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Chapter 174: Central Town
The sky hung low and gray, with occasional flurries of light snow drifting down. The biting north wind, carrying a bone-piercing chill, swept across the snow-white plains and howled away into the distance...
There were twenty-seven in all — twenty-seven Family Knights and swordsmen with
Lorist inspected each person's equipment and skis one by one. Everyone knew what kind of risk it meant to leave the warm manor during the bitter cold of winter amid heavy snowfall, but they had no choice. To protect the lives of more than three hundred thousand settlers wintering in the Fengle Plains from the threat of magical beast tides, all twenty-seven Family Knights and Silver-ranked swordsmen had chosen to follow Lorist to the Fengle Plains.
Jostik, Bellunek, Earle,
Tiger Ross was grinning shamelessly at Lorist, while Young Miss Baisha beside him hung her head shyly, too bashful to even look at him.
Lorist was speechless...
Heaven only knew how those two had hit it off and gotten together without an ounce of shame. No wonder that when Lorist had announced his return to Maplewood Manor for the winter, this Ross had insisted on tagging along, claiming he wanted to see the beautiful scenery of Maplewood Manor — and had dumped the entire management of the Iron Lancers onto his deputy, Knight Vashima.
Back at Maplewood Manor, the guy vanished without a trace. Lorist had been busy doting on his precious son for the first couple of days and hadn't given it a thought, but once he finally had some free time, he realized Ross was nowhere to be found. Everyone searched high and low, only to discover that the bastard had been busy rolling around in the sheets with Young Miss Baisha — hadn't left the bedroom in days and had no idea the whole manor had been in an uproar looking for him…
Lorist figured he must have inadvertently played matchmaker when he ordered Young Miss Baisha to lead the female garrison unit escorting the teams processing magical beast corpses to the wastelands. That was when she crossed paths with Ross, who had been out leading troops on beast-hunting sweeps, and the two hit it off. No wonder Ross had insisted on tagging along to Maplewood Manor for the winter — Lorist had been scratching his head about that one. What scenery was there to see at Maplewood Manor in the dead of winter? Turns out the scenery this guy wanted to see was on Young Miss Baisha's bed…
Lorist didn't particularly care for Young Miss Baisha. On paper, she was the late older brother's fiancée in this body's lifetime, so he had to show her respect. But what the original owner of this body — little Locke — remembered wasn't any familial warmth. Rather, it was a childhood full of memories of being bullied by her. And after Lorist had returned to the family lands as the new head of the
Young Miss Baisha was undeniably a great beauty — she had gorgeous red hair, a figure that was also ********, and lovely features to boot. Unfortunately, Lorist was no pushover, nor was he the sort of loser otaku who'd grovel at the feet of any pretty face. He had his own aesthetic standards. Just as he'd handed Yingjieliek's granddaughter Morlis over to
What Lorist fancied were girls like his little handmaiden Elina — the sweet, girl-next-door sort — or someone refined and intellectual like Lady Tess. So when he heard they'd found Ross in Young Miss Baisha's bed, he actually breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that at least one fewer headache to deal with at home…
If not for this, Young Miss Baisha could still have been considered Lorist's sister-in-law, and no matter what, he would have had to treat her well out of respect for his late brother. That was the reason she'd gotten away with angering Lorist multiple times without real punishment. Now that she'd hooked up with Ross, she had only two choices: marry Ross, or become an ordinary family knight — never again could she claim the title of his late brother's fiancée.
Lorist gave Ross two pats on the shoulder, said nothing more, and turned back to the front of the formation.
"Jim, Pete, Wilson, Mandges."
Jim, Pete, and two other Silver Swordsmen stepped forward.
"The four of you are to ride hard for Bedrock Castle. Whether you make it in time concerns the lives of over three hundred thousand new settlers across the entire Fertile Plains. You must ensure the news of the magical beast tide reaches the castle, so that Knight Shrade and Knight Bodfenger can dispatch troops to help defend those villages and towns before the tide arrives. I'm counting on you..." Lorist performed a knight's salute to the four of them.
"Rest assured, my lord. We will deliver the message to Bedrock Castle as fast as we can." The four of them returned the salute.
The journey from Bedrock Castle to Maple Forest Manor normally took six or seven hours on horseback, covering nearly a hundred li. Now it was winter, with heavy snow blocking the roads. Traveling on foot with ski boards, in the dim light of a darkening sky across vast, featureless terrain — there was a very real chance of losing their way or meeting with some mishap. How dangerous this trip would be went without saying, yet not one of the four hesitated.
"Ross, Baisha, Pacheco…"
The three stepped forward.
"You three will take five Silver Swordsmen to the Northfield Town area in the Seventh District. Pay special attention to the three newly established farming villages to the east — that is where a magical beast tide is most likely to strike. I'm counting on you." Lorist said.
"Yes, my lord."
"Rest easy, my lord. With Ross the Wild Tiger on the job, those villages will be perfectly safe."
Lorist nodded and turned to the rest of those still assembled. "The rest of you, come with me. We'll head for the central town of the Sixth District first, then push on to the easternmost villages…"
"My lord…"
"Locke…"
The one calling "My Lord" was the maid Elina. Holding the child, she bowed deeply to Lorist. "May your journey be smooth and safe, my lord..."
The one calling "Locke" was Miss Tressa. "Do take care of yourself..."
Lorist waved to them and ordered, "Strap on the skis. Let's move out!"
...
The wind cut like a steel blade, howling in their ears.
Even wrapped in thick scarves, their faces numb beneath masks and veils, the cold still bit deep, and their eyes stung from the vast, blinding whiteness all around...
Lorist pointed to a snow-covered ridge in the distance, intending to lead the team up for a better view of their surroundings.
"Awoooo..." A wolf's howl echoed from the ridge. Dozens of large, blue-grey winter wolves, each the size of a young calf, appeared along its crest.
Damn it, Lorist cursed inwardly. He hadn't expected these carnivorous magical beasts, which usually hunted around the herds of herbivores, to have already claimed this ridge as a base for launching hunts and monitoring prey movements. Their only option now was to avoid it.
With a wave of his hand, Lorist pivoted his skis, changing direction to skirt the wooded edge at the base of the ridge. He wanted to avoid any conflict with these winter wolves that might slow their advance. Lorist knew well: if winter wolves were here, the tail end of the magical beast tide couldn't be far ahead. They would need to make a wide detour to get ahead of it.
A man may harbor no ill intent toward wolves, but wolves bear malice toward men. Lorist had wanted to skirt the pack. But after a few howls rang out from the high ridge, a dozen or so winter wolves burst from the woods below and fanned out around them, while another thirty or so came surging down the slope. They moved lightly across the snow despite their massive frames, an eerie, almost rhythmic grace in their stride, their claws sinking less than an inch into the soft powder — clearly veterans of traveling through deep snow.
Lorist yanked down his faceguard and channeled his breath into sound. "Josk, the front is yours! Yuri, Pat, hand me the javelins from your packs. Bearnak, keep pushing forward!"
Josk skidded to a spinning halt, unslung his green longbow from his back, and began sighting and loosing arrows. One by one, green streaks of lightning cut through the air, and the dozen-odd winter wolves that had burst from the treeline toppled into the snowfield one after another.
Bearnak planted his pole hard against the snow and launched himself forward on his skis. The last three winter wolves leaped into the air, lunging straight at him. Josk loosed one final arrow that punched through the skull of the wolf soaring closest, sending it tumbling a meter away. But the remaining two were beyond his help — Bearnak's body was blocking his line of sight.
Bearnak, utterly calm, transferred his pole from his right hand to his left, then drew his sword. Golden blade-light flashed twice, and the two lunging wolves were severed into four pieces. Their bloodied carcasses tumbled onto the snow.
The howling from the ridge grew ever more piercing as more winter wolves came charging down the slope, rapidly closing in on Lorist and his two companions, who stood motionless.
When the first winter wolf was less than forty meters away, Lorist struck. Javelin after javelin flew from his hand like bolts of lightning, and the wolves' agonized shrieks merged into a single wailing chorus.
Thirty-four javelins. Thirty-four winter wolves. The last wolf struck by a javelin fell less than seven meters from the three of them.
The howling from the ridge still continued, but it had dwindled into whimpering.
Lorist slung the leather quiver — with two javelins still remaining — back over his shoulder and said to Pat and Yuri, "Let's move."
"Will those winter wolves on the ridge come after us?" Pat asked.
"No, they won't," Yuri replied. "Magical wolves are very clever beasts. The wolves that ambushed us in the woods and the ones that chased us have all been killed. The winter wolves up on the ridge have realized we're too powerful for them to handle, so they won't throw their lives away again. Listen to how their howling sounds almost like crying — that means they won't pursue us any further. If they were still chasing, the howls would be short and urgent, a command for all the wolves to speed up and not let the prey escape."
Yuri had grown up as a herdsman on the steppes of the Havistan Khanate and knew wolf behavior inside and out. Although one was a magical steppe wolf and the other a winter wolf of the Northland, the nature of wolves was the same — the two breeds weren't all that different.
What Lorist hadn't expected was that the detour he took would consume two full days before he reached the central town of the Sixth District. The main reason was that after sweeping through the Maplewood Estate, the magical beast tide had broken formation entirely, spreading out in all directions, stopping and starting as it searched for lichen and moss buried under the snow to gnaw on.
When Lorist and his group dispatched a solitary golden-striped snow leopard and climbed a high cliff to survey the surroundings, what appeared before them was no longer a world blanketed in white — it was an endless sea of grazing magical herbivores stretching all the way to the horizon…
The
A detailed map of the settlement's terrain was spread out before them.
"My Lord, to our east the terrain is full of hills and small mountains, so we've only set up four settlement villages in that direction. Based on what you've told us about the magical beast tide — if it moves while foraging — it should take several more days for it to cross the hills and mountains. We can still send word to those four settlement villages ahead of—" Norris's words were cut short as an alarm horn blared from the distant city wall…
A gasping, out-of-breath garrison soldier burst through the doors: "M-My Lord, the beast herd — it's coming…"
Lorist let out a helpless sigh. The four settlement villages up ahead were finished…
Seeing the overwhelming beast tide once again felt completely different from when he had witnessed it at Maple Forest Manor. Back then, he had stood atop the towering castle walls. Now, he was on a mud-and-earth rampart barely seven meters high in the central town, watching the beast herd draw ever closer. Lorist could clearly hear the chattering of teeth from more than a few of the garrison soldiers along the wall…
"We need to reinforce the town walls immediately!" Lorist declared.
"But, My Lord, it's freezing cold — it's nearly impossible to dig up soil, and besides, we don't have any reinforcing materials…" Norris stared at the distant beast tide, desperation already creeping into his eyes.
Lorist turned to surveyate the surroundings. His gaze finally settled on the icicles hanging from the eaves of a row of wooden houses not far away.
"Water — use water! Splash it on the walls, quick! Mobilize the entire town — have everyone splash water on the outside of the walls! Once it freezes, it becomes an ice fortress, and the beasts won't be able to touch us!" Lorist ordered urgently.
The people around him perked up. That was actually a brilliant idea — the town could be saved…
The entire central town had a population of over thirteen thousand. Excluding the elderly and children, there were two companies of Family Knights, one company of garrison soldiers, and five or six thousand able-bodied men and women who could lend a hand. With the alarm horn having sounded, every last one of them had been mobilized — fetching water, carrying bucket after bucket up the walls via a human chain, and carefully pouring it down over the outer surface…
"Brother Becker, Joe, Yuri, and Airell — the four of you take the rest of the people and go notify the remaining eight villages in District Six right away. Then pass the word to the central town and the resettlement villages of District Five. Keep spreading the alert from district to district. Tell every town and village to organize their people to do the same thing — pour water on their walls and reinforce them. Every town and resettlement village needs to become an ice fortress. That's the only way to guarantee the safety of all our subjects." Lorist gave his instructions.
"And what about you, My Lord?"
"I'm staying here. I can't leave. If I go, the morale of everyone here will collapse." Lorist answered in a low voice.
"Then I won't leave — I'll stay right by your side, My Lord," Josk said.
"Locke, I'm the commander of the guard battalion. How can I leave your side..." Airell also chimed in.
"Then I'll stay too..."
"Nonsense! This is a critical moment — we need to get moving and notify those towns and villages to prepare. There's no room for excuses. I'll keep Joe, Airell, and Pat by my side, and that will be enough. The rest of you will follow Brother Becker as your leader, with Yuri as deputy. Work out among yourselves how to divide up the notification routes. Remember, you're the only ones who know how to ski and can move about in this heavy snowfall. Whether everyone gets notified or not depends entirely on you. Leave now before the magical beast tide has a chance to surround the city. Don't split up on the road — stay safe. I'm counting on all of you!" Lorist gave a solemn bow.
Berunek, Yuri, and the rest of the team members who had come out of Maplewood Manor together snapped to attention and solemnly saluted Lorist in return. "My Lord, take care..."
...(To be continued.)