Just as Airi had expected, Oldanari could no longer sit still.
At first, they had not taken the loss of Volunteer Soldiers seriously. The first Volunteer Soldiers to head to the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers had either been trainees or low-ranking members. To put it bluntly, they were the sort whose deaths were not considered particularly important. But gradually, most of the Volunteer Soldiers began heading to the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers, leaving Oldanari's rulers deeply troubled.
For Oldanari, the Volunteer Soldiers were indispensable.
There were two types of forces stationed at the border. One was the border army of the Kingdom of Balabajia, the kingdom's regular military. The other was the Volunteer Army. How the Volunteer Army had originally been established was now impossible to verify. However, it mainly took in amnesiac otherworlders of unknown origin in the eyes of the Balabajians, provided them with starting funds, and had them join the Volunteer Army to fight monsters.
Although the Volunteer Army was not a regular military force, its role in defending the border fortress was no small matter. After all, regular troops could not be dispatched for every scattered skirmish. Thus, the Volunteer Army was used instead. Give them a little money, and they would charge forward like starving tigers pouncing on prey to wipe out the enemy. In Oldanari's eyes, it was clearly a profitable arrangement with no downside.
But now that the number of Volunteer Soldiers had plummeted, Oldanari could no longer remain calm. They first sent soldiers to the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers in an attempt to negotiate. Yet they could not enter at all—the cloud and mist at the valley's peak were not merely for show, but a barrier that excluded outsiders. Only otherworlders were allowed inside. Locals would only get lost