The heavy wooden doors of the council hall were violently thrown open, and Hakon rushed in frantically, breaking the brief silence within.
"Lord Arthur!" His chest heaved violently, his face a mix of anxiety and haste. "Lord!"
"Speak!" Arthur's gaze shifted from Evelyn's face. "Why are Hakon and Lucien always so startled?"
"Lucien! Lucien!" Hakon panted, his face flushed. "A bandit leader named Hake has captured some people who wanted to descend the High Mountain and surrender."
"That's the direction Lucien is responsible for. Lucien… he… in a fit of rage, he charged up the High Mountain with only three soldiers by his side!"
Arthur held his forehead with his hand. "A brute, truly a brute, so brave."
Arthur looked at Hakon: "Hakon!"
"At the Lion's Den, mobilize fifty soldiers, bring weapons and equipment, and follow me as quickly as possible."
"I'll go ahead with the riders."
Arthur spoke as he strode towards the door, his voice calm, without a hint of panic.
The sound of hooves soon echoed outside the Lion's Den. Arthur rode ahead, followed closely by twelve riders, kicking up dust as they galloped towards the mountains in the north.
At night, in the northern mountain forest, Lucien was not as reckless as Hakon had described.
On the High Mountain, a strong wind howled, passing through the trees, making a whistling sound.
Lucien and three soldiers were squatting behind a hidden rock, taking off their heavy cotton armor piece by piece, and then burying them with leaves and branches.
"Sir, are we really just going up like this?" a soldier asked in a low, somewhat muffled voice, as he smeared damp, cold mud on his face and body. "It's too dangerous."
"Think about it!" Lucien's voice was calm. He grabbed a handful of rotten mud and unceremoniously smeared it on his messy hair. "What would Lord Arthur do if he were here!"
Lucien also understood that this method was a matter of life and death, and he could not show any timidity or weakness, otherwise the soldiers' courage would surely be lost.
"There are only four of us. If it were Lord Arthur, he would never foolishly charge up shouting and killing."
Lucien stroked his chin with his mud-stained hand, imitating Arthur's serious expression when deep in thought, and said in a deep voice:
"The opponent has more than a dozen people, so they have the numerical advantage. Fighting head-on is what an idiot would do. If we want to win, we have to use tactics."
Soon, the four soldiers in cotton armor transformed into the appearance of down-and-out bandits with ragged clothes.
Their only weapons were longswords disguised as broken with mud and daggers hidden in their bosoms.
"Follow me!" Lucien lowered his voice, like a wolf about to hunt, leading the soldiers towards the bandit camp.
A bonfire burned in the camp, and more than a dozen bandits were gathered around the fire, drinking and boasting, appearing quite relaxed. Hake sat on a large rock, with a man who looked like his deputy sitting beside him.
Lucien and the four men pretended to be a group of desperate stragglers who had come to seek refuge, and they walked into the camp, cursing.
"Hey! Who's Boss Hake!" a soldier shouted in a hoarse voice, acting as if he feared nothing.
"That's me, what's up?" Hake, who was discussing something with the person next to him, raised his eyelids to look at the four, sized them up, and grinned.
"We heard that Boss Hake is unwilling to surrender, so we came." Lucien said in a rough voice, walking boldly towards him, with the other three following closely.
These words had two meanings, but to Hake, it sounded like they had come to seek refuge because they were unwilling to surrender. He stood up to say something, but saw the four men walking quickly towards him, felt a great sense of unease, and was about to scold them.
Sure enough, just as the two were less than a few steps apart, a sudden change occurred.
Lucien's face, which had been wearing a strange smile the second before, instantly became ferocious. His body, like a fully drawn bow, suddenly burst forward.
Hake only felt a blur before his eyes, a huge force crashed into him, and he fell backward. The next moment, a cold sensation was already pressed against his throat.
At the same time, Lucien's three soldiers also launched their attacks instantly.
One directly pounced on Hake's deputy, pinning him to the ground, his arm locking the deputy's throat like an iron clamp, with a dagger pressed against his waist.
The other two, one on the left and one on the right, violently overturned the tables where the bandits were sitting and the braziers used for cooking on the bonfire, and drew their longswords.
With a few startling sounds, wooden tables flew, wine spilled, and food and soup from the braziers splashed, instantly forming a temporary isolation zone between Lucien and Hake and the other startled bandits.
The entire process was as fast as lightning, in the blink of an eye, the situation instantly reversed.
Lucien's blood surged, his chest heaved violently. This was the feeling, he liked this feeling. With the dagger pressed firmly against Hake's neck, he felt like a warrior from the legendary stories in a bard's songs, not disgracing Lord Arthur.
He let out a powerful roar with all his might, startling the birds in the forest: "Everyone, don't move!!!"
"Your boss!!! Is in my hands!!!"
The remaining bandits were terrified by this sudden scene, their faces turning pale. They grabbed their weapons, but hesitated to advance, confronting each other from a distance.
Lucien lightly drew the dagger across Hake's neck, and a trickle of blood seeped out.
"Ah!!!" Hake cried out in pain.
Lucien looked down at their panicked faces and roared again: "You think you're impressive?!"
"Lord Arthur is merciful! He gave you a chance for stability! He gave you land!"
"You don't cherish it! And you dare to detain people who want to surrender! The army is coming!!! I think you are all looking for death!!!"
"This is your last chance!!! Life or death!!!"
The three soldiers who followed Lucien gripped their weapons tightly. If things couldn't be resolved peacefully, they would have to fight to the death.
Lucien expected these words to bring fear and wavering, however, the anticipated silence did not appear.
Instead of being afraid, those bandits were like a boiling pot, clamoring loudly.
"Sir! Misunderstanding! This is a misunderstanding!"
"We didn't take hostages! We were just about to go down the High Mountain and surrender!"
"That's right! It wasn't us who refused to surrender!"
Lucien was stunned: "
" He frowned, thinking this was a delaying tactic from the other side.
Lucien cast a suspicious glance at the other three soldiers, who were also puzzled.
"Sir! We are telling the truth! Hake captured us! Not to hold us hostage!"
"But to take us down the High Mountain together! The ones who truly don't want to surrender are someone else!"
"Hake was afraid we would run around! And be detained by another group in the High Mountain!"
The bandits spoke one after another, and Lucien finally heard the key sentences and understood the meaning.
Lucien: "
"
He felt like he had punched cotton, his surging blood and heroic spirit instantly deflated by half. He loosened his grip on the dagger, turned to look at Hake, whose face was pale beneath him, and frowned deeply:
"What exactly is going on?!"
"Who is unwilling to surrender?!"
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