Volume 3, Chapter 38 – The Origin of the Matter

As the Paladins with Fisiel at their head began nervously arranging the preparations to defend the Stronghold against the Beastmen attack that was to come.

In this Kingdom army, the only girl who had fluffy catlike ears was the first to keenly notice that something on the Kingdom’s side was off.

More precisely, this catgirl relied on her sharp sixth sense to pick up on the hints that the army was not acting the way it usually did.

So, with vague guesses forming in her heart, the catgirl went to find the knight girl Fisiel, who was temporarily resting inside a tent.

Because Yeluo the catgirl had a rather special status, Fisiel had already given orders that if Yeluo came looking for her, no one was to stop her.

So when Yeluo came to see Fisiel, there was no such thing as soldiers blocking her way and refusing to let her in.

“What is it? Coming to see me all of a sudden?”

Although Fisiel was still supposed to be resting right now, a detailed map of the Northern Fortress was spread out in front of her.

As she greeted Yeluo, the knight girl’s gaze remained fixed on the map as if she were pondering something.

“Mm… what I want to ask is…”

Hearing Fisiel’s straightforward question, Yeluo also dropped any thought of using a roundabout way to bring up what she wanted to ask.

Instead, she put it into words very plainly and told Fisiel the question she had come for.

“On the Kingdom’s side, there are no reinforcements coming anymore, is there?”

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A sentence that seemed utterly straightforward at a glance.

But that question made Fisiel’s pupils narrow for an instant as she looked down at the map.

Of course, Yeluo did not see the change in Fisiel’s eyes with her head lowered, but from Fisiel’s silent reaction…

Yeluo knew that she had most likely guessed right.

Of course, Yeluo had not guessed this just because of the army’s sudden abnormal movements just now. It was also because earlier, Fisiel had talked with her about whether the Kingdom would send reinforcements.

“Yes. There will be no more reinforcements coming from the Kingdom, and even supplies… there will not be any more either…”

After a moment of silence, Fisiel still chose to acknowledge that this was the case.

“So I was right? There really is no further reinforcements…”

“Yes, and according to the latest order sent from the Kingdom… they want me to hand the Northern Fortress straight over to the Beastmen…”

Since Yeluo already knew most of it, and because Fisiel trusted her a lot more after their last conversation, Fisiel simply stopped holding back and told Yeluo outright about the order for her to “give” the Northern Fortress to the Beastmen.

“Wait… Captain… we absolutely cannot hand the Northern Fortress over to the Beastmen like that! If we give it to the Beastmen, then trying to take the Northern Fortress back in the future will basically be impossible!”

Hearing Fisiel’s words, Yeluo was slightly taken aback, then her expression turned a bit flustered.

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Her tone also became anxious.

“Mm, I know that as well… so I am not going to obey that order…”

Looking at the cat-eared girl in front of her looking even more tense than she was, for some reason a petite figure with long silver-white hair suddenly rose up in Fisiel’s mind.

“However… What I am puzzled about is why those people at the top would so readily hand the Northern Fortress over to the Beastmen?”

This was the one thing that Fisiel found very strange.

After all, anyone who was not an idiot understood in their heart how important the Northern Fortress was. So why would the Kingdom’s upper echelons change from wanting to seize the Northern Fortress back from the Beastmen to this in just a few short days?

To the point they were even planning to give the Northern Fortress away?

Have they lost their minds?

While Fisiel was saying this and lapsing into thought, Yeluo, on the other hand, had an expression like she had made up her mind about something…

She took a deep breath, slowly parted her cherry lips, and spoke in a tone that carried a faint hint of guilt.

“Actually… actually, as for why the Kingdom is going to let the Northern Fortress go to the Beastmen, it actually has something to do with us Half-beasts…”

“Mm? Half-beasts?”

Fisiel lifted the face that had been bent over the map, and her golden eyes bright as the sun met Yeluo’s gaze in an instant.

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“You mean this has something to do with you Half-beasts?”

“Yes… in fact, the original reason the Beastmen wanted to occupy the Northern Fortress… was because of us Half-beasts…”

“How strange… by rights, your Half-beasts have an extremely low status among the Beastmen, do you not? So why would it be because of you that the Beastmen ended up having such an idea?”

“Mm, although our Half-beasts really do have a low status, in the Stronghold, work like producing food and so on all depends on us Half-beasts… and the spark that set this whole thing off… was that our Half-beast race had as many as one hundred thousand clansmen disappear outright in the area near the Northern Fortress…”

“One hundred thousand… Half-beasts?”

A number like one hundred thousand was no trivial figure. According to Yeluo, Half-beasts were the main force doing the basic labor in the Stronghold, so if one hundred thousand Half-beasts suddenly went missing, it was only natural that it would draw the attention of the Stronghold’s upper ranks.

“I see. It was for this reason that the Beastmen set their sights on the Northern Fortress?”

“Yes… this time, the Beastmen suddenly wanting to occupy the Northern Fortress was actually because they used the excuse that they needed a temporary base to search for the one hundred thousand missing Half-beasts, and on that pretext they sent out troops to take the Northern Fortress…”

So that was how it was?

The moment Yeluo finished speaking, Fisiel finally understood why the Kingdom’s higher-ups had so readily agreed to the Stronghold’s request.

If the Stronghold was planning to temporarily “borrow” the Northern Fortress, then it was understandable why they would issue an order telling her to hand the Northern Fortress over to the Beastmen…

“But… whether the Beastmen would give the Northern Fortress back after they borrowed it is another matter entirely…”

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Fisiel had seen through the Beastmen’s intentions with perfect clarity.

“So the one hundred thousand Half-beasts are just a pretext, and using it to seize the Northern Fortress is what they truly want, right?”

“That is how it is.”

Yeluo nodded very firmly.

“So, Captain, we absolutely cannot let the Northern Fortress fall into the Beastmen’s hands…”

“On that point you can rest easy.”

Fisiel was just as serious as Yeluo when it came to the Northern Fortress.

However, at this moment Fisiel suddenly noticed the part in what Yeluo had just said about one hundred thousand Half-beasts suddenly vanishing near the Northern Fortress.

“Right, those one hundred thousand Half-beasts…… did they really disappear?”

Her curiosity stirred, Fisiel asked without thinking.

And when she heard Fisiel’s question, a silver-haired loli whose smile alone was impossibly adorable involuntarily surfaced in Yeluo’s mind.