Path of Light.

Chapter 563 564. The Guard's Mission
Roy remembered that the last time he saw Miss Christine was at the final dance of Castletown Elf Academy at the beginning of the year.

"Christine, since you have come to Padstow this time, you must let me show my hospitality!" Roy said to Miss Christine with a smile.

Miss Christine narrowed her eyes like a Persian cat perched on a closet.

"Then... I want to see the night view of Padstow." She opened her beautiful green eyes and whispered.

Roy pointed inside and said, "Well...let's talk after we're done!"

As he said this, he stood at the door of Earl Swinburne's office and knocked.

Miss Christine followed behind Roy and whispered to him:

"Hey, whatever he asks for later, agree to it immediately! He's been having a lot of troubles lately, and his temper is a little off..."

"..."

It felt like the hints given to me by Captain Berkeley and Miss Christine seemed to mean exactly the same thing.

With Miss Christine's prompting, Roy took a deep breath and slowly walked into Earl Swinburne's office.

Earl Swinburne sat behind his desk, flipping through a thick stack of documents.

After seeing Roy, Earl Swinburne motioned for Roy to sit down in the chair opposite the desk.

There was not even a polite opening greeting. Earl Swinburne put the documents in his hand on the table, raised his head and said:
"Roy, the legion currently has two missions."

Earl Swinburne looked at Roy and continued:
"The first mission is that the supply fleet of the Second Silver Pegasus Knights of the Legion has been blocked at Sheephorn Fjord, and the Legion needs to rush to its aid immediately. Currently, the Fifth and Sixth Silver Pegasus Knights are on their way to help. I want your mine guards to also take a boat to Sheephorn Fjord to assist the Fifth and Sixth Silver Pegasus Knights in the battle.

The second mission is that a guard regiment needs to be stationed on the outer islands of the Queen Evian Islands, specifically in the Eastern Islands.

You can choose one of these two tasks..."

Because of the reminders from Captain Berkeley and Miss Christine, Roy said without thinking:

"Then I want to go to Sheephorn Fjord."

Earl Swinburne was a little surprised. He said to Roy:
"Tell me why you chose the first mission."

Do I need to give a reason? Roy was a little dumbfounded. He chose the first task simply because Earl Swinburne talked a lot about it when he introduced it.

In addition, he speculated that the supply fleet that was blocked by the gray dwarf bandits in Sheephorn Fjord was most likely the elven army heading to Golfito.

"After the trouble in Sheephorn Fjord is resolved, do we still have to go to Golfito to perform garrison missions?" Roy asked Earl Swinburne.

"Correct."

"Then I want to go to Sheephorn Fjord to join the battle."

Earl Swinburne hesitated for a moment. He originally hoped that Roy would agree to the second condition and take the mine guards to garrison on the outer islands of the Queen Eweni Islands.

Lord Swinburne asked again, "Roy, how many half-blood elf warriors can you draw from the Pagisto Plateau?"

"We can probably mobilize three thousand half-elf warriors." Roy thought for a moment and said.

Earl Swinburne shook his head and said, "I need you to bring out at least 5,000 half-blood elf warriors from the Pagisto Plateau."

Roy was a little embarrassed.

The battlefield he was going to this time was Sheephorn Fjord, which was not anywhere in the Partington plane.

If the headhunter prisoners in Plateau City start a riot, the army will never be able to return to Plateau City.

Roy hesitated for a moment before saying:
"The remaining mine guards are unable to maintain the stability of the Pagisto Plateau. Lord Earl, I need to recruit some half-elf warriors to form a reserve regiment of mine guards."

Lord Swinburne seemed to have expected Roy to say this, and agreed without even thinking:

"Okay, but you still have to take care of the military expenses yourself. Can the revenue from the mines on the Pagisto Plateau support it?"

Roy nodded and answered frankly: "The mine's revenue has been growing steadily in recent times. Some abandoned mines on the plateau will also resume production one after another. The military budget is still sufficient."

Earl Swinburne asked, "How long will it take for the mine guards to reach Padstow by magic airship?"

Roy replied: "I have to go back to Plateau City to get them out. It will take about three days."

Earl Swinburne continued, "You can go and get ready. The fleet will pick you up at Partington Island Pier."

Roy didn't want to take a medium-sized sailboat to Sheephorn Fjord, mainly because those supply ships had almost no combat power in front of the gray dwarf bandit warships, except that they ran a little faster.

So he said, "There are several three-masted sailing ships captured from the gray dwarves in the sheltered fjord of Partington Island. These sailing ships have been transformed into magic airships. I want to take a three-masted sea ship to Sheep Horn Fjord."

Earl Swinburne knew that those ships were the spoils Roy had captured during the Battle of the Queen Eweni Islands.

"Oh? Are you talking about those three-masted sailing ships you captured? If they have been transformed into magic airships, is it possible for them to fly in the air? In this case, we should be able to reach Sheephorn Fjord soon."

Roy responded, "If these magic airships are to fly in the sky, they need to find a suitable wind layer. In addition, the elves have always been very resistant to the magic technology products of the dwarf kingdom. I don't want to leave the magic airships in the elven continent because I'm afraid of causing some bad comments."

Lord Swinburne waved his hand.

"We can ask the Silver Pegasus Knight to help us find a suitable wind layer. As for your concern that the magic airship will be opposed by the Silver Moon Elves, why don't we just find a route in the sea and hide it from them?"

"I can give it a try..." Roy agreed.

The conversation between Earl Swinburne and Roy ended quickly. Roy received the order and needed to take the magic airship back to Plateau City as soon as possible.

As a result, the plan to go on a night stroll in Padstow with Miss Christine was completely ruined.

Roy left Lord Swinburne's office and said apologetically to Miss Christine who was sitting outside:
"I'm sorry, Christine. I'm afraid I don't have time to accompany you to visit Padstow City. I'm about to take the magic airship back to the Highland City."

"It doesn't matter. There will be opportunities in the future."

Miss Christine sat on a chair outside, with a forced smile on her face.

Roy still remembered the first time he met Miss Christine. At that time, she was a noble lady of the Silver Moon Elf. Her eyes were full of arrogance and pickiness. No matter where she went, she would put on a condescending attitude.

She seemed to have changed a lot in the past few days. She became extremely reserved and the aristocratic aura around her became gentler.

"Actually...would you like to go with me to the Plateau City?"

Roy had already walked into the corridor, but he couldn't help himself in the end... and turned back to ask a question.

"May I?"

Miss Christine's eyes sparkled. "It will take about three days to get back to Padstow. Do you think the time allows?" Roy asked hesitantly.

In fact, he secretly regretted it. Isn't this just asking for trouble?

"I'm fine." Miss Christine responded readily.

"Then come with me!"

Now that things had come to this, Roy had no choice but to agree.

……

When Miss Christine and Roy rode away from the Silver Pegasus Military Headquarters, Earl Swinburne stood on the high terrace, holding the railing with both hands and watching them disappear into the gradually darkening street.

The sky gradually darkened, and the half-elf porters at the airport terminal finished their day's work and walked out of the terminal one after another.

A group of half-elf crew members were also mixed in the crowd, preparing to leave the airport terminal and go to the pub outside to have a drink and relax.

Now there are some taverns in the city of Padstow. In addition to selling beer and fruit wine, these taverns even have diluted sap of life. Adding a little bit of sap of life to the wine can quickly relieve the elves' physical fatigue and is very popular among the elves.

Before these half-elf crew members walked out of the airport terminal, they saw Roy and a Silver Moon Elf lady standing in front of the airport terminal gate with horses.

Roy saw the half-elf crew and immediately waved to them, saying, "Go and find all the members on the ship right now. Where's your captain?"

"The captain is still on the airship!" replied a half-elf crew member.

Roy thrust the reins into his hands and led Miss Christine up the spiral staircase built around the oak tree to the platform.

Sure enough, the captain was on the deck, checking the ropes of the airship's sails one by one. When he saw Roy walking from the platform to the deck, he immediately stopped what he was doing and saluted Roy.

"There is an urgent mission. Gather all the crew members immediately. I need to go to the Plateau City immediately."

Roy said to the half-elf captain.

The crew was quickly called back, and as the buoyancy devices were activated one after another, the crew untied the cables tied to the platform, and the magic airship slowly climbed into the sky.

Roy and Miss Christine stood at the side of the boat.

The sea of ​​trees in Padstow is hidden in the darkness, with lights like stars in the night sky. Wherever there is light, there is a tree house...

……

When entering the wind zone, Miss Christine found it quite novel.

She was wrapped in a thin blanket, standing on the deck, curiously looking at the huge ball sail that moved the entire magic airship. She even wanted to climb up to the high observation deck...

It was already noon the next day when the magic airship arrived at the plateau city.

It was the first time for Miss Christine to live in such a narrow cabin. She slept very well that night. When she lifted the blanket covering her head, she saw that the light outside the window was particularly glaring.

There were clanging sounds on the deck of the airship, and even noisy shouts from the crew:

"Starboard, the output of the starboard flotation device has decreased a little, and the hull is tilting a little!"

"Hurry up and take in the sail! What are you still dawdling about..."

Miss Christine sat up in bed and, unsurprisingly, hit her head on the ceiling.

She quickly lowered her head, jumped lightly from the bed, and ran barefoot to the round window. Looking out through the window, she saw the magic airship sinking continuously and about to sink into the thick sea of ​​clouds.

Then, the glass windows were covered with thick fog and nothing could be seen clearly.

Miss Christine sat on the empty lower bunk, put on the magic pattern armor of the thorn-tailed crystal lion skin, combed her hair carefully, then pushed open the cabin door and walked out.

……

"You actually built a city here?"

Miss Christine gathered up her long hair that was blown by the wind and looked at the city on the edge of the wilderness. The dozens of meters high city walls formed a solid barrier.

Roy smiled and shook his head and said:
"To the elves, a place without the Tree of Life cannot be called a city."

"Are those the Pagisto Plateau headhunters?"

Miss Christine asked, pointing at the headhunter prisoners who were carrying a pile of hollow bricks on their shoulders and climbing up to the roof step by step along the sampans on the scaffolding.

"Yes, even though they are pitiful now, they were the nightmare of countless half-blood elves on the Pagisto Plateau."

Roy leaned his hands on the side of the boat, looked at the headhunter prisoners who were drowsy from the scorching sun, and continued to introduce:

"At that time, just after the Pagisto Plateau was completely out of the control of Baron Alvis, the mine owners on the plateau had a huge gap in demand for miners. The refined metal ingots could only be piled up in the warehouse. In order to maintain the normal operation of the mine, some mine owners continued to recruit elf miners.

At that time, the city of Padstow was occupied by the Silver Pegasus Legion. The mine owners were afraid to avoid it and did not dare to have any contact with the city of Padstow.

So they set their sights on these plateau headhunters, and after establishing enough trust with them, these mine owners commissioned the plateau headhunters to hunt the half-elf residents.

Soon the headhunters began their slave hunt on the Pagisto Plateau.

In the beginning, their targets were basically half-elves living alone in the wild valleys.

Later, when they could no longer find such solitary half-blood elves, they began to target elven villages with only a few residents, capturing strong male elves, killing old elves and children, and then burning down the entire village.

Miss Christine's pupils shrank slightly, and she was so scared that her breathing became rapid.

Living on the Elf Continent, even though she had experienced the Battle of Queen Eweni Islands, she had never seen anything so cruel.

"How could they do such a thing...?"

"Don't you understand why they can be so cruel? In fact, this is also the law of the jungle."

Roy said calmly.

In fact, he also told about the fights that took place in the spinel mines. If Miss Christine heard those stories, I wonder what she would think...

A group of half-elves were waiting on the platform of the airport terminal.

The half-elf captain hung a flag on the top of the ship. On the fluttering flag was embroidered a simple symbol in the shape of a hill.

(End of this chapter)