Chapter 83: Chapter 83
The scene before him was tragically grim, yet Ron didn’t hear much wailing or screaming. The dead naturally made no sound, but the wounded, those missing arms and legs, were also silent, only occasionally letting out a heavy, muffled groan.
In the center of the three grounds of the training field, boiling water was being heated over fires. The uninjured soldiers were cleaning and bandaging the wounds of the injured. The entire process looked incredibly routine, just like an ordinary training session.
Walking among the soldiers and meeting their curious gazes, Ron nodded to them with a slightly heavy heart, casting looks of respect their way.
At the same time, he paid close attention to whether Jason, whom he was familiar with, was among them. He subconsciously skipped over the mangled corpses laid flat on the ground, unable to even tell exactly how many there were, focusing his gaze solely on the living.
He simply couldn’t accept the possibility that Jason was dead.
However, after making a full circle around the training ground, Ron failed to find Jason. Could it be? Ron’s heart tightened. Just as he was about to find someone to ask, he heard Morris’s voice coming from the direction of the warehouse to the northwest of the training ground:
“Ron, why are you here? Stop wandering around and come over here first!”
“Yes.”
Ron immediately jogged over to Morris, carefully looking him over while asking with concern, “Instructor, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, did you forget, I have already…”
Reaching the crucial point, Morris decisively dropped the subject. “As long as I don’t want to die, no one can kill me. No matter how severe the injury, I can recover.”
Morris’s words weren’t entirely just to comfort Ron. Senior Knights indeed possessed such formidable regenerative abilities. Even with missing limbs, as long as they were given enough time, they could slowly recover relying on their own power.
Since he hadn’t participated in the subsequent battles from last night up to now, he had already recovered a small fraction compared to when he first fell into the trap last night. Given another four or five days, he should be fully recovered.
“By the way, what are you doing here?” Morris asked, gazing at Ron.
“I came to inquire about Uncle Jason’s situation. I grew up with his daughter, and we are now engaged.”
“Jason?”
Morris thought for a moment and told Ron, “Rest assured, he didn’t participate in yesterday’s battle. He should be cleaning up the battlefield in the east right now. You won’t find him here.”
He then added, “I didn’t expect you to be engaged to Jason’s daughter. I was originally thinking of playing matchmaker for you two in a few years when my daughter is a bit older. It seems Jason is more far-sighted than I am!”
“…”
Ron was instantly speechless and hurriedly explained, “Instructor, Liya and I grew up together. We only confirmed our relationship recently.”
“Alright, alright, I won’t say anymore. If you want to find Jason, come with me. I happen to have business to attend to in the east as well.”
“Mhm, thank you, Instructor.”
Ron didn’t overthink it and immediately agreed.
…
After leaving the training ground, Ron’s suppressed mood improved slightly. The territory suffering so many casualties all at once inevitably left him feeling worried.
On the way to the east, he couldn’t help but ask Morris, “Does the territory suffer this many casualties during the annual Aberrant Beast invasions as well?”
“How could that be!” Morris immediately denied it. “If the Aberrant Beast invasions also caused this many casualties, the Sis Territory would have ceased to exist long ago.”
He then further explained that the Sis Territory already had experience in dealing with Aberrant Beast invasions. Under normal circumstances, the worst that could happen were injuries; fatalities were virtually nonexistent.
The main reason the territory classified the Aberrant Beast invasion as a major crisis was because of the accident five years ago. For some unknown reason, the number of Aberrant Beasts invading the territory had suddenly surged.
Under normal circumstances, they would attack the territory in waves of a dozen or so at a time. As long as the territory detected them in time and slew them promptly, they could manage even if there were many waves.
But that time five years ago, perhaps they were discovered too late or some mishap occurred at the ruins. In any case, by the time the Aberrant Beasts were spotted, they had already gathered into a horde of forty or fifty and had begun charging toward the territory.
A scale of forty or fifty at once completely exceeded the territory’s limits for response. Therefore, that time resulted in significant casualties. Even the Lord was severely injured because of it, and he has yet to recover even now.
“If it weren’t for that incident five years ago, the territory might have treated the annual Aberrant Beast invasions as a special training exercise. But an accident still occurred, and no one can guarantee that a similar incident won’t happen again in the future.”
When mentioning the incident from five years ago, Morris always felt a sense of gnashing hatred. The Sis Territory wasn’t large, let alone the fact that the Territory Guard only had a little over two hundred Formal Knights. It wasn’t that they were all intimately familiar with one another, but at the very least, they weren’t strangers.
And this time…
Morris hated himself even more for falling into the enemy’s trap. If he hadn’t lost his combat prowess by triggering the enemy’s trap, with him joining the battle, the territory absolutely wouldn’t have suffered such heavy casualties this time.
At this thought, Morris’s gaze toward the distance couldn’t help but become exceptionally piercing.
Meanwhile, Ron, following behind Morris, felt the frigid aura suddenly radiating from the Instructor and couldn’t help but ask:
“Instructor, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about those enemies who escaped.”
“Enemies who escaped? So the previous battle didn’t achieve complete success after all?”
“Yes, this news is known to many. Although the territory hasn’t issued a gag order, it’s best not to spread rumors to avoid causing panic among the people, understand?”
“Mhm, I understand.”
Ron nodded, but he began to worry secretly. There were enemies who had slipped through the net. If they continued to hide in the shadows and spy on the territory, that would simply be a sharp thorn piercing their hearts!
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but ask Morris, “How many enemies did the territory encounter this time? How many escaped in the end? And what was the identity of the enemies?”
“The enemies were cultists. The total number should have been just the ones revealed previously: a total of eight people. One of them was killed by my sneak attack last night, and later, three more died during their assault on the territory, meaning only four managed to escape.”
“Could just eight people inflict such heavy casualties on the Territory Guard?” Ron couldn’t help but feel somewhat skeptical.
“In reality, only seven of them fought the Territory Guard head-on, but among those seven, two were Senior Knights, and the remaining five were all Intermediate Knights. Moreover, their weapons and equipment were clearly superior to the territory’s. If they hadn’t insisted on breaking into the interior of the territory, we might not have been able to take down even those three!”
Even though he hadn’t been able to participate in the subsequent battles from last night up to now, through the accounts of his companions and his interpretation of the Bone Whistle transmissions during the battle, Morris was exceedingly familiar with the combat process.
He knew that the Territory Guard had pushed itself to its absolute limits.