Chapter 00182: Pocket Encounter (1)
# Pocket Encounter (1)
Chapter 182
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 182: Pocket Encounter (1)
Demon Lord Calendar, Year 648.
Late June, morning.
As summer arrived, the southern side of the Spine of the World Mountains was plagued by endless rain.
The abundant moisture gathered into raindrops that fell from the sky, flowing along the winding rocks and hillsides to merge into countless small streams.
A troop of about four hundred men rode their horses over the slippery ground.
They flew the banner of the Avarus Demon Kingdom and the crest of Count Fran's Fief.
The war banner, which would have been held high on any other day, now hung limp and lifeless, much like the men themselves.
Rainwater seeped through the gaps in the cavalrymen's armor.
Many of them had long been soaked to the bone, causing the bloodstains on their bandages, which should have dried, to bleed anew.
This rain not only wore down their physical strength but also seemed to erode each man's will.
They did not know where they were going, only茫然地 following Count Fran at the very front of the column.
He was their sole pillar of support.
But at this moment, Count Fran himself was also very lost.
Other than knowing that he could not stop, he had no idea where to go or what to do.
Count Fran and Count Leon were two completely different types of people.
He was a noble, yet he never used his status to bully others.
He believed that what made the nobility honorable was their duty to bear greater responsibilities, not simply their ability to exercise more rights.
His territory was located on the upper reaches of the Solhan River, which flowed from the Spine of the World Mountains into the sea.
It was the closest cargo transfer station to Sailing Harbor.
Although the territory was called Fran's Fief, everyone actually preferred to call it Half-Moon Fortress, because the fortress was built in a half-moon shaped mountain hollow.
It was surrounded on three sides by towering, unclimbable mountain walls.
As long as a city wall was built on the front side, it was a natural fortress.
The cargo coming and going from Sailing Harbor brought considerable wealth to Half-Moon Fortress, and Count Fran used most of this wealth on public welfare projects.
The local commoners lived very prosperous lives, and Count Fran was deeply beloved.
Because the territory was on an important shipping route, a good number of troops were stationed there to deal with bandits.
Adding in Count Fran's own private army, the total number was five or six thousand.
Among the many lords of the Avarus Demon Kingdom, this number of soldiers was definitely at the bottom of the list in terms of strength, but Count Fran's reputation and loyalty could be ranked among the top.
He was an idealistic noble, courteous and polite, never evading or shirking his responsibilities.
He loved his country, was loyal to the royal family, and at the same time, cared for the commoners.
He was a good noble with a sterling reputation.
But this good noble, it seemed, was not very good at fighting wars.
He was the kind of character in a strategy game whose domestic affairs attribute was as high as seventy or eighty, but whose military strategy attribute was probably not even thirty or forty.
When the news that the capital had been captured by the Coalition of Four Nations arrived, Count Fran, facing such an emergency, consistently demonstrated his superb administrative skills.
He immediately organized everyone in his territory to prepare for a defensive stand and sent out a large number of scouts to try and gather intelligence.
The reason he did not immediately organize his soldiers to go and help was that feudal lords were not allowed to leave their territories at will, let alone lead troops to the capital.
This would be seen as having rebellious tendencies.
In other words, Count Fran initially believed that the news of the capital's fall was purely false intelligence released by the enemy.
From the bottom of his heart, he did not believe it.
But the result, clearly, had nothing to do with whether he believed it or not.
After breaking through the capital, the Coalition of Four Nations immediately blossomed out from the center, marching towards the other noble fiefs of the Avarus Demon Kingdom.
Amid his shock, Count Fran had already mentally prepared himself to die in battle.
Then, fate played another joke on him.
One of the four allied nations, the Subia Demon Kingdom Army, known as the "Tiger of the Kingdom," made a powerful pass in front of his territory.
It was as if they had completely ignored it, turning around to attack Sailing Harbor, not caring about Count Fran at all.
This was understandable.
Sailing Harbor was the largest fortress city in the Northlands and a vital naval port.
Once captured, it would basically cripple the naval power of the Avarus Demon Kingdom and also mean controlling the Northlands.
In contrast, Fran's Fief had very little strategic value, and attacking it would mean facing the easily defensible Half-Moon Fortress.
The gains simply weren't worth the losses, so the Coalition of Four Nations' attitude towards Fran's Fief was to blockade and ignore it.
The greatest insult is not to point at your nose and curse you, but to act as if you don't exist.
Fortunately, the shocked and furious Count Fran did not lose his reason.
He calmly used the limited intelligence to judge the enemy's movements and personally led his cavalry to harass the logistical supply lines of the Subia Demon Kingdom Army.
Doing so could, on one hand, help relieve the pressure on Sailing Harbor, and on the other, allow Count Fran to re-establish contact with Sailing Harbor.
This second point was very important.
Not long after the news of the capital's fall arrived, communication between Fran's Fief and the surrounding territories had been almost completely cut off.
Only occasional rumors would filter through.
He did not know if the surrounding lords were still resisting or if they had already surrendered.
This feeling of loneliness was unbearable to him.
So far, Count Fran had been doing quite well.
The surprise attacks on the transport supply lines had indeed caused a certain amount of trouble for the Subia Demon Kingdom Army.
However, you must understand, their title of "Tiger of the Kingdom" was not just for show.
Leading his troops out to harass the supply lines as usual, it came as no surprise that Count Fran fell into an ambush.
What was even more terrifying was that even though he and his soldiers were most familiar with the terrain here, every time they found an escape route, it would be blocked by the enemy.
He felt as if he were hopping in the palm of that Tiger of the Kingdom; no matter which way he ran, his move would be predicted.
Count Fran had been leading his troops in flight for two days and two nights, only resting for a few hours in a farmstead they encountered along the way.
Both men and horses were nearing their limits.
And what chilled his heart even more was the look in the eyes of the commoners at that farmstead.
The fear when they saw Count Fran, and the relief when they left, all pierced Count Fran's heart like a sharp sword.
The populace had begun to accept the invaders and feared that their own country's army would bring them trouble.
The country he loved was shattered, the king and prince he was loyal to were dead in battle, the princess's whereabouts were unknown, and now even the common people were starting to abandon him.
Count Fran slammed a fist against his own armor.
He wanted to roar and vent the emotions in his heart, but he could not.
The soldiers behind him were watching.
They followed their loyal lord, just as Count Fran was loyal to the royal family.
He could not let his soldiers down.
Lifting his head to look at the sky, the rain trickled down along the edge of his helmet and splashed onto his face.
It was impossible to tell if it was rain or tears.
Count Fran had already tried his best.
He had exhausted all his talents, but in the face of the great tide of the era, he was as helpless as a fragile infant.
Why?
In the end, why had it come to this?
No one would give him an answer.
The answer to this question was like the hazy mist that shrouded the road ahead, impossible to see clearly, impossible to understand.
He felt as if he could already foresee that this vicinity might be the place of his death.
The heavy rain continued to pour, not only robbing them of too much strength but also extinguishing, bit by bit, the flame in Count Fran's heart...