Although Vanessa found her little niece's struggle here a bit amusing, she knew that pointing it out, or even laughing, would only make things awkward. So, in a rather exaggerated manner, Vanessa slapped her forehead and said, "Of course, how forgetful of me. You made an appointment to meet up with the local Lord's daughter, did you not, Your Highness?"
Having been tossed this lifeline, Christina's eyes brightened and she immediately grabbed hold of it, nodding firmly, "Y-Yes! That's right! I have made a prior arrangement, and it would be rude for me to not keep it! En, exactly."
Nodding along, Vanessa followed up, "Indeed. A noble should always keep their word. Forgive me for being inconsiderate, Your Highness."
"Not at all, Commander Clark," Christina hurriedly tried to compose herself, though the blush extending all the way to her ears gave her true state away.
Clearing her throat, the princess decided to hurry things along, "Ahem, I don't wish to be late. Please excuse me, Commander Clark."
"Of course, Your Highness," Vanessa saluted before opening the door and stepping aside, allowing Christina to leave with slightly hurried steps.
As for Sir Green, he dashed off in a gust of wind, disappearing back into the shadows. With his helmet still on, it was impossible to tell what this Royal Guardian was thinking, but Vanessa could have sworn she heard a soft chuckle leak from the man's lips just before he vanished.
Shaking her head, Vanessa soon left from the reception room as well and headed over to Charles' office where the others were likely still discussing the pending evacuation.
…..
When Vanessa had first revealed that Lord Jeremiah, the Imperial Overseer, had become involved in this incident, necessitating Princess Christina's clandestine departure from the capital, it drew a rare look of worry from Celestina.
This couldn't be helped, as Lord Jeremiah was a genuine Spirit Master Realm powerhouse, a Cultivator of such strength and authority he could literally dictate the life or death of anyone in the Rockwell Kingdom, even the king.
Thanks to a certain fortunate connection she had made in the past, Celestina wasn't too worried about her personal safety, but that didn't mean she was comfortable having such a powerful individual with unclear intentions looming over her.
Celestina's sense of anxiety only waned when Vanessa outlined the likely timeline for when the Empire's forces would arrive, though not getting any substantial reinforcements from the capital for a month or more was also a troublesome prospect.
Fortunately, Celestina had ordered her own Army be mobilized.
Knowing her adjutant, Celestina figured that Allina Crest would arrange for an advanced party of elite troops from the Raging River Legion to set out ahead of the main force, allowing them to arrive in 10 or so days.
None of that mattered at the moment though, as the evacuation of Redwood Town was the immediate priority.
"So, we're all agreed?" Celestina swept her eyes across the room, asking for a final confirmation.
After Vanessa had returned from informing Redwood Town's 'special guest' from the capital, as Christina was referred to in public, the various leaders had been finalizing the evacuation plans and it seemed like they had finally gotten all the details sorted.
Undoubtedly, there would be more issues that came up when they tried to implement the plan, but those would have to be solved on the fly, as there was only so much that could be done in advance of such a complicated operation.
Nevertheless, everyone in the room nodded, prompting Celestina to also nod, "Good, then we'll proceed as planned."
With that said, the various leaders gathered in Charles' office began dispersing.
Vanessa, the ranking military officer after Celestina, was tasked with selecting which Commanders and Captains would be sent ahead to Harold City. Although most of the Spirit Initiates had to remain behind in Redwood Town to guard against the lurking Saberclaw Raptor pack, as the number of citizens decreased in town, the defence perimeter would also shrink, allowing some lower-ranking soldiers to accompany the evacuees.
In order to support Vanessa and the military officers' efforts in Harold City, Anna needed to organize a group of volunteer defenders to go with them.
Once this first group of soldiers and volunteers landed in Harold City, they would secure a place for the Redwood Town refugees to stay, at least temporarily.
Sasha and Charles were tasked with breaking the news to the ordinary townsfolk and villagers. While this job might seem simple on its face, it was actually the most difficult as it required the local Lord and Lady to convince thousands of people to abandon their homes and flee to an unfamiliar city.
Additionally, Charles and Sasha would need to decide who would be evacuated when, and by what route.
The young, injured, and elderly were supposed to be airlifted out of town on the Sunchaser, but persuading everyone that this was the best course of action might not be that easy.
Most people would agree that helping the more vulnerable amongst them first was the right thing to do, especially if it involved their own children and loved ones, but there would always be some who objected to such thinking.
It was easy for a person to be generous when they risked nothing doing so, but when one's own life was at stake, some would hesitate, while others would outright object to being second-in-line.
Warren, who was still heavily injured, had to return to the infirmary to rest. His job would only start once the advanced group landed in Harold City, so for the moment, he just needed to focus on recovering. Once he returned to Hareld City, he would definitely become busy conducting negotiations with the local nobles and merchants.
For her part, Celestina's only role right now was to remain on alert.
Ever since the Sixth Order Raptor attacked Redwood Town, there had only been sporadic Wild Beast attacks, but this lack of activity actually caused the General to be more wary. There had to be a reason that the beasts were staying away, and the presence of an extremely powerful and aggressive predator was certainly a reasonable explanation.
If the Saberclaw Raptor Alpha appeared again, only Celestina could restrain it, so everyone agreed that she should refrain from handling any of the evacuation work and focus solely on the town's defence.
That just left Lucas, who was once again assigned to logistics.
It had basically become the young boy's default role during this crisis, with him having to deal with the behind-the-scenes food, housing, and labour issues.
This was partly because everyone else capable of handling these complicated matters was busy working on more immediate problems, but it was also a result of Lucas' uncanny ability in this field.
Within hours after he had first been tasked with taking inventory of food supplies and collecting rations from the townsfolk on the first night of the crisis, Lucas had set up an entire team that was efficiently able to store and record rations all over Redwood Town.
It was an organizational marvel that even Allina, who was in charge of logistics for the Raging River Legion, couldn't help praising the boy for.
From there, Lucas continued to impress, putting together large-scale kitchens to prepare meals, setting up delivery wagons to transport food and supplies between the various safe-zones, organizing a series of infirmaries to treat the wounded, putting together a large team of volunteers specifically to maintain cleanliness and order with the aim of preventing disease and squaller…
In short, although he hadn't directly participated in Redwood Town's defence, a large part of the reason the town hadn't descended into chaos was because of Lucas' efforts.
Of course, Lucas wasn't solely responsible for this remarkable bit of success, he had many, many people helping him, including many of the Town Lord Manor's staff, and the dozens of workers he had hired for his soap workshop and the town bathhouse.
It was only thanks to the collective efforts of all these people, many of whom were already used to working with Lucas, that the boy was able to keep Redwood Town running somewhat smoothly.
In order to prepare for the coming evacuation, Lucas' new assignment was to gather as many wagons, horses, and supplies as possible to expedite the exodus. However, as a result of his previous efforts, it didn't actually take Lucas long to finish his work.
After spending a couple hours going around to the different kitchens, telling them to increase the amount of hard bread and dried meats being prepared, and asking the supply distribution teams to gather more carts and wagons from around town, Lucas was basically done, and for the first time in several days, he found himself oddly with nothing to do.
Unused to having free time, Lucas first went around asking if anyone else needed help, but all the other leaders politely turned him down. Whether this was because they already had enough help, or because they felt bad making a 10-year-old boy do so much work, the result was the same.