The Lord Of Blood Hill-Chapter 41: New Environment

Henwell has been recovering for five days now. Thanks to the special medicine, his external wounds have mostly healed, though his internal injuries will take more time. There's some good news, though. The weakening potion left by Obiken's shadow guards in his body has been flushed out due to the significant blood loss.
Currently, Henwell finds himself in a room with reinforced doors and windows, more like a cell than a room. The furnishings are minimal, designed to prevent anyone inside from acquiring weapons. Although Henwell could still find ways to arm himself, he chooses not to act rashly.
He has noticed that Leom's bodyguards are incredibly skilled, much like Obiken's shadow guards—extraordinary beings. Without understanding the full situation, Henwell decides to bide his time.
Now that he can move around normally, his patient status is coming to an end. Sure enough, that afternoon, Leom visits him.
"You've recovered well, kid! I'm starting to believe you might be from a knight's family. I don't care about your name, who your parents are, how prestigious your family is, or what you've been through. The old you is dead. Now, you're known as Cargo Fifteen, my personal property!"
"Without my command, you can't harm anyone, and I won't let anyone harm my possessions. So, you're starting a new life now! Your past has nothing to do with who you are now. You have only one job: follow my orders and earn me more gold! Do you have any objections?"
Henwell shakes his head, "None. So, sir, who do you want me to kill?"
Leom chuckles, "Don't be in such a rush, kid! I haven't finished acquiring all my goods yet. The only thing you need to do now is behave and have no thoughts of escaping! After all, I spent fifty gold coins on you. I don’t want my investment to end up as a pile of rotting flesh! Do you understand what I mean?"
Henwell nods again, indicating he knows what to do.
Over the next couple of weeks, Henwell travels with Leom through various towns in the Kingdom of Ika. Occasionally, Leom returns with a new child, both boys and girls, none older than twelve. These kids are all quiet, rarely speaking or interacting with each other. Each has their own small, separate room.
Henwell notices that Leom’s organization seems to have bases in all the major cities, eliminating the need to rent inns or similar accommodations. This setup leaves Henwell with no opportunity to communicate with the outside world.
By now, Henwell has fully recovered and is surprised to find that after the brutal battle, his physical condition has improved significantly, as if he had consumed several bottles of body-strengthening elixirs.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, the violation.
Henwell doesn’t dwell on it too much, attributing the enhancement to the life-or-death struggle that probably activated the latent effects of the potions within his body.
Another month passes, and as summer arrives, Leom stops acquiring more children. Instead, he shackles over thirty of them, arranging them into a dozen large carts. Each cart holds three or four children, with their shackles fixed to the four corners of the cart, making it difficult for them to interact.
The carts travel during the day and camp at night. The children eat, drink, and relieve themselves inside the carts during the day, only being allowed out at night. Henwell realizes the purpose of this arrangement is to prevent the children from knowing their location.
At night, when it’s hard to see landmarks, they are brought out and made to clean the carts.
After about eight days of travel, they reach their destination. Surrounded by darkness, the children are blindfolded and led forward by chains.
There's wind—strong and humid—with the scent of plants. They seem to be walking through a narrow valley, which then transitions into a cave. The path is winding, intentionally circuitous, with some passages repeated.
Henwell discreetly notes all the details he can deduce, realizing this is a hidden location established near mountainous terrain.
After about two hours of walking, Henwell is pushed into a room, and the blindfold is removed. The dim light of an oil lamp reveals a small space, no more than six square meters, with a low ceiling of just two meters.
The walls are made of mountain rock, slightly damp and solid, with no hollow sound when tapped. There are no windows, only a few small ventilation holes. Henwell concludes that this is a cave dwelling carved into the rock.
He examines the stone bed, which is covered with straw, and notices a pile of bedding in the corner.
Touching it, he finds it damp and musty, clearly used by many before him and never washed. The oil in the lamp is scarce and won't last through the night. The door is wooden, but Henwell knows it has steel bars inside, making it difficult to break.
With nothing else to discover, Henwell tidies up the bed slightly, extinguishes the lamp, and lies down to sleep in his clothes.
Henwell wakes up abruptly to the sound of someone pounding on his door. He leaps up and puts on his shoes just as the door swings open. A burly man enters, grabbing Henwell by the hair and dragging him outside. Though Henwell could easily overpower the man, he chooses not to resist and is hauled out of the room.
As he moves through the corridor, Henwell observes his surroundings. It’s a four-meter-wide passage with oil lamps hanging on both sides, casting a dim light. He notices the corridor seems to be circular, with obvious curves at both ends. The rooms are unevenly distributed along the sides, and many children are being dragged out just like Henwell.
Some, with fiery tempers or grumpy from waking, try to resist but clearly lack the strength to do so. They are now screaming in agony under the blows of the burly men wielding clubs.
The man holding Henwell’s hair throws him to the ground and kicks him, barking, “Stand up, lean against the door, and don’t move. Wait for orders! If you act up, you’ll get a taste of pain!”
Despite Henwell standing obediently and leaning against the door, he still gets a taste of that "pain." A club soaked in oil, flexible and tough, slams into Henwell’s shoulder, causing him to grimace in pain but not fall over.
The burly man pauses, surprised, but unlike the other guards who continue beating the kids knocked to the ground, he doesn’t further assault Henwell.