Free Web NovelChapter 179: Chapter 158: Reinforcements Arrive
The last time this guy came running over in a panic, he looked like the sky was falling. In the end, he was just going to a meeting.
From then on, the Lord was no longer fooled by the Knight’s panicked demeanor.
"Duke Fulina is missing."
"What?"
Levi wondered if he’d misheard.
"I only just found out. Duke Fulina took her cavalry, and I have no idea where they went," Si Kai blurted out, spilling everything he knew in one breath.
His Cavalry Corps’ camp was adjacent to High Cliff Castle’s. He had just been on his way to report on some work to Fulina when he discovered she was nowhere to be found.
In his shock, he had instinctively sought out the Lord of High Cliff Castle, who had once saved his life, hoping to get some information.
But now it seemed this Lord was clearly in the dark as well.
"Doesn’t Fujero know either?"
"I’m not sure. I can’t even get into the command tent right now. I only pieced it together because the officers were being evasive, and on top of that, the Thorn Corps’ cavalry is missing," Si Kai said, explaining his guess.
’What the hell is Fulina thinking? Pulling a disappearing act at a time like this.’
The Lord was so angry that the stubble on his unshaven chin trembled.
Swapping commanders on the eve of battle was a huge taboo. Fulina was the army’s backbone; her disappearance at a time like this might not mean much to the officers, but for the rank-and-file soldiers, it would be a huge blow to morale, and they’d start letting their imaginations run wild. freёwebnovel.com
"Dammit!"
The Lord cursed, raising his food bowl as if to slam it down, only to realize there was no table in front of him. He awkwardly pulled it back.
"Well, what’s done is done. First, we eat!"
He viciously started shoveling rice from his bowl.
Si Kai breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Honestly, ever since witnessing the power of Lord Li and his soldiers, he had been truly afraid that Levi would get angry and simply leave.
He took the opportunity to join the meal, as he hadn’t eaten today either.
As he ate, he thought, and suddenly, a flash of lightning went through his mind. He seemed to understand something.
’Why would Duke Fulina suddenly disappear without telling him, her destination a mystery?’
’It was obvious: if he knew, he might leak the secret, and the recipient of that leak would naturally be this outsider—the Lord of High Cliff Castle.’ ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
One thing was certain: Duke Fulina had definitely not returned to Bailiu City. She had most likely gone north.
’Something she wanted to keep secret, yet couldn’t abandon at a time like this... only the Magic Crystal Ore was important enough for that.’
But if it was for the Magic Crystal Ore, why not wait until they had defeated this Wilderness Alliance Army? That was the one thing Si Kai couldn’t figure out.
He had once escorted a merchant caravan delivering Black Stone to the Elf Tribe, so he also knew about the Magic Crystal Ore.
But having made a rough guess as to Fulina’s destination, Si Kai breathed a sigh of relief and glanced up impassively at the Lord.
As it happened, their eyes met.
Levi gave him an unreadable smile.
Si Kai quickly lowered his head and focused on the mutton in his bowl.
He hadn’t said any of these theories aloud. ’Unless this Lord has a Mind Reading Technique,’ he thought, ’there’s no way he could know what I’m thinking.’
Si Kai comforted himself with this thought.
The Lord stroked the fresh stubble on his chin.
He had been observing the knight’s expression ever since he sat down.
Confused one moment, enlightened the next—he wore every thought on his face, yet the kid actually thought he was being subtle.
’Damn it,’ Levi thought. ’The kid is hiding something from me.’
This broke the Lord’s heart. Theirs was a friendship forged in life-and-death situations, and yet Si Kai wouldn’t even tell him where a woman had gone. The love was gone.
But since Si Kai wasn’t talking, Levi wasn’t going to ask.
Si Kai finished his meal hastily and took his leave in a hurry. Levi watched his retreating back, lost in thought.
"Boss, why don’t we just grab him and torture him? He’d tell us everything."
Zat offered an idea befitting an Undead.
"All you think about is brute force. We need to use our brains, you know?"
Levi rapped him on the head, making Zat grimace in pain.
Torture was out of the question. Besides anything else, the two of them had something of a friendship. The Lord wasn’t the kind of person who’d use someone and then pretend he didn’t know them.
For the moment, however, he had no better ideas. It was always the way: when someone was determined to hide something, they would guard it fiercely if you tried to pry. But the moment you stopped trying to find out, they would let it slip.
As the sun sank completely below the horizon, the world was once again enveloped in darkness.
Outside, there was nothing but drifting snowflakes and the HOWLING of the cold wind.
This winter was exceptionally cold. A deep breath felt like a Steel Blade twisting in one’s lungs, and every wisp of white exhaled seemed to pull warmth from the body.
The Rabbit People Auxiliary Soldiers, a dozen or so to a bed, huddled together under their blankets just to feel a bit of warmth. They didn’t dare let the brazier at the foot of their communal bunk grow dim, adding firewood to it every so often.
The Beastman Guards patrolled the camp, changing shifts every hour to avoid freezing from being outside too long.
"Winter is coming."
The Lord, draped in a heavy coat, looked out at the vast expanse of white snow and was suddenly moved to speak.
He had been in this world for three years. Although he had always stayed in the south, he knew a little about the conditions in the north.
This year’s winter was just too bizarre.
Fortunately, this world didn’t have things like Other Ghosts, though it did have Undead and the like.
But that was all ancient history from a thousand years ago.
Otherwise, Levi would be genuinely afraid of waking up one day to find himself surrounded by a boundless army of Other Ghosts.
After checking that everything was in order at the High Cliff Castle camp, Levi returned to his tent and crawled into his bedroll.
"HISS."
Mier and Zat hissed in unison, a sound like biting into something sour.
The two of them had just managed to warm up the bedroll when the Lord slid in between them, feeling like a block of ice.
If not for the fact that a higher rank could crush you, Zat would have thrown the Lord out long ago.
The night passed peacefully.
Morning in the Wilderness. The sky was still completely dark as the entire Thorn Corps began to stir, like a slumbering Giant Beast gradually awakening.
Levi had been in a deep, pleasant sleep, dreaming that he was embracing a red-haired, red-tailed fox spirit on his left and a stunningly beautiful Mermaid Princess on his right.
Suddenly, the vixen’s seductive face on his left morphed into Baisitina’s, while the Mermaid Princess on his right transformed into Fulina, shocking him awake.
Only then did he realize that the boy, Mier, was shaking him awake with an excited look on his face.
"Brother-in-law! Brother-in-law! Reinforcements from Bailiu City are here! And the famous Panda Warriors are with them!"
’What you think about by day, you dream of by night,’ Levi mused, yawning as he slowly got dressed.
He’d been preoccupied with Fulina’s sudden departure, wondering where the Duchess had gone, so it was normal to dream of her.
But why was he also dreaming of that girl Baisitina? ’I must be missing her cooking,’ the Lord guessed.
Dressed, he splashed some cold water on his face. Levi donned his Leather Armor, buckled on his Longsword, and, looking sharp and ready, went to check out these so-called reinforcements.
In front of the camp, a contingent of troops was going through handover procedures with the Thorn Corps. The Lord gave them a rough glance and estimated there were at least two or three thousand people.
"This is a little different from the ’Panda Warrior Squad’ we were told about."
Levi was a bit confused.
Fulina had said she was calling in a squad of Panda Warriors for support, but judging by the current situation, she had sent far more.
The Duchess’s sudden departure was probably not so simple.
"It’s the Panda Warriors!" Mier exclaimed, nearly jumping with excitement as he pointed at a contingent of about a hundred men in the distance.
All the Warriors in this unit wore open-chested Linen Samurai Armor, revealing furry chests. Their arms, hanging at their sides, were corded with muscle, clear signs of their violent power.
Black-and-white fur covered the Warriors’ faces. Although it was carefully trimmed, the black patches around their eyes looked like two iron balls, making their faces look even more ferocious.
These Panda Warriors were, on average, over three blades tall, a full size more robust than the Minotaurs.
They were just standing there, doing nothing, yet they couldn’t help but radiate the air of grandmasters.
This was a group of experts!
The Lord concluded.
