They were called birds, but they were all actually falcons.
Nalant had ordered his subordinates to capture these falcons. Once they signed a master-recognition contract with the little girl, they were even more obedient than the hawks tamed through sleepless endurance in his previous life.
After these three "little brothers" reached Tulip Castle, they would remain there and serve as messengers for Stella or Bernard to send him word in the future.
That way, there would be no need to use horses and riders to deliver messages. It would not only be safer, but much faster as well.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another week had passed.
At noon that day, just after Nalant finished breakfast, he received a report from the guards that a large convoy had arrived in the distance beyond the castle.
Nalant immediately climbed the walls upon receiving the report. Looking through his telescope, he spotted the banner of the Frank Family at the front of the convoy.
What the convoy had brought was not goods, but more than a thousand people.
"They did it!" Nalant immediately thought of one possibility: Natasha had returned!
He had been waiting for news during this time. Especially after receiving word that the situation in the Northwest Desert might change, he had worried that the guards' families would not be ransomed in time.
If that happened, it would also undermine his standing among the guards.
After all, bringing their families back was both the means he had used to win them over and the favor he had granted them.
And once their families were here, these guards would become just as wholeheartedly loyal as Quick and the others.
Having guessed the identity of the convoy, Nalant left the castle directly to welcome them.
Before long,