The year the War of the Black Rose broke out, the winter was abnormally cold. The overcast sky seemed to have frozen the air into fine powder that fluttered down.
Gert had been hiding in the bushes at the top of the mountain for the whole night and was almost frozen stiff.
He stretched out his hand to catch the powder falling from the sky. A trace of coldness appeared in his palm as ice crystals melted in his hand — they were snowflakes. Gert, who was still wearing his green flux mage apprentice robe, raised his head and looked at the sky.
It was snowing.
It was the first snow of the year.
He couldn't help but recall the frequent conversations between The County and the young overlord. They talked about the situation in the north, the alliance of the grand dukes, and the fate of the princess.
"The war in the north dragged on until after the first snow."
Gert was only a child of a small aristocratic family. His hometown was in Karsuk, which was also considered a remote region of the kingdom. Although he was a noble, his knowledge was limited and at most, he could only watch those big shots live their lives.
His life was better than an ordinary person's, but in recent years, the situation had been worsening year after year.
Gert was very clear in his heart that the reason he took the risk was to change his fate. He had studied magic under a wizard mentor for a period of time and had interacted with his mentor to understand the outside world. The chaotic world of this era had a fatal attraction for a young man like him.
The chaos seemed to be full of opportunities.
Thus, after his mentor passed away, Gert embarked on the journey of his dreams.
However, his luck was not as good as he thought it would be. Two of the companions he met who were of similar background died during the journey. They had no choice but to rest for a while in Firburh Hill before deciding whether to return or continue the journey.
But he hadn't expected that Graudin would kill all his companions. The disheartened Gert only wanted to stay behind and perish together with the noble.
But sometimes, fate was fickle.
On that night, he met the young overlord and participated in the battle. He was fortunate enough to follow him and became the first member of The County's wizard regiment.
As The Shire's deputy, he had the opportunity to participate in the discussion between Brando and the wizard's squire. Of course, he was too young to join in. The two men talked about the situation in the North, the invasion of the Black Rose of Bramanto, and Cruz.
It was as if Gretel had seen a whole new world, a height he had never imagined before.
It was also something that his first mentor had never discussed with him.
At that moment, Gert knew that he had grasped the opportunity to realize his dream. Or rather, he had already realized it.
Since then, he had become a loyal supporter of Brando. This time, he had volunteered to come to Palas to gather information.
However, it just so happened that the scout team needed a talent who was proficient in magic, so he was naturally selected.
The Shire had complained to Brando about this, saying that he had taken away one of his capable assistants.
But Gert didn't regret his decision. He felt that rather than staying by Rhode's side, he might as well attract his attention with his actions.
He was a person who yearned for adventure. Otherwise, he wouldn't have left home to come here.
The young man stared at the sky for a long time and finally came back to his senses. Then, he rubbed his hands. He didn't dare to make too much noise in case he attracted the attention of the sentries below.
From the top of the hill, he looked down at the grayish-yellow tents and the bustling campsites in the forest below.
Then, he heard a rustling sound behind him. His companions were on guard in that direction. The sound clearly belonged to one of their own. Of course, there was another possibility.
Gert immediately tensed up.
"Bai … Cabbage …"
A strange password came from the forest. It was said that The Shire had taught them.
Gert immediately relaxed. It was one of their own. He turned around and replied, "Ruff — Who is it?"
"Melf."
Gert recognized the name. It was another wizard's apprentice in the same team. Melf only had a nickname and no name. The Shire had given him that name.
What a lucky bastard. Gert couldn't help but think.
"How is it, Gert? Is this the camp of the Knight Lord Palas?" The wizard's apprentice, who was wearing a grey robe, walked over and crouched down beside Gert. He whispered, "But Mouse and the others said that there is no camp here —"
"This is not Lord Palas' camp."
Gert shook his head.
"It's not?" Melf was stunned.
The young man slowly nodded and moved his frozen limbs. "They are Highlanders."
"Highlanders?"
"Aren't they fighting with Lord Pallas?" Mayhew asked in surprise. "What are they doing here? Are they planning to invade us now? Then the heavens are helping us! "
But Gert shook his head. It was not that simple. "There are many groups of Highlanders. They might be coming for us."
"What?"
"Are … are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. I know them better than you. Alright, go send a message to the receiving team. We are preparing to retreat," Gert replied. "It's snowing. We can't hide here anymore. We have to change our clothes."
Melf looked at his companions and nodded.
…
"Highlanders?"
The snowflakes in the sky became denser.
Not long after they left the south gate, Brando bumped into a mercenary. The man was an Elementalist. The young man recognized him. He was one of The Shire's men.
At Brando's request, The Shire had selected those who had the ability to cast spells from the mercenaries and adventurers. There were wizards who knew some tricks, third-rate Elementalists, swindlers, witchdoctors who pretended to be mysterious, and a large number of apprentices to form a wizard group.
Since The Shire was a Gold-ranked wizard, it did not take much effort to form a wizard group. Many wizards even volunteered to leave their mercenary groups to join this wizard group. Although this matter was criticized by the leaders of the mercenary groups, Brando supported them from behind and did not cause any real trouble.
Brando knew that the advantage of having a group of spellcasters was proven by both players and NPCs in the later stages of the war. Of course, The Shire had complained to him more than once that these people did not deserve to be called a 'wizard group'. It was not that it was better to have a mixture of people from all walks of life, but Brando did not care. At least from his point of view.
This was the first adept legion under his command that had taken shape.
Moreover, there were many talented individuals among these people. With some training, they could form the backbone of the Wizard Association in the future. It was a pity that even though The Shire had the strength of a mentor, he did not have the experience of grooming apprentices. Thus, this wizard group was still an empty shell.
However, it was not completely useless. These spellcasters who had a little bit of strength had more or less followed a mentor, or at least been apprentices for a period of time. There were even some who came from academies. They all had one thing in common.
And that was that they were all literate.
Thus, Brando, Amandina, the Nightsong Tiger, and The Shire used these spellcasters to deal with intelligence and paperwork. It was obvious that this person was one of the Nightsong Tiger's' intelligence department '.
In response to Brando's question, the Elementalist nodded: "Yes, my lord. The Shire asked me to tell you that you might need this information urgently. This information was sent back by 'those people in the north', and it said that it has something to do with the Highlanders — "
'Those people in the north?'
Brando was stunned for a moment before he remembered that he did ask the Nightsong Tiger and Retto to infiltrate the Palas region to gather information about Count Randner's army.
The Nightsong Tiger was fully in charge of this matter, but he knew the details of the plan. Ciel had gathered some third-rate wizards or apprentices from the mercenaries and mixed them into the scout team to disguise themselves as adventurers so that they could send back information to the rear.
The method of sending back information was simple, but he was the one who came up with this method himself. Animal messengers. Of course, this was not a new method, but a method of using familiars. Long before the Year of the Cave Beasts, the Cruz people had already used this method to send back information during the November War. However, in this era, very few people thought of sending wizards to the frontlines, so this method was not widely spread.
But after the War of the Black Roses, the first demonic wave came a few years later. The number of talented wizards increased day by day, and this method gradually spread.
In the later stages of the war, this method was already very mature. But at that time, there was a more stable alternative method, such as using magical tools. However, Brando did not have the means to do so, so he thought of this' primitive method '.
With the animal messenger, an apprentice could send a message within a day and a night. In theory, the message could be sent back one by one through the stations. In the past, the message would take a week to reach Firburh, but now, it would only take a few minutes.
However, the Nightsong Tiger and The Shire's manpower was limited, especially those who had the ability to cast spells and were familiar with scouting techniques. Thus, the Nightsong Tiger and the Shire only had two or three scouts.
Their surveillance of the Palas Knight's territory was still quite limited, and Brendel did not expect that they would obtain useful information so quickly with this level of surveillance.
But now, it seemed that the nobles still looked down on these 'rioters'.
Perhaps they paid enough attention to the rioters in the war, but outside of the war, the Lord Palas still did not guard against them.
But it was understandable. Even though Brando did not have many men, his methods were much better than Erouine's regular army. Even though he did not have the self-awareness to do so, traditional soldiers like Lord Palas would have a headache dealing with them.
Sending wizards to the frontlines as scouts? In the eyes of the nobles, this was not something a human would do.
Only Brando who was used to this method would be used to it. In fact, when he first proposed this idea, not only the conservative Amandina, but even the Shire was shocked.
… (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please go to www.qidian.com to read more chapters. Support the author, support the original reading!)
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