Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 83: The Gloomy Fortress

Starfall Year 831, 17th of December. Evening. Dark Forest fortress in Moldova. On a snowy night.

The weather did not provide any form of mercy for the poor soldiers who had just finished a tough battle. The snow and cold wind blew onto the alleys and between the towers and layers and layers of thick snow.

The gloomy sky had created a heavy atmosphere for the soldiers to live in. Now, there was nobody left walking along the stony path. There were only broken weapons and damaged armor scattered on the side of the road. Their masters were probably dead by now or maybe a few lucky ones who had still managed to survive. Needless to say, a catastrophic occurrence had just happened there.

There stood a young lady with silver hair, walking down the path with green eyes glancing at her surroundings. There were no emotions that could be seen from those pair of eyes.

Her steps were light, yet filled with the energy of a young person. She was wearing her white uniform, paired with long trousers and a silver colored leather boots. A pair of gloves closely keeping her hand warm. Between her sleeves and her gloves, you can see a white slender hand hiding beneath them. It was certainly unfitting for such a beautiful lady to stroll on this land.

However, Ying thought otherwise. She believed that she was meant for this place.

Looking at the surroundings, all the houses and the towers, the Divine Armament could taste the scent of battle lingering in the place. Within the aftermath of a battle, she glanced towards the weapons that were no longer capable of being wielded again, sitting by the side of the road. Her gaze turned soft and gentle, as if she were able to communicate with these weapons which were on their last breath. However, she never stood there for long and continue progressing forward.

The silver leather boots collided with the frozen stone path, releasing a ‘ting’ as she moved forward. The noise was then carried by the wind and transmitted across the land.

“What a miserable place.”

Ying sighed and said, “Facing the same Dark Tide at the fortress, this place has an even worse outlook as compared to Master’s territory…”

When Moldavia was at its critical moment, Joshua made it in time to slay the Gold-tier daemon. If that’s not the case, the wall would probably fall due to the fierce attack of the daemon. The outcome of that battle could have gone terribly wrong and would have cost thousands of lives.

It was a good thing that Joshua made it on time and dispelled all the problems caused by the daemon. The liege of this land could not achieve the same result due to his lack of capability, as a result, the sorry state of the territory was what’s left behind.

When she thought for a while, she felt that it was reasonable to have such a different result between the two territories. After all, how can she compare her master to an ordinary person?

Ying finally reached the center of the fortress; she could finally felt the presence of humans from within. There were knights patrolling while wearing their battered armor, moving from an area to another. One could see that their faces were all covered with dust and dirt, there was even signs fatigue, yet these knights still strengthened their will and continued moving forward.

The places that they patrolled were mostly empty residences and shops. There were only a few houses which you could see signs of fires burning and smoke was traversing upwards as if it was contaminating the white sky.

The surrounding was like an empty city.

Facing the onslaught of 200000 Berserk Daemons, the damages caused by this Dark Tide could not be considered too bad as compared to other places. However, people who had gotten injured and tired due to the attack could be spotted all over the place. This agenda had caused quite a lot of people to be anxious and had given numerous sleepless night for the people. Despite all these difficulties, soldiers were still holding themselves together and faced the problems ahead. It was definitely not an easy task.

The soldiers held dearly onto the responsibility; their own pride and orders to boost their spirit to continue performing for their lord. It was their will that prevented them from collapsing and lay wasted on the snowy land.

Within the center of the alleyway, these soldiers had put their focus onto Ying. Those who didn’t know about the existence of Ying were shocked due to the fact that a girl who was energetic and attractive was walking within this dead zone. However, they did not take any malicious actions against her. In fact, they advised her, “Young girl, this zone is off-limits for civilians. Don’t simply wander around at night. It is dangerous. Go home to your mom and dad, don’t let them be worried about you.”

“The weather is too cold, there’s no reason for you to wander around.”

There were even some soldiers that made a little joke about her appearance. “Come on, she ain’t gonna be facing danger. Look at her clothes, hair, and skin. They were all as white as snow. Nobody could even notice her if they did not pay attention.”

“You’re right, she’s all white indeed.”

Everybody laughed at the jokes that were made. The tension that the soldiers felt was eased up a little by the joke. As for Ying, her thoughts were simple. There wasn’t even any danger in this place anymore! Little that she knew that all the soldiers were only advising her to go home early. Of course, teasing her was another objective.

This silver-haired girl was not pleased by their teasing. As the soldiers left the vicinity, Ying mumbled disgruntledly, “I’m no little girl here. Master is probably twenty one or twenty three… Somewhere around there… Yup, I’m actually twenty one myself!”

Her explanation was a little bit too late for soldiers had already left the place and weren’t able to hear a single word.

As Ying wandered a little further, she had reached near the center warehouse of the fortress. Well, this was the place where all the resource within the fortress were gathered. There were around twenty to thirty soldiers guarding the area. These people here were dressed in chainmail with a helmet. They were all holding onto their broadsword and shield while patrolling.

Although not all the daemons would group together and identify resources owned by human to attack, there were still some clever daemons that would know how to attack the important resource for the human. These soldiers would not take the chance to allow these daemons to attack what’s important to them, thus they would not easily let their guard down. The soldiers here had a way better condition as compared to the previous group. Although some fatigue could still be seen on their faces, at least they seemed to have sufficient sleep.

At first, the guardians of the warehouse would try to stop the young lady coming before them. It was fortunate that the current leader of the guards had received an information about Ying. Thus, this leader had confirmed that Ying had the rights to pass. This man with an unbearable face, as if he had not slept for days, led Ying into the warehouse.

As the leader of the group, he rarely had the chance to sleep.

“… It is such a waste. Although our warehouse does not lack armor and weapons, we are lacking tremendous human resources.”

This leader here could only lament about this issue. “Ordinary civilians do not have the strength to wear such heavy armor. The armor we had might not even be suitable for some of the soldier as it might hinder their movements. Now, we are really lacking in terms of chainmail and wooden bucklers. If these heavy armor were able to help the reinforcements, you may take them away with you. We do not really need them here.”

He was not really trying to save any money for his lord, in fact, what he was doing now was for the sake of Moldova. Having extra fifty Silver-tier knights during a beast tide might not be much. However, stationing fifty Silver-tier warriors within the fortress wall would ensure that the defense within a few hundred meters of the vicinity would be secured. The Scarlet family was not lacking in money after all.

To be frank, if the fortress was not built from a small stone hill in the first place, the scale of the fortress would be too big. These fifty Silver-tier knights would have been a very crucial part of the forces to defend the fortress. Having too wide of a place to defend against invasion would cause the relevance of these knights to diminish. It would be very hard to defend as there were too many places that could be invaded.

“The knights would have their own armor. I came just to collect for my master.”

After explaining her reason, Ying asked a few questions about the things that she never saw before as she surveyed the warehouse. This fatigued man here had tried his best to explain them to her.

When they have reached the second level of the warehouse, both of them went into silence. In the center of the second floor, they saw white lights illuminating all the equipment, whether it was armor or swords. The equipment shone brilliantly under the radiance given out from the lamps.

“Well, which type of armor does the Liege of Moldavia prefer? Tell me his measurements. I might be able to pick a suitable one for him.

He noticed that Ying hesitated, as she was not able to make a decision. The leader of the warehouse immediately responded confidently, “I am very familiar with all the equipment here. You could say that there is no one more familiar with all the stuff here than me in Moldova.”

“If that’s the case, then I shall leave it to your recommendation.”

Making a decision on the choice of armor had been too much of a hassle for Ying. So, she decided to leave the choice for the chief of the warehouse. With a smile, he quickly brought forward the armor which was deemed suitable for Joshua.

Using the shrinking and weightless skill to scale down the size of the armor, the chief then put it into a small box and gave it to the silver-haired girl.

“Thank you very much.”

“It is my pleasure.”

The middle-aged man shook his head then replied, “Without the help of that brave young man that day, leading his troop to halt the advancement of the beast horde, we would have faced our demise today.”

He then sighed and continued, “Well, at least we could rest after all these troubles. Blessings to you and your liege.”

“Umm…”

Ying took the box and left the city center after bidding farewell to the chief. This young silver-haired girl then continued her own journey within the cold night wind and silent road, walking towards the direction of the Dark Forest fortress.

That was where her master was at.