Granch Hill.

This was a hill that was situated on the border that was shared by the Delair Dukedom and the Boll Dukedom.

However, at this point, the Boll Dukedom was already history, having been replaced by the new entity known as the City of Freedom.

By the time Chinba and Georgina arrived at Granch with their 1,000 troops, it was already close to dusk.

Plumes of smoke began to rise up from the sparse hills, and where there was smoke, there had to be fire. Judging from the number of plumes of smoke rising up into the air, there had to have been many fires that had been lit, indicating that there was a large number of people hiding between the mountains.

Chinba and Georgina exchanged a glance with one another, following which the latter raised a hand, instructing their troops to draw to a halt.

Georgina picked out a few martial artists with outstanding speed and agility, and the group set off to examine where the smoke was coming from.

Chinba watched the group rush rapidly up the hilly path, displaying a remarkable combination of speed and stealth, and he was very impressed. The silver maple trees that were laden with yellowing leaves were casting sparse shadows onto the hills, and Georgina and his group were taking advantage of these shadows to rapidly approach the source of the smoke, which was situated on the other side of the hill that they were scaling.

A short...