Return of the General's Daughter-Chapter 228: Homeward Bound

Thamor’s hand trembled as he grasped a small dart as tall as his fingers. He looked around to see who could have thrown it. Was it the woman who looked at him like he was dead? But he did not see her make any movement. Surely it wasn’t her.

His grasp on the dart tightened. How was it so accurate that it landed perfectly and penetrated his pants and pierced his precious gem? He took a deep breath and pulled out the dart. That was his mistake. The dart’s tip was barbed, and when he pulled it out, the soft tissue of ’his thing’ was ripped.

"Ahhh!’ he screamed, then he passed out.

Alaric, meanwhile, stood beside the prisoner carriages, speaking quietly with one of his officers. His tone was clipped, his expression cold.

Two of the prisoners had vomited from the heat and the rough ride the day before, and the guards had nearly left them in Basco. Alaric had ordered otherwise and had asked to give them Lara’s medicine.

By midmorning, the procession rolled back onto the road. Dust plumed beneath the wheels as they traveled farther from Legares and deeper into the ungoverned lands between towns.

The guards rode in high alert, their eyes scanning every hillside and hollow. Bandits were a risk, but Alaric’s mind was on something else: the king’s plans for him.

That evening, they arrived in another town— larger than Laiya, with actual brick buildings and a better-stocked inn. But space was still tight. This time, the Norse siblings got two single rooms; Alaric took two. Everyone else — guards and prisoners alike — were again assigned to tents outside.

Over dinner, Reya glanced around the shared room. Sandoz seemed in better spirits, cracking quiet jokes and pretending the incident in Ranuva did not happen. Her eyes were on the window, watching the shadows stretch across the dirt road.

"Reya, go to sleep," Lara said gently, her voice cutting through the stillness of the room. She observed the maid standing by the window, her gaze lost somewhere in the distance, as if drawn to the shadows outside. The moonlight spilled in, illuminating Reya’s still figure, and Lara wondered what thoughts were swirling in her mind.

"Miss, I am afraid that people would sneak into our room."

"Don’t worry, Reya. I’m right here with you," Lara said softly, her voice a warm blanket of comfort that wrapped around Reya like a protective shield. She looked into Reya’s eyes, her gaze steady and full of assurance. "Nothing will happen." ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

...

After ten long days of weary travel, the caravan finally crested the last ridge—and there it was. Savadra.

"Miss Lara... Miss! We are finally back to Savadra." Reya’s excited voice woke up Lara, who was dozing at the time.

Lara blinked and sat up, brushing sleep from her eyes. As the carriage rolled to a halt, she stepped down and looked around, her gaze lifting to take in the towering stone gate before them. It was colossal—at least three meters high—its surface darkened with age and moss, but still formidable in its quiet defiance of time.

"So Savadra is a walled city," Lara declared, stepping back to take in the grandeur of the towering stone walls that loomed above her. The walls stretched outward like a coiled serpent, enclosing the heart of the ancient capital. Sunlight gleamed off battlements that ran like jagged crowns across the top. There was a strange beauty in its harsh symmetry—cold stone, yet alive with history.

"The area protected by the wall is 6,100 acres. However, the entirety of Savadra encompasses more than 20,000 acres," Bener remarked as he disembarked from the carriage. He raised his arms high above his head, the tension in his muscles easing as he savored the crisp air, momentarily relishing the spectacular view before him.

Lara frowned, doing a rough calculation. That meant the walled portion alone covered about 25 square kilometers—a staggering feat of engineering. She couldn’t help but think of the cost.

"They must have emptied the royal treasury for this wall."

Bener nodded solemnly. "They did. Built it thirty years ago, after the war. Prisoners from Centuria and captured slaves did most of the labor—forced to lay stone after stone, over 350 million bricks in all, under the Northem sun."

"How convenient. Just the slaves and the prisoners of war? How about the citizens of Northem? Did they help?"

"They weren’t spared the burden," came a new voice—Percival, stepping down from the carriage. "They built the inner walls around the palace."

Lara paused. So there was a different wall for enclosing the palace. What a fortress! Unfortunately, it did not stand the test of time. In the 21st century, only a few sections of the wall remained.

None of the most expert archaeologists deduced that those sections of the walls were actually part of a long city wall. They thought those were houses of the nobles between the 10th and 16th centuries.

After the checkpoint, the city gate was opened, and Alaric’s caravan entered. They were not greeted with a hero’s welcome, and Bener’s brows furrowed due to the guards’ lackluster attitude.

"Brother, is this really how Northem welcomes their war heroes?" Lara asked, her voice trembling with disappointment as her brow furrowed. She felt sorry for her brothers and even for Prince Alaric, who contributed a lot to the victory at Calma but who was blatantly being looked down on.

"How about Father and his soldiers. Were they also welcomed like this?"

"No. I don’t think so. People must have come in line on both sides of the road, and they must have raised the blue and white banner while chanting the different names of the generals who fought in the war." Gideon answered her.

Lara smiled. Gideon was probably describing the last war where General Odin was instrumental in winning it.

"Percival, did you send the message that we will be arriving with our sister today?" Gideon asked.

Percival looked at him with guilt in his eyes. "I thought you were the one who sent the letter. But isn’t it a good thing? Let us surprise everyone."