CHAPTER 227: CHAPTER 227: BRETT

With the appearance of Siderius, the chaos in Mucktown was quickly subverted.

The bandits were either killed or surrendered. More prisoners and free-workers for his castle.

As for Mucktown itself, Siderius temporarily took the mantle of its leader. He needed this title in order to maintain control of the Rocky Pit.

On his side was Gigi, the commoner girl that led the commoners in the time of panic. She also had some fine traits to become a leader. But there was work to be done before she could finally realize her full potential.

Nadia led the miners and builders to the Rocky Pit to start building houses and a better commune. The builders had gained quite a bit of experience from helping Siderius rebuild the castle so they weren’t exactly clueless. The miners were there to help them do the heavy work as well.

Technically, the houses and structures they were building would eventually belong to Siderius. So he paid them handsomely using Santa Roberto’s finance. He was not going to waste his personal savings.

Everything went well for a couple weeks as Siderius slowly returned the order to Mucktown.

The manor of Germort was also repurposed into a town hall. Instead of using it as a place to stay, the manor now held major events inside the town and hosted important meetings.

The people of Mucktown quickly realized that the new high lord, who was formerly an actor in the circus, was much better at managing the town than Germort. His issued rules also favored the overall state of the town and people, rather than the noble and the merchants in general.

At the time, Mucktown fell into a disconnection to the outside world. Not a lot of merchants would arrive at the town anymore since the town didn’t have much to sell. The only thing it had was the ores from the Rocky Pit.

No merchants wasted their time to arrive at Mucktown for that. They could buy the same things elsewhere, places with more favorable conditions.

Sideriua didn’t worry about the trading of Mucktown at the moment. Once he gained his title, he would establish a connection route to Santa Roberto. Then the castle would focus all the goods and deliver them to Scalize for sale.

Scalize had a much better market.

Siderius stayed in the office of the Bailiff’s manor, looking over a few paperwork documenting the current status of Mucktown.

"This isn’t that small of a town... Originally it had around three hundred people. Some left. Some became bandits. Some died. Now its population barely reaches two hundred. Around twenty-five households."

A knock echoed on the door.

"Come in!" Siderius said without looking up.

Gigi’s head went inside the door. "There is a group of people that want to see you, my lord!"

"Who are they?"

"They are the dancers of your old circus."

"Oh?" Siderius’ eyebrow raised. He stood up. "Let me have a look at them."

Siderius went outside and saw a group of around thirty women standing in the courtyard. Most were very young. Only some were old.

"It really is you!" A dancer blurted out. "You have returned, Snow!"

"Brett..." Snow said.

Brett was a bit older than Snow. She was currently twenty-two, while Snow was sixteen and a half. Brett had taken care of him many times in the past when River was busy. She was like a big sister to him.

Brett’s lips trembled. She looked at him with hesitation and fear.

"Come here." Siderius said.

"My dear Snow." Brett rushed at Siderius and hugged him tightly.

He didn’t hug her back however, only gently patting her back.

"You must have gone through a lot. We didn’t believe that you killed River but we couldn’t do anything."

Siderius escaped from her arm and smiled. "It’s alright. I understand."

"And Gemma... What she did was wrong. If we knew, we would have stopped her..."

"You don’t think what I did to her was gruesome?" Siderius smirked.

"No one liked that bitch!" A dancer in the back shouted.

"Yeah! She always wanted to take River’s place but couldn’t."

"She must have done it because of jealousy."

"Heartless hag!"

The dancers were on his side. They didn’t even find what he did repulsive. He was pleasantly surprised.

Snow grew up amongst them so he knew that the dancers were mostly good with only some bad apples inside. The bad apples were all killed off already. Amy and Gemma. Probably a few more had connections to them but Siderius didn’t think they deserve punishment as well.

As long as they didn’t have anything to do with River’s death.

"Why are you here, Brett?" Siderius said.

"I’m not going to lie to you, Snow. We need jobs." Brett sighed. "After what happened, we ran away and tried to look for some respectable jobs."

Siderius chuckled. "These nobles wouldn’t want entertainment like you. They want some flesh entertainment or slaves, am I right?"

Brett nodded grimly.

"You can stay in Mucktown. We have a few empty houses here after recent incidents. But you will have to work for your survival. The circus is no more."

Brett grabbed her tiny biceps. "Don’t worry. We will do our best."

"Haha..." Siderius knew better. These dancers were incredibly skillful in performing but had no actual surviving or craftsmen skills.

They would soon become a headache inside Mucktown. Siderius had some ideas on how to arrange them. But first, he needed to prepare for the future. Or more precisely, prepare for the meeting with the Collector of the Royal Treasurer.

Later that day, in the bedroom that once belonged to Germort, Siderius set up a barrier first to separate the room from the outside. Then he spread out the Mother Tears that Germort had accumulated.

Mother Tears. Some called it Tears of the Fountain of Youth. They were products of the Mother Tree and could enhance and develop the Mana Core of a witch. It was the better method to grow stronger, rather than diving into desire like the witches of Siderius’ old world.

He learned this by reading Caterina’s memories a while ago.

Tears allowed Mana Core to expand substantially and even refill Magic if needed. Tears themselves were a form of magic. They weren’t as pure as Dark Aether but weren’t as corrupted as magic either.

Tears stayed in the middle of the scale. However, its nature was evil. The chaos inside it was only sealed when no witches had consumed it yet.

Siderius wouldn’t consume Tears. Although he really wanted to, he wasn’t a witch. He also didn’t want to become a witch.

Maybe one day, he could figure out a seal to extract Malevitus from the Tears like how he did with live witches.

As of now, he would use the magic residing within them to make what he called a Fake Mana Core.