Pale Emblem

Chapter 187 Follow the trend

"Snapped"!

The whip hit the naked buttocks, making a crisp sound, which made Clark's servants feel frightened even through the door.

They didn't understand why their master had developed such a strange fetish, liking to have the beautiful priestess of the temple whip his bare butt with a whip while making strange humming noises.

It's disgusting, even lower than slavery.

The servants only dared to think this in their hearts and must not show any strange expressions on the surface. They all stood straight, waiting for their master to finish his work, and then reported to him the important affairs of the past two days.

Following an ambiguous roar, the cracking sound of the whip stopped abruptly.

After a long time, Clark, with a sickly flushed face, dressed neatly, came out from the inner room, followed by a young and beautiful lady. She was wearing a white priestess robe, tall, with long curly reddish-brown hair, fair skin, graceful figure, and rare light purple eyes. There was a mysterious temptation in her gaze.

"Owner!"

"Ms. Linda!"

The servants bowed to Clark and the priestess.

"It's so late and you still come to disturb me. It must be something important?" Clark's tone was unfriendly. If these servants and assistants could not give a sufficient reason, he must give them a impressive lesson as a reward for ruining his mood.

An older servant wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel. He was not afraid of his master's punishment, but had very urgent matters to report.

"Master, there is urgent news from the Braun Town stronghold!" He presented a letter with both hands, then lowered his head and stepped back, not daring to breathe, for fear that Clark would be furious after reading the contents of the letter and would bring disaster to himself.

General Clark took the letter but did not open it immediately. Instead, he pulled out a chair behind the desk for the lady behind him and politely asked her to sit down. Then he handed the letter to her and personally adjusted the position of the candlestick so that the angle of the candlelight was more suitable for the lady on the chair.

It was definitely not convenient for his butt to sit down right now, so he might as well behave more gentlemanly to avoid making a fool of himself in front of his trusted servants.

Although the trusted servants were secretly dissatisfied with the priestess's overstepping of authority, they did not dare to show it.

After reading the letter carefully, the priestess frowned, "Something happened in the Braun stronghold... Your servant Bill was attacked and killed in the hotel, all his dragoons were killed, and more than 100,000 gold taels of military funds were looted."

"What?!" Clark was very shocked. He took the letter back from the priestess and started reading it.

Several trusted servants held their breath, waiting for Clark to explode in anger, and then they had to deal with his anger and accusations.

Clark calmed down after reading the letter. He looked at the priestess and said in an incredible tone: "The orc butcher and the shaman sneaked into the hotel, attacked and killed the stronghold commander I appointed and dozens of elite private soldiers, created chaos and successfully escaped without leaving a single corpse... You want me to believe such nonsense?"

The priestess nodded, indicating that she also doubted the authenticity of the contents of the letter. She said, "You should send someone to take a look."

Clark's hawk-like eyes scanned the faces of several trusted servants.

They served as messengers in the army, with the power and responsibility of communicating with the inside and outside, and supervising and reviewing. If someone was to be sent to the Bolang Town stronghold to find out the situation, the first choice would be to appoint a messenger.

However, this mission is fraught with danger and is not an easy or lucrative one.

The oldest herald officer noticed that his master's eyes were on him, and he felt something was wrong, so he spoke first: "Master, the messenger from Braun Town is still outside. Do you want to call him in for questioning now?"

Interrogating a messenger is a technical job that requires patience, carefulness, and sufficient intelligence. Moreover, noble families are proud of their status and are often unwilling to personally meet with messengers of low status.

Clark waved his hand impatiently and said, "No! Let Sage Boglak summon him for questioning."

"Sage Bograk has already asked a question." The elderly herald immediately responded to his master, saying respectfully:

"The sage said that Commander Bill and his dragoons were indeed killed, and this cannot be false. In addition, when the attack took place, several witnesses in the inn claimed that they saw the murderer was an orc butcher, and they were also cursed and attacked by an orc shaman. This matter needs to be investigated, but the sage believes that it is very likely that the orcs were the murderers. He said that the orc mother possesses extraordinary power above that of ordinary shamans. They have the ability and motivation to launch a fatal sneak attack on the leader of the stronghold."

"...Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why the Orc invaders handed over the stronghold of Bolan Town to us, unless the Orc Mother had already used her evil magic to tamper with that land."

"If that's the case, it all makes sense!"

Clark was stunned, and after a while he asked, "According to Boglak, all this is caused by the orcs?"

"Whether it was done by the orcs or not, they will soon launch a full-scale attack on the stronghold of Bolan Town." The trusted servant paused, observed Clark's expression, and tried to ask:

"Sage Bograk revealed that he had thought of a way to destroy the main forces of the orcs and barbarians in Bolan Town... Dear master, do you want to summon Sage Bograk?"

Clark's expression changed repeatedly. He had known the sage Boglak for many years and had helped him a lot. However, Boglak pursued fame and acted in a radical and adventurous style. Clark found it increasingly difficult to accept his strategies and always lost in debates with him, so he simply met him less often.

However, Clark always admired Boglak's wisdom. Because of his understanding of his old friend, Clark suddenly understood some things.

He turned to the priestess and said, "Linda, now I think back to when Bograk suggested that I place the new recruits, garrison soldiers, and adventurers in the Braun Town base. That might be a trap he designed."

"Oh, I'm not surprised at all that the cunning fox designed a trap. The question is, who did he design the trap for?" Linda asked with a smile.

"Targeting the orcs... maybe including me?" Clark smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's not possible, he must have included me in his plan."

"There are so many half-elf recruits in the Braun Town stronghold, which is a piece of meat for the orcs. Bograk calculated that the orcs would be eager to eat this piece of meat. And I couldn't bear to see the military merit I had gained thrown away. So, he calculated that I would definitely send troops to rescue the Braun Town stronghold. Now, you see, he is waiting for me to go to him for advice."

Priestess Linda blinked and said with interest, "We can call him over and see if he has any good ideas to destroy the main force of the orcs."

"Humph, no matter how brilliant his tactics are, my army will have to fight the orcs alone." Clark said in a cold tone: "I don't want to pay attention to him."

In fact, the overall strength of Clark's Legion is higher than that of the Orcs and Barbarians, otherwise the Fallen Leaf City Council would not have appointed them to eliminate the invaders.

克拉克麾下有一个3000人的正规军团和2000人的奴隶军团。他的奴隶兵即便放在整个迪萨联盟也称得上精锐。另外，还有2000多人的新兵、800名守备兵和2000名战斗经验丰富的冒险者可以协同作战。

The half-elf army's numbers, training scale, weapons and equipment, and material supplies all surpassed the level of the orc and barbarian coalition. Even if the two sides fought head-on, Clark would still have the advantage.

The key to the problem is that if the Orc invaders find that they cannot defeat their opponents, they will most likely choose to escape.

If Clark drove away the invaders and successfully recovered the land in the Krill Lake Basin, the Fallen Leaf City Council could fully accept such an outcome.

However, things are often not that simple.

The Rock Split Orcs and the Lakeside Barbarians have the support of Chieftain Blackfyre, and they will not sit idly by and watch the half-elves occupy the Krill Lake Basin. Even if they have no chance of winning in a head-on confrontation, they can persist in guerrilla warfare to prevent the half-elves from building towns and fortifications in this land. On the other hand, Clark's chief think tank, Bograk, has the idea of ​​winning by one battle. In order to prevent the enemy from fighting a guerrilla war with the half-elves, he designed the Bolan Town stronghold as a bait, waiting for the orcs and the bait to gather their main forces and eat the bait before the decisive battle.

Boglak originally planned to persuade Clark to urgently dispatch 2000 slave soldiers to the Braun town stronghold to unite with the Wildfire Adventure Group in the stronghold to resist the full-scale attack of the orcs. Clark's regular army would wait for the orcs to fail to capture the Braun town stronghold for a long time and their combat effectiveness would decline, then they could attack on all fronts and surely defeat the enemy.

Of course, Bograk's tactics would result in heavy casualties among the defending forces at the Boran town stronghold, but it would create an opportunity to destroy or severely damage the main force of the orcs.

It’s a pity that the interests of the Yinpanjiao family are outside the battlefield, not on it.

Clark was not in Echo Town these two days. He went out to welcome Priest Linda who had returned from Falling Leaf City. He learned from her that due to the operation of High Priest Orena, the Falling Leaf City Council had recognized Clark's military merit in recovering Braun Town. The majority of the Council approved his general title, and the appointment letter was on the way to the Alliance Council.

The Confederate Congress had no precedent for rejecting a general's commission. In other words, Clark was now a Confederate general.

Under such circumstances, General Clark was certainly unwilling to sacrifice his own careful construction of a slave army in order to achieve the reputation of the Sage of Boglak.

Let’s just let the Braun Town stronghold be lost.

Anyway, in a few days, General Morris, the most experienced general in Fallen Leaf City, will lead 3000 elite troops to support the Godore front. At that time, General Morris will come forward to mediate the conflict between Clark and the leader of the Flame Tiger Legion, Bartlu, and then lead the entire army to fight against the orc invaders.

The stronghold of Braun Town can definitely be recaptured, and the orcs and barbarians who have invaded Braun Town can be slaughtered at the same time.

Clark turned to look at the older servant and said thoughtfully, "Go tell the messenger at the base to hurry back and convey my order. All adventurers, soldiers, and garrison soldiers must stay at their posts and wait for backup. My reinforcements will arrive at the Braun Town base in eight days at most."

"During this period, anyone who leaves his post without permission will be treated as a deserter!"

After all, the master did not let him go to the Brown Town stronghold to die. The older and trusted servant breathed a sigh of relief and quickly bowed and took his leave.

"What else do you want?" Clark asked the remaining trusted servants with a majestic expression.

"Master, Clausen, the liaison officer of the Brown Town stronghold, suddenly returned last night. He went directly to see Lord Dicot of the famous Golden Sunflower family. Not long after, Dicot and Clausen left the city overnight with dozens of private soldiers and guards." A servant said quickly.

Since it involved the Golden Sunflower Family, Clark became interested and asked, "Oh, do you know what it is?"

The servant shook his head and said, "The captain of the guard guarding the city gate did not dare to ask, and was severely whipped for opening the door a little slowly." He changed the subject and said, "However, there seems to be news during the day today."

"The news came from Slugberg."

Another young servant said, "Some adventurers saw Chimera and two flying dragons flying northeast on the wilderness battlefield. Some even saw Master Gaius of the Golden Sunflower and Miss Muse of the Golden Claw. They were tracking Chimera together. Lord Dicot's urgent departure from the city may be related to them."

"How did the Chimera fly here?" Priest Linda asked in disbelief.

"I don't know." The servant shook his head and added, "But Lord Dicot left the city overnight, and many noble families went around asking for information. They found Slug Berg and heard that Sunflower and Golden Claw were tracking Chimera, perhaps to collect high-level dragon blood."

Linda was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "It's really possible... Chimera won't leave the dragon's nest easily. Unless a particularly powerful monster invades the dragon kingdom, the Dragon King will send Chimera to drive away or kill the invading monster. But..." The priestess' voice suddenly became sharp, "How dare they track down Chimera? Don't they want to live?"

"It's not just the two famous families, the Sunflower Family and the Golden Claw Family, that are tracking the Chimera. This morning, two famous families and three powerful families bought a map from Slug Berger, and then formed teams to track the Chimera."

"In the afternoon, someone else led a private army and formed a team to leave the city."

“Some more people are expected to leave the city tomorrow.”

The priestess was silent. Chimaera dragon blood is a rare strategic resource, and even the sixteen pillars are hard to get. Second-rate families like Ginpanjiao don't even have channels to trade Chimaera blood.

Now, Chimera may have to fly away to fight unknown monsters. No wonder these famous families would want to try their luck.

Even if the Chimera wasn't injured or bleeding, the monster it was chasing was valuable.

By collecting the flesh and blood of monsters and cultivating living secret medicines, professional doctors may be able to create a whole new career path.

After listening to this, Clark was also somewhat interested. He pondered and asked, "Does 'Slug' have a map? Did you get it?"

Since the confrontation in the gladiatorial arena a few days ago, Clark and Berg, the vice president of the Adventurer's Guild, have completely broken off. However, there is no doubt that Vice President Berg is well-informed. Adventurers will use all kinds of intelligence to exchange for money from the guild. Hand-drawing maps is also a basic skill for adventurers.

It was not surprising that Berg knew the flight path of the Chimera and had a hand-drawn map. However, Clark was too embarrassed to ask Berg for the map in person.

"Yes, Master." The servant said calmly, "I have obtained a map."

After saying that, he took out a scroll and handed it to Clark with both hands.

"Matthew, you did a great job!" Clark pointed at him and praised him. After taking the scroll, he turned to the priestess and asked, "Should we send someone to take a look?"

Linda glanced at him and thought, all the noble families in the town have gone out like crazy to search for Chimera, and you sent people to join in the fun. Can you grab a drop of dragon blood?

The priestess did not refute Clark in public, but only asked: "How many people can you send?"

Clark felt depressed. Yinpanjiao was not as powerful as those famous families. They only trained more than 300 dragoons. In order to cope with this war, Yinpanjiao had already handed over more than half of the dragoons to Clark's command. As a result, his commander Bill and 30 dragoons were inexplicably killed in the hotel in Braun Town.

Now, he really does not have a sufficient number of elite private soldiers to deploy.

"We can't let others laugh at our Silver Plate Corner!" Clark thought about it, then gritted his teeth and said, "I'll have Randolph select 30 dragoons and 30 professionals to investigate Chimera's movements!"

"Whatever you want." Linda said unhappily. Since Sunflower and Golden Claw took the lead in tracking Chimera, the rest of the noble families followed suit, as if whoever failed to keep up would become a laughing stock in the circle.

Clark certainly knew that he was just trying to show off, but he could never let anyone underestimate the strength of the Yinpanjiao family, otherwise there would be unexpected troubles waiting for them in the future.

"The Chimeradai Dragon King Firumaat is exercising his will. Their appearance is no small matter! We must pay attention!"

"It's settled...Matthew, go call Randolph over now. I want to tell him in person."

In the end, Clark decided to send his guard commander, the sixth-level archer Randolph, to search for the Chimera and the Wyvern.