Although it was said that Margaret escaped from the big mansion in the center of Parnilla in the beginning just to have an adventure, in retrospect, the number of unfortunate accidents they encountered along the way was a bit too much. , even by adventurous standards.
Doom seemed to hang over the entire team. Even after meeting the Imperial Knights, things didn't get better.
The mercenaries and merchants, who were looking forward to finally being able to have a good meal, came to nothing after arriving at the garrison where Constantine's men were located. Although they felt - or they hoped - that the knight captain made an error in judgment and went to the wrong place because of this damn fog, the smell of blood around them was so strong that it seemed like a real substance, but it still constantly reminded them that these people were very dangerous. The fact that he might have been killed.
The situation suddenly worsened.
It was still five or six days' journey from the small town of Scotti, even based on the foot power of the war horses. Without logistical supplies, the combat effectiveness of the more than 30 heavily armored knights would be greatly reduced, and they would not even be able to move normally.
But compared to the disappearance of supplies and logistics personnel, what everyone is ready to talk about are two other problems that are closely related to this.
"What kind of thing can kill nearly a hundred heavily armed Imperial soldiers?"
"If they are undead, walking zombies, and ghouls, monsters with no brains and only instincts, how did they learn to attack logistics supplies, so that they even take away food, grass and supplies?"
The answers to these two questions can be made clear by carefully observing the battlefield.
Henry rode his horse and moved slowly to a small tree full of blood.
There was a stubby crossbow nailed to it. Judging from the height and the blood all over the arrow, it was obvious that it had passed through someone's soft tissue, such as the throat. And even though it was stained with blood, it could still be seen that the turkey tail feathers were two white and one blue. It was undoubtedly the national style of the highlanders.
Arrows and crossbows like this were densely scattered on the ground, on nearby tree trunks, and on damaged shields, silently revealing the identity of the perpetrators.
"You fucking--" "Qiang--" The angry imperial knights drew their swords, while Rono and the other ten people looked at a loss.
In addition to blood, there were dense human footprints all around. The steps of many people dug deep into the soft ground, obviously because they were carrying heavy objects such as grain and grass supplies.
"It's a night attack." Constantine, who dismounted, picked up an extinguished torch from the ground, and the blood that had solidified into dark red also reminded them of this fact.
"Catch them all." The knight commander issued the order. The target must bear the anger of his subordinates' suffering. If he still plans to spare Rono and others at this point, his prestige will definitely be questioned.
"Put down your weapons!" Mikhail led a group of knights to surround a dozen Highlanders. The short villagers wearing large armor looked like children wearing adult shoes. Compared with the tall and strong noble knights riding war horses, they looked completely pitiful and weak. But they looked around, and no matter how pitiful their expressions were, it was impossible for anyone to stand up for them.
"Bah." Some mercenaries even spat on the ground to express their bad breath.
Henry and Mira watched all this quietly. This is a scene where it is difficult to tell who is right and who is wrong. Although at first glance it looks like the nobles are oppressing the common people, the knights do have their own reasons for their anger.
So the wrong party and the evil party are Rono and the others? Not entirely.
If they were not forced by life and almost couldn't survive without anyone to help them, they would prefer to stay in their own land and continue to live the ordinary life of farmers.
Because it was the Highlanders who attacked their companions who stayed in the camp, the knights' anger was directed at Ronno and others. This seems like killing a whole bunch of people with one stick, but then again, no one can erase the mark of belonging to a certain camp on you.
Where you are born, what kind of blood flows in your veins, these are things that you cannot get rid of in your lifetime.
Even if you want to escape, others will apply this brand to you again and again.
"Dirty and unruly people." Hungry and cold, with no fighting spirit, the dozen or so highlanders who had compromised once before did not offer any resistance this time with their weakened knees. They were easily captured by Mikhail and others. After being unarmed and tied up again with hemp rope, the group of people was escorted to the other side by the knights.
The mercenaries and merchants didn't know what to do. They originally thought that they would be able to get sufficient supplies when they arrived here, but now they came in vain.
It was already a little after 4 pm. Although it was not yet evening, the shorter daylight hours in winter and the thick fog had already made the surroundings become gloomy.
Keep going?
But Scotti was five or six days away, and neither man nor horse had enough to eat for a long time, so how could he still have the strength. And what if we are attacked again on the road?
Most people, including some knights, were a little confused. And it was in this situation that a businessman suddenly noticed something.
"its not right"
"Where did the body go?" He asked this question in straightforward language. Although his voice was only at a normal speaking volume, it was like thunder in the ears of the confused people.
This is a question that makes people tremble once they think about it.
Henry and Mira noticed this problem early, as did Ferruccio, Constantine and others. Horno obviously noticed this as well. She was half-kneeling on the carriage, her eyes glowing with blue power under her hood carefully looking at her surroundings.
It is impossible for the highlanders to clean up the battlefield. Their own culture believes that dead bodies should be returned to the wild. The traditional burial method is to abandon the corpses high in the mountains to be eaten by raptors and scavengers, which is called "sky burial". Not to mention that they were cleaning up the corpses of the imperial soldiers they hated.
There are hundreds of fully armed imperial soldiers, and even the knight attendants are future knights who have undergone at least three years of training.
In such hostile territory, it was impossible for them to completely let down their guard like the militias.
Therefore, even if the highlanders make a sneak attack at night, their advantage will only be reflected in the first wave of attacks. When the regular army reacts, it will definitely be an arduous tug-of-war.
The bloodstains and various broken weapons left at the scene, as well as a large number of arrows and cone-shaped stones from slings, as well as splintered wood and broken branches, as well as footprints everywhere, all indicate that the imperial soldiers under Constantine's command fought. It was a real tough battle.
Considering the level of equipment and training, even if the Highlanders win, the casualties they pay will not be less than two to three times that of the Imperial Army.
The victory was entirely based on numbers, and even so, it was still a miserable victory.
So where did these dead bodies, which numbered at least three to four hundred, go?
Most people don't want to think about this issue in detail, because once they get into this corner, they will completely crush themselves and collapse because of this fear.
But fear and threats don’t really go away just because you turn a blind eye.
Action must be taken.
Action must be taken.
They woke up instantly under the influence of fear and tension.
The mercenaries and merchants took axes from the carriages, and the knights began to search for anything that could be used from the original camp. If they were going to spend the night here tonight, they couldn't sleep in the open woodland anymore.
The sound of "click-click--" was heard one after another, and many damaged fabrics and anything else that could be used in the original camp were picked up again.
"Come for a walk with me." Constantine said as he walked near Henry holding his helmet. The sage and Mira looked at each other, then both got off their horses.
The three of them walked forward on foot. Mira had just walked for a while when she realized that this was the direction in which the highlanders who attacked the military camp were evacuating. If it were a battlefield, the footprints on the ground would be much messier, heading in all directions. , and there is serious overlap between them.
Only the footprints left during evacuation or attack are relatively straight, and most of them are in the same direction.
She determined that these were the footprints of the highlanders when they evacuated. In addition to the fact that the traces extended toward the distance, many of them were very deep and were obviously left behind by carrying heavy objects.
Over at the camp, the army's logistics carriage was destroyed. This was most likely the work of the soldiers themselves, unwilling to let their supplies fall into the hands of the thugs.
These damaged carriages, along with many other artifacts, are being dismantled by knights, mercenaries and merchants to make perimeter protection such as fences.
What the three of them were doing was walking forward and carefully observing the various traces left in the surrounding environment in order to have a clearer understanding of the situation.
But why Constantine chose Henry instead of the more familiar knights under his command was a question that Mira couldn't figure out.
"The hind feet touched the ground and the footsteps were steady." Constantine squatted down and carefully observed the footprints on the ground: "It seems that they have indeed completely lost. These people walked forward leisurely and leisurely. There was absolutely no sign of being pursued by anyone.”
"There are prisoners." Henry reminded concisely. Mira and Constantine followed his instructions and indeed saw some drag tracks on the ground that were superimposed by subsequent footprints but could still be seen to some extent.
The two parallel lines were obviously the marks of an unconscious person being carried along by someone else, his feet dragging across the muddy ground.
"Should I call it a good thing or a bad thing?" Constantine muttered this in a low voice. Although death is a bad thing, as imperial soldiers who were captured by minority thugs who were hostile to mainstream Laman society, perhaps they would die happily. what is expected.
"Ah -" Mira whispered with a sudden realization. She knew some of the reasons why Constantine did not bring his own men but asked them, two outsiders, to go investigate together.
Lacking supplies, and with only more than 30 cavalrymen, they faced the highland mob with at least several hundred people left. Even on flat ground, unless the opponent is so stupid that he cannot move at all, there will be no overwhelming defeat. In complex terrain such as mountains, there are even more uncertain factors. Not to mention that they don't even know where each other is now.
It is very difficult to save people, and you will probably lose yourself. And there are other threats nearby.
If you don't save him, then even if your subordinates can understand this fact, they can't help but think about it.
'If I were captured, would I be left alone? '
Morale and military morale will be shaken in this kind of place. Constantine is a shrewd leader. It was precisely because of the possibility of being captured that he chose Henry and Mira to accompany him.
Footprints will not remain forever, and in time they will disappear completely. He can decide slowly whether to go to the rescue or not. If the situation permits, he can just mention it again. If the situation after that is too tense, this discovery will be buried in his heart forever.
Is this cruel?
The answer to this question will not change whether it is Mira's answer before or now.
Yes, she can understand the reason for this, and understands that the so-called "don't give up, don't give up" is just a slogan for naive young people.
But you have to at least try everything. Mira looked at Henry, and she suddenly understood what the sage meant when he said that Constantine was "worse than me."
It is true that the two people are somewhat similar in appearance and temperament, but this is only the impression given at the beginning. Constantine is more utilitarian and decisive. If Henry is the stable inner sea of Mobigas, then Constantine is like the raging outer sea.
Extraordinary ability, young, decisive, like an unsheathed sword. By following him, you may reach the sky in one step, but this double-edged sword may come back to hurt your own people at any time.
This person is very dangerous.
Mira retreated behind Henry in small steps, and Constantine stood up, looked at her with interest, and then met the sage's eyes again.
"What is your guess number?" He said to Henry, even though they had only met for a little while, he acted as naturally as if both parties were already familiar enough to be sure that the sage would be able to answer this question.
"At least six hundred and fifty people, and they should have gathered several other surrounding villages." Henry replied, and then asked: "Shouldn't you have known the approximate strength of the troops a long time ago?"
He said, and Constantine was stunned for a moment, while Mira looked at the sage.
"Strangulating monsters and monsters has never been something that the regular army of the empire does. They either leave it to mercenaries or hire professional church execution teams. You just happened to come to the Bao Forest while performing other tasks, didn't you?" He said bluntly Staring at Constantine, even though they were almost the same in physique, the knight commander actually wanted to retreat because of those eyes.
"It's amazing, the legend is indeed well-deserved." He muttered a few words in a low voice, then increased his volume and said frankly: "Yes, we are here just to suppress the bandits."
"So if you go ahead and do the opposite, there will be no way for those highlanders to survive." Constantine imitated Henry and shrugged, and in his words, he had already determined the life and death of a group of people.
"" Mira was silent.
Henry said nothing either.
The subject was not a suitable one to delve into, so they left it at that.
The three of them turned around and walked forward. After a while, they found some different traces.
"The tracks became deeper. Toe first, heel very shallow."
"There was an attack, but where did the attack come from-"
"There was a lot of blood." The three of them walked forward.
"Fell down here." A large dent appeared on the ground, and you could vaguely see the shape of a human body. A large pool of blood flowed out almost near the neck, stained on the grass blades. It had solidified, and the rest seeped into the soil.
"Then" Henry squatted down and looked at the messy soil marks on his knees, elbows and wrists.
"Alive again." He turned back and looked at Mira and Constantine.
"Well, now we understand where the dead body is." Constantine continued: "This is bad news, and the good news is that we have dinner tonight."
He pointed forward. It seemed that the highlanders were being attacked by the resurrected zombies. They left a lot of supplies and fled in panic.
After returning to the camp, they notified the mercenaries to come and help with the transportation. A bonfire was lit in the camp surrounded by a temporary wall composed of fences and carriages. After a long time, everyone was indulged in their appetites and temporarily forgot about the battles of the past few days. At this time, Horno came to Henry's side.
"Ishtar, Molière, Daphrotier" The magical radiance exuded by her emerald eyes has not stopped since the afternoon.
And the literal translation of these words whispered in Elvish is.
"There's something in the fog."
"Shua————"
"Woo————"
The wind blew loudly.
The bonfire swayed.
have what.
coming.
