Bai Shi agreed to Blaidd's request.
He, too, was very interested in the Bloodhound Knights.
Bloodhound Knights were knights who had undergone special training, renowned for their relentless, tracking-based combat style.
It was said that once a Bloodhound Knight chose a master, they would never betray them.
But was that really the case?
If Bloodhound Knights truly never betrayed their masters, then what was the deal with Darriwil, the one Blaidd was hunting?
If he had not committed an act of betrayal, then Ranni should have stopped Blaidd.
Weakening their own forces through pointless internal conflict was an extremely foolish thing to do, and Ranni would not stand by and let it happen.
But if Darriwil had indeed betrayed Ranni, why was he locked away in an evergaol, evading Blaidd's pursuit?
Having already been to two evergaols, Bai Shi could say he had some authority on the matter.Based on his understanding of evergaols, it was basically impossible to lock oneself inside.
And in the game's storyline, there was exactly one NPC who had been locked in an evergaol by someone else: Blaidd the Half-Wolf.
Late in Ranni's questline, Blaidd was locked in an evergaol by Smithing Master Iji to prevent him from harming Ranni when he was about to be driven mad by the Two Fingers' control.
And coincidentally, the evergaol Blaidd was locked in was the very same one that had once imprisoned Darriwil.
Bai Shi refused to believe there was no connection between these events.
He suspected that Iji had imprisoned both of them in the evergaol, one after the other.
But why Iji had done so was still unclear.
It wasn't even certain if it was Iji's doing; this was just a guess.
Bai Shi wanted to check on Darriwil's situation first before deciding whether to tell Blaidd his location.
If he could learn something from him, that would be for the best.
Bai Shi and Blaidd walked out of the dense forest one after the other, only to see an unexpected fellow outside.
He wore a bright red coat with a white scarf, orange-yellow pants, and a large red fleece hat adorned with a few peculiar feathers. Seated on a skinny donkey, he looked just like Santa Claus from his previous life.
It was Kalé, whom he hadn't seen in a long time.
"Kalé!"
Bai Shi called out to Kalé, who seemed to be searching for something.
Kalé turned and was shocked to see Blaidd and Bai Shi emerge from the forest.
"Bai Shi?"
Kalé rode his little donkey over and looked Bai Shi up and down.
"I heard you became the lord of Stormveil. Truly surprising."
"Also, uh, your clothes are quite... peculiar..."
Bai Shi chuckled.
"Haha, I just had a bit of a workout and haven't had time to change."
Kalé nodded, then looked at Blaidd.
"Blaidd, where did you run off to? Did you get lost again?"
Blaidd silently turned his head away, gazing up at the massive moon hanging in the sky.
Bai Shi looked at Blaidd with interest.
"Do you get lost often?"
"Of course not," Blaidd immediately retorted.
But Kalé mercilessly exposed him.
"This guy gets lost all the time, but he's very reliable in other aspects. We've known each other for a long time."
"Blaidd wanted to find you. He heard that I knew you and hoped I could make the introduction. But then he suddenly ran off on his own halfway here."
"And I heard that you opened Stormveil to all races, so I thought I might as well see if I could do some business."
"Since you two have already met, it seems there's no need for me to lead the way and introduce you."
Hearing Kalé's words, Bai Shi understood.
It seemed his publicity was working, and many people were being drawn to Stormveil.
"Ahem, I had my reasons for leaving ahead of time. But in any case, I've found Sir Bai Shi and achieved the purpose of this trip."
"Well then, you two can talk. I'll take my leave now."
It seemed Blaidd had been exposed and was feeling a bit embarrassed, so he turned and walked back into the woods.
It had to be said, there was a surprisingly cute contrast to his personality.
---
Bai Shi chatted briefly with Kalé, telling him to mention his name upon arriving at the castle.
Someone would be there to receive him.
During the earlier battle with the Night's Cavalry, Bai Shi had already sent the ancient king's spirit to fly back to the city with a message.
The Stormhawks and the Storm Knights were ancient allies and had a method of communicating using the wind.
It was just like how Edgar had interpreted the ancient king's message before.
Manpower from Stormveil was quickly dispatched from the city.
Evan the perfumer, accompanied by two Storm Knights and a squad of Storm Soldiers, arrived at the scene of the Night's Cavalry's slaughter.
Stormveil had some ordinary healers, but their skills were hardly commendable.
So Bai Shi had brought Evan the perfumer over from Castle Morne early on.
He and the Leonine Misbegotten Singhe had been used, leading to the tragedy at Castle Morne.
Although he had been trying his best to atone, he was certainly not welcome in Castle Morne.
And since there were basically no more battles at Castle Morne, there was no need for him there either.
Bai Shi had him come to Stormveil to train the healers, improve their professional skills, and see if he could cultivate a batch of perfumers.
There were still very few Tarnished who could see the guidance of grace. Without grace to restore them, healing methods were essential.
Not to mention the many other types of soldiers in Stormveil who weren't Tarnished.
As handfuls of healing incense were sprinkled, the heavily injured Tarnished and Kaidan sellswords who weren't quite dead yet managed to cling to life.
Those with especially severe injuries needed to be treated on the spot, while those with missing limbs were carried back to Stormveil by newly arrived Kaidan sellswords.
As for those who could still move on their own, they followed the sellswords back to Stormveil, where someone would arrange for them.
The remaining corpses would have to be buried or cremated tomorrow.
The Storm Soldiers held up their torches, illuminating the area to facilitate the rescue.
Hakan was still in charge of command on-site, and everything proceeded in an orderly manner.
Bai Shi sat on the side of the main road, feeling a bit helpless.
Such a large group of Tarnished, yet they were targeted by the Night's Cavalry on the road.
And some of the recently recruited Kaidan sellswords were caught up in it as well.
His heart ached.
Was this the reality of this world? As he made his moves, Morgott also made corresponding actions.
The number of Night's Cavalry was surely not so great that ten of them could be stationed everywhere.
It must be because Limgrave had the most Tarnished that the majority of the Night's Cavalry were sent here.
Thinking about it now, a large number of troops were probably already stationed by the grand lift on the Altus Plateau, waiting for Bai Shi to ascend.
Perhaps he should take the other, smaller path later to scout the situation on the Altus Plateau first.
After Hakan issued his on-site commands, he slumped down next to Bai Shi in exhaustion.
"Thank you, and... I'm sorry..."
Bai Shi patted his shoulder.
"It's not your fault. In fact, it's a good thing you arrived in time. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a single survivor now."
It couldn't be helped. Pitting them against the Night's Cavalry was indeed asking too much. Hakan and his men had even managed to kill one of the Night's Cavalry, which was already very impressive.
But Hakan didn't see it that way.
"So many people died because I wasn't strong enough..."
"If I were strong enough, they wouldn't have died."
"I want to become stronger, Bai Shi."
For a moment, Bai Shi didn't know what to say.
He considered Hakan a friend, not a subordinate. Making him the leader of the Kaidan sellswords was just to give him something to do.
Bai Shi had no need for them to fight on the battlefield. Compared to being strong, staying alive was more important.
Besides the Tarnished who could strengthen themselves with Runes, how much stronger could these non-demigod natives become through training?
The level of a Tree Sentinel or a Night's Cavalry was pretty much their limit.
But if Hakan wanted to become stronger, he had no reason to stop him.
Hakan was a warrior, after all.
It would be too selfish to stop him from treading his own path forward based on his own ideas.
However, becoming stronger was very difficult, and Bai Shi didn't know how to help him.
Being blinded by the pursuit of power could easily lead one down a crooked path, like Godrick.
And what methods did the natives have to increase their power beyond their limits? There were actually a few.
Grafting, Dragon Communion, the Frenzied Flame, the God-Devouring Serpent...
But in the end, they all led to self-destruction.
Hakan looked at Bai Shi with a pleading gaze.
His initial companions, his newly gathered subordinates.
Twice now, his comrades had died before his eyes, yet each time he had been lucky enough to survive.
"Bai Shi, how did you become so strong?"
Bai Shi fell silent.
Melina, Ranni, and all the people he had met since arriving in the Lands Between—their faces flashed through his mind.
"I have people I want to protect, and reasons I have to fight."
"Perhaps it's these things that have kept pushing me forward, never allowing me to stop, that have supported my journey to become stronger."
Hakan thought back but found that there was nothing and no one behind him to protect.
"Sigh."
---
Bai Shi and the others returned to the camp and rested for a while, also changing into the clothes the Storm Knights had brought.
Once the sky brightened, Bai Shi took Boc and headed to the cave.
Boc sat in front of Bai Shi, describing his memory of the area around the cave.
"I remember the cave is on a beach, and there are some big octopuses next to it."
"There are a lot of small octopuses next to the big ones; they seem to be their children."
"There doesn't seem to be anything else around."
Although Boc's description was abstract and lacked useful information, Bai Shi knew the location of the cave, so he found it easily.
"Yes, yes, this is it!"
"Amazing, how did you do that!"
Bai Shi said with an air of profound mystery:
"Intuition."
Outside the cave, several demi-humans were digging in the sand on the beach, occasionally pulling out small creatures and putting them in their mouths to chew.
Seeing Boc and Bai Shi, the demi-humans all stood up, grabbed their weapons, and began to shriek and brandish them.
Boc went forward and communicated with them in the demi-human language.
Bai Shi couldn't understand, so he just stood aside and watched quietly.
Hearing Boc's words, the demi-humans looked at each other and burst out laughing.
But halfway through their laughter, they saw Bai Shi behind Boc, and their laughter gradually died down.
They huddled together in a circle, chattering amongst themselves for a moment, and finally walked into the cave, turning back to beckon Bai Shi and Boc to follow.
Bai Shi vaguely heard two intentionally suppressed chuckles.
Boc returned to Bai Shi's side and said happily:
"Great! They said they're willing to give my things back and told us to go in with them."
Bai Shi felt that these demi-humans wouldn't hand over the items so easily.
But he still nodded. With him there, nothing would happen anyway.
The two of them followed the demi-humans into the cave.
It was very dark inside. Bai Shi took out a torch he had brought with him, lit it, and illuminated the cave.
Large patches of moss grew on the stone walls, emitting a faint fluorescent glow.
This moss was a raw material for various antidotes. If he could subjugate the demi-humans for a steady supply, it would be a decent resource.
Bai Shi planned to subjugate these demi-humans while he was at it.
Although he didn't know what use they might be, he believed he could find suitable jobs for them in the future.
Besides, this cave led to the island with the Church of Dragon Communion, so it definitely needed to be brought under his jurisdiction.
Dragon Communion was a very alluring, yet dangerous ritual.
The cave was very deep, and it was a labyrinth of passages branching off in all directions, leading to unknown places.
Looking back, there were even more forks. If one were to wander around in here for a bit, they'd definitely—
Aside from the absence of captured women, it really was just like a goblin cave from all sorts of novels.
As Bai Shi and Boc rounded a corner, a large net suddenly came down over them.
"Aah!"
Boc's frightened cry echoed.
Hearing Boc's shout, the demi-humans thought they had succeeded and peeked out from behind the corner, laughing.
But when they saw the shredded net and the unfazed Bai Shi, the smiles froze on their faces.
They let out a strange cry and immediately ran back.
"You scared me! These guys are as fond of bullying people as ever."
Boc clutched his lower back. He had been startled and had bumped into the stone wall behind him.
"You must have been bullied by them a lot before."
"Well, yes. Those guys are about the same age as me. Because my mother and I weren't very social, they always used to prank me."
"So, do you hate them? If you hate them, I can help you get rid of them."
Boc waved his hands frantically.
"No, no, please don't do that. Although they did bully me, from a demi-human perspective, I'm actually the strange one..."
"Please don't be ruthless with them. They are my kin, after all."
Bai Shi looked at Boc, who was pleading for the demi-humans who had just pranked him, and sighed.
Boc truly was a kind-hearted child.
Fine, he would just punish those demi-humans a little later, not kill them.
Soon, a new commotion came from the depths of the cave.
Two massive demi-human chiefs came running over with the smaller ones.
The smaller demi-humans pointed at Bai Shi and Boc and began to screech and jabber.
Boc's face changed, and he grew nervous.
"Sir Bai Shi, they're saying we're invading the cave. Should we run?"
Bai Shi walked forward, grabbed a demi-human chief by the neck with each hand, lifted them up, and then slammed them to the ground.
All the demi-humans were stunned.