ALL NOVEL
Chapter 205.2
Fortunately, the guards who were reinforcing the security system at the gates of the royal capital found Welner who appeared outside the royal capitals outer wall after using his Skywalk.
The guards helped Welner up immediately after he fell to the ground, while still seriously wounded.
Incidentally, that Skywalk was entrusted to Frenssen just before the start of the siege of Anheim, and was returned to Welner because it had been left unused.
Originally, Welner planned to use Skywalk, intending to snatch Lily and escape. However, Lily was protected by guards who did not mind being wounded, so he could not approach her boldly.
At the time of that collapse, the other guard was just slashing at him, so Welner used his opponent as a shield from debris and was forced to use the Skywalk.
It was a miscalculation on Welners side that he would have to face so many opponents preventing him from approaching Lily to escape with Skywalk. Not only that, the guards fighting Welner were fully armed, even with shields, which in a way also became useful for his escape when he was almost buried in debris.
In addition, the fact that there were a number of excellent healers present in the royal capital during that time was also a blessing. Welner was able to recover quickly thanks to the manpower arrangements of several people who were able to use healing magic. It was then that Welner made a verbal report of what happened during the treatment, which was the basis to mobilize the Royal Guards.
According to the person in charge of the treatment, the three most serious injuries were the wound in his side where he had been stabbed by a sword, his left leg that had been crushed by debris, and the wound sustained from a slash when he was forced to use the enemy to take cover from the debris.
Welner himself, who had recovered from his injuries, was inwardly dismayed, thinking that it was oddly game-like to be able to manage even a near-death situation by applying even beginner-level restoration magic over and over again.
During this time, another piece of information that came in during his treatment helped him be able to chase after Leppe and Lily.
Sir Welner had prepared a manual of procedures when he was on aqueduct patrol duty. And those patrolling the aqueduct followed the manual and immediately reported a hole in the ground that had suddenly caved in because of some underground tunnel collapse.
One team that was able to act immediately rushed to their target location ahead of the others, then followed by a number of people who had been prepared to join Welner, gathering at the location of the cave-in after it was discovered.
It did not take long to capture and disarm the guards, who were still clearing debris looking for Welner as if they were mechanical contraptions continuing their previous order, and that path then led to the knights reaching Leppes destination.
I was surprised as well. I never thought that the aqueduct built in the ruins above would lead to another ruin underneath, showing up a path only after that collapse. So that was the reason why the old aqueduct is not working well. The water that was supposed to be filling the aqueduct is probably leaking through the cracks and flowing down in this ruin.
Rainwater would normally enter the ruins through cracks above ground, which was then directed into the underground aqueduct and to the royal capital via its underground water system. Because of this, there was supposed to be no need for the Royal Capital to build a new aqueduct.
However, soon enough, they found that the original water source of the underground aqueduct had been dammed somewhere, so they created a new aqueduct that was connected to the royal capital using the water from Lake Krumshe.
This resulted in the abandonment of the underground aqueduct followed by the removal of guards placed in that location and moving them to the new aqueduct near the royal capital. This would result in an improvement in the water supply of the capital.
However, the source of water of the underground aqueduct was soon discovered. Which also led to investigation above ground instead of traveling underground, which was difficult to navigate.
And so, with this information, Welner led around 300 infantrymen, cavalrymen, and his own retinue rushing along the path that was found in the aqueduct to find the deeper part of the ruins.
In addition to those people, more than 30 scouts also participated which were the first to discover the entrance to the ruins. This was a result of Veldt, who was one of the leading figures in the backstreet slums, moving. He had previously received a large sum of money from Welner, and promised him that he would assemble as many people as possible to help Viscount Zeavert in case of an emergency.
Welner had been suspecting that there might have been another underground ruin in the royal capital, that he believed to be connected to the underground waterway, after facing an enemy who controlled magic beasts. It was because of this that he gathered a group of scouts to accompany him on this mission.
These scouts did not get directly involved in battle, but were divided and stationed around the area surrounding the ruins, holding large magic lamps, tools that those scouts would not normally carry around. Thanks to them activating those lamps, the ruined facility was now as bright as day.