Changes in the international situation had not affected the Kingdom's plans. The conscription order was issued immediately, and the already uneasy servant army camps instantly erupted into clamor.
To survive, they had chosen to betray the Orc Empire and come serve as dogs for the Alpha Kingdom. To prove their loyalty, they had slaughtered their former comrades without mercy.
Every servant army had its own impressive record. Their status and position had been built atop countless Beastfolk corpses.
They had thought that once the Great Grassland was pacified, good days would follow.
Their most pessimistic prior estimate was simply that the Alpha people would drive them to continue suppressing the remnants of the Orc Empire. Even then, such a situation could not last forever; the Alpha Kingdom could not afford the costs of prolonged warfare.
They had never expected that a single decree would send them to fight on the Central Continent. The main battlefield of the Continental War—just thinking about it was enough to tell them how intense the fighting would be.
Most importantly, once they left the familiar Great Grassland, all their advantages would vanish. Other than serving as cannon fodder, they had no second choice.
Pigmen settlement.
Graeme once again politely declined his neighbor's invitation.
The Orc Empire had a strict hierarchy. Weak races like the Pigmen had no political voice whatsoever. They would never be notified about gatherings of such a conspiratorial nature.
The only reason Graeme had been invited again and again was the status he had earned by leading the Pigmen army on the battlefield.
On the military merit rankings released by the Alpha Kingdom's army, the Pigmen army led by Graeme had started in first place. Even after the war ended, it had remained seventh, overturning every Beastfolk's understanding.
Those who had