After Liya left, Si Kai also took his team deep into the Wilderness to gather intelligence.
As the vanguard, their duty was to investigate the movents and strength of the Minotaurs. After resting at High Cliff Castle for a few days, they set out again.
"These are troubled tis."
The Lord stood at the highest point of the hill, hands clasped behind his back, gazing out over the Wilderness.
The sky was blanketed in dark clouds and a biting wind blew. The ankle-high ryegrass rippled like waves of wheat, creating a grim, terrifying sight that was almost apocalyptic.
Two days later, a light snow began to fall. Everyone, except for the Lord and the robust Beastman Barbarians, had changed into padded winter clothes to ward off the cold.
To Levi’s surprise, it wasn’t Si Kai returning from the depths of the Wilderness that he greeted, but an army from Bailiu City.
A mounted ssenger galloped to about a hundred paces from High Cliff Castle before pulling to a halt. He was clearly an old hand who knew this was the edge of their periter; any closer and he would draw a warning from the castle’s defenders.
He flew a banner embroidered with an eagle holding a sword in its beak—the symbol of the Martel Family.
Levi led a party of a few dozen n down the hill. He glanced curiously at the army behind the ssenger and asked with easy familiarity, "Knight, which big shot from Bailiu City is leading you this ti?"
"My Lord, it’s soone very important, soone you would never expect." The ssenger hadn’t expected the Lord of High Cliff Castle, who was spoken of in almost mythical terms back in Bailiu City, to be so unassuming. Emboldened, he decided to be a little coy before stating his purpose. "Duke Fulina has ordered us to station ourselves near High Cliff Castle. She said you would make the arrangents."
"Then I shall wait and see," Levi replied absently, his mind already turning. ’There are many important people in Bailiu City, but very few who would truly surprise .’
Suddenly, a thought struck the Lord like a bolt of lightning. He muttered uncertainly, ’It couldn’t be Fulina herself, could it?’
But then he dismissed the idea. It was too unlikely. Although the Minotaurs’ southern advance seed like a major event, in truth, Fulina could have easily resolved it by dispatching any one of her Legion Commanders. It was hardly a crisis that required the personal attention of a Duke.
Unable to figure it out, Levi decided to stop thinking about it. ’No matter who this important person is, I’ll et them soon enough.’
As for the matter of stationing the army from Bailiu City, Fulina had indeed written to him personally about it so ti ago.
After all, the area surrounding High Cliff Castle was considered his domain. Even a Duke couldn’t simply march soldiers into another noble’s territory without permission.
Levi had already sent n to clear a tract of wasteland below the hill. While it couldn’t accommodate a hundred thousand soldiers, it could easily house several tens of thousands.
...
An army of over ten thousand can create the illusion of being a boundless sea of n. Although this advancing column didn’t quite have ten thousand, it was close, numbering around eight thousand.
The unsophisticated folk of High Cliff Castle, watching from the hill, were utterly stunned. It was a grand spectacle the likes of which they had never witnessed before.
A vanguard of four heavily armored standard-bearers marched at the head, followed by the vast, sprawling column. Cavalry patrolled the flanks. Following the procession with one’s eyes, it seed like a boundless line of ants marching to the very edge of the horizon.
Levi even spotted Thunder Lizard Beasts at the rear of the column. These Giant Beasts stood over three Tri-Blades tall at the shoulder, weighed several thousand pounds, and were covered in overlapping scales like plates of armor. A single, exceptionally sharp horn protruded from their heads.
But contrary to their ferocious and terrifying appearance, they were gentle-tempered and purely herbivores. Though slow-moving, they possessed incredible stamina and imnse Power.
They were typically used by armies as Servant Beasts to haul heavy supplies and equipnt.
But even knowing this, the tremors caused by their pillar-like hooves striking the earth were still heart-stopping.
Levi couldn’t begin to imagine the scene. ’What would it be like if a thousand Thunder Lizard Beasts charged all at once?’
Excluding the accompanying logistics personnel and Auxiliary Soldiers, the number of true combat soldiers was likely around six thousand.
This was the standard legion structure in Debei. A small legion at full strength comprised 6,000 n, divided into 12 cohorts. The first cohort had 720 n, while the other eleven each had 480. A squad consisted of 80 n.
The first cohort was typically the cavalry unit, which was why it was larger.
One look at this legion was enough to tell they weren’t so ragtag militia of hastily conscripted peasants. They were, at the very least, a standing army of professional soldiers who trained full-ti. Otherwise, they could never march in such disciplined silence, the air filled only with the uniform tread of their boots and the tallic clang of their Armor.
At a wave of the ssenger’s flag, the column soon ca to a halt fifty paces from the waiting Lord.
The ranks parted naturally to form a path, and a Silver Armored Knight with a slightly slimr build than the other Knights rode forward on a Magical Beast Levi had never seen before.
Levi narrowed his eyes, studying the knight carefully.
The Silver Armored Knight’s Plate Armor was engraved with exceptionally intricate patterns. Cat’s-eye-sized gems were embedded in the chest plate and the backs of the gauntlets. Setting aside its defensive qualities for a mont, the price alone was clearly astronomical, far beyond what the Lord could imagine.
The Knight sat astride a magnificent mount that resembled a deer, yet was clearly not one.
The mount had a lean, powerful build with a flowing blue coat, contrasted by a chest of snow-white fur. Its head was fox-like, yet crowned with a pair of antlers, and its eyes sparkled with unusual intelligence.
’This is definitely a Magical Beast of high Intelligence!’
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