Landen had no idea that the person he respected most, Albert, was growing further and further from him in his views. He still thought Albert had simply been traveling back and forth so often lately that he needed a long rest. Landen did want to take a couple of days off, but they had already captured nearly all the Devil Beasts along the nearby rivers, and the grasslands were clearly close to being unable to support the damage caused by their enormous flock of sheep.
When Landen returned from hunting, he summoned the people in charge and ordered them to break camp the next day. Then he went to deliver meat to the children.
By now, the camp had a well-established procedure for breaking camp. First, Fang and Neil conducted a wide-ranging search, following several rivers to look for medium- and large-sized Barbarian camps. Once they found a target, Landen led the main force in a frontal assault or a surprise attack. Afterward, the bulk of the camp moved to a new site. During the move, the Mana-Less in each tent were responsible for their own tents, while Albert, who no longer took part in battle, supervised the relocation of the entire camp with the Mana-Wielders from Baron Gallop's Territory. By tradition, newly rescued Human Race Mana-Wielders did not have to fight alongside Landen during each relocation; they only needed to help move the camp.
That very morning, Neil had rescued five Human Race Mana-Wielders. As Landen had instructed, he had taken more than forty cavalrymen and five foals to trade for them. Neil still remembered how well things had gone. When Old Horse-Leg learned they had not come to attack, he had greeted them with tremendous warmth. He was deeply grateful that Landen was willing to trade peacefully, and even came with Neil to Landen's camp at noon to offer his thanks in person. Landen had warmly welcomed Old Horse-Leg and the Barbarian cavalrymen who came with him. He had even given them some Gold Coins, saying that if Old Horse-Leg's tribe raised the foals they had received in the trade, Landen would be willing to buy them back.
"Are you sure we shouldn't take Old Horse-Leg down?" Neil asked as they watched him leave.
"Of course not. He's the first tribal chief to obey me and sell me Mana-Wielder slaves. I'm counting on him to spread the word about my strength to the other tribes on the plains."
Among the five Mana-Wielders Old Horse-Leg had brought, one was a Junior Knight. That afternoon, Landen made an exception and took the knight, Cavry Senster, hunting with him so he could eat more Magic Beast Meat and recover his strength and Battle Qi as quickly as possible.
During their conversation that afternoon, the newly arrived knight, Cavry Senster, mentioned that before Old Horse-Leg had bought him, he had spent two years in a tribe called the Eagle Tribe. The tribe had a Battle Priest who could briefly share the vision of the eagles and Peregrine Falcons they raised, earning the title of Eagle-Eye Priest. Thanks to that priest's abilities, the tribe had grown to the same size the Wandering Badger Tribe once was. Just a month earlier, Cavry had accompanied Old Horse-Leg's tribe on a trade with the Eagle Tribe, so he suspected Landen's camp would inevitably encounter them as it continued east.
The Eagle Tribe also attended the Grey Goose Tribe's annual gathering, but they had little interest in trading for Black-Scaled Horses. They were much more interested in trading for Human Race Mana-Wielder slaves. Medium-sized tribes often had Mana-Wielders escape, so wandering Human Race Mana-Wielders could always be found on the Gallop Plains. The Eagle Tribe's Battle Priest enjoyed sending out his hunting eagles and Peregrine Falcons to track down and capture lone or wandering Human Race Mana-Wielders.
The Eagle Tribe had even more Mana-Wielder slaves, and there was no doubt that a tribe whose main livelihood was the slave trade would see Landen, a liberator of slaves, as an enemy. Landen could neither buy slaves from them nor make peace with them. The Eagle Tribe's Battle Priest would be a troublesome opponent. So, once the camp set out, Neil's advance party and Landen's main camp kept about ten kilometers apart. That distance gave them ample warning time and room to maneuver against Barbarian cavalry, but it would be of little use against an Eagle-Eye Priest watching from the sky.
If they prepared for battle, the Battle Priest could easily use his scouting abilities to avoid Neil's and Landen's forces and strike straight at the main camp. But if Landen left too many troops behind to defend the camp, the Eagle Tribe could quickly flee. Landen had considered strategies to split the Eagle Tribe's forces, but the most troubling thing was that he didn't know whether their Battle Priest had already set his sights on him.
Even if the Eagle Tribe had merely noticed his camp, that meant they were on guard.
Based on Landen, Neil, and Cavry's estimates, the Eagle Tribe was probably about fifty kilometers to the east. Landen's group would likely encounter them after breaking camp the next day—but the Eagle Tribe might spot Landen's camp as soon as they made camp again.
When the Two Suns rose, Neil set out with his twelve Barbarian cavalrymen. Fang went with him. Landen headed east with his twenty knights. After their discussion the night before, Landen had told Neil that if he came across a medium-sized camp, he should first sound out the situation. In particular, he should ask whether they had seen the Eagle Tribe. If they confirmed they hadn't, he should then ask whether they were willing to trade for Human Race Mana-Wielders.
The night before, Fang had also explained that Patch could now communicate with a puppy. After discovering Patch's ability, Fang had decided to lend him Yellow Tail, an adult Black Mastiff. Yellow Tail was Fang's closest companion, and the two of them could even communicate telepathically. After a crash course the previous night, Patch had also become fairly familiar with Yellow Tail's way of expressing himself. Fang's plan was simple: he would go with Neil to scout ahead, while Yellow Tail acted as a messenger between Neil's advance cavalry and Landen's knights.
When Landen heard Fang's explanation, what he was most curious about was why Patch and Fang could talk to animals. He specifically asked Greyhound Gunter.
"Our family's ability is etched into our Bloodline, sir," Greyhound Gunter said with some pride.
"Then how does Patch have the same ability? Could he be Fang's long-lost brother?"
"Hahaha, you're very funny. Actually, many families among Mages, Priests, and Knights have this ability. Speaking to animals isn't uncommon among Mana-Wielders. What's rare about my family's Bloodline is that we can identify the Bloodlines of livestock."
Greyhound's answer was rather vague. It was only after Albert came over to explain that Landen began to understand.
Communicating with the Beast Race was a very common ability among the Bloodlines of Human Race Mana-Wielders. The reason was that before the rise of the Human Race, the world had spent a long time under the rule of Magic Beast Gods in various regions. A Magic Beast God was a powerful Devil Beast that, through constant warfare and Devouring, consumed the Bloodlines of other powerful Devil Beasts until it gradually gained an immortal body. But an immortal body alone could only raise a Devil Beast to the rank of Demigod. These Demigod beasts would claim a territory and demand offerings from the intelligent beings who lived there. Over the course of history, most Beast Race and Human Race peoples gradually began worshipping these powerful Devil Beasts and recognizing their divine roles. The strongest among the Demigod beasts ascended to become Magic Beast Gods.
The various Transcendents among the Human Race had all tried to communicate with these Magic Beast Gods or their descendants. As a result, after their Bloodlines evolved over time, many families developed the ability to communicate with low- and mid-level magic beasts or ordinary animals. In the old Gallop Kingdom, long wars with the Beast Race had made such Bloodlines even more common. The Gunter Family, to which Greyhound and Fang belonged, had served the Gallop Royal Family for generations by raising canine Devil Beasts. Their family was skilled not only at raising, communicating with, and directing animals, but also at roughly assessing the purity of magic-beast Bloodlines in ordinary animals. For this reason, they had been relied upon by the Gallop Family for generations.
So your family were horse judges for dogs. Landen had roughly figured out the Bloodline of Greyhound's knightly family. "Can your family communicate with eagles?"
"That's difficult. We can communicate with parrots," Fang replied.