Chapter 223 - No Time (3)

Billy already knew how many recruits each of his friends were teaching how to fight. Still, when he saw the five battalions of three hundred recruits in front of them, he realized how imposing they looked, even though they were all amateurs.

Aside from those, three thousand more soldiers were going to leave the capital with them that day, and Jean was going to lead them. Their destination was the walled dungeon town… the one Billy had built the walls, but no one wanted to have a dungeon so close to the border. Thanks to that, Billy was considering taking ownership over it in order to have a stable income of money. He will have to hire people to work for him since he didn't want to move again, but that was a problem for later.

"You guys should have learned how to ride a horse, it feels weird to have some captains that walk on foot with their soldiers," Billy said when they began to cross the city gate.

"They aren't our soldiers, they are our companions and we will share the same fate together," Kate declared. "Be it walking, eating or resting together."

Billy's friends seemed like they wanted to follow the same logic. While that was brave of their party, it would be hard for them to rally their soldiers without being seen. Regardless, when the necessary rises, all of them could just create a small hill in order to make their students see them.

"Anyway, this state really is in a bad spot… they keep sending recruits to wars over and over again," Billy thought. "The same tricks won't work again, so I will have to try harder to put some fear in the hearts of the enemies."

They had the advantage of the terrain now, and they essentially had a fortress on the border after walling the dungeon town, so they could keep attacking the enemies until several of them managed to climb or jump over the twenty meters tall walls. If they had a brain, the elementalists that stayed behind increased the height, but it was hard to be sure if they would.

Along the way, the group joined other five thousand soldiers that came from several cities and towns across the state. Billy also heard that Edward would send some reinforcements, but he didn't like that. While they would need all the help they could get, Billy didn't want to put his family in danger. In the first place, the reason why he moved to Hyloh state was so that he could prevent that.

"I just wanted to keep a low profile and live a fun life, but I suppose that won't be happening," Billy thought.

"What is wrong?" Kate asked. "You have a cold look in your eyes now. This is your second war, and you came without hesitating, so I didn't imagine you would feel nervous now."

"More than nervous, I am a bit pissed," Billy said.

"Well, we can understand how you feel," Kate said. "It is annoying to have to react and do something about the greed of the others."

Billy needed to harden his heart because his next step would change things forever. He couldn't keep a low profile forever. Otherwise, troublemakers would keep coming endlessly. He had to show them that going against him was a bad idea. Still, the problem was the fact that he could put fear in the hearts of his allies as well by going all out. In the end, people fear the unknown more than anything.

"I guess this is fine, I don't want to live a life where I want everyone to like me," Billy thought.

After traveling for five days, the group reached the walled dungeon town, and they found more than eight thousand soldiers already there and ready to fight. Billy also learned that the elementalists improved his walls quite a bit. The walls had doubled of the previous height and now were ten meters wide as well.

"You don't lose a single chance to fight, huh, kid," Gerald said.

As expected, Gerald, Marie, and Gustave had come as well, and they were near the gate checking the arrival of the new troops. They sure were reliable, but Billy could tell that there was something in the air around them despite Gerald's words.

"It has been a while, old man," Billy said while looking around and looking at his friends and nodding.

Kate, Natalie, Alexander, Lily, and Sarah understood the message, and they guided the recruits to set their camp around the town. The place was already filled with soldiers and adventurers, so many tents were already set nearby it. Once Jean appeared, they left for the guild building in the middle of the town. It seemed that their meetings would be held there during the war.

"You can speak freely," Jean said while they crossed the entrance of the guild. "I doubt that you three would let spies enter this place. I am guessing that you have some news and you don't want those to spread right away."

"Yes, sir…" Gerald said. "This morning, we received a raven telling us three things. The first was that the main core of the enemies' army had arrived at Filiagalia town, the closest city on the enemy territory that is close to us… However, those fifteen thousand soldiers disappeared overnight. The messenger also wrote that the spies infiltrated in the enemies' army have disappeared as well."

Disappeared… Billy wondered how the heck fifteen thousand soldiers could disappear. It was virtually impossible… instead of that, since they didn't find the army between that city and the dungeon town, it was safer to assume that they changed their target. Attacking the dungeon town would be too costly to them.

Gerald picked a map, and then everyone looked at it, wondering which would be their target. Near the border, there were some small villages and towns, but nothing that would be worth taking it…