Meanwhile, in a clearing toward the rear of the Military Camp, beside the Baggage Area, Lydia hurried along with a small squad of the Goddess of Agriculture's Priests.
They wore leather armor and dark cloaks that allowed them to move freely, with sharp longswords or maces hanging at their waists and heavy packs filled with bandages, herbs, and basic medical instruments on their backs.
Lydia herself gripped an Oak Staff with an iron-reinforced head in her right hand and carried a round shield in her left, clearly ready to enter battle.
The alarm announcing an enemy attack had shattered the quiet of the camp's logistics area like a boulder hurled into a still lake. Most of the people gathered here were noncombatants.
Some belonged to the Earth Mother Goddess Church or the Goddess of Agriculture Church, while others were grooms, carpenters, blacksmiths, and the like who had never experienced war.
Now gunfire and cannon blasts thundered constantly from the Front Line facing the Swamp, and flares rising into the sky turned half the heavens white. Naturally, this frightened the people gathered in the Baggage Area, who feared the Snake-Men would appear here.
Voices, footsteps, and clattering equipment mingled in a din of tension and panic. Some even entertained the absurd notion that fleeing the Military Camp would let them escape the Snake-Men's attack... Those idiots had never considered the possibility that their own side might win the battle cleanly and decisively.
When Lydia led her squad through the area, she inevitably became caught up in the chaos. Many of the Goddess of Agriculture's Followers shouted to her, reaching out for help.
Lydia hesitated, but once she made out what those few people were shouting, her attitude changed completely... They were all asking her to take them away from here.
**"Stay