In just seven days, four cities in the northeast had fallen one after another…
Ileya remembered that when she had nothing better to do, she had read the kingdom’s geography records.
In the entire northeastern region, there were only six cities of moderate size.
Aside from Loluste, which had already fallen at the start, four more cities had been lost in succession.
This meant the entire northeastern part of the kingdom had fallen.
And this news made Ileya’s pupils suddenly contract.
This meant that before the kingdom could even launch its counterattack, a large chunk of flesh had already been torn away.
Furthermore… the fall of the northeast meant that two of the four capitals—the North Capital and their own East Capital—would have to bear the pressure of being the “front line.”
This was absolutely not good news.
Especially at a time like this…
The facts had already proven that holding the cities and defending was not a good idea.
The towering city walls seemed to have little effect against these foreign races.
“Earlier, the Marquis has already sent word back. His Majesty the Army-Breaking King has decided to temporarily designate the Crystal Capital as the operational center. The other eighty thousand troops gathered by the kingdom will also arrive one after another.”
The moment Lady Shuderian said this, everyone present, including Ileya, seemed to pause for half a beat.
The others were instinctively nervous about the kingdom’s heavy reliance on them, and also felt immense pressure that the East Capital had to shoulder such a heavy responsibility.
But Ileya was different. At this moment, her red eyes narrowed slightly, and there was only one thought in her mind.
‘Here it comes. The upheaval must have originated from this point!’
Her own family… the Marquis Castle, in its original fate, probably encountered some incident around this very point.
That incident might have brought disaster upon the Marquis Castle, leading to Reliel’s return to the family, and for some reason she herself didn’t know, she would be branded with the name “Witch” and sent to the gallows.
“There’s no need for us to be too nervous either. We just have to do our own jobs.”
Seeing that everyone except her own daughter, who seemed lost in thought, looked tense and waiting for her orders…
Lady Shuderian sighed helplessly and shook her head with a smile.
“The Army-Breaking King isn’t coming here for a vacation. He’s coming here as the frontline commander to fight against the foreign races.”
“Naturally, we must attend to the formalities, but the most important thing is how to protect His Majesty’s safety and how to defend… so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the previous five cities.”
“According to some intelligence sent back from the front, the foreign races attacking the cities have the traits of flight and the ability to trigger earthquakes of a certain scale.”
Pat, pat. Lady Shuderian gently clapped her hands.
Whoosh—!
Amisa suddenly stepped out from the shadow behind her and gave a slow nod to everyone present.
“Amisa, attending maid, greets the lords.”
A… Transcendent?!
Ileya and Diman had naturally seen Amisa use this trick before, but the other three city lords were startled, their bodies trembling slightly.
After they came to their senses, their faces reddened with embarrassment.
Although having the dignity of a city lord was somewhat superfluous here, they hadn’t expected it to be trampled into the ground.
“Although many people from the southeast managed to escape and survive, most of them never saw those foreign races… However, there are also people who managed to flee from those foreign races.”
Hoo… As Lady Shuderian’s voice faded, Amisa placed a sheet of parchment on the table.
It depicted two kinds of creatures, with various markings at different points on their bodies.
One was a lizard with a crystalline, armor-like body.
The other was a strange creature with a human body and crow head… with wings on its back.
“This is… a Wyvern?!” Lord of Black Iron City, Dakru, said in surprise.
Wyverns weren’t common in the kingdom, but whenever one appeared, it was accompanied by a small disaster.
Because these creatures always bore an inexplicable hostility toward humans.
Of course, that wasn’t hard to understand.
The ancestor of humanity, the legendary Heroic King Gilgamesh, had killed even the Ancient Rock Dragon…
And the Ancient Rock Dragon was probably considered an ancestor… or even the “common master” of Wyverns, right?
In that case, it was only natural these monsters hated humans.
“That’s right. This should be a type of Wyvern, tentatively identified as the Crystal Dragon. It has the ability to burrow and can trigger small-scale earthquakes in the surrounding area.”
Amisa began to explain slowly.
“According to past records, the strength of a Crystal Dragon ranges from Sub-Bronze to Adamantine Rank.”
“As for this time… if this Crystal Dragon hasn’t reached Adamantine Rank, the only possibility is… this isn’t just one, but a group, and possibly a large group.”
Amisa’s words made the faces of the three city lords turn pale again.
“The Crystal Dragon… could it be a remnant of the Rock Dragon Clan?”
“Wouldn’t that be better? If so, we wouldn’t have to face a Supreme Being, right?”
“Ah… that’s true too…”
The few of them discussed in low voices…
Meanwhile, Amisa pointed at the other side, at the portrait of the crowfolk.
“As for this one…”
Her gaze shifted to her own young lady. After seeing Ileya nod in acknowledgment… she finally spoke slowly.
“This kind of hybrid between a crow and a human, I’ll temporarily call them Crowfolk. To be honest… all of you should know that our young lady went east a few days ago.”
Then, Amisa gave the few of them a summary of the Crowfolk they had encountered.
But… those Crowfolk were somewhat different from what the survivors had described.
What the survivors described was more like “humans.”
Whereas the ones they had encountered were more like “crows.”
After hearing Amisa’s explanation, everyone gradually dispelled the fear that had risen in their hearts.
This was not the time for fear to solve problems.
“These crows can all fly. I suggest we immediately strengthen the training of archers within the city!”
“What about the Crystal Dragon? If it digs into the city walls… no matter how tall or thick the walls are, they’ll be useless…”
Everyone talked back and forth.
But Ileya remained silent, lost in her own thoughts.
“Yaya, do you have any ideas?” Lady Shuderian suddenly looked at her daughter and asked softly.
“Huh? Mm…” Ileya was momentarily startled, then subconsciously nodded.
“The Lord of Hard Steel City’s suggestion to train archers, I think it’s feasible… but time is still too tight. Grinding the spear at the last moment is obviously not cost-effective. I suggest that all cities recruit craftsmen… to mass-produce crossbows!”
Crossbows?!
Everyone was momentarily stunned, then nodded and shook their heads.
Crossbows were indeed stable and accurate, and the learning cost was much easier than bows.
But there was one fatal problem.
A powerful crossbow was simply unmanageable for ordinary soldiers; they couldn’t even draw a heavy crossbow on their own.
And a slightly weaker crossbow lacked enough penetrating power to effectively damage the crow monsters that Amisa had described.
“The crossbow bolts don’t need to be particularly powerful…” Ileya slowly raised one finger.
“Crows are mostly scavengers. I don’t know if the Crowfolk are the same… but it’s worth a try.”
“The young lady’s idea is to set up a row of dummies soaked in oil on the city walls, and stuff the dummies’ bodies with rotting meat and grain…”
“Then, when those Crowfolk attack the dummies, shoot fire arrows to ignite the Crowfolk directly!”
That was the principle of “lots of fur, weak to fire!”
And her inspiration actually came from the Ratmen she had encountered before.
The Ratmen were also subordinates of the Crystal Giant Tree… or rather, the “Saint Witch.”
According to the stone tablet records, the Serpentfolk, Crowfolk, and Ratmen were all originally humans, but had turned into foreign races because of the Saint Witch’s power.
But… the Ratmen could have found better places to live, yet they chose to dig holes beneath their original homeland and dwell in the cold, dark underground towns.
This meant the habits of rats had, to some extent, influenced their human thinking.
So, did the Crowfolk have this same flaw?
The most common trait of rats was digging holes, while crows were scavengers…
According to the data sent from the northeast, the reason the Crowfolk were so hard to deal with—besides their high-speed flight—
Was their abnormally strong physique. Ordinary Bronze-level soldiers simply couldn’t handle them.
But if their glossy black feathers were smeared with oil…
Then perhaps the fire arrows fired by ordinary soldiers would be lethal to these creatures!
“As expected of the young lady!”
“This method is definitely worth trying…”
“Indeed, that’s exactly it…”
So this was why the so-called “First Playboy of the Eastern Capital” and “Bloodblossom Demon”—besides her background—also had to have real talent.
Everyone didn’t skimp on their praise for Ileya.
If such compliments were directed at any other young person of the same age, they would probably have their tail in the air by now…
But Ileya wasn’t moved at all.
To her, praise was worthless, especially from these unfamiliar people. It had no meaning at all.
Right now, Ileya was thinking about the Marquis Castle—where exactly would the problem arise…
As for how to defend against the “Crystal Dragon”… if she, a young girl who had never seen this monster, had to come up with all the solutions, then these city lords might as well go home and raise pigs.
Ileya stroked her chin and subconsciously swept her gaze over everyone present.
These three city lords weren’t worth mentioning.
Garrison Commander Diman also maintained a calm expression, but the gravity and caution in his eyes showed he took the foreign race invasion seriously enough.
Amisa… she hadn’t appeared these past few days, so it turned out she was gathering frontline intelligence.
As for Mother… the moment Ileya’s red eyes met hers, she saw her quietly give her a thumbs-up.
She was clearly satisfied with her idea just now.
Ileya gave a helpless smile. The young lady still hadn’t found anything wrong with the Marquis Castle…
Everyone was actively preparing for battle and thinking of countermeasures. It seemed there was nothing…
Wait. She seemed to have overlooked something.
Ileya’s memories drifted back, and a girl’s worried face appeared before her.
That was… Yumina!
Her childhood friend, and also her personal little maid.
Could it be that she was the source of the Marquis Castle’s collapse?
The young lady stroked her chin. Though the possibility was low, it was certainly not impossible.
So, after the meeting ended, Ileya did not stay to exchange details of city defenses with those old fogies.
Instead, she directly took her personal little maid back to her room.
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