When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

The autumn rain resembled a layer of fine velvet on the brim of a round-edged helmet, with raindrops forming small streams, trickling down from the edge of the brim.

This type of hat was a relatively popular style among mercenaries, favored by many veterans.

Its popularity stemmed from its ability to provide shade and shelter from the rain, with the only drawback being that it could bake one's head in the summer.

Kleiyante stood with hundreds of mountain infantrymen in various attires, slowly advancing along the narrow mountain path.

Although Argan had instructed Kleiyante and Belard to each send half their forces to the Rosewood Pass and the Eel Pass, they did not comply.

After all, it was a dual command system, and Kleiyante and Belard, being seasoned veterans, had seen enough and would not humor Argan's whims.

War still had to follow basic rules, though Argan's opinion was important.

Therefore, the two commanders each sent fifty men to guard the Rosewood Pass.

The remaining troops set up two lines of defense at the Eel Pass, guarding it tightly.

In fact, Kleiyante understood Argan's thoughts quite well; after all, he was old, experienced, with no hope of promotion, so whether he did well or not made no difference, naturally leading him to slack off.

Kleiyante was different; he had to catch Horne and claim Barney Foss's 100-pound bounty.

He owed Sanda, the royal agent of the Leia Kingdom, 120 pounds; although he was still 20 pounds short, it would at least alleviate his immediate financial crisis.

So he really didn't understand Belard's mindset.

How old are you? You're also related to the company commander with the edict, with a bright future ahead and plenty of opportunities to make a name for yourself, why compete with an old-timer like me?

Putting on a show on the surface, but inside, aren't you just greedy for money and fame?

The first rain after autumn couldn't extinguish the anxious fire in Kleiyante's heart.

The soldiers behind him were lazy and unhurried, but they were, after all, from the mountain county, and their footing was steady on such slippery ground.

The rain slanted on them, making them appear indistinct.

When will these short-haired thieves come?

Just as Kleiyante was thinking this, he rounded a hillside and immediately saw the tents and sheds standing in the valley's flat ground.

The tents stood there crookedly, and the recently extinguished bonfire was making popping sounds as water vapor exploded in the rain.

Short-haired thieves!

Kleiyante almost shouted it out; he waved his hand, and the hundred and fifty mountain infantrymen behind him immediately followed him, encircling the camp.

As Kleiyante approached, he felt something was wrong; why was the camp so quiet?

He had done this kind of bandit suppression many times, and these mobs were usually noisy.

Could it be an ambush?

Impossible, those stupid hicks couldn't come up with such a scheme, and even if they could, they couldn't pull it off.

The tactic of ambush actually requires quite a bit of skill.

Leading a group of people closer, he shot a few more arrows inside, but still didn't find anyone; only then did Kleiyante lead his men to rush in.

Stepping on the path between the tents, rainwater flowed freely on the ground, and the flags hanging on the tents of the camp stuck to the flagpoles, all wet.

"Judging from the flags, it's indeed that group of short-haired thieves." Kleiyante searched around, but all the tents were empty.

There was really no one in this camp.

Had those short-haired thieves left before he arrived?

"Not good!"

As if struck by lightning, Kleiyante broke out in a cold sweat.

He and Belard formed two lines of defense, but not in the sense of you defending one and me defending the other, but rather each setting up two lines of defense.

Given the relationship between the two, they didn't even share the same patrol times and routes.

Here was an abandoned camp where the short-haired thieves had hastily left, and the people were gone, and he hadn't seen them.

Then, either Belard had intercepted and captured them in advance, or they had taken advantage of the time difference to run away.

It was raining today, and all the traces had been washed away.

"Damn it, I knew that fake knight who deserves to burn in hell would mess things up."

Without time to explain, Kleiyante directly ordered everyone to run back, chasing the short-haired thieves, making sure they didn't escape, and even more so, not letting them fall into Belard's hands.

Reforming into a squad, Kleiyante led the soldiers to rush down the mountain, not noticing that the bushes on the mountain walls were shaking unnaturally.

The sky was overcast, and the fine rain fell softly, with raindrops making crisp sounds on their brimmed helmets.

Splashes of water rose, reflecting the surrounding rocks into a blurry gray.

Halfway there, rounding a mountain path, they encountered Belard coming down from another mountain path.

Naturally, there were no pleasantries when the two met here.

"Kleiyante, why are you going back?"

"Finished patrolling, it's raining so hard, I'm going back to take shelter from the rain."

"Oh, so our Mr. Kleiyante is afraid of even this little rain? If you really go to the battlefield, the arrow rain is much more terrifying than the rain, what will you do?"

"That's none of your concern." Kleiyante coughed, "Mr. Belard, you look so confident, you must be able to find the short-haired thieves."

"I don't need you to tell me, with you guys hiding from the rain, it's only right that I catch these short-haired thieves."

Great, the short-hairs hadn't fallen into Belard's hands, they had just escaped.

"Hmph." Kleiyante snorted coldly, without refuting; having learned that Belard hadn't found Horne, he was now extremely anxious.

Without much communication with Belard, he led his troops towards the pass.

You see, once out of the Eel Pass, there were many directions for the short-hairs to escape.

Although they had set up roadblocks on various key roads and bridges, who knew what hidden paths they had?

"Vermin." Watching Kleiyante's departing back, Belard snorted coldly, "Go, check this mountain path; I don't trust that old thing's patrol."

Although Kleiyante was an old mercenary manager, Belard came from an imperial knight family; they were professional mercenaries, much more professional than that old thing Kleiyante.

However, compared to those mountain soldiers, the soldiers in Belard's White Maple Mercenary Corps were mostly recruited from the Golden Plains.

They were somewhat unaccustomed to this kind of slippery, muddy mountain terrain.

The mercenaries took each step heavily and steadily, but they still slipped from time to time.

Among Belard's many squad leaders, only the old mercenary Haktuto was slightly better.

Silently walking along this mountain path, just as Belard felt that there was nothing to gain and was about to return, a black spot in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

"Captain, look, what's that?"

Belard looked in the direction of the finger and saw a camp standing by the road in the mountain valley.

The Holy Grail flag fluttering in the camp undoubtedly proved their identity.

"Quick, quickly surround them, we must not let them run away." Belard's breathing became rapid; that flag, it was the short-haired thieves, it must be the short-haired thieves.

"Captain." Haktuto glanced a few times and said tactfully, "There shouldn't be anyone in that camp; if there were, it shouldn't be like this."

Belard frowned and winked; several gray-clad scouts bent over and went to investigate the camp.

Two minutes later, they openly waved their flags from the camp entrance towards this side.

Belard approached with more than two hundred people and saw that the camp was indeed empty.

"Lord Belard, we have searched." The gray-clad scout's expression was grave, "Judging from the flags and characteristics, this is indeed the short-hairs' camp."

"Then where are their people?"

"I don't know." The gray-clad scout approached Belard, "Sir, I must tell you that this camp has already been searched before."

Belard was stunned for a moment, and then his temperature rose visibly: "Kleiyante! Vermin! Vermin!"

Kicking over a tent, Belard walked outside, rainwater sliding down the patterns of his armor.

"Everyone turn around, the short-haired thieves were let go by that vermin Kleiyante, follow me to chase them!" Belard growled through clenched teeth.

"Captain, Captain." Haktuto stepped forward again, grasping Belard's arm, "Something doesn't feel right; although our patrols don't communicate with each other, there shouldn't be no traces at all; they have more than a thousand people."

"Then what do you say we should do?" Belard impatiently shook off Haktuto's hand.

Haktuto pondered for two seconds: "First send someone to follow Kleiyante, and then send out scouts in all directions to investigate the surrounding area."

"Okay, you take fifty people and investigate around here."

Without waiting for Haktuto to say anything more, Belard directly shouted towards the other squad leaders.

"The rest of you, follow me."

ps there is one more chapter coming soon