The ten days passed very quickly.

  Although he knew that his military power would be taken away soon, the general still held onto the hope that the person who came to replace him was from the military and could continue to lead the army in battle. He still did his best to do what a general should do.

  Up to now, the situation of those beastman troops is still unclear, and the dispatched reconnaissance troops have gained nothing. The general even began to consider sending a vanguard of several thousand people to Oufo City to test the waters with an attack.

  Asa strongly opposed it, only he who had experienced it personally knew how adventurous this action was, purely suicidal. Moreover, he knew what Ou Fu's strategy meant. This was to delay time, Ou Fu had never thought of going to war with the empire from the beginning, not letting the opponent know their specific combat power, and the situation on the imperial capital side was already very clear, the order to stop fighting and retreat was only a matter of time.

  Asa understood that his task was now only a matter of time. As long as he could prevent the general from sending troops before the emperor's orders arrived, he would be fine. So in these days, he made an effort to use his verbal skills, which were not his strong suit, to deal with the general. Fortunately, his rich experience living and fighting outdoors allowed him to always have something to say and persuade the general. The key was that he had personally experienced the astonishing combat power of the beastmen and had witnessed the high efficiency of the Eufo under Sedelos' rule. He analyzed the mobility of the beastmen outside the wilderness, as well as their most important advantage: their visual acuity at night, which was not affected by darkness, and their hearing, which was a hundred times more sensitive than that of humans. This was completely different from the situation when the general had previously eliminated those rigid beastman tribes. The beastmen would take the initiative to attack, using various flexible methods to fully exploit all their advantages, and the concept of battle would be completely different. Not to mention the double-legged flying dragon, which could clearly see the movement of troops at a height that arrows could not reach. In a situation where the enemy was in the dark and he was in the light, just the continuous night raids alone could make the morale of the troops collapse.

  The general's attitude towards him also gradually became more gentle in the continuous disputes with Asa, and even began to show approval and admiration. Such a young man, whether it was his mind or combat experience, was not commensurate with his age, let alone his skills, as a warrior's intuition, he could see that this young man was not ordinary. He also didn't spend every day in the camp eating and drinking like other gods or discussing abstract theological issues with pastors. This was undoubtedly a military talent, a born fighter, and the general had many times wanted to ask why such a person would be under the Erni family, but he never opened his mouth.

  The messenger who conveyed the emperor's decree finally arrived. As expected, the general's military power was stripped away, and he was no longer a general. On the issue of selecting a new general, the military and the Erni family were at an impasse, but eventually, Duke Mlacak gained recognition from both parties. He will soon come to take over the military power, and the emperor ordered the general to wait here for the duke's arrival.

  The general listened silently to the imperial edict, and finally asked: "Will Duke Mrlak take over after this battle? Will he lead the troops here to attack that beastman city-state?"

  "Your Majesty has already decided to withdraw the troops. The envoys of various countries have strongly requested, and Bishop Ronis also strongly advocates for recognizing Eufu as an independent country. It is said that Eufu will soon send an envoy to negotiate a peace treaty, so this war may not be fought now or in the future. The 40,000-strong army here will be taken over by Duke Mlacak and reassigned to the southern border, and if necessary, half of the soldiers will be allowed to return home."

  The general remained silent, then his whole body began to tremble slightly, and he managed to say a few words: "I obey your orders."

  At dusk, Asa was summoned by the general. The general took him outside Brakada City.

  They arrived at a small hill outside the city, where there were no other people around. The general looked at the blood-red sunset in silence for a while, then opened his mouth to say: "In these days, I can see that you are a true warrior. Now I want to talk to you, putting aside any political stance, purely based on a conversation between two warriors."

  The general looked at Asa with a powerful gaze, filled with regret and discontent. "Why did you submit to those corrupt politicians of the Ernie family? From you, I can see the temperament that only true warriors have, which is possessed by those who have walked through countless life-and-death lines, experienced the taste of death, and stepped on their opponents' blood and flesh with their own hands and teeth. How can you still tolerate those pig-like corrupt politicians? When they play with those sinister plots, don't you feel disgusted as a true warrior?"

  "I am not a member of House Ernei," Asa replied. "I was sent here by Bishop Ronis."

  The general was slightly surprised and asked: "Your Excellency Bishop? What did he send you here for?"

  "The archbishop has called me here to ease tensions and wait for a ceasefire."

  "Ease the situation... No wonder you've been trying to stop me from dispatching troops all this time." The general didn't get angry, his energy seemed to have been consumed by today's imperial edict. "So after the ceasefire, what will happen to us soldiers? We can fight, we can use our own flesh and blood to expand the country's territory, and then use our lives to guard it. But what's the final result? Once peace is achieved, we're no longer needed, and it becomes the world of those despicable politicians. Swords and spears are no match for schemes and conspiracies, we who risk our lives on the front lines can only be tools for politics. We can't do that kind of dirty thing, so we can only slowly be squeezed out, and this country will slowly fall into the hands of those indulgent aristocrats who live like pigs. What are they? They're pampered, weak, and useless, all they know is women and food. One of our fingers can crush them as easily as crushing a stinking insect." The general's eyes began to shine with anger. "Why do we still have to be manipulated by them? Why do the territory and glory we exchanged for with blood and flesh get taken over by these people?"

  A Sa remained silent. He could feel the turmoil in the general's heart. Although he didn't understand military politics, he could understand the old man's anger.

  The general looked at Asa, slowly, word by word, and said: "I have a request for you. This is the first time in my life that I've asked someone else for something. It's a warrior's request to another warrior, can you grant it?"

  With a personality like General's, with such prestige and being such a person, this is probably the first time in his life that he has gone to ask for help.

  A lifelong request from an old man. A general who commands tens of thousands of troops, makes a request in an equal and respectful manner, can such a request be refused?

  Asa was about to agree immediately. But he didn't forget the current subtle environment and task, only saying: "You try saying it."

  The general fell silent for a moment, then said: "Didn't you notice? When the imperial edict was being read, only the two of us were present. And after the envoy conveyed the order, he also left quickly. These are all my deliberate arrangements."

  "Is it?" Asa frowned, he was not familiar with these. "Why arrange it that way?"

  "No one else has heard the imperial edict. That is to say, except for us two, no one knows that I have already lost the power to command the troops...... Do you know why I did this?"

  "I don't know." Asa waited for him to continue.

  "This is the team I have led for nearly twenty years, and it can be said that each of these generals is my confidant. As long as they don't know that I've been stripped of my military power, I can still mobilize them."

  "What do you want to do?" Asa frowned at the general.

  The general's voice slowly regained its vigor and authority: "Tomorrow, we will advance with the whole army to that beastman den and kill our way in. As long as we flatten that den in one go, other countries will see our military might and naturally not dare say anything else. The Emperor will also know that maintaining the country still requires us soldiers, and those politicians will be terrified and ashamed, not daring to play any more tricks."

  Asa looked at the general in amazement, his desperate situation had turned his anger and frustration into a gambler's fighting spirit.

  "There's nothing to worry about. Throughout history, it's always been the winner who takes all, and as long as we succeed, no one will dare say anything. Bishop Ronis won't blame you either. The Holy Knights are not a problem, Commander Roland is an old comrade-in-arms who has fought alongside me for many years, he will definitely secretly support us. As long as we work together, with your command of the priests and troops coordinating, we can definitely wipe out those beastmen without leaving any remnants. Our numbers are ten times theirs!" The general's eyes began to shine with a hint of victory, as if it was already within sight.

  "Sorry, I won't do it." Asa shook his head. "I told you, rashly sending troops out will never have a good outcome. Besides, my mission here is to stop you. I'll go back and tell the other generals that your military power has been stripped away."

  The general's eyes dimmed down, and then his anger reignited with a hundred times more ferocity inside.

  Facing the general's gaze that seemed capable of killing, Asa didn't show a shred of fear. He just thought this old man was a bit pitiful. He shook his head and said: "Isn't it better to stop fighting? Who takes power doesn't matter. The soldiers don't have to die either. They can go home. Living in peace is better than dying here."

  The general's voice was like a roar, and also like a mournful cry: "Man is bound to die sooner or later. As a soldier, it is better to die on the battlefield than to go back home and slowly wither away in bed."

  Asa shook his head, still speaking in a light tone: "Even if you think so, the tens of thousands of soldiers won't think so, and their families won't think so either. They all hope to see their sons or husbands come back alive. General, don't your wife and children want you to come back alive?"

  The general slowly stretched out his hand, pointing to the west, where the sunset was as red as blood. His voice was actually trembling: "My wife and my last son were killed there, killed by the beastmen."

  A Sa was stunned.

  "Twenty-five years ago, my wife and a merchant caravan were traveling through the wilderness when they were killed and eaten by beasts. I don't even know where to find their bodies." The general's usual sternness and ferocity had vanished, replaced by trembling sorrow. With his back to the sunset, he looked like a broken statue. "More than half a year ago, my last son led a group of mercenaries to scout deep into the wilderness, but there was no news from him either. He was only twenty-five years old, a brave warrior. If time had allowed it, he would have been a great warrior and general, you know?"

  A Sa knew. Before his eyes appeared the brave figure of that person who alone faced a man-eating demon as formidable as a war fortress on the top of a desolate mountain.

  "I'm telling you, twenty years ago, the villages and towns around the Barbarian Highlands were attacked by beastmen every year. Those beasts hunted humans like they were hunting animals, capturing people alive, killing them, and eating them. When I led the army to exterminate those beasts, I saw decorations made of human skeletons in their tribes, they used human skin as paper to write on, and wore it as clothes. And now, those beasts have established cities and want to negotiate with us humans. Not just as a warrior, but even as a person, can you allow this?"

  The general's voice was no longer so fervent, only sorrow and a tired anger. But Asa's heart began to be uneasy.

  No one is unaware of the fact that beastmen used to eat humans. In the past, one of the greatest impressions these sub-humans gave people was their bloody and evil barbarism. Compared to the casual mention by the lord of Cedelos City, hearing about such a tragedy from an old man who lost his wife and children is indeed heart-wrenching.

  But Asa knew that sending troops out to attack was a dead end. And from now on, under Sedros' leadership, the relationship between beasts and humans would be completely different. Such a war launched purely for past hatred is meaningless.

  Asa took a few deep breaths, looked at the general and said softly: "Sorry."

  The general's tall figure shook violently. Despair, loss, and pain twisted on his face, then slowly turned into anger. A killing intent had already appeared in his eyes without a doubt.

  As long as Asa is killed, he still has the possibility of commanding the army and avenging himself!

  Looking at the general in front of him, who was like a raging lion with its teeth bared, Asa calmly shook his head and said: "If your wife and children are still alive in heaven, they would never want you to use these 40,000 lives to avenge them. If they knew that you were going to sacrifice these living people to mourn their deaths, do you think they would be happy? Do you think they would want you to go die too?"

  The general was still staring at Asa, but slowly his eyes became dull and powerless, and the killing intent also gradually dissipated. He stood there like that, finally turning around silently, no longer paying attention to Asa, and walked back alone on the way he came.

  Under the bloody sunset, the tall back figure no longer had its former grandeur and majesty, but only some weakness. Watching this back figure gradually disappear into the distance under the setting sun, Asa now only hoped that Duke Mlak could come over quickly, end this quickly and retreat. Let him hand it over to Archbishop-sama and then go out to travel and forget about these annoying things.

  An owl perched on a nearby branch stared with big eyes and hooted twice. Hearing this sound, Asa, who usually liked animals, suddenly felt a sense of disgust and turned his head to glare at the ominous bird of prey.

  At night, a hazy half moon hangs in the sky. This is a rare overcast day on the plateau.

  The general lay in bed, unable to sleep. It was his first bout of insomnia since he had killed a man for the first time at thirteen.

  But unlike the tension, inexplicable fear and excitement at that time, he now only feels tired and powerless.

  This is not fatigue, but a real sense of exhaustion and despair weighing on the heart. It's not just that every muscle can't muster up any strength, even the spirit wants to collapse, as if the body is just an empty shell, with no vitality left to drive it forward.

  Every wound on his body, old and new, ached at this moment. This decades-long military career, in the end, had nothing to show for it. His wife and son were killed by the beastmen, and now he couldn't even avenge them. He himself would be forced out of the army by those politicians' machinations, and from then on, live like a useless old dog, eating the leftover food given to him by those politicians until his dying day. Even dying like a warrior, with his broken bones piercing the enemy's chest, was just an extravagant hope.

  Living has lost its meaning, and even death can't be done properly... The general closed his eyes, in the midst of powerless sorrow and despair, vaguely feeling himself becoming a puddle of mud, slowly dissolving, deforming, rotting away...

  "Father." A low voice awakened the general. The general opened his eyes and saw his own son, the youngest, most beloved, and most talented one.

  That was still the same majestic and calm face as when he was young, his expression seemed to be condensed from a fierce battle. He held a bare sword handle in his hand, standing upright there, a wound on his forehead that had been torn open flowed with blood, dyeing his entire face red, but it couldn't cover up his heroic spirit, and on his chest there was a bloody big hole left by some terrifying weapon.

  "The general didn't dare to move, fearing that the shadow would be startled and suddenly disappear. He didn't know if it was his son's soul or a phantom created by his own thoughts."

  "Father, I have followed your teachings and fought with all my might until the end. My death is a warrior's most glorious fate." He stood tall, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly, the terrible wound on his chest seeming like a medal.

  "Is it? You've done well, very well indeed... my good child..." The general muttered.

  "I saw countless innocent civilians who died at the hands of the beastmen, they all died a terrible death. But they were also praising you, saying that you are a great hero, killing many ferocious beasts to avenge them. I also saw those soldiers who died in battle against the beastmen, they encouraged you and hoped you would continue your fight. You have always been fighting for revenge for those departed souls. Perhaps you are not the greatest general, but you are the greatest warrior."

  "Is that so..." The general nodded, and a single tear fell from his long-dry eye sockets.

  The general had always hated and despised tears the most. He thought it was a symbol of weakness, the last thing a warrior needed, but now he felt that all his vitality had surged out with this tear in his heart.

  "I also met Mother, she said that she hopes to wait for you in heaven, and for you to meet her in the most glorious way. I also hope to see Father's majestic figure fighting again, that is the real you." The voice gradually faded away, and the image slowly became blurry. "Goodbye, Father, I'll go first."

  "Ah, child..." The general suddenly sat up in bed, and it was already dawn.

  Was it just a dream? The general found that there were indeed tear stains on his face, he wiped his face and sat up halfway, looking around in confusion, seeing a small thing shining on the ground not far away under the morning light.

  The general slowly walked over, picked it up with a trembling hand. It was a bare sword hilt, the blade seemed to have been shattered by some great force, leaving only a small remnant near the hilt.

  It's probably the long-term sun and rain that makes it look very old, even if it's thrown on the side of the road, it won't attract people's attention, but the general recognizes what this thing is. On one end of the hilt is a recessed pattern of a holy cross, which is the mark of the Holy Knights, and on the other end are the words "Courage" and "Glory", which were personally engraved by the general himself.

  The general pressed the hilt of the sword against his chest, as if to put its significance into his heart, then he stood up, feeling himself full of strength, and more powerful than ever before.