Novels online

Chapter 68

In this era, the survival rate of the population was not high, so it appeared to be sparsely populated. Although it was a village, every household was far away from each other.

There weren't many of them, but in order not to disturb the residents, Nala didn't let them enter the village. Instead, they stationed themselves in the wilderness to the south of the village.

Nala sat not too far away from the bonfire. He did not take off his heavy armor. From time to time, he would raise his head to look at the other side of the village. There was a sense of foreboding in his heart.

"How's the arrangement for the night patrol?" Nala asked Rhys, who was walking over.

"It has already been arranged." Rhys's expression didn't look too good. He bluntly said, "But I don't think they'll pay much attention to keeping watch."

"Morale is still too low." Rhys sat down and sighed. "They can't see hope, they don't think they can win, so they have no motivation to act."

"I understand." Nala nodded. For the past 7 years, Interkam had been beaten so badly that the morale of their army had completely diminished. The only reason they were still willing to step onto the battlefield was because they had no other choice.

The status of deserters in other places was very low. If they were caught and found to be deserters, they would be demoted to slaves without any status. That kind of life was worse than death.

"If an army like this goes to the frontlines, they will only be throwing their lives away." Nala turned around and looked at the soldiers. She could feel their confusion. They were not afraid of death, but this kind of fearlessness was not heroic. They just had no goal. Sometimes, when she looked at this group of soldiers, she felt like she was looking at a group of corpses.

Only those who had a clear belief in themselves and were not afraid of death for that belief were worthy of respect. Otherwise, this state of not caring about death would only make people sigh, a sorrowful sigh.

"Something must be done to bring them back to life." Nala turned around and looked at the dancing flames, but her mind was blank. She was only a country bumpkin girl, how could she know so much about boosting morale?

She grew up in Reystromia. At the time, most people in Reya ostracized her, so she rarely came into contact with other people. When she came to Interkam, in order to not expose herself to Seth the First's eyes, she spent most of her time in the farm. Rivers only taught her how to fight, he didn't know how to motivate others.

"Sure enough, leading an army to war is the hardest part" Nala pouted and thought to herself. Right now, all she wanted to do was eat to her heart's content, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough rations. She was carrying a heavy load on her shoulders, which made her feel particularly distressed.

Nala didn't know much about countries, but Interkam was Isabella's hometown. When she was young, life was extremely difficult, so Isabella often told her about what happened in Interkam.

"If Interkam is destroyed, Mom will be very sad, right?" that was what Nala thought, which was why she agreed to Luen's request.

Rhys sat on the side and looked at Nala. She was only a seventeen year old girl who had never received any military training. None of this should have been something she had to bear, but when she was the only one who could bear this position, she stood up. Although she was distressed, she didn't have any thoughts of running away.

"How beautiful" Rhys thought to himself: "I hope she won't be destroyed in war …"

The rising and falling cries of fear woke Nala up from her vexation.

"The screams came from inside the village, something happened inside" Nala stood up with a serious expression. Sure enough, the ominous feeling she had when she first arrived wasn't mistaken, some sort of disaster had indeed happened here.

"I want a squad of people to come with me to investigate, the rest of you, stay alert!" Nala loudly declared as she drew her knight's sword. The pure white blade seemed to be lit on fire under the illumination of the fire, while the armored girl wielding the flaming sword was also reflected in everyone's eyes, giving them an indescribable feeling.

"Yes!" a few people instinctively stood up and obeyed Nala's order.

But Nala didn't wait for these people. Instead, she untied the reins of her white horse, leapt onto it, wielded her sword and galloped towards the village.

Looking at the girl on the white horse, Rhys didn't choose to follow her and instead stayed in the camp to arrange various matters. It wasn't until this sudden situation that he realized that this army wasn't just suffering from low morale, their management was also quite chaotic.

The first reaction of the private soldiers brought by the aristocrat was to protect their Lord as soon as they heard his order, completely ignoring Rhys's order. Meanwhile, several other people in the army were also issuing orders. Aside from that, there was another aristocrat who noticed the commotion and panicked, saying that Colomier had been breached and that the Royas people had already invaded and wanted to take their people back. This caused a huge commotion and caused the entire camp to fall into chaos.

Nala's presence was still manageable as she had a nominal leader, but Nala's absence meant that none of the aristocrats were willing to listen to anyone else. It could be said that if an enemy ambushed them, the entire army would be wiped out right away.

Without any other choice, Rhys had to first send his private soldiers to help Nala, then drew his knight's sword, took off a white glove, threw it on the face of the nobleman who wanted to go back and loudly declared: "Sir Maggerdin, I believe that if you withdraw now, it would be a disgrace to the honor of nobles"

Rhys stabbed his knight's sword into the ground in front of himself and resolutely declared: "If you insist on withdrawing, then let's have a duel that concerns the honor of nobles"

"I will not hesitate to cut off your head that is covered in tears and snot, let you die in shame and meet the ancestors of the Maggerdin family" Rhys raised his knight's sword and declared: "Now, tell me your decision!"

Rhys's actions drew everyone's attention. Sir Maggerdin looked at the white glove on the ground but didn't pick it up.

Rhys also took this chance to issue an order: "Everyone, return to your original formation, maintain order and vigilance, wait for news from the front, then follow your formation to the front of the village or … retreat"

At this time, Nala also rode her white horse into the village with her knight's sword raised, following the source of the scream. The Dragon's Blood granted her night vision, so she saw a man wearing tattered sackcloth lying on top of a corpse, his head lowered as if he was biting something.

As if sensing Nala's arrival, the man turned around, revealing his withered, blackened face with a large chunk of rotten flesh on his cheek, making him look extremely disgusting.