The Lord Of Blood Hill

Chapter 574: The Sidelined Rebel King

After Meredith leaves, Divarak raises the documents in his hand. "Look, Your Highness. This is the reward I mentioned during the day.""With these things, that fool Edward committed treason. Killing him was our emergency punishment for a traitor."

These documents are evidence that Viscount Edward had been secretly trading with Howell, the King of Justice, and had even hired killers.

Sundike smiles bitterly. "How many of them are colluding with the rebels? I remember that when you asked that lady for evidence earlier, she directly asked which noble you meant."

"Clearly, Viscount Edward is far from the only one who colluded with that traitor Howell. There must be many others."

Divarak sighs. "Sigh. It is not a question of how many. Almost every noble has some connection to the rebels."

"Otherwise, why were they so eager to join the battle during the day?"

"It was not just for military merit."

"If it were only for merit, they would not have offended Your Highness. At the very least, they would have greeted Your Highness in advance and sought your permission."

"But instead, they charged straight in without the slightest concern for the effect it might have on the battle."

"Because they wanted to be the first to rush into Howell's lair and destroy evidence of their crimes."

"Of course, if they could destroy their own evidence while obtaining evidence against others, that would be perfect."

Sundike's mood sinks. "Count, if the nobles, the foundation of the country, have rotted to this state, can the country truly still be saved?"

Divarak puts away the mocking smile on his face and gently shakes his head. "I do not know either."

"But, Your Highness, I know that if we do nothing, the country definitely has no hope."

The two do not speak for a long time. They sit silently in the room.

Three days later, Divarak and the others lead their armies away from this place, continuing their pursuit westward.

They leave none of the three legions behind.

This delights the nobles, who frantically plunder the territory ruled by the King of Justice.

But they soon stop feeling happy. While they are busy, the army from the foothold zone directly raids the prisoner camp.

They take away all the tens of thousands of prisoners there. By the time the nobles receive the news, a full day has already passed.

Then the various nobles gather together, spending another day.

By then, the prisoners have long since returned to the foothold zone.

Yet the nobles still do not make an immediate decision. Instead, they hold meetings for three full days.

Only then do they prepare to join forces and demand an explanation from the foothold zone.

By the time they gather again and send out a noisy mass of troops, a full week has already passed since the prisoner camp was raided.

The moment they arrive at the foothold zone, they are hit by a joint attack from Beethoven and Elia.

The tens of thousands of noble coalition troops fail to last even an hour before scattering and fleeing.

They fail to obtain an explanation. Instead, more than ten thousand of them are captured again.

The nobles who escape send complaints to Diversion Bay while also asking Divarak's westward-advancing legion for aid.

At this time, Divarak has already pursued all the way to the border region.

According to the garrison legion here, two days ago, this massive force crossed the border and entered Lumir territory.

The garrison legion did not fail to block them, but facing those more than two thousand elite cavalry, they truly did not dare act rashly.

They could only watch helplessly as the enemy entered Lumir territory.

Divarak sends a message to Diversion Bay while ordering the troops to begin resting.

As for Howell, the King of Justice, he is now utterly lost, pacing back and forth in the temporary palace he requisitioned in town.

The advisers around him gather close. "Your Majesty, this is only a temporary setback. We still have a chance."

"The commanders of the First and Second Legions of the Justice Army are still loyal to you."

"As long as those people with different intentions hear that the two generals are coming to support you, they will certainly not dare act recklessly."

Howell tells them to think of a plan, then says he wants to rest.

After entering his room, Howell's face darkens.

When he was fleeing, Peace Haven's embedded foothold troops protected him and withdrew him from the battlefield.

Originally, Howell had wanted to join Elia. Even being a puppet would have been acceptable.

But he did not expect Peace Haven's three thousand embedded foothold troops to immediately seize all the warhorses under his command and form two cavalry battalions.

After that, they used this to gather the guard soldiers who had stayed closest to their formation.

After a rapid selection, using the remaining thousand-man unit as the core, they formed another five-thousand-man warband.

Although Howell still has tens of thousands of people, most of them are merely fleeing with him.

There are not many soldiers to begin with, not even half the total.

And among these more than ten thousand soldiers, Peace Haven's embedded troops already control more than half.

The rest are useless, and their courage has already been shattered.

How can he compete with Peace Haven's embedded troops?

Those advisers of his are all just placating him.

Everyone can now see that whether it is the two legions in the foothold zones or the embedded foothold troops here, all of them are Peace Haven's work.

He has been completely sidelined. Apart from the two thousand or so personal guards beside him, he has no military power left at all.

The remaining soldiers, whose courage has already collapsed, now obey the embedded foothold troops completely in order to survive.

Peace Haven's embedded foothold troops have not sent him to the occupied zone and let him continue acting as a puppet.

At the same time, they have dragged him all the way into Lumir territory.

This clearly lets Howell smell danger, but he still does not know why Peace Haven is doing this.

What he does know is that he must do something, and right now he has very few things that can serve as bargaining chips.

His identity is one. The woman Peace Haven planted beside him is another.

Just as he is preparing to do something, the commander of the embedded foothold troops comes looking for him.

After seeing the newcomer, Howell behaves very naturally. He shows a hearty smile and steps forward to grab the man's arm.

"Browning, my guard general. I have been looking for you. We cannot stay here too long."

"You know this is Lumir territory. We have occupied this place, and Lumir's troops will soon come to encircle us."

"When that happens, we will have powerful enemies in front and pursuers behind. We truly will have no chance to break out then."

Browning calmly pushes Howell's arm away. "Your Majesty, be at ease. We have already made arrangements."

"I will lead the troops out today and strike first, clearing out Lumir's troops stationed here."

"After that, we will take a city and turn it into our new base."

"This is Lumir. Ogiro's army cannot cross the border to pursue us."

"Compared with the elite forces of the Ogiro Kingdom, Lumir cannot spare attention for us for now."

"Once we catch our breath and finish resting, whether we fight back into Ogiro or stay here will be up to us."