Free Web NovelChapter 193: Assembling
Either the recent chaos has been a greater disruption to my network of informants than I thought, or someone has deliberately been keeping this news from me, Arnold quickly concluded, leaning more heavily towards the latter possibility. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
The sly old man even had a fairly good idea of just who it was that had been hiding this critical piece of information from him, but unfortunately for him, right now, none that mattered.
It was all too late.
The silence in the room seemed to last an eternity, allowing for sweat to drip down Arnold’s face and form a puddle on the floor. The sense of oppression he was dealing with right now was so great that he almost wanted to fall on his knees and confess to his crimes, of which there were many.
However, while Arnold was as corrupt, if not more so than Richard, he was far smarter and had long-ago learned what to say and what to do in order to ensure the greatest profit for himself. Right now, what was at stake was his life, which was more valuable to him than anything else he possessed, so the Baker Family’s Great Elder steeled himself and remained silent.
The very fact that his nephew was still alive despite being caught red-handed engaging in such... distasteful behaviour by Marquess Balfour was enough for Arnold to figure out that right now, this woman had other priorities than cutting off heads.
Though he fully expected to have to pay a hefty price to cover-up this incident, if that was even possible, Arnold was willing to do so as long as he could survive.
Finally, with a loud thud, something landed in front of Arnold, causing him to look up slightly and see his unconscious nephew laying sprawled out on the floor just a few steps away.
"Organize all of your household guards and send them to the north-western walls," Celestina ordered coldly, "You have one quarter hour."
Having made her demands known, Celestina strode past the still bowed Arnold and prepared to leave.
Just as she was about to depart, however, she paused and declared loud enough for everyone to hear, "Compensate these women, then return them to their families. If I find out that any of them have been ’silenced’ tomorrow, I will ensure you suffer a fate so agonizing you beg me for death."
Without another word, Celestina’s figure flickered and disappeared.
It was another few seconds before Arnold Baker straightened up and began wiping his forehead, attempting to clear away the cold sweat which had gathered on his face.
Glancing down at his useless nephew, Arnold very much wanted to just strangle him to death and be done with it, but with Marquess Balfour having given him a command, he dared not disobey.
Taking a deep breath, Arnold collected himself and began shouting for the house’s various servants, issuing a flurry of orders to both attend to the shivering women and to assemble the guards.
There was much work to be done, very little time to do it in, and deadly consequences waiting for him if he should fail.
Arnold wasn’t about to let everything he had worked his whole life to build up and acquire slip away from him now. If that meant he had to humble himself and beg for mercy, then so be it.
.....
"Keep moving! Don’t bunch up! Keep moving!"
"Don’t crowd around the gates! Once you’re inside, head for the central marketplace!"
"Stay in line! Don’t run! There’s plenty of time!"
When Sasha led a militia comprised of Redwood Town Guard, volunteer militia, and the adventurers and civilians she had recruited from Herald City’s Eastern River District to the north-west city gate, she was greeted by the sight of a tense but orderly crowd of refugees.
A large number of armoured soldiers and guards were directing the crowds into the city, and it was honestly quite a shock given what Sasha had witnessed over the course of the last few days.
As far as she cold recall, all the local officials and forces avoided any responsibility for anything, caring only about protecting themselves while leaving the civilians to fend for themselves.
However, upon seeing a familiar figure standing atop a makeshift platform created from a few crates and flatbed wagons directing the whole operation, Sasha understood that it wasn’t that the nobles and local Garrison Commander had gotten their act together, but that more competent leaders had taken charge.
"Captain Pierce, take over here for a moment, please," Sasha turned to her second-in-command, a Sea Establishment Realm solider from the Balfour Family Guard, and requested.
Given the current situation, Sasha should have spoken in a more commanding tone as she was the one leading the militia, but it was difficult for her to get used to ordering around a man more than twice her age and strength.
Still, given that Thomas Pierce served the Balfour Family, he had no issues following Sasha’s orders, so he simply saluted and got to work.
While Captain Pierce began distributing the civilian militia, Sasha made her way over to the nearby platform and called out, "Commander Hughes!"
Hearing his name called directly, Oliver glanced over briefly and soon spotted Sasha. His eyes then darted towards a large group of armed civilians standing a short distance away that were being organized by some of his fellow soldiers.
Quickly understanding what was going on, Commander Hughes beckoned Sasha over so they could discuss their next steps.
Oliver Hughes was naturally quite busy coordinating both the evacuation of the civilian refugees and establishing Herald City’s defences, but after several days of essentially banging his head against a wall, unable to get anything done, he was just glad to finally be doing something useful.
After pushing her way through the crowd, Sasha finally got close enough to communicate somewhat effectively with Oliver and called out to ask, "Where do you need us?"
Knowing that time was of the essence right now, Oliver didn’t stand on ceremony and shouted back, "Send anyone who can use a bow up onto the wall! Everyone else should assist with directing the evacuees!"
"Got it!" Sasha shouted before making her way back through the streams of fleeing people.
Once Sasha made it back, she passed along Commander Hughes’ orders to the various Captains who made up the leadership of her militia, all of whom were Sea Establishment or Core Formation Realm Practitioners.
As for Commander Wallace, the Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate who had arrived in Herald City earlier today aboard the river convoy, he had led a smaller detachment of the militia to one of the other city gates.
While Sasha very much would have liked to concentrate all their forces in one spot, doing so against fast moving beasts was obviously a mistake. It was following such logic that she had assigned teams of militia to the 2 city gates adjacent to the main north-west entrance.
At the same time, Sasha had left Farah in charge of guarding their camp, along with about 50 militia. It was a horribly thin defence force, but given the circumstances, it was the best that could be done.
Whether all of this was a sound strategy or not, Sasha didn’t know, but it was the only plan she could come up with in the limited time they had, and none of the high-ranking soldiers around her objected, so that was what happened.
Ordinarily, it would be unthinkable for Sasha, a mere Vein Opening Realm Practitioner with no formal military training and no formal noble title, to serve as the commanding officer for such an operation, but it was the role she had ultimately been saddled with.
Over the past 8 days, Sasha had also proven herself to be both calm and capable, always making sound judgements when she was coordinating Redwood Town’s defences and when she was setting up the Herald City refugee camp.
As far as everyone was concerned, this Beast Tide was just one more crisis they had to face, and Sasha had shown enough deftness in handling crises for them to trust her now.
Ironically, it was Sasha’s lack of combat strength that was the deciding factor in her being given command at this moment.
To put it bluntly, whether or not Sasha was fighting on the front-lines wouldn’t make much difference. On the contrary, the presence of even a single Sea Establishment Captain could mean the difference between a defensive position holding or buckling.
Having someone competent in giving orders who wouldn’t be missed in the actual fight was ideal when they were so short-handed.
Of course, being the granddaughter of General Balfour also helped bolster Sasha’s credibility and authority.
Quickly splitting up, about 450 of the militia following Sasha joined with members of the local garrison and City Watch to help guide the fleeing refugees through the gates and towards the central marketplace, the only place in Herald City large enough to hold such a massive crowd temporarily.
As that was happening, Sasha, along with roughly 150 archers, climbed the steps to the top of the city wall.
Quite contrary to the frantic hustle and bustle going on down below, the atmosphere atop the walls was incredibly quiet, though it was no less tense.
The first thing Sasha noticed was the wide variety of insignias and uniforms everyone was wearing, indicating they were from a multitude of different backgrounds.
There were garrison soldiers, city watchmen, merchant escorts, and private guards of local nobles all patrolling back and forth or checking their weapons. There were even some small adventurer groups and civilian volunteers standing around, their bows at the ready.
