Carlotta's Daily Report-Chapter 68: Resist My A*s

No matter what, since this alchemy ship has already been built, it can’t just sit idle in the harbor.

Amelia agreed, "I think so too, but what exactly to have the Moonlight do is still uncertain."

Carlotta said, "If we can’t even pay the military salaries next month, then we don’t have much time left. Relying on legitimate channels, it’s hard to gather enough funds. We must take an unconventional approach."

"What do you mean..."

"Let’s go pirate hunting. This alchemy ship seems to have good combat capabilities and should perform well at sea."

"Pirate who?"

"Of course, pirates."

Carlotta shrugged. They couldn’t attack legitimate merchant fleets; otherwise, no one would dare come to Wales Castle anymore, leading to endless troubles.

Amelia sighed, "I’ve thought of that too, but the sea is vast and boundless. No one knows where the pirates are hiding. Without accurate locations, we won’t find a single pirate. We lack intelligence on this matter."

Lack of intelligence?

Carlotta’s expression turned slightly subtle, "Don’t rush. Let’s deal with the deserters first. Aren’t those deserters all former pirates? We might find some useful intelligence from them, and then we can deploy the Moonlight."

Amelia thought it made sense and nodded.

...

After returning from the harbor, since most of the tasks were handled, Amelia decided to take a short nap.

Carlotta was also exhausted and planned to sleep for an hour or two.

The baron’s mansion had plenty of rooms, and she was assigned a quite nice one. The room was elegantly furnished, clean, and quiet, with a view of a river flowing into the Starlight Sea. On both sides of the river stood numerous pointed arch buildings, creating a beautiful scenery.

Closing the window and drawing the curtains, Carlotta changed into her pajamas and lay down on the bed, quickly falling asleep.

She only intended to nap briefly, but when she woke up, the bedroom was pitch dark, with no light coming from outside.

This made Carlotta sit up quickly. She took out a light card from her storage cards to illuminate the surroundings, then checked the time with a clock card.

"Midnight? Did I sleep this long?"

Carlotta blinked.

Since it was already this late, she decided to check today’s intelligence first.

[ 1: Cassian Wolkhar has gathered a thousand deserters, hiding in the Thorn Mountains at a specific location... He scoffs at the orders issued by Amelia and has no intention of returning. Having regained his freedom, he plans to return to the sea as a free pirate, with the thousand men he gathered as his crew. He needs to recruit more members and acquire enough ships, which he is currently planning.]

[ 2: Yorimund Graveltooth leads over seven hundred men, planning to establish himself as a mountain king and profit from the war, located at... Though he was once a pirate, he grew tired of life at sea. The ongoing war in the Francis Duchy now interests him more.]

[ 3: Amelia Fenwick is troubled by the various issues in Wales Castle, but after a conversation with Carlotta White, she feels much more relaxed.]

Today’s intelligence was brief, only three, but nothing unexpected. Information about the deserters had indeed appeared.

The leaders of the deserters and their current locations were all detailed in the intelligence. Leading the garrison or the knights to these locations would easily resolve the issue.

"These are probably the two largest groups of deserters. Hopefully, the intelligence in the next two days will provide more information about the deserters."

Carlotta muttered to herself, got out of bed, and went to draw the curtains, revealing the night view of Starlight Bay.

Now unable to sleep, she decided to eat something and then practice.

At the same time, she pondered a question.

Even though she knew the deserters’ intelligence, how could she reasonably inform Amelia?

After some thought, Carlotta came up with an idea that wouldn’t be hard to implement.

...

Amelia gave the deserters three days. Those who returned within three days would be pardoned. Those who didn’t would be charged with desertion and executed if found!

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

During this time, two thousand of the seven thousand deserters returned, but a full five thousand showed no intention of coming back.

Faced with this situation, Amelia didn’t hesitate. She immediately summoned all the garrison troops to the training grounds of Wales Castle and began issuing her orders.

Her silver hair fluttered, and her expression was stern. She was decisive when needed and ruthless when it came to enforcing discipline.

"Three days have passed, yet many are still at large, disregarding my orders. I will enforce the command issued three days ago, declaring all who have not returned guilty of desertion and will be executed accordingly!"

She quickly issued orders, dividing the garrison into several teams to search different areas around Wales Castle, aiming to find and deal with all these deserters.

Carlotta stood in the crowd, looking relaxed.

Over the past three days, her daily intelligence had been either about deserters or pirates, and she had gathered quite a bit.

Pirate-related intelligence could be set aside for now, but the deserters’ intelligence was crucial.

After deserting, only a few scattered as individuals, while most grouped together. These people were not law-abiding citizens but former pirates, unable to blend in with the populace. Forming small groups, they engaged in looting and pillaging.

In three days, Wales Castle had also used its own resources to investigate the deserters’ whereabouts, uncovering many locations but not all. The most complete information was with Carlotta.

To provide the intelligence reasonably, Carlotta had taken opportunities over the past three days to lead people out, coincidentally passing near some deserters’ locations, as if by luck discovering groups of deserters and bringing back useful information.

This made Amelia marvel at Carlotta’s good fortune.

Besides luck, there was no explanation for how Carlotta could so easily find the deserters’ locations.

After giving orders to the others, Amelia’s gaze fell on Carlotta, "Carlotta, will you take action?" freēnovelkiss.com

Carlotta smiled slightly, "Of course."

The Thorn Mountains are located north of Wales Castle, bordering the Starlight Sea to the east and stretching as far as the eye can see to the west, forming a natural barrier.

The mountain is dotted with various types of vegetation, especially lush in summer, presenting a primitive scene. However, more prevalent are the thorny brambles, which give the mountains their name.

At this moment, Carlotta led the entire Carnation Knights, all three thousand of them, to the Thorn Mountains.

"It’s not surprising that most of the deserters are hiding in the Thorn Mountains to escape my punishment, but are there really that many people here?"

Amelia also came along and couldn’t help but ask.

Originally, Amelia wanted Carlotta to lead a thousand men to deal with the deserters Carlotta had discovered, but Carlotta demanded the entire Carnation Knights, which forced Amelia to come and see the situation for herself.

Carlotta smiled: "According to my judgment, the two largest groups of deserters have likely joined forces. Of course, this is just speculation, and I don’t know how accurate it is, but we need to be cautious."

The deserters have formed various groups, the largest being the one led by Cassian, followed by the group led by Yorimund.

These two groups, due to differing ideologies, originally didn’t mix, but Carlotta learned from the latest intelligence that the two groups had joined forces.

This was related to Amelia’s orders.

Amelia had announced that deserters who did not return within three days would be executed. Both Cassian and Yorimund, having no intention of returning, naturally had to find a way to cope.

After some communication, they decisively joined forces. If Wales Castle sent people to deal with them, they would give Wales Castle a lesson, letting the garrison know they were not to be trifled with.

This was done very secretly, and Wales Castle’s own intelligence system hadn’t detected it. If not for Carlotta’s ability to obtain intelligence through external means, the Wales Castle garrison, without sufficient preparation, might have suffered a great loss.

As for how to explain this now, Carlotta said that during previous intelligence investigations, she noticed the two groups were approaching each other and had sent people to communicate, so the possibility of cooperation couldn’t be ruled out.

Amelia looked at the dense forest before her: "If they’ve joined forces, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. As long as we take them all out in one go, the problem of deserters will be mostly solved."

...

Deep in the Thorn Mountains.

Numerous tents were spread out, covering a large area. Many people inside were drinking and eating meat, the noise frightening the beasts in the mountains away from this area.

In the central tent, two men sat there, drinking the best wine, eating the best meat, and talking loudly.

"I never thought that Baron Wales was already dead. I heard it was the Velmoria people who sent us into the mountains to dig holes."

Yorimund sighed, feeling that many things had changed too suddenly.

Cassian waved his hand, "No matter who is in charge of Wales Castle now, we’re not going back. We’re free pirates; who wants to go back and work for them? The Velmoria people did us a favor, giving us a chance to escape."

Yorimund wasn’t as relaxed as Cassian and said seriously, "The three days are up. The new ruler of Wales Castle, Amelia Fenwick, is probably going to take action against us."

He looked into the distance, feeling somewhat worried because the pirates in the camp were too scattered, mostly eating and drinking, lacking vigilance.

Although he had sent some people out to patrol at his request, could these people really be relied upon?

Seeing Yorimund not in the mood to laugh, Cassian shook his head, "Don’t worry, that Fenwick woman wouldn’t even dream that we’ve joined forces. With the people who have joined us these days, we have a full two thousand men here. If they dare to cause trouble, they’re just asking for it."

Yorimund explained, "I’m not worried about that. What I’m concerned about is whether the new ruler of Wales Castle will carry out a decapitation strike. They probably have transcendents beyond the apprentice level, while even you and I are only seventh-tier apprentices."

All of them were originally low-level people, and being a seventh-tier apprentice was already considered strong.

Cassian laughed, "There’s no need to worry about that. Transcendents of that level usually don’t leave the nobles’ side easily, as they need to protect them. And those nobles, would they ever personally go into battle? Don’t you remember the former Baron Wales? Wasn’t he as cowardly as a fool?"

As he spoke, Cassian couldn’t help but laugh. Based on his life experience and what he had seen, he had come to this conclusion, and this conclusion made him firmly believe.

Yorimund faintly felt that what Cassian said might not be entirely correct, but he didn’t know how to refute it. He was also just an ordinary person with very limited knowledge. Many things that smart people understood at a glance were things he couldn’t figure out no matter how hard he tried.

Just as Yorimund’s mind was in turmoil, a large wave of chaotic noise suddenly came from outside the tent, mixed with many people’s terrified screams and shrill cries.

Cassian and Yorimund stood up abruptly, grabbed their weapons, and rushed out of the tent.

The scene before them made their vision darken.

"This... this is..."

Yorimund looked ahead in disbelief.

Countless silver-armored knights had appeared out of nowhere, holding long swords, forming battle formations, and pushing into their camp. The deserters who had gathered here were like clay chickens and pottery dogs in front of these silver-armored knights, shattering upon contact, completely unable to form any effective combat power.

These were people from Wales Castle!

But how could they have directly attacked here? The sentries he had arranged, why hadn’t they received any advance warning?

Yorimund panicked and was about to ask Cassian to organize some resistance, but when he turned his head, he found that Cassian had already turned and ran, showing no intention of resisting at all.

"Cassian! We have a full two thousand men; if we organize, we might be able to resist!"

Yorimund quickly caught up to Cassian.

Cassian cursed, "Resist my ass! At a glance, I can see there are far more of them than us. I don’t know how these people did it; they shouldn’t know we’ve joined forces, so why would they send such a huge force? Forget it, that’s not important. What’s important is to run!"

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