Blood Dragon

Section 370 Tracing

"But it's a queen now," said Scadella. "On the one hand, you treat her as a younger sister, and on the other hand, you can't completely treat her as a child. Although our adventure has succeeded this time, you must understand that if this matter is delayed by five years... no, even if it is delayed by two years , Three years, I will also persuade you to give up this idea."

"I know." The king sighed softly. "Ten years... ten years..." His voice didn't know whether it was sorrow or joy.

He was lucky because his sister held up the kingdom while he was in captivity.But he is not lucky, because his sister has shown such extraordinary abilities that now he is facing a battle for the throne.But after all, he was lucky, because it was only ten years since that happened.

The older generation of courtiers in the kingdom are still there.Everyone still remembers why they chose the little queen to become the king, the former king who died in battle, and him as the crown prince.Especially important is that they are also very lucky to live in the dominant position of the court.Only two or three years from now, as long as the composition of the personnel changes (which is inevitable due to the aging of human beings), then things are by no means so simple.

The only regret is in the army.Of course, this is unavoidable.When the former king died in battle, a large number of military generals had already died.The secret contest between Byron and Rafa has done more.As we know before, all those who control the army are newly promoted by the Queen.But in the military, grades trump all qualifications.A general who has won consecutive battles, even if he has very low qualifications, his prestige and right to speak are stronger than those veteran generals with poor records.

"That Ashurfat... can I get his allegiance?" He changed the subject again.

"It's hard." Skadra answered directly. "In my opinion, he is a very self-centered person. For the things in the world, he has his own standards in his heart. And this standard is different from the standards of ordinary people in the world-of course, I don't mean It is completely different, but there are deviations in some aspects. Even if he can swear allegiance, I think he will be the same as the sword guard back then, and will not use all his strength to serve you."

"Is that what you said earlier, you 'have no idea what he needs'?"

"That's what it means," Scadella replied.

"Can you make him... maintain a neutral attitude in this matter?"

"That's completely impossible. You can't make a price for him. Maybe you've heard that when he was a sword guard... that fellow Byron approached him and offered a price for him. "

"I guess it must be very low. After all, it's just the price to buy a... bodyguard."

"That's right, but before Her Majesty sent troops to confront Byron, he offered a second price."

"Ah... that price should be pretty good."

"Yes, in that case, as long as Byron is not an idiot, the price offered must be a price that is enough to make people-anyone tempted."

"But it's definitely not enough. Because at that time, Byron thought that he had a good chance of winning by relying on his superior force. So the price he offered was at most just a little bit to sway people, and it was impossible to sway people."

"You are right, but theoretically speaking, at that time, your sister had to give him an extra bonus. But even after everything is over, when he is ordered to lead the army to fight against the invading Chaos Legion, the extra bonus has not yet come out. .He's still an earl, and doesn't even have a real estate. Let alone anything else."

"Is this... not in a hurry?"

"In the long run, maybe so. But...the earl's empty title has no corresponding territory, it is really unusual. This can only show one thing. Ashuruffat doesn't care about these at all. His service ...let me use the word, free."

"Is that so? For free?"

"What's free is the most expensive thing," Scaldera said. "So I guess, your sister must have made some... special, unknown promise to him. There must be some secret agreement. At first, I suspected that it had something to do with the evil god. But now I have There is absolutely no doubt about it.”

"This earl...in addition to his ability to raise funds, he seems to have great military strategy." The king changed the subject again.

"Victory is the best proof of military capability."

"But I heard that here... because of his negligence, it was temporarily captured by the Chaos Legion... If Essien hadn't arrived in time, then maybe this war would have a completely different result." The king seemed to be talking to himself. Said in a self-talking tone.

"Even so, it's a small blemish in a great victory," Scadella said. "That's a small shadow in the sun, no one cares. Most people in this world care about the result, not the process."

……

"You know, my lord, what happened that night was so... so... that I had no choice but to hide. For I was alone then. All my companions had been slaughtered, and it was only I..." The soldier who spoke lowered his head very disturbedly, watching his feet moving around on the ground.

"No, that's not your fault." Ashuruffat's attitude was far milder than he expected. "I understand that soldiers need to be brave, but they don't need to die. In that case, hiding is also allowed... Well, actually, I want to hear what you saw in detail again."

The soldier began to tell.

Ashuruffat had already heard about what happened that night from other people's mouths: the Chaos Legion suddenly launched an attack that night.A small army of elite Chaos crept up the ramparts with the help of a few hooks.This was originally a non-threatening attack, but it succeeded because of the extreme shortage of garrison troops in the city.

What follows is typical drama in siege warfare: the invaders use the fastest speed to open the city gates before the defenders launch an organized counterattack.So the enemy troops from outside the city swarmed in.Hastily assembled, the defenders launched a senseless counter-offensive which was defeated.So the guard immediately chose to retreat to the second city wall.

Originally, this scene ended here, because the Chaos Legion was also a small and ruined army, so it was impossible for them to capture the second city wall.But unfortunately, the queen and her entourage and guards happened to spend the night in a beautiful villa in the outer city.So it was blocked by the Chaos Legion.

Thus ensued an unexpected and fierce battle.The queen's team fought and left, and finally hid in the temple.Eventually, the Queen escapes the city through a tunnel.The next thing is relatively simple.At dawn, General Essien led his army to arrive and met the queen.So, under the Queen's order, the general immediately sent his army to attack the city of Newsteria.But it's a pity that he came a little late and only blocked a small number of soldiers who were too late to withdraw.Although he received the honor of "recovering the city of Neusteria", he actually achieved almost no results.Because the Chaos Legion had already taken advantage of the night to run away.

After confirming that this Chaos Legion is only a remnant of less than a thousand people (and has already suffered serious losses in the battle with the Queen's Guard, after the fire, at least [-] Chaos Warrior corpses were found in the ruins of the temple) Finally, Essien searched the outskirts of the city symbolically, and then immediately led the troops to the front line to support Aishuruffat.The small group of chaotic remnants has since disappeared, and they must have taken advantage of the opportunity of the two armies to go back.

Apart from the queen's safety, this battle was just an insignificant little battle, and it would not even allow historians to waste pen and ink on the books.

However, soldiers, especially experienced soldiers, can sense from the decisive and swift actions of the Chaos Legion that although this Chaos Legion is a remnant soldier, there must be a leader who can completely control everything.And their purpose of attacking Newstria City is also very clear - this matter can be found out after checking the matter - that is to seize supplies.The warehouses in the Outer City serve the needs of Chaos troops well.

A city like Newstria City, even if it is just an outer city, cannot be controlled by an army of a thousand people.The Chaos Legion didn't spend too much time searching, because they didn't expect to completely capture the city.In the night and the melee, a few defenders who had no time to retreat to the second city wall hid in the outer city, and—naturally—saw something that historians would not care about at all.

"So you saw a Chaos Warrior come out before that temple burned down?" Ashuruffat asked.

"That's right, General. At that time... as I said just now, there were three to five hundred Chaos warriors gathered at the entrance of the temple. They probably knew that the terrain inside was unfavorable, so they gathered in waves Go in. However, none of the ones that went in before came out until the last batch went in..." The soldier tried his best to recall what he saw at the beginning.

"The so-called 'batch', how many people are there?"

"Not necessarily, there are more than a dozen, and there are seventy or eighty. Go in batch after batch... The burning temple is like a monster, devouring them batch by batch. not come out."

"You said just now that the last batch came out?"

"Yes, there are a lot of Chaos warriors in that batch, and one of them... Whether it is armor or weapons, it is very different from others. It is a leader at a glance, it should be a Chaos champion or something. He and a group of About seventy or eighty of his subordinates rushed in, but he was the only one who came out in the end. Wait a minute, General, he is not alone. He brought out another person."

"A wounded soldier?"

"No... if I'm not mistaken, it should be a woman... a captive. Yes, I'm sure. At that time, the fire was very bright, so I could see it clearly. I guess it should be a member of the Queen's entourage , because there were hardly any women in the city at that time."

"How did he treat the captive?"

"He carried her out on his shoulders. That woman...is not tall. Compared with that leader, she looks like a child."

"And then?" Ashuruffat tried his best to keep himself calm, but in fact his voice had become significantly louder.

"The leader of Chaos... took the captives and left. Other subordinates outside followed him. Not long after, the temple collapsed in the fire."