novelODS Chapter 84 The Current State of the Temporary Camp
Chapter 84 The Current State of the Temporary Camp
Chapter 74 The Current State of the Temporary Camp
Eileen's breathing was rapid; the two days and two nights of travel had exhausted all her energy.
The two walked in the darkness for a long time, when suddenly, several figures appeared behind a large tree ahead.
"Brother Roger! Is that you?" a voice rang out in the darkness, filled with anticipation and unease.
"It's me! We're here!" Recognizing Geese's voice, Roger immediately called out in response.
Upon hearing the reply, several torches were lit, and in the flickering flames, several figures wielding weapons immediately rushed towards them, led by Gis.
"Brother Roger! It's so nice to see you again!"
Upon seeing Roger, Geese's face instantly lit up with excitement, but his expression changed drastically when he saw the white bandage wrapped around Roger's arm.
"Brother Roger, are you injured? How serious is it?"
"It's nothing, just a minor scratch," Roger waved his hand, his tone deliberately nonchalant.
Gis and his men were responsible for guarding the perimeter of the camp. Since setting up camp here, they had arranged for men to take turns on duty every night, always on guard against the bandits sneaking up the mountain.
Roger had Giss lead the way back to camp, while instructing the remaining villagers to stay put and continue the vigilance: "The pirates have probably retreated temporarily, but you must not let your guard down. Report back immediately if you discover anything unusual!"
"Understood!" the villagers replied in unison.
Although Roger was not from Duanpo Village, he had already won the respect and trust of the entire village through his actions.
Following Geese's footsteps, Roger and Eileen headed deeper into the camp.
Along the way, Gis told Roger about the situation at the camp during this time.
"Not long ago, Brother Roger, a large number of your men suddenly rushed up the mountain, which terrified us!"
Uncle Kui had already ordered everyone to pack up and prepare to retreat into the mountains; the entire camp was in complete chaos.
Giss continued, still shaken, "Luckily, there were people from Duanpo Village in the group. After calling out a few times from afar, everyone recognized them as our own people, and the misunderstanding was finally cleared up!"
Roger nodded; he could picture the scene.
His troops were all dressed in captured pirate-style equipment, which made them very easy to mistake from a distance.
"Uncle Kui arranged for everyone to go to the camp, and they're all resting there now!"
"Old Kui's arrangement?"
Roger astutely grasped the key information in Gis's words.
"Yes, Brother Rogge, Uncle Kui is in charge of the camp now. Old Yar is too old and has stepped down, handing over the reins."
"He stepped down? What happened?"
Roger was slightly taken aback, somewhat surprised.
"Some time ago, in front of the whole village, Old Yar officially handed over his position to Uncle Kui!"
"Last time, Uncle Kui stayed behind to cover everyone's retreat, and no one in the village dared to disobey him!" Giss said, his tone full of admiration.
As they spoke, the three of them had already reached the entrance to the camp.
What came into view were several campfires burning in the camp, their flickering flames barely illuminating a small area around them.
Even in the darkness, Roger could see that most of the surrounding trees had been cut down, the site had been cleared quite wide, and there were simple shacks scattered across the open space.
The huts were mostly built from freshly felled trees. They looked simple, but they could still provide some shelter from the wind and rain. When Rogge could be seen, the people who were sitting around the campfire immediately stood up and rushed towards him.
"I'm back!"
"Great! The leader is back!"
Virgil and Gold walked at the front, both with worried expressions on their faces.
Virgil, with his keenest observation, frowned deeply when he saw the bandage on Roger's arm: "How did you get injured?"
"It's just a minor injury, nothing serious."
Roger smiled and reassured everyone, "The pirates have probably retreated for now, so everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. There's no need to move out for the time being!"
'
Upon hearing this news, everyone's hearts, which had been hanging in suspense for so long, finally settled down, and long-lost smiles appeared on their faces.
The haggard-looking old Jarl, leaning on his iron cane, approached Rogge. "Rogge, it's good to see you again."
Those members of the Broken Village team recruited by Rogge were overjoyed to be able to return to their fellow villagers.
Just as everyone was surrounding Rogge and asking him questions, a familiar voice came from behind the crowd: "Make way! Make way! What are you doing blocking the way?"
"Didn't you see that kid Roger just got back? Let him catch his breath and rest for a bit?"
Upon hearing the sound, everyone immediately dispersed, and saw Aunt Silin walking over carrying two large, rough pottery bowls.
She glared at the people around her with displeasure before handing the bowl to Roger. "Drink some water first, then finish this bowl of noodle soup! I specially saved it for you knowing you were coming back; it's still warm."
Roger smiled, took the bowl of water, tilted his head back and drank the water in one gulp. A cool and refreshing sensation instantly spread throughout his body.
He glanced down at the dumpling soup in his hand; it was extremely thick, with plenty of finely minced meat floating in it, but it had a faint burnt taste.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Roger stopped being so particular and picked up the bowl of wild vegetable and minced meat soup, slurping it down in big gulps.
Seeing him wolf down his food, Aunt Silin smiled with satisfaction.
"Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you. I'll get you more if you're still hungry!"
After a long day of running around, Roger was starving. A bowl of hot dumpling soup finally satisfied his empty stomach, and Roger felt much of his fatigue dissipate.
The empty bowl was taken by Aunt Slin. Roger wiped his mouth and took two steps forward when he suddenly remembered that there was a little tail following him.
He turned aside to make way, revealing Eileen who had been hiding in the shadows behind him.
By the dim light of the campfire, everyone was finally able to see the girl's appearance.
The girl clutched the hem of her clothes tightly with both hands. Suddenly, she was pushed in front of the crowd, her face full of panic, like a frightened fawn.
All the curious gazes fell on Eileen, and Roger quickly introduced her: "Her name is Eileen—she used to be from Gonde Village."
Upon hearing Roger bluntly state that she was from Gonde Village, Eileen's face instantly froze, a hint of embarrassment flashing across her expression. She lowered her head and nervously twisted the hem of her clothes.
She is Olsen's younger sister and has been accustomed to hearing about the feuds and conflicts between Duanpo Village and Gangde Village since she was a child. She also witnessed the devastating defeat of Duanpo Village some time ago.
After Gangde Village defeated Duanpo Village some time ago, Olsen ridiculed them relentlessly, saying that Duanpo Village, having lost its land, would be completely ruined in just a few years.
In her view, the two villages had long been enemies.
Seeing that the girl didn't dare to look up, Roger continued, "From today onwards, she and everyone in her village are mine. Everyone, please help me take care of her, and no one is allowed to bully her!"
"Auntie Slin, could you please find her some food and arrange a place for her to get a good night's sleep?"
Upon hearing this, Eileen suddenly raised her head and stared blankly at Roger's retreating figure.
"Okay, I've got this covered!"
Aunt Slin readily agreed and looked Eileen up and down. She noticed that the girl was pale and had dark circles under her eyes, indicating that she hadn't slept for days and nights.
"Child, come with me. I'll get you something to eat and find you a place to get a good night's sleep."
Eileen, being led by Aunt Slin's hand, couldn't help but glance back at Roger. Seeing Roger nod at her, she turned around and cautiously followed him.
Watching Eileen's figure disappear behind the shed, Roger turned to Virgil: "What are our casualties? And how are the villagers we rescued?"
Virgil stepped forward and reported clearly and logically: "None of our original veterans were killed; only eight sustained minor injuries."
Of the twenty-five new members who joined Gangde Village, three died, two were seriously injured, and seven were slightly injured.
"A total of 37 villagers were rescued this time, 18 of whom were from Gangde Village, and the rest were from other surrounding villages."
After listening to Virgil's report, Rogge nodded in satisfaction.
They suffered almost no losses in manpower this time, and tonight's battle can be considered a great victory for them!
Thinking of the several seriously wounded soldiers, Roger took out a small cloth bag containing experience candies, which now contained more than thirty more experience candies earned from this battle.
He was about to hand it to Virgil so he could take some to the seriously wounded, but Virgil shook his head and refused: "No need!"
There's still quite a bit of the medicinal wine I made earlier left!
As Virgil spoke, he turned slightly to the side, and only then did Roger notice that he had three bulging wine sacs hanging from his waist!
After a moment's thought, Roger understood: the three wine sacs contained the medicinal wine that Virgil had mixed with experience candy and ale at dusk!
It's highly likely that Virgil pooled the leftovers together, or mixed them with some more alcohol or water.
Rogge gave Virgil a satisfied look and nodded, signaling him to continue his report.
Virgil's next words gave him a pleasant surprise: "Also, regarding the captured supplies, we didn't have time to strip many of the pirates' armor; we only brought back eight sets of leather armor."
However, the team members recovered nineteen battle axes and five longswords!
"So many?"
Roger was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected his team to clean up the battlefield so efficiently, managing to retrieve so many weapons!
While Virgil was speaking, Gold was already waiting beside him with a small box in his arms.
"And this! Gold found it, open it and take a look!" Virgil said, pointing to the small box Gold was holding.
Roger raised an eyebrow, already having guessed most of what was going on, but still slowly lifted the lid of the wooden box.
The lid was lifted, revealing a box full of silver dinars!
Looking at the chest full of silver coins, Roger's breath hitched slightly, and he asked in a deep voice:
How many are there here?
"Um—there are quite a lot—you know, we can't count them all!"
"You should count them yourself!" Virgil scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.
Rogge estimated the size of the box; there were at least a thousand dinars inside!
Thinking that Virgil and his group couldn't even count to less than one hundred, Roger gave up the idea of asking further.
These ordinary people haven't even had a systematic education in counting; asking them to count so much money is indeed asking too much of them.
Roger thought to himself that he would need to recruit some professionals in the future.
"How are the seriously wounded?" Roger asked again.
"The others weren't seriously injured. I've already treated them with medicinal wine, so they're fine."
"Osson's condition isn't good; Old Quay is inside treating his wounds."
"Let's go check on the wounded first!" Roger nodded, and the group walked towards the shack by the pool.
Along the way, many villagers from the original Duanpo Village greeted Roger, and Roger nodded in response to each one.
Rogge noticed that some villagers were standing at the door of their sheds, while many villagers from Gonde Village were already sleeping inside.
Clearly, the honest villagers gave their relatively warmer huts to these survivors who had just escaped from the pirates.
Although there are great conflicts and disputes between the two villages, both are now living in constant fear, and with life and death at stake and a common enemy at stake, those grudges seem insignificant.
Even though the people of Duanpo Village still felt somewhat awkward, no one uttered a single complaint.
At this moment, the team members from Gangde Village, who had been traveling continuously for nearly two days and two nights without sleep, were exhausted. As soon as they relaxed, they all fell into a deep sleep.