Work Prophet
Chapter 588 - 20: The Missing Army

Chapter 588: Chapter 20: The Missing Army

"Didn’t Sir Morse send someone to look?" Miss Rabbit asked.

"He did, but they were beaten back by those tribal clans on the way. Later, becoming anxious, Sir Morse himself led two hundred warriors in an attempt to break through, and he ended up taking an arrow to the arm," a knight of the Figrola family said.

"How could this have happened?" The lady couldn’t believe it, "I remember not long ago we were clearly gaining the upper hand, having killed a thousand of their warriors. Those barbarians only have three or four thousand people in total, right?

"How did they cut off the connection between the main army and the logistics? Didn’t Marquis Kuren realize that supplies weren’t getting through? Why didn’t they retreat outside the mountains?"

Facing a barrage of questions from Ireya, the Figrola family knight could only shake his head continuously.

"I’m not too clear about the specifics. I’m just here to convey Lord Hels’s orders. He hopes that all the families of the western territory can dispatch another group of people to assemble at Rock Snow City within thirteen days.

"It’s not just the Marquis, many nobles and elite warriors from various noble houses have gone missing. The longer the delay, the more risk they face, so please make sure not to be late," he urged.

After delivering this message, the knight didn’t even stay to drink water, but quickly left with his men to convey the summons to other families.

Leaving the lady standing there, stunned and motionless.

Miss Rabbit hadn’t expected that she would have to leave Green Field so soon after just returning.

But as a vassal of the Figrola family, she couldn’t shrink back when her lord was in trouble, no matter what.

Therefore, the lady immediately gathered her people upon returning to Teacup Castle. This time, she brought over two thousand, including a full four hundred guards and sixteen hundred militiamen.

The Arias family now was not what it used to be; after several expansions, their guard unit had grown to a force of eight hundred.

These were eight hundred professional soldiers.

They didn’t produce anything, just honed their killing skills all day long, and the salaries paid to them each month amounted to a substantial sum of money.

Even though she had gotten out of poverty and made a fortune by winning the championship at the martial contest, Miss Rabbit still felt the pinch.

But there was no choice; as one of the few who firmly believed that the Wing Tribe would invade the Bratis Continent, the lady had always been preparing for this eventuality.

Expanding the guard was one of the top priorities.

In fact, the rapid military expansion by the lady over the past year had already caused unease among her neighbors.

When the Arias family first rose, the neighboring lords also worked hard to strengthen their own forces, but soon, they began to struggle.

After all, not everyone had the financial resources and determination to maintain a large army, especially in the western territory where everyone was generally not affluent.

And Ireya didn’t just recruit guards; she also took great care in training the militia. She followed Li Yu’s advice, standardized the training methods for the militia, set up many goals from small to large for them, and equipped them with generous rewards.

This ignited the farmers’ enthusiasm, but the price was also higher spending.

The effect, however, was quite good. Even the former captain of the Imperial Guards was surprised at the discipline and skill of those militiamen when he saw them.

Though they still couldn’t compare to the professional soldiers, they were much stronger than the peasants who knew nothing but to run around in panic when called to arms.

Moreover, their equipment was not bad—most were clad in cloth armor, with a small number having leather and iron armor, far superior to the militiamen under other nobles.

This armed force was deployed there, no wonder all the surrounding lords were having trouble sleeping.

They couldn’t keep up with it, so they could only form alliances like crazy.

Even the Lady herself didn’t realize that her presence helped induce several marriages among nearby families within a mere year.

Ireya merely felt that her frequency of attending weddings had increased recently, and she even suspected whether she was encountering a new method of being taken advantage of.

The Lady personally led the team, and by the seventh day, they arrived outside Rock Snow City, by which time news of the disappearance of Marquis Kuren and others had gradually spread throughout the western territories.

The atmosphere in the city became tense, and other families nearby also sent people over, their troops all encamped outside the city.

It didn’t seem like there were many of them, and the majority were militia, armed with rudimentary equipment.

One reason was that these smaller families did not have many warriors to begin with, and they had already mustered troops once before, making it even more difficult to gather people now, generally only about a hundred or two hundred.

Some even brought just tens of people over, but it was evident they were really anxious because important members of their families and elite warriors were part of the previous large army.

For some, even the Family Head was involved in the incident; everyone was left with only one thought in mind: to find those missing as soon as possible.

Therefore, when they saw a well-equipped force of over two thousand arriving at the outskirts of the city, many were invigorated.

Especially when they found that this force was led by the Dragon Slayer Hero, the new Champion of the martial competition, smiles of relief appeared on the faces of many nobles as if they had seen a savior.

Hels, the acting City Lord, even personally went out of the city to greet them.

"Sir Irelia."

"Lord Hels." The Lady dismounted her horse.

The last time the two had dealt with each other was a year ago, due to the Black Dragon incident, Miss Rabbit initially suspected that Hels was colluding with the Wing Tribe, but later the truth came out and it turned out to be David causing trouble behind the scenes.

However, it was clear that Hels was no simple character either, this man was also quite crafty.

The Lady had an average impression of him, but seeing his grave expression now, with his eyebrows nearly furrowed into a frown, she knew he was genuinely concerned about those who had gone missing.

"Did Prophet Merlin not come this time?" Hels did not see Li Yu among the crowd and was somewhat disappointed.

But then he heard Ireya say, "Don’t worry, Prophet will appear at the right time."

"I can’t be at ease right now," Hels said with a bitter smile, "my father and the others have been missing for over ten days. According to Sir Morse, the supplies they had with them could only last for five days.

"Even if they slaughtered the horses or the like, it would only last them another three to five days at most, so we must dispatch reinforcements as soon as possible."

Miss Rabbit’s expression became serious upon hearing this, "Are those tribal clans so formidable that they can keep nearly ten thousand troops stranded in the mountains to starve?"

"Their strength is not that great, and the defeat before doesn’t seem to have been feigned, plus my father has always been cautious in using his troops. Even if the enemy is weak, he wouldn’t be careless.

"Actually, he wrote to me two days before he went into the mountains, saying that he didn’t plan to go any further, but Sir Morse said at that time the other nobles in the troop were very eager, each one asking my father to allow them to fight.

"After being rejected by my father, there were even some who secretly led people into the mountains. My father, concerned for their safety, also followed them in with his men."