Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters-Chapter 566 - 107 Galloping Horse

Chapter 566: Chapter 107 Galloping Horse Chapter 566: Chapter 107 Galloping Horse Gold was still very weak, hardly able to endure a long journey.

Winters had been injured as well and needed to find a place to catch his breath.

As Xial was stitching Winters’ wound, the three had already made their next move: go to Wolf Town.

If it were solely for healing, it would be best to hide nearby.

But having no familiarity with the Kingdom of Galloping Horses, even their accent would betray their foreign identities.

There were no friends or relatives to provide a safe haven for the three—except for the folks in Wolf Town.

Winters could not seek help from the Vineta consulate either; the city might already be under martial law, making re-entry too perilous.

...

The pursuers could arrive at any moment, so they must leave Kingsfort as quickly as possible, the farther the better.

Of course, there was another crucial reason: Winters wanted to take a look at Wolf Town.

Without delay, the trio changed clothes and set out immediately.

…

Winters’ anti-tracking skills were learned from that giant bear in Wolf Town.

He avoided the main roads, entering fields and detouring to the northwest.

Upon finding streams and rivers, he would wade through the water to erase their scent; then they’d exit onto hard rocky shores, leaving no hoofprints behind.

Were these methods effective? Winters couldn’t be sure.

But the giant bear had once eluded the tracking of Wolf Town’s most formidable old Hunter using these tactics; shaking off a few Kingsfort militia shouldn’t be too difficult.

After nightfall, the three settled for the night in a forest clearing.

Since Winters’ wound was still bleeding and Gold needed rest, they did not travel throughout the night.

They rested until the following night, ensuring no one had followed, before using the cover of darkness to move southwest.

Newly Reclaimed Land was located at the southwest end of Paratu, with Wolf Town further southwest within Newly Reclaimed Land.

The sausage-cutting war between Paratu and the numerous tribes of Hurd had left their controlled regions interlocked like jagged teeth, maintaining merely a hundred kilometers of uninhabited buffer zone.

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This no-man’s-land was demarcated by natural divisions such as mountains and rivers, and continued to shift.

However, since Iron Peak County, where Wolf Town was located, lay too remote at the northern foothills of Golden Summit Mountain, Paratu hadn’t expanded its territory from this position in recent years.

Winters and his companions traveled at night, rested during the day, and consumed dried meat from the wilderness, avoiding villages and towns as much as possible.

If they needed to acquire necessities, only Xial would go shopping.

It wasn’t until they had traveled beyond the jurisdiction of Kingsfort and Westwood Province and confirmed once again that there were no pursuers that Winters and his group resumed a normal routine, returning to the main road.

Winters even purchased a horse for forty Ducats; although it wasn’t a fine steed, the price had nearly doubled from the previous year due to wartime inflation.

But Winters urgently needed to acquire another horse. They were three men with only four horses, so he had to buy despite the high price.

At first, Winters traveled towards Wolf Town with a bit of ease.

But the further he went, the heavier his heart became.

The raw destructive power of war was blatantly displayed before him; there were no longer endless caravans, no farmers with fruits, vegetables, and eggs for sale.

The few travelers on the road would silently wrap their cloaks tighter and grip their weapons until they had walked far enough to breathe a sigh of relief.

Most cities had erected Red Rose flags, especially in the regions south of Ashen Stream River. They conscripted labor, built fortifications, gathered resources, and blocked roads, rigorously inspecting passersby.

It was said that not long ago, Blue Rose troops had crossed the Ashen Stream River and mercilessly swept through these areas loyal to Red Rose.

Winters and his company had to be extra cautious.

…

In the Newly Reclaimed Lands Province, an unnamed village on the map.

“No survivors found,” whispered Xial as he jogged back. “No food either, and there are a few new graves on the west side of the village. It looks like the surviving villagers buried the dead and fled.”

Winters nodded.

Before them was not a village, but the remnants of a tiny hamlet.

This had been a very small settlement of only seven or eight families by the look of the courtyards.

Perhaps some men and women had toiled year after year on the surrounding farmland, living here with difficulty and tenacity.

But all was lost now, leaving only the charred skeletons of what had been.

“Let’s go,” Winters said as he mounted his horse, addressing Xial and Gold. “We’ll try the next village, see if we can buy some food there.”

The three rode off, leaving the scorched ruins to return to silence.

Winters didn’t know what hardships the people had suffered because he was constantly on the move.

However, he had a clear sense that there were far fewer traders on the road and far more bandits and thieves than ever before.

It was getting harder to procure supplies; even the smallest of villages kept their doors shut, refusing to receive strangers.

Having left the directly administered area of Kingsfort and Westwood Province—the effective range of Red Rose—Winters encountered highway robbers almost daily.

Once he entered Newly Reclaimed Land, the frequency increased to two or three times a day.

Most of the robbers were terrified farmers, their hands shaking while holding pitchforks and sickles, trying to intimidate Winters.

There were also a fair number of bandit gangs comprising bloodshed-hardened robbers and ragged farmers without even shoes in their company.

For the former, Winters couldn’t bring himself to kill; he simply knocked their weapons away. For the latter, he only eliminated those who were clearly habitual criminals.

“Get lost!” Winters didn’t know what else to say. “Go home!”