The Invincible Overlord of Heroes.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency, good news, good news."

In the newly built Earl's Castle, Aini, with a distressed look on his face, drank bottle after bottle of expensive and precious red wine like water.

While others were happily celebrating the New Year, he couldn't even have a reunion dinner.

Except for a few sons whom he cared about and a lover who was on vacation at the manor, all his immediate family members were captured by his enemies.

His wife, daughter and lover fell into the hands of the enemy, and Aini could imagine what would happen to them.

Anyway, if a woman who has a relationship with Xu Lai falls into his hands, he will make her suffer a fate worse than death and inflict all the terrible punishments in the world on her.

By putting himself in other people's shoes, Aini can already imagine the kind of bullying his wife and daughter will suffer.

If this were to get out, hundreds of years of honor of their family would be destroyed in his hands.

In the past two or three months, he hasn't heard any good news at all.

All his allies betrayed him. Not only did they refuse to send any soldiers, but people kept surrendering to the traitor.

Even if there are those who have not surrendered yet, it is not because they want to be loyal to him, Aini, but because the conditions have not been agreed upon.

Of course, he would not think that this was the reason for him to desert the battlefield and betray other nobles first.

He would not even think that this was the reason why he made a deal with the orcs and betrayed the grassland first. After all, those heroes who fell from the sky were not from the grassland.

Due to the hero's strong physique, this strong red wine couldn't make him completely drunk, or even make him forget his troubles temporarily.

"What good news?"

Lying on the wine table, Aini, who was too lazy to care about his status as an earl, said in a muffled voice.

The attendant who rushed in ignored the mess in the room and said excitedly: "Master Parame sent a message saying that the stronghold has agreed to cooperate with us.

They have agreed to help us fight against the guy named Xu. We only need to provide them with food and supplies, and we don’t need to send a single soldier.”

Aini narrowed his misty eyes and said in disbelief: "How is this possible? Has the orc changed his nature?"

The attendant coughed and said, "They said that they would take away half of the grassland afterwards, and they would also leave a written document."

Aini thought for a moment and said, "They want to use the document to restrain me and create a fait accompli.

But what does it matter? I will no longer be the master of the grassland. Rather than letting those traitors take advantage of it, I'd rather give it to the orcs.

Half of the grassland? Humph, I'm afraid it's just used to paralyze us. Will the orcs be willing to send out a large army just for half of the grassland?

Go, reply to Parame immediately and tell her that I do not agree to this agreement.

I will give the entire grassland to the orcs, but please, Your Majesty the Beast King, leave me the three castles of my family.

In addition, my eldest son Jerry has inherited my talent and is willing to serve as the vanguard for His Majesty the Beast King!"

"My Lord, if the Temple finds out about giving the entire grassland to the orcs, I'm afraid we will all be in trouble."

Aini snorted coldly and said, "Humph, if we give half of the grassland to the orcs, will those guys in the temple let us go?
No, it won’t. We have no way to go and no way to retreat now.

Those guys in the temple, huh, they can’t even take care of themselves now, so how can they have the time to care about us.

If they had this ability, they would not let Xu rob my Conaston Castle!"

Aini became angrier and angrier as he spoke, and by the end, he even had half of his body leaning on the table.

After shaking his head twice, Aini tried to sober himself up, and then asked:
"Does the wizard have anything else to say?"

The attendant licked his lips and said, "The Master only asked us to send a few more copies of the most detailed map of the grassland.

In addition, the wizard also asked us to gather food and fodder in advance. According to his estimation, the orcs should be able to send out troops within one to two months."

"So fast?" Aini asked subconsciously.

The attendant glanced at Aini, lowered his head and said, "Your Excellency, time is running out. If you wait any longer, the entire grassland city will be taken over by the group surnamed Xu.

In order to get the orcs to gather and set out quickly, the wizard has been talking his mouth off."

Aini waved his hand weakly and said, "I understand. Go to the warehouse and find some latest maps. Send someone to deliver them to the mage."

After sending away the attendants, Aini slumped in his chair, breathing heavily.

Although Aini said nice things, he actually understood it better than anyone else.

If the orcs were so easy to deal with, they would not have been driven to the Gobi Desert in the first place.

Orcs have always been synonymous with barbarism. If their promises can be counted, Aini would rather believe that wolves will stop eating sheep and eat grass instead.

But there was no way. If he didn't rely on these orcs, he wouldn't even have a final burial place.

Just as he would not let Xu Lai go, Xu Lai would certainly not let go of him, the thorn in his side.

As long as Aini is on the grassland, Xu Lai will never be able to rightfully control the grassland.

Therefore, if he does not collude with the orcs, there is absolutely no way he can survive.

Although he certainly didn't believe that the orcs would be content with just half of the grassland, he had already surrendered after all. At worst, he could give up everything and just keep a city. There should still be hope for him to save his life.

The orcs have to pretend to do something, otherwise when they occupy other imperial cities in the future, who will believe them and surrender to them?

Orcs are barbaric, not brainless. What's more, he even sent his eldest son, the heir, to the other side, which was obviously a hostage.

Although there is a high probability that you can survive if you join the orcs.

But when he thought about the fact that his ancestors' heritage would be handed over to those barbaric orcs, Aini's heart ached terribly.

But now that things have come to this, he has no way out. At least by joining the orcs he can stay alive, and maybe even retain his current wealth.

If he didn't do this, his subordinates would see no hope and might secretly cut off his head one day and give it to the man named Xu.

After catching his breath, Aini, with red eyes, picked up another bottle of precious red wine as if in revenge and gulped it down.

"It's bad, it's bad, Your Excellency, it's bad!"

"puff……"

"Cough, cough, cough, you bastard, do you want to choke me to death?"

He had just swished a bottle of red wine into his mouth when the waiter, who had been out for a short while, came back with a sad face.

This attendant was quite favored by Aini. Even though he was so impetuous, Aini did not punish him too much. He just asked unhappily:

"What happened again? Did the orc lion open his mouth wide?

I have anticipated this, and if it doesn’t work out, I will give the other two castles to them and I will keep this one.”

The attendant shook his head and said, "No, no, Your Excellency, yes, yes..."

"What on earth is that? It can't be that Xu is calling, right?"

The attendant knelt down in front of Aini and said, "My Lord, please think of a solution. The latest scout report is that the guy named Xu has led the army 30 miles away."

Aini, who had just stood up in anger, felt dizzy when he heard the news, and the alcohol that had accumulated in his head suddenly surged up.

With a thud, Eni collapsed on the chair again, but this time he couldn't even maintain basic demeanor and collapsed directly in front of his attendant.

"Count, Count?"

After the city is captured, Count Aini will certainly not be able to escape, but those close to him will probably not have a good ending either.

Otherwise, why would he run around colluding with the orcs, something that is bound to be criticized by all humans?

With the shaking of his attendant, Aini finally regained some consciousness.

He muttered to himself, "Didn't I order the scouts to be sent 100 miles away?"

The attendant said aggrievedly: "Those people in the cavalry regiment are all hypocritical.

Apart from Master Jerry who would lead people out of the city for patrol, the cavalry commanders disappeared as soon as they left the city."

Aini opened his mouth but in the end, nothing came out. He had actually known about this situation for a long time.

Since more and more nobles defected to Xu Lai and more and more grassland cities were occupied by Xu Lai, Aini became more desperate and helpless.

The more Aini did nothing, the more disappointed his subordinates became.

Even the boss hides away drinking every day, what hope is there for the subordinates? They just follow suit and find a place to hide, hoping to have a few days of good life first.

Anyway, when Xu Lai arrived, they turned around and surrendered. Are they going to hand over their lives to that useless count?
Now of course, we should just muddle through for as long as we can.

Aini, slumped in the chair, murmured:

"It's too late to gather the troops from the two cities now. Order all the knights to retreat back to the city. I'm going to fight him."

Through market acquisitions and plundering of nearby towns, Aini has managed to accumulate some strength over the past few months.

Add to that the guards who stayed in the castle, mobilize some militia, and temporarily spend money to recruit some mercenaries, and you can gather tens of thousands of troops.

The attendant responded and hurried to convey Aini's order.

At this time, Xu Lai, who always led his troops to advance quickly, now felt so uncomfortable that he wanted to die.

The royal warhorse under his crotch seemed to be taking a leisurely stroll, and would stop after taking a few steps to chew the fertile grass on the grassland.

Even though the weather in mid-January was still as cold as usual, the grass in the magical world did not follow any natural laws and continued to grow tenaciously.

Even though it was carrying two people, as an 8th-level warhorse, the royal warhorse didn't feel the hardship at all.

Elena, who was standing by, saw Xu Lai's helplessness and apologized awkwardly:
"I'm sorry Xu Lai, although riding is a required course in the temple, we still don't practice it enough. I'm a burden to you."

He held Giselle tightly in his arms. After giving the unicorn to Lena, he sat in Xu Lai's arms with peace of mind when they went out this time.

"Don't talk nonsense, you are doing this to help me, what's the point of saying it's a burden or not.

If anyone is going to be a burden, I will be the one to burden you.

Besides, you can all ride horses anyway, so the delay is not your fault."

Elena knew her own business, even though they were all riding on horses.

But on the one hand, the horses on the grassland are of higher grade, and the priests have not received much riding training, so it is difficult for them to control these high-grade horses.

Secondly, although most of the mages, phantom archers, and even mercenaries were on foot, they were not lazy at all and were actually not slower than them.

Just as Xu Lai and his team were slowly approaching Aini's castle, Elvy, who was in charge of reconnaissance in the sky, landed on the ground and said to Xu Lai:

"Xu Lai, we found a small group of Aini's knights ahead. Should we capture them and ask them about it?"

Xu Lai nodded and said, "We have nothing to do, so let's catch him and ask him."

Elvy's movements were astonishingly fast.

After ordering the archangels to wait where they were, he whistled twice and in less than a minute, he came back with one in each hand.

After throwing the two knights in bright armor in front of Xu Lai, Elvy frowned and said, “We can only bring back these two, the rest of us don’t have the hands to take them.

But they all said they wanted to surrender, so I let them wait where they were and didn’t kill them.”

In unimportant little things, Xu Lai is willing to maintain and even indulge their kindness.

"It's okay. It doesn't matter if they pretend to surrender. If they run away, it will be their own loss."

After saying that, Xu Lai looked at the two knights in front of him. Upon seeing this, Xu Lai laughed and said:

"Hey, isn't this the Earl's son?"

Xu Lai actually recognized these two knights. He had seen them twice at the banquet hosted by Aini.

One is Eni's successor, the 24-year-old 6th-level knight Jerry, and the other is his squire, also in his 20s, both of whom are excellent knights.

As Aini's successor, Jerry also inherited Aini's cavalry talent. When leading 4th, 5th, and 6th level cavalry in battle, he gains more offensive and defensive attributes and speed.

Originally, this young man should have been an excellent cavalry commander, because even his father only inherited 4th and 5th level cavalry.

But unfortunately, his father stood against Xu Lai.

Jerry raised his head and said arrogantly:

"You can kill or shave me, it's all up to you."

After all, he is a young man. Jerry stuck his neck out and refused to say a single soft word, even refusing to bend his waist even a little.

Seeing this scene, Xu Lai was actually somewhat happy and reluctant to kill.

At this time, he began to understand the feelings of the lords in the books. When they encountered such a tough guy, they really wanted to recruit him for their own use and were reluctant to kill him.

"You are quite courageous. I won't waste any more words. I just want to ask you one question: do you surrender or not?"

Jerry is a very conceited knight. If he hadn't relied on his good skills and talents, and hadn't been faster and stronger than ordinary knights, he wouldn't have been bold enough to monitor Xu Lai along the way.

If I had just noticed Xu Lai, I would have turned around and ran without hesitation.

Less than 15 kilometers away from her city, Elvy also has to consider Xu Lai's safety, so she may not let go and chase him.

But this kid underestimated Xu Lai and was too conceited.

He didn't expect that he was no match for the angel on the other side.

What he didn't expect was that the knights under his command, who were usually extremely obedient, not only did not help at all the moment the angel descended, but they instantly turned against him.

"I will never surrender even if I die!"

Xu Lai nodded and said, "Then I'll send you on your way!" (End of this chapter)