Scouting (part 1)

Ch. VII - Scouting (Rake)

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Come to think of it, at that time, I've never once thought about some things.

Questions like, 'Why was Velborn our enemy?' or 'What terrible things Velborn has ever done to us?' has never once popped up in my mind.

At the time, all I ever thought of was the holy mission, and that I have to do whatever it takes to complete it. For the sake of obtaining my father's attention, I worked day and night figuring out Velborn's weaknesses and plans to destroy them. Either with Gilbert, or with reading and memorizing the public books

Never once… I thought of why we are even fighting. Why are they our enemy? Why things turned out this way.

The only thing in my mind was…

How do I complete this mission?

.

.

.

How do I complete this mission…?

As I stared into the night evening skies, that question suddenly came to my thoughts.

Right now, I am lying down on top of the roof belonging to one of the largest mansions in Ardjestyn. The Manor of Grand Duke Ignicius.

The area is over five hundred meters long and three hundred meters wide in land, but the main building itself is only two hundred meters long and one hundred sixty meters wide. That is still three square kilometers of a building, with several other smaller houses surrounding it that belonged to the branch families.

To live in the center of it all… especially when you are the only member of the family in the house…

Is extremely lonely.

Well, at least it's good for thinking. Which is why I climbed up to the roof and stared into the starry evening sky.

It is… calming.

Though extremely saddening at the same time, at least in this situation I can be at my calmest point, which is the condition I need if I want to think about a lot of things.

For example, how can we win?

How can I finish this holy mission?

Lots of things have been talked about between me and commander Gilbert from the knights earlier today, but even with all that planning, I'm still very skeptical as to whether or not things will go correctly.

Of course, it is up to me to make sure that things do go correctly. I will make sure of it.

Velborn… exactly how many hidden weapons do you people have?

I closed my eyes, and let my emotions go flowing with the cold evening air. Slowly, I began to fall asleep.

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Two days after the meeting with Gilbert, things had finally begun to move.

Gilbert's men were tasked to do some scouting on a certain area in the south, an area that has been on lockdown for so many decades until recently.

Of course, that area is the territory of Calibra, the one eyed dragon.

Calibra's territory was right between Ardjestyn and Velborn, which was not convenient for both sides because we couldn't use that spot at all. We couldn't travel there randomly, we couldn't set up any camps, we couldn't even go through the area safely without being in danger of the legendary one eyed dragon.

Of course there might be rare cases of people actually surviving going through it untouched, but that happens rarely since Calibra was always aware of the things that are happening on its territory. One of the reasons was probably because the legendary dragon was asleep, and couldn't scare away the people that went through its territory.

And now that Calibra is dead, that area could easily be a battlefield between Velborn and Ardjestyn. In the end, we have to do something about that territory.

The area was a valley placed right between two tall mountains. A long river goes down that valley with dense forest trees surrounding it. One end of the valley is on the northern, at the Ardjestyn territory, but the other end is at the south, at the Velborn territory.

This valley can easily be a warpath or a new battlefield between the two kingdoms.

"You've been here before, right Rake?"

Gilbert asked me inside the carriage, right after we arrived. The two of us, alongside seventeen other of his men, had just arrived in this valley. Aside from the nineteen newcomers, there's also the knight squad that was already guarding the valley's northern entrance. 

The knight squad that was guarding were also a part of Gilbert's squadron, but their task is very different to ours. The nineteen newcomers are here to scout an entire valley, and to make sure that no ethelen has taken over this place.

I looked around the area and somehow didn't recognize the entrance. Probably because when I came here, I was zoning out and lost myself in thoughts. I didn't bother looking at the scenery.

"I… don't remember."

"Heh. Then maybe you remember where the dragon was?"

I nodded at him and turned towards the eastern mountain. There is a large cave far-far away from this position, very high near the top of the mountain. From that cave, it is possible for the eyes to watch over the entire valley, so it's obvious that Calibra purposely chose that spot as its home, that way it can watch over the entire valley easily.

Gilbert understood my gaze and nodded. He then turned towards the men around us.

"Everyone, fall in!"

He shouted to the men around us that were resting previously. Before long, all of his knights are already lining up in front of us neatly.

I stood right next to him, and I'm wearing the same armor as those guys.

"Now that we're here, we can begin the scouting mission. Your duty is to roam every single bit of this land in groups of five or four. Report back when you found anything that seemed important, otherwise keep searching."

Gilbert explained to his men, and every single one of them saluted.

"""Yes, sir!!"""

"Good, then we can begin."

The knights then began turning into groups by their squads. A few of them don't have any squadmates, so they went with another squad that has less members.

As for me…

"Feel free to join the squad that has four in it. You can lead it if you want to."

Gilbert said to me before walking to his own group of four, and I nodded.

In a nineteen men army, there can be four groups with one of them being only four men. Without me and the commander, there are three teams that have a group of four. Gilbert went to one, so I began walking to my pick.

"May I join this team?"

I said to the four other knights with me. From the looks of it, every single one of them looked to be below thirty, so maybe I can fit well. The other teams had older people, so I believe this one is where I'd fit in.

"D-Definitely, sir!!"

Their team leader is definitely looking at me too highly.

Even though I am probably much younger than they are, they still called me sir.

"No need for formalities. Just call me Rake from now on."

"Yes, si--Master Rake!"

"… Just Rake is fine."

"Y-Yes, s… Rake."

He had a tough time, but he worked it out.

Behind him, everyone else seemed to be silently laughing at him. I can see that he's the one team leader that is quite popular to his teammates.

Afterwards, the mission began. Our team went to the deeper part of the western forest, to look for things there and made our way to the south.

During the search, we all spread out quite a bit so we can cover more areas. Communication was low, because everyone was quite far away from one another. But it's not like it was necessary in the first place.

Unless… you're bored.

"Oh my god… how long have we been searching!?"

One of the team members shouted rather loudly, and I heard it from more than ten meters away.

"It has been about two hours since we started! Stay sharp, don't soften up!!"

The team leader shouted from his side, somewhere on the most western side. He was the furthest from me, since I'm on the most eastern side, closest to the river.

It has been officially two hours since we started the search, and everyone's energy is pretty low right now. We didn't find anything aside from trees or wild animals, nothing too unusual.

This valley is indeed pretty long. It might take a whole six hours for us at this pace to search the whole thing. Which means… we are four hours left into the search.

… I just hope the other teams had better luck finding anything.

But one hour later, my hope was answered.

BAARRRRR!!!!!!

"What was that!?"

That explosion came from the eastern side of the valley, very far from our position. It definitely came from the deep parts of the forest in the east, which means it should be from the team that is furthest from us.

Our team immediately grouped up, and we began discussing immediately.

"S-Should we go check it out!?"

"Not yet! We need to wait for the chief to make a call!"

The team leader said to one of the team members that seemed quite panicky. Everyone else is also worried, since that explosion wasn't really a small one.

"Sir--Rake! What should we do?"

The team leader turned to me and asked, but I kept my gaze towards the source of the explosion.

My mind began to move at incredible speed to make a decision, since I'm basically the highest ranking person in this team. I'm the next in line of commands after Gilbert, which means I have to make a decision, and fast.

First question. How long has it been since the explosion?

It has been about fifteen seconds since it happened. But since we don't know the condition over there, it's possible that whatever is happening may have already been happening for over a minute or more.

If a battle has occurred there, it's possible that the battle has started for over a minute. Which means, it is possible to move on to the next question.

Second question. Was that time enough for commander Gilbert to make a call?

Every single member of the unit was given communication tools that allowed them to communicate, but it only works one way. Only Gilbert can speak to the tool, and everyone else can only listen.

Was fifteen seconds more than enough time for Gilbert to speak? Definitely. In that case, onto the next question.

Third question. Why hasn't the commander said anything?

There can be only three cases of situations happening to Gilbert. First, was that he didn't know. He must've not heard about the explosion, if so then it makes sense why he didn't say a thing.

Second, he heard the explosion, but he was far away. But if that were the case, then he would have immediately turned the device on and said something. He would ask, or maybe call everyone to regroup to find out the cause. 

Which means, the only possible option is the third case.

He is in danger.

"We have to go.

That explosion came from Gilbert's side. He must've found something and fought with it, causing an explosion."

I said to the others without turning to them. And without waiting, I immediately began moving.

FWOOSSH!!!

"W-Wait!!"

Being ranked as the strongest hero of the kingdom, there are many capabilities that I have in my arsenal. One of them, is my incredible speed.

My body moves as fast as light, as if I am the light itself. I arrived in the river that is at the center of the valley in no time, and I even ran above the water without having my legs drown. I continued east and ran towards the source of the explosion that was previously the furthest away from my position, and I arrived there in no time.

By the time I arrived, things were already gone to hell.