Chapter 120: Active Response

“Hurry up! If we keep dragging our feet, George will get impatient,” Craig complained, jumping up and down in a rush.

Seeing Craig, who was leading the way, turn around and wave his arms and legs while complaining, no matter what expression he made, he never looked serious. Instead, he looked more like a cute child throwing a tantrum.

Thomas, who was riding a big dog right behind Craig, said, “We can’t go any faster! Didn’t you see that everyone behind us is carrying things? How could their speed match your light load? Besides, they are just ordinary people and can’t keep up with a Squire like you!”

Thomas carefully looked at the group of men behind him who had been brought in to carry the tiger carcass. Although there was a flat cart pulled by two mules, most people could not sit on the cart if they wanted to catch up with Craig’s pace.

After all, the mules pulling that cart could not run fast, and on top of it were several large wooden poles and hemp ropes for carrying the carcass. These adult men moving with the flat cart each carried their own tools. For them, these essential tools for earning a living had to be carried on their person; they could not leave them on the cart without worry.

Seeing the laborers behind him starting to pant, Craig knew he could not get the job done without them, so he reluctantly nodded. He had to endure what he thought was a terribly slow journey.

In fact, with the strength of George, Hiren, and Craig, they could have dragged the tiger carcass back to the camp if they didn’t care about the consequences. However, doing so would have caused serious damage to the carcass. More importantly, after crawling and rolling all the way, the three of them would have ruined their appearance completely.

The Autumn Hunt is not a battlefield. Here, the rule is to maintain elegance while hunting. All the dirty and hard work is handled by the servants below. Otherwise, with dust and blood all over, plus the stench of the beast, where would the elegance come from? It would be lucky if people didn’t stay away from you.

Since we are participating, we must follow the rules. It is fine to find a loophole if one exists, but damaging one’s own appearance is something only a fool would do. The three of them, who did not want others to gossip, certainly could not do the work themselves.

About 20 miles west of the Taiswei Mountains, near the hunting grounds, there was a guard camp. Directly south of the camp stood a watchtower about three stories high. A Guard holding a long spear was yawning there. Upon closer inspection, you would see he was wearing the specialty Paper Armor of the Bolerum Territory. In this small, high watchtower, the long spear was not very useful except for intimidation; its only other function was to prevent the Guard from falling asleep.

Inside the camp, it did not look like drill time. Soldiers were scattered in small groups, handling their own affairs. Some were washing up, some were taking a nap, and some were chatting or fighting. Of course, on the training ground to the southwest, some good men were still sweating it out. Judging by their clothing, these ten or so men were dressed differently from the other soldiers, likely junior officers.

Suddenly, the alarm bell on the brick-and-wood bell tower in the camp rang continuously, throwing the soldiers’ daily routine into chaos.

The Guard on the watchtower was woken from his sleep by the ringing bell. Not knowing what had happened, he could only raise his spear, alert, and instinctively follow his professional habits to look around.

Those washing up almost dropped their basins. Those napping rolled off their beds. Those chatting looked at each other in confusion, and those fighting stopped their hands.

The officers on the training ground reacted the fastest. They immediately stopped their training and ran quickly to the conference room at the base of the bell tower. By custom, if a major incident occurred, all officers had to gather there to wait for further orders. The communication center, which handled and received various intelligence and messages, was also on the second floor of this tower.

After the initial chaos passed, the soldiers in the camp returned to their quarters according to past drills. Meanwhile, the officials and soldiers in charge of logistics opened the armory doors and began counting the various weapons on the racks. Everything became orderly. This was why no one had come to gather the soldiers while the officers were in the conference room waiting for orders. They believed their army could handle its own basic organization.

“According to the latest news, a ferocious animal has appeared at the Autumn Hunt site. Relying solely on the original manpower can no longer guarantee the safety of the hunt. We must be ready, as His Grace the Duke may need us at any moment,” said a middle-aged man with many scars on his face, sitting at the head of the long table.

A voice from the crowd asked, “So, do we need to make any special preparations? After all, we have never done security work for the Autumn Hunt.”

“Hmm! Let me think for a moment,” the middle-aged man said, biting his lip and looking down for a while. “For now, our main task is to deal with ferocious animals, and the action will mostly take place in the forest. So, besides the swords and short knives we carry on our persons, our main weapons will be small round shields combined with javelins. At the same time, we need to bring skilled archers with crossbows. Since the big guys we might face this time are powerful, we need weapons with greater impact. Otherwise, a giant bear charging at us with arrows all over its body is not impossible. As for personnel selection, besides the archers mentioned just now, we need to choose more people with experience in mountainous and forested areas. If anyone comes from a hunting background, that would be best. Does anyone have anything else to add?”

“If we are really going to deal with such giant animals, is the current armor enough?” someone else in the crowd asked.

“It is best to use the current Paper Armor. If we switch to iron armor, ordinary soldiers will not be able to fight in the forest for long. Besides, the main defense against those animals is to protect against impact damage. From this perspective, Paper Armor offers even better protection.” another voice came from the crowd.

“So, since we are dealing with animals, shouldn’t we prepare things like bear traps, nooses, and hunting nets? They might come in handy unexpectedly!” someone suggested.

“I say! There are no bear traps in this camp! If we need them temporarily, there is no shop here to buy them. As for hunting nets, they might work for some small ferocious animals, but they are useless against truly large ferocious animals. However, we can bring them anyway. For small but agile creatures like ferocious rats, ferocious weasels, and ferocious badgers, nets might be somewhat useful. As for nooses, forget it. Neither our aim nor our strength can meet the requirements,” someone gave their advice based on the previous remarks.

“Oh! Cadar, do you have experience dealing with ferocious animals?” the middle-aged man turned his gaze in that direction and asked a dark-skinned young man in the crowd.

The dark-skinned young man answered with his head held high: “Yes, the village where my family lives has been attacked by ferocious animals. So the older generation taught us how to defend against them. However, this is used to protect the village, and I do not know if it is suitable for hunting in the forest.”

“Having it is better than not having it! Does anyone else have their own opinion?” the Scarred Face looked at his subordinates in front of him with eyes like a hawk. It seemed he was preparing to squeeze every bit of wisdom out of them. After all, three ordinary generals are worth one Zhuge Liang! Although there is no such official title as ‘Zhuge Liang’ in this world, and probably no one except George knows who Zhuge Liang is, the principle is always the same—one person’s plan is short, two people’s plan is long.

“Commandant, I have an idea…”

“Perhaps this could work…”

After discussion and suggestions from many people, the middle-aged officer, who was the person in charge of this camp, made the final decision: “Alright! Then let’s do as we said before. The number of people is limited to 300. We still need to keep some personnel in this camp to prevent accidents. Also, since I do not know if you will have the chance to start a fire and cook, everyone must carry three days’ worth of Portable Rations.”

“Oh no! Portable Rations, Mr. Dagmar, you cannot do this to us,” wails rose from the crowd.

“Go prepare quickly! The Gothic Knights who will assist with this security work will come to collect the people themselves. You all better behave well; maybe you will be lucky enough to be noticed and become a Squire in the future,” the middle-aged man roared, driving all his juniors out of the conference room. Of course, no one took the last sentence seriously; the chance of that happening was too small.

The officers who left the conference room discussed among themselves and began assigning tasks. Some went to select the members for the operation, some started preparing food and water, and others went to collect weapons and equipment. After all, besides the long swords and short knives carried by the soldiers, all other weapons were in the armory.

However, the most important part was stringing the crossbows. After all, during non-war times, both bows and crossbows have their strings removed and stored separately. This is done to extend their usage and storage life. So now that they are needed, someone has to install them temporarily.

When the officers found the people they needed in the barracks, the entire camp began to run at high speed like a machine after a brief initial run-in. Every soldier was a part of this machine, performing their own duties and cooperating with others. They were making what they thought were the best preparations for the possible upcoming operation.

The busy camp was much more lively than the somewhat lazy scene before. In normal times, except during drills, the camp never showed such vitality. Or rather, even during drills, it was not as lively as today. Peace is indeed the enemy of soldiers.

Busy time always passes quickly. The sun was almost at its highest point. When the Gothic Knight arrived with his five Squires and twice that number of cavalry, it was already time for lunch.

After dismounting and entering the camp, seeing the soldiers making preparations in an orderly manner, the Gothic Knight nodded in satisfaction. He walked into the conference room in three steps at a time. Seeing the middle-aged man with scars on his face, who was bent over a map deep in thought, the Gothic Knight waited a moment before asking directly: “Commandant Dagmar, how is the preparation going? When can we roughly set off?”

“Basically, everything is ready, but it took a bit more time to string the crossbows. Sir, do you think we should set off now or wait until the boys have finished their lunch?” Dagmar looked up to ask for the other’s opinion. Although the two were not in a direct command relationship as they might be during wartime, Dagmar, as the Commandant, was smart enough to lower his status and place himself in the role of an assistant since the other person was the person in charge of this operation and held a higher position than himself.

“Is lunch ready yet?” the Gothic Knight asked somewhat casually.

Commandant Dagmar carefully explained: “Yes, Sir. Since the information passed down earlier did not specify the exact departure time, I took the liberty of having them start cooking lunch first to prevent everyone from going into battle on an empty stomach due to a late departure.”

“Then let’s have lunch first! We will set off half an hour after finishing. I do not want the soldiers to go on an empty stomach,” the Gothic Knight nodded to show he agreed with the other’s idea.

The Squire behind the Gothic Knight asked, “Sir Gothic, should we go back first or…?”

“Of course, we stay here to eat together. Speaking of which, I haven’t eaten in a camp for a long time. Let’s just recall the days in the Northern Fortress!” The Gothic Knight said, stretching his arms and making a nostalgic expression. The years of smoke and fire and the life of a warrior are the romance of men. However, for knights, going to the Northern Fortress is a rotation duty. Generally, one can only go there once every few years, and most of the time is spent in their own Manor waiting for their Lord’s summons.

Hearing that the other party wanted to eat lunch here, Commandant Dagmar quickly reminded him: “The food here probably cannot compare to that in the Northern Fortress. After all, that is wartime standard, while this is guard standard.”

This was also to prevent the Gothic Knight from having doubts due to the difference in food.

“So what! When I participated in the raid on the Barbarian tribes in the Northern Fortress, I survived on Portable Rations for five days and five nights straight. The food here is not even that bad—definitely not as hard as the flatbread that can be used to block a knife or as salty as the dried meat!” The Gothic Knight joked while speaking. Perhaps he was trying to boost the other party’s confidence in this mission through this relaxed attitude.

However, when it came time to eat, everyone realized that the food here was not as bad as many had imagined. The decent Black Bread at least could not knock anyone out. The meat soup made from Salted Fish from the Bolerum Territory, cooked with onions, peas, and salted meat, could also be said to be quite good. The cheese, melted after heating, was easy to pair with bread. In short, it was simple but thoughtful food.

At the same time in the camp, George, Hiren, and Craig had already returned on horseback. Thomas was in charge of watching over the transportation of the carcass. In fact, if it were not for the fear of attacks by other ferocious animals and the need to prevent damage to the materials, Thomas would not even need to stay there. Items that have been confirmed are basically not afraid of being snatched during the Autumn Hunt.

However, the scene in the camp now is not quite like in previous years. At this time last year, even if the hunt could not be called a complete success, the hunters basically returned to eat and replenish their strength for the afternoon’s continued hunting.

In this situation, even if the servants’ hunting bags were not stuffed to the brim, the ladies should have stood up to welcome their husbands’ return. The servants who were serving the ladies would start preparing to process the game—whether to roast, stew, or cure it would be decided by the master’s wish.

Of course, all the preliminary preparations were completed before the nobles returned. Once the master gave the order, they did not have to waste time on these preparations. The masters could take their time and make the ladies wait, but the servants did not have such privileges.

If the hunt was fruitful, a barbecue party would be held even during lunchtime. At that time, the hunters who returned with full loads and their female companions would sit in pairs on both sides of the long table.

Young men and women of marriageable age would also start freely pairing up; this was a good opportunity to get to know each other. Those a bit younger would gather in groups of three or five to chat and play. As for those who were single, they could only sit awkwardly at the back. Because this was an informal gathering, seating was not arranged by rank or title.

But now! The faces of the older ladies were filled with worry, and the young ladies seemed distracted. They had lost the usual interest in chatting and praising each other.

The servants stopped their usual preparations for boiling water and placed clean linen bandages on individual tables. The soft bandages were neatly folded on silver trays. In the small silver jars nearby were definitely some kind of ointment.

At the same time, the few medical personnel in the Autumn Hunt team had been summoned. From George’s perspective, there were five or six Herbalists, including Baron Walterson himself. It was said that the Baron fell in love with herbal studies after participating in battles at the Northern Fortress.

And the person with Divine Arts for healing could certainly not be exempt. The Val Knight, who thought he had nothing to do during the Autumn Hunt and could just be a vase, seemed to have something to do after all.

George probably did not expect the matter of ferocious animals to develop to this extent. Everyone looked as if they were facing a major enemy. Fortunately, no women from powerful noble families came this year; otherwise, there would have been a lot of trouble. Should we say it is a blessing in disguise?