Chapter 369: The Disappeared Death Spirits
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When the moon came out, Fernando finally said what he wanted to say. This was supposed to be his welcome party. No matter how unsettling their conflicts were, they still had to act decently, otherwise he would look like he had no class and become the butt of jokes. No one would expect Fernando to totally change this welcome party into a military conference, since no one in the Moramatch knew about military strategy except Kumaraghosha. However, Kumaraghosha was not in Moramatch. If Fernando talked to them about military strategy, it would be like playing piano to cows.
Fernando not only talked about his plan, but also showed them various strategic objectives. Neither party exchanged information they had about Blackwater City, but Fernando proposed a plan to attack from both the south and north. Obviously, he knew Blackwater City’s current situation, and even knew that Blackwater City had the ability to change from defense to offense. Anfey thought about the Hawk King Mauso, whom Fernando mentioned, and felt relieved.
Fernando even told everyone something that had confused all the countries. Since the beginning, all the countries had used their resources to set up defense lines and stabilize the frontline in order to win themselves some time, but the death spirits’ attacks were not as strong as before. They were much smaller in number than had been expected. Necromancers seemed to disappear at the same time.
Taking the Country of Mercenaries as an example, the population in Transverse Mountain was not big. The further north in Transverse Mountain, the more populated. Villages of different sizes were everywhere. Only a dozen of miles, or sometimes even a few miles, separated two villages. This expansive area had been wiped out by death spirits from the very beginning, and no one survived the attack. By conservative estimates, the number of death spirits should have reached 250,000. This number of death spirits should have been enough to support about one hundred necromancers to move up a level up and allow hundreds of necromancers maintain their energy. In other words, this area should have had a necromancer group.
The reality was quite different. The death spirits numbered between 100,000 and 150,000 at most. They did not see any necromancer. Where did the other 100,000 death spirits go? This area was not the only place experiencing this situation. Almost every country reported the same.
Death spirits had evolved to be intelligent. It was not abnormal to see them fighting and killing each other, but it did not make sense that cannibalism would cause them to lose almost half of the total number. It was even more strange that necromancers did not stop death spirits from killing each other.
Victory belonged to the party who knew themselves and their opponents well. This was common sense. The problem lay with those necromancers who knew Pan Continent very well. Necromancers did not know everything about Pan Continent, but very close to it. Some conquered people on Pan Continent even fed necromancers information as spies. On the other hand, agents in other countries only received superficial information about the structure of necromancers’ forces. They could not get more information because they had no way to return to normal life if they decided to join the necromancers. To gain the trust of necromancers, they first had to become one of them, but if they were already death spirits, how could they come back and work for kings?
Fernando had no time to pay attention to this. He had decided his troops would leave the following day. The vanguard of his troops would travel north along the commercial route. The middle unit would follow the vanguard. Christian would supervise the troops. Fernando had asked Anfey to lead some mercenaries to go with him. One of his goals was to save the mercenaries who were stuck in Blackwater City. He wanted to show his mercy and build the foundation for the church. He had a hard time dealing with mercenaries. He would rather have mercenaries communicate with their peers.
Anfey hesitated for a while before he agreed with Fernando’s request. Anfey’s goal was to recruit more mercenaries. Even if Fernando did not ask, he would figure out a way to go with him. Since Fernando had requested it first, Anfey regarded him with disdain. Fernando seemed to be turning those mercenaries over to Anfey, and Anfey knew they were on two different sides. Maybe he was too young, which led Fernando to underestimate him. No matter who underestimated whom, they would know one day who was better. Anfey was not afraid of it because he had powerful and influential people behind him to crush Fernando.
Fernando did not show much concern for those who stayed in Moramatch and their weapons and supplies. He would take most of the weapons and supplies with him, leaving the rest in Moramatch. Anfey would make the final decision where to keep the weapons and supplies. Fernando would not object. He could even take all the soldiers with him and leave Moramatch in absolute freedom. Alice spoke up against his suggestions before Anfey could even say anything. She asked to Fernando to leave at least 30,000 cavalry and a priest group, and of course they would have access to the underground city.
Fernando told Alice that Shield of Light legion had cleaned up all the death spirits on the way. Moramatch was very safe and had no need for so many soldiers to stay behind. Those soldiers should be allocated to the battle field. But Alice insisted. Fernando was quiet for a while and finally agreed to Alice’s request.
Watching Fernando walk out of the conference room, Tiger jumped up first. He moved his rigid body and said quietly, "Master, I think Fernando is not a bad guy." Anfey and Alice could talk with Fernando, but Ozzic and others could only partially get what Fernando said. Only Tiger and Khufu had no idea what was implied between the lines when they talked about strategic plans or appointing people to different jobs.
"Tiger, why are you saying he is not bad?" Orsie smiled.
"He is nice and polite. When Master Alice slammed the table in reaction to him, he did even get mad," Tiger said.
"You are right," Khufu agreed.
"When you hunt magic crystals in the forest, would you yell on purpose to tell the magic beasts that you are coming to hunt them?" Orsie shook his head and smiled.
"Of course not. I am not stupid, ok?" Tiger yelled.
"We all know you are not stupid. I have no comment on it." Orsie smiled. "I have to tell you that Fernando would not do that either."
"Orsie, what do you mean?" Tiger said angrily.
"Ok, Tiger, Orsie did not try to give you a hard time. I also think Fernando is not bad. However, people like him would usually show it on their faces if they wanted to set us up. Do not compare him with those stupid magic beasts. You will know if magic beasts are scared—want to flee or fight with us—when you look at them. You would never know what Fernando is thinking even if you watched him for a whole day," Ozzic said.
Tiger scratched his head without saying anything.
"Let’s put it this way, Tiger: do you know what Master Anfey and Alice are thinking now?" Orsie asked.
"How could I know?" Tiger said.
"Exactly. You’d better talk less and just listen to Master Anfey and Alice." Orsie was doing Tiger a favor. Tiger had agreed to work for Anfey. Now Fernando had led Shield of Light legion to Moramatch, and he started to talk about how nice Fernando was, which might give Anfey a feeling that he could change to whichever side was stronger. Orsie knew Tiger was not that kind of person. He just said everything on his mind. His head was bigger than others, but had fewer brains in it.
Unfortunately, Tiger did not understand what Orsie had done for him. He even gave Orsie a look before he plopped into a seat.
"Ozzic and Orsie are right. I have some experience working with Church of Light. We have to be more aware. Wolves are not scary because we know how to deal with them. Wolves disguised as sheep are more scary. They could take a bite at your throat when you are not alert," Anfey said calmly.
"Master, let’s put Fernando’s issue aside for a while. Recently, he has to rely on us to serve his needs, so he would not give us a hard time. We have six units in total. How many will you take?" Alice said quietly.
"If I take too few people, we would not be able to recruit more mercenaries. Instead, we could be assimilated into their group. If I take too many people with me, Moramatch could be in trouble," Anfey said, frowning. "I will take Ozzic, Orsie and Khufu, and the rest of you will stay here."
"Don’t you want to take Shinbella?" Alice asked in surprise.
"No. You would not have strong fighting ability if I take her." Anfey shook his head. "Let Shinbella be your assistant, which will help you maintain control of the situation."
"How about Master Ernest?" Alice asked.
"I am not a kid who needs to take Uncle Ernest with me everywhere," Anfey responded. "Besides, Uncle Ernest likes to practice sword skills and dislikes socialization. It was already asking too much when I asked him to welcome Fernando. I do not want to bother him too much." Anfey knew well that Ernest had been taking good care of him and protecting him. That was love from a father-like figure, but he could not ask Ernest to go everywhere with him, which would interfere with his freedom and affect his practice. Moreover, he did not want to be caught in a bluff. If he kept doing this to Ernest, Ernest would change his opinion of Anfey. People needed to learn to be more independent instead of relying on others; otherwise they would be looked down upon by others. It would not be good for his own development.
"How about Maser Entos?" Alice asked.
"I will ask him in a little bit,." Anfey said.
"Master, how about having Khufu stay and you take Shinbella with you. If you do not have powers with you, our mercenaries would behave fine, but the mercenaries you want to recruit would not listen to you. You do not have to worry about Moramatch," Alice said quietly.