Chapter 63: Ion Soderbell
The night wind blew gently.
The summer night breeze carried a slight chill, bringing a trace of relief to the weary people, who couldn't help but show a hint of joy.
Ion rode a short horse and returned to the village along with another rider.
"My lord." As soon as someone saw Ion, they stepped forward to take the reins.
"Any unusual activity around?" Ion dismounted and asked.
"None so far."
Ion nodded slightly and said nothing more, striding into the village with a heavy expression.
The northern border of the White Mountain Territory was long, sharing boundaries with the entire Fertile Plains, which meant that the White Mountain Territory was adjacent to the Baronies of Westwind, Springwind, and Eastmountain.
It was said that the ancestors of these three lords had all married daughters of the Antares Family, so after generations of intermarriage, they were all somewhat related.
This was, in fact, a common strategy used by many great lords to control their vassal nobles.
If the Kasein Family had been given enough time to develop, they would likely have employed similar tactics: for instance, Burton Kasein had once been arranged to marry Anna Billy, the daughter of Baron Hess of Gem Territory.
Therefore, Baron Ster fully understood that if he went to war with the Baron of Eastmountain, then the Baronies of Westwind and Springwind would certainly intervene.
Yet despite the standoff at the border lasting for over a month and a half, the lord of East Mountain Territory never crossed the border.
Even so, Baron Ster never dared to withdraw his troops lightly.
This was because the initiative was completely out of his hands. He even had to dispatch Ken and Ion to patrol the borderlines to ensure that Westwind and Springwind had not mobilized suddenly to catch them off guard.
Ion was in charge of the section of the border between the White Mountain Territory and the Springwind Territory.
To this end, he not only advocated the construction of observation posts along the border but also proposed training a team of riders specifically for border patrols.
This method was something he had learned during his time serving at the frontier.
After all, observation posts could only detect large enemy troop movements, but for small infiltration units, the effectiveness of the observation posts would be limited.
Therefore, the patrol units served to fill that gap. In the early days of the Tyrella Kingdom, scouts, reconnaissance troops, and vanguard soldiers had all come from the border patrol units.
It was only in the last hundred years, thanks to increasingly refined theories and training facilities, that they were able to train specialized outpost troops.
Ion was, in fact, a product of that training system.
As such, he was very familiar with border security operations.
Baron Ster already knew of Ion's background, so he naturally did not reject his proposal.
However, the White Mountain Territory was mostly mountainous and not wealthy at all. They couldn't even gather a few warhorses, there weren't even any fast horses.
The horses, including the one Ion was riding, were all technically packhorses, prized only for their stamina and ability to traverse mountainous terrain.
Even so, after searching the entire territory, only fewer than twenty pack horses could be found.
Out of those twenty, Ion and Ken each received eight, and the remaining were distributed among thirty veteran soldiers.
Although Baron Ster only had four packhorses, he kept one hundred veteran soldiers as his main force, along with forty serfs and thirty militiamen. Knight Roda also stayed by Baron Ster's side.
At this moment, the village Ion was stationed at was called Plains Village, one of the five villages under the White Mountain Territory.
Previously, it had been the fief of another Bloodline Knight under Baron Ster, but he had died during the last war supporting the Red River Territory.
He had no children, and his parents had also passed away, so even Baron Ster had no way to offer compensation.
Roughly twenty kilometers north of Plains Village in a straight line was the Springwind Territory.
A straight patrol along the border would take over half a day, but since there was a mountain peak within the White Mountain Territory from which one could clearly see the border of the Springwind Territory, an observation post was established there.
Therefore, actual patrols focused on the mountainous region surrounding that peak, which significantly increased the difficulty, patrolling the entire area took about a day and a half.
Thus, Ion divided the eight packhorses into four patrol teams, each composed of two riders.
The four teams operated in twelve-hour intervals, or half a day apart.
This was mainly to allow the packhorses sufficient rest; otherwise, Ion would have shortened the interval further or added more personnel.
As for the basic observation posts, they were manned entirely by villagers and militiamen recruited from Plains Village, as they were more familiar with the local terrain.
After more than two months of this arrangement, both the veteran soldiers and the villagers had grown accustomed to the routine.
After all, Baron Ster was not enforcing conscription, he offered each militiaman and villager one silver coin every three days as compensation.
Most villagers in the White Mountain Territory could barely earn eight silver coins in a month.
Now, just by watching for movements from the Springwind Territory, they could earn a whole gold coin per month.
No one would refuse such an easy job. In fact, to secure this position, some villagers of Plains Village even voluntarily shared knowledge of the lesser-known terrains around the village with Ion, which helped him quickly familiarize himself with the geography and surrounding conditions.
Returning now to his temporary residence in Plains Village, a few soldiers saluted him, and Ion couldn’t wait to ask, "Any news from the Lord?"
"None." One of the veteran soldiers shook his head.
"When was the last time the Lord sent a messenger?" Ion's expression remained grave.
In the past few days, the unease in his heart had grown stronger.
He didn’t know why, but his instincts, honed from his time in the scout unit, had keenly picked up on something strange: the conflict between the White Mountain Territory and the Eastern Mountain Territory had remained remarkably quiet for nearly three months.
If not for the fact that the stationed troops from the Eastern Mountain Territory still hadn’t withdrawn from the border, no one would suspect that a war was on the brink of breaking out.
However, what truly made Ion vigilant was the complete cessation of trade between the three lords of the Fertile Plains two and a half months ago, initially, it was just the Eastern Mountain Territory and the White Mountain Territory halting trade.
But shortly after, the Western Wind Territory and the Spring Breeze Territory also successively stopped trading two and a half months ago: the last trade took place two months ago, when they entered White Mountain City for a simple resupply before heading to the Red River Territory.
Since then, no caravans had entered the White Mountain Territory.
Not even from the Red River Territory.
That was what truly unsettled Ion.
It was as if the White Mountain Territory had suddenly become a deserted island adrift at sea.
“Five days ago?” an old soldier said uncertainly.
“Counting today, it’s been six days,” another old soldier replied affirmatively.
“Something’s wrong.” Ion shook his head gravely. “What about Knight Commander Ken’s side? Any news from him?”
Due to the unique geography of the White Mountain Territory, the distances between White Mountain City and the five other villages in the territory were fairly equal, each could be reached in about half a day.
Though the distances between the villages varied, from Plains Village to the Mountain Ridge Village where Baron Ster resided was roughly a day’s journey: departing at dawn, one would generally arrive by nightfall. The distance from Plains Village to Ken’s fief village was about the same.
Hence, Ion had emphasized to both Ken and Baron Ster that information exchange between the three villages had to be ensured, with a maximum interval of three days.
“We received word the day before yesterday. We also sent someone out yesterday,” the old soldier answered.
“What about the person we sent to Mountain Ridge Village four days ago, have they returned?”
“No.”
“Something’s happened!” Ion’s expression turned grim at once.
According to their agreed-upon method, the interval for mutual communication between the three villages was not to exceed three days.
However, due to a lack of manpower, in practice, each village dispatched one old soldier every three days.
To prevent impersonation or substitution, these messenger soldiers were always fixed personnel, each with other old soldiers in the respective villages who could vouch for them.
Mountain Ridge Village had sent someone six days ago, so logically, the second messenger should have arrived today.
Similarly, Ion had dispatched an old soldier to Mountain Ridge Village four days ago.
That person should have returned today. Moreover, another messenger had been sent today.
Therefore, both the soldier sent four days ago and the second messenger expected today were overdue. Ion immediately realized that something had happened in Mountain Ridge Village!
“Send someone immediately to Knight Commander Ken’s village. Tell him something’s gone wrong in the White Mountain Territory. He must evacuate and return to White Mountain City at once!” Ion issued orders promptly.
“Sound the alarm... no, don’t sound the alarm! Go knock on doors, tell the villagers to leave the village immediately. Evacuate them in groups to avoid crowding. Have them all flee toward White Mountain City.”
The two old soldiers designated by Ion responded immediately and moved to execute the task.
“Send another person to the observation post to notify those villagers, tell them to run at once. If they encounter patrols, tell them to escape too. Do not return to Plains Village,” Ion added after a moment’s thought.
“Also, send a rider, no, send all the riders. Have them head to White Mountain City to notify Lady Lily and tell her to prepare for war!”
“Yes!” another old soldier responded and departed.
“And send someone to Old Mountain Village as well, to tell them to evacuate to White Mountain City...”
As Ion calmly and methodically issued commands, the situation, which should have caused panic, remained stable within Plains Village.
Though the villagers looked visibly anxious and fearful upon hearing that war might be breaking out, the calm and solemn expression on Ion’s face somehow gave them a sense of security.
None of them added to his burden at this critical moment, because over the past few months, Ion had earned the respect of everyone in the village through his actions.
So now, they naturally trusted this knight.
“Sir, what about us?” asked an old soldier standing by Ion’s side. “What should we do?”
Indeed.
What should he do now?
Ion fell into deep thought.
At this moment, only two paths lay before him: first, retreat to White Mountain City; second, attempt to rescue Baron Ster.