Chapter 520

Seeing Dali still seemed doubtful, Catherine made no further explanation.

Immediately, she swiftly led the convoy back toward the castle.

At this moment, Old John and Thomas were instructing servants and temporarily conscripted serf laborers to haul supplies onto the walls.

When they saw Catherine’s party returning, they were all deeply astonished.

“Lady Catherine, why have you returned? You must leave at once! Scouts have spotted over a thousand boarmen advancing toward Wheatfield Town!”

“They’ll be here any moment—it will be extremely dangerous!”

Clearly, Old John dared not let Catherine stay, risking her life.

“John, I know boarmen are coming—that’s precisely why I’ve chosen to stay.”

“Open the gate quickly—I have over fifty men here who can strengthen the castle’s defenses!”

“This…” Old John hesitated immediately.

Although adding fifty formidable knights and cavalry would certainly make the castle safer,

given Catherine’s safety, Old John still could not immediately agree: “Lady Catherine, please evacuate first!”

“As for the castle, we have confidence enough to hold it—otherwise we wouldn’t have stayed!”

“But if we let you stay and something goes wrong, we’ll surely be blamed by you afterward!”

Hearing Old John’s words, a sudden sweetness stirred in Catherine’s heart.

Gervas would blame John and the others for putting her in danger.

This already showed that Gervas cared for her.

Yet the more he cared, the more Catherine refused to leave.

So her tone turned instantly absolute: “John, I will not leave.”

“Either open the castle gate—or let me fight the boarmen right outside these walls!”

“This…” Old John truly hadn’t expected Lady Catherine to be so resolute.

Thus, he could no longer insist—he ordered the castle gate opened.

Then Catherine and her guards entered the castle.

“Lady Catherine, why on earth did you do this?” Old John looked utterly helpless.

Originally, even if the castle fell, only those of us lowly servants would be in danger.

But now that Lady Catherine has joined us, the weight of responsibility crushes our hearts.

“John, don’t worry about me—treat me like an ordinary person!”

What could Old John say after hearing that?

He could only reluctantly invite Catherine up onto the castle walls.

On the walls, serfs and male servants were hauling stones and two unusual types of throwing spears.

In addition, five black iron tubes had been placed upon the walls.

These iron tubes rested on wooden racks, their purpose unknown.

But when he saw the number of defenders on the walls didn’t exceed his expectations, Knight Captain Dali’s heart sank halfway.

“John, may I ask—is there an escape route behind the castle…?”

As Knight Captain Dali asked, every eye on the castle turned to stare at him strangely.

Dali felt awkward and couldn’t help explaining: “I only think—if disaster strikes, we must ensure Lady Catherine has a chance to escape!”

Old John nodded: “Knight Captain, there is indeed a rope pulley in the castle’s rear garden.”

“In an emergency, we can lower a basket via the pulley…”

"Perfect! Thank you, steward!" Dali said no more.

Catherine glanced over but said nothing further.

She understood Dali’s duty.

So if Dali had allowed her to return to Gervas’s castle, then merely asking about an escape route was nothing she could object to.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

“Look! Boarmen—they’re coming!”

At that moment, the guard’s shout from the arrow tower instantly drew everyone’s attention.

Looking toward the southern road the guard pointed to, a cluster of black dots appeared on the distant horizon.

Even from afar, the faint, rumbling roars drifted over.

“Everyone, prepare for battle! Lord Gervas has marched out and entrusted this castle and territory to us!”

“Then we must honor the responsibility he has placed upon us! When he returns, we will hand him back Stormhold and its lands—intact!”

“Now, tell me—do you have the will to do it?”

“Yes!”

“Excellent! Then let those damned boarmen come! When they reach our walls, show these ugly beasts that Stormhold’s warriors will kick their asses and twist their heads off to use as footballs!”

“For Lord Gervas! For Stormhold! For glory! Kill!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

With Old John’s rallying cry, cheers erupted across the walls.

Catherine watched the elderly steward in surprise.

Previously, this old steward had struck her as merely steady and experienced.

Yet she hadn’t expected him to deliver such a stirring, soul-igniting pre-battle speech.

“Lady Catherine, when I was young, I fought in several battles just like this one!”

“Back then, the eastern coast wasn’t safe—pirates often sailed inland to raid our lands. That’s why I have this experience,” Old John saw Catherine’s confusion and explained.

Hearing this, Catherine finally understood and nodded, waiting for the approaching boarmen.

Beside her, Knight Captain Dali stared in surprise at the Stormhold guards.

The savages were no surprise—they were a warlike race; not fearing boarmen was understandable.

But what about the remaining hundred guards?

Even noble household guards, ducal guards, or royal legionnaires—

would likely show fear at the sight of these boarmen.

Just as they would when facing northern beastmen like the mimons—inevitable.

These boarmen’s combat strength was nearly equal to that of the mimons.

Why didn’t they threaten the Kingdom like the northern mimons?

Because the northern mimons were unified—they formed a nation like the humans.

But these southern beastmen remained ununified, living still in their separate tribes.

Thus, they even competed among themselves, clashing with one another.

At most, a few formed loose alliances.

Yet they still could not shake the Griffin Kingdom.

But that was only true for the entire Kingdom.

For these guards, the boarmen should still seem terrifyingly powerful.

And their numbers reached thousands—five times their own.

If not battle-hardened, even Dali might feel some tension—so how did these ordinary guards manage to be so emboldened, so eager to fight?