Chapter 504 3. The Lieutenant and His New "Friend" (Part 1)
"Another immigrant team has lost contact with us."
In the city hall of Andorhal City, Prince Alsace with a bandage on his arm is listening to the report of the frontline scouts. He is currently the nominal commander of the city and the former mayor of Andorhal City. He was transferred to the city of Lordaeron and began to take charge of large-scale resettlement work.
Residents of Andorhal and several large cities in the Stratholme region also began to migrate. Under the protection of the Silver Hand and the local garrison, they marched all the way to the Tirisfal Forest, on the Whispering Coast in the northwest of Lordaeron. , the first batch of long-distance fleets formed by Emperor Lothar had already set off 4 days ago, sending the local residents of Lordaeron to Kul Tiras to temporarily avoid the flames of war.
And this is just the beginning of the entire empire's eastward journey to the endless sea. In the plan of the emperor and kings, before the Dark Blade Legion in the southern border and the undead natural disasters in the northern land come in full force, the people of the empire must be sent to safety. The place.
The meaning of the existence of the empire is never the land under their feet, but the people on this land... The emperor's proposal has been approved by other kings, including the Sun King of Quel'Thalas and the newly-delivered Bronzebeard Queen, Everyone agrees that the emperor's strategic thinking is correct.
But before the human empire could complete the formation of the fleet, the demons began to invade, and then a series of disastrous events followed. Now, with the frontline defenses in the northern border completely paralyzed, sending the people away from this land has become The most important task of the entire empire.
Even the most stubborn commanders, under the current circumstances, have to admit that they failed, and they failed miserably.
But it's not without good news... After the demon's first round of landing failed, the undead natural disasters that existed as the demon's minions also quickly pulled their power away from the land of northern Xinjiang, which shrouded the sky over northern Xinjiang. His cold will also disappeared. It seems that the failure of the devil also made these northern undead feel...fear?
"Where did the migrants go missing?"
Prince Alsace's eyes were fixed on the map in front of him. Of course, after the ecological environment of the northern land began to change drastically, the original map was no longer useful. The one in front of the prince was urgently drawn by the frontline scouts.
"The mountainous area between the Cold Wind Camp and the ruins of Tarren Mill is a new hill rising up after the formation of the Dalaran Strait, and it is also the shortest road from the Hillsbrad Hills to Andorhal .”
The frontline scouts marked a red dot for the prince on the map. Alsace looked at the red dot, and then at the nearby green dots. He said:
"This place is very close to the Dark Blade's front line... Did the undead loot them?"
"We found a lot of demon corpses in the mountains. Judging from the wounds on those corpses, they really looked like fatal injuries caused by the new weapons of the Dark Blade Legion, but the heavy rain a few days ago washed away many traces. Now, it is difficult for our scouts to determine where those immigrants were wrapped and sent."
The scout chief at the front line said wearily:
"This is already the 7th missing immigrant team. We have lost nearly 30,000 people. The Darkblade has no tradition of recruiting civilians to become soldiers, so those people should still be alive, but my brothers and I are very curious , These damned undead who take advantage of the fire, what do they want so many humans for?"
"Some mages say that the dark blade is "capturing" human beings..."
Prince Arthas replied with a headache:
"However, there are also information provided by businessmen in southern Xinjiang, saying that the human beings in southern Xinjiang are not in a state of "captive" slaves, but live a peaceful life like us, and the undead do not seem to interfere with their lives too much The environment, it is said that Tyrion supported a puppet regime, what is it called the Federal Parliament... It is really incomprehensible."
After finishing speaking, the prince thought about everything that happened recently, and finally, he sighed:
"It's okay, it's okay... It's better to fall into the hands of the dark blade than to lose your life in the hands of the devil. At least the group of undead still have some civilized atmosphere. Is the immigration operation over?"
"Yes, the missing group is already the last batch of transferred people. His Majesty the Emperor seized the gap between the fight between the Darkblade Undead and the invading demons, and sent all the remaining civilians in the king's land. It's really weird. Incident, Your Highness, the group of dark blade undead seem to be targeting the demons, they didn't even take advantage of the chaos to attack the king's territory, which is really surprising, as if they are protecting us to complete the evacuation of civilians..."
The messy-haired scout captain let out a sigh of emotion, and then suddenly found the ambiguity in his words, he hurriedly apologized to the prince:
"Sorry, Your Highness, I'm not praising the Dark Blade Undead, I just..."
"I understand, it's okay, go and rest."
His Royal Highness seemed unwilling to say anything more on this issue, and the scout captain nodded cautiously and left the hall quickly.
Alsace propped up his body with one hand. The moment he got up, his head was dizzy. This was because of too much fatigue. In the past 4 days, Alsace had hardly left this command room. He had been dealing with The political affairs near Andorhal City include expelling some wandering undead from natural disasters, coordinating the transfer of civilians, and even clearing the entire city of plagues, etc.
It's all trivial, but very draining.
"Maybe I should go out for a walk and change my clothes again, tsk tsk, I smell all over my body, Anna will definitely laugh at me."
Prince Alsace laughed at himself. As he walked out of the hall, he said to Marwyn, the captain of the guard, in a relaxed tone:
"Near the city of Andorhal, is there anything interesting these two days?"
Although Alsace is already a real adult, Alsace still retains a trace of the mind of a young man besides being serious. He knows how to relax his mind. Perhaps, he should invite Anna to watch a circus together. Performance?
"Uh, nothing fun, everyone is busy moving recently."
Marvin and Farik were almost loyal guards who grew up with His Royal Highness. After the prince asked the question, Marvin thought hard for a long time, and then remembered a "strange thing" that happened a few days ago .
"But there are indeed weird things, Lieutenant Thassarian of the Andorhal City Defense Force, Your Highness, do you still remember him?"
"Of course, that brave lieutenant saved me and you, as well as Farric, and several seriously injured brothers."
His Royal Highness shook his hair and asked:
"Hasn't he been transferred to my bodyguard? What happened to him?"
"When Thassarian was patrolling the Sordo River three days ago, he rescued a weird Darkblade undead. Uh, how should I put it, I heard people say that undead...is very interesting."
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"This is the undead you "saved"? Tsk tsk, how strange!"
Prince Alsace, who heard about the strange thing, took a bath and changed his clothes, and followed his captain of the guards to the barracks. Lieutenant Thassarian, who was anxious, thought that the prince was the prince. To punish him, after all, as a human being, he should never deal with undead, and even saved an undead from a demon.
This can be called treason!
But out of Thassarian's expectation, His Royal Highness did not punish him, but asked him to "call" the strange undead out of the crude wooden coffin, which opened his eyes.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Thassarian in his smock said to the curious Prince of Arthas:
"It told me that it's called Lured."
"Huh? Does it still talk?"
Alsace looked at the fully armed undead infantry in front of him, and then turned his head to look at Thassarian. There was a hint of vigilance in his eyes: "You mean, it has its own intelligence? Can it think?"
"No, it doesn't think, Your Highness."
Thassarian shrugged, reached out and tapped the helmet of the undead infantry in front of him. Amidst the sound of metal ringing, the undead infantry named "Lured" raised his head like a real soldier, and looked left and right. Look, then stood before Thassarian's eyes with tied hands, and said in a hoarse voice:
"Waiting for orders!"
The sudden action of the undead startled Marwyn. He hastily drew out his long sword and stood in front of the prince. This action seemed to be regarded as a threat by the undead infantry, and it protected Thassarian behind him. The fingers wearing black gloves touched the back, but found nothing.
"Wait! Take it easy, Captain Marvin, Lured has no malicious intentions."
Thassarian saw that the high-ranking warrior Marwyn was about to strike with his sword, so he hurriedly shouted:
"It's just protecting me, trust me, Your Highness, it won't hurt anyone without my order!"
"Okay, put down your sword, Marwyn."
Alsace was also attracted by the strange behavior of the undead infantry. He reached out and pressed down the sword in the captain's hand, and then walked around the vigilant Lured a few times. After confirming that Lured was not in danger, Arthas turned to look at Thassarian:
"How did you save it? Why did it only obey your orders?"
"Uh, well, I'll say it again."
Thassarian, a young man, shook his head a little hopelessly:
"At that time, I was patrolling the Sordo River with a few brothers. Near Darrowshire, I saw a scene of a demon with wings falling from the sky, so my brothers and I went over to have a look, and then I found that Lu Reed and several other undead were fighting the demon. They fought very dangerously, but they were not the opponent of the demon... In short, I had a brain twitch and rushed to kill them together. That demon."
"And then it listened to you?"
Prince Alsace asked a question with relish as if hearing a bard's story, but Thassarian shook his head:
"No, when we killed the demon, Lured was seriously injured. Its body and armor were torn apart by the demon. Look, there is still a claw mark on its armor."
The prince turned his head and saw that the front of the undead infantryman Lured's armor really had a torn ferocious claw mark.
"I didn't want to save it at the time, I swear, Your Highness, this is really an accident!"
Thassarian continued to tell his story:
"At that time we wanted to burn those undead souls, but Lured was still able to move, and there was a soul stone in his equipment. It seemed that he wanted to crush the soul stone to save himself, but he was injured badly. It was too heavy, I saw its eyes, and there was a kind of reluctance and unwillingness in those gray eyes, I swear that I did not lie, Your Highness, the brothers around at that time saw it, and they can testify for me."
"In short, it looks like a real warrior, so after we discussed it, we decided to let it go. I know it violates military law, but Your Highness, after all, we have fought with it and fought against demons together. In short, I will pinch it for it. Cracked that soul stone, and...and that's it...it's been following me since I woke up..."
Thassarian said dejectedly:
"The military judge thought I was an undercover agent of the Dark Blade King, and I was almost sent to the gallows, but that's not the case, Your Highness, I have invited the high elf mage to see it, and they said that Rured's simple thinking It is completely independent and shows no sign of being manipulated, maybe it was loyal to Tyrion before, but after being revived by me with the soul stone, it is now "loyal" to me."
"It's incredible..."
Prince Alsace looked at the undead infantryman Rured who was standing there waiting for orders, and asked in a low voice:
"Are you sure it's not a consciousness controlling it? It's like the undead, maybe Tyrion is looking at us through its eyes now."
"No, Your Highness."
Thassarian shook his head, he looked at Lured beside him, he looked left and right, then pulled up the curtain of the tent, after only him, the prince and Captain Marvin were left, he whispered to Lured An order was issued:
"Tell your own story, Rured!"
"My name is... Lured, I am... a soldier from the Westfall, I died in the Battle of the East Valley... His Majesty raised me, His Majesty's voice... Tell us, we must protect the Commonwealth The living, protect this world... against... against the demons! The ancient gods...our cause...is just!"