NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42
Chapter 42: Young Man, Don’t Be Too…
When Liliya woke up again, she was already on the march.
Vilyric was riding the elite unicorn of the princess, clumsily guiding it forward while holding the small blue-haired girl tightly to prevent her from falling off.
With a light military setup, the troops certainly wouldn’t be carrying cumbersome carts, so Liliya had been riding the unicorn alongside the soldiers.
Although Vilyric had learned for a few days about this unique magical beast from another world, she still hadn’t quite figured it out; after all, she had never even ridden a regular horse…
Fortunately, the Priestess was physically strong; not only could she ride the unicorn, but she could also run on the ground carrying it and would still be faster than cavalry, so there weren’t really any major issues.
“Umm… Sister Vilyric?”
Liliya opened her eyes, looked around, and saw the scene whizzing by and the silver-armored cavalry, which helped her understand her situation.
“You’re awake! How do you feel? I used a skill to stabilize your mind, letting you sleep a little longer. You really overexerted yourself in that last battle; your body was totally exhausted.”
Vilyric teased with a smile, while the princess lowered her head a bit shyly.
She had indeed acted impulsively; as the supreme commander of the troops, it wasn’t important how many enemies she personally killed but rather that she must always maintain a calm mind and clear thinking.
“Sorry, I won’t do it again. How long has it been since then? Where are we now?”
“It’s now noon on the second day. After burning that batch of supplies, we followed our previous plan and withdrew the troops from the valley, heading west deeper into the Beast Kingdom.”
During their earlier observations, Liliya and the others found that this batch of supplies from the beastmen was very suspicious—plentiful, high-quality, and filled with lots of grains that were rarely produced locally.
These definitely weren’t military supplies sourced from the Beast Kingdom, which explained why the beastmen had suddenly been able to sustain such a large-scale, protracted war.
Just who was secretly supporting them? Although Liliya and Vilyric had their suspicions, they couldn’t jump to conclusions given the current situation.
To completely cut off this batch of unknown-origin supplies and further explore the conspiracy behind this war, and perhaps gather crucial evidence, Liliya needed to find where these supplies were produced.
The intel obtained from the captured beast soldiers was rather vague, and the tiger-human general, who might have had more specific knowledge, had been killed on the battlefield, so for now, the princess only had a vague idea of the direction and knew nothing about the internal situation.
As for why they hadn’t captured the general named Kunier for interrogation but instead chose to kill him on the spot…
The explanation given was that the tiger-human was quite powerful, likely close to the earthly tier on the way to sky tier, and she felt he was particularly cunning.
If they had held back, Vilyric couldn’t guarantee that the shadow guards wouldn’t suffer casualties or even let the enemy escape.
If you think about it… it really makes sense; that was indeed the case at the time. But Vilyric still felt that Miss Fiery Blossom had more hidden truths to share, as if she were hiding something from her and Liliya.
The Priestess didn’t have a deep understanding of this legendary adventurer; she only knew that she and Liliya had been close friends for several years, and the concern Fiery Blossom showed for the princess didn’t seem to be fake. Thus, Vilyric decided not to delve too deeply for now.
According to the enthusiastic soldiers’ information and tracking the traces left by the supply convoy, this light cavalry had covered a journey the beastmen would have taken several days in less than a third of the time and reached the edge of the basin mentioned in the intel by nightfall.
The Tapeya Basin.
This place was formed by a series of low peaks ranging from a hundred to a thousand meters, creating a depression with an area of about a thousand acres. Surrounded by mountains, the cold, damp air from the outside had difficulty entering, making the climate warmer and drier compared to the outside—quite a nice spot for storing food.
The key was that this basin had only one exit about several dozen meters wide; as long as troops were firmly stationed here, unless there was a significant gap in individual combat power, it would be as if one man could hold off thousands.
Not rushing into the basin, Liliya cautiously stationed her troops in a nearby concealed position before sending a few capable shadow guards to scout the situation.
Previously, they had been able to infiltrate the supply team and even poison them because the other side hadn’t anticipated that humans could quietly cross the Black River and sneak into the Beast Kingdom; their defenses were weak, plus their troops had been on the move, providing Liliya with an opportunity.
But the massive fire from last night would have undoubtedly alarmed the entire beastman border, so they would certainly strengthen their defenses. Given the terrain advantages, even a thousand beastmen guarding it would make it exceedingly difficult for Liliya to lead her troops in.
Once the supplies were burned, any beastman commander who wasn’t a fool would immediately realize that human troops had infiltrated their borders and deduce the princess’s intentions, sending forces to reinforce the area.
Considering the response time, the speed of troop movements, distances, and a series of factors, under the fastest circumstances, the beastmen’s wolf cavalry would reach the basin’s edge between noon and night tomorrow—time was indeed tight.
Thus, after Liliya fell into a temporary coma last night, Vilyric, Fiery Blossom, and a few commanders decided to continue the rapid march according to the plan without waiting for the princess to wake up.
In fact, if Vilyric had been willing to act, there were many ways to easily destroy this food storage and flush out the puppet masters behind it.
But this was Liliya Meikailande’s battlefield and test; if the Priestess handled everything like she did at the Black River, it would lose its meaning.
After sending out scouts to investigate the situation, it was time for a brief rest. After all, even for oddballs like Vilyric, even the legendary Fiery Blossom would feel exhausted from prolonged mental strain, so they needed to regain their strength and prepare for the looming next battle.
Meanwhile, in the beastmen’s main tent.
“Hmm, so the enemy’s objective is indeed to cut off our supplies. You say one of the attackers was a young woman with red short hair, who has outstanding archery skills, and one shot just… uh, killed you?”
The beastmen’s High Priest, the fox-human tribe leader, Grand Marshall Chaharit, sat on his carpet, a rather shabby wooden stick beside him, looking down at the tiger-human general Kunier kneeling below him with dark circles under his eyes.
Especially at the end, even with Old Fox’s demeanor and intellect, he couldn’t help but twitch his lips, almost starting to mock.
Goodness, you could just say you burned the supplies. Why emphasize that you were instantly killed by an enemy arrow? If you really died, what’s this thing kneeling in front of me? A ghost?
So this is what young people do—they love to exaggerate, downplaying their own mistakes by praising the enemy’s prowess. How incorrigible!