Chapter 377: 357, every man for himself, all are minor kings
Charles actually wished for peace to forever descend upon the Old Continent, but this was clearly impossible. Not even the combined efforts of the nine True Gods could achieve it, and there were still wars on Earth to this day.
Indeed, praying to the deities for peace was a mistaken choice in itself.
In any world, the most common cause of war was the deities themselves.
Charles, along with the eight members of the Sacred Order, had to wait for Ron and Tumishen to lure Silverback Gorilla Quedero out of the Beastman camp. Initially, everyone was rather unprepared; Antonio had even planned to find a forest. To ingratiate himself with his esteemed uncle, Charles volunteered and took out a piece of felt he had prepared in advance. After chopping several sturdy branches, he fixed the felt cloth and constructed a rudimentary and simple tent.
He also surrounded the tent with tree branches and plastered a layer of mud over them, tossing some flowers and plants on top. From afar, it looked like a small mound overgrown with vegetation, but inside it was quite spacious. The felt provided shelter from the wind and rain and protection from the scorching sun.
Upon seeing this, Antonio pondered before calling over Charles and asked in detail how he came up with the idea of making this thing.
In front of Anne's brother, Charles boasted about the tent construction technique, most of which he had learned from outdoor camping videos in his previous life. Antonio, a true soldier, immediately realized its potential. It could be quickly set up as a temporary shelter, then taken down and transported, making it an excellent tool for field operations and also allowing armies to encamp at a moment's notice.
The technology trajectory of the Old Continent was different from that of Earth, having not developed tent technology.
However, this technology wasn't complicated. With a little thought, most people could understand the structure.
Antonio committed the "tent" to memory, planning to return to Strasbourg to have skilled artisans try making a batch. If they were useful, he would apply them to the Knighthood of the Brittany Family and instructed Charles not to share this technology any further.
The group didn't wait two days before hearing a strange bird-like call from high above. Charles dashed out of the "tent" and indeed saw Tumishen circling in the sky. Tumishen himself hadn't expected them to be so well-hidden. Charles had thrown some flowers and plants on the felt, yet the Old Leopard Man hadn't noticed anyone inside.
As Tumishen landed, he took a special look at the contraption Charles made and marveled inwardly before hurriedly reporting, "Quedero has been persuaded by Black Dragon and has decided to take his people and part ways with Amy Si Fida. They are about to pass by here."
"Although Quedero intends to separate from Amy Si Fida, he doesn't plan to return to the southern part of the continent. Instead, he aims to occupy a city and establish a second Beastman camp. He has taken quite a number of Beastmen with him, a full thirty thousand in strength."
Charles thought to himself, "Mr. Black Dragon truly has the bearing of a Beastman Zhuge Liang, managing to persuade the two Beastman Sacred Orders to go their separate ways so quickly."
"Don't Beastmen understand that unity is strength? By each claiming kingship, aren't they all just minor kings?"
Antonio frowned slightly and said, "Although we do not fear an army of tens of thousands of Beastmen, we can't just kill them all. What if someone runs off to inform that lion?"
Tumishen replied, "Quedero has chosen Red Cliff City!"
Charles thought to himself, "Is he suggesting I 'maze-ify' Red Cliff City? However, maze-ification requires certain conditions, and I fear I might not be able to meet them promptly."
Antonio said, "Red Cliff City only has one way out. As long as we block it, no one inside will be able to escape."
Only then did Charles realize that he had misunderstood. Black Dragon was not aware of Charles's mastery of Labyrinth Power, so naturally, he wouldn't suggest maze-ification.
The northern coast of the Red Dragon Sea has more than ten cities, but Red Cliff City is the most peculiar; it's a city that descends downwards. If one approaches from the northern mainland, they can only see a small mountain range and a huge stone gate, with no sight of the city at all. However, once inside Red Cliff City, one will discover a whole new world—it's a terraced city built into the cliffside, where each level offers a view of the most beautiful scenery over the Red Dragon Strait, with the lowest level being a port built along the strait.
Such a unique terrain has always earned Red Cliff City the reputation of a city carved into the cliff!
However, such terrain has also made Red Cliff City practically inescapable when faced with the onslaught of a beastman army, leaving inhabitants with little choice but to jump into the Red Dragon Strait to escape.
Now, with Charles in charge, leveraging the advantage of the numerous Sacred Order, they just needed to block the entrance of Red Cliff City, and the beastmen would find it difficult to escape.
To ensure the beastman army couldn't slip away, Charles also had Sabastine redirect the fleet to form a defensive line at sea.
When Charles set out, he had ordered the Magical Alchemy Warship and a portion of the fleet to pass through the Red Dragon Strait and advance toward the beastmen's camp, and by now, they should be on standby nearby.
After Tumishen relayed the message, he took to the skies again, aiming to infiltrate back into the beastmen's camp.
This Old Leopard Man possessed the Beast God Shapeshifting Art, which enabled him to change his form at will. Infiltrating the beastmen's camp was a trivial matter for him. Even if Amesfida knew he was hiding in the camp, he might not be able to find him, let alone the King of Ten Thousand Lions who was utterly unaware.
In the ensuing days, the Old Leopard Man hurried back and forth, conveying messages, while several knights from the Brittany Family scouted around, confirming that Silverback Gorilla Quedero indeed led tens of thousands of troops marching toward Red Cliff City.
The Sacred Order gorilla leading this beastman army not only had his own tribe but also other tribes that had aligned with him. After leaving the beastmen's camp, he kept reflecting on the words the Black Dragon spoke to him: "Stay here, and sooner or later your people and mine will be devoured by Amesfida. Only by leaving this lion can you protect your entire tribe."
Quedero sighed. He couldn't understand why the beastman alliance's large-scale mobilization ended up with such a dire outcome?
Especially since so many beastman Sacred Order had died—that was the foundation of the beastmen, and without a century, it would be impossible to recover. But would humans give beastmen a hundred years to recover? Quedero didn't believe for a second that humans would be so merciful. If the Fars Empire wasn't preoccupied with the war against Baron, they would have undoubtedly launched an attack on the beastmen by now. Should Baron prevail, they would not easily spare the beastmen either.
The common beastmen might still not understand—why did the People of Baron betray them and break their word?
But a Sacred Order beastman like Quedero had known for a long time. If Agon could know, there was no reason for him not to know, but the reason...
Quedero just wanted to howl at the sky!
Because, just as beastmen consume humans, these Vampires regarded countless beastmen as "food."
Food for a certain Blood Ancestor.
This was even more devastating for the Sacred Order beastman than if the Blood Ancestor had not appeared at all.
The treacherous cunning, cold-blooded ruthlessness of these Vampires was something completely beyond the imagination of these straightforward beastmen.