In an unnamed valley
"Oh, my master, your arrival is a great honor for your most loyal servant, Arthas. May all live under your glory and feel your greatness." The speaker's deeply bowed head and respectful words foreshadowed the nobility of the newcomer.
Count Vorsis was furious, ever since he saw the ore delivered by his servant Arthur a few days ago. So today he came here in person.
"Arthur, you idiot, I really want to cut your head off and kick it into that lake to feed the fish." Count Woxis, dressed in magnificent clothes, berated his servant as soon as he saw him.
"Ah! My master, I know you wouldn't want to do this, although it sounds like a good idea." Arthas already knew things weren't going very well.
"Arthurs, this is your last chance. If you fail to do this well, you know what I will do," Count Vorsis said sternly to his servant.
"My master, look over there. I'm starting to dig again over there. I assure you there will be no problems. You just need to wait for good news from your loyal servant."
"Yes, I hope so. And I don't want to see any of those slaves slacking off. My black bread is the purest black bread, without any sawdust." Count Vorsis said to his servant Arthur, pointing to the people working in the distance.
"Yes, my generous and benevolent master, I must teach these ungrateful fools a lesson." With that, he picked up his whip and walked away.
"Don't think that just because Lord Worthy is a kind man, you can eat the best black bread and slack off here." With that, he lashed a slave's back with a whip.
Immediately, a bright red bloodstain appeared on the man's back, which was particularly glaring in the sunlight.
The man remained silent and continued walking forward until he entered the mine shaft ahead.
"Elm, are you alright? That Asers is a real scoundrel. He said it was the best black bread, bah, that black bread was full of sawdust." The man finished speaking and cursed towards the cave entrance.
In the castle
"Marcus, do you know anything about Sounding Lake? Have boats ever come here before?"
"My master, I know some things, but they may not be true. In fact, this lake is very large, and our territory is only a small part of it. However, I have not seen anyone come here by boat."
Could it be that shipbuilding technology by the lake is subpar? Or is there simply no one else by the lake? Otherwise, there must have been adventurers for quite some time. Is the waterway in this territory relatively remote? Could it be that those who arrived first didn't travel by water? It's also possible that in this area without major rivers, shipbuilding technology might not be very advanced, and those guys might have traveled by land.
Ed thought about it more and more and it seemed very likely; those who got there first must have come from the mountains to the west.
But what use would they have for mining gypsum? Gypsum isn't very useful these days, so there's no need to travel so far to mine this worthless stuff!
Could it be for a purpose he doesn't know about? They dug it up for other uses, Ed wondered. Could it be for a purpose he didn't know about?
Hmm, coming from the western mountains? Could it be the lord of the old cedar forest? If so, this is quite a clash of fates!
"Looks like we need to go find the cedar tree to confirm."