BXBX NOVEL Chapter 115 - Ploy (5)
"Are we really going to leave all of them here?" Anna asked.
"If things ended up on a fight, it would be better if they had fewer people on their side… and since we didn\'t know who the loyal lackeys of the Count were, we can\'t risk killing innocent guards," Billy replied.
Anna knew that her grandson had a point. In fact, in her eyes, he was doing an excellent job thinking things through while she was only worrying endlessly. In any case, once they put the first group of guards there, they left to look for the next ones.
During the whole process, Louise looked at Billy using magic as if he was some sort of weird creature. The magic that she had heard about was more of military use, and he was too versatile. Even Sarah thought, even though, in theory, she should be able to replicate all that easily.
Regardless, according to Louise, the city had fifteen thousand inhabitants and five hundred guards… even if they pushed their luck, the prison could only guard fifty people. Billy could always expand the place, but it will be hard to do all that with his current mana pool. From a mage\'s perspective like Sarah, Billy had around three to four times more mana than her… but that was just an illusion granted by the rings.
In any case, they managed to capture three more groups over the night, so Billy felt pretty satisfied with the result. Someone who didn\'t look satisfied was Louise…
"You have the skills to kill them all… why don\'t you do that?" Louise asked.
"While they are serving the Count right now, they still are Jean soldiers," Billy replied. "Decreasing the war force of this state will only cause harm to your people in the long run…"
Although he had already explained that, he could understand why she was so bloodthirsty… even though she had no military strength. Louise didn\'t mention her parents and her family a single time. She would work to rescue them if they were alive, but since that was the case… Despite all that, Louise wasn\'t crazy enough to do something reckless as killing the prisoners. Putting that aside, when the sun started to rise, they returned to their improved base.
Billy and his group rested during the day, but they still noticed some changes in the guards behavior. They were a lot more aggressive, and they also began to check the stables… after a week of looking for them, they probably realized that the enemies were inside ordinary houses or the inns. Still, while they also checked that stable, they didn\'t find anything. The reason was the fact that Billy also created an underground compartment for them to hide.
"Your preparedness is first-rate, Billy," Anna said.
"You think so?" Billy asked. "Well, in most cases, people would see this and think that I worry too much."
Between sleeping in a stable or on a hole, there wasn\'t much difference, but at least now that they could rest easy knowing that the guards wouldn\'t check the same place twice during the day. As if things weren\'t going well enough, Billy could see that the guards were looking more and more exhausted. They were bound to make more mistakes in that state, still…
"Alexander should have received my letter ten days ago and yet… there are no signs of them," Billy thought.
Billy wrote a letter to him because it would be easier to convince him that he was the one who wrote the letter. Still, he might have faced some difficulties informing the others of the contents of the message… he certainly wouldn\'t show the letters to others, which reveals that he likes Lily.
Regardless, Billy and the others waited and captured dozens of guards in the next three nights, but they disappeared on the fourth.
"Something happened," Billy said while he was looking around and noting that the streets were strangely quiet.
"Maybe it is related to the letter you wrote… what did you write that exactly?" Anna asked.
"Some instructions to Alexander," Billy replied. "I told him to look for the leaders of some tribes separately and tell them what we discovered. After that, he was to talk with Edward without making a ruckus.. All that was to prevent letting possible spies know about the real plan: work with the captains that Jean trusts most and surround the territory of this count after checking all the towns and cities for his informants."