Chapter 399 Set Up!
?Peace!
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/Step…/
/Moans…/
/Cries.../
"..."
Later, after the skirmish ended, the soldiers retreated back to the safety of their fortress, dragging their mangled bodies and the pieces of their dead companions with them.
While they sat on makeshift beds, licking their wounds as they received "medical" help, Dale, tried to wash his face with some water he melted on the side.
The fortress was located atop the frigid mountains, so there was ice everywhere, gathering a bit of ice and melting it with his Mana wasn't hard, although it took him too much energy to even start a fire…
In some ways, this body was even worse then Elgur's, it was as if he went from Hardcore Mode to Hardcore Hell Mode...
Regardless, even after cleaning himself time and time again, the smell of blood never truly washed off.
The blood of four dozen people now stained his clothes, painting them red.
Even with a spear, it still splashed across his face, those he killed and those he did not, friend or foe…
Be it the second or first time, experiencing war like this was far too much for a young man, even if his mind was sturdier and steadier than most.
Dale seemed to be having difficulties looking straight, but he managed to calm down in the end.
He did not stop moving, he had to if he wanted to make any worth of this memory.
It was time to put his plan into action.
/Crouch…/
Sitting now at a corner of the fortress, Dale played as a hurt and weak soldier resting in the dark as he went over his plan again.
He watched the few patrols walk by, waiting for the chance to move.
'Since I don't know how Ito changes the course of this War, I might as well gather all the knowledge I can before shit hits the fan.'
'Fleeing is a possibility but first I need to figure out how far the nearest city even is and how much time I would have to learn more things if any.'
'Otherwise, I might as well stay here and fight to my death… Again.'
The idea wasn't very palatable to Dale, he didn't like the idea of giving himself to the mercy of others, but that was how hopeless of a situation he was currently in.
He also would never give in to doubt, especially when his life was in line.
He knows he lived once through the memories, but who knew if that would be the case once more? It would be better to flee than die.
However, he didn't quite want to throw the towel yet... When even the very Gods were watching him, he wanted to at least try his best and not give them a bad show.
With his plan formed and his mind focused, Dale changed his clothes to a set of clean garments he stole from somewhere.
His armor wasn't full plate, it was a single layer of weak leather strapped around his chest and waist together with a few layers of armor that could be worn just like ordinary clothes.
Removing and putting it on was doable alone.
…
/Shua…/
Like a ninja, Dale moved across the restricted zone of the Fortress, trying to evade as many soldiers as he could as he moved up the floors one by one.
He knew his condition wasn't the best for sneaking around, because even if he threw away his clothes, he could still smell the blood, though he didn't know if it came from him or his surroundings.
But without a doubt, there was a heavy smell on his skin, one that would be all too easy to recognize if he walked too close to a soldier, unless the person in question had his senses dulled due to the air around them also.
In any case, he avoided any on his way.
…
/Creak…/
Somehow, or maybe, as to be expected, Dale reached the final floor of the Fortress, a massive tower that was built connected to one of the mountain's sides.
'... Something's wrong here, there's way too few people around.'
'There were a lot of people down there, while there's none here.'
'It's almost as if they moved the guards out of this area to make it easy to be infiltrated… Or they found no need to put defenses on it, which makes some sense, given they were atop a castle...'
'But not even a single guard is…'
Something strange seemed to be going on, however, Dale disregarded them for now as he arrived at the Fortress General's Office.
The door was fortified, so much so it would be easier to break the stone surrounding it, however, with some surprise, Dale just opened the door and entered the room.
There wasn't much to say about the room, it had an early 18th-century vibe with old wooden furniture, tapestry, and other decorations that were unneeded in a military fortress.
Dale ignored most of them for now, focusing on reaching for the table at the center of the Office.
Stacks of paper awaited him.
/Flip flip…/
For the next half hour, he read them one by one in quick succession, getting more and more anxious as the time for the second wave was nearing and he still had little to show.
If there was a time to turn the situation around, then it had to be before they lost their soldiers in bulk.
In the first wave, they lost less than 5% of their ground forces, but in the second wave, they would lose over half of what's left.
No equipment plus their disadvantages and their exhaustion would lead to this horrific scenario.
However was in command was giving the soldiers every wrong choice imaginable, to the point even Dale, who had little commanding experience, could see their wrongs.
After all, who would make all of their soldiers patrol throughout the night and make none sleep? How stupid was that?
'Nothing… Nothing… Nothing…'
"There's nothing here!" Dale said with some frustration as he had the urge to crush those papers and the table with it
'How's this even possible? Where even is the General?'
Dale didn't remember ever seeing the General nor his elite troops, after all, if the Barbarians had access to SuperHuman abilities, why not the soldiers of this Fortress?
Maybe… Did they flee? Ran away exactly because they did not have such powers?
Or because they realized they had no chance to begin with?
Scratching his head in frustration, Dale turned to look at a fireplace, realizing there were some pieces of burnt paper in it.
It was hard to make anything of the papers, they were already all but cinders, but it was something to think about.
"Interesting… It seems the General destroyed some evidence before leaving… I can't determine how long it has been since he left though… Probably no more than two or so days."
"But how? Would it be possible for the General to escape from the front gates when there are so many soldiers around? They would've noticed and rumors would've spread by now… Even if he disguised himself…"
Dale's eyes sharpened, this time, he began inspecting the room inch by inch… And it didn't take him long to find something unusual…
/Click…/
"What?..."
As he moved things around, he noticed how a candle holder seemed slightly off place when compared to another, and as he tried to adjust it, a section of the wall behind the General's table came off.
"Of course… There's an obvious groove on the wall…"
The reason he did not realize the groove was because there was a large tapestry directly behind the General's chair, it wasn't meant to be much, yet it succeeded in distracting him for a little while.
/Pull…/
/Creak…/
As the wall creaked, Dale had a weak sense of Deja-vu…
'Be it here or in another continent, why do these people usually have hidden passages next to their office rooms?' He thought with a small smile as he got inside the dark passage
What secrets could it be hiding?
…
/Step… Step…/
After descending who knew how many steps, Dale saw a large room full of items.
It seemed to be a storage area of some sort.
"These are… Equipment?"
Supplies of war, rations, swords, bows, and boxes upon boxes of arrows... And even expensive full plates and oils were here.
"..."
'This is enough to arm and feed 100 soldiers…'
He left the room, getting inside a corridor full of small rooms to his left and right, they weren't exactly symmetrical, as the corridor twisted and curved, but each room was about the same size.
However, they were all similar as what they had inside was utterly ridiculous…
Hundreds of armor sets and rations to last months…
"This makes no sense… If the fortress had such supplies, why leave at all? They could arm everyone and..."
"No… Why not defend from the walls of the fortress?"
It was clear something was wrong. Why set aside their advantages and fight in the open field where their biggest disadvantage, their numbers, would make the biggest impact?
"... We are being sabotaged." Dale muttered to himself as he scratched his chin
'We have everything to defend, we can defend ourselves with little trouble, but someone gave us nonsensical orders and that's leading us to our deaths…'
'There's no time to convince the soldiers to stage an uprising, and internal conflict is not what we need right now…'
'Someone is colluding with the Barbarians, it could be many things, but in the end, all answers result in our deaths.'
'They are weakening our forces with stupid and conflicting orders to minimize the loss of forces from the Barbarians… Is it betrayal? Or was the general assassinated?'
Dale turned around, checking a few more rooms before finding one last area different from the others.
This room was smaller than the others, it was mostly chests upon chests stacked atop each other with a series of shelves full of scrolls, parchments, and books.
Dale took a quick glance at them but was unimpressed, no secret techniques, only ledgers and other documents unimportant to him.
Inside the chests, Dale saw mountains of glistering golden coins and gems, maps, and other valuable assets…
"... I think I understand what's going on… Maybe…"
'What if… Someone is paying these Barbarians to invade?'
'The Barbarians would get a lot from pillaging everything, they would need access to the lands, which can be easily done by sabotaging its forces…'
'Several plans slowly formed in his mind.'
"A political fight or something deeper?... It seems this is all I can learn with the little time I have left…"
Dale went to the center of the room where a small table stood with a few items atop it.
First, he saw a massive map open on the table, it was being held in place by several other items but Dale managed to read some parts of it.
'This must be the nation I'm in now… Great.'
Next, he saw several booklets, opening them revealed what he wanted to find the most…
'Technique manuals… Several of them at that.'
'If I can read these… It would be another system for this energy I would be adding to my arsenal.'
He put them on the ground, revealing more of the map as he moved to the next few items.
'A letter, some sort of decorative sword, a strange, old horn, and lastly, a closed casket…'
Dale did no need to even check what was inside the casket, but he did so anyhow…
"Damn… I found the General… Or at least who I think it is. I have this strange feeling that this man is the general when I look at him, must be the memories of this body trying to work their magic… I'll assume he is who I think he is for now, looks old enough anyway."
As expected from one of his theories, the General had been Assassinated, brutally murdered, and left behind as a trophy…
"Wait… But if this was a plan… Uh… Why would they be leaving it here as some sort of proof?"
'Who has the upper hand here? The Barbarians or the people behind the curtains?'
"Hum… Doesn't matter much, I only need to survive."
"Let's see… The Sword is likely the mark of the General. The letter should contain deeper insight into everything… But the horn?"
"... There's nothing special about it. Is it some sort of token? Maybe it holds special significance to the people of this land…"
After thinking about the strangeness of the situation, Dale opened the letter, trying to unravel the mystery of this conflict once and for all.
"... I think I have a better idea of what's going on now…" He said with a heavy gaze as he looked away from the letter
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Notes
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