Joe sat crossed legged on the floor, staring at the seven crooked lines next to him in a daze.
This was how he enumerated the number of days he had been here.
For every day that had pa.s.sed, he would dig a line in the ground.
It had now been seven days.
Joe did not want to think about whether Farrina was still alive or whether Lorenzo was still torturing her. His heart ached every time these questions came floating into his mind.
Joe started to wonder if he had made the wrong choice.
Sean had indeed promised him to send the message to the King of Graycastle. He also treated Joe fairly well. However, Graycastle was, after all, too far away from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. It would take at least a month for the King of Graycastle to receive the message, make a decision and send his troops to the Kingdom Wolfheart, and probably even longer if he was to discuss the matter with his ministers before taking actions.
Joe was not sure whether Roland Wimbledon would take this matter as seriously as Graycastle"s domestic affairs.
There was also a fat chance that he would refuse to help him outright.
If that was the case, all of his efforts would go in vain.
Joe lowered his head and looked at his manacled ankles.
He was tied to the foot of his bed by a chain almost in a man"s length.
"Perhaps, I could use this chain..." thought Joe.
"Hey, are you awake?" The curtain of his tent was suddenly pulled back. Joe s.h.i.+elded his eyes against the dazzling rays of sunlight that streaked across his confinement. "Ah, you"re awake. Come with us then."
"Wh-where?" Joe asked blankly. For a moment, he was so bemused that all his wild thoughts deserted him.
"To the Kingdom of Wolfheart of course. Didn"t you want to save your girl?"
Slowly, he felt more comfortable with the lighting in the room. The next moment, he realized that the man who had been talking to him was none other than Sean.
Sean tossed him a key.
As the message slowly sank in, Joe s.n.a.t.c.hed up the key tremulously and said, "Did, did the king..."
"His Majesty approved our rescue plan. We"ve decided to transfer you to Neverwinter for a hearing," Sean replied to him nonchalantly. "The unit carrying out this operation has arrived at the Coral Bay. We"ll be meeting them there and heading to the Archduke Island straight away."
"They"ve already arrived?" Joe wondered.
"How come they"re so fast?"
He could not believe his ears.
But he had no time to waste on these trivial matters!
Joe scrambled to unlock the shackles. Since he had been sitting in the same position for a considerably long time, he stumbled when he tried to straighten up.
"If you don"t feel well..."
"No, please take me with you!"
He implored exasperatedly.
"Then come," said Sean, smiling.
Joe cast a backward glance at the marks on the ground. The sunlight blazed off the crooked lines, silvering the strokes.
He wondered what was waiting for him.
Finally, he saw a ray of hope.
Joe took a deep breath and followed the guard out of the tent.
The following day.
At the Coral Bay.
This was a harbor in the far east of the Kingdom of Dawn. Compared to the ports near Graycastle and the Fjords, it looked quite deserted. After the church had invaded the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter, the royal families fell and the local n.o.bles started to fight for the thrones. As the city was still in a chaos, business activities reduced significantly in this area. Most sailing s.h.i.+ps at the dock were from the Chambers of Commerce at the Fjords. There were very few boats from the Kingdom of Wolfheart or the Kingdom of Everwinter.
One of the s.h.i.+ps had a pretty conspicuous appearance among all the others.
This particular s.h.i.+p was made of stone, with no sail but two giant wooden wheels on either side of the s.h.i.+p. Black smoke billowed from the top of it.
"This is the famous Graycastle stone s.h.i.+p," thought Joe.
He had heard about those s.h.i.+ps before, but this was his first time actually seeing one.
Joe and Sean boarded the s.h.i.+p and soon, two people greeted them.
A man and a woman.
Joe"s eyes flitted between the two people, feeling a little surprised.
For some reason, the woman looked familiar to him.
"Ah, Ms. Zooey and Ms. Betty," Sean greeted them in a cordial tone. "So His Majesty asked you to come here?"
"I was at Neverwinter at that time and have been to the Kingdom of Dawn before," the woman said with a shrug. "If it wasn"t an order from the king, I really didn"t want to come all the way here... We"re now having a fight against the demons at the front. I should have stayed there."
"Also, I prefer Lady Betty to Ms. Betty," the man said, grinning. "Unlike Zooey, I was awakened pretty late, just over 100 years ago."
"Don"t you think 100 years is old enough?" the woman retorted, giving him a sideways glance.
"It"s strange in the Dream World though. Those people called me Miss. Of course... I don"t mind them calling me "Your Majesty" either."
"Better be Lady Betty," Sean said resignedly, "if that pleases your ladys.h.i.+p."
"Hang on... what are they talking about?" Joe gazed at them blankly, confused about the way they addressed each other. He wondered why the man wanted Sean to regard her as a lady. However Joe saw it, he was a man. Joe did not remotely understand why the demons were at the front either. The b.l.o.o.d.y Moon had not appeared yet. What "demons" were they indeed referring to?
"So this man is the last Priest of the church?" The woman called Zooey asked while studying Joe up and down. "The dream of the Queen of Starfall City was finally reduced to a tool that foolish men used to win their political game. That"s pathetic. Although she was our enemy, I feel sad for her."
"So, let us finish what she started. I believe it"s a sort of retribution," Betty agreed, nodding. "Now everybody"s here. Let"s go."
"Everybody"s... here?"
Having no time to question them, Joe looked around in confusion. The concrete s.h.i.+p was definitely not large enough to accommodate an army. He did not see any other Graycastle s.h.i.+ps either.
"Sir..." Joe could not contain himself anymore. He asked gingerly.
Zooey replied to him, "The rescue team you are referring to is here already."
"Here?"
As if seeing through his mind, Zooey pointed at herself, then at Betty and said, "She and I are going to rescue her."
Horror-stricken, Joe looked at Sean and said hysterically, "Sir, Lorenzo has a G.o.d"s Punishment Army..."
"Five, no more than ten of them, right?" Sean interrupted him.
Joe stared at Sean, dumbfounded. All of a sudden, he lost his strength to speak. "Why, why do they look so relaxed? The G.o.d"s Punishment Warriors are monsters much more powerful than ordinary men!"
Was it because they knew nothing about the G.o.d"s Punishment Army"s power? No, Graycastle"s soldiers had personally fought the G.o.d"s Punishment Army at Coldwind Ridge. Like the church, they should have known how ferocious those monsters were.
Although the Graycastle soldiers possessed advanced firearms, firearms would be of no use in conquering a fortified castle, because bullets would not be able to travel very far. If the soldiers ran into an unavoidable confrontation with a G.o.d"s Punishment Warrior, they would find it hard to repel the G.o.d"s Punishment Warrior, because the latter did not feel pain. The Warriors would continue to fight until he lost his fighting capacity completely.
Joe expected to see at least one or two hundred soldiers come to rescue. They should gradually infiltrate the castle and remove the hidden enemy one by one at a minimal cost. If the number of soldiers was below 100, this battle might cost them dearly.
But... two?
"How"s that possible?"
"You must be wondering how this is possible, right?" Zooey sneered. "That"s because you have no idea of Lady Alice"s plan. The G.o.d"s Punishment Warriors you know are just a bunch of useless sh.e.l.ls. Two of us is more than enough to take care of them."