Chapter 427: The Battle to Defend the Water City (Part 3)

“What exactly is our enemy?” Divine Emperor Captain Daniel asked again, his calm demeanor gone, replaced by an extremely grave expression—one that absolutely could not be shown to the public.

“Teacher, let me explain,” Samimi spoke in a hoarse, mysterious voice.

“Mn.”

Fabiana found it hard to keep a straight face at that address, but she endured, maintaining her expert demeanor.

Originally, Samimi had made it up for Niubao to call her that, but as she kept saying it, she ended up calling Fabiana that too. She could only say that if you’re going to play a role, you have to go all the way. Praising teammates to death—how fun.

“Lord Captain, after our Church’s thorough investigation, our enemy is a mysterious organization called the Order of Compassion. They have been secretly researching Corrupted Blood for hundreds of years, and only recently achieved a breakthrough,” Samimi explained.

Divine Emperor Captain Daniel was getting dizzy from all this information.

“Never heard of any Order of Compassion. What is Corrupted Blood?”

“Have you heard of the Blood Clan? You know what vampires are, right? The Order of Compassion is an organization that studies vampires. The monsters you encountered are mutated vampires. They have mastered the technology to mass-produce controllable ghouls, and at the same time transformed themselves into vampire kin. They use the promise of immortality to seduce multiple nobles of the West Sea to assist their plan, but in reality, only magic users have a high probability of becoming kin. Their goal is to conquer the world,” Samimi introduced.

Divine Emperor Captain Daniel, suddenly hit with so much information, started sweating.

Moreover, in the strategy meeting room, besides the captain, there was the acting captain and other elite knights. Every one of them was sweating profusely, their eyes confused.

Although they couldn’t understand the details, everyone knew what vampires were.

It had only been seventy years since the Bloodline Progenitor was sealed—far from being completely forgotten.

In just a short seventy-year peace, vampires had returned with a vengeance.

Humanity was once again shrouded in the shadow of vampires, and this time, the storm of blood was more terrifying than ever.

“Recently, many refugees have flooded into our city. They describe the rebel army indeed accompanied by a bloodthirsty monster, but no one could imagine it was actually vampires. Our reconnaissance troops sent out have basically vanished without a trace. Only Sorent’s unit managed to bring you back,” Divine Emperor Captain Daniel said in a low voice.

“To be honest, you’re completely trapped. They drove everyone from the territory here, planning to wipe you all out in one go. The more people, the more ghouls,” Samimi said.

“We can’t tell the people and the other knights about this. It will cause panic,” Divine Emperor Captain Daniel said.

“Wrong. Spread the news to every corner of Ringwater City. Let everyone know what kind of monster they’re facing. If something happens, ring the bells. Have all residents stay indoors, hide in basements if available, and don’t go outside,” Samimi analyzed.

“That will consume a lot of troops,” Divine Emperor Captain Daniel said.

“It doesn’t matter. We weren’t counting on you to do much anyway. Human soldiers facing the Blood Clan’s ghoul army will only feed the enemy. Your task is to calm the citizens inside the city. We’ll organize the offensive,” Samimi said.

“Wait, I have a question,” Shirley William suddenly raised her hand.

“Go ahead, senior,” Samimi said very politely, which made people uncomfortable.

Hearing her call Shirley “senior” and Fabiana “teacher” constantly, it was all actually flattery meant to set them up.

“Why are you so sure someone will come and attack us? Weren’t we on the way to suppress the rebel army? Why did it suddenly become a siege defense?” Shirley William asked.

‘As a mage, I’m also puzzled. We were clearly going to attack the enemy, so why are we suddenly holing up in the city?’ ‘This isn’t my style! I only attack, I can’t be a turtle!’

Samimi analyzed with a smile: “We are suppressing the rebel army. This is also a tactic. War is about predicting the enemy’s next move. Now, I predict the enemy’s next move is to surround Ringwater City and launch a full-scale attack. This is the place with the most resources and the most people. Once the rebel army comes down the mountain and captures this place, they will have a huge base to fully establish themselves in the West Sea.”

“And if we can hold this place, we can severely damage the enemy. Of course, a mage like you wouldn’t understand such strategy.”

“…” Shirley William stared at her, her eyes seemingly saying, ‘Aren’t you a mage too?’

“By the way, Captain, what about your Marquis Edward? We’re discussing serious matters. Shouldn’t we call the lord to listen?” Samimi asked.

“He is the Marquis. Ah, recently Marquis Edward has been busy and doesn’t want to deal with affairs. He’s handed all matters over to us,” Divine Emperor Captain Daniel said with a bitter smile.

“A matter of life and death, and the lord doesn’t care?” Fabiana said discontentedly.

“Ah, he chose his friends poorly. Do you remember that slacker male swordsman you fought last time? That guy has a big background. Although he has skills, he’s also notoriously romantic. Marquis Edward learned bad habits from him and has been frequenting pleasure houses lately. If he’s not drowning in debauchery, he’s utterly exhausted. He simply can’t manage affairs.” Divine Emperor Captain Daniel kept sighing, getting a headache talking about his boss.

“What are pleasure houses?” Niubao asked curiously.

“Even a big kid doesn’t need to know that much,” Samimi refused to explain.

“I also want to know what it is,” Shirley William also asked.

“Little kids don’t need to understand that much,” Samimi said.

“Ahem, sorry, I forgot you all are still young. Forget what I just said. I’ll arrange accommodation for everyone. Thank you for being willing to assist us, thank you for being willing to share this intelligence with us. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t know what to do.” Divine Emperor Captain Daniel apologized.

And so, the Avenger Quartet was arranged to stay at an inn not far from the Divine Emperor Knights, with all lodging expenses covered.

After all, the barracks were full of men, many of them hot-blooded young men. It really wasn’t suitable for a few young maidens to stay there.

But even so, it couldn’t stop the young knights from running to the inn door every day to curry favor.

And Samimi finally realized a problem.

That was her own good-for-nothing father—she had already forgotten that there was such a person in the West Sea.

Even more significant was that her own good-for-nothing father had directly led the Marquis Great Lord astray.

We’re thinking about how to fight artificial vampires, while they only know how to fool around in pleasure houses.

The more I think about it, the angrier I get…

Especially thinking about her own doppelganger still sealed in hell—it made Samimi furious.

Sometimes during nighttime meditation, Samimi seemed to dream of Shalum.

Her black-haired self stood atop a pile of corpses, holding a black magic staff and a paladin sword, trapped in endless slaughter.

All around her were countless monsters.