Chapter 282 — On the Border

Belk stood straight, not shrinking back in the least.

"Do you know that Winter Wolf Keep is not a single fortress, but one of a cluster of forts? Do you know that it is winter now, and that between us and Winter Wolf Keep lies a vast expanse of ice and snow? Do you know how many reserve soldiers the Typhon have placed among their fort cluster, ready at any time to replace a corps whose fighting strength has been blunted?

"This damage has not touched Typhon's sinews at all; rather, it will make them strengthen the defenses of Winter Wolf Keep and its surroundings at least twofold within a short time. Large numbers of garrison troops will move from the rear of the fort cluster to the front line to make up for the defensive gap left by the damaged walls. And for us to cross the ice and snow to attack Winter Wolf Keep—that ice and snow will cut our forces down by a great margin. The enemy's exhaustion is our advantage? By the time you run to the foot of Winter Wolf Keep, you will be the one exhausted! And most important of all—an attack means total war. But did I ever say we were going to war with Typhon now?"

Only then did Belk lower his head in embarrassment, though he could not help saying: "Our war with Typhon... is right before our eyes."

Silas looked at this overly young son of his. He could feel the courage in the other's breast and his thirst for victory and glory—qualities he had striven to instill in him—yet at this moment he still had to shake his head. "Do not look forward to this war. Not in the least."

"Father?"

"A warrior should indeed thirst for victory on the battlefield, but he must not thirst for war itself—especially war with Typhon," Silas Lauren said slowly, and sighed softly. "And have you heard the other news?"

"Other news?" Belk frowned, clearly not knowing what his father meant. "What news?"

"A group of merchants came from the southwest, bringing an alchemical potion into the city," Duke Silas said unhurriedly. "They say that new Cecil Territory in the southwest was also attacked by monsters—monsters that are mutated creatures from the Gondor Wasteland. Your intelligence came too slowly; even news of Cecil Territory has reached this city with the merchants, and you have only just figured out the matter of Winter Wolf Keep!"

Belk felt some shame. Though he knew this was not his incompetence—for merchants travel through a safe and stable interior, while he must scout the situation of those tightly guarded hostile fort clusters beyond the border, difficulties and efficiencies utterly different—it was still a fact that he had not done the thing as well as he could.

So he silently accepted his father's criticism, and from the news his father mentioned he detected a faint, unsettling feeling: "Those monsters... are they the same monsters Duke Gao Yang Cecil warned the nobles about in the capital?"

"The same," Silas Lauren nodded. "When he first issued the warning, few believed it—even I did not take it very seriously. But now it seems... I fear I have made a mistake."

Belk looked at his father in surprise; he rarely saw his father admit to a mistake.

"Those monsters truly exist, and they are threatening human territory," Silas went on, ignoring his son's gaze and as though speaking to himself. "They will attack Typhon, and they will attack us. In the eyes of those wasteland monsters, there is no distinction between Typhon and Ansul. And this sudden threat... I fear it will change the entire situation."

ps:

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