Chapter 419: An Unexpected Delay

Leone’s father, Marco, had finally entered Stoneguard Fortress along with his men.

The view that welcomed him made him realize that his son hadn’t been joking.

Nearly everyone inside the fortress had gotten sick. The cause was contaminated well water.

If he and his men had arrived a day earlier, then they might have already fallen sick. Or worse, the nobles who considered him a thorn in the side might have used this opportunity to frame him.

Marco was a righteous person, but he also understood that anyone could be framed for a crime, even if they were innocent.

As for the evidence?

Evidence could be forged.

Witnesses?

Witnesses could be bought.

He had learned this the hard way after his own son had been exiled to the Borderlands because of the political games that the nobles liked to play.

It didn’t matter whether Leone was innocent.

In their eyes, he was a mere pawn they could use to make people bend to their will.

However, Marco didn’t bend.

And neither did his family.

In fact, after Leone was sent to the Borderlands, a series of assassinations took place in the kingdom.

Many nobles, especially those who were responsible for forging the evidence against his son, had been killed.

The matter blew so out of proportion that even the King himself had reached out to the Frontera Family to make a compromise.

A compromise made despite no one having evidence that the Frontera Family were the ones responsible for the series of deaths in the kingdom.

But thanks to this, the nobles no longer bothered them.

In fact, some of them even sent gifts to Marco and his family, hoping no assassin who could come and go as they pleased would be sent to escort them to the afterlife.

Of course, some nobles had done the opposite, sending their own assassins to target Marco’s family in retaliation. Yet, these assassins never returned or were heard from again.

As for the nobles who commissioned the kill order?

They experienced a very long and painful death.

"Viscount, welcome to Stoneguard Fortress," Virgil said with a smile. "The Commander has asked me to escort you to your temporary residence until the order to march is given."

"Thank you," Marco replied. "Please lead the way."

Virgil nodded and led the procession of soldiers to the western camp of the city.

That was the place reserved for the two Generals of the Britannian Army who would lead this expedition.

Along the way, Marco and his soldiers were in very bad shape.

Those who could still move were busy tending to the sick, while the clerics, physicians, and herbalists made their rounds.

Armand had mobilized everyone who could treat the sick, hoping he wouldn’t be punished for this incident.

While Marco and his soldiers were heading to their accommodation, an emergency meeting was held inside the Commander’s office.

"Who do you think is responsible for what happened today?" The Vermillion Bird General, Vogel Holt, asked.

"I honestly have no idea," the Black Tortoise General, Duran Tortuga, replied.

"I’m just glad my battalion doesn’t drink well water," the Commander of the Gryphon Battalion, Dominic Laurent, commented.

"I also don’t know anyone who would have the motive to do something like this," Armand stated. "My people are doing their best, but we can’t even name any suspects at this point."

Silence descended inside the conference room for a few seconds before Dominic finally spoke.

"So, what’s the plan?" Dominic asked.

Vogel tapped the table with his finger as if deciding what to do next. "We were supposed to march tomorrow, but with the current situation, doing so isn’t ideal."

Duran nodded in agreement. "If we force them to march while they are still weak, the morale of the army will decrease. I suggest we delay our campaign for two days.

"Aside from that, we should assign people to inspect the food and water the army will use moving forward. We can’t let a situation like this happen again, or it will make us the laughingstock of the kingdom."

Vogel and Dominic nodded in agreement.

"However, we still need to continue our investigation to root out whoever contaminated the wells," Duran stated. "The last thing we need is someone sabotaging this campaign from the inside."

"Do you have any suspects?" Armand asked.

"The Viscount of Frontera... is what I’d like to say, but I have no evidence," Duran replied. "He is the only one whom I can think of right now."

"But the Viscount and his army only arrived just now," Armand countered. "Are you simply overthinking things, General?"

Duran shrugged in response. "As I said, I have no evidence. However, my gut instinct is telling me that the Frontera Family is the one responsible for this mess."

"You really have bad blood with them, huh?" Vogel smirked. "That’s what you call being biased."

While General Duran wasn’t one of the people who had conspired to frame Leone, he held a grudge against Marco for something that happened back when they were still teenagers.

Even now, he hadn’t forgotten it, still nursing that old wound for several years.

"Anyway, we just need to be careful from now on," Dominic stated. "To prevent any mishaps, I will let my battalion camp near the river. That way, whoever poisoned the wells would not dare to try and contaminate the river."

"That’s just being paranoid at this point." Vogel shook his head. "Who could contaminate a river? If you want to contaminate it, then you need to contaminate the source."

"Better safe than sorry." Dominic shrugged.

In the end, the four men inside the conference room agreed on a few countermeasures to ensure that there would be no mishaps before and after the campaign started.

While all of this was happening, Leone and his people were already preparing to head to the place where they would set up camp.

They decided to set up a temporary cave three miles away from Stoneguard Fortress.

Any closer would risk them being discovered by advanced scouts from both air and land.

Leone was especially careful not to alarm the Gryphon Battalion of the Kingdom of Britannia, which was one of their trump cards during the war.

His mission was to delay their advance for a week.

But he wasn’t aware that he had bought himself two days, which would allow him and his people to make use of the surrounding land to their advantage.