Returning to the Bandit Camp After Countless Hardships
The shadow standing atop the castle wall, gazing down at him with cold indifference, vanished. Adelia screamed and thrashed violently. She wanted to seize him even if it meant crawling across the ground on her hands and knees.
The heteromorph youth had inflicted a humiliation that cut to the marrow of her bones. Never in her life had anyone trampled her so cruelly. She had always lived as a winner. She believed no one could surpass her. She had charged down the road to success proclaiming herself the greatest under heaven, so arrogant that those around her openly called her conceited. Yet now…
"Aaaaaaaaah!" Unable to contain the rage boiling up from her chest, Adelia let out a savage howl toward the night sky.
"Lady Adelia!" Sinclair arrived late, leading a group of soldiers. He was shocked to find her gravely wounded, immediately calling for a priest. The healing spell restored her to perfect condition in an instant. With fury etched across her face, Adelia stormed toward the lord’s castle.
"The wall was breached! If only we had sealed that wall properly, we could have caught him!" Adelia burst into the audience chamber still wearing armor caked in blood and dirt, raising her voice without preamble. Kutars, captain of the Blue Arrow Unit standing beside the lord’s chair, fixed her with a rigid stare.
"Please restrain yourself, Lady Adelia. You stand before the lord."
Adelia, however, turned her fury on Kutars instead. "What were your soldiers doing at the time, Sir Kutars? While those thieves were climbing the wall, not a single one of your men showed their faces! Just how do you command your unit that your soldiers would neglect their duties? Your company is no better than a rabble!"
Kutars looked genuinely taken aback. "How can you say such a thing? The soldiers on wall patrol were attacked by the bandits and suffered serious injuries. Reports have already been filed. They did not shirk their patrol and fulfilled their duties faithfully. I ask that you refrain from shifting the blame for the Lion Heart Unit’s failed operation onto my Blue Arrow Unit. We did everything in our power."
"Everything in your power? The moment you detected an incident on the wall, you should have sent cavalry outside the city to encircle the perimeter and catch them when they tried to cross the moat! Instead you did nothing at all!"
When Adelia’s sharp retort came flying, Kutars answered in a voice just as cutting. "Your tone has grown rather short with me, Lady Adelia! I will say it once more: observe proper etiquette and protocol in the lord’s presence. Strictly speaking, I am also your superior. Keep in mind that I have been treating you with the respect due a superior despite your lower rank, and do not test my limits!"
"Now, now, both of you, calm down and stop this fighting." As the atmosphere reached a boiling point, Lord Roton, who had remained silent until then, finally intervened. The audience chamber fell quiet at once. Stroking his white beard with wrinkled fingers, the lord addressed Adelia.
"Listen, Sir Adelia. I hope you understand that our Blue Arrow Unit has spared no effort in providing every possible support so that you and your people, who came here by His Majesty’s command, would not feel slighted. And when carrying out operations, it is impossible to manage every single detail perfectly. Mistakes are bound to happen. I am not defending those mistakes. I am simply asking for mutual understanding. In a situation that requires cooperation, would it not be more helpful to show tolerance for each other’s errors rather than pointing fingers?"
Though his tone was gentle, the message was clear: Adelia had gone too far. She dragged a hand down her face and let out a small sigh. For a moment she stared silently at the ceiling, then looked back at Lord Roton with her emotions under control.
"At first light tomorrow, I intend to search every mountain in the vicinity. Provide eighty percent of the Blue Arrow Unit’s troops to assist."
Lord Roton scratched his neck with an awkward expression. "Tomorrow we have unit training scheduled. That will be impossible."
"Can’t you simply cancel the training?"
Kutars cut in coldly. "It is an annual event. Cancellation is not feasible."
"Then we will conduct tomorrow’s search with only our own forces. Begin providing support the day after."
"The day after tomorrow is when we perform maintenance on the defensive positions. We must inspect the entire city, so we will not have any troops to spare."
At the continued refusals, Adelia’s brow furrowed slightly. "Did I not just hear the lord himself say he would spare no support?"
"Of course we must help. But we have our own established duties. If we finish our own work first and then assist, there will be no disruption to operations and the unit can continue functioning normally, can it not?"
Both the lord and Kutars had been perfectly cordial until yesterday. Today, however, their lack of goodwill was unmistakable. Sinclair, who had been standing silently with his hands clasped behind his back, leaned close and whispered to Adelia.
"They appear to harbor some resentment toward us. From my observation, it seems the lord is offended that we did not attend the dinner he invited us to. It would be best to withdraw for today."
Following Sinclair’s counsel, Adelia gave up and left the audience chamber. The two walked down the corridor.
"The lord’s cooperation is essential for subjugating the bandit group. For the time being, leave the operational duties to me and the other officers. Lady Adelia should focus on building personal relationships with the lord and the influential local powers in this region."
"So you’re telling me to play the pretty face?"
The icy remark made Sinclair flinch. "I-if you truly dislike the idea, you may ignore the lord…" He lowered his gaze nervously, only to suddenly notice the empty scabbard at her waist. Shocked to realize the sword was missing, she pointed at it and cried out.
"L-Lady Adelia! The treasured blade, our family heirloom—it’s gone!"
Adelia’s suppressed fury surged up again in an instant. She ripped the empty scabbard from her belt, ready to hurl it to the floor, but stopped mid-motion.
Her wide eyes blazed like torches. The hand gripping the empty scabbard trembled violently. Sinclair had never seen such a sight from the usually proud and haughty Adelia. He was so startled he unconsciously took a step sideways.
"L-Lady Adelia…?"
When Sinclair looked at her with a tense face, Adelia took a deep breath and forced her rage back down.
"The sword is lost. I cannot walk the battlefield with an empty sheath. Until I obtain a new blade, I will follow your advice. Prepare several dresses suitable for meeting various people. I will begin those meetings tomorrow."
Adelia resumed walking. Dark clouds hung over her face as she strode forward in silence, still clutching the empty scabbard.
"Good work, everyone. You’ve all been through a lot!" Flavio handed forty veni to each of the four soldiers behind the military barracks and pocketed the remaining twenty for himself. The soldiers broke into wide grins.
"Never thought Flavio would be the one bringing us jobs. Look at you, all grown up."
"Just say the word next time!"
"You handled the cleanup neatly, right?"
"I told the commander we got knocked out cold by the thieves and lost them, so don’t worry! It’s not like we’ve only done this once or twice. We know exactly how it works~"
A heavy atmosphere filled the leader’s tent.
"They were camped out at the tavern waiting for us…" Olivia tapped the armrest of her chair with her fingertips. Marcus had just finished reporting the situation. I stood quietly at the side, simply listening.
"It was the same at the inn in the slums. Soldiers had already surrounded the place and were lying in wait. Every shop we traded with betrayed us at the same time, as if they had coordinated it."
After Marcus finished speaking, Olivia turned to Ision. "Have you heard any reports of other bandit groups being attacked by soldiers in Nobern?"
"None. Ours appears to be the first."
"So a unit came down from the capital recently, and some rotten bastard decided this was the perfect time to sell us out! Some bastard who’s always seen us as a thorn in his side!" Bernhardt clenched his fist in frustration.
Olivia’s gaze remained fixed on Ision. "What about Chen’s movements?"
"They have gone into hibernation just as we have. They’ve stopped entering villages and cities, limiting themselves to minimal activity against travelers on mountain and forest roads."
"Tell the leader of the Eighth Squad to investigate thoroughly. Bribe Chen’s subordinates or squeeze information out of the tavern girls and innkeepers. No… I should go to Nobern myself."
Olivia intended to enter the city? Wasn’t that too dangerous? Ision’s eyes narrowed.
"Do you plan to meet with Vargas?"
Vargas? Who was that?
"Since he works inside the barracks, he may have heard how those Lion Heart bastards identified the shops we trade with."
"The city’s security is extremely tight. With the Lion Heart Unit here, even the Blue Arrow Unit is on high alert. It is doubtful whether he would even agree to meet."
"She’s right, boss. Going into the city right now is far too dangerous. Vargas may have turned his back on us as well." Bernhardt shook his head, trying to dissuade her.
So Vargas was a military contact within the Blue Arrow Unit? If he was secretly working with Olivia, he must hold a fairly high position.
"We cannot shrink back simply because it is dangerous. If we ignore a problem we can handle with our current strength out of fear, it will only invite greater disaster later. To escape the Lion Heart Unit’s pursuit, we must find where the knot first went wrong and either untie it or cut it away."
In the end, the meeting concluded with Olivia personally taking charge of the matter while the Eighth Squad, responsible for intelligence gathering and operations, would support her.
"The rest of you may leave."
Ision looked at Marcus and me as he spoke. It seemed Olivia, Bernhardt, and Ision still had more to discuss. But my feet refused to move. The truly important topic had not even been raised. My main point had not yet begun, yet I felt as though I were being driven out. This was not what I wanted. Don’t you people have anything to say to us after we crawled back alive from hell? Nothing at all?
"Madam!" I shouted loudly. All eyes turned toward me at once. "Phelton and Harry are dead! How should we prepare their funeral?!"
I spoke each word clearly and forcefully. You people have not uttered a single syllable about Phelton or Harry until now. That is why I am pointing it out. Listen well.
"Phelton and Harry sacrificed their lives for their comrades! Even in their final moments, they thought only of our group! They said they wanted to protect you, Madam, at all costs! Let us hold a grand funeral to honor the proud souls of Phelton and Harry who died so bravely!"
A brief silence fell after I finished. Everyone simply stared at me with dumbfounded expressions. Even Marcus, who had been turning to leave, looked at me as if a lightning bolt had struck on a clear day.
"Heh heh…" Olivia laughed. It sounded as if she found it amusing.
Bernhardt blinked and asked, "Why should we hold a funeral for those two?"
Ision then spoke to me with cold eyes. "We do not hold funerals for our members."