59: Chapter 50: Deer Head Banner 59: Chapter 50: Deer Head Banner The large pot erected at the front door was steaming, and the rich aroma of meat wafted out, making everyone’s mouth water.

Carrots, scallions, and several types of vegetables that Leon had never seen before were added to the extremely luxurious horse meat.

Since these valuable riding beasts had already died, the surviving people naturally had to make full use of their bodies.

Olivia, with a few women, rolled up their sleeves and used a large ladle to scoop up the stewed meat and vegetable soup from the pot, distributing it bowl by bowl to the hungry people.

Watching the golden-haired girl, her little face covered in sweat from the heat, Leon could not lend a hand and could only help her deliver lunch to the other injured.

There were a total of fourteen warhorses killed by the griffin, now piled up in the courtyard of a nearby cottage, waiting for people to handle the division and preservation process.

Leon had roughly estimated that there might be about five tons of meat once deboned.

If all of it were cured and smoked for storage, it could feed thirty or forty people with meat for every meal, lasting for half a year without interruption.

However, processing these horse meats was also a pretty big task, and definitely couldn’t be finished in a short while; people had to hurry to continue work in the afternoon.

Seeing that the busy work was nearly done, Leon brought a generous portion of horse meat meal to Lokhak, who was guarding the prisoners, and finally, with two portions, went to Azeryan’s room to eat and chat.

Leon didn’t know whether he had become accustomed to the cuisine of this world or whether Olivia and the village women’s cooking skills were good, but the taste of the stewed horse meat was much better than he imagined.

Of course, although the taste was no problem, every time Leon thought about the value of the warhorses in the bowl, he felt as if each bite was not meat but gold.

Chewing on the bread that tasted like steamed buns and finishing the meat soup in the clay bowl, just as Leon was about to take a short rest, he heard a commotion outside the house, and faintly, the screams of women who were startled.

Enemies?!

Leon hurriedly got up, put down the clay bowl, and quickly went out the room with his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Upon exiting, he was met with Olivia running towards him with a strange expression on her face.

The girl’s eyes were eager but devoid of fright.

“Leon!

Come quickly outside, I need your help!”

“What happened?

Are there escapees from the Kantadar people?” Leon asked, puzzled.

“No, it’s that big…

big…

er, griffin?

That big griffin has flown back!”

Leon was somewhat surprised by the news.

“It came back?”

Olivia dragged him and ran towards the cottages.

“The griffin just landed in the yard where the horse corpses are stored.

The aunts and sisters who were salting the meat there were terrified by it.

Please come with me to see.”

The two worked their way around to the cottage’s backyard where the horse corpses were piled.

Before they even got in, they could see the griffin’s upper body, with wings folded, over the low wall.

It truly was that big fella.

But the griffin was bowing its head, its beak not visible, and the courtyard echoed with the crunching noise of flesh being torn.

“No one is hurt, right?” Leon asked, concerned.

“No, everyone was scared and ran out just now,” Olivia replied.

When they rushed into the yard and confirmed that it indeed was his old friend, Leon breathed a sigh of relief.

The griffin was crouched on top of a horse carcass, tearing into the meat and feasting heartily.

“Although I said we might meet again if fate allows, big fella, you’ve come back too soon.”

Watching the griffin eating hungrily, Leon didn’t dare to approach directly but clapped his hands from a distance, trying to attract the griffin’s attention.

Even if the other party was friendly again, who knew if the griffin was protective over its meal.

Household cats and dogs, some have to be trained to not bare their teeth at the owner, much less a large wild predator.

The other party was a friend, not his pet.

But soon, Leon realized he was overthinking.

Hearing the sound of his friend, the griffin elegantly raised its head and swallowed a large chunk of horse flesh from its mouth, then tossed aside the food in front of it and came to Leon with a thunderous step.

Watching the towering beast sprint close in just a few steps, even Olivia instinctively felt her back go hairy and stepped back a few paces.

For those unfamiliar, such a huge wild beast, even without any malicious intent, its mere movement still had a terrifying deterrent effect.

The griffin bent its eagle head down, opened its bloody beak, and began to make short calls.

Its eagle eyes blinked, and while emitting cries, it also slightly opened its massive wings and flapped them.

“What’s wrong?” Leon, puzzled, watched the big fellow’s actions.

He could vaguely feel that the griffin seemed to be trying to convey something.

Regrettably, without the talents of a Druid, Leon couldn’t understand the griffin’s body language and could only guess by intuition that it might be some kind of warning signal.

Noticing that his friend had limited understanding, the griffin stopped its actions.

Returning to the food it had half eaten, it grabbed the bloody horse carcass with its claws, flapped its wings to raise a gust of wind, and flew up low.

The griffin didn’t fly away but only skimmed over the cottages at low altitude, and with a thud, landed on the roof of the adjacent two-story terraced houses.

It put down its food, turned its head back, and let out a cry from up high, as if beckoning Leon to come over, then it lay down and continued to enjoy its meal.

The disturbance created by the passing of the giant creature caused a panic at the entrance of Olivia’s house.

“I’ll keep an eye on it, you go and calm the villagers,” Leon said, turning his head towards Olivia.

“Be very careful,” the girl admonished with some unease.

Leon nodded.

He hurried out of the yard, chasing after the griffin that had landed near a two-story building, and with some effort, he managed to climb up onto the roof.

“What exactly do you want to tell me?” Leon asked cautiously as he approached the large creature, leaning on his leg armor, taking a moment to catch his breath.

Looking around, he saw the desolate rooftops of the entire village still exuding an atmosphere of desolation after the calamity.

Glancing into the distance, Leon finally understood what the griffin was trying to remind him of…

The women and children terrified by the griffin’s disturbance fled back to Olivia’s house.

The girl rushed back inside and patiently explained to the people that the giant beast was a friend, not a foe.

But many of the survivors had witnessed the creature slaughtering Kantadar people with their own eyes just yesterday.

The terrifying impression from their memories made the calming words the girl spoke quite ineffective; people worried that the creature, like those from stories, would become violently aggressive again.

“Folks, please trust my daughter.

The griffin is indeed a noble creature.

It is not an ordinary beast, and they do not eat humans.”

Olivia looked up when she heard the voice and realized her father had come out of the room at some point.

Brian raised his voice to help his daughter comfort the frightened women and children in the house.

The old blacksmith’s prestige was still weighty in the hearts of the villagers, and with a few words, he managed to calm the scared women down with some doubt.

“How could you get out of bed again?”

Olivia stepped forward to support her somewhat unsteady father.

“With all the commotion outside, how could I sleep?” Mr.

Brian Sr.

said with a wry smile.

He then continued to ask, “Is there really a griffin outside?”

“Yes!

It’s the one I told you about before.” As she spoke, the girl suddenly realized something, “Hm?

Father, you seem to know what a griffin looks like very well.”

“I only know a little,” the old blacksmith vaguely passed over, then asked his daughter, “Take me to see it as well.

Since that griffin has already formed a friendship with those young men, it probably won’t harm anyone here…”

He was speaking when a young man, gasping for breath, stumbled into the room.

“Ol…

Olivia!

Th-the village…

outside the village…!”

“What’s wrong?

Hawk, take your time,” Mr.

Brian Sr.

stepped forward with support and inquired of the stammering young man.

“…

The military!!”

Hawk, catching his breath, finally spat out what he had seen: “It seems…

it’s, it’s the Kingdom’s…

military!”

Hearing this, the old blacksmith was relieved, “Is it the Lord’s army?”

“No, no, no…

not, not the Lord’s rose banner, the…

the flag has a…

stag’s head.”

“A stag’s head?”

The old blacksmith followed up, “Is it…

a green flag?”

“Yes!” Hawk nodded repeatedly.

Mr.

Brian Sr.’s eyelids twitched, and he was slightly surprised.

“…Trosa?…”

…

“…Lord Trosa, it’s over there!”

The brown-haired girl with red-rimmed eyes turned restlessly on horseback, urgently pointing down the slope to Selva to the old man behind her.

“Don’t worry, I will make those villains pay the price,” the armored old man said, gently raising his hand to stroke the girl’s hair.

“General!”

A Scout Rider rushed back to the ranks at full speed, reporting to the Commander about the scouting results.

“…

No enemies were spotted, but outside the village, many discarded corpses have been piled up, many of them incomplete, estimated to be over thirty.”

Lena’s lips puckered in distress as she heard the cavalry’s report, almost starting to cry again.

“Are they the murdered villagers?” Count Trosa asked the Scout Rider, holding back the anger in his heart.

“Er, it seems not, General, I checked, they’re all Kantadar people.”

“Hm?”

The Old Earl was immediately puzzled.