I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 401 Escaping is shameful, but useful
Afternoon at the Suvano siege camp.

The sun beat down on the crowded tents and muddy ground, and a sweltering, foul odor rose up, a mixture of sweat, cheap tobacco, and unburied filth.

At Polka's request, the Blue Banner Army did not leave the camp today to carry out the earthwork for the siege, but instead stayed obediently in the camp.

Polka walked at the front, his magnificent dark blue mage robes standing out like an out-of-place haven in the dusty camp.

Walking beside him were two church members. One was a middle-aged priest from the Church of Mother Earth, named Hector. He was stocky, with a face like a weathered rock and eyes as steady as the earth.

The other is Lydia, the high priestess of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. She is young, with delicate features but the wheat-colored complexion typical of farmers, and a small bundle of withered wheat ears and a few plump beans hang from her waist.

Behind them followed several strong Blue Banner soldiers, who wore breastplates and carried long-handled spears or swords and shields marked with scimitars, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.

Their target wasn't the usual disputes or thefts in the camp, but a deeper, stickier shadow... The unusual commotion last night was discovered by Polka on patrol today.

So, early in the morning, Polka urged the people from the two churches to get to work quickly and not to slack off.

Hector stopped in a secluded corner near the eastern fence of the camp.

This is the place where Home Alone first discovered the unusual indentation, and also the starting point where Mia pointed out the giant snake's trail.

The muddy ground had been blurred by countless footprints, but Hector's broad, weathered hands, which seemed to sense the pulse of the soil, gently pressed down on the damp ground.

He closed his eyes, his lips moving silently as he recited the prayer of Gaia, the Earth Mother.

A deep hum seemed to emanate from within him, resonating with the earth beneath his feet.

Visibly, around his palm pressed to the ground, a faint, yellowish-brown halo spread out like ripples, covering an area of ​​only about one meter in radius. The light was so faint that it was almost imperceptible in the sunlight.

Hector's forehead quickly beaded with sweat, and his face visibly paled.

He wasn't performing any earth-shattering divine magic; he was merely conducting the most basic "earth perception," probing the unusual pressure and faint residual energy that this area had recently experienced.

A few seconds later, he suddenly opened his eyes, gasped for breath, pointed to a dent in the ground that had been almost flattened by being trampled, and said in a tired, hoarse voice.

"There was indeed a huge, inhumanly heavy object crushing through here, carrying a cold, fishy smell, the feel of scales rubbing together... very fresh, the marks..."

He raised his hand, pointing with his fingertips to the grove where the kid had led his men earlier.

Lydia immediately stepped forward, carefully avoiding the area Hector had pointed out, her sharp eyes scanning the fallen weeds and low bushes around her.

Unlike Hector, she was more powerful as the High Priestess. She simply stretched out her finger, picked up a bit of soil, and sprinkled it in front of her, leaving a pale green mark on the ground.

"snake……"

Lydia's voice was cool and clear, carrying the sensitivity to life unique to a Saturnian priestess.

"It wasn't trampling, it was the crawling of snakes. It carried the smell of decay and water."

She then took out the beans, held them in her palm, closed her eyes, and whispered to Demeter, asking for insight.

The beans emitted an extremely faint, pale green glow in her palm, almost swallowed by the sunlight, like a candle flickering in the wind.

A few breaths later, the tender green light went out. Lydia opened her hand, and the once plump and round bean had become shriveled and gray, its surface covered with fine wrinkles, as if all its vitality had been instantly drained away. She threw it on the ground, and the shriveled bean immediately crumbled into powder.

"Two kilometers ahead."

Lydia said with certainty.

"The traces were left just two kilometers away."

Polka watched the two church members' actions with a smug smile on his face. As a magician who had previously been hated and killed by the church members and treated like a rat in the gutter, it was really... awesome to be able to make them work!

"Let's continue. Don't worry about what's outside for now; they won't run away anytime soon."

Polka's gaze fell on the spot where the players had crawled out, where the marks of the torn vines were still fresh.

“These things have a clear objective and move quickly; they didn’t wander in by mistake, but rather infiltrated with a purpose.”

He turned to Hector and Lydia.

"We need to check all areas near the fence, especially those secluded, damp corners where dirt can easily accumulate, to make sure that it wasn't just one thing that got in last night."

"kindness."

"clear."

The two, whose expressions were either calm or sullen, nodded in response.

The group continued to move along the edge of the camp, avoiding the main flow of people.

Hector and Lydia no longer readily used divine magic unless they encountered extremely suspicious traces that could not be explained by common sense.

In this process, their search methods became more "physical." Hector used a specially made silver scepter to gently tap the ground and fence posts, listening to the echoes and sensing underground cavities or unusual vibrations.

Lydia carefully examined every suspicious patch of vegetation, even scraping moss off wooden stakes to observe its color and condition. Polka's gaze, however, swept more towards the shadows of the tents, the piles of debris, and the faces of the soldiers, some with blank expressions, others with excessive tension.

He was searching for another kind of trace, the trace of fear, or... the trace of being bewitched and assimilated by evil forces.

The unease permeating the air, to his keen senses, was like murky river water; he needed to discern whether it contained that chilling anomaly.

Just as Hector was about to explore another depression under the fence, an unusual commotion broke the stillness at the edge of the camp.

It wasn't the usual commotion in the camp, but a disturbance mixed with excited shouts, heavy dragging sounds, and a strong, nauseating stench. Both the sounds and the smells were coming from the direction of the camp's east gate.

Polka, Hector, and Lydia stopped almost simultaneously and looked warily toward the source of the sound.

Near the east gate, a large group of defense soldiers, numbering over a hundred, were seen rushing in.

Their faces showed barely suppressed excitement, as well as a lingering sense of fear.

At the heart of the group were several makeshift sleds made from hastily cut branches, upon which were piled several large and twisted bodies.

What it is! ?

Even from a distance, the appearance of those corpses was enough to make even the most knowledgeable church members' pupils shrink in shock.

Its dark green and yellowish-brown scales reflected an oily sheen in the sunlight, and its slender, gnarled body and powerful tail dragged limply on the muddy ground.

On its triangular head, the dark gold vertical pupils remained fierce even in death, fine fangs protruded from its lips, and a scarlet forked tongue drooped.

One of the corpses had a lead bullet piercing its chest; the scarlet blood had long since congealed, emitting a pungent, putrid odor.

Others were covered with marks from being hacked and chopped, and some even had broken claws and shattered bone spikes.

These are the monsters they're tracking! And there's more than one!
The soldiers shouted excitedly, discussing the thrilling cave encounter they had witnessed that morning, describing the ferocity of the snake people and the madness of the players.

Mia rode on the back of her big white pig Aisha, her small figure surrounded by excited soldiers. Her eyes immediately caught Polka's striking dark blue figure, and her little hand pointed in that direction.

At the very front of this "triumphant" procession, supported by two equally battered and dented men in their plate armor, was the pale-faced kid in charge, whose left arm was simply bandaged and who had practically been dragged back.

When Polka saw them, the soldiers quickly dragged the corpses to a stop in front of him, and a cacophony of voices surged forth.

"Lord Polka, look, what are these weird things?"

"This strange snake is too fast, it has its right hand, and it can even use a knife..."

Polka ignored the soldiers' commotion. His gaze was fixed on the grotesque corpses on the sled. The smugness and ease on his face vanished instantly, replaced by an unprecedented solemnity.

He strode forward, even bypassing Hector and Lydia, ignoring the overwhelming stench, and went straight to the nearest snake-man corpse.

He crouched down, not caring at all as the hem of his magnificent dark blue robe dragged on the muddy ground.

He extended his white-gloved hand, but did not touch the corpse directly. Instead, he carefully observed the patterns of the dark green scales, the shape of the head, and the angle of the claws from a distance. He paid particular attention to the black scimitar lying to the side, of unknown material, scrutinizing every detail.

A few seconds later, Polka slowly stood up, his face so dark it could drip water.

He turned to Hector and Lydia, who were equally stunned by the sight before them and had turned pale, and uttered two words in a low, clear voice, with an unmistakable heaviness:

"They are Lamia snake people."

The word seemed to possess a chilling magic, causing Lydia to gasp and instinctively cover her mouth, her ears of wheat and beans trembling at her waist.

As high-ranking members of the church, they naturally knew what this name meant... an evil race from the rotten swamps outside the Greek continent, worshipping some evil god.

Polka's gaze swept over the grotesque corpses, then turned towards the woods where the kids had escaped, before finally settling on Hector and Lydia. His previous imperious manner vanished, replaced by a grim sense of urgency.

"It wasn't a chance infiltration; it was a scout team. This is the mark of the 'Scaleclaw' tribe."

He pointed to a barely noticeable spiral pattern on the corpse's scales.

"They're not here to steal a few chickens. The shadows beneath Suvana are deeper and more insidious than we imagine."

"Immediately notify Marquis Dirac to raise the highest alert level. Conduct a thorough search of the camp, especially around water sources and granaries; there are definitely more than just this one group."

Just then, a messenger ran over. He also saw the snake-man's corpse on the stretcher. He was startled and stopped to look for a while before remembering his job and running over.

"Lord Polka, Lord Dirac wants you to see him immediately."

Polka frowned.

"what's going on?"

"Prince Chris has given us orders to retreat immediately and return to our own territory."

(End of this chapter)