Chapter 312 - Hanging In There

After asking around for a couple of minutes while he was selecting the soldiers that would go with him, Zaos realized that all soldiers were looking forward to the next fight. Even those who were already members of the Northern base.

"I need to calm down and analyze this silently," Zaos thought. "Those three already think that I am acting weird, so I can't raise any suspicions."

Although that whole situation was weird, Zaos still had another job to do, and he couldn't postpone it. After selecting the toughest soldiers of his unit, he immediately left toward the place where Vitalar was camped. Since the path was pretty rough, they couldn't use their horses, but that was for the best. The animals couldn't find much food in the mountains covered by snow, and they would only grow weaker while exposed to the cold wind of mountains.

The trip toward the camp will take at least four days, so Zaos and five hundred soldiers immediately begin the journey. Still, in the end, the journey lasted for six days because not even the most brutal soldiers of the unit knew how to walk in the mountains without slipping every twenty steps. They suffered a few wounds here and there when they fell, but no bones were broken. Unfortunately, the worst part of the journey was yet to come…

Zaos' group found the camp right behind a certain mountain and in one of the few spots where the ground was even for more than a few dozen meters. Thanks to that, he saw dozens of tents armed in that camp. As if he had been waiting for them for a few days, a man that had red hair and a scruffy beard watched Zao approaching with his arms crossed. Just looking at him was annoying, so Zaos immediately recognized Vitalar. Aside from his hair and beard, he was easily recognizable for his thin, pale face and kind of pointy nose.

"Who among you is the captain?" Vitalar asked.

"I am, my name is Zaos," Zaos said.

"Do you have any idea how long I had to wait? Do you have any idea how much your time unit made me waste?" Vitalar asked. "Because of you, my plans are ruined, and my schedule won't work. I will have to reformulate all my plans. Not to mention, this delay will give those insects some extra time to prepare for whatever we might throw at them. That will make me loose even more time and…"

Although Zaos was looking at him, his eyes were focused on the environment. It has been a while since he saw those mountains, and he felt pretty nostalgic. Not even that annoying commander and his big mouth could make Zaos get mad so soon. Zaos had acquired a certain resistance against annoying people since he was a noble and had to deal with many annoying nobles almost on a daily basis.

"Are you listening?" Vitalar asked.

"Yes, so which are the places my soldiers are going to guard?" Zaos asked. "I know these mountains pretty well, but I will need a map to save time."

Vitalar glared at Zaos, but he realized that he needed to work on his angry expression since it wasn't working on Zaos. Most soldiers wouldn't find him scary. After all, they had seen far more dangerous things passing close to their eyes.

"... Because of you, this whole operation might end in a failure, so you will have to pay for any other mistake you or your unit commits," Vitalar said. "His Majesty gave me full authority to punish those who fail to follow my commands. So, you will lose your neck if something happens again."

"Is that so?" Zaos asked. "If we fail, who is going to make me lose my neck? You?"

"You…" Vitalar clenched his teeth in anger.

"I am going to make myself lose my neck?" Zaos frowned.

Vitalar almost let his anger explode, but then one of his subordinates approached and then whispered something in his ear. One didn't have to be a genius to realize that Vitalar didn't know Zaos and his subordinate was telling him that.

"...Using his family authority just to look important," Vitalar said after he clicked his tongue.

"Yeah, I used my family's name to waste my time here," Zaos said.

Vitalar eventually gave up on scaring Zaos. Although he didn't recognize Zaos, he heard a few rumors. Someone with that fame and family name couldn't be threatened, even by someone who received full authority from the king.

"Here is the map, and those are the places your unit will have to guard," Vitalar said after he passed a detailed map of the region to Zaos. "I want groups often in each of those places, and they will have to guard it day and night. If they find any sign of followers of the demon god, they are to capture them. Kill them, and you will respond to the king."

Zaos almost asked why they had to capture it, but in the end, he had to respect the chain of command when it came to working. Even if the one in charge of everything was a massive ass.

"They won't move around in big groups because they will be easily found by my men, so capturing them will be easy," Vitalar added. "Once a week, my men will pass through the points and then take the prisoners. It is your job as the captain to show the places they should stay once you finish that, you are to return here."

Zaos almost let out a sigh. Even if it works hard, it will take at least a week to position everyone. In any case, the job won't end faster if he waits for it, so Zaos led his soldiers to those points.

"Sorry, guys, but we will have to accept and follow the orders of that clown," Zaos said. "Just hang in there because it will eventually end… guys like him never give orders for long."