Chapter 73 - 69: Converging Gazes
Chapter 73: Chapter 69: Converging Gazes
On the outermost edge of the Rock Breaker Knight Order’s camp, two Knights in ill-fitting leather armor were huddled in the shadow of a grain cart, sharing a piece of hard, dry black bread.
They were the two minor lords who had been forcibly conscripted.
"Kane, do you think... Baron Ola can win?" asked one of them, a slender Knight named Mo’er, his voice filled with worry.
Kane, the lord of Valley Village who had been extorted for protection money by Ola just a few days ago, chewed his bread bitterly and shook his head.
"I don’t know, Mo’er. To be honest, I have mixed feelings."
He paused, his voice pessimistic.
"Of course I hope he wins. If he does, we won’t have to go into battle ourselves and face those... monsters. And maybe His Lordship the ’generous’ Baron will even spare us some table scraps."
Mo’er nodded in deep agreement, but then his expression grew even more worried.
"But, Kane, have you ever thought about... what will happen if he *does* win?"
Kane fell silent.
Of course he had thought about it.
If Ola Stonebeard struck it rich this time, what would a man of his character do?
He would recruit more Knights and forge better weapons. His "Rock Breakers" would become an even more terrifying force.
By then, life for minor lords like them—too far from heaven and too close to Shiyan Town—would only become more difficult than it was now.
Today’s ten Golden Suns would become twenty tomorrow.
"He’ll squeeze us completely dry," Mo’er said, voicing the dreadful future Kane was thinking of.
The two looked at each other, speechless. Their eyes reflected the same humiliation and helplessness.
They were like chips on a gambling table; no matter which side won, they were destined to lose.
Just then, Mo’er caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye.
"Hey, Kane, look over there!"
He pointed to the dirt road at the side and rear of the camp.
A few dozen men dressed in motley clothes who looked like dockworkers and sailors were sprinting wildly toward the battlefield, panting heavily.
They had no horses and no proper armor, and the weapons they carried were just as varied.
Harpoons, oars, grappling hooks... someone was even carrying a ship’s mast.
The group ran in a crooked, staggering line with no formation to speak of, looking more like a crowd of laborers scrambling for a job at the docks.
"Who are these people?" Kane frowned. "Did Baron Ola summon sailors too?"
"Doesn’t look like it," Mo’er said, shaking his head. "Look at the direction they’re coming from. They came from behind us and are heading straight for the battlefield. They... don’t seem to be on our side."
The two minor lords exchanged a look.
How could so many sailors suddenly appear in these inland hills?
And judging by their reckless, death-defying rush, what could they possibly be trying to do?
"Goddammit! That bitch Caroline must’ve forgotten we’ve got legs, not fucking wings! Running on this crappy terrain is harder than sailing against the goddamn wind!"
Sea Wolf glanced back at his sorry-looking crew as he ran.
Clearly, long-distance running was not a skill one should expect from a sailor.
One sailor was carrying a small anchor, so tired he had to switch shoulders every two steps, panting like a dog.
Another had coiled a rope around his body, but it snagged on a branch as he ran, flinging him backward to land flat on his face.
’Damn it all,’ Sea Wolf swore. ’When I get back from this, I’m definitely learning how to ride a horse!’
After receiving the urgent letter delivered by albatross from the Vice President, Sea Wolf had turned his ship around without a second thought, taking the fastest sea route to Newly Town at full speed.
They had traveled through the night, finally arriving at the location mentioned in the letter by dawn.
"Cap... Captain..."
A young sailor clutched the stitch in his side, gasping for breath. "Are we... are we really going to fight... a Baron’s Knight Order?"
"No shit!" Sea Wolf slapped him on the back of the head. "Are we gonna fight? Damn right we are!"
"This is a direct order from the Vice President! I don’t care if it’s a Baron or a pack of Sea Sirens that crawled ashore—we’d still have to dry ’em out like salted fish! And all of you better remember what our mission is! Are we here to fight those tin cans to the death? No!"
He pointed at Velin’s distant, blurry figure and shouted, spittle flying, "See him? Our target is that pretty boy!"
"I’ll hold off that bearded leader. Your job is to grab that pretty... oh, right, Knight Velin, and carry him back to me in one piece! Whoever brings him back gets a double reward! Plus, you can go back and score points with Boss Caroline, got it?!"
"Got it~" the crew members replied listlessly.
"Captain!"
Just then, a sharp-eyed sailor pointed at the sky and shouted in surprise.
"Look! There’s a huge bird in the sky!"
Sea Wolf looked up impatiently. "A huge bird? I’ve seen everything on the Endless Sea. I’ve even seen a hundred-meter-long Sea Dragon King—holy shit!"
It was indeed a huge bird, but on its back sat a Knight in bright silver armor.
Sea Wolf instantly freaked out. "Where the hell did that flying Knight come from?! Fuck, the intel was wrong! Caroline, you goddamn woman, this job is gonna cost you extra!"
Rudolph steered the Dragon Eagle beneath him, circling a thousand meters up in the sky.
The harsh high-altitude winds buffeted the red plume on his helmet.
As the most elite Dragon Eagle Knight of the Dawn Territory, his vision was far superior to an ordinary person’s, and everything on the ground below was clearly reflected in his eyes.
On the left were thirty imposing Heavy Armor Knights, followed by a disorderly trail of infantry.
On the right was the young lord named Velin, and behind him, that... unheard-of Demon Beast Legion.
And on the flank of the battlefield was a small group of sailors who looked like a ragtag militia.
Yesterday, following Countess Diana’s orders, he had rushed to Newly Town with all possible speed.
But when he landed in the town, he was told that Knight Velin Klein had just led his guards out of the city to meet the enemy.
’You must deliver it to him personally.’
The Countess’s orders still rang in his ears.
Rudolph had no choice but to take to the skies again in pursuit.
He had expected to witness a one-sided slaughter and was even prepared to dive down, tear open a bloody path with his Dragon Eagle’s talons, and execute a forceful rescue.
But the scene before him made him abandon that idea.
The young man named Velin... didn’t seem to need his help.
Rudolph’s gaze lingered on the silent beetle phalanx for a long time. As a professional soldier, his intuition picked up an aura of extreme danger.
He was very curious.
Extremely curious.
Just what was this man capable of, to make the normally stern and serious Countess show such rare concern?
He decided not to descend just yet.
He would stay here, in the sky, and watch with his own eyes.
Rudolph had the Dragon Eagle conceal its presence and fly higher, hiding behind the thin clouds.
He gripped the letter in his hand, his falcon-sharp eyes locked onto the figure on horseback below.
’Let’s see if this man is worthy of the concern Countess Diana has shown him.’