Warhammer

Most of the villagers in the "Fertile Wetlands" of the Withered Swamp have a deep love for the land, which is different from the tradition of the two maritime kingdoms of Tyrell and Estalia that ignore the land and value wealth. They can rely on farming, grazing, breeding and other methods to continuously accumulate wealth, but they don't have much pursuit of breaking away from the identity of farmers and developing towards the city. At most, they will go to Catania to trade and play.

The young sergeant was from Miragliano. His first stop when he came to the Withered Swamp Wetlands garrison was Catania. To be frank, he did not have a very good impression of this "farmer's city". The inheritance of Tyrell's city-state autonomy made the residents of each city proud of where they were, and therefore looked down on other cities. The residents of the capital of the principality, which was the city that represented the entire principality, often had the strongest "regional pride" in this regard.

The young man was not the kind of person who would be arrogant when talking about his region or origin, but at the same time, he was also a relatively "traditional" Tyrell in this respect.

He was not completely convinced by his lover's proposal to go to Catania with him, but he did not show his emotion directly on his face. Instead, he thought for a while and said:

"I don't think I have enough time this month. If I have five days off next month, I will ask Sergeant Cullen to contact a boat for us. We will set off that evening and arrive at Miragliano at the earliest the next morning."

"We could spend four whole days there, my lady, and I promise you, it will be the sweetest time of your life, mine, and ours."

The man was expressing his love, but the girl was not the kind of woman who could be immersed in love with just two words.

She raised her eyebrows and asked, "Four days? Are we staying in Miragliano for four days?"

"Of course!" The man promised quickly: "We will go to the Great Temple in the afternoon to attend the holy ceremony; in the evening, we will go to the Prosperous Street, buy you a new dress, and go to the theater to listen to a play, and then..."

"and many more."

The girl interrupted her lover's chatter.

She asked only one question:

"Will you take me home? To your family?"

The man was stuck for a moment. The beautiful description of the future was stuck in his throat, unable to spit it out or swallow it.

The girl immediately understood her lover upon seeing this - perhaps he was about to start putting "quotation marks" on his thoughts. No matter how beautiful the picture he painted was, the hesitation at this moment made the girl understand.

The man had not made preparations, at least not yet, for her and him to officially move to the next stage and enter each other's families.

This made the girl very sad.

She broke free from the man's arms, walked to the lake, and looked at the calm surface of the lake with sadness.

"Huey, you know my family and my mother's past."

She turned around, her azure blue eyes were as clear and deep as the sky, and the sadness in them added a bit of pity to these beautiful gems.

"I don't want to make the same mistake as her. It will make me regret it and make her continue to suffer. Watching her daughter repeat the mistakes she made. If you haven't thought it through, I think we... I'm sorry."

She squatted down by the lake and put her face on her knees.

The young sergeant named Huey walked over anxiously and knelt on one knee beside the woman.

"Martha! My girl Martha, please, look at me, look into my eyes!"

He reached out and gently shook the girl's body, but the latter did not respond.

"Please listen to me, okay? I swear to you, I swear to the goddess!"

"I really didn't plan to take you home. It's not because I'm as hateful and despicable as the man who abandoned you and your daughter, but because I don't want to go back anymore!"

"My father was an official who made gloves for the rich and powerful. He was arrogant, greedy, and only cared about his eldest son, my brother, and ignored me and my other sisters."

"My mother is gentle and kind, but she is too weak, so my father always bosses her around at home. I love you and I envy you for having a strong mother like Mrs. Freeman! The days of garrison are boring, and the sweetness you bring me is the only comfort in my life. Ever since I ate the pizza you brought me, I have been thinking about staying here as long as Sergeant Cullen."

"Don't do this, girl, please. You have tied my heart with sweetness, so that I can no longer leave this poison. Do you have the heart to let it break? Then please give me a quick death. Just stab it with a dagger, and it will tell you my feelings."

Huey pulled the dagger out of his boot and thrust it into the grass, then pulled open the clothes on his chest.

Martha raised her head and looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"You're willing to give up your 'uptown' life for me?"

"Because I was afraid of your leaving, I prayed to the goddess, asking me where I could get the sweetness you gave me again. She answered me and said that there is no other Martha in the world. Without her, Hughie would have no way out."

The man solemnly used the name of the goddess to assure his lover, and Martha finally burst into laughter.

"Don't blaspheme the goddess!" She whispered a reproach, and suddenly pulled out a dagger from the ground, staring at the man's chest, as if she was thinking about how to break his chest and take out his heart. Hughie calmly pulled his clothes open further, raised his chest high, as if he was defenseless and ready to let his lover take action.

But in the end, Martha threw the dagger aside and threw herself back into Hughie's arms.

The young man and woman, who had reconciled after a small incident, rolled on the grass, and their relationship seemed to have reached a new level.

"Sasa!"

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound coming from the woods over there.

Huey stopped his action sharply, turned over to pick up the dagger, bent over and pulled Martha behind him, while looking at the woods vigilantly.

"who!"

Chapter 59: Mad Man, Mad News

Martha took Huey's hand from behind and gently pulled it, whispering, "Maybe it's just a hare."

"No, it's not."

Huey heard it clearly. It was definitely not a noise made by a small wild animal.

"T-Tyrell?"

Suddenly, a man's panicked voice was heard in the woods.

Hughie felt a little relieved when he heard the reply, but he did not think about why the other party was in Tyrell's land and asked him whether he was a "Tyrell".

"I am a Miragliano, and I am also a garrison of the Principality's Northern Legion in the Prosperous Wetlands. Please come out and face me. Is there any trouble you need my help with?"

Hughie revealed his identity to the man in the woods. The situation in the entire Prosperous Wetlands (Withered Swamp) was generally peaceful and prosperous. The abundant output and the ancient tradition of self-government of the Tyrell Principality, city-states, and towns meant that the people were not burdened with heavy burdens, and robbers and bandits were very rare.

Those who have the courage would not stay in their hometown to start a business (that would be seeking death). Wouldn’t it be better to go to the New World and try their luck?

So Huey was not worried that the people in the woods were not good people and would choose to take risks after knowing his identity. Strictly speaking, he didn't even have such an idea.

"You are, you are a garrison?"

"Goddess bless you!"

The man cried out in surprise, and there was another rustling noise coming from the woods.

Under the vigilant and curious gazes of Huey and Martha, a man covered in black and red dirt staggered out of the woods. He took only a few steps before he suddenly fell to the ground and struggled to get up.

Seeing this, Huey hurried forward to help, but stopped after taking a step.

The man's face was covered in dirt and his appearance could not be seen clearly. He looked very miserable and it was possible that he was a fugitive.

"I, I..." The man gave a wry smile when he saw Hughie's vigilance towards him, and with trembling hands he pulled off a necklace from his neck, which was so caked with dirt and filth that his original skin color could no longer be seen. A white "collar" immediately appeared around his neck.

He walked to the shore, brushed the nameplate on the necklace in the lake water, and then threw it to Hughie.

"I am a junior sergeant in the Northern Legion's Watcher Corps. This is my badge."

"Lytton Benedict."

Hughie looked at the soldier badge in his hand. Every soldier in the Principality had one of these. The texture and feel were both fine, and the workmanship was even more refined than that of his third-level soldier badge.

He somewhat believed the other party's identity.

but......

"Watchers?" Hughie pondered and soon found the answer. He was a little surprised and said, "Aren't you in the north of Prosperous Wetlands? I remember that your base is already in the north of the Ruined City!"

The man knelt by the lake, scooped up some clean water with both hands and put it into his mouth. He also washed his face briefly before standing up.

Only then could the couple Hughie and Martha see the man's face clearly. His features were regular and ordinary, and his eyes were slightly swollen.

"Why are you here?"

Hearing Huey's question, the man's face suddenly showed a complex emotion of pain, fear, and disbelief.

"We, we..."

"We're under attack!"

"Everyone, fire, all dead, fire, heads..." The man suddenly became a little nervous, muttering something that the couple could not understand.

Huey looked puzzled. "Attacked? Attacked by whom?"

"Enemy, beast, enemy...beast! The enemy is a beast!" He held his head, knelt in front of the couple, and growled in pain.

"quack!"

In the woods in the distance, birds were startled, and Hughie looked up and saw a strange crow with strange blue feathers spread its wings and chirped but did not fly away.

"They're coming!"

The crow's cry seemed to trigger the man's fear. He pounced forward and knocked Huey to the ground. The face twisted by fear and the look of despair made Huey's hair stand on end at a glance. He even forgot to resist, and the military badge in his hand fell to the ground.

Martha screamed, rushed forward, grabbed the man's arm and tried to push him away.

"Go notify the army! Tell the Principality! The beast is coming! Behead the beast!" Huey kicked the man in the chest and cooperated with Martha to lift him up, while the man who claimed to be junior sergeant Lytton Benedict screamed desperately in the process.

"Go! Run apart!"

He didn't even care about the military badge. He used his hands and feet to get up from the ground amid the crows' caws. His face, which had just been washed, became stained with filth again in the process, but the man no longer cared about that.

He left the couple behind, and driven by the fear that was enveloping him again and following him like a shadow, he chose a direction and ran away desperately.

Huey and Martha were left staring at each other, not knowing what to do.

"Is he crazy?"

The girl raised her doubts. The man's behavior was very abnormal. In her opinion, the only possible explanation was that he was suffering from hysteria.

But lovers obviously think more.

Huey frowned, feeling something strange. He took two steps forward and picked up the junior sergeant's badge from the ground.

If that man did not lie and his identity was real, and he was indeed a junior sergeant in the Northern Legion's Watchers, then even their nearest base would be hundreds of kilometers away from where Huey and his men were now.

The man's muttering of "attack, death, beheading the beast" as if he was scared crazy made Huey feel very uneasy. He didn't dare to jump to conclusions but intuitively felt that something must have gone wrong in the north.

He had to tell the news to Sergeant Cullen, who was now on leave in the village with him at Mrs. Anne's place, and then go back to the base with him to inform his superiors of the news.

As for how to deal with the follow-up, that was not something he, a third-level soldier, could interfere with.

"Is it a beast tide?"

The Inara Mountains are both a fertile land that produces a variety of resources and a jungle full of dangers.

Beastmen, greenskins, monsters...even just simple beasts are deadly enough to ordinary people.

After the corruption of the Great Forest of Athel Loren, it has become a pure forbidden land for living things, a blasphemous paradise for evil beasts and monsters. The Knights of Carcassonne and several Batol states have to face one or more beast tides of varying sizes almost every year. In the past, there have been cases where those evil and blasphemous beasts crossed the northern mountains and came to the territory of Tirell to launch invasions.

In the past, only the two principalities of Miragliano and Trantio faced such attacks. Generally speaking, depending on the scale of the invasion, local garrisons and standing troops would be used to eliminate and suppress it. There has never been a situation where the main force of the principality had to face it.

The young man didn't think much about it. His bad guess about the reality made him feel that his surroundings were no longer safe. He had to take Martha back as soon as possible.

The two men packed up and hurried back, only to find that the crazy soldier's escape route was the same as the direction they took home - and the most important thing was that the mounts they had tied together were gone!

Huey walked to the tree with a grim face and picked up the torn horse rope. There were some obvious stains, obviously left by the sergeant.

Now the time they need to spend on returning will increase greatly, and it will take at least half an hour to walk!

"Huey..." Martha hugged him from behind, with some worry in her words.

"it's okay no problem."

The young man could only comfort his lover in this way. The two of them fell into a depressing silence and walked back in silence.

Chapter 60: The Attack

The wood burned, making crackling sounds.

Martha hugged her lover in horror, and the two had to rely on each other and support each other to avoid collapsing in the face of such a situation.

Before them, the former village was engulfed in flames.

The crops and fences were lying on the ground, as if they had been trampled by wild beasts. Even some houses had been destroyed by an unknown force and collapsed into ruins.

"Village, village..."

Martha murmured, her blue eyes filled with fear, without any trace of the beauty of the clear sky, only a sense of horror.

Huey swallowed, his mind racing.

"Did we go to the wrong place?"

"Impossible! We were attacked!"

"But we have only been walking for a short time... If we were attacked, why didn't we see a single body?!"

He thought of a question and broke free from Martha's arms.