The critically injured had already been evacuated, along with the oldest and youngest refugees. That left those with less serious wounds, the elderly who were a bit less mobile but still capable of moving independently, and youths ranging in age from 10 to 15 years old.
Of those left to be evacuated, if one group had to be swapped out and instead transported by river boat, the older children really were the best option. While their families and parents would likely object, from a purely practical standpoint, it was just easier to move able-bodied youths, rather than wounded or old folks.
This would be a serious deviation from their original plans, but after discussing the matter for half-an-hour, no one could come up with a better idea, so Christina's suggestion was eventually adopted.
Now, it was Lucas, Charles, and Anna's job to re-organize the evacuation flights for tomorrow.
"Fortunately, it's not all bad news," Lucas tried to lift the somber mood, "According to the report Captain Gage brought back, Steward Warren managed to secure 23 ships from around Herald City for us to use, which is more than we had initially expected."
"Indeed," Celestina chimed in, "With that many ships, we can evacuate at least 2,100 people by river tomorrow. Combined with those we'll be sending on the Sunchaser, there should be fewer than 1,800 people left in Redwood Town by tomorrow night."
"Would it be better to send more supplies tomorrow, rather than stuff the ships full of evacuees?" Charles suggested, "If the situation really is as bad as Sasha says it is, we're going to need to take as much as we can when we… withdraw from Redwood Town."
To say Charles wasn't still upset about having to abandon Redwood Town would be a lie. Even if he had become a Lord and Baron unexpectedly, that didn't mean Charles wasn't extremely attached to the home he had grown up in.
Still, if he had to choose between his domain, and the people who lived in it, Charles would unhesitatingly choose the latter.
Perhaps it was his lack of formal training to become a Lord that allowed him to have such a mentality, or perhaps that was just the kind of person he was. Whatever the case, the situation had forced him to choose, and he had done so.
In any case, Charles' suggestion was a reasonable one. Now that they had spare transport capacity, and knowing the dire situation in Herald City, the idea of shipping more provisions, especially grain, was quite appealing.
After another round of discussions, a consensus was reached, "Tomorrow, our goal will be to send 500 people by air, and 1,900 by river to Herald City. Every able-bodied adult will also be tasked to carry 5 days worth of rations, rather than 3. The rest of the free space will be occupied by grain."
"I'd like to ship a couple crates of soap as well," Lucas added at the last moment, drawing both looks of understanding and a few raised brows.
In the face of the questioning gazes, Lucas didn't back down in the slightest, "I know it might seem inconsequential compared to food, but from everything we've heard so far, soap is going to be absolutely essential in Herald City. There have already been small-scale outbreaks of disease in the city, and if we want to protect ourselves from that, soap is one of the best weapons at our disposal."
"Lucas is right," Anna quickly agreed with her son, "We've seen first-hand the impact soap has had in reducing disease in Redwood Town. If we can trade a few hundred servings of grain for a few thousand bars of soap, I'd say its worth it."
Celestina, Vanessa, and Christina, who were new to Redwood Town, weren't as well versed in the benefits of soap, while Sir Green just remained silent as usual, but in the end, they decided to trust Lucas' judgement in this matter, as so far, he had not once been wrong.
"Fine, have the soap packed up and ready to transport by tomorrow," Celestina nodded before asking, "Is there anything else?"
"There's still the matter of the beast attacks," Vanessa brought up the final wild-card.
When this topic was raised, everyone in the room wore a complicated expression.
"There have been a few, sporadic beast attacks over the past 2 days, but nothing that we couldn't handle," Anna mused.
"Information from Herald City is a bit sketchier, but it seems the situation there has also eased significantly in the last few days," Lucas followed up with a frown.
"It was the same in the forest," Celestina commented, knitting her brow slightly, "I don't know why, but even when I made another extensive sweep of the surrounding area today, I found very few beasts, aggressive or otherwise."
"Couldn't this be a good thing? Like the disturbance in the forest settling down?" Christina asked tentatively. She could tell by the looks on everyone else's face that this wasn't likely, but she felt she had to voice this opinion regardless.
"We would expect to see fewer beasts emerging from the forest over time," Vanessa explained, "But this kind of sudden and dramatic decrease is unnatural."
"Something's changed," Celestina concluded, "It's like all the beasts have been scared away from here somehow."
As she said these words, Celestina's eyes unconsciously drifted to a small tuft of white fur that was sitting atop her First Disciple's head.
Seemingly feeling a new gaze on her, Yuki lifted her head and met eyes with the General for a moment before curling back up and falling asleep. After interacting with Celestina a few times, it would seem the baby fox kit had recognized her as a non-threat.
Shaking her head, Celestina marveled at the audacity of this baby Spirit Beast, but didn't comment on it.
It was ironic, really, that the greatest fear she had at the moment was this little beast's parents showing up, but it also might be the scent of this incredibly powerful pair of Spirit Beasts that was responsible for the temporary peace they were experiencing.
There was no way to tell, either way.
The room fell silent, as everyone mulled over the implications of this unexpected development, and only after a good few minutes did Charles snort, "Hmph, whether this is a good omen, or a bad one, we'll know soon enough."
"Agreed," Celestina nodded, "Since we have no control over this situation, all we can do is hope for the best while preparing for the worst. We'll take advantage of this lull in activity to finish the evacuation, then deal with whatever comes next when it comes."
And with that, the meeting broke up, with the gathered parties heading out to rest or finish up the work of the day.
…..
The air was crisp and chilly as the sun came up the next day, the temperature having dropped noticeably overnight. The sudden cold caused everyone to move a bit slower, but that didn't mean things became disorderly.
Even with the changes made to who was taking which evacuation route last night, most people didn't raise any complaints or cause a fuss. No one was happy about having to flee Redwood Town, but after experiencing several days of beast attacks, especially the shocking battle against the Saberclaw Raptors, there was also a sense of relief amongst the populous that they were moving to a safer location.
As a team of militia and craftsmen boarded the Sunchaser for the first evacuation flight of the day, Lucas couldn't help turning to his dad and asking, "Are you sure you don't need to accompany them to the city?"
Ruffling his son's hair, Drake smiled tiredly and shook his head, "There are plenty of smiths on my level in Herald City, so if something goes wrong on that side, it won't be a problem. Here, I'm the only one who can fix certain issues should they come up."
Pursing his lips, Lucas nodded reluctantly. He knew what his father was saying was correct and reasonable, but that didn't mean he was thrilled about it. Unlike his mom, his dad had a serious limp from his old injury that limited his mobility.
It wasn't to the point where Drake couldn't get around on his own, but if they were to have a foot race now, Lucas was fairly certain his dad wouldn't be able to keep up with him, despite the big gap in their ages and cultivations.
I have to make sure dad gets out on one of the evacuation flights tomorrow, Lucas vowed to himself before turning his attention back to the crowds loading themselves up onto the various wagons.
For the past several days, Lucas had led the effort to gather all the carriages, carts, and horse-drawn wagons in Redwood Town, eventually putting together a convoy of 87. There were actually more wagons around town, but there weren't enough horses to pull all of them, even with the ones generously donated by Madison Roth's group.
Although there weren't enough seats for everyone in the river evacuation route to ride on, it was more than enough for all the cargo as well as all the less mobile refugees, which was sufficient for now.
Having had lots of practice over the past 2 days, the Sunchaser was loaded and airborne just a few minutes after the sun showed its face beyond the eastern horizon.
The land convoy headed to Sandy Cove, on the other hand, was taking much longer to organize. This didn't come as a surprise to anyone, though, as there were barely 100 people aboard the Sunchaser, while the river group had over 2,000 members.
1,900 people would be boarding the ships docked at Sandy Cove, while the rest were escorts and wagon drivers who would be returning to Redwood Town once they had finished delivering this group of refugees to safety.