Chapter 1389 - 748: Raid

Chapter 1389: Chapter 748: Raid

"You’re saying they’re on the run?"

"From the tracks, they invaded from the south, but they seem to have started losing control after dawn. The traces show they’re moving away from Hamlet."

Laura quickly reported the scouting results. Lance listened and was left speechless. He’d clearly overestimated those bastards. He’d even planned to wait for them to come over, let the townsfolk see them for themselves.

But the moment their ancestor died, they scared themselves shitless. So much for ’fanatical faith’—the old ancestor didn’t even have a single follower willing to die for him. What a clown.

"On the way we also found some destroyed villages and small towns. Basically no one survived. Those bastards have completely degenerated into evil cultists and are starting to lose control."

Laura added, and Lance frowned when he heard that, but he didn’t rush to react. Instead he kept asking questions.

"How many enemies are there?"

"Mainly, they’re not all grouped together anymore—they’ve started to spread out. We can’t be sure in the short term, but the total should be around a thousand. The largest group is maybe two to three hundred people."

"Is Hamlet some place they can come and go as they please?" Lance made up his mind on the spot. "Men! Assemble the Honor Guard immediately. Get Reynard over here."

"My Lord." Reynard arrived quickly—none of the high command were on leave. He’d been busy hashing out a detailed plan inside the army.

It wasn’t just the military high command; the other decision-makers in Hamlet were all busy preparing for a new round of war.

The Lord laid down the general direction and strategic framework; they were responsible for refining and executing it. That was how it had always worked.

"Those invading evil cultists are trying to run... If we let them scatter and escape, it’ll be hard to ever get the chance to wipe them out in one go. So I want them dead!"

"I’ll lead the Cavalry to exterminate these bastards as fast as possible."

Lance quickly laid out the situation. Reynard also knew that timing was everything, and there was only one reason Lance had summoned him: to exploit the mobility of the Cavalry Squad.

Only Lance shook his head and explained.

"They’re evil cultists. They destroyed plenty of villages and towns, killed gods know how many people. Just killing them like that is too cheap. They must be punished properly!

You’ll lead the Honor Guard, one man with two horses. I’ll have Laura guide you. You don’t need to do anything else—just bring back as many of those bastards alive as you can. I’ll have logistics handle escorting the rest back."

As he spoke, Lance emphasized, "I don’t want this interfering with real business, so I expect to see them all in custody before the end of the leave period. Understood?"

"Understood." Reynard of course caught the Lord’s meaning.

These cultists running all over the place had clearly disrupted the Lord’s plans, and their slaughter had enraged him even more. Death alone would not settle this.

Rather than a simple eradication operation, this was more of a capture operation, and it was bound to get ugly.

But the army strictly forbade bullying and torture, because the Lord believed that once you opened that door, it would corrode the soldiers’ will and cause moral collapse among them.

So only the Honor Guard, this special unit, could be used for the dirty work.

And since they’re evil cultists, if you send ordinary troops they’d have to maul them half to death before moving in to finish the job, and you wouldn’t be able to capture many alive like that. The Honor Guard’s strength could completely crush those bastards; they were the most reasonable choice.

Without wasting words, Reynard made preparations on the spot. Very soon, the Honor Guard and their warhorses were assembled at top speed and charged out beyond the walls.

Meanwhile, Lance used the opportunity to spread out the scouts in full force, and arranged for logistics to follow and be ready to receive prisoners—and also prepare for the coming war.

Reynard could feel the Lord’s anger.

Was it because of the civilians slaughtered by the cultists?

Maybe some of it. But more than that, it was the frustration of having his plans wrecked.

Originally, those bastards were supposed to come here, so the populace could see with their own eyes that the invading enemy was real, and so he would have a solid excuse to truly ignite the war.

But the problem was those assholes actually bolted. Lance could only drag them back and stage a performance.

One major reason he decided to send in the Honor Guard and capture as many cultists alive as possible was that the sanatorium’s supply of "materials" had been consumed far too quickly lately.

Before, with just Paracelsus alone, no matter how much he messed around, there was a limit.

But now with so many researchers with medical backgrounds joining in, the increased pace of research meant increased consumption.

Under normal circumstances, where would you find this many death-row convicts? Lance wasn’t the old ancestor, and even the old ancestor knew that human experimentation needed to be kept under wraps.

But evil cultists were absolutely beyond redemption; no need to even distinguish them—they could be sent straight to the sanatorium as materials.

The mobilization of warhorses and the Honor Guard, plus reconnaissance and parts of logistics having their leave cancelled, was enough to make certain insiders feel that something was off.

And now there was no need to hide the news about those remnants of the evil cult. On the contrary, Lance spread it widely.

The surrounding nobles were colluding with the cult’s remnants to invade Hamlet, and had already killed many people and destroyed quite a few villages and small towns.

Once the news spread, the soldiers who were better educated and more fervent, once free of Lance’s direct suppression, began to boil over quickly.

Most of Hamlet’s army was made up of sons from good families, men with households of their own. And now that they were on leave at home, the soldiers’ emotions naturally spilled over to their entire families.