Chapter 49 : Chapter 49
Chapter 49. The Dog Pack Summit
The noise and celebration of Lucerne City faded with the morning light.
Eli did not linger.
He entrusted Lucerne City’s daily affairs once more to Brandon and the portion of the Black Crow Knights left behind there.
As for himself, he set out on the road to Shadow Vale.
Safety was the foremost consideration.
According to the purple-tier assessment the intelligence system had given of Sabda Medici’s strength—【approximately three hundred soldiers, highest combat power: High-Silver Tier】—
and taking into account the uncertainties that might arise while on the other man’s territory, Eli carefully selected the guards who would accompany him:
Captain Buck, Wolfgang, and ten elite Black Crow Knights.
Such a force was more than enough to handle the vast majority of unexpected situations.
Even if Sabda turned hostile, with Buck’s Gold Tier strength,
Wolfgang’s ferocity, and the Black Crow Knights’ shock power, forcing a breakout would not be difficult.
Traveling light, the group rode hard according to the map provided by Sabda’s messenger.
Two days later, a valley appeared before them, lying at the eastern foot of Nightsong Forest and backed by steep cliffs—Shadow Vale.
Sabda’s territory was indeed more orderly in its construction than Black Territory had been in its early days.
At the mouth of the valley stood sturdy watchtowers of wood and stone. The roads had been leveled, and the wooden houses inside the valley were arranged in an orderly fashion with a clear plan.
The defensive works made use of the mountainside. Though they were not as solid as Lucerne City’s, they were still a position that was easy to defend and hard to attack.
Judging from the construction of the territory alone, this second son of the Duke of the Southern Frontier had likely poured a great many resources into it.
He had also shown considerable ability. He was by no means a mere wastrel noble.
Eli was the last to arrive.
When he appeared at the mouth of the valley with this small force that radiated a chilling presence, it immediately drew the attention of the guards.
Before long, the group was escorted by a squad of soldiers wearing dark green leather armor to the central area of Shadow Vale,
where they arrived before a relatively tall lord’s residence built from stone and timber, its style leaning toward the delicate refinement of the Southern Frontier.
Sabda Medici had long since come out with his people to wait on the open ground before the residence.
A properly measured aristocratic smile hung upon his face, but his gray eyes flashed with appraisal and scrutiny.
At his side stood seven or eight young nobles from the Southern Frontier, clearly the core of his trusted circle.
A little farther away stood the other six invited frontier lords, each dressed differently and wearing different expressions as they watched Eli, the last to arrive.
Eli swung down from his horse in one clean motion.
He wore practical black leather armor beneath a dark blue cloak. His white hair was striking, and the longsword Silver hung at his waist.
Buck, Wolfgang, and the ten Black Crow Knights followed close behind him like silent black iron towers. The invisible pressure they exuded instantly overshadowed everyone else present.
“Lord Eli Black,” Sabda said with a smile as he stepped forward.
“You must be weary from the journey.”
Eli gave a slight nod and replied with due courtesy, “You are too kind, Young Master Sabda. It is my honor to come at your invitation.”
His calm gaze swept across Sabda and the Southern Frontier nobles at his side before finally settling on the unfamiliar frontier lords.
At that moment, one of the young nobles behind Sabda, a round-faced youth— Luke Medici, one of Sabda’s trusted followers— could not resist speaking in a mocking tone.
“Well, Lord Eli certainly has quite the dignity about him, making Young Master Sabda and all the other lords wait so long.
Anyone who did not know better might think that you were the one who convened this alliance meeting.”
The words were openly provocative, and the temperature of the gathering seemed to drop at once.
The other frontier lords also turned dissatisfied or curious gazes toward Eli.
They wanted to see how he would respond.
Eli turned to look at Luke. Not only was there no anger on his face, he instead curved his lips into a smile tinged with self-mockery.
Spreading his hands, he said in an easy and casual tone, “My apologies, everyone. I was unfamiliar with the road, so I lost some time. Besides...”
“Surely all of you have heard of my great reputation? I am a famously good-for-nothing wastrel. A man like me is only ever late—when would I ever have reason to arrive early?
Ah, habits like that are difficult to change in such a short time.”
He deftly borrowed his own former notoriety and skillfully dissolved the awkwardness.
“Pfft...”
“Haha...”
The other frontier lords, who had clearly all heard one way or another of Eli Black of the Royal Domain and his “great reputation,” could not help letting out a few knowing laughs.
The tense atmosphere immediately eased quite a bit.
Sabda laughed lightly as well, and a trace of smugness flashed through his gray eyes.
In his view, Eli’s self-deprecating show of weakness was precisely an indication that he feared the prestige of the Medici Family.
A wastrel bastard son, in the end, could never truly ascend to elegance.
His opinion of Eli dropped another notch.
“That is enough, Luke. Baron Eli has come from afar. There is no need to fuss over so small a matter.”
Sabda adopted the magnanimous air of a host and stepped in at just the right moment to smooth things over.
“Now that everyone is here, gentlemen, please come inside. Business comes first.”
The group entered the lord’s residence and came to a spacious council hall.
The long table was covered in dark green velvet, and upon it stood delicate silver candlesticks and crystal goblets, displaying the luxurious heritage of the Medici Family of the Southern Frontier.
Sabda, without the slightest hesitation, took the main seat. His Southern Frontier confidants sat along either side.
Eli and the other seven frontier lords took the lower seats.
Buck and Wolfgang stood silently behind Eli like guardian deities.
After servants brought in fragrant Southern Frontier black tea, Sabda did not waste much time on pleasantries.
He set down his teacup lightly, and the crisp sound drew every eye in the hall to him.
“Gentlemen,” Sabda’s voice rang out in the now-quiet council hall,
“I imagine all of you have questions about why I have gathered you here today. So I will speak plainly. I wish to ask you a question: do you know what our true situation is, we frontier pioneers who have been exiled to the southwestern wasteland of the Western Frontier?”
A somewhat stout frontier lord responded in confusion,
“Our situation? It is nothing more than the land being barren, the beasts being many, and land reclamation being difficult.
What do you mean, Young Master Sabda... the wolf packs and magical beasts roaming the wasteland?”
Several other lords nodded in agreement. Clearly, that was the most immediate hardship they felt.
“Wolf packs? Magical beasts?” Sabda curled his lips into a sneer tinged with ridicule and shook his head lightly.
“No, gentlemen. Our enemy is far more terrifying than those beasts.”
“Lord Sabda, you mean...?” another lord, who looked rather shrewd, asked cautiously.
Sabda leaned slightly forward. His gray eyes swept across the room, and he lowered his voice.
“All of you know that last year, the allied armies of the Free City-State Alliance launched a massive invasion into the Western Frontier of our Kingdom of Orlando.”
“But did they not already retreat?” asked the first lord to speak, a man born of a collateral count’s branch.
“Retreat?” Sabda let out a short laugh, as though he had heard the greatest joke in the world.
“Do you truly think that those greed-ridden city-state allied forces, after seizing a vast stretch of the Western Frontier
and tasting its sweetness, would obediently follow orders and withdraw completely?”
“To watch a duck already in hand fly away? Gentlemen, if it were you, would you willingly give up the fat meat already at your lips?”
Silence instantly fell over the council hall.
The lords looked at one another, alarm and uncertainty showing on their faces.
“So... what you mean is...”
The shrewd-looking lord’s voice had gone somewhat dry.
“There are still... there are still federal troops... remaining on this land?”
“Exactly!” Sabda slapped the table sharply, his voice rising at once.
“They have broken themselves into smaller groups and now lie hidden around us like venomous snakes! They are waiting for the right moment, waiting for us to grow complacent, waiting for us to fall into infighting! And then...”
“They will swallow up our scattered and fragile frontier settlements one by one.”
“Hiss—!”
“Heavens!”
“Then... then what are we supposed to do?”
The terrifying picture Sabda painted instantly threw the assembled frontier lords into an uproar. Every face showed fear and lingering dread.
They had all heard from their elder family members of the ferocity of the allied armies of the Free City-State Alliance.
If organized remnants truly were lurking in the shadows, then for small lords like them, whose foundations were not yet stable, it would be a catastrophe capable of wiping them out completely.
Looking at the panic on everyone’s faces, a satisfied gleam flashed through Sabda’s eyes.
The groundwork had been laid well enough.
He pressed his hands downward in a calming gesture, signaling for them to quiet down, and once more put on that hypocritical smile.
“There is no need for excessive panic, gentlemen. It is precisely because of this that we have an even greater need to unite.
If we remain a loose pile of sand, we will only be defeated one by one. Only by uniting can we resist outside enemies and truly gain a foothold on this wasteland.”
He looked around at them all.
“Therefore, I propose that the frontier lords of the southwestern Western Frontier immediately establish the Southwestern Pioneer Alliance!
We shall concentrate our forces, share our intelligence, coordinate our resources, defend together, and develop together!
Then those wolves and jackals coveting our lands will not dare act rashly.”
He paused, his eyes sweeping across Eli and the other lords before finally settling back upon himself. His tone was full of self-assured certainty, as though the matter were obvious.
“As for the position of alliance leader, a post that carries the heavy responsibility of guiding the alliance, coordinating all sides, and resisting powerful enemies,
naturally it must be held by someone with great strength, abundant resources, and the ability to command the confidence of all.”
He did not say it outright, but both his gaze and his posture pointed clearly toward himself.
Eli found it oddly amusing.
The council hall once more sank into silence.
The small lords looked at Sabda, at the impressive Southern Frontier nobles standing behind him, and then at one another.
Their eyes were full of hesitation, calculation, and helplessness.
They had all been born into noble families and had seen many things. Naturally, none of them were true fools.
If they joined this alliance, at best they would become pieces on someone else’s board, their own development constrained. Yet the danger was indeed a real one.
The idea of forming an alliance to resist a possible threat truly was tempting, but as for the alliance leader’s seat...
Was Sabda Medici, the second son of the Duke of the Southern Frontier, really the best candidate?
Intentionally or not, every gaze drifted toward the marquess’s son who had remained silent the whole time—Eli.