Chapter 20: Act 11 – The Will of Two Sides
The temporary grand hall was bathed in flickering light, where candle flames were deliberately reduced, casting deep shadows accentuating the texture of the wooden surfaces.
The secluded corners were deathly silent, the air thick with an ominous chill.
The assembled group had difficulty adapting to the bright firelight, but as long as the middle-aged man seated at the head of the table did not speak — his face pale, wearing an eye patch — none dared to act on their own accord.
Sophie might have recognized him if she were here, as his appearance had changed little from fifteen years later: this was the right-hand man of ‘Black Lord’ Instalung, the vampire Duke known as ‘One-Eyed’ Tagus. He belonged to the Mannlein family, the fourteenth generation vampire, and was of the younger generation. However, his tenure within the Madara army far surpassed that of the inexperienced Instalung.
But it made no difference. This was simply the beginning of their collaboration.
Tagus watched as skeleton soldiers piled out documents from the archive, then he turned around and asked the necromancer beside him, “Speak, what did Rothko leave you behind to report?”
“Respected General Tagus, my lord discovered a scout in that estate,” the necromancer replied with a dry voice, head bowed.
“And?” He glanced at it, retracting his gaze to focus on the open tactical map.
“He escaped.”
A few snickers of disdain echoed around the room.
The vampire general lifted his head, and the subtle sounds quickly subsided. He paused briefly before speaking, “I understand. Rothko has done well. But I hope for better focus. Have him not be distracted by these minor details – I need to see him reach the Bellado Forest before noon.”
The necromancer respectfully nodded and backed out.
But as soon as it left, the conference room emitted discordant voices. The one who spoke this time was a towering skeleton, entirely covered in an old brass armor, with dark yellow flames flickering in its eye sockets, betraying a hint of resentment:
“Lord Tagus, perhaps humanity has discovered our intentions. That scout —”
It opened its mouth, but the wind through its jaw suddenly stifled its words. Because it saw Tagus staring at him with his lone eye, prompting it to instinctively shut its mouth.
Around the room, bursts of low laughter filled the air, the mockery within it causing the flames in its eyes to flicker irritably.
“Cabais.”
“Yes!” The towering skeleton straightened immediately in response.
“You, go take that place.” Tagus pointed at a village on the map.
“Before sunrise,” he pointed at the roof again, “I want to see the result—”
“Yes, Lord Tagus.”
“Wesa, Airden.”
“Yes!” Unison voices replied,
“You, attack Veibin and seal off Dagger Beach.”
“Yes, Lord Tagus.”
“Crow’s Beak.”
“Yes!”
“Given two squads, search and purge the area.”
“Yes!”
Tagus lifted his head, scanning everybody coldly. “You are all nobles of the dark, I wish to see each of your commands executed with elegance and speed, meticulously. Ridenburg, that’s our next target.”
Taking the lead, he stood up, placing his pale hand on his left shoulder and declared, “Victory to Madara—”
All the gathered undead stood up together, responding in a subdued tone, “Victory to Madara—”
Tagus lowered his head, once again focusing his gaze on the map. First, he saw the red pine forests south of Buche, then moved to Green Village, Bellado Forest, then onto Ridenburg— continuing upwards to the pointed stone river valley.
A human scout? He smirked icily in his mind.
…
And at the same time, when the full moon illuminated the peaks of the pine forests.
There was no howling in the mountainous pine woods, but the wind stirred in the black pines, a cold breeze like light smoke threading through the branches, chilling, causing an involuntary shiver down the spine. The young ones of Buche had never spent a night outside before; the mist-filled darkness of the forest always made them a little superstitious, as if every shadow hid a terrifying monster.
But one voice calmed them down—
“Hold this position.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Water—”
“Hand me the bandage.”
“Stanch.”
Finally completed, Sophie wiped the sweat off his brow with a long sigh.
He noticed a faint green +2 floating out from the young man’s body, then calmed down.
After reaching the primary level (level 0) of first aid skills, the effectiveness of the bandaging recovery naturally increased. This was no different from the game, and every place of memory verification made him feel reassured.
How to clean the wound, prevent infection, stop bleeding, bandage it, and attend to the details and techniques required, he coached Markmey and Nibeto step by step on completing everything. Of course, he himself wouldn’t have the strength to operate; his own condition was only slightly better than the unconscious Joson.
By the time the last steps were completed under his guidance by Nibeto, Sophie looked up and noticed everyone staring at him in awe.
Professional.
This was the only comment they had in their minds.
Even Little Finnis turned around seriously to say to the Freya behind him, “Boss, compared to you, your skills are pretty inferior—”
As for Freya standing on the edge of the crowd, her expression was serene.
Indeed, it seemed clear to her now that previously she had merely been an excuse for him to approach her — how shameful! She made her judgment in her heart, then looked worriedly at Romaine, seeing the former gleefully counting the loot on the ground.
That girl.
But by God’s mercy, only Sophie himself knew that this knowledge entirely came from the ‘Battlefield First Aid’ skill, and only when he recalled the list of this skill did those learnings present themselves in his memory. And in the memory of the youth, most of the primary battlefield first-aid knowledge came from the first three sections of the book “Gelzon’s Holy Cross,” mainly explaining the techniques of bandaging. Sophie happened to know Gelzon from the game, the current high priest of Bruglas.
The content of this book seemed as if it had been personally read and studied a hundred times by him. That sense of mastery felt like cheating by learning the rescue techniques externally.
Alas, as the saying goes, even cheating comes at a cost—
And on the other hand.
Sophie quickly learned that the civilian militia’s third squad actually comprised ten members, including Freya in addition to Markmey, Aissen, Eck, and Little Finnis whom he was familiar with.
Then there were the two brothers Nibeto and Vlad who didn’t talk much, whose families had migrated from the Bora region. They inherited their local people’s silent and reticent nature, loving to do rather than to talk.
Then there was Joson, though the latter was unconscious and unlikely to awaken.
Then there was the dream-filled Merchant Miss, and the girl with her. Sophie later learned that this was the daughter of the local baker in the town, though she seemed somewhat introverted and shy, unlike the other two women so generous.
This girl was named Bertha, with a gentle temperament, but at least a kind-hearted good girl.
These were all the people Sophie would need to deal with, and even though they looked like excellent young people, Sophie knew that they were simply rookies unfamiliar with what they would face next.
Therefore, he paused for a moment and then asked, “Do you have any plans?”
The next moment, every face’s smile disappeared, only to be replaced by silence.
“We go to Ridenburg.” After a while, Aissen proposed.
“Right, Captain Marden and his group would surely be heading there too,” Eck agreed.
Unsurprisingly, Sophie shook his head.
He looked up at the young people, seeing on their faces a silence of unease and a disquiet about the unknown future tomorrow. Even though Freya looked somewhat more composed, her pale knuckles gripping the sword handle betrayed her true emotions.
Only Romaine responded as a matter of course, “I’m with Brendel.”
This answer made Sophie both amused and exasperated, but the merchant miss’s blunt honesty was endearing. He paused for a bit and said, “Alright, one point I agree with you— our current priority is to leave here.”
“So, that means there’s a point you disagree with, right?” Freya asked.
Sophie nodded, “Does anyone have a map?”
Everyone looked at each other, who would have such a thing? Although they were militiamen, under most circumstances, militia were commanded by local garrison forces anyway, in truth, they were nothing but reserves.
And Sophie also realized his slip of mouth, in Erluin unauthorized possession of maps was punished as espionage. He always thought himself into the role of a traveler, forgetting that he was now a member of this world.
And here, there were no longer any players.
“The military might have them…” Markmey stammered from behind the crowd.
Sophie shook his head, heart thinking that this was redundant talk, wasn’t it? Sighing, he turned around and said to the merchant woman, “Romaine, lend me a sword.”
“Sure, Brendel.”
Sophie took the sword and drew two lines on the soft ground with it.
“This is the Veist River, this is the Yisong River.”
He pointed with the tip of the sword between the two rivers, “Here’s Buche, here’s Green Village, here’s Veibin.”
He only sketched a rough outline with a few simple strokes, yet the young people were in awe once again. After all, in this era, not many had his knowledge of the world—
“That’s not the three towns?” Bertha couldn’t help but cover her small mouth.
“So amazing, our place looks like this.” Eck’s gaze on Sophie held a trace of admiration.
“So Buche is here?”
“Brendel, how do you know this?” The people asked in a cacophony, after all, they were young, and couldn’t help but let out their curiosity.
Sophie shook his head,
Come on, the three towns in the beginner area he didn’t recognize, then he might as well hit his head on the tofu and die already. Of course, he couldn’t answer like that. He deliberately countered with, “Didn’t you learn this, tactical maps?”
Tactical maps? What’s that?
Perplexed silence surrounded the group, Martha above, could the militiamen of Bruglas have to learn this?
The group couldn’t help but hold some blind admiration.
But our hero secretly laughed within himself, this thing even the lower-ranking petty officers of the regular army generally wouldn’t comprehend, much less militia. And still, he pointed at the convergence point of the two rivers with the sword,
“Here is Ridenburg.”
“Ah, this is Ridenburg?” Romaine asked curiously.
“What?” Sophie clearly heard snickers all around him and couldn’t help but raise his head and ask.
“So, Brendel brother, when Romaine was a child, she envied Ridenburg’s merchants so much, constantly clamoring to become a merchant. Once she ran away, claiming she would conduct big business in Ridenburg—but” Little Finnis not only betrayed them instantly but spun a suspenseful yarn.
The people couldn’t help but laugh silently.
“And?” Sophie asked.
“Haha, she lost her way in the forest halfway and was later found by Uncle Sil,” Little Finnis laughed heartily.
“It’s not true, not at all.” Romaine’s eyebrows bristled.
Sophie glanced at the future merchant woman and couldn’t help but think, it seems the lesson wasn’t learned enough.
“Alright, let’s return to the subject. Why do you want to go to Ridenburg?” He calmed his emotions and continued asking.
“There’s the army there.”
“Captain Marden and his people will surely go there.”
“My uncle is also there.” The crowd once again broke into chatter, but the meaning was the same — they all had their own family members. Though they had briefly parted, perhaps they would go to Ridenburg, so why not go to Ridenburg?
This answer left Sophie with little to counter. This was quite normal—who would abandon their loved ones? But he also knew that the vast majority of those who fled from Buche would very likely be caught by the great army of Madara. And now going to Ridenburg would only be walking into the trap.
Sophie was very clear that they must advance parallel to the ‘death’ detachment of Cabais and then one step out of phase enter the Bellado Forest, before the encirclement completed by Airden and Wesa to ford Dagger Beach. From there, they would enter the Deer Hunting Forest, skirting Instalung’s main forces to reach Antzek and inform the local guard of the attack plan of Gusta’s flank.
Only this way could these people survive, and Erluin not collapse as terribly as history dictated.
But how could he articulate this?
Forget it, let’s still take it step by step. He massaged his slightly heavy forehead and changed his words, “Alright, we can start moving in the direction of Ridenburg, then decide what to do next depending on the situation.”
Then he raised his head and met Freya’s concerned gaze, obviously the girl didn’t fully trust his words.
“Mr. Brendel?”
“Nothing, merely making a judgment. The situation may change.” He smiled at the girl. But though he said that, he couldn’t help but sigh within himself.
Reality was brutal, not allowing him, who was yet so powerless, to choose. Of course, if there’s a chance, he would definitely try.
A housebound youth was, indeed, naive.
He could not help but sarcastically self-deprecate—
…
(PS. Scores keep not going up. Sigh.)
