NOVPUBOn the other side, on the battlefield, Litte looked at the gruesome scene before her and felt a wave of nausea. She supported herself with her sword and couldn’t help but kneel on the ground and vomit.
Besides Litte, most of the other student soldiers had also not experienced such a brutal battle. They all showed different reactions, but without exception, they were all signs of not being accustomed to the battlefield.
The veterans on the side, looking at these young masters and ladies from the academy, couldn’t help but let out bursts of laughter.
No matter how high-and-mighty you were normally, how elegant and charming you were in social situations, on the battlefield, you acted even worse than village conscripts. All sorts of unseemly behavior that were normally impossible for them to show were now exposed in front of the soldiers.
Even some instructors had pale faces.
Some of them had never experienced large-scale warfare. Some had not even killed a chicken by the time they reached Tier 7.
Olivia looked at Litte kneeling on the ground and vomiting, walked up to her with concern, and gently patted Litte’s back.
After a long while, Litte recovered and stood up.
Looking at Olivia behind her, she awkwardly said thank you.
“Thank you...”
“It’s nothing,” Olivia shook her head. “It’s your first time on the battlefield. You’re not used to it, are you?”
“Mm...” Litte admitted frankly. “My first time seeing so many corpses...”
“This is the brutality of the battlefield,” Olivia sighed. “These soldiers who died, whose fathers, husbands, and sons were they?”
“We owe a lot to Orson. If it weren’t for his decisions, our losses would have been even greater,” Olivia said this.
“Mm.” As Orson’s deputy these past few days, Litte was undoubtedly the one who understood Orson best.
She had personally watched Orson continuously refine military decisions that she considered normal, refining them to the point where they would be issued only after minimizing casualties as much as possible.
As a soldier, if one could serve under a commander like Orson, it was undoubtedly fortunate.
Even the mercenary group that suffered heavy losses earlier was used because mercenaries were suitable for small-scale guerrilla warfare, which was why Orson used them.
At this moment, Lianca also walked over unsteadily.
“Sister, the battlefield... it’s so scary.” Lianca’s face was pale. It seemed she had also vomited just now.
“Sigh.” Olivia stroked Lianca’s head with heartache.
Her sister was also like a flower in a greenhouse. It was good for her to experience the battlefield for the first time and see the world.
This could also be considered a form of tempering and growth.
On the other side, as the commander of the troops engaging the enemy on the front line, Arthas was leading his subordinates in counting the numbers.
Although the Silver Dragon Knights and the Black Army were elite, they were the first troops to engage the enemy after all. When counting the losses, over a hundred of the two thousand Silver Dragon Knights had died. For the knight order, this was already a considerable loss. And the Black Army, numbering three thousand, had also suffered nearly three hundred casualties.
Arthas had originally wanted to pursue, but the message from the messenger was for the army to rest in place for a while, then drive the beastmen back into the depths of the desert. Although he expressed confusion about this order, Arthas still respected Orson’s opinion and did not choose to pursue.
...
Rear, Antica City.
Inside the Duke’s mansion, Lucius was lying on the bed. Beside him was the Duchess Mary.
And at this moment, there was a guest in the bedroom.
Looking closely, it was Jero, the commander of the troops sent by the Duke of Napoli to the Antica army.
At this moment, Jero sat upright. He was, after all, just a minor officer, and facing Lucius, who was his senior in the army and also a true Duke, he couldn’t help but feel nervous.
“General Jero.” Lucius looked at Jero and spoke slowly, “Your army performed very well.”
“Not at all, Your Grace is too kind. If I can be of some help to the front lines, it is my honor.”
At this moment, Mary frowned, her voice carrying a hint of displeasure, “General Jero, did you really not understand what my husband meant?”
She continued, “We are not unaware of what your army has been doing on the logistics supply line. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have recalled your troops a week ago.”
A week ago, when Jero’s troops were responsible for maintaining the logistics supply line, they often withheld supplies for various reasons.
The most common reason was “Our unit’s material consumption is high, thus we are keeping a portion of the military provisions for military expenses.”
To put it bluntly, it was like collecting tolls in the past. The supplies originally intended for the front lines would definitely be reduced after passing through this section.
It was tolerable if only the rations were reduced, but even the materials that the front-line army consumed in large quantities, such as weapons and armor, were lacking. Finally, the front lines could no longer bear it and reported Jero, forcing Jero to shamefully return to Antica City with his army.
“Apologies... These, actually, there were reasons... Our army is composed of peasant soldiers. It’s their first time fighting, they don’t know how to be frugal, so the expenses were a bit high...”
“I can understand all of that,” Mary said, continuing to ask, “Then why did you deliberately delay the delivery of supplies?”
“This... this was to...”
“To inspect the supplies for dangerous items, is that it?” Lucius added.
“Yes, exactly!” Jero quickly nodded.
“Do you think you can believe what you just said?” Lucius smiled.
“This... But that’s the truth.”
“Oh,” Hearing Jero still trying to argue, Lucius nodded. “Then, as for your army contacting the beastmen and leaking our army’s intelligence, can I speak about that?”
Hearing this sentence, Jero could no longer sit still. He stood up in panic.
“Your Grace Duke Lucius, you cannot say such things...”
He began to stammer. Then, as if thinking that speaking too much was a mistake, he simply stopped talking altogether.
“Do you need me to provide some more decisive evidence?” Lucius said this. Although he was lying on the bed, his presence was as if he was looking down from above.
“Putting everything else aside, the crimes you committed during the war are already enough to have your family exiled to the northern border, never to return to your homeland.”
“But now, you still have one choice, don’t you?”
