Chapter 150: Count Fario's Acting!

"Gone?! How is that possible? Could that fellow fly? Even if he could fly, could his army fly too?"

Commander Tila Ka was enraged.

He had originally intended to use that young noble as a sacrifice to the flag to avenge the two hundred Black Tiger Warriors.

Instead, five hundred more men were lost, and he was told the target of his revenge had vanished.

One can imagine his fury.

The messenger trembled, "My lord, Deputy Commander Dowa believes that noble Gervas must be hiding in some secret place, so... so he has already led the troops to return along the original route from Baron Volk's territory to search. He has only sent me to bring this news back first."

"Search! Disperse all your squads to search! Even if you have to dig the earth three feet deep, you must find that boy before nightfall!"

With Tila Ka's roar, even the two thousand-plus tribal warriors he brought joined the search.

The distance from Viscount O'Neill's territory to Viscount Volk's territory is only fifty or sixty li, making it the closest among the several noble territories.

With a rapid search, north and south, it would take only half a day to finish searching.

Of course, this refers to the search; whether they find him or not is another matter.

Sure enough, by evening, Tila Ka naturally received the news he least wanted to hear.

That noble Gervas's convoy had truly seemed to grow wings, vanishing on this short stretch of fifty or sixty li.

With nightfall imminent and reinforcements from other territories of Paka City already arrived, Tila Ka could delay no longer.

After all, he needed to rush to the central route as soon as possible to cooperate with the main force in surrounding the large noble army.

If he failed to arrive on time and let the large noble army learn of the situation and escape, it would not be worth it!

"Let's go!"

Biting his teeth and casting a hateful glance at the dark night sky in the direction of Volk, Tila Ka always felt that a pair of eyes in that darkness was watching him, silently mocking his incompetence.

"Just wait. As long as you dare to appear, you will not live!"

Tila Ka certainly did not simply ignore that noble convoy.

He left a garrison of one thousand tribal warriors at Aojinmu Fortress, and cavalry would patrol there without interruption every day.

At the same time, although five hundred tribal warriors were transferred from Baron Volk's territory, five hundred tribal warriors remained stationed there.

He had already instructed that if they subsequently discovered traces of this noble, they should not engage immediately.

Instead, they must hold the fortress and notify the one thousand tribal warriors at Aojinmu Fortress for support immediately.

In this way, both sides combining forces to deal with that four hundred-strong noble army would encounter no problems.

And with the fortress so strong, Tila Ka believed that young noble definitely could not bypass Baron Volk's territory again.

Immediately, Tila Ka led the main army northward.

What Tila Ka did not know was...

His perception was not wrong; in that darkness, a pair of eyes was indeed watching them.

That was Gervas, who had come out to scout the situation riding a Pegasus.

"They actually left one thousand men?"

Looking at the one thousand men Tila Ka had left behind, Gervas found himself in a dilemma.

Because among those one thousand men, four hundred were actually Black Tiger Warriors.

One can imagine the degree to which Tila Ka cared about him.

Time passed, and it was now the night two days later.

The moon was bright and the stars sparse; the perimeter outside the main camp on the central route was filled with reserved bonfires.

These were illumination bonfires lit to prevent the tribal savages from quietly approaching the wooden walls of the camp.

Clomp! Clomp!

Just then, the sentries suddenly heard the sound of urgent horse hooves.

This made the guards instantly alert, and the longbowmen even drew arrows and nocked them on their bowstrings.

"Do not shoot! I am Count Fario! I am one of us!"

"Do not shoot! I am Count Fario..."

However, in the darkness, cries soon rang out, causing the soldiers to hesitate.

Although they, as mere soldiers, did not know who Count Fario was.

But a count certainly represented one of their own, and a big shot at that.

"Stop your horses first! Do not come any closer!"

The guard shouted out to the outside, then quickly ran down from the wooden wall to notify his superior.

Because the current situation was beyond their authority to decide.

Half an hour later, the minor and major nobles who had already gone to sleep hurriedly arrived at the meeting tent.

Many of them had just fallen asleep when they were inexplicably woken up, with no explanation of the situation given.

Thus, everyone yawned, puzzled about what exactly had happened.

"Commander Narsi and War Commissioner Hot have arrived!"

Just then, a shout came from the door; their central route commander and war commissioner had arrived.

The crowd of nobles all turned to look at the tent entrance.

However, when they saw the several nobles following Commander Narsi and War Commissioner Hot, they were all stunned and astonished.

"Count Fario? Wasn't he serving as war commissioner for the left route army? How did he end up here?"

"Yes, why does he look so wretched? Could it be that the left route..."

"My lords, be quiet!"

Seeing the commotion below, Commander Narcissus at the far end of the conference hall called for silence.

Naturally, because the matter was urgent, Commander Narcissus did not beat around the bush and directly informed everyone of the situation.

"Gentlemen, the reason for this sudden summons is that our Left Army has encountered an emergency; now, let Count Fario explain the specific details to everyone!"

Saying this, Commander Narcissus stepped aside, allowing Count Fario to step forward.

Count Fario's face bore a look of grief, his eyes were red, and his voice choked as he spoke, "Gentlemen, I have brought back bad news!"

"Our Left Army was ambushed by the tribal savages and has been annihilated..."

Immediately, Fario began his performance and narration.

He described how the Left Army, having gained merit too easily, gradually grew overconfident.

He recounted how, due to lowered vigilance, they failed to garrison the castle and instead camped in the wilderness to besiege the tribal savages, thus falling victim to their ambush.

"It is all my fault as the War Supervisor; I failed to properly persuade Commander Brick and the nobles at the time, otherwise they would not have been so careless!"

"Commander Narcissus, please have me imprisoned! Although I risked my life to break through with several nobles to bring back this message and prevent the Central Army from being flanked and ambushed by the tribal savages!"

"But as the War Supervisor of the Left Army, I should have died in Viscount O'Neill's territory; that would have been my duty!"

Having finished speaking, Fario stood in place with a face full of sorrow, as if truly waiting for Commander Narcissus to take him into custody.

Narcissus glanced at Fario, his expression revealing no attitude whatsoever.

He only said, "Count Fario, you are nominally the War Supervisor of the Left Army as well, so our current positions are equal; without direct evidence proving you violated military regulations, I cannot detain you!"

"However, I will immediately report this matter to Marshal Mi Xiusi, my lord; therefore, for now, you need only stay safely within our Central Army camp!"

Fario nodded sadly.

Immediately, Narcissus turned to the remaining three minor nobles, "Do you have anything else to say? Also, has Commander Brick and the other nobles truly perished?"

Obviously, he could not rely solely on the words of Count Fario.

The three minor nobles were already on the same boat as Fario and had rehearsed their testimonies along the way.

"Commander Narcissus, what Count Fario said is all true; we have nothing else to add!"

"Furthermore, it is basically impossible for the other nobles to have survived; at that time, the main camp had already fallen, and there were a total of eight or nine noble squads breaking through with us."

"But with the tribal savages in pursuit, only we few managed to escape back..."