Chapter 138: The Bad News That Came Back

By the time Kevin returned from the questioning, it was already deep into the night. In the end, the general had not taken Kevin’s advice, and no one else had said much either. The matter was simply glossed over. Kevin felt that he had said everything he ought to say and had done his duty. There was no point in wasting any more words.

In truth, preventing something like this from happening again would probably require changes to the system and its institutions. It could not be decided on a whim and implemented overnight. It would have to be studied, debated, and introduced gradually. Otherwise, it might well provoke resentment among the other officers. Kevin himself knew too little about the upper ranks to offer any truly useful suggestions.

When he returned to the catapult corps’ camp, he found Stadt standing alone before the window. The room was unlit, and he was gnawing on an apple beneath the moonlight. Come to think of it, the two of them had spent so long in that cave eating nothing but dried meat and donkey meat that their sense of taste had nearly atrophied.

“Here.” Seeing Kevin enter, Stadt casually tossed him an apple.

Kevin caught it, rubbed it against his sleeve, and said, “Where’s the knife? Peel it for me.”

“Keep your voice down. Sain is still asleep.” Stadt shook his head. “Why bother peeling it? Just bite into it.”

Kevin did not insist. He put it straight into his mouth and took a loud, crisp bite.

“Can you sleep?” Stadt asked.

Kevin was silent for a moment, then shook his head. “For the two of us, it’s like we’ve only just woken up and are already supposed to go back to sleep.”

“Then shall we go for a walk?” Stadt suggested.

Kevin nodded.

The two of them slipped quietly outside. Sain had probably had a difficult time these past two days. There were only three people in the catapult camp, and until the two wounded men woke, he had been the one caring for them. He was sleeping deeply now, and it would have been inconsiderate to disturb him.

Beneath the moonlight, the two men walked with their hands in their pockets, looking around from time to time and occasionally raising their heads to the sky. Stadt could not help sighing.

“It feels as though it’s been ages since I last saw such a bright moon.”

“Indeed.” Kevin felt the same. In the cave, they had taken turns standing watch. At night, the mist had been thick, and everyone had been wound tight with tension. They had never had the leisure or peace of mind they enjoyed now.

“What did they ask you?” Stadt asked casually.

“I’m guessing I offended someone again.” Kevin shrugged helplessly. “Maybe there really is something wrong with my personality. I left home at fifteen and spent ten years traveling. I rarely had to worry about anyone else’s opinion. Sometimes I won arguments, sometimes I lost them. If I lost, the worst that could happen was that I ran away and found somewhere else to go. Among wandering minstrels, no one has to treat anyone else as a superior. I’d only read about these sorts of situations in books. When I first joined the army, I was very respectful of authority, but the longer I stayed…”

He sighed.

“Heh.” Stadt laughed. “I won’t say anything about it. After all, you have protagonist aura.”

“Enough with that.” Kevin tried to stop him. “A joke stops being funny when you use it too often.”

“No, I’ve already told them that you have protagonist aura,” Stadt said with a grin. “Not just once, either. I emphasized it repeatedly.”

“You think they’ll believe you?” Kevin scoffed. “They’ll probably just think you’re causing trouble and beat you on the spot.”

“They don’t believe me now, but one day they will. When that day comes, they’ll look back and realize how perceptive I was. Hahahaha…” Stadt laughed with great delight.

Kevin gave a bored, dutiful chuckle, then changed the subject. “What are you planning to do from now on?”

Stadt hesitated before answering. “You may look down on me for saying this, but I really don’t plan to stay any longer. I’ll find a way to retire.”

Kevin nodded without saying anything.

“Don’t give me any grand speeches. I’m just a minor figure.” Stadt smiled. “I joined the army mainly as a way to avoid assassination. By now, I imagine the assassin has long forgotten about me. And if joining the army was supposed to be a form of training, then I’ve had more than enough.”

“But you’re still fat.”

“Yet I’ve lost ten pounds. Do you believe me?” Stadt patted his belly.

“I believe you. But you’ll put it all back on soon enough,” Kevin replied.

“Enough about me. What about you? What do you plan to do?” Stadt asked. “Stay here? Become a career officer?”

Kevin looked up at the sky. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’m a little lost. But I don’t have as many options as you, nor your financial resources. Even if I wanted to leave, I’d probably wait until I’d completed a full term.”

The two fell silent and walked on for a while. A sentry by the roadside suddenly shouted, “Halt! Password!”

Stadt merely smiled and stepped forward. “It’s me.”

“Oh, it’s the provost officer.” The sentry immediately smiled apologetically, then saluted. “Good evening, sir!”

“Mm.” Stadt returned the salute.

Stadt had originally served as a provost and often patrolled at night. He had not been with the catapult corps for long, and the sentries were still accustomed to addressing him by his former title.

“You certainly carry a lot of weight,” Kevin joked. “You don’t even need to give the password.”

“That’s the power of connections, a skill I earned by keeping a low profile,” Stadt replied. “Of course, if something truly happened, they might not be able to help me. But having one more friend means having one more avenue. That’s what business is all about. As a provost, I hardly ever disciplined anyone. Usually I just gave them a verbal warning. As far as I remember, I only formally reprimanded one person: an old soldier who went out without his helmet in the middle of the night and called me a fat bastard.”

“Can I counter you with a grand principle?” Kevin asked, looking at the sentry and instinctively examining him from head to toe.

“That would make this conversation boring,” Stadt replied. “Perhaps I didn’t express myself clearly. I’m not telling you to go to extremes. What I’d prefer is for you not to be so rigid about your principles. Whenever someone disagrees with you—especially a superior—you immediately talk until they have nothing left to say. There’s no need for that. Do you understand?”

Kevin looked at the sentry and could not help reflecting on his own past. Stadt continued using the man before them as an example.

“Take this sentry. Strictly speaking, if someone approaches and fails to answer the password, he should draw his sword immediately and make a threatening gesture. If the person refuses to stop and keeps coming, he should even blow his whistle and call out that the enemy is attacking. If this sentry failed to do that, I could record it on the spot. Even though I’m no longer a provost, with my connections in the provost corps, heh…”

The sentry fell silent.

“But there’s no need for that,” Stadt said with a smile. “Because I really am no longer a provost.”

Kevin nodded. Reflection was often useful in life. Even if he could not change his personality, he could at least learn to speak with a little more tact.

The two turned and continued onward, leaving the sentry behind to discreetly wipe away a little sweat.

“Something just occurred to me,” Kevin said, recalling the past. “When I was tutoring Count Gulaide, whenever I turned around, he would almost always be standing behind me. Do you think that if he came here now, he’d have the same effect in a military camp?”

“How could that be?” Stadt said disdainfully.

“Let’s try it.”

Kevin grabbed Stadt and spun around sharply. There was no one there. They turned back, and still no one was there. Stadt had already thrown up his hands.

“Are you especially bored? To tell you the truth, my arms and legs are still sore.”

“But I really did summon Count Gulaide that way once,” Kevin insisted. “Perhaps the two of us didn’t turn in perfect sync. How about we count down? Three, two, one—turn!”

The two spun around together. At once, they felt someone standing within arm’s reach, practically nose to nose with them. Both were horrified and instinctively stepped back, raising their hands to block. The movement was pure reflex, requiring no thought at all.

Once they had steadied themselves and looked carefully, they discovered two men behind them. One was Baron Gulaide. The other was none other than General Bright.

“General!” Faced with such a high-ranking officer, the two hurriedly saluted.

Gulaide and General Bright exchanged a glance and smiled.

“Good reactions,” Gulaide said.

General Bright shook his head. “I don’t particularly like entering a scene this way. But this gentleman’s… peculiar sense of humor made me accompany him.”

Gulaide smiled, then went straight to the point.

“Kevin, this is not the first time we’ve met. Regarding the staff officer’s expedition, what odds do you think he has of winning?”

“I’ve already said everything I needed to at the dinner,” Kevin replied.

“But you didn’t mention the second possibility.” Gulaide was nothing if not persistent.

“Very well. The second possibility is naturally that he suffers a crushing defeat,” Kevin said. “To be frank, there are more than a thousand bandits. For them to win, every man would have to take four or five heads. As for the worst possible outcome, I don’t know. That depends on the ability of the mastermind behind all this.”

“When he fought me, the mastermind was not taking the matter seriously at all. He thought defeating me was only a matter of time, so he probably held back some of his methods. But this time…”

Kevin changed tack.

“If you think about the mastermind’s objective, certain things become clear. If he can wipe out the First Battalion again, the Knights of Thunder will not only suffer severe losses, but their reputation will be ruined as well. The consequences would be immeasurable. If I were the mastermind, even if I had few trump cards left, I would still do everything possible to gamble on one more strike.”

The two Sword Saints exchanged a glance and fell silent.

Kevin continued, “The reason I risked offending the general by speaking up at the dinner was to save as many of those soldiers as possible. If this were a military exercise, I would never have said another word. It would simply be a matter of eating roasted meat. But life is priceless. If opening my mouth can save people, then I cannot remain silent.”

“You two are among the finest warriors in the world—men capable of appearing behind someone at any time and frightening the life out of them. Forgive my recklessness, but I beg you both to go to the Carudia Hills. Alas, our general is too stubborn. I am deeply sorry.”

Kevin saluted them. Seeing how seriously and responsibly they treated the matter, he could not help placing his hopes in them.

“Then shall we go and take a look?” one of them said.

To Kevin’s surprise, they actually agreed.

But no sooner had the words left his mouth than a fast horse came racing toward the camp gates. When the guards tried to stop it, the rider immediately produced a token.

“Emergency military dispatch!”

With that, the rider spurred the horse straight over the gate and vanished into the camp.

The four men stared at one another in astonishment. The two Sword Saints disappeared from the spot at once, while Kevin and Stadt instinctively hurried toward General Ood’s tent.

By the time they arrived, the entire tent seemed shrouded in deathly silence. Everyone was staring at a wooden box on the ground. Inside lay a bloodied human head.

Kevin and Stadt moved around the crowd for a closer look. It was the head of the First Battalion’s commander—the eldest son of General Ood.

General Ood sat motionless in the middle of the tent, his face blank. The blow was simply too great.

Count Gulaide handed Kevin a sheet of paper. Kevin took it and read:

“This is a gift for you. In addition, your staff officer and more than two hundred soldiers are in my hands. We are having a wonderful time, hahahaha… This is a warning: do not make any rash moves, or I will kill them. Three days from now, send someone over. Do not send a Sword Saint or any other powerful fighter. Then we can talk.”

A chill ran down the backs of everyone in the tent.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, the staff officer was bound inside an underground cavern to a black metal frame. The material was so unusual that even he could not break free. His entire body was limp, and he could barely muster any strength.

The bandit leader stood over him with more than a hundred bare-chested bandits, appraising him from every angle. They appeared thoroughly pleased.

“What are you planning to do?” the staff officer asked nervously.

The bandit leader replied, “Do you know who we are? We are a gathering of hooligans, slaves, homeless paupers, escaped criminals, and all those whom society refuses to accept. And what does it mean to be someone society refuses to accept? Heh.”

“You… you…”

The staff officer grew even more frightened.

“That’s right! To tell you the truth, thirty percent of us are homosexuals!” the bandit leader declared proudly. “That includes me! Last time, we captured a few people too. They were all strong, and we liked them very much. But to preserve our strength for battle, I chose to kill the prisoners. I regret that. But today…”

He threw back his head and laughed.

“Hahahahahaha…”

The entire cavern filled with laughter.

To be continued.