Free Web NovelChapter 206: A Quiet Night
While battle for Herald City was reaching its peak, the situation in Redwood Town could not have been more opposite.
Initially, many were worried that the sudden absence of so many powerful masters would leave Redwood Town vulnerable. As such, every member of the Town Guard and militia still around was called up and armed.
A hard perimeter was set, patrols were established, and everyone prepared themselves for the worst.
However, 2 hours later, nothing had happened.
In fact, after Celestina and most of the Spirit Initiates had rushed off, there wasn’t a single beast attack on the town.
Constantly remaining in a heightened state of alert when there was no apparent threat would only exhaust everyone, so Charles and Anna eventually decided that it would be best to set up a new rotation for the night, one that allowed more people to rest, but still maintained a sturdier defence posture.
Thankfully, the guards and militia had already been organized into 100-man Battalions over the past few days, so it didn’t take long to relieve about two-thirds of them and send them back to the safe-zones to have a meal and get some sleep.
Of course, in order to set an example, both Charles and Anna remained on the front lines, leading the town’s defence in person while leaving administrative tasks to Drake, Lucas, and Carl.
Back at the Town Lord’s Manor, the night had also started with a flurry of activity and anxiety, but just like on the perimeter, things gradually calmed down.
Having spent most of the day helping coordinate, facilitate, and troubleshoot the evacuation, including traveling to Sandy Cove to oversee the first river convoy, Lucas was completely exhausted, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Drake, "Son, there’s nothing happening right now. You should get some sleep."
Lucas, who was already nodding-off, was immediately shaken awake and tried to protest, "But Dad, what about..."
Patting his son’s head, Drake just smiled, "You’ve done more than your fair share already. Just go rest."
Before Lucas could raise any further objections, Drake continued, "I promise I’ll wake you up if something happens, okay?"
Pursing his lips, Lucas very much doubted his father would wake him unless there was some kind of life-or-death crisis, but such a promise also cut off any reasons he could bring up to stay.
That said, there really wasn’t anything urgent he needed to do, nor any vital decisions he needed to make right now, so Lucas reluctantly nodded, "Alright."
Saying so, he picked up Yuki, the little white fox kit, from her napping spot on the table, and carried her towards the back of the Manor.
Despite there no longer being any younger kids to look after, Lucas had gotten used to sleeping in the large backroom, and upon arriving there, he found he wasn’t the only one.
There were currently only 3 youths age 15 and younger left in Redwood Town, and 2 of them were curled up together on a pile of blankets in this very room.
The sight of 2 young ladies who were just beginning to bloom into beautiful young women made for a rather enchanting picture; or at least, it would have if Eris wasn’t snoring loudly, drooling with her mouth agape, splayed out on-top of a slightly frowning Christina.
Seeing the kingdom’s genius princess in his usual spot, smothered by his rambunctious big sister, Lucas almost wasn’t able to stop himself from laughing.
True to her usual lively personality, Eris was no less active in her sleep than when she was awake.
Shaking his head, Lucas moved a bit further away, grabbed several of the now abundant blankets, laid them out, then flopped down on the makeshift bed together with the little white fluffball who despite being picked up and moved around hadn’t woken up.
Curling up into a ball himself, it didn’t take long before sleep took Lucas.
Despite the swirling chaos outside, all seemed quiet and peaceful in Redwood Town on this moonless autumn night.
.....
"How much longer till we change shifts?" Charles asked in-between yawns.
It had been another 2 hours since two-thirds of the militia had been dismissed, yet still nothing had happened.
Now, with midnight fast approaching, Charles had quite frankly gotten a bit bored. For the past 8 days, it had been an almost non-stop series of crises and battles, with the nights often no less eventful than the daylight hours.
It had been incredibly exhausting and draining, but now that calm had suddenly settled over the town, Charles couldn’t help feeling somewhat out-of-sorts. It was like he had been running at full speed for so long that standing still now seemed odd.
"I reckon it’ll be another 3 or 4 hours," a member of the Town Guard replied eventually, also trying to stifle a yawn.
With nothing better to do, Charles had decided to go on patrol, dragging a handful of ’volunteers’ along with him.
These unlucky few would have preferred staying at their fixed position where they could take turns ’checking their eyelids for holes’, but the Town Lord wasn’t the type to just sit still, so here they were, trudging from one key point on the defence perimeter to the next.
Ordinarily, it would have been quite difficult to navigate the narrow streets in the outer part of town at night, even if they all brought torches along; however, with a couple of much brighter Spirit Lamps, it wasn’t too troublesome.
As such, it wasn’t long before Charles’ group to reach their destination, one of the original barricade positions.
As he was approaching the end of the alleyway, Charles was about to call out to the Sea Establishment Realm Captain from the Balfour Guard who was in charge of this defence point, but when he turned the corner and looked out, his voice immediately caught in his throat.
The scene before Charles was eerily silent, with not a single person around.
In fact, not just people, but even the makeshift barricade which had covered a large portion of the street was simple gone.
For a moment, Charles was so stunned that he just froze in place at the edge of the alley, unable to react. This naturally resulted in the people behind him bumping into his back, causing a bit of a commotion.
Baron Newton had a rather large frame, and with his armour on, he blocked most of the view from the narrow backstreet, so the guardsmen and volunteer defenders behind him couldn’t see what he was seeing and were thus confused as to why their leader had suddenly halted.
Fortunately, being nudged from behind woke Charles from his daze and he immediately shouted, "Weapons ready! On your guard!" freёwebnovel.com
Drawing his sword, Charles assumed a defensive stance as he held up his Spirit Lamp and slowly advanced out onto what had originally been a street where the best inns and restaurants in Redwood Town were located.
Hearing the command from Charles, the others in his group shook off their drowsiness and went on alert. Lifting their shields and drawing their weapons, they too stepped out of the alleyway and immediately understood the Town Lord’s alarm.
Once all of them had emerged and their torches and Spirit Lamps could cover a wider area, the scale of the incident became clear.
Calling it destruction would be wrong, as there were no signs of battle or wreckage anywhere, just sand and dirt.
Looking around, Charles even noted that some of the familiar nearby buildings were missing, their foundations seemingly having vanished into thin air.
"What... what happened here..."
No one was sure who asked the question, but it was certainly the same thought everyone was having at that moment.
Carefully advancing, Charles kept his head on a swivel, looking for any clues as to what might have caused this sudden disappearance of people and property; but try as he might, all he could see nearby was empty ground.
The buildings about a block back were still there, but thanks to the dim lighting, it was hard to make out if any of them were damaged or not. It was completely inexplicable and more than a little creepy.
"S-Should we send someone back to ask one of the masters to come and have a look?" One of the militiamen asked, clearly unnerved by what he was seeing.
Thinking about it briefly, Charles nodded. This whole situation was beyond his understanding, so it would be best if they summoned someone stronger and more knowledgeable. However, the idea of splitting up right now seemed like a bad one, so instead of choosing a runner, Charles pulled out a flare and pointed it towards the sky.
He knew that by firing this signal, it would alert the entire town and possibly cause a panic, but right now, getting to the bottom of this strange phenomenon took priority.
Pressing a button on the tube-like Spirit Tool, it glowed for a moment as it drew World Qi from an installed Spirit Crystal before firing a red flare up into the sky.
This was the same type of tool Celestina had used to signal that the forest was all clear of beasts and was capable of being seen and heard from many kilometres away, but when Charles fired it, something completely unexpected happened.
The ball of glowing red light shot up from the tube, accompanied by a loud whistling sound, but before it could rise higher than 10 metres into the air, it suddenly vanished in a series of ripples akin to a stone sinking into a pond.
"Wha..." Charles muttered unconsciously, but before he could utter another sound, something like a gust of wind swept past him.
In the next instant, the 10 people who had formerly been standing in the empty clearing all disappeared, just like the flare they had tried to send out, and just like the buildings and people that had been there earlier that night.
