Chapter 158:Prior Orders[II]
The campfire crackled softly as the silence grew heavier. The tension in the air was like a thick fog no one dared to cut through.
Everyone stood in a loose circle, still processing the scale of what had happened. The icy wind blew gently now, as if the storm that had raged hours ago had never existed—but the scars left behind were too deep to forget.
"Do we really need to report it? Won’t be troublesome and we might be punished badly,"Vic spoke out.
"So... what do we do now?" Albert finally asked, his voice breaking the silence. His tone was stiff, uncertain, almost childlike compared to the mature, hardened battlefield he was used to.
No one responded at first.
Then Gare quietly stepped forward. He took out a folded parchment from inside his coat and handed it to Robert. "This came with the last message from Lord Kael. It was written to hand over this to you in case something like this happened."
Robert, calm and stern as always, took the note without a word. He opened it slowly, his eyes scanning the words carefully. His face remained unreadable, but the others leaned in slightly, waiting.
Robert finally spoke, his deep voice cutting through the quiet camp. "It has instructions."
They straightened up.
"The first instruction is this—" Robert paused and read slowly, "—Baret, Gare, and Chris are to stay back at the border. You will form squads and continue training. Your main task is to hold the borders and engage with any monsters that show signs of movement."
Chris blinked in surprise. "Wait... but didn’t the monsters retreat? They’re going back to the icy forest, aren’t they?"