Free Web NovelChapter 266: Status Report
Another hour passed since Lucas and his Master had their interesting, if not disjointed, conversation, and now both of them had relocated to a large room inside the Carlson Manor’s main building, one of them standing at the head of the hall, the other standing at the back.
This room, which had originally been something similar to a storage space, had been customized by Lucas over the past few days into something resembling a command centre and briefing hall, with multiple large maps hung on the walls, a sand table with a representation of Iron Rock in the middle of the room, and several giant slates at its head which could be used as blackboards.
Dozens of chairs were scattered around the room, surrounding tables with all sorts of books and papers containing the records of everything which had taken place from the start of the evacuation until today.
"In total," Lucas continued his report, "74,220 refugees were evacuated from Herald City, and another 75,109 were evacuated from Port Calden over the past 8 days for a total of just under 150,000 from the two cities. Of those people, 80% were brought to Iron Rock via ship or land convoy, while the remaining 20% set off directly for other settlements."
"Additionally," Lucas flipped through the notes in front of him, "42,715 people have been evacuated from the western parts of the Carlson County across the Belton to the eastern side of the river."
Looking up from the records, Lucas swept his gaze around the room, meeting eyes with all the exhausted individuals who had made this mass-migration possible, and smiled widely, "Thanks to your efforts, I can now officially announce that there are no more civilians left on the western side of the Belton in the South-West Province."
Cheers immediately went up from the gathered leaders, many of whom had barely slept in days as they scrambled to make the evacuation possible.
The coordinated movement of nearly 200,000 people in just over 7 days was no small feat, and everyone present had a right to feel proud of themselves. As such, Lucas made no attempt to quiet the room down immediately, letting his comrades in this endeavour celebrate and blow off a little steam.
Eventually, however, they needed to get back to work, so Lucas clapped his hands loudly to gather everyone’s attention again.
Seeing that he had control of the room once more, Lucas picked up a different set of records and began summarizing them, "According to the heads of the Evacuation Centres, of the 160,000 or so refugees that Iron Rock has accepted up until now, roughly 100,000 have already been processed, and a little more than 60,000 have been sent off to other cities for resettlement."
"Most of the evacuees requested to remain in the South-West Province, with only about 30% willing to immigrate to the West, South, South-East, or Royal Provinces in exchange for a bigger payout," Lucas annotated.
"At our current pace," Lucas did some quick calculations in his head, "We should be able to clear 140,000 of the 160,000 refugees from Iron Rock within the next month, leaving some 20,000 unwilling to leave to settle in and around the city."
"That’s all from the civilian side of things," Lucas concluded before turning to his co-host for this meeting.
Nodding in acknowledgement to her young partner, Allina Crest stepped up to the podium and announced, "Once all of the displaced civilians have been evacuated and resettled, the first phase of our operation will be complete. However, even after that happens, there are still a lot of issues we need to address."
A few groans could be heard here and there, but everyone remained focused, knowing that what Commander Crest just said was correct.
Pulling out her own notebook, Allina opened it and announced, "As of this morning, the entirety of Iron Rock west of the Belton have been converted into a temporary military encampment hosting some 10,000 troops. This force is primarily composed of soldiers from the Raging River Legion, Golden Wings Legion, and garrison soldiers of the province’s 3 southern cities."
Looking up, Allina continued, "Another 12,000 people have been recruited to serve as support staff and are primarily housed around the city’s river bridge if they are not already natives of Iron Rock. From there, these auxiliary personnel can readily provide the front-line troops with supplies and assistance, while also remaining a relatively safe distance from any of the fighting." ƒreewebɳovel.com
Sweeping her eyes around, Allina commented, "These measures are only temporary, however. The 6 Regiments of the Raging River Legion, which currently comprise the city’s main fighting force, cannot remain deployed here indefinitely. As for which force will take up the role of defending this region after we leave, that will be up to the Carlson Family, Drax Family, and Royal Council to work out."
The mention of the Royal Council brought frowns to many people’s faces in the meeting, and for justifiable reason.
So far, the amount of support which had been coming from the Rockwell Kingdom’s highest decision-making body had been ’minimal’, to say the least.
Calling the aid sent from the capital non-existent wouldn’t be fair, but there was truly not much the Royal Council had done to help the people of the South-West Province during this crisis.
This was naturally frustrating to a great many in the hall, even those who knew why the kingdom had been so paralyzed and unable to act.
Conversely, ever since she landed in Iron Rock earlier today, Marquess Celestina Balfour had been showered with praise by everyone she met.
In the South-West Province’s hour of need, it was she who had arrived and provided enormous amounts of money, manpower, and strength, all without asking for anything in return.
Lucas also received his fair share of accolades, with many powerful and influential figures taking note of the young man who had become the famous Shield of the East’s First Disciple.
A number of rich and powerful chambers of commerce were also highly exalted for their contributions, particularly the Rising Sun Merchant Guild which had contributed almost 30% of all the ships which had been used to transport both people and supplies up and down the Belton.
Now, all of these chambers of commerce were being compensated handsomely for their services, so calling their efforts ’charitable’ was a big stretch; but, accusing merchants of seeking profit was like accusing water of being wet, equal part obvious and pointless.
Allina Crest knew full well the complex thoughts on everyone’s mind, but since there was nothing that could be done about it right now, she decided to brush these matters aside for the moment and continue with the meeting, "In order to better fortify Iron Rock against possible beast attacks, a number of infrastructure projects have been proposed with the ultimate objective of transforming the western section of the city into a permanent military stronghold."
The purpose of this proposal was two-fold.
First, it would improve the defensive capabilities of Iron Rock, and second, it would create a large number of jobs for the now swollen population of the city, allowing the refugees to feed themselves and keep them occupied so they did not engage in less constructive behaviour, like theft or banditry.
As for the scope and scale of this fortress, that hadn’t been worked out yet as there were too many unknowns at the moment.
In fact, it was entirely possible the proposal would be scrapped altogether in the end.
Currently, there were only a few Sixth Order Beasts confirmed to be lurking in the evacuated territories of the South-West Province, which was something the Rockwell Kingdom could handle on its own with the help of a well armed and well manned defensive position.
If, however, a dozen or more Sixth Order Beasts were to appear, or, Heavens forbid, a Seventh Order Beast showed up, then completely abandoning the western part of the province and destroying the connecting bridge in Iron Rock would be a far wiser idea.
With that in mind, aerial scouting missions were being sent out from Iron Rock every day, led by Vanessa and the Aerial Cavalry of the Golden Wings Legion, hoping to identify all the nearby threats so a final determination could be made.
.....
The meeting carried on for a while longer, with reports being made by several others who were in charge of things like food stores, public order, and even diplomatic relations with other nobles in the kingdom. The subject matter was quite dry, but it was also essential for the leaders assembled in this hall to keep up-to-date on the overall situation in and around Iron Rock.
Finally, just as the discussions were winding down, someone asked the question everyone had unconsciously been avoiding the whole time, "Do we have an update on just how much and.... how many have been lost, yet?"
After the words were spoken, the room fell silent.
Although they had all worked hard and managed to achieve an enormous amount of success in terms of saving innocent lives and protecting territory, everyone knew that the price paid for these small victories was in no way small.
Letting out a sigh, Lucas realized that no one else was going to speak up, so he took to the main podium again and pulled out a small black book he kept in his pocket at all times, opening it to the latest entry and reading it aloud, "The total cost of our operations so far, including the renting of ships and carriages, distribution of food and supplies, establishing and staffing of evacuation facilities, sheltering of refugees, and payment of compensation, is estimated at 22.6 million Gold Coins. Not counting lost property or territory, of course. As for the cost in lives..."
