Chapter 905: Act 81 – Infiltrating the Night
Brendel understood that the court knight named Trevor was speaking of events that had occurred a day prior. After leaving Valgris, they had moved north along the Milky River, encountering a battlefield resulting from fierce fighting on the north side of Leafwood Avenue. The combatants were clearly the private armies of imperial nobility and the subterranean creatures of Jotungrund. The battlefield, stretching across the long riverbank and Leafwood Avenue, was littered with the corpses of humans, earth wyrms, griffins, troglodytes, and elf-ladies. The ground was soaked with blood, now congealed in the biting cold of winter, forming patches of dark crimson on the stones. The nobles from Cruz recognized several familiar faces among the dead—Sir Moore was among them, a bone arrow piercing his throat, leaving him sprawled on the battlefield, just another cold body in the sea of lifeless forms.
Such scenes often indicated the empire’s disastrous defeat. The Cruz nobility would not easily abandon the bodies of their comrades for the sake of dignity, and even the bodies of nobles went unattended. One could almost imagine Earl Orkans and his men wading through the icy waters in a desperate retreat to the north.
As for Jotungrund, the subterranean creatures rarely dealt with the corpses left on the battlefield—unless they were short on food, in which case disease posed little threat to them.
“Brendel, it seems they are planning to sneak into the town,” Romaine suddenly whispered, her eyes shining in the twilight, resembling a cat’s reflecting light in low visibility.
Brendel noted this too and immediately spoke to Rogers, “Sir Knight, do you have any way to contact them?”
Rogers pondered for a moment, “I know there’s a signal used by the local military of Anzeruta; perhaps we can give it a try.”
“Go ahead, but don’t let those things overhead discover us.”
“I understand.” Rogers nodded and crawled into the bushes, peering at the dense thickets below. He then placed his thumb and index finger in his mouth and blew a loud whistle—its sound echoed in the twilight forest, resembling a night owl’s screech, yet sharper. This owl-like cry inevitably caught the attention of the elf-ladies above, causing them to fly in large arcs toward this direction. The group hidden in the grass remained motionless, quietly waiting for the watchful eyes in the sky to pass. Moments later, the dim-winged beasts apparently found nothing unusual and flew back.
Brendel heard the others beside him exhale deeply, and he himself felt slightly relieved, but Romaine, the Merchant Miss beside him, showed no sign of fear, seemingly carefree.
Silence returned, gradually filled only by the faint chirps of insects in the dark.
The figures in the witch hazel trees froze as well. Cold sweat coated Rogers’ forehead; he knew several codes used by the imperial army in Anzeruta, but whether they would be useful now was uncertain. He understood the nature of these local noble’s private armies well. His greatest worry was not that they couldn’t decipher the signal, but rather that they might misinterpret it and cause some outrageous incident, which would attract the attention of the garrison in the town. Realizing this, he suddenly acknowledged that perhaps remaining silent earlier had been the right choice after all.
The silence lasted for a while before the thicket below stirred again, rustling sounds coming through.
“Hey.” Charles looked over, somewhat surprised, “There’s actually a mage among them.”
It was as if a sudden wind rose in the forest, stirring the treetops to rustle, but everyone heard a low human whisper amidst the rustling: “Who… is… there?”
This was Wind Message, one of the few communication spells that could function in areas suppressed by magic. Since it relied on natural forces rather than breaching the laws of space, spells like dimensional anchor had no effect on it. High-level elven mages and druids could even extend Wind Messages thousands of miles away, but this spell had a characteristic of slowness; it sometimes took days or even weeks for the message to flow from one area to another. For most elemental mage apprentices, Wind Message was generally just a close-range communication spell not exceeding visual distance, often used by mages in armies as a supplement to sign language and lip reading.
Brendel turned to Charles and instructed, “Tell them we are the people of Earl Ji’en.”
Charles looked at his lord with surprise, wondering if the imprisoned Earl Ji’en would be furious to hear this. Nevertheless, internal complaints aside, he proceeded as instructed. Though not an elemental mage, he could mimic several common spells due to their commonality, and since the nature of rule spells was to simulate laws, this nearly trick-like Wind Message was effortless for him to imitate, smoothly transmitting the information and making it clear that his words were more fluid than those of the other party.
His method clearly astonished the other side. After a brief pause, Brendel saw six or seven individuals rising one after another from the witch hazel thicket, peeking toward them. Rogers deliberately waved at them, allowing these people to confirm their location. Upon seeing Rogers, they immediately crouched and ran up the hill. The dense vegetation on the hillside didn’t attract attention from the creatures above, and soon they reached the edge of the bushes at the top of the hill, with the foremost individual spotting Erluin’s envoy behind Rogers.
“You—!”
The person evidently recognized Brendel, his expression changed, instinctively stepping back. But Brendel would not give him this opportunity; fearing complications, he raised his hand, and the lines of laws distributed across the vast space lit up simultaneously, ensnaring these seven individuals like a net. He then tugged, and the seven appeared around them, crashing onto the ground heavily.
The seven landed in succession, and Rogers, seeing one of them, exclaimed in surprise, “Sir Cooper, you’re still alive!”
The one whom he referred to as Sir Cooper appeared to be in his early fifties but had a stocky build and a somewhat shifty appearance that was unbefitting of his noble status. However, those familiar with him understood him to be sharp-witted. Upon hearing his captain’s low exclamation, he realized trouble was brewing and instinctively turned to flee, but alas, it was too late. Before he could take a step, an invisible force lifted him up, suddenly hurling him to the ground; he fell dazed and in shock, faintly hearing someone calling his name—those Jotungrund creatures could hardly recognize him, and the Cruz language spoken was distinctly in the local accent of Anzeruta. His mind was racing, and upon hearing this soft call, he immediately felt relieved.
“Don’t shout!” he hurriedly instructed his subordinates in a low voice, then looked up with suspicious eyes scanning around—his gaze first landed on Brendel, and his expression changed, clearly recognizing the earl who had disrupted Anzeruta, yet he then glanced at Rogers, a hint of surprise in his gaze: “I know you; your father is Berjart. Weren’t you selected for the Royal Knights? How did you end up here?”
“It’s a long story,” Rogers, not daring to reveal his true identity, forced a smile and replied, “I came to Anzeruta on a special mission, never expected to run into this situation. Right now, I’m in a similar position to you, both being the captives of the earl, but the earl promised to take us to safety, while you only face ransom.”
“Sir Cooper, you don’t want to be a captive of those monsters, do you?”
Cooper shivered; those monsters were killers. He had witnessed troglodytes behead a noble and stick the bloody head on a sharp stake. He quickly shook his head, directly ordering his subordinates to take off their swords and hand them to Brendel, bowing deeply as he did so, being much more composed than the hesitant Earl Ji’en: “My safety now relies entirely on you, my lord. I have absolute faith in your credibility.”
Brendel smiled; he had no idea what kind of credibility he had in these people’s eyes. His only connection with these local nobles of Anzeruta was having captured a large group of hostages from among them. Just half a week ago, they still referred to him as a demon, yet now he was portrayed as a reputable earl. Not just Brendel, even the plump young Afram hiding behind the bushes couldn’t help but gawk at this scene, unable to refrain from turning to the duchess beside him: “You’re not dreaming, are you, Oni?”
The duchess had a complex expression, gently responding with a “yes.”
Brendel knew that Rogers was subtly reminding Cooper to adjust his attitude towards him, but he didn’t mind; this court knight spoke quite nicely.
“Sir Cooper,” Rogers took note of Brendel’s attitude and continued, “how did you end up here? What about the others?”
Cooper’s face twisted further at this question: “Don’t mention it; Earl Orkans has already been captured by those monsters.”
“What! Is the earl still alive?” Rogers exclaimed in shock, drawing Brendel’s attention.
“Well… as far as I know, he should still be alive, but I can’t rule out that something has happened during this interval that I’m unaware of,” Cooper replied cautiously, clearly taken aback by Rogers’ reaction.
“No, no. I thought you all had been annihilated on Leafwood Avenue,” Rogers quickly realized his misunderstanding and began to clarify.
“That isn’t true, but it was close.” Cooper sighed deeply: “All those damned monsters! That night we were in a hurry to head north; those rats ambushed us in the dark. Sir Moore was the first to be attacked at the front. Poor old Moore, he was built like an ox. We all thought he would live forever, but it’s truly unpredictable—At that time in the dark, none of us knew who the enemy was; they flowed in from all directions, both above and below, and we were quickly overwhelmed. I was at the southernmost point and saw the earl and the others fleeing north across the riverbank.”
“And then? How did you find out Earl Orkans was captured?” Brendel suddenly asked.
“I saw it with my own eyes. After losing contact with the earl that night, I tried to ascertain the whereabouts of the others. Later, I learned they went to Buos.”
“Buos!” Rogers, Trevor, and Romaine blurted out simultaneously, repeating the name of the place.
“What’s wrong?” Cooper looked at them in confusion.
“Nothing, please continue.” Brendel replied.
Cooper nodded, a hint of suspicion in his eyes, and continued, “Actually, it wasn’t Buos. The earl and the others never reached Buos; they were surrounded at North Hill Outpost. When I got there, I saw with my own eyes them being captured by troglodytes.”
“North Hill Outpost? But why would Earl Orkans head in that direction?” Rogers asked, perplexed. “Buos is a dead end.”
Brendel had previously inquired about Buos from Princess Margadale and knew that there was once a crystal mine there before the Year of Thunder. That place had flourished due to the mine but fell into decay with the depletion of the veins, gradually becoming a forgotten corner. He speculated that Earl Orkans likely sought a hiding spot, realizing he couldn’t outrun the troglodytes, with no realistic hope of breaking through to retreat to Yasar or Lune, instead depending on Jotungrund’s subterranean creatures’ primary target being Yasar and not troubling him in the mountain recesses.
But unfortunately, things did not go as hoped—
“I think the earl underestimated the scale of that monstrous army. From my observations, there are at least four different underground city lords involved in the battlefield at Anziluwa; they have the capability to capture Yasar promptly and also divide their forces to deal with the garrison at Buos,” Cooper shook his head.
“No one expected this; we didn’t anticipate they would come at all,” Rogers chuckled bitterly, shaking his head, “those rats underground understand us too well. We don’t know who leads them, yet they know us intimately.”
On the surface, he merely complained, but he carefully concealed the true, chilling thoughts in his heart. He had not forgotten the troglodytes’ attack on them—while the existence of the court knights was a semi-public secret in the empire, their identities outside were rare for anyone to recognize. The means of communication among the court knights lay in the hands of only a few individuals. He genuinely could not imagine how those troglodytes had located them.
Was it coincidence or human factors? Several names floated through his mind, and among those names, if any of them betrayed the empire, it would spell unimaginable disaster.
He could only pray that this was just one of Lady Martha’s cruel jokes.
Listening to the conversation between the two, Brendel’s gaze drifted far into the valley that seemed to hold a shadow of gloom. He suddenly felt compelled to ask, “Is Earl Orkans in Gravel Town now?”
Cooper paused the conversation, turning back to look at Brendel. After a while, he spoke, “I saw them enter Gravel Town around four or five in the afternoon when the sun hadn’t set yet. A long line passed through the valley coming from the North Hill Outpost, and I could clearly observe there were many human captives among them… Assuming the earl is still alive, he should be among them.”
“Was Gravel Town attacked before that?”
“Prior to that, yes.”
“How can we confirm whether Earl Orkans and the others are still in the town, or have already exited toward the other side of the valley and been moved elsewhere?”
Cooper opened his mouth, “Honestly, I hadn’t thought of that.” He looked at Brendel in confusion, not expecting that this young Earl Erluin would think so thoroughly.
Brendel didn’t care about Cooper’s confusion and quickly asked, “Did the patroling elf-ladies in the sky change shifts?”
“There was once,” the latter replied truthfully.
“Then did the Jotungrund army that attacked Earl Orkans include any elf-ladies?”
“Um… it seems not.”
“Well then,” Brendel adjusted the collar of his earl’s cloak to prevent the cold night wind from seeping in, fixating his gaze on the valley as he responded, “The Shadel troglodytes have two renowned lords: one is the sorcerer Gerard, and the other is Tanpu. Neither of these clans has allied with elf-ladies, meaning the garrison in the town had no dealings with the Shadel troglodytes’ defenses—”
“They’ve already left?” Cooper asked cautiously.
“Not necessarily; what I mean is that it’s possible multiple lords’ armies are stationed in this town.” Brendel frowned, which was bad news for them.
Cooper instinctively fell silent, not quite understanding what this earl was contemplating.
“Sir Cooper, are you sure the Jotungrund army in the afternoon returned from the North Hill Outpost?”
“What do you mean by that, my lord? My scouts wouldn’t deceive me.” Cooper appeared slightly offended.
“You don’t need to be angry; I’m not doubting you, Sir Cooper. I just want to confirm one thing: Did your scouts really see that army of Jotungrund return to Gravel Town after attacking Earl Orkans at North Hill Outpost?”
Just as Cooper was about to respond affirmatively, something clicked, and he paused with a look of surprise.
Rogers reacted even more strongly, nearly jumping up and shouting, “They returned directly to Gravel Town after attacking North Hill Outpost!? What about Buos? Were they merely targeting Earl Orkans?”
“This…” Cooper looked bewildered, “I truly don’t understand how this even happened!”
