After leaving Valagajudi, Aisha hurried back to Amnath City without pause.
The moment she entered the city, she headed straight for Quintina's residence and relayed every instruction and every idea Ang had given her without omission.
Quintina immediately grasped the situation. She promptly ordered her civil officials to draft a notice, and before long, news of "Viscount Ang leading the 47th Regiment alone into Valagajudi, holding the border, and struggling to resist the lizardmen's attacks" spread rapidly throughout Amnath.
The news had been deliberately embellished with a tragic, heroic tone. For a time, several nobles who had planned to choose fiefs west of Valagajudi began to waver, and some even withdrew their land applications on the spot.
Meanwhile, Kodo Roland, far away on the other side of Amnath, finally could no longer sit still.
"Kodo, are we really going to push forward regardless of the cost?" A noble lord in exquisite attire stood beside him, his grave expression betraying obvious unease.
"We've delayed long enough." Kodo gazed at the vast regions occupied by the lizardmen on the map, his voice low. "The Military Department has begun questioning our ability to execute orders. There are even rumors that Viscount Ang's achievements have caught the attention of certain people in the imperial capital."
The noble lord raised his brows. "That commoner-born viscount? What gives him the right?"
"Whether he has the right isn't for us to decide." Kodo turned toward him, a trace of chill in his eyes. "If we don't produce results soon, the Military Department may simply send him to take over. Would you rather stand alongside him in the records of military merit, or return to Fortress of Will and wait to be assigned to the front lines?"
At the words "front lines," the noble lord's expression immediately changed.