The Grand Marshal roared at the generals, "Do you hear what our soldiers are saying? They are crying out! Their hearts are bleeding! Never in my life have I felt such shame. As an old soldier who has fought through bloody battles, I know what is more painful than death! It is betrayal! While we sit here in this safe rear, smugly counting our spoils of war, our soldiers are weeping tears, bidding farewell to their mothers, bravely facing death! Did their mothers hand their sons over to us just to watch them cry and die in battle?"
"No, Your Excellency," the generals, with red eyes, shouted in unison.
"When I heard that my soldiers were actually begging for my permission to die in battle, my heart was filled with nothing but grief and shame!" the Grand Marshal bellowed. "Dying in battle has become our soldiers' extravagant wish, their only desire! They should have been returning triumphantly, receiving a hero's welcome and treatment. But now, they can only request to die in battle! My soldiers told me, they are men of iron, even if the orcs boil and eat them, they won't cry. But now they are crying because our own reinforcements declared them guilty and stabbed Rody in the chest. What is this? This is the greatest shame of the human alliance!"
"Yes, Your Excellency," some generals couldn't help but shed tears, replying in grief and anger.
"Did you hear that? My soldiers told me they are willing to stain the land of evil with their blood, not their tears!" The Grand Marshal smashed the table in front of him in fury, "Did you hear that? My soldiers are begging, 'Please, let us die under the orcs' battle-axes, we hope to die like heroes...' That's what they told me, that's what kind of soldiers they are! These soldiers shine like gold, radiating a brilliance that the entire human army does not possess. But within us, there's an invisible sword hanging over their heads, murdering them under our watch, viciously pushing them towards the abyss of death! Generals, are you going to stand by and watch? Watch our soldiers die in grief and anger?"
"No, Your Excellency, never!" The generals erupted, extremely agitated.
"Your Excellency, the enemy... the enemy requests to speak with you..." A guard reported, terrified under the Grand Marshal's thunderous fury.
"Put them through!" the Grand Marshal, hearing this, took a deep breath, suppressing his anger.
As the generals prepared to step aside, the Grand Marshal signaled them to stay.
Once connected, a voice speaking in slightly broken Human Common Tongue could be heard, clearly carrying a heavy beast race accent. "I am the general under the Eighth Marshal of the Lionheart King, named..."
"I don't speak to pawns; bring someone who can actually talk!" the Grand Marshal coldly interrupted.
"Haha, Grand Marshal Fondsman, your pride is still intact," followed by a man's voice with a very fluent Human Common Tongue accent, laughing heartily, "Fonds, long time no see. I am delighted to be your opponent once again. Think about it, life is lonely without an adversary! Fortunately, this century-long war came early, otherwise I would have been too impatient to wait."
"Leon, the Axe King, decades have passed and your tongue has become smoother. I hope your axe blade hasn't done the same," the Grand Marshal grunted heavily. "Spit it out quickly, I don’t have time to waste with you!"
"You must be busy looking for the miraculous boy Rody, haha!" Leon, the Axe King on the other end, laughed wildly before continuing, "I am truly grateful to you. If I could, I would invite your assassins for a drink! God, I used to be so jealous, wondering why such geniuses always emerge among you humans. But not anymore, because he will soon be ours, congratulations to us! Fonds, I'm delighted that none of your human kings thought of marrying their princess to little Rody, and even happier that you only assigned him as a logistics soldier. Blessed by the demon god, if you had made him a general, I think I would have had a real headache! Now it's fine, you don't want him, no problem, we orcs will welcome him! Just a nod from him, and our Lionheart King said he would immediately marry him to the most beautiful princess, lands and subjects as he pleases, as much as he wants! Hahaha!"
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"What's your princess worth? Do you think Rody would like a cat woman with a tail on her back?" the Grand Marshal scoffed coldly. "Outsmarting yourself!"
"It doesn't matter if he doesn't like her. If he prefers human women, that's fine too. Whoever he likes, we can provide for him, even your Holy Maiden. As long as he likes, we can capture her for him," Leon, the Axe King, said with a strange laugh. "I hear the Demon Lord Niyaruye is also very interested in Rody. His princess won't be inferior to a human woman, right? Fonds, my friend, don't worry, when I have Sergeant Rody under my command, I will definitely accept your congratulations. Goodbye, my dearest friend..."
After the call ended, the entire command room fell into dead silence.
The generals were sweating profusely; if the orcs got Rody, with his unpredictable tactics combined with the orcs' bravery, the consequences would be unthinkable. Now that Rody and his subordinates were far in the land of evil, if Leon, the Axe King, discovered them in battle, they would undoubtedly capture him at all costs.
If they somehow forced Rody to submit, it would be a nightmare for humanity...
"Your Excellency, we can't let the orcs find Rody first!" one general urgently said. "Rody can’t use magic or combat qi, it’s too dangerous if the orcs discover him!"
"We need to send more powerful forces into the land of evil, especially magicians skilled in teleportation, we must rescue Rody!" someone suggested.
"General Quentin, what do you want to say?" the Grand Marshal asked with a grave expression.
"Your Excellency, I believe we should not send any reinforcements. There could be spies among them, which would not only expose Rody's location but also pose a great threat to his life. We must trust Rody! Trust the soldiers in the land of evil! First, he will not betray us; second, we cannot repeat the same mistake and let them be heartbroken and cry again; third, what we should do is to officially engage in a decisive battle with the orc army. Under our powerful pressure, the orcs will not be able to divert their attention to hunt down Rody. On the contrary, if we don’t do this, it would be playing right into the orcs' hands," General Quentin reported firmly.
"Go to war! The time for a grand battle has come!" The generals, upon hearing this, were invigorated, rubbing their hands together in anticipation.
While the generals were discussing how to engage in a grand battle with the orcs, suddenly, a cardinal in red robes accompanied by several clergymen entered, reported by a guard and waited for the Grand Marshal's audience.
"Report..."
"Let Cardinal Tramdo come in," the Grand Marshal asked with a stern face. "By the grace of the God of Light, what divine decree does the cardinal bring?"
"The gods have descended in the heavenly realm, and the demon race, hearing this, are crumbling. They plan to surrender to the gods and are currently in negotiations. The orc army will also withdraw soon. The gods have decreed that the human alliance must strictly guard its lines and not launch attacks or provoke the orcs, to avoid worsening the entire war situation and giving the demons an excuse to break their promise. The Pope, also pitying the hard-fought human soldiers, has permitted the entire army to celebrate the victory for three days. The church, besides distributing holy water to relieve fatigue, has also sent female believers to form a Blessing Group to pray for the entire army..."
"What?" This news was like a bolt from the blue, and the generals were about to faint.
If they strictly guard their lines now and don’t take the initiative to suppress the orcs, wouldn't that mean handing Rody and the others over to the orcs on a platter? Why did the victory come neither sooner nor later, but just when the whole army was about to set out to rescue Rody and his team?
Could it be that the gods are also jealous of Rody's military genius and want to eliminate him?
The generals broke into cold sweat, while the Grand Marshal’s face remained as still as water, as if he had anticipated such an event.
"Bullshit, this is complete bullshit! To hell with it, I'm going to send troops. There are five elites from my country in Rody's team, national treasures, future great generals. I can't just stand by and do nothing. How would I explain it to the king?" A hot-tempered general, without waiting for the cardinal to leave, drew his sword and shattered the chair in front of him, cursing loudly.
"My country has twelve, nearly all elites are there!" another general also said gravely. "We request to send troops!"
"Send troops, send troops, our country's elites are all there..." the generals were extremely agitated.
"Whoever dares to send troops and disrupt the covenant with the gods will be defying the gods’ command! Face the consequences! Generals, think carefully!" the cardinal sneered, saluting the Grand Marshal slightly before leaving arrogantly.
"Generals, now you understand why our soldiers cry, don’t you?" the Grand Marshal scoffed. "How does it feel to be betrayed?"
"Let us die in battle!" General Quentin knelt on one knee, giving the most solemn knightly salute, respectfully saying, "Your Excellency, as soldiers, whether it's a sergeant like Rody or generals like us, or even the most ordinary soldiers, the last thing we can hope for is an honorable death in battle! We would rather die on the battlefield than in despicable political struggles... Let us die under the orcs' battle-axes. This is our wish, the destiny of a soldier!"