Listening Ear
1702 Words
"Hey, big brother... Do you think Gregory the guard would turn his tail around and inform the town folks and the stupid inedible son of a swine that we would be sending troops to attack the town?"
Gillian felt naked without her bow and sword by her sides and now was about to enter a hostile, known territory with not even a single hunting knife too.
She was afraid that Gregory the guard had informed the stupid blabbering blue blooded swine that we would be attacking the village and may have requested for reinforcements to backed the current garrison.
"Don't think too much in that part. Besides, since we are unarmed they won't have anything to hold against us, right?"
"Besides, we are here to make contact and that was through Gregory the guard, the barkeep and the bakery that we had bought the bread from before we left."
"It doesn't matter much if Gregory had informed the town folks that the village would be under attack because I left a parting sentence to the stupid son of a swine that a hornet nest should not be poked unless they wanted trouble."
"Furthermore, that Austin fella had poked the hornet's nest and we are going to swarm him and scare him to death before we inject his body with venom."
"So we had to strike when the iron is still hot and we are doing it right now, my dear little sister. I won't turn harm against our family members, would I?"
Gillian nodded her head as they both traversed on their Dandy Horses along the ground, leaving a trail of wheel tracks behind them that lead to the little encampment that they were situated right now.
It was done on purpose because the people that would be heading out of the town would follow the trail and not move in a group to avoid any suspicions. Besides, the one who would lead these 3 people would be Gregory himself.
"Look... I think we are in luck...! If I'm not mistaken, that's Gregory the guard, am I right?' Guy looked on ahead and saw the guard in front of them raised his arm and gestured them to come forward. It was true, it was Gregory the guard after all.
"Hey there, young lad. I never knew that you would be making a trip here faster than you had planned as mentioned earlier."
"What a weird contraption you had there... You use it to travel all the way from your town over here with that? It looked like a two-wheel carriage without a horse."
Frankly, Gregory was glad when he saw the familiar colours that Guy and his sister had worn on the first visit to Camp. In fact, he was also overjoyed seeing them coming over as they had promised. It seemed that the youth before them could be trusted after all with their words as an honour.
"Hey, Gregory... How are things with you and your fellow town folks? Yeah man, this is called an adult-sized two-wheeler balance bike but we shortened it to be a Dandy horse instead. It is with this weird contraption that we had travelled from our town and back within 2 days time."
Guy greeted Gregory who had managed to slink away to the side of the walls and speak to the siblings. It seemed that Gregory was ecstatic at the siblings' arrival that he can't help but whisper hoarsely to speak.
"Guy... Remember the parting words that you had written on the sand in front of Lord Austin's House? He was shaken when he read it and he knew he is deep s**t. He had been holing up inside his house ever since and only his servants would be seen milling out of his house to get the supplies and provisions as needed."
"Right now, the town folks had known about an ensuing battle that would happen anytime with your presence as you had mentioned to me that your ruler would be bringing in troops here, am I right?"
"Where is your ruler right now? Is he and the troops on the way right now? I had spoken to the town folks and most of them, about 85% of the population had decided to lay down their arms and surrender without a fight. It is a personal feud between the Lord and you which the Lord had brought it on himself."
"He should not have been a foul-mouthed yellow-bellied puta by calling your ruler to come and face him off personally. He may not have the wish to live this long, after all."
Guy pondered for a while before he spoke up and suggested to Gregory the guard to do something tonight. "You said it's 85% population willing to surrender, right? Well, the troops are just within the area and we won't want the innocent residents to be hurt in some way, right"
"That's right, Guy. So what could you suggest we do?"
"Simple, my good friend, I need you to inform those who are surrendering to earn white tunics instead. If they do not have any white tunic, just put up something white on themselves, on their heads or their arms and also hang a white cloth over their houses like a flagpole too."
"In this way, we could avoid any unnecessary casualties if we decided to unleash some arrows on them."
"As for the balance 15% of the town folks that do not wish to surrender, just leave them be. Right now, you have about 10 minutes to spread the word around and make the necessary preparations."
"On top of that, we would like you, the barkeep and the Baker who had served us bread before to follow this trail until you reach the edge of the forest about a mile or so out there."
"Our Majesty would like to meet you once you had done your task and then we would enter the town to besiege them."
"How about the guards, are thru willing to throw down their arms and surrender within short notice or do they need to see some acts of aggression before they decide to do so?"
Guy asked and was surprised they nearly all the guards were willing to throw down their arms and surrender because they were all voluntary community service corps and do not have a pension of anything happen to them.
"Alright then, I will give you 10 minutes to spread the word around and get prepared to bring down the flags of Camp and replace them with a white flag instead. This signifies that the town would be willing to surrender and be under our ruler's command."
"Thank you, Guy. We would get down to it immediately. Since that puta merda had been a yellow-bellied asshoke and only cares for himself and his wealth, I am sure by this time 99.9% of the population would definitely surrender. Hahaha."
"Alright... 10 minutes. I would get it done and be back here to meet you." Gregory immediately left the siblings and ran off inside the town where he met with several of his friends that were also working as a guardsman to assist in putting up the white flags around the perimeter of the town.
He also had gotten his other friends to inform those who were willing to surrender and defect to change their garb as suggested and hang white cloth over their houses as a sign of compliance.
Gregory was basically running all over the town as he and his buddies went about to inform the residents that the ruler would be here shortly and had gathered the barkeep and baker to meet the siblings at the main gate.
Shortly after, a breathless panting Gregory the guard had completed his task and joined up with the baker and barkeep at the main gate where the siblings then led the trio to the edge of the forested area. It was a moonless night and there seemed to be no movement where the said ruler and troops were hiding.
Before long, they arrived at the edge of the forested area and was greeted by Eagle and some of the Shadow units, who by then had worn a mask over their lower part of their faces.
I was waiting in boredom and was using a stick to poke at the coal embers that were positioned on the ground and shielded with a mound of earth. A small pot was put on the boil and had been set aside to let the team leaves and contents to steep and simmer down.
The moment I saw the three guys that were ushered in by the siblings, I brushed my hands and gestured them to come close. The trio had never seen how a king looks or acts like, immediately got down on one knee and scooted a few steps in that manner to approach me at a more desirable position.
"Get up men, this is no time for any formalities. I am the Territorial King, Audemars Macleod of Gracehaven along the River Ure and we all welcome you to or little encampment."
"Right now, what we require from you would be some Intel so that we would be able to take over the town and proceed on what we would be doing with your town right after."
I motioned for the three men that had scooted around on one knee and risk injuring their own knees in doing so to sit back and have some tea while the rest of the Shadow unit members observed their body language and words spoken during that exchange of Intel.
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