General Alaric of the Empire opened his mouth. He was half angry and half helpless. Looking at Forgen's disgusting but incomparably handsome face, Alaric finally stated his conditions.
"First of all, protect our imperial soldiers. You have to treat them like you would treat your own soldiers."
"If they can prove their loyalty and fighting strength, I will." Forgen nodded in agreement.
"The second …" Alaric still wanted to say more, but Forgen rudely interrupted him. "These are two conditions, not one."
"I didn't ask you to agree to this condition. Listen to me first." Alaric insisted. "If any soldiers want to return to the Empire, you can't stop them."
"I won't stop them, but I also won't provide ships, supplies, and safety guarantees," Forgen replied.
"… In that case, I'll order the Empire's army to surrender to you. Remember, we're surrendering to you and your Ashes Corps, we're not surrendering to the Lizardmen!" Alaric was a little hesitant, but he still handed over the long sword in his hand.
"Okay." Forgen accepted this condition. He took the long sword from Alaric's hand and ignored the Empire general. The Empire's army finally began to surrender to the soldiers of the Ashes Corps in batches after receiving the order.
"Go out and accept your surrender. Let me be alone for a while." Seeing that the rest of the people did not go out, the Empire general continued. Forgen's Phoenix Guards were still a little hesitant, but Mage Kim, whose face was pale and calm, nodded to show that he understood. "Okay, we'll go out. You can be alone for a while."
Mage Kim Karim's position in the Ashes Corps was very high. Not only was he trusted by Forgen, but he was also a high-grade mage that the Ashes Corps lacked. He was a sacred-level elemental mage, and his arrival made up for the Ashes Corps' most fatal lack of wizards. Therefore, even the Phoenix Guards looked at him in a new light. Since Mage Kim had spoken, no one said anything more. They all left the tent one after another. Karim glanced at Alaric and also left the tent.
Finally, Forgen completely accepted the remaining 3,000 Empire troops, including a large amount of supplies, systematically trained Empire soldiers, the little remaining food, the remaining 100 muskets, and some of the looted wealth all fell into Forgen's hands. After the Lizardmen confirmed that the Empire's army had been completely disintegrated, the Spirit Lizard priest greeted Forgen and slowly retreated. Forgen sent a dozen boxes of pork to express his gratitude.
After spending some time organizing the Empire's army into his own army, the commander of the Ashes Corps sighed. "Felix?"
"Here." The winged cavalry general walked up.
"You and Fernando go together and cremate General Alaric. Remember to bring his ashes back to the Empire in the Old World and bury them in Moore's Garden when we trade with the Old World."
"Yes!" When Fernando Pilazzo and Felix Edmundovich walked into the tent, General Alaric of the Empire had already been dead for a long time. He had taken poison and died. Before he died, he left behind a letter addressed to Emperor Karl-franz and a small bag of gold and gems. He wrote that he hoped Forgen could find a way to send this bag of gold and silver back to the Old World and to his family. He also left a contact address.
"Legion Commander, what should we do?" Holding Alaric's relics, Fernando found Forgen.
"Give this small bag of gold and gems to Hadrian's Chamber of Commerce and let them send it there. As for the letter …" Forgen opened the wax seal on the letter without hesitation and skimmed through its contents.
The contents of the letter were short and the handwriting was sloppy. It mentioned that Lucia was not as safe and full of wealth as imagined, and that it was very dangerous. The gains of the expedition would not make up for the losses. It asked the Emperor to reconsider whether to give up on the expedition to Lucia and not send anyone to the New World.
Forgen understood why the Empire general had left this letter. He gave Karim a look, and the gold mage immediately understood.
The contents of the letter were slightly "polished" and a new wax seal was printed. It would be placed in a large chest filled with gold and silver and sent to Emperor Karl-franz's palace. As the last "loyalty" of the Empire general who had "died in battle", it would be passed on by the sincere and trustworthy Forgen.
"Clean up the camp as soon as possible. Don't leave any troops here, but leave the camp. It won't be long before we return," Forgen ordered. "Two weeks at most. It's time for us to solve another problem."
"The Vampire Pirate King in the eastern part of Lucia, Luthor Hakken."
… I'm sincere and trustworthy …
Two weeks later, Lucia, Marauder's Coast, Marauder's Harbor, stables.
Julius was diligently using an iron shovel to shovel the manure of the pureblood elven warhorses. Because the pureblood elven warhorses had a bad temper and liked to run around, their manure was everywhere. Julius had to shovel the manure of the two pureblood elven warhorses all day long.
Apart from shoveling feces, Leon's brother-in-law also had to think of ways to prepare fodder for the pure-blooded elven horses, clean the stables, and carry buckets of water to clean the stables. At the same time, he also had to solve the breeding problem of the pure-blooded elven horses. Even at night, he could only sleep on the straw pile in the stables. The pure-blooded elven horses were very difficult to serve. Whenever they were in the mood, Julius had to take them out for a walk.
At first, Julius was full of complaints. He was an expedition knight at the peak of legendary, the son of a Duke of Brittany, and the first in line to the throne. How could he not feel humiliated and frustrated?
But although Julius was rigid, strict, and stubborn by nature, he never shied away from challenges and tribulations. After the initial discomfort, the expedition knight quickly regarded becoming a groom as an insignificant part of the countless trials and tribulations of the Holy Grail Expedition. He gradually got used to this role. When he recalled the revelation of the Lady of the Lake, Julius began to understand the true meaning of the Lady of the Lake on the third day after he became a groom.
Time flew by quickly as he worked hard. Two weeks had passed just like that. Relying on the breeding knowledge he learned from the noble's court, Julius put in all his effort. The difficulty was so high that even Julius was sweating profusely. Because of the breeding period, the recovery period, the growth period, and the preparation period for breeding, every cycle of feeding and exercise had to be changed. It was also a headache for Julius to make the arrogant and bad-tempered horses obedient without leaving any side effects or developing bad habits.
After a lot of hard work, Julius finally helped Forgen breed two pure-blooded elven horses successfully.
Early in the morning, Julius habitually put on a set of dirt-resistant linen clothes and went to the river to carry two large buckets of river water back to the stable. Then he started a fire to cook. His breakfast was milk, bread, and bacon. The pure-blooded elven stallion's meal was soybeans, peas, grass, corn, and carrots. Some honey was also added appropriately.
As for the pregnant pure-blooded elven mare, carrots were more important. Julius carefully added more salt and tropical fruits, stewing the feed into a paste for the mare to eat.
By the time everything was done, the sky was already bright. Julius could finally take a breather. He moved a chair to sit in the stable and saw the two elven horses eating in big mouthfuls of food. Their tails were straight, their nostrils were relaxed, and their mouths were open. There was a smile on their faces. Laing's brother-in-law judged that the horses must like the food very much. He let out a sigh of relief.
"Well done." At this time, Forgen's voice came from outside the stable. Forgen poked his head out from outside the stable and looked at Julius with a smile that was not a smile. "I didn't expect you to have the talent to be a groom."
"I won't disappoint the Lady's expectations of me." When Julius saw Forgen appear, his face became stiff again. "You asked me to breed your horses, and I completed my task."
"Yes, you completed your task, and you did a good job." Forgen still maintained his elegant movements, his eyes revealing a rare bit of appreciation. "Very good, very good. As my subordinate, you must be like this. Either you don't do it, or you do it to the best of your ability. This is the quality that should be required to be my opponent and my subordinate."
"So, what do you want?" Julius's face turned ashen when he heard this. He was a knight. Did Forgen want him to be a groom for the rest of his life?
"Go clean yourself up and change into your armor. I don't want my hall to be filled with the smell of a stable." Forgen nodded slightly. "After everything is over, come to the hall of my house. We are going to have a meeting to prepare for the next war."
"… Yes."
Julius spent half an hour taking a bath with the remaining bucket of water and changed into his armor and weapons that had been repaired and polished by the dwarven craftsmen of the Ashes Corps. When he came to the Lord's Hall, everyone was already there. Each of them was holding a cup of hot cocoa or coffee, obviously waiting for someone.
Seeing Julius come in, Forgen nodded. "Okay, let's begin! Karim? "
"Yes!" The gold mage Karim stood up, walked to the center of the hall, and hung a portrait on a large white board. "Our opponent this time is Luther Haken, the famous Vampire Pirate King."
Julius frowned. He carefully observed the mission on the portrait. It was a vampire who looked to be about 40 years old. He had grayish-white, withered, straw-like hair that was parted in the middle. He wore a captain's hat, a hooked nose, a black and red robe, and an eye patch. His eye sockets were deep, and his blood-red eyes were filled with madness.
"Luther Haken, originally an officer of the Kingdom of Lemia, one of the kingdoms of the Nicohala Desert. It is said that he used to be an officer under the command of the Blood Dragon Patriarch, Abo Wallace, and served as the harbor guard of Lemia and the bodyguard of the Blood Dragon Patriarch. However, during a series of turmoil in the Nicohala Desert and the chaos of Nagash, it is said that he became a vampire, but we don't know what happened after that." The gold mage pointed to the figure in the portrait. "It is him, a vampire pirate."
"The second time we found Luther Haken, he was placed in a coffin on a human cargo ship. At that time, a group of barbarians who believed in chaos plundered the cargo ship. That's right, those barbarians were the Skogi tribe that we destroyed. The barbarians foolishly opened Luther Haken's coffin, which awakened him. After Luther Haken woke up, he awakened all the corpses and destroyed the barbarians, and then used the cargo ship as his first pirate ship. Since then, he came to Luscia, awakened the corpses and shipwrecked ships in the sea, and built his own fleet of undead."
"After spending hundreds of years, his undead fleet grew larger and larger, and the scale of his army grew larger and larger. Luther gathered a zombie army made from the corpses of the pirates and sailors that he resurrected from all over the world, as well as a huge fleet of ships that they controlled when they were alive. Because of that, the greedy Luther began to focus his attention on the lizardmen temple in the forest. He wanted to obtain the wealth, secrets, and power left behind by the ancient sage."
"Obviously, the demon toads would not sit back and watch this happen. One of the demon toads cursed Luther Haken, causing him to suffer a severe mental blow. His personality split into a dozen, and he kept fighting for control of his body. But even so, he still forced his way into a lizardmen temple, risking his own death to steal a slate with the ancient sage's prophecy."
"So, our goal is to take back this stone slab?" Felix raised his hand and gestured.
"Not only that." Forgen stood up and continued, "Lord Kroc's meaning is that not only do we have to take back the ancient saint's slate, we also have to do our best to eliminate the threat of Luther Haken once and for all."
"What about the reward?" Hubby the halfling asked excitedly.
"A hundred sets of full-body armor and weapons with the divine blessing of the lizardmen, as well as all the treasures we seized from Luther Haken. The lizardmen have promised to purify them for free." Fulgen raised a finger. "But we can only succeed, not fail."
The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became heated. Julius thought carefully for a while, then took the initiative to ask, "Where are we going to fight Luther Haken? Also, how can we guarantee that this vampire pirate king will be willing to fight us? "
"This is indeed a problem." Fulgen nodded. "But the lizardmen will help us."
"Help us?"
"Yes, as we know, Luther Haken was cursed by the Slane Magic Toad, and was cursed again when he broke into the lizardmen temple. So, his spirit and soul are in endless pain, constantly searching for a way to break the curse. He always believes that there must be a secret treasure of Slane that can help him break the curse, so …" Fulgen took out a gold-plated baton made of tropical hardwood and pointed it at the beach of the Vampire Coast in the east of Luscia. "We can artificially bury the treasure provided by the lizardmen under the beach. This treasure will resonate with the slate. We have no reason to not believe that Luther Haken will definitely appear with his undead fleet. There is only one chance."
"Understood." Julius no longer had any questions. "I will also participate in this war."
"If you want to join, remember to listen to my orders," Fulgen said calmly. "At the critical moment, listen to me and swear in the name of your lady."
Julius hesitated for a moment. He remembered that his opponent was a vampire pirate, so there was no need to talk about chivalry. He gritted his teeth and said, "I swear! But I will not do anything that goes against the chivalry of my fellow humans! "
"Okay." Fulgen did not say anything else. He immediately ordered, "Then, let's follow the plan!"
"Our Ashes Corps will meet this vampire pirate king on the Vampire Coast!"
"Yes!"
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