"Of course, Duke Bick, I'm not begging you to surrender either!"
"Actually, I've always admired your reputation, Duke Bick. So if you want to have a battle, I don't mind at all!"
"It's just that the Mana Crystals consumed then will all be charged back to the Bach Empire and the various duchies!"
Seeing that Duke Bick was still hesitating, Nalant smiled faintly and took the initiative to give up persuading them to surrender.
Yet Nalant's attitude immediately left the commanders of the various duchies dumbfounded, and they grew nervous.
They certainly did not want to die, but they could not win a fight either.
So, surrendering later was bound to become the outcome.
But if they surrendered later and had to pay more ransom afterward, that was truly something they did not want to see.
Mana Crystals cost three thousand gold coins apiece.
With the way Nalant used Mana Crystals, a single battle would consume forty or fifty of them at the very least.
That would amount to more than a hundred thousand gold coins. Split between them, merely hesitating for a dozen or so minutes would add ten thousand gold coins to each person's share.
Even digging a gold mine was not this profitable.
"Duke Bick!"
Several commanders from the smaller duchies could not help calling out to Duke Bick.
They could not compare to the Bach Empire.
The Bach Empire was vast and wealthy; Duke Bick alone was comparable to one of their entire duchies.
So these nobles were truly poor.
"Alas!" Duke Bick sighed upon hearing this, understanding that there was no longer any chance of a turnaround for the Bach allied army today.
In truth, their army of one hundred thousand had already been beaten to pieces. Things could not get any worse than this.