Not all soldiers who are ill have the privilege to leave by boat, especially those fighting on the outer walls.
To be precise, uninfected soldiers are prioritized to board the ship, while infected soldiers have to wait.
For Kaler, who was beside Kolebo, he understood clearly that this was a pretense to prevent the defenders from fleeing.
Because three days is completely insufficient to evacuate everyone, only most soldiers, artisans, and citizens can be evacuated.
The rest can only be those infected soldiers with the worst luck.
It's just that Kaler never thought Old Laver would be among them.
Wearing a bird beak mask, Kaler stood behind the iron gate of Triangle Fort's terrace, shouting Old Laver's na, "Old Laver!"
Among a pile of bedding under the wall, one moved.
Then, wearing half a coat and with a handkerchief soaked in cold water tied around his head, Old Laver sat up.
He looked around blankly, only to see Kaler wearing a bird beak mask behind the iron bars.
"Oh, the Knight Master is here." Supporting himself with a short spear, Old Laver stumbled to Kaler's presence.
Kaler grasped the black lattice bars with his five fingers, looking at Old Laver, whose face was flushed and limbs trembled through transparent glass.
"When did you beco a bird-beak doctor?"
With his face hidden behind the bird-beak mask, Old Laver couldn't see Kaler's face, only watched him stand there for a long ti without speaking.
"If you have potions, hurry and speak; it's cold."
"I'm not a knight," Kaler's voice ca through the cracks of charcoal, wool, and herbs.
"You've been fighting with the Holy Grail Cavalry for five days, comndations have already been delivered to the Battle Commander's hand, once you return and receive your dal, you'll surely be an officer."
"I'm not a knight," Kaler repeated again from behind the mask.
"Alright, alright, you're not a knight, you're an officer, isn't that just like the Master Knight?"
"But that's not a knight."
Old Laver shook his head speechlessly, "Why are you looking for ? There's a thick barrier between us now."
"I can plead with Lord Kolebo to let you board the ship early, slip soone in quietly, and it won't be a problem."
"You're in a crucial period for officer promotion." Old Laver pulled the spy's cover around himself, "It's unnecessary, it'll make Kolebo look down on you, my son is counting on you, his uncle, to support him."
"Your ship is the day after tomorrow, but the Kingdom Army in the West Suburb has already suspected sothing over the past two days but dare not confirm it.
I only tell you this, the Oslar Clan's army should arrive no later than tonight..."
"Woo woo wuo wuo!" Old Laver hurriedly shouted to interrupt him, then said in a low voice, "Leaking military secrets, you're seeking death!"
Kaler finally quieted down.
"For soone unrelated and irrelevant like , is it worth it?"
"We are friends, and if I have children in the future, you will certainly be their Godfather."
Old Laver was stunned, then burst into laughter, even shedding tears, "Let soone else have that honor, I won't enjoy it."
"Seriously..."
Old Laver beca serious, "I've said, it's unnecessary."
Kaler said nothing, only sat cross-legged and passed an oil paper packet through the bars.
Old Laver opened it and found it was a piece of roasted pork neck.
After previously tasting it in Xia Lvcheng, this cheap at had beco a regular on the soldiers' drink tables, including Old Laver and Kaler.
He was stunned for a while, then laughed silently, "Want a drink?"
As soon as Old Laver uttered the word 'drink,' Kaler took out a small silver flask from his pocket.
"You ca prepared." Picking up a piece of pork head at, Old Laver tossed it into his mouth, "After fighting for so long, rewarded with a piece of pork neck, hmm, delicious!"
"Old Laver, weren't you fighting for money?" Through the glass lenses, Kaler's gaze was fixed on Old Laver, "If you lose your life, what's the use of money? I believe your wife would rather see you return disabled than receive condolences."
"Ah, money is a good thing." Old Laver drank the wine, and his previously sullen complexion improved sowhat, "But the money in my hands may not necessarily be mine.
You know, I'm just a mountain hunter, living on a few acres of thin land, leading a life that's neither full nor starving to death.
Later a monk nad Ansel ca to the village, he was a good man who led everyone to weave wool and make a fortune.
He also taught us how to use five acres to earn a family's food and have so leftover, everyone was poor as before but with hope.
Then the Broken Stone Primordial People banned wool, and hope suddenly disappeared.
"""
So we joined the military, went to fight in the Shattered Stone Plain. My wife wrote saying we got more wool, urging to hurry back.
At the ti, I thought, after the Battle of Suishi Plain, I'd deliberately break my leg and return ho to beco a Captain of the Church Protection Army.
But then the Duke of Wing Nest dug a dam, and there was no more wool again, wool, ah, it was gone again, hahaha.
You tell , is it so hard to make so money for a better life? Ah, why is it so hard?"
Taking a large swig of wine, Old Laver wrapped a handful of snow in a wet handkerchief and wiped his face.
"This illness burned for three days, yet it burned thoroughly." He chewed on the crispy pork neck, "If we don't defeat these Leia people, what use is money?
They confiscated our wool, and then easily took the money I risked my life for?"
Old Laver wrapped the blanket tighter around himself: "You live, I won't, this way, others can all live."
The glass lenses of Kaler's Bird Beak Mask fogged up, and he hurriedly reached out to wipe them, but his fingers couldn't reach inside the mask.
Touching the iron ring necklace, Old Laver coughed twice, murmuring: "If we flee, the Leia people will notice. If we don't flee, more soldiers can escape.
…They, you all, can protect my Little Laver, protect my family."
He looked up at the overcast sky, where a raven unfolded its wings to circle in the wind.
A few snowflakes fell into Old Laver's palm.
It had cleared up for only two days, and the snow hadn't fully lted before it was about to snow again.
Snowflakes drifted down, landing on the two n's shoulders, forming a thin layer of snow in monts.
"It's snowing…"
A heavy overnight snowfall buried more than half of the previous trenches, also shielding the departure of the last batch of ships carrying supplies.
The West Suburb Army, after joining the Oslar Clan, now sensed sothing was amiss.
They quickly dispatched knights to attack, only to find the militia behind the fences scattering upon seeing them.
Julianus imdiately realized he'd been deceived and promptly dispatched the Imperial Knights to assault the city gates.
The only ones who didn't disperse were a batch of soldiers that could barely stand, who stood alone barring the open city gates.
Behind the gates were residents remaining in the city, watching from afar, attempting to surrender but not daring to co closer.
Standing before these abandoned remnants, the Imperial Knights inexplicably felt a chill.
A junior official who defected overnight whispered a few words to the lead knight, who then chuckled coldly: "You plague-ridden soldiers still have so backbone. Move aside, we won't kill you."
Old Laver and these diseased soldiers stood together, swaying, yet silent.
"I said, move aside!"
"Don't you understand human language? The Knight Commander told you to move aside!"
The lead blonde knight frowned, looking down arrogantly at the soldiers: "I'll repeat it one last ti, move aside... Are you all insane?"
"Victory!" With the soldiers' roar, they charged tremblingly with their lances at the blonde knight.
Afraid of catching the contagion, the blonde knight had no choice but to dodge in shock and anger.
Hooves clattered against hooves, horse heads collided with armor, catching several other knights by surprise and knocking them off their horses.
Yet what rang in their ears were the laughter of those diseased soldiers: "You're the ones who should be moving aside!"
"Pull back, pull back." Snow sprayed up, horses whinnied, and the Imperial Knights reford about a hundred ters out.
This ti, they drew their bows and arrows.
Feeling the cold mark on his cheek, whether from snowflakes or spittle, the blonde knight's face turned from red to green.
"Fire! Fire!"
The arrows wantonly toyed with these plague-stricken soldiers who could barely move, as scalding blood flowed from their veins, staining the silver-white snow.
In less than half an hour, nearly a hundred steaming corpses lay scattered haphazardly on the snowy ground in front of the city gates.
The blonde knight leisurely rode to the diseased soldier who'd spat earlier, lifting him with a lance.
"Just now... you were scared, weren't you? Hahahahaha, urgh—"
Thick blood dripped from the lance, as the blonde knight, face ashen, flung the soldier away, silently heading towards Xia Lvcheng.
Although the residents of Pingyuan County within the city had surrendered, they couldn't help but weep upon seeing the soldiers' corpses.
They didn't know for whom they cried, or why, but tears flowed unwittingly down their faces.
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