Free Web NovelChapter 188: Empty
"G-G-General B-B-Balfour..." Captain Max stuttered, "T-The Com... com... command-d-der entered s-s-seclu... s-s-seclus... s-s-seclusion th-th-three days ago..."
"And the rest of your officers? Where are they?" Celestina paid no mind to the nervousness of the man before her and continued to interrogate him.
"I... I..." Max again tripped over his own words, possibly because he was nervous, possibly because he didn’t know the answer to the General’s question, or quite likely, both.
Seeing the Captain standing behind him on the verge of a mental breakdown, and knowing he had just ripped into him as well even though none of this was his fault, Oliver Hughes decided to throw the man a lifeline and spoke up, "Is there something wrong, General?"
Shifting her gaze, Celestina narrowed her eyes slightly as she scolded, "You’re a good solider, Oliver, but if you want to be a qualified leader, you need be more observant and learn when just following orders isn’t enough."
Oliver Hughes was stunned for a moment, but soon lowered his head again, "I will keep your words in mind, General."
He wasn’t sure why he was being reprimanded again, but Oliver knew that something must have gone wrong on his watch, and that he had failed to notice it, which was why his commanding officer was so angry.
"Follow me," Celestina simply gave this order and dashed off.
Not daring to disobey, Oliver, Max, and a few other nearby low-ranking officers from the garrison quickly chased after the General, assuming that all their questions would soon be answered.
Moments later, in front of Leonard Manning’s private cultivation chamber, Celestina lifted her fist, gathered her strength, and smashed open the thick wooden doors.
Such actions were considered extremely offensive and dangerous.
If someone was disturbed while they were in the middle of cultivating, it could cause them serious harm, so it was an unwritten rule that when a cultivation chamber was sealed and occupied, barging in unannounced was forbidden.
However, no one present had the guts to mention any of this when they felt the dangerous aura leaking from Celestina.
Many of the Herald City locals wondered just what their Commander had done to offend General Balfour so gravely that she would actually ignore any semblance of civility and disturb his seclusion like this, but when the dust settled and everyone was able to peer inside the cultivation chamber, they all gasped in shock. freēwebnovel.com
"It’s... it’s empty..."
"But... that’s impossible."
"If he’s not here... then, where is the Commander?"
Captain Max, despite his pitiful performance just now, was actually quite diligent and intelligent. In fact, the only reason he didn’t have a higher position in the garrison was because of his commoner background, limiting the channels available to him for advancement.
Even so, upon seeing the empty cultivation chamber, and considering his sudden re-assignment 3 days ago, Max quickly understood what was happening and blurted out, "He ran away... the Commander abandoned us..."
In a moment of utter indignation, Max forgot where he was, and who was listening to him, and erupted into a fit of rage, "That fat bastard actually left all of us here to die!"
As soon as Max’s words rang out, the rest of the Herald City Garrison officers came to their senses and also began seething with fury.
"It must not just be the Commander! I haven’t seen any of those close to him recently either!"
"What? How is that possible?"
"Just look around! None of the Commander’s confidants are here yet, despite the General calling for all of them to assemble!"
"Damn it! Those cowards must have fled when they heard the beasts were approaching!"
"No! It’s worse than that! The Commander supposedly entered seclusion 3 days ago! He must have escaped back then!"
As the crowd of low-level officers and ordinary soldiers finally comprehended what had happened, all of them began shouting at once, some of them angered, some of them despondent, others in simple disbelief.
Before the scene outside Leonard Manning’s empty cultivation chamber was able to descend into chaos, however, a crushing pressure descended upon everyone as a single voice drowned out all the others.
"SILENCE!!"
When Celestina gave this order, everyone around her complied; not that any of them had a choice in the matter seeing how all of them were completely suppressed by her aura in that instant.
Having regained control of the crowd, Celestina made a formal announcement, "For the crime of abandoning his post in a time of war, Leonard Manning is stripped of his rank and sentenced to death!"
Taking a breath to calm the anger in her chest, Celestina continued in a stern tone, "I will see to it that the traitor’s punishment is carried out later; for now, there are more pressing matters to attend to. Commander Hughes!"
"Yes, General!" Oliver Hughes, who was also standing nearby, stepped forward.
"I’m placing you in charge of the Herald City Garrison. Get it organized and get this city’s defences prepared. We have no time to spare," Celestina ordered.
"Understood!" Oliver saluted before asking, "What are you planning to do, General?"
Turning towards the centre of the city, Celestina declared, "I’m going to have a word with the local Lord."
Not waiting for a reply, Celestina’s figure blurred as she shot off.
.....
Celestina’s initial announcement when she arrived had reached every ear within 2 kilometres of where she landed, alerting all the soldiers and staff living in the Herald City Garrison and several city blocks beyond it.
With the threat of severe punishment hanging over their heads, all the officers of the garrison began scrambling to reach the assembling grounds, while ordinary soldiers were also rushing over or racing to inform their superiors who were current outside the base.
Originally, Celestina had planned on gathering all the available fighting power of the garrison, assessing their combat potential, then reorganizing them herself, but upon discovering that the Garrison Commander and a good number of the senior officers had fled, she abandoned that plan. Instead, she left the garrison in Commander Hughes’ hands while she headed straight for the Baker Family’s residence.
5 minutes after Celestina left the garrison, 6 Captains and 58 Knights had gathered at the main field and were standing at attention. This was barely more than half the officers who should have responded to the summons, but after no new soldiers showed up for a couple minutes, Oliver Hughes realized that this was all he was going to get.
Now, some of the officers who hadn’t shown up might have been on duty at the city walls, so it was reasonable for them to not have gotten the message yet, but from what he had seen these past few days, Commander Hughes was certain that there weren’t so many soldiers fulfilling their responsibilities right now.
Glancing around at the officers who had managed to assemble, Oliver was seriously beginning to doubt whether these men and women would be of much use in the upcoming battle. Many of these officers were overweight, wore armour that looked like it had never seen battle before, or were visibly panicking even before the fighting began.
As far as soldiers went, the Herald City Garrison could barely be considered combat ready.
Still, expecting the same level of training and discipline from a remote city’s garrison as the Raging River Legion was unrealistic, so Commander Hughes quickly adjusted his mindset and began giving out orders, "Half of you round up every soldier you can find and take them to the city’s main western gate."
"The other half, head to the residences of the local nobles, merchants, and other wealthy citizens. Have them arm and equip all their private guards and send representatives here to receive further instructions."
For a moment, the gathered officers were hesitant to move, many unclear about just what was happening and why a foreign Commander was suddenly giving them orders.
Fortunately, a few people had been around when it was revealed that Leonard Manning had fled the city, so they quickly informed their comrades about the recent change in command.
Even so, many of the Captains and Knights were confused about what to do. They were told to split themselves up, but without their usual leaders around to give orders, how were they supposed to do that?
In fact, who among them was actually in charge right now?
Seeing the mess before him, Oliver Hughes was about to blow his top again, wondering just how these people dared to call themselves soldiers of the Rockwell Kingdom, but just before he could unleash another profanity-laden tirade, one of the locals finally stepped up.
"First through Fifth Battalion leaders! Come with me!" Captain Max, who somehow found himself in charge of the garrison, tried to take charge of the chaotic situation. It was partially because he felt a sense of responsibility to protect the city he had grown up in, the one his wife and two daughters still slept in tonight; but honestly, it was mostly out of fear.
Fear of the approaching beasts, undoubtedly, but also fear of what would happen to him and his comrades if they couldn’t pull themselves together before General Balfour returned.
If Celestina came back and saw that they were still loitering around the garrison, heads would definitely fly, and as one of the few remaining Captains, Max knew he was much higher up the list of people to make an example of!
