Ximengsi Continent’s southern region, Steinbeck Fief’s core area, Stanley City.
In a secret conference hall deep within the palace, Clyde planned to dispatch troops to support Adrian Empire after conferring with the other higher-ups. Considering Princess Alyssa’s face, he decided to help this not very useful mother nation.
Although Franconia Empire’s expeditionary force had already advanced to near Adrian Empire’s capital city, Franconia Empire’s offense slowed because the battlefront was too far. It was almost impossible to capture Adrian Empire’s capital city within a short time.
The various Suzerains of Adrian Empire opted to wait and see the situation because they were afraid of losing their own troops. As for the mid and small Suzerains, even if they wanted to help, their troops were limited and basically not presentable; thus, they could only defend their own territories. Now, Adrian Empire could only wait for the reinforcements of the other Victor Alliance nations.
Since this attack by Franconia Empire had been an arbitrary act, most of Clark Alliance’s nations offered no signs of support and didn’t fight in coordination, only intending to dispatch troops to help Adelaide Kingdom.
Among the Clark Alliance’s nations in the vicinity of Steinbeck Fief, Kruft Kingdom suffered the heaviest losses due to Lucifer’s bloodkin familiars and the subsequent exploration of the Needham Plains. As for Cromwell Principality, not long ago, when they had invaded Steinbeck Fief through the Peacock Forest Area, the conflict between the principality’s army and the mercenaries had led to failure.
Now, with Franconia Empire already at war with Adrian Empire, only Adelaide Kingdom was left. Thinking realistically, fighting against Franconia Empire with Steinbeck Fief’s current troops was too difficult. However, resolving the issue of Adelaide Kingdom would meet no problems.
Altogether, Adelaide Kingdom had dispatched roughly 150,000 troops. Moving behind Franconia Empire’s army, they had already entered Adrian Empire. Facing Adelaide Kingdom’s offense, Clyde decided to carry out a surprise attack on Adelaide Kingdom to force Franconia Empire to withdraw its troops.
Because the main army’s troops were all dispatched, Adelaide Kingdom had just 50,000 or so defending troops now. Since Mercenary Guild had had a conflict with Cromwell Principality, Mercenary Guild’s image had suffered significant damage, so most nations were unwilling to hire mercenaries. Originally, Adelaide Kingdom had hired over 50,000 mercenaries, but after the matter with Cromwell Principality, they had quickly dismissed them.
The target was one of Adelaide Kingdom’s strategic border towns, Atad. That town was the distribution center of Adelaide Kingdom’s army; in addition, it oversaw much of the army’s provisions and supply lines. It also handled the same matters for Franconia Empire’s army at the frontline. As long as they captured Atad, they would kill two birds with one stone. At the same time when Adelaide Kingdom was defeated, Franconia Empire would also be forced to withdraw troops.
Adelaide Kingdom had never expected Steinbeck Fief to dispatch troops and take the initiative to attack their town. According to its military strength, Steinbeck Fief had only had 5,000 or so troops when fighting against Cromwell Principality. If it were not for Cromwell Principality’s army suffering a conflict with those mercenaries, Steinbeck Fief might have already been destroyed.
Clyde led Steinbeck Fief’s army and set out; the human army under his hands had already increased to 10,000 or so people. Different from when fighting against Cromwell Principality, Steinbeck Fief’s troops had already cast away a militia’s appearance. All were equipped with elite body armor sponsored by Murmans Regal Pyramid and were Lamina Dynasty’s products, of a workmanship superior to most of Ximengsi Continent’s nations.
“Lord Clyde, Atad is in front. I will arrange someone to scout first.”
“Jenny, no need to arrange for scouts. I will go and see it in person!”
“This… fine! I will obey your arrangements.”
In this battle, Clyde had brought two generals: Swordswoman Princess Natalie and Assassin Jenny. Like last time, Ancient Demon King Andrisno was in the rear, commanding over 100,000 demonic creatures to transport army provisions and supplies for Clyde’s army. Steinbeck Fief’s 10,000 or so troops were entering battle with light packs; they didn’t need to worry about the issues of army provisions because demonic creatures provided an express delivery service.
Clyde’s younger sister, Bloodkin Lolita Lucifer, stayed behind in Steinbeck Fief to assume personal command. On the one hand, it was to guard against the other party looting their home and defend the supreme headquarters with Bloodkin familiars, on the other hand, it was to secretly monitor the actions of Light Church’s Saintess Maria and Tiffany. After all, Steinbeck Fief had too many hidden demonic creatures. If the stationed members of Light Church accidentally noticed them, it would be hard to deal with.
Since Clyde had Princess Ophelia’s Augusta Empire’s honorary citizen medal, he could completely pass off as a person of Clark Alliance and openly enter Atad to perform reconnaissance.
Jenny and Princess Natalie exchanged glances and no longer raised any objections. Clyde, this commander, liked to be willful, but the key point was that he could do anything he wanted with his strength; thus, they didn’t say anything, simply commanding the army to prepare for the fight.
All along the way, Clyde recalled last night’s ambiguous scenes. Under the secret assistance of Lucifer, Clyde had almost pushed down all the beauties on the scene. At the last moment, Clyde had gone to sleep outside on the sofa. This had nothing to do with willpower. Although Clyde had a human’s appearance now, his real identity was still that of a Great Old One. If he took his relationship with these beauties a step further, then whether something unexpected would happen had yet to be discovered.
Clyde intended to first test this on those comparatively stronger beauties, and after he determined whether there would be any side effects, he would reconsider this important matter. At present, only Valkyrie Cynthia met this standard. Because of the issues of their energy attributes being of the same camp, there was a danger of energy assimilation and absorption with Ancient Demon King Andrisno and others, so Clyde didn’t want to look for them to experiment.
Atad had 20,000 or so defending troops from Adelaide Kingdom. Within Adelaide Kingdom, it was the area with the strongest military presence other than the kingdom’s. Their numbers were twice as great as Steinbeck Fief’s. Surrounded by the fortifications of the city and waiting at ease for an exhausted enemy, the defenders would make it difficult for Clyde to launch a successful siege.
The commander of Adelaide was Earl Harrison. Although this fellow was not a famous general, he was cunning and good at defensive warfare. His only flaw was that he was quite bad at commanding offensive warfare.
Two years ago, when Kruft and Adelaide Kingdom had fought for dominance over the slave trade in the Lucas Plains, Princess Natalie’s 10,000 or so troops had led over 30,000 troops under Earl Harrison’s command by the nose. After seven or eight encounters, Earl Harrison’s army had lost over 10,000 troops, and he had retreated to Adelaide Kingdom in shame. As for Princess Natalie’s army, their losses had been less than one thousand people, reducing Earl Harrison to a laughing stock. To this day, he hadn’t dared to lead troops on the offense again.
Clyde alone went to Atad. A commander himself running over as a scout, only Clyde dared to play like this because other people would never support such a death-seeking plan. Atad had the layout of a fortress town with standard city walls over six meters tall with a city moat. The city wall also had periodic arrow towers equipped with expensive Magic Chemical Cannons.
In this different world, Ximengsi Continent’s Human Race had not developed gunpowder. Magic Chemical Cannons were the creations of alchemists with an explosive power much bigger than gunpowder’s, but their costs were somewhat high. A cannon easily cost over one thousand gold coins, and beyond that, the average selling price of magic chemical was above 500 gold coins. Clyde felt that those Magic Chemical Cannons on the city wall were useless since they were merely for deterring enemy troops and had an intimidating function, nothing more. Earl Harrison would go bankrupt after only a few uses.
Even more lavish than the Magic Chemical Cannons was the Magic Guiding Cannon that used magical beasts’ magic cores as shells. Truly an extravagant weapon, according to legend, in those years, when resisting White Bone Demon King Samadovar’s skeleton army, the allied Human armies of Ximengsi Continent had opened a round of Magic Guiding Cannons for the first time, with the military expenses equally divided among all the human nations. Allegedly, after the war, many nations’ national treasuries had been emptied out, but they still hadn’t been able to pay their nation’s share in full, and they had had to cede territory to the big empires or give the Church privileges in exchange for capital assistance.
After that war, basically no nation had used a Magic Guiding Cannon. Some even refrained from employing Magic Chemical Cannons, returning back to the era of arrow towers. The magic of Ximengsi Continent’s Human Race was underdeveloped. Few had magic professions, and most of them were gathered together in Light Church or divided among the more powerful nations. Their unity was very poor; thus, Humans were always in an unfavorable situation against different races.
Atad had multiple bustling city gates flowing with people. After Franconia and Adrian Empire had entered the war, this place became Franconia Empire’s transportation hub. Clyde followed the crowd and entered Atad to investigate.
“Eh, you are a merchant of Augusta. This side; take this special merchant passage.”
“Mmm.”
Augusta Empire’s honorary citizen medal was truly convenient. Among the nations of Clark Alliance, few dared to not give Augusta Empire face. Princess Ophelia had probably never expected Clyde to use the honorary citizen medal she had given him to infiltrate the nations of Clark Alliance.
