The noble lords who had gone out to recruit cannon fodder all returned to the command headquarters in the city, each complaining to Grand Duke Willy about how hard they had worked without managing to recruit anyone.
"Your Grace, these lowborn are becoming harder to fool. No matter how I explained things to them, they would rather go back to the factories than join the resistance against the invaders."
A noble complained to Grand Duke Willy, who sat at the head of the room. More than one noble had gone around the city giving speeches. Basically, every noble still in the rear-area city had been ordered by Grand Duke Willy to speak everywhere, hoping to pull in more cannon fodder to resist the Star Space Marines' attack.
The final results were far from ideal. With so many nobles acting together, they had recruited only a little over a hundred thousand cannon fodder. To these nobles, gaining so few cannon fodder after wasting so much breath simply was not worth it.
"If only that psyker beside Kadir were here. Then we wouldn't need to put so much effort into recruiting cannon fodder. All it would take would be a few words from him, and those lowborn would obediently take up weapons and attack the invaders."
Another noble sighed. Everyone still coveted the psyker slave under Kadir's command. Having such a powerful and useful slave at one's side could save them a great deal of trouble.
"Isn't it because that coward Kadir claimed the wall was the 'most dangerous' place and took his men there to defend it?" another noble said.
"With that psyker slave, we could have had massive numbers of cannon fodder at our disposal. It wouldn't have been this troublesome."
"That sly Kadir ran the fastest, but he'll also