Shield River City, Fifth Army Garrison.
Unlike the usual solemn and oppressive atmosphere, the training ground was bustling with noise and excitement today, appearing exceptionally lively. Many soldiers and officers not on duty crowded around the edge of the field, their gazes burning intently on the confrontation in the center.
"Bang!"
Galvin's figure was sent flying backward rapidly, tumbling several times on the ground before barely managing to stop. Across from him, Lide remained standing calmly and composed, not even his breathing showing the slightest disturbance.
He casually beckoned toward Galvin, who was struggling to get up.
"Not enough. Again."
"You'll only be considered barely qualified when you can force me to draw my weapon."
"Hmph." Galvin wiped the sweat from his face, let out a low roar, and charged again, leading with his Gray Eagle Slash. But once more, he was sent flying without any suspense.
After several such consecutive attempts, Galvin finally exhausted his strength and remembered something else.
Galvin lowered his voice and asked breathlessly, "Getting to spar with an Extraordinary is a rare opportunity. Why are you just standing here doing nothing?"
Arthur snapped out of his daze, instinctively covering the Sunblossom gifted to him by Viola and the blessed feather from Count Bran beneath his breastplate.
It seemed that since this morning, he had felt the Sunblossom on his chest becoming increasingly active, as if influenced by the aura of some natural existence, even making him feel a warmth that only living flesh possessed...
Strange, had something happened in the swamp?
"Not yet time," he said something incomprehensible, then stood dumbly in place again as if daydreaming.
Galvin took a few ragged breaths, gritted his teeth, and was about to shout "continue," but Lide had already seen that he was nearing his limit.
He looked up at the increasingly gloomy sky, which seemed to be brewing a rainstorm, and spoke, "That's enough for today. It's about to rain, everyone disperse."
"The next few days will likely have heavy rain. You'd best be prepared."
After saying this, he intended to turn and leave, but a soldier hurriedly squeezed through the crowd and respectfully handed him a letter sealed with wax.
Lide tore open the envelope and, by the light of the torches at the edge of the training ground, carefully read its contents. His brows sometimes furrowed tightly, as if encountering a difficult problem, and sometimes slowly relaxed, revealing a thoughtful expression.
This time, he said nothing more, only whispered a few instructions to the officer standing beside him before turning and quickly leaving the training ground.
But the meticulous Galvin keenly noticed that shortly after Lide left, several squads of well-equipped legion knights and soldiers hurriedly departed the garrison.
Their direction of advance was not toward Shield River City's inner city, but toward Storm Fortress to the west.
"The summer Magical Tides are coming, so something happened at the fortress?"
He immediately realized this was likely an excellent opportunity for him and Arthur to escape their house arrest and flee the legion garrison.
So he pulled Arthur along and, under knight escort, returned to the camp. He found Glenn, who was lying around idling, and informed him of this matter.
"What? You didn't see wrong, did you?"
Glenn sprang up from his straw bed, all sleepiness gone from his face.
He cautiously approached the tent entrance, lifted a corner of the flap, and warily observed outside to confirm there were no eavesdroppers. Then he lowered his voice and urgently asked Arthur, "Sir Arthur, can you contact that Slime Majesty?"
"Or find a way to get that crow to sneak into the garrison to pass us information, so we don't miss the chance to escape."
Arthur shook his head. "The gel we had for communication was confiscated. And this place is heavily guarded. I'm afraid Count Bran won't find an opportunity to enter here."
Strangely, though, the Sunblossom and blessed feather on his chest were also supposed to be confiscated. But for some reason, Lide simply asked a few questions and then threw them back to him.
As if he didn't care much, or more likely, was confident in his own power.
Hearing this, Glenn scratched his messy hair in frustration.
"Damn it. If I'd known we'd encounter this situation, I should have learned from those professional spies and carved a simple communication magic formation on a tooth. At least then we could send messages out."
"Right."
He suddenly seemed to remember something, his eyes lighting up as he looked excitedly at the two men. "Sirs, you two have served in the Border Garrison for so many years after all. You must have some connections of your own. Now is the time to use them."
Upon hearing this, Galvin grunted, his tone carrying its usual coldness and pride. "Connections? I don't need that kind of false thing. The power one holds oneself is the most real, the most reliable."
In reality, the Gray Eagle family had long declined. He was the only Gray Eagle Knight in the Border Garrison, and because he spoke without tact, often offending other knights, he naturally had few friends in the garrison.
When Arthur heard this question, the Soulfire beneath his helmet swayed violently, and a rare hesitation and struggle arose within him.
Actually, compared to the declined Gray Eagle family, his own family, the Arevalos, remained an important pillar of the Border Garrison, steadily supplying several excellent knight talents to the garrison every year.
If the Arevalo family could learn of his whereabouts, they might send someone.
But he didn't hold much hope...
If even the Border Garrison's upper echelons might be infiltrated by demons, who could guarantee the Arevalo family's internal unity wasn't also secretly controlled by those minions?
Moreover, he didn't wish to meet his former family members in his current state, especially his sister Alice.
"Sir Arthur, I heard you seem to have a sister..."
Arthur shook his head. "I don't remember."
Glenn, too preoccupied to appreciate his complex emotions, stepped forward to press further when a cold female voice suddenly came from behind him.
"Move aside."
"Who?" Glenn hurriedly turned to look and saw a young female knight with her brown hair tied up in a bun and a cold expression lift the cloth flap and walk in.
Her posture was upright, and her sweeping gaze over the three of them felt imposing.
"This is a camp for detaining suspects. Unrelated knights are generally not allowed to enter freely," Galvin said coldly, staring at this uninvited guest.
"So your identity is obvious."
Alice raised an eyebrow at Galvin, waiting for his answer.
Galvin stated with certainty, "You're Arthur's auntie."
As soon as these words were spoken, the tent fell silent.
Alice clenched her fist, coldly squeezing out a sentence through gritted teeth. "Are you sure?"
"Of course. Arthur often mentioned to me before that he had a sharp-tongued knight auntie. That person's speech smelled more explosive than gunpowder, igniting at a touch. Looking at you, it's exactly the same," Galvin said, as if even more convinced of his idea, puffing out his chest.
"Get lost!"
The next second, a Frost Wolf Sword materialized, pointing directly at Galvin's neck. The icy blade almost touched his skin, making him feel his heart skip a beat.
"A Frost Wolf Knight?"
His gaze toward Alice changed.
Before he could figure out the woman's identity before him, Arthur, who had been silent, stood up, stepped forward, and placed himself in front of Galvin, blocking the ice sword with his own body.
He looked at Alice, his hoarse voice tinged with an indescribable complexity of emotions, and slowly spoke. "Alice, long time no see."
Alice sneered. "What? Now you remember you have a sister?"
Arthur was immediately rendered speechless, only able to silently lower his head like a child who had done something wrong.
Seeing this silent demeanor so completely different from the confident, spirited elder brother in her memories, Alice's temper was somewhat diluted by a surge of bitterness and heartache.
Finally, she took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the surging emotions. The hand gripping the sword hilt loosened slightly, and the sword in her hand dissolved into specks of ice crystals, slowly dissipating into the air.
She took a leather water flask from her waist and placed it on the wooden table beside her with a somewhat heavy *thump*.
"Count Crow entrusted me to give you something."
After saying this, as if unwilling to see him, she turned and left.
Glenn stared at Alice's retreating back, somewhat dazed. "Sir Arthur, aren't you going to ask your... sister to stay?"
Arthur shook his head. "No. I am Undead now, no longer the person she once knew."
Galvin also shook his head, sighing. "I never thought that little one who always followed you around, pestering to learn swordsmanship, would have grown so big in the blink of an eye."
"But she's becoming more and more like your auntie."
"Speaking of which, is this fierce temperament a unique inheritance of the women in your Arevalo family?"
Arthur ignored him, walked to the table, picked up the leather flask, pulled out the stopper, and slowly poured the water inside onto the ground.
After the water finished flowing out, several gel pellets, each only the size of a black bean, slid into his palm a few seconds later.
The three immediately attached the gel to the inside of their clothing or in concealed places close to their bodies.
As soon as they put them on, they tried to concentrate and attempt to send a message outward, quickly receiving a response.
From the other end came Count Bran's excited cawing.
"Cawhahaha!! Retainer, is that you?"
"This Count is truly a genius crow, to have thought of such a method to contact you."
Galvin crossed his arms and inquired, "What happened outside after you and His Majesty left? We saw legion soldiers being dispatched from Shield River City today."
"Cawcaw, that's right."
Count Bran on the other end said smugly, "Just yesterday, His Majesty successfully breached that supposedly impregnable Graystone Bulwark in the Dark Realm."
"This news must have scared those fellows half to death."
"Probably they're afraid we'll do something behind their backs during the summer Magical Tides, so they've returned to defend the fortress."
"But then again, His Majesty does indeed plan to..."
Immediately after, it recounted in detail how, after parting with Arthur's group, it found Belly, contacted Princess Louisa, and the plan they jointly formulated.
Of course, its narrative was inevitably filled with self-aggrandizing boasts, such as how Princess Louisa showed great respect upon meeting this noble and wise Crow Count.
Glenn automatically filtered out its exaggerated bragging, clenching his fist in delight. "As expected of the Princess. To come up with such an exquisite scheme."
"If Storm Fortress is truly breached, that fellow Lide will inevitably personally return to defend it. Without him holding the fort, who in Shield River City can stop the three of us?"
Galvin glanced at him. "Two. Me and Arthur. You're just extra."
"That's fine too. I'll leave it to you then, Sir Galvin," Glenn said cheerfully, completely disregarding his words. But soon he remembered another problem.
"Storm Fortress currently has the Second and Fourth Legions stationed there, which means there are two Extraordinary Legion Commanders guarding it."
"How do you plan to deal with them?"
From the other end came Count Bran's proud voice.
"Caw! You Snow Jackal Family kid are really dumb, calling yourself the Princess's trusted minister. With this Count's social skills, even being able to contact Lady Alice, naturally I can also contact those factions within the legion hiding in the shadows, fighting against the demon minions."
"When the time comes, with the Arevalo Family taking the lead, uniting other forces loyal to the Kingdom, they'll be enough to tie down those two Extraordinary Commanders. As for that fortress, just leave it to His Majesty to handle."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Arthur loyally performed a Knight's Salute toward the swamp's direction, then asked the question he cared about most.
"Then... will Alice participate?"
A strange, seemingly excited voice came from Count Bran. "Of course she will, caw!"
"Arthur, you fool, that's your own sister. How could she not agree? She even actively helped this Count contact the Arevalo family herself, putting in a lot of effort running around."
It paused, then couldn't help but boast again. "Cawhahaha, speaking of which, Lady Alice is truly an elegant and considerate noble. This Count was about to leave, and she specially left me quite a few pine nuts, roasted fragrant and crispy. How embarrassing..."
Listening, Arthur felt a wave of dizziness inside, recalling Alice's figure. It was as if his long-stopped heart once again felt the warm beat of life.
But he still said firmly, "Please relay to her for me, Count Bran. I don't want her to participate in this dangerous operation."
...
Outside Shield River City, Alice, using "routine rest" as a reason, stopped her horse at a traveler's camp by the roadside. She ordered the accompanying soldiers to wait there, then walked alone deep into the dense forest beside the camp.
Not long after, a pitch-black crow silently flew over and landed on her outstretched arm. It was Count Bran.
"Count, you've worked hard," Alice said softly, her tone much gentler than in the military camp.
Count Bran was extremely satisfied with this respectful address, preening its feathers proudly before briefly conveying the content of its recent communication with Arthur and the others.
"Oh, right. That Arthur fellow also said he doesn't want you to participate in this operation."
Upon hearing this, Alice's face instantly turned cold. Crossing her arms, she said, "Tell him my affairs are none of his business."