“We will move out tomorrow morning and engage as soon as the enemies make their moves. However, you guys will have to stay behind. Before you complain, I am thinking about what we heard before after the mission with Elmer. So, I want you to keep an eye on the surroundings of the town and send a raven to the front lines if you hear or see anything out of the norm.”
Heirina raised her right eyebrow while studying her father. While she didn’t have to check the surroundings, she had to stay behind before doing that kind of job to pass messages to the front lines. It made her feel that she was still doing that kind of job, but she also knew that they had to watch their back in a situation like that.
“Until when we should do that?”
“Until the end of the battle or until that happens. All the forces available will be sent to the front lines, if either group is too weak, we will be able to tell which side is plotting something. If their numbers are normal, then you all will only have to worry about a certain number of bandits.”
Although the chances of that happening were hard to predict, it looked like Hei was quite worried about that. The town would be fine against a few dozen bandits, but even so, would that be the case if he was worried about a few dozen bandits attacking the back of their group? Irlan thought that too.
“Captain, did you receive any Intel that could convince you of this?”
“Since the informants failed to tell us about the changes in the south, I decided to keep my guard open with them. I didn’t receive any information about them and that is what worries me.”
Heirina who stayed silent during the whole day, finally had the chance to say something and it looked like she truly didn’t want to stay behind no matter what.
“What if we find them? Can we come to the front lines and participate in the battle?”
“I think it would be better if you focused on decreasing their numbers. Once you do that, you can come at us. However, you need to be cautious about the changes and the surprises that they might pull off.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I can’t say for certain. You just need to be cautious and wait for anything that might happen.”
Just as Hei said, a lot of people began to leave the town the next morning, and the group began to prepare to watch over the area as well. For now, they were teaching Zelos to ride a horse since he would need to make it by himself in case something happened. Hei himself left at noon while Heirina’s group stayed behind.
“I guess I have too much heavy stuff with me… I will leave the club behind.”
While Zelos was only eleven years old, he was as heavy as Edea, perhaps even more, even though she was ten centimeters taller. Riding a horse felt quite easy for him, but it would be a problem if he couldn’t keep up with the others if something happened, and riding them directly instead of using wagons or carriages would be better. Irlan looked worried while watching Zelos.
“We overlooked this… we should have taught you how to ride better over the course of several weeks.”
“I will be fine. The horses will be used only to save some time and energy. With a sword this long, I won’t be able to fight while riding one, anyway.”
Zelos had a point, but it was hard to imagine that he would be able to keep up with them while running. Perhaps it would be better to make him a passenger, but that would decrease the speed of another. Zelos shrugged while seeing everyone worried about that, and then he decided to show them his progress… he jumped from a horse and then left his body to fall forward before kicking the ground with all his might. Everyone saw him crossing fifteen meters almost instantly… they could see him moving, so it wasn’t like Kaitrine’s trait, but it was still very impressive.
“What the… How did you do that?”
Kaitrine was utterly astonished. She had heard from her father that people who could copy them naturally existed, but she didn’t think that an eleven-year-old kid would be able to do that. It wasn’t an exact copy of her trait, but even so. It was insane.
In the end, Kaitrine regretted asking that without thinking since Zelos was studying her, and she could imagine his smug smile was about to be shown. Nothing like that actually happened, Zelos just didn’t feel like explaining all the details of that technique. Then again, could someone counter that? It wasn’t that complicated either.
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“From what I can tell, your trait allows you to move practically instantly small distances. I don’t know if you make your body extremely light or if you just accelerate your natural movement speed, but I don’t do any of that. I just force my way forward with brute strength.”
Zelos showed the marks on the ground, and then everyone understood it… Still, pulling that off wasn’t very complicated, but it was dangerous. A single mistake and you would mess up your leg, and in the middle of a battle, that was nothing but lethal. Heirina was silently watching Zelos, but she eventually decided to speak.
“You probably know this already, but using that too many times in a row with your current body will mess you up.”
“I am aware of it. Anyway, we should depart, no?”
Heirina scratched the back of her head and then nodded. Truth be told, she was itching to join her father, so she was almost begging for something to happen, even though that would be dangerous for the whole territory.
“The enemies should know that the southern territory is weakened, but the people there will be on guard to avoid any unpleasant surprises, bandits won’t be able to cross that area even in times of war that quickly since their numbers are small and even small villages have weapons. So, if something happens, it will come from North or East. We will keep guarding these areas.”
Heirina showed them on the map the area that they would have to guard. It was only a day away from their town, but it included the villages furthest away from the town. Still, from one side to the other, it was at least fifty kilometers in length. Going from one point to the other would take around ten hours… plenty of time for bandits to pass by them. However, they should leave some signs.
Kaitrine studied the map in silence for a while and then she eventually decided to point out some things that she thought that it would be important and would make them waste less time.
“... I believe that they will come here. This area has many hills, and the grass is tall as well, the wind will also be in their favor, so tracking them there will be extremely hard. Moreover, this area ends half a day away from the town.”
Zelos and Irlan looked at the map and just found a single hill surrounded by a bit of grass. They didn’t think that it would be such an important area, but if Kaitrine was right, it made sense. Zelos decided to dig in on that piece of information.
“You are well-informed. There are no villages close to that area, at least according to the map. How do you…”
“Kaitrine, we won’t be able to use the horses there well without a good guide. Can we leave that to you?”
“Yes, Captain.”
Heirina stopped Zelos from asking and that wasn’t a coincidence. He imagined that there was some history there regarding Kaitrine’s family or something. With her trait, her family could make a pretty amazing clan of assassins, but here they were, working for another clan. Since she admitted Heirina, her family had been doing that for a while, apparently,
“We will head there tonight using my family’s secret passageway. Soon, word of the clan leaving the town will spread, and while it will be the best moment for the bandits to make their move when the battle starts, I want to surprise them.”
Everyone nodded, and then they decided to return to the house and wait. The group waited in silence as they focused and thought about the mission. It was a bit annoying, but Zelos was a bit curious about the past of Kaitrine’s family. As far as he knew, they didn’t have many people, but they should have it in order to create a leader even faster than Kaitrine could. Perhaps that wasn’t possible, but that would make her trait at least more efficient.
Eventually, night came, and they had dinner and soon they left the house through the secret passageway. That took some time since all the servants had left the house since no one was going to be there for the next few weeks if they were lucky.
Once they left the darkness behind, the group thought they would feel better, but the darkness welcomed them back. While they were in their territory, it was a cloudy night, and their job was to try to find the bandits faster than they could be found, so that was a bit nerve-wracking. Zelos had some ideas thanks to that.
“Your father said that our job is to report the possible approach of bandits… but what about we dispose of some of them?”
“That sounds like a good idea, but I don’t want to deviate from my orders. Besides, we will definitely be outnumbered. If he thought that it would be a good idea to do that, he would have told us to do that. He said to be careful while doing that, but his focus was to protect the town.”
“Perhaps that is for the best…”
Zelos wondered why Hei would have told them to focus on that and only a single reason came to mind. It looked like the others also reached the same conclusion, but they decided not to voice those worries.
Around midnight, the group arrived in the area where the hills were. The place looked like a natural maze, so it made sense why Kaitrine would think that bandits could come from there. Still, the reason why she was so familiar with that place was still a mystery. She moved a bit ahead as if she knew the area and had been there.
“I can lead from here onwards, Captain.”
“Please do. It will be better if we reach the other side before morning.”
The hills around made Zelos feel a bit dizzy and lost… he didn’t know the direction he came from after not so long. There was too much zigzagging there… Still, Kaitrine apparently knew that they would need to eventually find the right directions without her help, so she marked the hills with her spear with a single slash right above the grass marks.