"Now then," watching the 120 or so soldiers, Town Guard, and volunteer defenders walk off, Sasha next turned her attention to the small group of 5 who were left behind, "Steward Warren, I trust you'll handle all of our request with haste."
Still leaning on his crutch, Warren bowed his head slightly, "Of course, Young Lady Balfour. The Rising Sun Merchant Guild always fulfils its contracts."
"Excellent," Sasha allowed herself a faint smile, "In that case, I'll expect delivery of the necessary harnesses and ropes to our new camp by evening."
Having said what needed to be said, Sasha walked back towards the Sunchaser and prepared to board it. She would need to make another trip back to Redwood Town to pick up the second group of defenders they planned to send to Herald City today, after which she would head to the Eastern River District to supervise the construction of the temporary refugee camp.
…..
From landing to departing, Vanessa Clark spent less than half-an-hour on the ground in Herald City.
Counting the time spent in the air, and the entire time she and her team spent on this mission was just under 2 hours, despite the terrible weather conditions.
Atop her Golden Hawk, Vanessa flew in over the eastern outskirts of Redwood Town where she thankfully didn't sense any ongoing battles.
It seemed that the Saberclaw Raptors had yet to make another appearance.
Setting down in the military camp east of town, Vanessa hopped off Starlight and handed his reigns over to her subordinates on the ground. At the same time, the 12 Tartans and Sunchaser were also coming in for a landing.
They had set out with nearly 150 people, but there was only a dozen or so of them upon their return.
After meeting up with Sasha, the two women made their way through the rain towards the Town Lord's Manor to make their report.
Half-an-hour later, upon learning of the mission's success, a smile flashed across the faces of the other leaders in town; however, when they heard Vanessa and Sasha's accounts of the situation in Herald City, frowns appeared all around.
Celestina was particularly disgruntled when she heard her former student's evaluation of the city garrison, as well as their Commander.
The idea that a man charged with protecting the citizens was sitting on his fat ass, refusing to do anything, all while using the excuse of not having authorization from the higher-ups was infuriating to General Balfour. She swore that when the evacuations here were complete, she would wring the necks of all those responsible.
For now, though, they had no choice but to carry on with the plan.
Everyone began bustling about, working hard to make the coming mass migration as smooth and seamless as possible.
Harnesses were being built, supplies were being packed, weapons were being checked, wagons were being fixed, and everything else that could possibly be imagined was happening, all at once.
Lucas was particularly busy during this time, as he was responsible for coordinating the overall logistics in Redwood Town. All day long he had been running back and forth, overseeing practically every detail of the upcoming evacuation process in person, making adjustments to personnel and priorities on the fly.
It was a hectic process, but so far, no major issues had arisen.
Even the beast attacks had eased up, possibly because of the heavy rains, possibly because the Saberclaw Raptors were lurking nearby. No one knew for sure, so no one let their guard down.
By the time evening rolled around, another 80 Town Guard and volunteer defenders boarded the Sunchaser, carrying with them as much food as possible, and set out for Herald City.
With any luck, the Skyship would return in a couple hours with the last harnesses necessary to start the air evacuation.
Even as the night grew dark, the atmosphere in the town didn't calm. In fact, people only seemed to become more frantic, trying to finish the mountain of work that was left to do before the first flights started in the morning.
And so, another busy day in Redwood Town passed.
…..
Shortly after dawn, with the skies clearing and the sun coming up, 11 Tartans were being harnessed up and hitched to the Sunchaser.
The Skyship had not returned until well after midnight yesterday due to the harnesses Redwood Town ordered from Herald City taking longer to finish than expected. In fact, one of the harnesses was still not finished and would have to be picked up today.
Still, everyone decided that it wasn't worth waiting for this last harness to begin the evacuation flights, so 11 Tartans towing the Sunchaser would have to do for now.
Standing in the middle of the makeshift military camp, Celestina had been giving orders ever since the sun came up, "Get those birds hooked up as soon as possible. I want the ship ready for a test-flight within the hour."
The General then turned to the Spirit Initiates behind her and commanded, "Stand-by at the main western barricade and wait for my signal."
Stepping forward, Vanessa Clark tried one last time to raise an objection, "General, there's no need for you to handle this matter personally. Allow me to take on the role."
"No. You're too weak, Vanessa," shaking her head, Celestina bluntly stated, lifting her head and sweeping her gaze around, "All of you are too weak. We're trying to flush out a Sixth Order Beast; if any of you go and actually encounter the enemy Alpha, you'll almost certainly die before completing the mission. Only I can do this."
In the Rockwell Kingdom, Spirit Initiates were among the strongest masters alive, each of them a 1 in 10,000 elite who wielded power and influence wherever they went; yet here, in this backwater town on the outskirts of the kingdom, 10 of these powerful warriors were being told to their faces they were too weak, forcing the one and only Spirit Adept among them to take action in their place.
While these Spirit Initiates kept such thoughts to themselves, the discomfort on their faces wasn't missed by Celestina.
Snickering aloud, the always heroic General quipped, "Don't give me those looks. We all have our roles to play. Mine is to take point, yours is to arrive as quickly as possible once I signal for help. Don't disappoint me when the time comes."
Pounding their right fists across their chests in formal salute, the Spirit Initiates all shouted in unison, "Yes, General!"
"Good," Celestina flashed a fierce grin before dawning a serious expression, "Move out!"
With those words, the entire military camp became even more frantic, with Celestina dashing off towards the Great Western Forest and all 10 of the Spirit Initiates left in Redwood Town following close behind her.
At the same time, Lucas, Eris, and Christina were helping Charles and Anna coordinate the actual evacuation.
This process had begun hours ago, but it was still ongoing as there were just too many things to do.
In truth, of the children, only Lucas was really helping with resolving issues while Eris and Christina were mostly just running errands.
One might ask why a Royal Princess was carrying boxes, driving carriages, or helping injured villagers around, but the answer really was quite simple; she had volunteered.
The main reason Christina was in Redwood Town was to have Marquess Balfour shelter and hide her, but this was also a rare chance for her to gain some life experience. If she ever wanted to be a ruler or leader of any kind, learning about the lives of the people she intended to rule up close, as well as how military operations were executed in the field, would surely come in handy in the future.
Even if Christina simply wanted to go out into the wider world and adventure around, experiencing life outside the shelter of the palace would be a great boon to her. As such, she didn't hesitate to offer her help, not did she utter a single complaint when she was put to work.
Two hours later, all the necessary tests had been completed and the first group of seriously injured patients were all loaded aboard the Sunchaser. There were also essential medical staff, rations, and other supplies packed onto the Skyship.
With everyone set to depart, Captain Lana Gage, the Peak Sea Establishment pilot of the Sunchaser, activated the Levitation Array and the Skyship began floating upwards. At the same time, the 11 Tartans and their riders also took-off and began slowly ascending.
As soon as the Sunchaser reached a height of 100 metres, Captain Gage engaged the Propulsion Array at minimum power and signaled to the Aerial Cavalry up ahead to begin urging their Tartans forward.
The Sunchaser lurched forward a bit unevenly as the 11 giant flying beasts weren't all in sync at first, but once all the tow-cables became taut, the ride smoothed out and gradually, the Skyship picked up speed, soon disappearing over the horizon.