"Anyone else?" Sun Fei continued patiently.
"Besides those I just mentioned, there's also Best, the steward of the royal palace, who has some influence. He's Miss Angela's father, your future father-in-law... But before the enemy attacked the city, Steward Best left Chambord City with a large amount of the palace's treasure. Nobody knows what he went to do."
Angela's father?
Sun Fei was taken aback. So Angela had a father? No wonder he had never appeared. He had happened to leave just before the enemy arrived, taking a large amount of the palace's treasure with him... Did that count as running away?
But Sun Fei's first reaction wasn't anger.
Instead, he felt a pang of sorrow for Angela.
This beautiful, kind girl had been heartlessly abandoned by her own father when she needed someone to rely on most. She must be struggling to hold back her sorrow right now.
He suddenly became terribly worried about Angela, the frail-looking girl.
The night wind blew. Across the river, countless points of light stretched into the distance: torches burning in the enemy camp.
Sun Fei stood on the city wall and chatted with Brook for a while longer. By now, he had a general grasp of how the factions within Chambord City were distributed.
Clearly, judging by Brook's account, although Chambord City was a kingdom that couldn't be any smaller, its tangled web of factions and the extent of their scheming were not even a little inferior to those of the super empires... That suddenly made Sun Fei feel that the situation he faced was rather interesting.
"I don't think I saw Bazel, Conca or Oleg in today's battle. Don't they have to fight?" Something had occurred to Sun Fei, and he continued asking questions.
"Lord Bazel appeared on the wall once during the battle this morning, when he brought you up here, Your Majesty... Military magistrate Conca was wounded shortly after the fighting began on the first day, and he's been recovering at home ever since. Oleg is the warden. I once asked him to join the fighting, but he said his first duty was to guard the prison and that he had no obligation to fight!"
"No obligation? Heh, I see..." Sun Fei made a mental note of the three men. After pondering for a moment, he asked, "Then... how strong are they? I mean their personal strength..."
"Bazel is an ordinary man who knows neither martial skills nor magic. Military magistrate Conca and warden Oleg are both one-star warriors... But in Chambord City, only Lord Frank Lampard is a true powerhouse. As a three-star warrior, he's among the very strongest of the protectors serving the many surrounding nations!"
By the end, there was unmistakable pride in Brook's voice.
"I seem to remember Bazel's son Gejir is a mage, right?" Hearing this, Sun Fei grinned as a wicked idea came to him. "Send someone to deliver my order immediately. Conscript the mage Gejir to fight on the wall and defend Chambord City."
"Your Majesty, Gejir's current level doesn't qualify him as a star-ranked mage. At most, he's a low-level magic apprentice... Of course, even a magic apprentice can be of great use in battle..." Brook bowed as he replied. "As you wish, Your Majesty. I'll send someone to conscript Gejir immediately."
Clearly, Brook strongly approved of Sun Fei's order.
"Mm, that's enough for tonight." Sun Fei had learned basically everything he wanted to know. Smiling, he patted the "honest man" Brook on the shoulder. "Once you've arranged the shift change for the soldiers defending the city, go and get some rest. I'll keep watch tonight."
"Your Majesty, how can I allow that? My duty is to..." Brook was shocked.
Sun Fei smiled and waved a hand, cutting him off. "Commander Brook, I heard from the soldiers that you haven't rested for two days and two nights. That won't do. The fighting ahead may be even more brutal... All right, Brook, I want you to get some rest while you can and restore your strength. You'll still be killing enemies for me in tomorrow's battle... That's an order from your king, and you must obey. Go on!"
Brook was taken aback.
The next moment, the burly, black-haired man dropped to one knee and planted his two-handed greatsword before his chest. In the name of a warrior, he solemnly swore, "God of War above, Your Majesty Alexander, my respected king, I, the one-star warrior Goethe Brook, am willing to die for you!"
After Brook left, Sun Fei found an excuse to send away the guards following him.
He made a round of inspections alone, carefully examining the structures and defensive measures on the wall. Along the way, he reassured some of the other soldiers defending the city. Amid the soldiers' grateful cheers, he finally came alone to the watchtower above the main gate.
The watchtower had originally been a small, two-story building of wood and stone.
Before the war broke out, the watchtower had been nicely furnished, and the officers and soldiers defending the city usually rested there after their shifts. But it had been completely destroyed in the fighting over the past few days, leaving only four collapsed stone walls. Starlight shone directly down into the desolate remains.
Sun Fei entered the watchtower and found a spot where he could see any activity below the wall at a glance. There he sat down to keep watch.
Several guards stood at a distance outside the stone walls, keeping watch for their king.
Things don't look good. We've beaten back the enemy's attacks, but we obviously can't go on like this. These enemies in black, wherever they came from, are not only well equipped and well trained, but also far more numerous than Chambord City's defenders. If we keep fighting, Chambord City will surely fall, and its people will die. I have to find another way!
Sun Fei racked his brains.
But no matter how much he thought, he couldn't come up with a good idea.
After all, in his previous life, Sun Fei had been just an ordinary student at a third-rate university. He hadn't been a super assassin or an elite special forces soldier; he hadn't even qualified as a calculating student council officer. Expecting a homebody like him to come up with a solution immediately in these circumstances was asking a bit too much.
Looks like all I can do for now is make the most of my time and improve my strength. Everything else can wait.
Sun Fei gave up on that line of thought. Having made up his mind, he closed his eyes and began trying to communicate with the mysterious, cold voice in his mind, hoping to enter the world of Diablo to "level up" and improve his strength.
But-
"Insufficient mental energy reserves. Unable to enter the game space. Please try again later."
The mysterious, cold voice soon replied.
Sun Fei was crestfallen.
He patiently closed his eyes and rested for a while, then tried again, only to receive the same answer. He tried more than a dozen times at intervals, but never managed to enter the consciousness space as he wished. The mysterious, cold voice always replied, "Insufficient mental energy reserves"...
As Sun Fei kept trying, he quietly fell asleep without realizing it.
The south bank of the Zuli River.
The central camp of the mysterious army of black-armored soldiers.
Toward the front of the black camp's center stood a black tent, noticeably larger and grander than those around it. In the flickering light of the surrounding torches, it looked like a terrifying beast lurking in the darkness, ready to choose someone to devour.
Inside the tent, however, all was warm and bright.
The silver-masked man who had appeared by the river that morning was sitting in a chair draped with the black pelt of an enormous, unidentified magic beast. Relaxed, he propped the chin beneath his silver mask on one hand, while the other held an almost translucent white jade cup, gently swirling the red wine inside.
Nineteen black knights stood in orderly rows to either side of the silver-masked man, guarding him from behind.
On the left side of the tent, a mysterious figure shrouded from head to toe in a black cloak sat at a table below him. The magic staff beside the figure revealed the cloaked stranger's identity-a mage.
A strange, invisible field of energy flickered in and out around the mysterious figure, making the cloaked stranger appear exceedingly blurry to everyone present and preventing them from discerning his true features. Although the light in the great tent was warm, the body beneath the black cloak constantly gave off a bone-deep chill.
Langde, the three-star swordsman gravely injured by Sun Fei in the day's battle, was now kneeling at the silver-masked man's feet.
Crackle, crackle-!
The faint crackling of charcoal burning in the brazier made the atmosphere throughout the tent seem utterly tranquil and eerie.
At last, the silver-masked man raised his head.
He glanced at Langde, the three-star warrior kneeling on the ground, and asked casually, "Langde, tell me what happened on the wall today. I'm very curious. How did you, a three-star warrior, suffer such serious injuries?"
Langde, the three-star warrior, knelt on one knee on the red carpet in the center of the great tent, his face full of shame.
Surprisingly, despite Langde's formidable three-star strength, he seemed very afraid when faced with the silver-masked man's questioning. On hearing the question, he hurriedly lowered his head and gave a meticulous account of everything that had happened on the wall that day, concealing nothing.
The silver-masked man seemed to listen absentmindedly, but from beginning to end he kept his eyes fixed intently on the jade cup in his hand, as though something incredible on its crystal-clear surface had firmly captured his gaze.
Only after Langde had finished did the silver-masked man's hand pause briefly in its swirling. He said softly, "So that's what happened. Heh, interesting, interesting... Langde, get up and speak!"
Langde, the three-star warrior, felt as though he had been granted a pardon.
He breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and added, "Thank you, Master. I have one more thing to report. Today, while fighting Chambord City's three-star warrior, I noticed something strange."
"Speak!"
"Master, I noticed that Chambord City's three-star warrior, the one with water-attribute Dou Qi, seemed to have an injury that hadn't healed, and his Dou Qi wasn't circulating smoothly... In my experience, he most likely suffered a hidden injury in his body in the past, for some unknown reason, and it has never healed, so it has affected his strength... The next time we meet in battle, I'm confident I can cut off his head and present it to you, Master!"
Langde offered this assurance with full confidence.
But he had clearly missed the point.
The silver-masked man seemed to have no interest at all in Lampard, the strongest fighter in Chambord City. Instead, he changed the subject and asked, seemingly offhandedly, "Langde, what do you make of that bull in a full suit of heavy knight's armor who appeared later?"
If you have any opinions or suggestions, please post them in the comments section.
Daozi checks there often but doesn't have time to reply to each of you, so please forgive me.
Thanks to the brothers for your tips.
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