were no torture instruments hanging on the walls as he had imagined.

The torturer sat on the chair, his eyes sharp, staring at Hans like a hungry wolf.

Hans said that he had lost his ID card and had forgotten his number, but the interrogator asked Hans questions like where he was from and who the governor of the local province was, but Hans could not answer any of them.

At the end of the interrogation, the torturer said in order to make him give up:

"Let me tell you, in the early stages of the war, the people in the territory evacuated to the forest province, and now they have all returned to their respective provinces. You are the first person I have seen fleeing from other places recently, and there are rescue workers from the church everywhere, why don't you ask them for help? By the way, please stop speaking in that Yoda accent. I know some Yoda people in Nilan Territory, and their accents are different from yours."

"Wow!"

The sound of the door opening awakened Hans's memories. An officer walked in from outside. He wore a helmet and a breastplate on his upper body and black pants on his lower body. With a serious expression on his face, he shouted at the more than 30 refugees in their cell:

"Everyone, get up! The carriage that's sending you away has arrived. You'll be leaving here soon."

Hans followed the refugees out of the cell, and the sun shone on him again.

Although his body felt the warmth of the sun, his heart was extremely cold because he was about to return to the country that brought him sadness.

It is called a horse-drawn carriage, but in fact it is a wooden cart used to transport goods.

After all the refugees were on the carriages, the outer gate of the prison was opened and the convoy slowly drove away from the prison.

As soon as we got out of the prison, we saw citizens lining the streets watching the excitement.

The person who was closer was a priest-like man. When Hans' carriage passed by him, he heard the priest say:

"May God bless you, may Saint John bless you..."

At this moment, Hans suddenly saw some citizens throwing things at them. He thought these citizens hated them as illegal immigrants, so he immediately protected his head.

He felt something being thrown at him, and he opened his eyes cautiously. Through the gap in his arms, he saw a pile of bags being thrown into the carriage.

He opened the bag carefully, a burst of hot air rushed to his face, and then he was surprised to find a few steaming loaves of bread inside.

"Safe journey!"

"Be careful on the road!"

"Saint John bless you!"

The words in his ears kept lingering around him, his body trembling slightly. He picked up the bread and took a bite. The sweet taste spread in his mouth and tears flowed uncontrollably from his eyes.

In this cold autumn, the kindness from strangers is like the warm sun in winter, warming Hans's heart that has experienced many vicissitudes of life.

Among the citizens nearby, a newspaper editor saw this and immediately wrote in his notebook:

As St. John said: The suffering in this world may be unavoidable, but the kindness of human nature can always flash a faint light in the darkness and illuminate the way forward.