"Attack, dear General Ent Malte?" Baffy Goldmast looked pitifully at Enzo. "You know, we've paid you enormous military salaries and bonuses. If you don't take the initiative to attack, our expenses will be far too great!"
Enzo cast Baffy Goldmast a cold glance and said blandly, "The time is not yet ripe for the decisive battle. Please wait patiently. And, by the way, according to the agreement your country signed with our two great empires, you should be providing us with sufficient military provisions. Yet these past few days, our soldiers have been eating only the food we brought ourselves!"
Lightly slapping the square table, Enzo shook his head unhappily. "Without enough food and reliable logistical supplies, I will absolutely not launch an attack blindly!"
Almu and Baffy exchanged miserable looks. They wanted to say something, but they had no idea how to begin.
When they had fled Black Pearl Harbor, they had taken with them the most valuable treasures from the national treasury and their own storehouses, including vast quantities of magical metal ingots. Those were the only things they had taken. As for Black Pearl Harbor's food reserves, they had built dozens of secret underground vaults of varying sizes near the harbor, burying the grain along with mountains of ordinary metal ingots.
The fatal part was that when they learned Dragon Mountain Empire reinforcements had arrived and eagerly returned to Black Pearl Harbor with their people, not only had the Dragon Mountain Empire's temporary military administration replaced the rule of the Black Spirit Empire's nobles, but all the food and supplies they had stored away had vanished as well!
The warehouses were spotlessly empty. Not a single grain of rice remained. Even a pack of rats would have run out with tears in their eyes!
Someone had stolen