Chapter 535: Rallying The Troops
The undead army’s attack did not stop for what was happening in the city. The moment night fell, the waves of undead once again rushed forward. With the energy stones that were still in reserve as well as the low-grade stones sent from the palace, the defensive towers inflicted ma.s.sive destruction as usual.
The night pa.s.sed peacefully, but when dawn striked, the undead army did not retreat like the two days before. They still rushed to the city without a care. The undead zombies were even more sluggish after being weakened by the sun.
The undead were all formally soldiers from the royal city, and the numbers had always been limited. Under the constant fire of the defensive towers, the numbers had kept on reducing. It was until that afternoon, when the last rotten corpse fell, before everyone erupted in pa.s.sionate cheers.
The undead army was finally exterminated, coming at a minimal cost to the thousands of soldiers defending the city, giving them a huge sense of accomplishment.
Xiao Lin and Luo Jianhui, who were in command, could only smile bitterly at each other. The cost of their victory that day had been the last of the energy stones. From the next day on, most of their defensive towers would be completely useless. The enemy had obviously known that as well, and the goal of their undead army had been achieved. That was why they sent the undead army charging forward without a care for casualties.
Xiao Lin fell asleep in a state of unease that day. When he was awoken, he received a surprising piece of news–the king had committed suicide.
Liang Taibai told him about it in private. The king’s body was found in his bedroom a bit earlier. Since the palace already had Dawn Academy’s people stationed there, it had basically eliminated the possibility of murder.
Liang Taibai said it was a pity, but it did not come as a surprise.
“I should have expected this.” Xiao Lin was silent for a while before continuing. He had been wondering how the king would hand over the throne to his granddaughter the day before, but he never expected the king to use such a direct method.
“It’s the best result.” Liang Taibai sighed and said, “Even though it’s not a great time for the king to die at the moment, if he waited for the siege to end, we might not be able to get a say in the successor. The king understood that, which was why he chose the right time to commit suicide, preserving the best scenario for the Rosa Kingdom.”
“This is his last will. It’s meant for Ibeiya.”
Xiao Lin took the piece of paper from Liang Taibai. It was called a will, but it only had a few words written in blood on it. ‘Rosa is yours now’.
“Are there any movements from the military?” Xiao Lin asked.
“Don’t worry, we’ve basically controlled the military and the finances. Even if there’s a minority who swore their loyalty to the king, we’ve already got them in control. It won’t affect matters.”
The two of them had a simple dialogue and managed to settle matters easily. After he left the office, Xiao Lin suddenly felt a strange feeling. It seemed like he suddenly empathized with the king. He could feel how deeply Dawn Academy had encroached upon the kingdom. As long as Dawn Academy wished, they could do anything they felt like to the kingdom.
Ibeiya might not have had any feelings toward her grandfather, but she was still dumbfounded when she received the news from Xiao Lin. Looking at the words on the will, she suddenly said, “I will do a better job than him! I definitely will!”
“I believe in you.”
Xiao Lin did not know if Ibeiya had the experience, but as the only successor to the St. Claude clan, he believed that Ibeiya would definitely have received some education on leadership from her father and uncle. She was set to be someone of power in the future. Even if it was not as the queen, she would still be the leader of her clan.
It might seem too early, but Ibeiya did not seem unhappy at all. After the initial somber mood, she showed a lot of pa.s.sion, immediately throwing herself into her new role, taking charge of the relationship between the emba.s.sy and the dark clans.
Later in the day, Xiao Lin went with Ibeiya to the Sisaiya clan again. After an hour-long intense discussion, they managed to establish various initial points, including the position of the dark clans in the royal city, providing them with more rights and reducing their taxes.
The dark clans were very enthusiastic, but they still understood that Ibeiya was just a link. The real master was still the emba.s.sy. However, Liang Taibai gave them a lot of power this time. As long as it did not involve the three main powers of the military, the finance, and the government, Ibeiya was free to decide everything else.
Liang Taibai had even explained to Xiao Lin what the wartime chain of command was. Due to the cost of interspatial communication, the foreign envoys were free to make their own decisions during times of emergency and if contacting Dawn City was difficult.
The dark clans were very efficient. After reaching an agreement with Ibeiya, they quickly collected their gear and immediately sent out a force of over six thousand soldiers.
There were dozens of clans in the royal city. The smaller clans sent out less people and the larger ones sent out more. Ama.s.sing the army did not seem to have used up that much time or effort.
On top of the existing guard in the city, they now had over ten thousand troops in defense. After the large-scale recruitment in the city, they managed to pull in another army of over twenty thousand soldiers. However, that regiment consisted of commoners without any military training. They had added some of the merchants from Earth, which was the result of negotiations with the merchant union.
With that, they now had over thirty thousand soldiers in the royal city. Even though their combat ability was not the best, with the solid city walls, they could put up a fight.
The rebel troops were also quickly approaching the city. After losing their long-ranged defensive towers, the rebels boldly established their camps very near to the city, but were quickly faced with a rabid magical bombardment from the city. Even without the defensive towers, at least one in five of the six thousand dark race soldiers were decent at magic.
The rebels did not have as many soldiers as they initially thought, with only around seventy to eighty thousand. Even though they had some siege equipment, they did not have any high-leveled magical mechanisms. In this world filled with magic, defending cities were still more advantageous, which was why the rebels failed to gain any sort of advantages in the upcoming days.