Chapter 370: Tracking

"But now he is a queen." Scadra said. "On the one hand, you think she is a sister, and on the other hand, you can't completely think of her as a child. Although our adventure was successful this time, you must understand that if this matter is five years late... no, even two years late, three years late, I will convince you to give up this idea."

"I know." The king sighed softly. "Ten years...ten years..." His voice was not known to be sad or glad.

He was very lucky because his sister supported the kingdom when he was imprisoned. But he was also unlucky because his sister showed extremely outstanding abilities that he now faced a battle for the throne. But he was lucky after all, because only ten years have passed since that incident.

The older generation of ministers in the kingdom are still there. Everyone still remembers why they chose the little queen to ascend the throne, remembers the former king who died in battle, and remembers that he, as the crown prince. What is particularly important is that they are lucky enough to live in the dominant position of the palace. In another two or three years, as long as the composition of the personnel changes (due to human aging, this is inevitable), then things will never be that simple.

The only regret lies in the army. Of course, this is inevitable. When the former king died in battle, a large number of military generals had already died. Byron and Rafa had done more secret competition. As we knew earlier, all those who control the army are newly promoted by the Queen. However, in military terms, the achievements are better than all qualifications. A general who has won consecutive battles, even if he only has very shallow qualifications, his prestige and voice are stronger than those generals with poor record.

"That Ashu Rufate... can I get his allegiance?" He changed the topic.

"It's hard." Scadra replied very directly. "In my opinion, he is a very self-centered person. He has his own measurement standards in his heart for things in the world. This standard is different from the standards of ordinary people in the world - of course, I don't mean completely different, but some deviations in some aspects. Even if he can swear allegiance, I think he will be like the sword guard back then, and will not use all his strength to serve you."

"That's what you said before, do you 'don't understand what he needs at all'?"

"That's what it means." Scadra replied.

"Can he keep a neutral attitude in this matter?"

"That's completely impossible. You can't pay the price to buy him. Maybe you've heard that when he was still a sword guard... Byron came to him and offered a price to buy him."

"I guess it must be very low. After all, it's just a price to buy a... personal guard."

"Yes, but before Her Majesty the Queen sends troops to face Byron, he offers a second price."

"Ah...that price should be very good."

"Yes, in that case, as long as Byron is not an idiot, the price offered must be a price that can make anyone tempt."

"But it is definitely not enough. Because at that time, Byron thought that he had a great chance of winning by relying on his superior forces. So the price he offered was only a little touching, and it was impossible to shake it."

"You are right, but theoretically speaking, your sister had to add to him at that time. But even when everything was over and when he was ordered to lead the army to fight the invading Chaos Legion, the increase had not yet been released. He was still an earl, not even a real territory, let alone anything else."

"Is this...not in a hurry?"

"In the long run, maybe that's the case. But... the empty title of this count has no corresponding territory, which is really unusual. This can only show one thing. Ashu Rufate doesn't care about these things at all. His service... Please allow me to use this word, it's free."

"So that's it? Free?"

"Free things are the most expensive," said Scadra. "So I guess your sister must have made a... special, unknown promise to him. There must be some secret agreement. At first, I suspected that it was related to the evil god. But now I have no doubt about it."

"This count... in addition to fundraising ability, it seems to have great military strategies." The king changed his topic.

"Victory is the best proof of military capabilities."

"But I heard that this place... was temporarily captured by the Chaos Legion because of his negligence... If Essin had not arrived in time, then perhaps this war would have had a completely different result." The king said in a tone that seemed to be talking to himself.

"Even so, it's a small flaw in the great victory," said Scadra. "That's a small shadow in the sun, no one will care about it. What most people in this world care about is the result, not the process."

...

"You know, sir, what happened that night was so... so... I had no choice but to hide. Because at that time I was alone. My companions had all been slaughtered, only me..." The soldier who spoke lowered his head very uneasy and watched his feet move on the ground.

"No, that's not your fault." Ashu Rufate's attitude was much gentler than he expected. "I understand that soldiers need to be brave, but they don't need to die. In that case, hiding is also allowed... Well, actually I want to hear you say what you see again."

The soldier began to tell.

Ashrufate had already heard about the general things that happened that night: the Chaos Legion suddenly launched an attack that night. An elite Chaos army quietly climbed up the city wall with some hook ropes. This was originally a threatening attack, but it was successful because of the extreme lack of garrison troops in the city.

Next is a typical scene in the siege battle: the invaders opened the city gate with the fastest speed before the defenders launched an organized counterattack. So the enemy troops outside the city rushed in. The defenders gathered in a hurry, launched a meaningless counterattack and were defeated. So the defenders immediately chose to retreat to the second wall.

Originally, the scene ended here, because the Chaos Legion was also a small defeated army, it was impossible for them to capture the second city wall. Unfortunately, the Queen and her entourage and guards happened to spend the night in a beautiful villa in the outer city area. So they were blocked outside by the Chaos Legion.

So an unexpected fierce battle occurred. The queen's team fought and left, and finally hid in the temple. In the end, the queen fled the city through the tunnel. The next thing was simple. At dawn, General Essin led his army to arrive and met the queen. So, under the order of the queen, the general immediately rushed to attack the city of Niustria. Unfortunately, he came a little late, and only blocked a small number of people who had no time to withdraw the vanguard. Although he received the honor of "recovering the city of Niustria", he actually did not achieve any results. Because the Chaos Legion had already run away in the night.

After confirming that this Chaos Legion was only a remnant soldier of less than a thousand people (and had suffered serious losses in the battle with the Queen's escort. After the fire, at least two hundred corpses of Chaos warriors were found in the ruins of the temple), Essin symbolically searched the suburbs of the city, and then immediately led his troops to the front line to support Ashrufat. The small group of Chaos Legion lost their whereabouts from then on. It must have taken advantage of the opportunity of the two armies to take the opportunity to go back.

Apart from the safety factor of the queen, this battle is just an irrelevant little battle, and it will not even allow historians to waste their writing and recording it in the book.

However, soldiers, especially experienced soldiers, can realize from the decisive and rapid actions of the Chaos Legion that although this Chaos Legion is a remnant soldier, there must be a leader who can completely control everything. Their purpose of attacking the City of Niustria is also very clear - after verifying this matter, it is to seize supplies. The warehouse in the outer city well meets the needs of the Chaos Army.

A city like the city of Neustria, even if it is just an outer city, cannot be controlled by an army of thousands of people. The Chaos Legion did not spend much time searching, because they did not expect to completely capture the city. In the night and the melee, a few defenders who had no time to retreat to the second wall hid in the outer city, and—naturally—who saw something historians would not care about at all.

"So you saw that before that temple collapsed... a Chaos warrior came out?" Ashu Rufate asked.

"That's right, General. At that time... as I said just now, there were three or five hundred Chaos warriors gathered at the entrance of the temple. They probably knew that the terrain inside was unfolding well, so they went in one wave after another. However, all those who entered in front did not come out until the last batch entered..." The soldier tried his best to recall what he saw.

"How many people are there in the so-called 'a batch'?"

"Not necessarily, there are more than a dozen, and seventy or eighty. After entering batch after batch... the burning temple was like a monster, swallowing them one by one and never coming out again."

"You just said the last batch, one came out?"

"Yes, there are many Chaos Warriors in that group, and one of them... Both armor and weapons are very different. You can tell at a glance that he is a leader, and he should be a Chaos Champion or something. He and a group of subordinates, about seventy or eighty people rushed in, but he was the only one who came out in the end. Wait, General, not him. He brought out another person."

"A wounded soldier?"

"No...If I'm not wrong, it should be a woman... a prisoner. Yes, I'm sure. At that time, the fire was very bright, so I could see it very clearly. I guess that should be one of the queen's entourages, because there were almost no women in the city at that time."

"How did he treat that prisoner?"

"He carried her on his shoulders. That woman... was not tall, and compared to that leader, she was like a child."

"What then?" Ashu Rufate tried his best to keep himself calm, but in fact the sound had become significantly louder.

"The Chaos leader... took the prisoners away. Other subordinates outside also followed him. Soon after, the temple collapsed in the fire."
Chapter completed!