The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Wesker, who was hanging on the horse's back, finally vomited due to the jolting.

When the entourage saw that Wesker had woken up, they quickly stopped and helped him off his horse.

"Water, give me water!"

Wesker snatched the water pouch from his squire's waist, took a big gulp, and only then did he regain his senses.

After being blown away, Wesker lost consciousness upon seeing the shattered Lucanus, but it now appears that his squires had carried him away on horseback.

The squires really did their best to get Wesker out of the chaos.

"Lost?"

Wesker uttered two simple syllables, his voice so soft it seemed he wanted to confirm the outcome of the war, yet feared his entourage might actually tell him.

"My lord, at least when we escaped, the allied forces had already been defeated."

"So where are we now?"

"The valley was in complete chaos at the time, and it was impossible to go back. All we could do was lead you in one direction to escape. We are now near the River of Tears."

Before the entourage could finish speaking, Wesker punched him directly in the face.

"You damned bastards! Why didn't you wake me? If I were here, I could have turned the tide and led the allied forces to drive back all those Lars! It's all because of you! Yes, it's because of you that I failed. This failure is not my fault!"

Wesker then angrily grabbed the henchman and demanded, "Are you a spy for the other side?! Tell me! Did you take a bribe from Lars?"

“Sir, I’ve been with the Evans family since I was a child, have you forgotten?”

Wesker originally intended to distance himself from the defeat and immediately dropped the squire.

Now that he had a reason, Wesker felt relieved and asked directly, "What do we do now?"

"Let's find our way back first, my lord. We've figured out the general direction, and we have warhorses with us. We'll be back in our territory soon."

Wesker nodded. As long as he returned to his territory, he could quickly make a comeback. But in order to avoid attracting attention, Wesker removed the armor from his warhorse and his squire and headed towards his territory.

As evening approached, Wesker's stomach began to rumble, so he turned to the guards' door and asked, "Did you bring any food?"

The squires looked at each other in bewilderment. The food was with the cook, but he had long since disappeared in the explosion. Just then, a wisp of smoke rose not far away, and Wesker led his squires cautiously toward it.

After parting the bushes, Wesker saw a camp where dinner was being cooked, and a group of nuns were kneeling and praying with their backs to him.

It turned out to be just a group of nuns. Wesker was relieved. They were probably just nuns from a church visiting and spreading the gospel, and they had set up a camp to rest along the way.

After confirming that only nuns were present, Wesker straightened his clothes, put on the spare cloak handed to him by his attendant, making himself look more like a nobleman, and then strode into the camp with haughty steps.

"Hey! You're nuns from the Church of the Goddess of Light, right? I'm a follower of the Goddess, I need your..."

Before Wesker could finish speaking, the nuns all turned their heads in unison. All of them wore strange bird-beak masks with eerie red eyes that seemed to have spotted their prey.

"Are you... are you cult members? What do you want? I'm a noble champagne aristocrat, I have plenty of money, I'll give you whatever you want..."

Before he could finish speaking, Wesker saw the nuns pick up the metal fire sticks from their legs and stand up.

Wesker recognized it; it was the same kind of fire stick used on the battlefield to fire molten rays.

"The goddess has answered our prayers again! Thank you for the goddess's gift."

This was the last thing Wesker heard before he fainted from fright.

At this time, Linde dared not slack off in the camp. Almost all of his troops were sent out to hunt down the escaped nobles. This was not only a real victory, but also to prevent these nobles from really going back to make a comeback, especially Wesker.

However, after such a crushing defeat, it is estimated that those nobles will find it difficult to organize an attack again in the short term. In fact, if any nobles were to be able to reorganize an attack, the defeat would probably not have been so swift this time.

Many nobles even surrendered outright, and when they did so, they were still arrogant, thinking that they would be treated well.

This is also the mindset of traditional aristocratic warfare: if you lose, you just have to pay a ransom, right? And since you're the leader who brought the surrender, shouldn't the opposing lord treat you well to attract more people to surrender?

But these nobles may have forgotten that they initially came with the intention of gaining military merit and leaving no survivors. One of the reasons for the Gray Collars' counterattack was revenge. This was a war to kill, not just a petty squabble between nobles.

Linde's constant dispatch of men to search for these fleeing nobles already demonstrated his stance, and these bandits were quickly stripped of all their equipment and imprisoned.

The war went even more smoothly than Lind had imagined. Not only were there no subsequent minefields, but they didn't even have to deploy the meteorite from Isa. Although Lind hadn't initially pinned his hopes on such mystical methods.

Although almost the entire camp was mobilized to search for these nobles, Lind was actually quite relaxed and not worried that anyone would dare to raid his camp. The reason for this was that Lena was still in the camp.

At this moment, Lena, dressed in a single layer of clothing and carrying a roast duck, walked into Lind's tent.

"Brother, it's time for dinner."

As usual, Linde and Lena squatted in front of the large tent, tearing at the roast duck on the plate, watching the sun slowly set in the distance, and after a gentle breeze, the moon and stars gradually appeared.

Linde didn't really like this posture; if possible, he would prefer to sit in a chair. But Lena really liked it because it was the most impolite and most comfortable posture for her. In order to be at the same level as Lena when chatting, Linde gradually got used to it.

Lena had just finished showering. After all, she had just come down from the battlefield and was wearing ill-fitting armor, so she must have been covered in sweat.

The scent of soapberry mingled with the smell of blood from the battlefield, carried by the evening breeze to Lind's side. This was the first time Lind had ever smelled this aroma.

"You used soap?"

Linde asked curiously, after all, although every noble family had a dedicated soap maker who used the most expensive soap made by alchemy, Lena had never used such a thing, and did not even bring a soap maker with her when she came to Gray Collar.

“I asked my grandfather to send me two pieces of soap last time, but I forgot to use them. This stuff is really hard to use. I washed for ages but still couldn’t get rid of the smell of blood.”

A gentle breeze stirred the girl's golden hair as she knelt on the ground, smoothing her hair to keep it from being ruffled by the evening wind.

"How's it going? Do you like it?"

The girl didn't know what she was asking, but Linde realized at that moment that the girl in front of him, who had just come back from the battlefield and still smelled of blood, was his fiancée.

Before Lind could answer, Lena broke off a greasy duck leg and handed it to him.

"Hey bro, this is for you, it's got some kick."

The beautiful filter shattered instantly.

"Thank you."

With a speechless expression, Lin De grabbed a duck leg and began to gnaw on it in a fit of indignation.