Temporary Arrangements

In a small area in Horn Pass, which was fenced off with wooden planks, people on both sides were having a serious discussion.

On one side was Darian, who sat on a bench, looking at the new man sent by Duke Theodore, trying to glean some new information from him.

The man Duke Theodore sent was no longer Count Ian, but a very thin man who returned the glance when he saw Darian looking him over.

"Prince Darian, as I have already stated, Count Ian had urgent business to attend to and returned directly. I, Baron Seras Field, will now take his place to negotiate with you."

Seras spoke in a very low voice, showing no sign of his side having the upper hand; instead, he seemed to be constantly showing weakness.

He didn't even bother to mention, like seasoned negotiators would, that Count Ian hadn't left yet, to bolster his position.

He was extremely frank, so frankly that he didn't seem to be there to negotiate at all. His eyes were fixed on Darian the entire time, never leaving him for a moment.

If Darian hadn't received absolutely no information that this obscure Baron Seras wanted to join him, he would have truly thought the man was yet another one who wanted to betray Duke Theodore.

However, he would not take any action until there was sufficient evidence and indication that Baron Seras wanted to join him, especially now that it seemed something had happened.

Count Ian's departure is definitely suspicious, and judging from Count Ian words and actions on the first day, he doesn't seem to want to resolve this matter quickly.

This is highly unusual, because quickly resolving the situation at Horn Pass would be an excellent thing for Count Ian personally, for Theodore, and for Antir as a whole.

Why did Ian seem unprepared, immediately launching into a long, rambling conversation, completely unlike someone who was prepared for negotiations?

Ian knew he wouldn't be waiting here for long, so rather than forcing Darian with a tough stance, Darian decided to stall for time.

Otherwise, no matter how tough Ian is, all the effects will diminish after Ian leaves, and he won't be able to stay and explain in detail what was discussed with the newcomers.

So Count Ian basically left without saying anything, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Darian's current conversation with someone from Duke Theodore's side was essentially their first one.

After all, they barely talked about anything, and didn't even reach a consensus.

"Alright then, could you tell me what the decoration is on the throne that Duke Theodore sits on? The one in Lorinvik only has a Gem set in the back of the chair..."

"I remember that Duke Theodore recently ascended the throne. He should have carefully observed what the throne actually looks like, right?"

Darian tilted his head back and asked Seras an extremely difficult question, to which Seras merely raised an eyebrow and slowly replied:

"I have no idea, Your Highness. I am merely a knight of a small territory, not even a lord. All I have left is a mill and three farms."

Seras wasn't falling into Darian's rhythm at all. Since Darian wanted to talk, they would talk slowly.

Darian, on the other hand, was even less in a hurry, because he guessed that Count Ian's sudden departure might be due to something terrible happening in Antir, which gave him patience.

After all, if something happens to Antir, he can use that to obtain a more generous ransom, and he might even be able to achieve his initial goal.

He still has plenty of time to talk things out with the people of Antir and wait for the right opportunity to be presented.

"Ride... Boss, what's this?"

A group of people moved silently along the edge of the River Valley Territory. Their clothes were in disarray, and they were all carrying weapons.

If it were an ordinary civilian, they would definitely be so frightened by encountering them that they would hide behind the city walls, because these people were clearly dressed as bandits.

However, if you have a sharp eye, you can see a light leather armor under the coarse cloth, studded with rivets, and quite clean with no stains.

This is not the kind of equipment that legitimate bandits would possess. Even if they did, it would only be on a few of them, not on almost everyone.

Their identities are now obvious: they are an advance team sent by the lord next to Antir to find a suitable place in Antir to plunder.

Those lords who had designs on Antir also knew that if they wanted to seize some food, equipment, or the like, they wouldn't be able to transport these things out without sending a large army.

With the situation still unclear, no one would act so impulsively, so they simply sent one of their knights with a group of men to Antir to investigate.

Their initial target was the knights, not the Lord Knight, but those knights who had been granted land by their lords and owned a small piece of land within their territories.

These people lived in small castles not inside large towns, but only near some workshops and farms.

They had heard that all the knights had been transferred away for some reason, so now was a good time to strike.

Although those knights only had such a small territory, they were still First Order Profession, and some were even from families that had been established for hundreds of years, so they must have some savings.

They were after these savings, and they came here hoping to try their luck and find the knights' castle.

Once they confirm that the knights are not inside the castle, taking it will be no problem for their team.

What they wanted were the jewels and valuable equipment that might be inside the castle, which could fetch a good price.

Another objective was to use this opportunity to mark out the road conditions and identify where the supplies were most valuable and worth looting.

However, when they arrived at the eastern part of the River Valley Territory, intending to venture deeper into the heartland and see what good places were nearby, they encountered a strange place.

The land there was very flat, and the surrounding trees had been trimmed, suggesting that it was a well-maintained road.

However, the roads here seemed different from what they knew; there were no traces of carriage tracks or horse hoofprints.

Only in the middle of the road, which is wide enough for two carriages to pass, is there a long, regularly spaced strip of wood nailed to the ground.

The person who asked the question at the beginning was about to ask the leading Knight if he recognized this thing, so he almost let it slip.

Then their leader, the 'Knight', obviously didn't know what this thing was either. He scratched his head and still made arrangements.

"Let's head south from here; this must be some kind of road. Let's see if we can find the knight's castle."

The team headed along the railway tracks toward the Base Camp. When they could vaguely see black smoke rising in the distance through the trimmed trees, they were all stunned.

"Boss... what kind of fire could produce such a huge plume of black smoke? Did they cut down that much timber?"

A bandit asked the Knight, saying he had never seen anything like it before, not even when the lord held a grand banquet, the chimneys had never emitted so much black smoke.

The black smoke almost blotted out the sky, rising from the ground in the distance beyond their sight and blackening the clouds.

"Keep going."

Despite encountering unexpected events, the Knight maintained an optimistic attitude.

After all, with First Order Profession like him leading the team, they could easily escape unless they encountered a lord-level mission directly.

Even if he were to encounter such a danger, he was confident that he could escape the lord's punishment by abandoning all the burdens he carried, so he was not worried at all about encountering any danger.

But as they continued forward, they finally saw what was emitting a steady stream of black smoke – it was a large cylinder.

Although it seemed small from their perspective, everyone knew how big it would be when they got there.

The fact that the 'leader' had not given any orders meant that the entire team was to continue moving forward.

But soon, they were unable to continue.

Because when the 'boss' took another step forward, he realized with a start that there were no other footsteps around him.

He turned around abruptly, but saw no one. He had clearly been walking forward with so many people just moments before.

A few drops of cold sweat trickled down his back. He bit his lip, unsure of what had happened, but soon he wouldn't need to know.

Because a thick baseball bat had pierced the back of his head, Fran pulled the bat back, only to see a deep, black crater that was tangled with his black hair, making it difficult to distinguish.

Her robust body collapsed. After defeating this Formal Rank Profession, Fran showed no change in expression. For her now, defeating a First Order Profession was far too easy.

However, Fran also knew that the presence of a disguised squad here was not a good thing.

After much thought, the only people capable of sending out such a high-quality squad are the lords in the northeast and northwest of Antir.

She raised an eyebrow, knowing that these lords were probably aware of the current situation in Antir and wanted to get a share of the Antir.

She frowned again. Although she knew about the matter, dealing with it was extremely troublesome.

Among the subordinates she can currently command, there is a lack of enough First Order Profession. Without enough First Order Profession to establish a defensive line, there will be more teams like today that come by taking back roads.

To prevent these people from ruining her hard work—after all, while it would be easy for her to investigate, the thought of destroying the facilities she had painstakingly built made her blood pressure rise.

Furthermore, she cannot directly display the Alliance's logo to intimidate others right now; she is not ready yet.

"The only solution is to relocate all the civilians to places with sufficient protection..." Fran gritted her teeth and made a stopgap measure.