"Did he agree?" Padrig anxiously asked Captain Vermont once he saw him come out of Mayor Rubinsky's office.

"Not here," Captain Vermont curtly answered.

However, the dark look on his face served as a clear answer to Padrig's question. The rest of the town guards hurdled together outside the hallway next to the Mayor's office all had complicated expressions once they saw Captain Vermont's look.

They didn't say anything and followed the captain's lead as he went to the town guard's station.

Once they had arrived at the station grounds, there were even more town guards assembled at their role call and assignment designation hall.

It seemed like half of the guards were in the assembly hall while a small number were still on their patrols.

"Captain.." one of the town guards who had the same full plate armor and surcoat as Captain Vermont hesitantly asked.

He was medium built though his arms seemed longer than normal with black hair tied in a ponytail and a whisker-like mustache that was well straightened with not a hair out of place. At his right waist, he had a bronze gilded sword whose pommel was in the shape of a fishtail with the sword length being almost 1.5 meters and two fingers wide.

To his incomplete question, Captain Vermont only shook his head sideways which elicited a sigh from the man as he followed the captain a few steps behind.

Captain Vermont stepped on a light brown polished wooden platform whose color resembled the dying glow of a candle. He turned to face the town guards who were secretly murmuring amongst themselves.

"Captain on the scene," the mustached man suddenly yelled which immediately halted the murmurings as the guards neatly arranged themselves into eight rows without a single person out of place.

"The Mayor has rejected our plea of finding out if anything happened at the Saarthguard village. I know some of you may be incensed by his choice considering all of us here have a friend there but we have to ensure we obey our orders.

The orders I talk about are not the ones from the mayor but to the one to whom we all swore our loyalty, King Lin Pryce XIII.

He entrusted us with the protection of Bremdal town and until stated otherwise that is what we shall do down to our very last breaths if we have to.

The patrol teams shall be thus amended from the regular two-man team to a squad of four people per block.

If you see anything suspicious, those skilled in the fire element are to create a fire arc above them and three squads will back them up as the rest of the squads try to cover the patrolling gap left by the squads providing the backup. The squads will be a T shape formation made up of three squads to make sure you're within shouting distance of each other even within the alleyways.

Each squad will be given a medallion made from the alert sage tree. Should the matter be beyond your ability to handle make sure you crash the medallion as fast as possible. Do not, I repeat do not overestimate your abilities which may result in more damage than good. The moment you detect the situation is even mildly above your capabilities to contain it you are to err on the side of caution and detonate the medallion.

The other squads the moment you see the alert sage warning fog, you are to ring the town alarm bell four times as per the agreed-upon sign that a black-level catastrophe has hit the town," Captain Vermont said with solemnity in his voice.

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The already tense mood got raised a couple of notches. However, despite that, every town guard present had an unwavering look about them.

They may have not been qualified to be royal knights like the captain and the vice-captain who was the long-armed mustached gentleman by their captain's side but each and every member of the town guard had gone through rigorous training and they were all veteran soldiers with atleast decades of experience in live combat. If they were to retire, any noble family or merchant organization would try to scoop them up with great benefits and remuneration deal.

"I want to reemphasize again. When you see the fog of the alert sage deployed you are not to engage the enemy under any circumstance you are to evacuate everyone within half a kilometer of the place and those close to the town bell are to ring it within the fastest speed even if you have to cough a spleen and a lung to do it, YOU HAVE TO DO IT.

Vice-captain Rambert and I will be the ones in charge of engaging the suspicious intruder at that point.

That is all. Further details on the patrol routes will be provided by the vice-captain.

The yellow robin always watches.." said Captain Vermont

"WITH CARE AND PRUDENCE," everyone in the hallway loudly answered back in return.

Captain Vermont nodded in return as he made his way out of the hall heading to his office leaving Vice-captain Rambert in further discussion with the town guards.

The stalwart figure who seemed he would remain standing even if a mountain were to fall on him now showed a worn-out expression fraught with worry once he was in the confines of his office.

The captain's office was widely different from the Mayor's office. The latter had an office that looked like it was a miniature hotel room whilst Captain Vermont's office was minimalistic.

Everything within the room seemed geared towards efficiency rather than comfort. From the neatly stacked files that seemed to be divided in a particular order to the ergonomic brown oak desk and chair, the detailed grid map of Bremdal town, and a board containing town guard names and their scheduling route and time for the month. About the only object of luxury in the office was the balcony at the side that provided a great view of the station and part of Bremdal town. There were even two chairs and a round table that had a white teapot on it.

Captain Vermont closed the blinds of the windows, the balcony door, and also the door to his office.

He went to his desk before he knocked on a few compartments with a certain frequency before a hidden compartment was revealed. Within it was a prism almost ice-like crystalline block attached to a yellow spiral-shaped shell. He carefully picked up the object by the shell before he placed it on his desk.

He then held the crystalline block that was fogy white mixed in with a purple color gently swirling within it.

"I hope this isn't a mistake," Captain Vermont said as he firmly gripped the crystalline block. His palm produced a dark golden glow that made the purple swirling rotate faster which then resulted in runes igniting over the spiraling shell at the bottom.

The runes started rotating clockwise around the shell as Captain Vermont's look grew more pensive by the second.

"Vermont why are you calling?" a calm slow voice of a man sounded from the shell.

.....

Leo felt his heart beat louder and louder the closer they came to the village. His throat was dry, his body trembling and he almost seemed to have a fever that wasn't a fever. His stomach churned over and over so much that he almost vomited on the ride over.

He was less than five minutes away from either having his worst fear realized or having the greatest relief of his life. However inwardly he felt the former was the more likely scenario. If things were moderately good then Layun and Neirin wouldn't have had the despondent look they had every now and then that they tried to hide.

Then there was also the fact that Neirin and Layun were the ones chasing after intruders. Yes, they were both well-respected elders in the village who had incredible strength but the village had a clear dereliction of duty even in emergencies. Neirin and Layun, one was a librarian and the other a chef/ aquatic animal researcher respectively. Frontline assault wasn't their thing. There were elders and villagers whose specific niche was combat and tracking but Leo saw none of them.

They were the ones who would be deployed if something like this happened but he didn't see even a single one.

"I hope it's not…" Leo who was about to console himself soon forgot himself as the words that should have come out of his mouth got swallowed back.

"This, this , thi…."Leo stammered.

His eyes were wide open with pupils frozen, his mouth agape and his body paling as everything within him went into a mind-numbing paralyzing shock.