Chapter 67: The Paladin's Meeting

(Paladin Lord Harb POV)

Harb: "You, idiot!"

Harb was in the meeting hall of the castle, scolding the Paladin Captain, who failed with his mission and also got defeated in battle.

Paladin Captain: "Forgive me, Lord Harb."

Harb: "You're saying that you abandoned your mission of ambush and tried to take over for yourselves?"

Paladin Captain: "Yes, sir, but we brought valuable information."

Harb: "Fool! Are you a scout? We have scouting groups for that very reason!"

The Paladin Captain gave out the information they got from assaulting the fort.

Most of them detail the enemies they faced and the tactics they used.

Harb: "Our scouts already have that information. What is the reason for you to sacrifice those 400 Paladins!?"

The Paladin Captain's next words could very much decide his fate.

Paladin Captain: "I wanted to move up the ranks by thinking on my own and achieving something great."

Harb: "We do not need independent thinkers. We need soldiers. Bring this man to the dungeons!"

Paladin: "Yes, sir!"

Ah, these foolish captains.

These failures keep happening because Hero took all the veteran Paladins and Paladin captains on his expedition.

All I have now in my legions are newly promoted captains and freshly trained Paladins who have no experience fighting real monsters.

The Holy Knight soldiers that I hired perform much better at the tasks I gave them.

A Paladin scout comes inside the meeting hall of the castle.

Paladin Scout: "Lord Harb, here are our reports and our estimates on how many enemies we would be facing."

Hmm.

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The enemy has roughly 12,000 troops. However, most of them are 2nd- or 3rd-tier skeletons.

So we can say that only 3000 of them are worth counting.

The bad news is that they have dwarven allies that use dangerous machinery.

Our armor cannot protect us from its destructive power; our mages will need to produce physical barriers, and that costs a lot more magic than making magical ones.

Harb: "How are our numbers?"

Paladin Scout: "We are around 4,600 now because of the recent battles."

Damn it. If only those 400 Paladins had not died in vain, they could have taken at least 800 powerful undead.

Harb: "Let's go now. Once we take out their fort, we will be able to scout the surrounding areas better."

I had the scouts relay my orders to the Paladin captains.

When he was about to go outside the castle to move out with his army, his orb lit up.

Someone was trying to contact him, and that someone is undoubtedly Hero.

I picked up the orb and connected with Hero through the orb.

Harb: "Hello."

Hero: "Hello, Harb. What is the situation there right now?"

Harb: "Everything is fine. How is the expedition doing?"

Hero: "We're finished. We'll be back in a few months after helping our settlers set up some villages."

Hero's plan that he presented to the Circle of Light doesn't end with obliterating other races.

It also plans to settle humans on every continent possible for human life to thrive.

Harb: "Really!? I-I see."

Hero: "Why are you so surprised, Harb? Is anything wrong?"

Harb: "No, nothing. Take your time; it's all boring here since there's nothing to do anyway.

Hero: "Is that so?"

Harb: "Y-yes."

Hero: "If you say so, we won't waste any time here, so we will go back as soon as we can."

Harb: "Got it, Hero."

Hero: "That is all. Goodbye."

Ah shit. Who would've known that Hero would finish the expedition so quickly?

I guess that is expected when he groups the strongest Paladins for a singular goal.

Harb went outside the castle and led his army towards the enemy fort.

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(Mel POV)

Skeleton Scout: "Grave news! The enemy army is moving right now, and they number around 4000!"

Mel: "Now, we're talking! Finally, we would get a rematch with that Paladin Lord."

Mag: "Did you say 4000? We estimate that they would still have 4500 soldiers."

Skeleton Scout: "They left some to guard their fort in case of emergencies."

Mag: "I see. Thank you for the information. Relay it to the others."

Skeleton Scout: "Right away!"

Mag: "Mel, remember Lord Idmon's orders, hold them back, and wait for their arrival."

Mel: "I know, but that doesn't mean we can't kill a lot of them while holding them back, right?"

Mag: "Of course, just be careful not to die out there."

Mel: "Who do you think I am? I'm the strongest Dread Knight!"

Mag: "Yeah, yeah. However, the Paladin Lord defeated you.

Mel: "Oh, I'll be getting revenge for that. I'm ready!"

Mag: "Wonderful. Let's see how you fare in the next fight."

Dolf approached us from his station.

Dolf: "I heard that their army is coming. I want my spot to be on the ground and fight them head-on."

Mel: "I won't stop you. In fact, I'll join you there. Let's smash some Paladin's heads, shall we?"

Dolf: "Now, that's what I want to do here."

Mag: "Ah, the barbarity of these two sickens me. Anyways, I'll be commanding the range troops from the wall, so you know where to find me."

Mel: "Got it! Ran, you shoot them from the wall; I want you to take out the strongest one you see from afar."

Ran: "(nods.)"

Souta's group also arrived from the forest.

Souta: "We'll be pulling out the Ents too. They should know by now that they're facing living trees, so they might get surrounded and burned."

Mel: "I understand; have them throw rocks from behind the walls."

Souta: "Gotcha. Let's go!"

He led the Ents and Treemen to their positions. It's a good thing that Souta is here.

He is a forest ranger, so he has a good relationship with the trees.

As the battle for the kingdom was fast approaching, Mel's mind wandered to the past.

Back when there were no wars, he only had to be wary of the occasional wolf attacking their farm.