36 Chapter 36 - A Trial? (9)

It was another morning; Theodore opened his eyes and looked at the familiar ceiling in his room, awakening from his sleep.

It had already been a week since William, the city guard's captain, announced the news of the upcoming war.

The relationship between him and his teacher was recently awkward, and there was no chance for them to ease up.

He was busy with the more demanding patrolling tasks and preparing for the war while his teacher worsened his illness and spent more time sleeping.

Despite his recent distressing relationship with his teacher, Theodore had already done whatever he could to prepare for the war.

With the earlier warning, Theodore fortunately completed his preparation without much difficulty.

He had used the saved money to buy a large amount of dry food and Nathan's medicine at the market price.

Theodore stored the supply he brought in the house's hidden basement. In addition, he took the chance to reinforce its door and arrange a cover.

He was also lucky enough to buy a relatively decent second-handed sword cheaply to replace his original rusty sword, which was the welfare of the city guard.

He thought about buying an inexpensive second-hand armor as well. Regrettably, even the price of the cheapest armor in the market was either too expensive for him to afford or was out of stock. He could only give up in desperation.

Although not everything went as planned, Theodore had prepared as much as possible to save his and his teacher's lives during the upcoming war with the limited budget he had.

Theodore did not linger long on the bed; he quickly got up and prepared to go to work despite feeling tired.

Due to the lack of personnel for patrolling, each city guard with this responsibility needed to work on more shifts; Theodore barely got a chance to rest.

He dully walked out of his room to eat a simple bread as his breakfast and prepare the medicine for his teacher before he went out as usual.

...

After leaving the house, Theodore was on his way to the old gathering place, the training ground, as he looked at the surroundings.

Different from the past, only a few people walked on the street, rushing to do their business. The city was also strangely depressing and quiet. The reason for the current depressive atmosphere was the accidental leak of the news about the upcoming war.

Three days ago, a city guard exposed the news to his family members, who then told their friends and others. By the following day, half of the people in the city were already aware of the upcoming war, causing widespread panic.

Although the city guard's captain, William, had severely punished the involved city guard as a response, it did not solve the consequence of the news leakage.

Without any good solution, William could only ask the city lord to come forward and make an official announcement.

With the news confirmed, everyone's action was similar to his in the past, and they prepared with everything they could; however, the supply either skyrocketed in price or was out of stock.

After the initial outbreak, the city soon returned to silence; most people would not leave the house these days without an important business.

Looking at the current lifeless state of the city, Theodore signed. Although the war had not started yet, it had already severely affected many people living here; he could not imagine what would happen to everyone's life after the war officially began.

While in a daze, Theodore heard a ringing sound of the bell throughout the city.

DING! - DING! - DING!

The sound of the bell seemed far away, yet Theodore felt as if the bell was ringing near his ears. He froze in shock as a result before rushing to the gathering place in a panic.

He knew what this sound meant; the enemy was here.

...

When Theodore reached the training ground, he immediately scanned the surroundings, trying to figure out the situation.

As he looked around, Theodore quickly caught his team leader, Lucas, and some of his new teammates. He swiftly strode to them.

Lucas also noticed Theodore walking over; Lucas looked toward him before saying with a rare, severe expression, "Wait for everyone first."

Theodore promptly nodded in response to Lucas as he walked to stand beside the already-arrived team members.

...

Theodore did not wait for long before everyone arrived, in a similar hasty state as he did.

'It seemed that the others were also as restless as I was,' Theodore thought while shifting his eyes to focus on Lucas.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Lucas explained, "Someone found the trace of the enemy nearby, outside the city. We are now waiting for the confirmation of the news."

"Captain William was worried that the enemy would play some tricks in the city and had just passed down the order to tighten the patrol. We had to complete one more shift today." Lucas added with some distress in his voice.

Although Theodore and the listening city guard felt downhearted, no one complained. Their situation was already much better than those needing to go out and meet the enemy soon.

Lucas could guess what his team felt from their expression; he uttered some comfort words before quickly leading them to start patrolling.

Time was tight, but there was still much more work to complete.

...

On a long street in a relatively populated area, only the city guard was patrolling around.

After hearing the ringing bell, most people had already hidden in their houses or various hidden places they could find.

Theodore looked around as he followed the other city guards in his team; the city was now even more desolate than when he had previously walked to the training ground.

As Theodore patrolled, a restless feeling emerged in his heart, as if something terrible was about to happen. He tried to calm himself and look normal as he kept pace with the team.

'It was nothing; I was just worried too much.' Theodore silently comforted himself. However, this thought of his did not linger for long before something happened.

BOOOOOM!!!

The sound of something exploding nearby echoed in everyone's ears. They looked toward the source of the sound and saw a large group of smoke floating in the air.

'Something happened!' Everyone thought the same thing. They looked at each other as if confirming that everyone had made a similar decision.

Lucas then led everyone to rush toward the screen.