Chapter 112: The Real Enemy Has Come

On the twenty-seventh day after our camp was completed, we received news that Umberlian Valley had fallen. Since we had settled in the Holy Fox Highlands, we immediately turned our eyes toward Umberlian Valley. We never forgot for a single moment that, in that place, a respectable elder was still using his own life as a shield to protect us.

The scout we sent out brought back a garrison officer from the valley. He told us that on the seventh day after we left the valley, the Cretans appeared outside the valley exactly on time as planned. Before reaching the valley, their army had already grown to more than fifty thousand. This power ful army, like a dark cloud, blocked the sunlight that Umberlian Valley needed to survive.

We did not know how Colonel Pekra had held off such a terrifyingly large enemy with fewer than ten thousand men. We only knew that he did better than he had promised. He kept an invading army ten times his own size outside the crumbling pass for nearly forty days. In those forty days, the garrison suffered losses of more than sixty percent, and the ambush force outside the pass was completely wiped out.

“How is the Colonel?” We were not interested in those details. By comparison, we cared more about the safety of our friend.

The officer’s expression was complicated. He stammered and could not speak.

“How is the Colonel?” Seeing that he did not answer, Dakla stood up restlessly, grabbed his collar, shook him hard, and demanded loudly.

Now, those of us who had not known the truth understood the meaning of the decision the Colonel had made back then. Guilt and regret stirred me and my friends deeply.

“After the food ran out … Colonel Pekra led the remaining soldiers … the whole army … surrendered.” The officer said this with some shame.

Surrendered?

We let out a long breath and smiled with relief. Our joyful mood churned like boiling water, making me want to shout out loud.

The officer looked at us in confusion. He could not understand why we were so happy after hearing that our friend had surrendered. In his heart, he probably still treated the word “surrender” as an unforgivable act for a soldier. Therefore, he felt ashamed of the Colonel’s actions.

“Why should you be ashamed, sir?” Fred took the officer’s hand in a friendly way. “Because your commander surrendered, is that so? No, sir, you still do not understand. A competent officer cherishes his soldiers the way he cherishes his own eyes. He would never let them make meaningless sacrifices. Colonel Pekra protected us. He has already completed his mission. There was no need to sacrifice more soldiers. If you experience more, you will understand how precious soldiers’ lives are, and how great an officer is when he throws away his own honor to save more soldiers’ lives…”

“You should be proud, sir. You once followed a great soldier.”

“Your Majesty…” The officer’s emotions surged, and tears filled his eyes. His thin, exhausted face became flushed from excitement.

“Before surrendering, Colonel Pekra sent me to find your army. He told me to pass on one sentence to you…”

The brave man quickly straightened his military uniform and, in Colonel Pekra’s tone, relayed solemnly and seriously:

“Perhaps in this life I have only this one chance. So let me, Colonel of the Kingdom, Josephinia Ka Pekra, say to my master, the King of Delanmaya, the greatest hero of the Farvill Continent: Your most noble Majesty, to become your subject for this brief moment is the greatest honor of my life.”

In Umberlian Valley, the Colonel had once refused to pledge loyalty to Fred, not because he was unwilling to do so, but because, in order to protect us, he could not accept Fred’s emotionally driven order.

Now, Fred finally received his belated loyalty. Although this loyalty lasted only a short moment, although the Colonel surrendered to others shortly after becoming Fred’s subject, although when Fred received this loyalty the Colonel could no longer continue serving him, none of us had ever seen loyalty so worthy of respect. It landed heavily on our hearts, carrying a soldier’s desperate regret and a Delanmayan’s endless wish.

Fred suppressed his surging emotions and answered with equal solemnity:

“I swear by the crown of Delanmaya that I am extremely honored to have once had a subordinate like Colonel Josephinia Ka Pekra.”

…

The news of the Cretans’ invasion spread instantly across the territory of our friends, the Lumburi indigenous people. Within a few days, we received an invitation from the High Priest to discuss, as one of them, matters related to resisting the foreign invasion.

Except for Red Flame, who insisted on staying behind to guard the camp, all of our companions attended this meeting.

To be honest, I had never seen such a terrible pre-battle preparation meeting. Nearly a hundred chieftains of various sizes sat on the ground with their tribal warriors, shouting loudly, unable to hear a single word from one another. Some chieftains of tribes that had old grudges even exchanged vicious words, showing no sign of unity against an outside enemy.

The High Priest’s appearance calmed the disorder to some extent, but he immediately ignited another thing that had no place here: fanaticism.

“…We once received the wrath of God Lumburi because of the invasion of outsiders. We once doubted our brothers because of this. Now, the culprit behind all of this has finally appeared before us. Take up your weapons, men! Use your strength to drive away those sinful creatures, make them pay for their foolish deeds. With the blessing of God Lumburi, we will surely win!”

“Kill them!”

“Make them pay!”

“Drive them off our land!”

…

The crude, fanatical voices rose wave after wave, showing the courage of the indigenous warriors while also fully exposing their ignorance.

We exchanged worried glances, fearing that our friends would suffer great losses on the battlefield. Indeed, in terms of numbers alone, they did have the upper hand. But this time, they would face a well-supplied, strong, and powerful Cretan army. In front of these terrible enemies, their numerical advantage was not as obvious as when they faced us. Moreover, the differences in equipment, discipline, and combat experience were so great that we could not think of any reason for victory.

Seeing that the meeting was about to end in a mad and paranoid atmosphere, Fred felt he could wait no longer. He stood up and said loudly:

“Respected High Priest and chieftains, my dear brothers, I have something to say.”

The High Priest looked at the young leader with some impatience. In his past experience, perhaps no chieftain had ever interrupted the fervor he had stirred up in such a meeting. It was easy to see that when the crowd burst into enthusiastic responses, this elder enjoyed the feeling of being adored very much.

“We have fought the sinful Cretans before. I promise you, they are completely different from the enemies you have met. They are very powerful. Of course, they still cannot compare with my brave brothers. But if we fight them with courage alone, there will be heavy casualties. I do not want to see my dear brothers get hurt because of this war. I beg everyone to carefully think about a battle plan, to reduce our losses and drive them out more easily…”

“Perhaps your god teaches you to do this…” The High Priest contemptuously interrupted Fred. “But the children of the great God Lumburi disdain pursuing schemes. With the blessing of God Lumburi, we will surely win easily. We have the greatest god protecting us. Nothing can hurt us!”

“This is not a scheme, noble High Priest. This is strategy, this is wisdom. The great God Lumburi will not reject wisdom. I have a plan. Look, it is a very simple plan. We only need…”

“Do you mean, Mr. Guderian, that we should listen to you instead of God’s arrangement, and fight this war under your command?” the High Priest said unkindly.

He emphasized the word “you” again and again, immediately stirring up almost everyone present.

“If you are afraid, Mr. Guderian, you do not have to take part in this war. Since long ago, the children of God Lumburi have protected this land from harm. We have always done very well. If you want to take part, sir, then you had better fight alongside us, like a warrior!”

The High Priest’s words drew mocking looks from many people toward us. Most of them were tribal members who had not attended that earlier gathering. More people fell into conflicted thoughts, but then they firmly stood on the High Priest’s side and accused us.

We could not blame them. Although they had goodwill toward us, making them abandon traditions of thousands of years, turn away from their most honored elder, and help outsiders instead was not realistic.

Fred shook his head helplessly and returned to us. He stopped the furious Dakla and Rodrick. In front of these ignorant and reckless people, Fred’s great battle talent and outstanding wisdom were useless. He was even deprived of his right to speak.

Ignorance and stubbornness—the two greatest enemies of human progress—we met both at the same time.

The High Priest looked with satisfaction at his savior falling back into silence. After another empty and hollow incitement, he ended the meeting. Before ending it, he announced that they would fight the Cretans early in the morning seven days later, because “doing so would make Lumburi happy.”

I roughly calculated that by the moment the battle started, there would probably still be five tribes with nearly six thousand warriors who could not reach the battlefield. Moreover, even among the more than seventy thousand warriors on the battlefield, about a third were probably still exhausted. If things went according to their design, this would be a battle doomed to defeat. Of that I had no doubt.

“Mr. Guderian!” After the meeting, just as we were planning to leave the meeting place full of worry and extreme distress, a familiar voice called Fred to a stop.

We turned around and were surprised to find our old friend Eckdin, chieftain of the Giant Bull Tribe, the largest tribe of the Lumburi people, looking at us with a worried face. He looked left and right, and after making sure no one was paying attention to us, he gestured for us to follow him. Fred thought for a moment, then led us to follow him to a secluded place.

“I am very sorry, Mr. Guderian. At the meeting I did not support your words. I could not do that, gentlemen. If I had, I would have been attacked by the other chieftains and the High Priest. That would not be a good thing for me or for my tribe. I hope everyone can understand this.” He sincerely apologized to us.

“No matter what others think, my friends, I believe what you said. If you trust me, then please do not deceive me. Tell me honestly, can we really win this war?”

“Your worry is not without reason, respected friend,” Fred replied. “I have not the slightest intention of offending the Lumburi warriors. But if we follow the High Priest’s way, we will certainly be defeated. Death will deal a heavy blow to the Lumburi Tribe, my friend. The enemy’s strength is beyond your greatest imagination.”

“I do not doubt what you say at all. I hope you can help us, Mr. Guderian,” Eckdin said sincerely.

Fred smiled bitterly. “Help you? Of course, I will do my best to help you. But as you have seen, I am completely helpless.”

“Perhaps you can, sir.” Eckdin hesitated for a moment, then said, “The Giant Bull Tribe has a total of one thousand two hundred strong warriors. They can act according to your plan.”

“That is still not enough to change anything, my friend,” Fred said distressfully. “If we had twenty thousand—ah, no, even just ten thousand brave Lumburi warriors who absolutely obeyed my orders, perhaps this war could still be saved. And even if we won, we would pay a great price.”

Eckdin was silent for a moment. Several times he thought of simply leaving, but in the end he stayed. Finally, he made up his mind and said to us with a pained face:

“Perhaps I can do it. For this battle, the High Priest will command at the Running Wolf Tribe. He will not stay here with me. I will try to gather several chieftains from other tribes and persuade them to follow your command.”

My heart pounded. I grabbed Eckdin’s hand and asked quietly, “Are you sure you know what you are doing, my friend?” The moment he made this decision, the strong and respectable middle-aged man before us had effectively betrayed his faith and abandoned his obedience to the High Priest. In this race that treated God as absolute authority, this must surely be a great sin.

“The only thing I know is…” Eckdin bravely met my eyes and answered firmly, “…I am saving my people. That is all!”

Fred warned him seriously. “If you have decided, my brother, you must be extremely careful with your actions. Although we all know you mean no harm, if the High Priest hears about this…” He did not continue.

In this matter, we all smelled the scent of conspiracy. The funny thing was that the initiator and planner of this “conspiracy” turned out to be us. For this, we felt not the slightest guilt. Our conscience could testify that we had no wish to profit ourselves; we did this entirely to save our friendly indigenous friends. If you insist, fine, I admit we were not without selfish motives. But we did this only to preserve our own lives, so that our kingdom army, which had lost its homeland, could find a place to survive in this chaotic world. I do not think that is a sin either.

“I understand this.” Eckdin answered heavily. He, too, was doing something he did not want to do. Like us, he had a reason why he had to do it.

“Among the other tribal chieftains, I have a few friends. I think they should be trustworthy. Friendship built up through battles and drinking contests, I think, will not be lost so easily.” When he spoke of friends, Eckdin’s always-tense face finally showed a smile again.

His words struck a chord in us. We patted one another and likewise showed smiles we had not worn for a long time.

“Then we can start preparing now, Chieftain. I hope you can tell all the chieftains who might be influenced by you to make good use of these few days and store up as much food as possible. We do not know how long this war will last. Oh, do not tell them I said this. I think you understand what I mean.” Seeing hope, Fred’s mind began to work again. As long as there was even the slightest chance, my friend would never give up trying to grasp it tightly.

“I will.” Eckdin promised.

…

Three days later, Eckdin brought exciting news: including his Giant Bull Tribe, thirteen tribes totaling about ten thousand people had followed his advice. We were very familiar with this list of tribes. Compared with those other fanatical, stubborn indigenous leaders, these chieftains were relatively wise and farsighted. When we helped the indigenous people treat the plague, they were among the first to show us friendship. Even after Millia fell ill, they had not caused us too much trouble. Both Fred and I believed this list was fairly credible.

To strengthen the allied force, we sent Eckdin the only equipment we had in stock: one thousand sets of standard armor, five hundred spears, one thousand short swords, seven hundred long swords, and one thousand one-handed round shields. Although for nearly ten thousand indigenous warriors this equipment was just a drop in the bucket, it was already the greatest strength we could gather.

Eckdin did not decline our gift. He distributed this equipment to his own tribesmen first. That was understandable: after all, he was a tribal chieftain, and it was his duty to seek more safety for his own people.

In this way, in the upcoming battle at the Holy Fox Highlands, Fred would have a mixed army of fewer than twenty thousand well-equipped professional soldiers and ten thousand strong but untrained indigenous warriors. We firmly believed that this strange army would surely display a force that no one could ignore in battle and become the key factor in turning the tide of the war.

And so, when we had been away from the battlefield piled with the noise of death for more than a month, the shadow of war once again clung to our footsteps.