The last charge was not as glorious as imagined. After last night’s high-explosive shot, Hammond felt he could no longer control his magic power well, causing the intensity in the knightly domain to fluctuate unpredictably. He couldn’t defend against the burning rain like before.
Moreover, most of the elite troops had been lost during the night raid, leaving little room for knights to come up and continue defending Hammond.
Thus, this cavalry unit did not even touch the First Army Group before being dismounted and captured en masse.
Then, in a daze, Hammond felt himself being carried to a camp. The accompanying priest and sisters poured some potion down his throat before he fell into a deep sleep.
When Hammond finally woke up, it was already the fifth day. Although his body was wrapped in bandages, he surprisingly felt pretty good.
Even the occasional dizziness from being hit in the head had been cured.
After moving around to stretch a bit, Hammond fell silent. For a knight resigned to death, the greatest insult was not dying, but being captured.
The enemy had even healed his hidden injuries.
“Hey, you’re awake?”
Lauri, who arrived immediately after hearing the military doctor’s report, came to Hammond’s camp.
“I will not betray my lord.”
Hammond could practically guess with his toes what Lauri’s purpose was in sparing his life.
“Oh, then forget it.”
To Hammond’s surprise, Lauri didn’t seem angered. After Hammond refused, he waved his hand, and a nearby attendant immediately came over to put slave shackles on Hammond.
Seeing the puzzled expression on Hammond’s face, Lauri said directly, “I’m not interested in the drama of repeatedly persuading you to surrender only to have you repeatedly refuse. If you don’t want to, then so be it.”
“But since you’ve refused, you are a prisoner, and what happens next will be decided by the Lord Governor.”
After saying this, two strong soldiers in plate armor directly grabbed Hammond’s arms and led him out.
Hammond understood they were taking him to a prisoner camp because he refused to defect. Well, he somewhat missed his brothers and wondered how they were doing in the prisoner camp, how they were enduring, and whether they would blame him for not being able to rescue them.
Just as he exited the tent, Hammond saw another tent nearby, not only with its doors wide open but also cut out with several windows, seemingly for ventilation.
“What’s this?”
Curious, Hammond leaned his head to get a better look as he was being escorted.
“These are the knights who charged alongside you.”
The soldiers escorting Hammond seemed to be easy-going, answering his question and even letting him check inside the tent.
Inside the tent were the knights who had followed Hammond in the desperate charge yesterday. Some soldiers were bandaged tightly, while others had only light injuries, casually chatting with the sisters attending to them.
Seeing one knight whistling and making lewd comments to a sister who was caring for other injured soldiers, Hammond scolded, “Flirting with the medic, what kind of conduct is that? What about army rules?”
The whistling knight immediately jumped up from his bed, and seeing Hammond, he excitedly said, “General, are you alright?”
The other wounded soldiers also crawled out of bed, some wanting to salute, but were pushed back down by the sisters, especially the ones more seriously injured.
“No need to salute, just listen to the military doctor’s orders!”
After saying this, Hammond shot a glare at the whistling knight and added, “You’ll take the punishment yourself.”
“General… Are you aware this is a prisoner camp?”
Hammond finally realized, but he still yelled angrily, “You just noticed this is a prisoner camp? Then run around this tent until dark.”
A few sisters wanted to stop him, but the knight immediately saluted and willingly ran outside the tent.
Hammond left in a huff, even forgetting he was being escorted.
“What’s the punishment for flirting with the medic?”
Along the way, Hammond unconsciously chatted with the soldiers escorting him.
“There isn’t a specific punishment; it’s because these sisters are not professional medics but were on their way to Silverwing City to treat illnesses and prevent plagues. Usually, soldiers who flirt with the sisters will first be beaten up by other injured men.”
Listening to this explanation, Hammond unexpectedly chuckled.
“We are prisoners; why bother treating us?”
Hammond could understand the treatment he received. After all, he didn’t consider himself arrogant; he felt he was somewhat capable of leading troops into battle. But never did he think that even other prisoners could receive treatment. For the first time, Hammond felt he wasn’t so special.
“Because you are all from the Northern Border.”
Hammond paused, and for some reason, he thought of Duke Lars back in the Northern Border.
Just as Hammond was about to reminisce about the past, feeling melancholic, he suddenly heard some discordant sounds coming from the prisoner camp not far away.
“Yes, just like that! Kick him, kick him!”
“Go, Dean! Yes, that’s it! Get him!”
“Charge, sprint, go!”
Hammond looked up at the soldiers escorting him, wondering why the prisoner camp seemed to be in chaos.
However, the escorting soldiers showed no particular reaction and continued to escort Hammond, opening the prisoner camp’s gate.
In the prisoner camp, the brothers Hammond had been so worried about, who he thought were suffering, were now playing what seemed like an otherworldly version of soccer with soldiers from the First Army Group.
The ball drew a graceful arc in the air as it soared toward the front.
Dean sprinted, eyes fixed on the incoming ball, calculating its landing point.
But as the defenders closed in, there was no time to let the ball land, so Dean opted for a mid-air strike.
The soccer ball shot through the air in a high-speed straight line and landed in the net.
“Goal!”
The members of the prisoner team joyfully hoisted Dean into the air.
However, the guards were not pleased, saying, “It’s only one to one! Let’s do it again! We need to avenge our wounded brothers!”
“Bring it! Don’t you just rely on your gear to win against us? Without that advantage, you’re nothing!”
One prisoner stepped up to retort back at the guards.
The grievances from the battlefield transformed into those on the soccer field.
At that moment, the same prisoner who had just retorted finally noticed Hammond quietly observing from the side and froze in place.
The other prisoners also stood there dumbfounded, even Dean, who had been tossed high into the air, fell directly to the ground.
“Damn my butt!”
Rubbing his backside, Dean got up and scolded the frozen prisoners, “Is this how you treat your best player?”
Afterward, Dean looked over at Hammond, who was being escorted in.
“General…”
“Nice kick.”
Although Hammond couldn’t understand fully, he knew Dean had succeeded.
“That was a beautiful shot.”
Later that evening, Hammond requested to see Lauri.
“How did things go at Silverwing City?”
“Don’t worry; there was no resistance over there. Our people have already taken over smoothly. As per usual, we still need to clear the surrounding mountain bandits, and then we can manage Graythorn Territory.”
After hearing this, Hammond nodded. He had originally looked down on the slogan about Northerners not fighting Northerners, but now he began to believe it.
At this moment, Hammond realized that this simple yet somewhat crude slogan was not meant for him but for the regular folks to hear.
Seeing Hammond falling silent after asking the question, Lauri couldn’t help but let a faint smile appear. These rigid Lars knights were indeed easy to understand.
“Once you manage Graythorn Territory, you can meet other Lars knights and decide who you want to pledge allegiance to at that time. For now, I will truthfully report this battle result to the Lord Governor.”
“That should be the case.”
With the stage set for him, Hammond nodded, satisfied as he dragged his shackles away.
