Berserk: The Prophet

"Is the soup almost ready? Lay out his bowl first. Just a little bit of minced meat is enough. Make sure to add as little salt as possible and not too much oil. Give him a separate bowl of wheat porridge later." Green instructed the soldier who was stewing venison in a clay pot. Fortunately, they usually liked to add salt later when cooking.

People who have been hungry for too long cannot eat foods that are high in salt, oil, or protein. Not only will their stomach walls be corroded by gastric juices, but they will also be unable to keep up with the secretion of gastric juices after being hungry for too long. They need to eat small, frequent meals to recover gradually.

"There are too many criminals in these desolate mountains and wildernesses. They are just fulfilling their duty to protect me. Don't take them too seriously."

The man was moved to tears, repeatedly kowtowing and kneeling in gratitude.

Green stood up and said to Jacob, "Jacob, leave a few men to take care of the father and son. After the soldiers finish their afternoon meal, go and check on Blackrock Prison."

“Yes, Your Excellency.” Jacob nodded, preparing to dine with the soldiers.

"What's your name?" Green looked at the slightly older man, the one who had been answering questions earlier.

“My name is Elibert, sir.”

"Oh? What's your relationship with this man?" Green asked.

“This…” Elibert hesitated for a moment, their relationship was rather complicated. “We are brothers, his name is Sumer, and the child’s name is Bren.”

Green nodded without asking any further questions. Seeing that the deer offal soup was ready, he went back to his seat to eat the meat and drink the soup. This red deer, after removing all the miscellaneous parts, had nearly 300 pounds of meat, enough to feed their group for two or three days.

"Don't worry, as long as you help me well, I won't treat you badly. Not only will this child be able to eat his fill, but you will also have a stable diet in the future." Green had the soldiers distribute some deer offal soup to the two of them so that they could replenish their strength with some salt without feeling too full.

Adults don't need to grow, so they are more resistant to hunger than children. Those tree trunks that have lost their bark and been gnawed bare are good examples.

Elibert nodded hurriedly, took the two bowls of soup, his eyes full of gratitude.

Sumer was busy feeding the child soup and didn't have time to drink the soup himself. Libert sat to the side drinking soup to replenish his energy, since he would have to lead the way for Green and the others later. Although he was also concerned about the child's condition, he was not as worried as Sumer.

After Green and the soldiers had eaten and drunk their fill, they stood up. "Let's pack up and get ready to head to Blackrock Prison."

The group quickly sprang into action, organizing the remaining food and supplies in the temporary camp. Carrying only some dry rations, Green led the team, guided by Libert, toward Blackrock Prison.

Along the way, trees that had been recently felled by the Fierce Bear Gang but had not yet been used were scattered everywhere, lying in disarray. The wooden walls still bore the marks of burning, and the dilapidated banners of the Baldian royal family fluttered haphazardly on the watchtowers and city walls.

The thick wooden door had a gap, leading into the prison. The traces of a large group of people who had once lived here were not yet completely covered by the heavy snow. The charcoal used for heating had been roughly processed, and there was a pile of leftover animal bones.

It seems the place is truly deserted; not a single person remains.

"How long have they been gone?" Green looked at the empty Blackrock Prison, a size large enough to hold thousands of people.

“I don’t remember very clearly either, but if we start counting from when they started killing us, it should have been several days ago,” Elibert said, frowning as he recalled.

"Pit-kill? That means almost all of these captured people died in the mine, right?" Green frowned as he looked at the huge opening in the mountain. This must be the largest mine.

Elibert nodded, his expression sorrowful, and said, "Yes, sir."

"...In order to cover up their evil deeds and prevent the news from leaking out, the Fierce Bear Gang called us survivors to eat after a mine collapse. Immediately afterwards, their crossbowmen started shooting arrows at us."

“I was lucky to survive that hail of arrows, which was both unfortunate and fortunate. Bren was so frightened by the landslide that he developed a high fever, and Sumer didn’t come out because he was taking care of the child.”

"...I see."

As Green listened to Elibert's account, his dissatisfaction with the Bear Gang's current actions grew stronger.

He patted Elibert on the shoulder and comforted him, "Don't be too sad. Now that you've survived, live your life well. We also want to find out what exactly the Fierce Bear Gang is doing now."

Elibert nodded; he and Sumer were already grateful they hadn't starved to death.

"It seems the Fierce Bear Gang is even more cunning and cruel than we imagined. Could there be traps they've set hidden in this mine?"

"...We didn't find that. After all, Sumer and I only came out after we were sure they had evacuated. A few of my fellow workers who survived like me went out and never came back. We were the last ones to come out."

Hearing Elibert's words, Green felt somewhat relieved, but he still dared not be careless. "Even so, we still need to be careful. Elibert, you lead the way, let's go and see what's going on inside the mine."

Elibert nodded and led Green and the others into the mine.

Green and his companions cautiously entered the mine. The environment inside was darker and damper than they had imagined, filled with a pungent odor of decay and blood that was nauseating.

The torches on the walls had long since gone out, and they could only rely on the torches in their own hands for light. The faint light flickered in the darkness, as if it would be swallowed up by darkness at any moment.

Although all the lighting equipment inside was turned off, the campfires along the mine road could be used for illumination simply by refueling them.

After walking for a while, the mine suddenly opened up into a space resembling a hall, with some simple tools and several old boxes placed around it.

Green gestured for everyone to spread out and search, hoping to find some useful clues.

A soldier opened one of the boxes and found it filled with fragments of gold and silver ore. "Sir, there is ore here."

Green walked over to take a look, picked up a piece of ore and examined it carefully. The quality of these ores looked good, mostly gold with silver as a byproduct, and could be refined to yield a considerable amount of gold and silver. No wonder the Fierce Bear Gang spared no expense.

"Sir, there are more over here!" Another soldier found several more boxes in the corner, also filled with ore.

Green pondered that the Fierce Bear Gang must have taken most of the ore with them when they left, perhaps gold and silver that had been deliberately refined. But was leaving these behind intentional, or did they simply not have time to take them with them?

"Is this where they've been hiding in the mine?"

“Yes, further ahead is the bottom of the mine, and I don’t think there are any living people inside,” Elibert said.

After all, when they came out of the mine, the old, weak, sick and disabled people inside were either too badly injured or on the verge of starvation.

He witnessed a seventy-year-old man, missing both legs, his face contorted with hunger, gnawing at his companion's corpse with the few teeth that hadn't fallen out of his mouth.

...That memory was too unbearable to recall. Just thinking about it and smelling the stench of rotting corpses made Elibert almost desperately suppress the urge to vomit.

Looking at Libert's pained expression, Green felt a pang of pity. It seemed that something unbearable had happened.

The stench of the rotting corpse reminded Green of his disgusting memories in Grant; the stench was probably even worse down in the mine, and the warm caverns were likely infested with insects.

"Let's go, that's enough for now. Let's move these ores out first." Green handed the task over to the soldiers behind him and went out first. He wanted to see if Blackrock Prison had any value as a potential territory.

After the soldiers assigned their tasks, they began to move the heavy boxes in an orderly manner.

By the time the soldiers had brought out the twenty full crates of gold and silver ore, Green had seen enough. The accommodations here had clearly been renovated, but part of them had been burned down to make it seem as if no large-scale troops had ever been there.

The city defenses just need a renovation; I reckon most of the people involved in the initial riot were busy escaping.

"Sir, the ore has all been moved out," a soldier reported.

Green nodded, quite satisfied with the pile of ore, only lacking an alchemist to refine it.