After reaching a cooperation agreement with Arias, John did not linger in the council chamber. Once he received the other man's approval to reorganize his troops, prepare to board ship, and return to the Empire—and learned that the Defense Forces would temporarily garrison Faoken afterward—he headed straight for the troops' encampment.
Although he still did not understand why Arias, the Marquis of Ravage, had suddenly shown him goodwill, considering that the conditions Arias proposed were entirely beneficial to him, he did not dwell on the reason.
After all, compared to pondering the true purpose behind Arias's investment, getting his troops out of this mess was more important right now.
"Battalion Commander, you're back. Did the handover go smoothly?"
"Not very smoothly. Things got far more complicated than I expected. Sigh!"
Inside the Imperial troops' encampment, Hawk watched John frown deeply. Although he did not know exactly what had happened in the council chamber,
he had seen their ten thousand Mage Soldier reinforcements heading west earlier. Combined with John's gloomy expression now, he could more or less guess what had happened.
He could not help inwardly lamenting the Old Guard Party's madness. For the sake of factional strife, they were willing to do something so outrageous and hateful.
Yet this inhuman strike would probably have an extremely significant effect for the Old Guard Party.
After all, once Commander John won the Battle of Fauken Bay and returned home to receive his rewards,
unless something unexpected happened, under the Old Guard Party's secret manipulations, even if his commander successfully received a noble title, the territory he ultimately obtained would most likely be the present-day, utterly devastated Faoken.
While the allied troops that had deployed earlier attacked the Beastfolk tribes surrounding Golden Lion Territory, they would also thoroughly destroy the existing mines and