Chapter 136: Chapter 136 Don’t come to the Raney Forest (1)
With Wendy behind them, Pascal and Martin charged toward them without fear. Pascal knocked out a guy quickly, but Martin struggled.
Each time he swung the birch, the torn pieces of Wendy’s green skirt hung over the end of the stem fluttered. Looking at that, she pulled her skirt down in embarrassment.
They were outnumbered, but the two overpowered them quickly as if to prove that they were members of the empire’s foremost knights group.
“Over there!”
Bishop grabbed the sword of a fallen guard and pointed to the entrance. She picked up the birch club just in case.
“We found them here!”
As soon as they came out of the dungeon, other security men chased them after hearing the disturbances. The three quickly ran to the other side and avoided them.
When they walked around the building and onto the remote road, Wendy was gasping for breath, but she braved through the road with heavy strides.
At that moment, there was a familiar smell. It was the smell of dung and dry grass. Wendy soon found the origin of the smell. It was a barn.
The three raced toward the stable as if by appointment. Like the building they were dragged to, the size of the stables was enormous, and fortunately, there was none nearby to disturb them except for one worker who was checking the saddles.
“What–What are you doing!”
As they came into the stables, gasping for breath, the young worker stepped back, embarrassed. Although they didn’t mean to, the sparkling blades of the swords that Pascal and Bishop were holding seemed to have scared him. As they couldn’t afford to delay, the three climbed onto horses respectively. The security were already approaching the entrance of the stables. The three drove to the opposite entrance.
“Miss Wendy! Come on! ”
Although she was in the middle of a crisis, Wendy reached out to pick up the birch club and opened the closed bar of the stables. If she had more time, she could whip the horses towards the fence. Pascal and Bishop shouted at her to hurry up, she got on the horse skillfully and caught up with them.
When she looked back after driving for some time, she found several horses coming out of the barn. She let out a sigh of relief while looking at the security guys running about in confusion among the horses.
“Let’s ride to that forest at full speed!”
Martin pointed to the forest, filled with dark spruce. Among the many forests in the Benyahan empire the southern part of Rainy Forest was the only place where there was a dense colony of spruce. Wendy spurred the brown-spotted horse’s belly with her heel to speed up.
“According to the descriptions offered by passers-by, Duke Engre and his men seemed to have kidnapped them.”
“… Did you find out where they were headed? ”
“I guess it’s a villa in the Rainey Forest where the duke has a hunting ground. I dispatched Sir Janis and his knights to check out the situation.”
“Is there any news from Toulin?” Lard asked, loosening his clasped hands.
Jean Jacques Simuan shook his head, looking at the back of his boss’s hands and their white marks from his tight grip. As always, his face had no expression, but Jean could feel how worried and upset his boss was at the moment. As he could see fury and suppressed feelings in his boss’s eyes, Jean reported to him with a subdued voice.
“It seems that the duke didn’t share any important information with his close aides. He is even paying close attention to their movement.”
In fact, Lard could not get useful information even from Tulin, Augute’s closest aid, who Lard had recently planted near him. There was no evidence that Tulin invited the duke’s suspicion. It showed how thoroughly Auguste was keeping a watchful eye on people around him, whether they were enemies or allies.
“Please let me know if you hear anything from Tulin, and check out how many soldiers and knights are available right away… Oh, I think it’s better to dispatch the knights of my family. Send a messenger to Sir Dober to tell him that he needs to select elite knights. You have to carry out the mission in secret, but if you are certain that the three are there, dispatch the supporting troops to rescue them. Above all, you should put the top priority on the safety of the three.”
Because of the rebellious peasants advancing into the capital, all the available knights and soldiers were dispatched to defend the palace and the capital, so Lard could not be sure how many of them would be available to rescue the three including Wendy.
Only some of the nobles’ private soldiers were left behind to protect their masters’ mansions. The rest of them were dispatched temporarily to defend the capital, but they were easier to use than the regular soldiers.
“I’ll get you updates as soon as possible.”
“Okay.”
When Jean Jacques Simuan left the captain’s office, Lard stood looking at the map of the capital spread on the central table. The expected advancing paths of the peasants and the lineup of the soldiers to cope with them were elaborately marked on the map, but his eyes were fixed on the letters reading Rainy Forest written on the dark blue paper.
“Wendy… ”
He couldn’t call her name anymore because he felt heartbroken. He clenched his teeth, crumpling the corner of the map in his hand.
It was his mistake not to have detected Auguste’s trick in advance. It was too naive for him not to predict that the duke would commit such a dangerous thing. Lard contorted his face, feeling ashamed of himself. He could not find any excuses when Wendy was now held captive in the enemy’s hands.
But now was not the time for him to despise himself. He tried to think about the incident itself by staying away from a sense of shame. He was perplexed about Auguste’s boldness.
“Kidnapping them on the main street…”
Auguste’s actions were clearly different from what he had done so far, his tactics were marked by caution and low profile. It was such a dangerous gamble. It seemed he didn’t think enough what would come next.
Was the duke determined to fight against the new emperor to the end? The death of the former emperor, the peasant uprising, and the kidnapping of Wendy were all interlocked. Just like a snowballing crime, he was becoming increasingly bold.
Then, what made him so bold?
Auguste was a smart man. Although the uprisings of the farmers caused confusion in the capital, it was difficult to regard it as a threat to imperial security. And it was too far-fetched to think that he wanted to confuse the entire empire with the peasant uprising. In the worst scenario, the peasant uprising was not enough to spread to the entire empire right away.
He kidnapped Wendy as if to declare an all-out war. If so, he must have some other motivation.
Lard examined every corner of the map to see if he was missing something.
If he could figure out Auguste’s trick!
Lard had no intention to avoid an all-out war with him, but it was the biggest disaster to him that Wendy was to be entangled in the war. He wished the fight with Auguste to end as soon as possible, but he could not imagine that Auguste would do anything terrible to Wendy.
Lard would do anything to protect the new emperor, but…
Bang!
Lard slammed his hand on the table, unable to control his anger. When they heard the strange loud noise from the captain’s room where they had never heard noise before, the knight outside the door hurriedly opened the door and confirmed his safety. When the knight looked at his boss’s angry expression, he asked, “Are you okay?”
After staring at the knight blankly, Lard checked back the map. He pointed his fingers at the number of troops marked on the map. Then, he stopped moving at a point on the map.
He soon found a piece of paper among the piles of paper and quickly flipped through the pages. After checking the paper briefly, he quickly looked back at the map. The knight was hesitating whether he should get out or stand by, but turned his eyes at the captain who suddenly got busy.
“I need to see the emperor right now.”
Lard spoke sharply. Startled by his shouting, the knight swallowed, looking at him because Lard was fixing his eyes on the map intently as if he found a target to attack.
“Take this pile of paper.”
Lard handed him a pile of paperwork on one side of the table and other papers he had reviewed. Then, Lard rolled up the map and left the office.
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