Chapter 815 The bad situation of the kingdom
When Bai Zemin approached from the rear, the troops of the Gales Kingdom were surprised and went on alert at the sight of a large number of soldiers approaching. Had it not been for the representative flag of the Gales Kingdom with the bear heads and crossed axes waving high they would definitely not have been able to maintain their composure.
A stout but elderly general wearing dark brown leather armor stood at the head of several soldiers and among them were several Second Order soul evolvers.
His name was Lazas and he was one of the oldest and most respected generals in the Gales Kingdom not only because he was a level 100 soul evolver trying to break the Third Order but also because of the number of times he saved small towns from the attack of mutated beasts and orcs was so high that probably no other soldier in the kingdom could compare to him.
When the numerous troop approached, General Lazas stepped forward and his powerful voice spread over 1000 meters: “To the unknown troop, stop! Identify yourselves or else you will be treated as enemies!”
The reason why General Lazas was being so cautious was because everyone knew perfectly well that 95% of the kingdom’s troops had been divided between the western border and the western border leaving the north under the protection of the kingdom’s king. Therefore, the appearance of such a large army without receiving news beforehand was naturally taken with some suspicion.
Bai Zemin heard the words of the other party loud and clear, therefore, to avoid allied conflict, he raised his hand high.
“Stop!”
The Krap Kingdom troops obediently following behind him stopped upon hearing his command.
Bai Zemin did not look back and after a moment continued to advance as he identified himself in a deep voice: “I am Bai Zemin, let the general in charge of leading in this battlefield come out to see me!”
“Bai Zemin?”
“Who is that?”
“I don’t know.”
The soldiers standing next to General Lazas looked at each other in confusion and shook their heads when they heard the other party’s name. For a soul evolver to demand an army general to come out to see him needed to first have the strength of a Second Order existence to match said general, however, none of them had heard the name ‘Bai Zemin’ before not to mention the fact that such a name was clearly not native from Gales.
However, when General Lazas heard the name of the other side his expression changed and under the surprised eyes of his subordinates he hurried forward to meet the new arrival.
Arriving in front of Bai Zemin, Lazas paused for a moment to observe the young man in front of him. Despite his doubts after sensing that the other party was a level 50 soul evolver, Lazas drew his clenched right fist to the left side of his chest making a typical Eventide World military salute.
“General Bai, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am General Lazas and I am the man in charge of leading the troops on the battlefield against the Maiston Kingdom. His Majesty the king has already informed all the other generals that if you appeared on the battlefield, the command was to be handed over to you if you so wished.”
General Lazas spoke loudly on purpose so that the men behind him would hear and know about the identity of the newcomer.
Bai Zemin was pleased with this general’s good will. He ignored the murmurs and while looking at the soldiers in the distance said in a deep voice: “General Lazas, I want you to give me a summary of the current situation. We will discuss other matters later.”
“Understood.” Lazas nodded. Soon, however, his eyes moved beyond Bai Zemin and a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes as he said carefully, “General Bai, forgive my boldness but may I know where these soldiers are coming from? From what I understand, the rest of the main army should be fighting in the west.”
It wasn’t that Lazas doubted Bai Zemin, it was just that the appearance of so many unknown troops was really too unusual.
Bai Zemin looked behind him and said in a serious voice, “These troops are part of the main army of the defeated Krap Kingdom. Many of them were injured so they had to be sent to receive medical treatment by the mages and professionals of Weamor City while King Jeremy was taken to the dungeons with the Greed Bracelet sealing his Mana completely.”
The Greed Bracelet was an extremely precious and difficult piece of equipment to forge; in the entire history of the Gales Kingdom, only about 8 of these bracelets could be forged which completely absorbed the wearer’s Mana so that activating any skill would become impossible.
“I- I see…” General Lazas looked at the soldiers behind Bai Zemin in shock.
He did not expect that this young man was bold enough to bring such a large “enemy” army to an already chaotic battlefield!
Bai Zemin understood the concerns of the general in front of him, therefore, he patted his shoulder and said in a firm voice: “General Lazas, you don’t need to worry. These people know the consequences if they keep betraying the human race.”
General Lazas nodded and asked no more questions.
“General Bai, follow me first. Let’s move to the tent to discuss further the events that have unfolded over the past 24 hours.”
As Bai Zemin left with General Lazas, the troops of the Krap Kingdom were dispersed and integrated with the soldiers of the Gales Kingdom. Despite not being particularly willing, the defeated soul evolvers accepted their fate at the threat of having their families under the sights of the crimson-armored demon who defeated their king so easily.
Along the way, Bai Zemin noticed that there were several thousand tents built in a large area that had been cleared. The trunks of the mutated trees that the soldiers cut down were placed in front as a makeshift wall and two 50-meter high towers were built on top of the wooden wall.
“Exactly 28 hours ago, the Maiston Kingdom appeared on the border as had been foreseen by His Majesty King Philip’s strategists. Because King Logan has not appeared even until now, General Pierre who is the most powerful general of the Maiston Kingdom and I had a brief discussion regarding what was happening.”
Arriving at the tent, General Lazas began to explain to Bai Zemin the current situation. With a complicated smile, he continued, “Of course, upon hearing that our Gales Kingdom was asking for the Maiston Kingdom’s surrender and collaboration to fight the demons as well as the traitors of the human race, General Pierre did not even delay for a minute to order the troops of Maiston to advance. Once the Maiston Kingdom troops broke into the territory of Gales, the war finally broke out.”
“For the first few hours, both myself and the enemy general let the Unclassified and First Order soul evolvers clash to test the waters, however, 4 hours later one of the enemy Second Order powerhouses advanced so we had no choice but to send one of our generals in response.”
For the next half hour, Bai Zemin learned about the current situation from General Lazas’ mouth.
Because the Maiston Kingdom had sent their main army just as the Krap Kingdom had done, the troops of the Gales Kingdom were slowly being pushed back and after only 1 day of fighting the number of soul evolvers Gales had lost outnumbered the number of enemy soul evolvers killed by 15%.
“Fighting against an army of 600,000 men and 20,000 tamed mutant beasts with an army of 300,000 men and 50,000 tamed mutant beasts is not easy.” General Lazas smiled bitterly and said in a helpless voice, “Leaving aside the overwhelming numerical superiority of the other side, the number of Second Order soul evolvers the enemy kingdom has overwhelms us by a ratio of almost 2:1 due to the fact that our kingdom had no choice but to split to fight east and west.”
Having to protect itself on three sides, the Gales Kingdom had no choice but to split into three not to mention the fact that it was still necessary to leave at least a few tens of thousands of soul evolvers to protect the cities and towns as well as to maintain public order.
If not for the fact that Bai Zemin and King Philip had taken care of the north by themselves, Gales would definitely have fallen within 24 hours after being besieged by three kingdoms that were easily it equal.
“What about the enemy king?” Bai Zemin asked after a moment of silence.
The bitter smile on General Lazas’ face grew as he shook his head and said quietly, “King Logan has yet to step forward. Although the most powerful warrior from the other side has not yet entered the battlefield, our kingdom has been forced to retreat more than 10,000 meters from the border. At this rate we will be forced to lose Nuseon Town within the next few hours.”
Bai Zemin rubbed his chin with his right hand as he gently tapped the wooden table using his index finger. Although he was not a war genius by any stretch of the imagination, the amount of stories and books he had read in his life was so great that among them there was no lack of war stories or novels, therefore, the knowledge and techniques from those books were naturally in his head.
‘Something fishy is going on here,’ Bai Zemin thought secretly as he noticed that there were some things that didn’t fit at all. He looked at General Lazas in search of something that would give away what he had just said but the man’s expression was firm and serious, worthy of a veteran general.
Under the confused and surprised eyes of General Lazas, the purple ring on one of Bai Zemin’s fingers glowed briefly and then an antique mirror with a peculiar shape appeared on his right hand. Lazas could feel great magic power from the mirror and just looking at it made him feel as if his very soul was being seen through it.
“General Lazas, this treasure is called Inner Heart Mirror. Its function is very simple… Every 24 hours, it lets me know when a person is telling me the truth or not.” Bai Zemin said slowly as he stared at the general sitting at the other end of the table.
Although General Lazas’ expression showed surprise, Bai Zemin did not take it as anything special since it was natural to feel surprised after hearing such words. What he was looking for was something else, therefore, despite knowing that the mirror would not work on General Lazas due to Bai Zemin’s level being too low, he continued with his charade.
“It’s not that I doubt you, but since you will be my right hand on this battlefield I have no choice but to be cautious for everyone’s sake.” Bai Zemin pointed the broken mirror at General Lazas and as he imbued a part of his Mana the mirror released a purple radiance that partially covered his body.
The general could feel that his soul was being studied, more precisely, his heart was being read.
“General Lazas, are you completely and totally loyal to Gales and the royal family of Gales?” Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes and focused entirely on reading the expression of the man in front of him.
“I, Lazas Mavis, was born and raised in the Gales Kingdom. My father fought and bled for this kingdom just as my grandfather did and just as I do now. I would rather die than betray my homeland and that of my family or the brothers who fight beside me.” General Lazas’ voice was deep and serious, his posture straight and firm as a spear while looking at the mirror without fear for the results.
Bai Zemin watched him for several seconds before retracting the mirror and looking at it as if inspecting something. After a few seconds, he nodded as if he had his answer, and as he looked at the general with a slight smile, he slowly said, “It is good to know that your heart is with Gales, General.”
General Lazas brought his right fist to the left side of his chest in a military salute. Although Bai Zemin noticed that the man was a little offended, he did not mind such a thing at all.
“General Lazas, dismiss for now and order the troops to get ready to fight.”
General Lazas nodded, stood up, and left.
Exactly 40 minutes later and as if both sides had agreed, the troops of the Gales Kingdom and the Maiston Kingdom met in an open clearing right in the middle of where the camps of both kingdoms had previously stood.
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