Second Arc (His Art of War) - 51. The South Outpost.
Meanwhile, the South Outpost of Euphorion's situation is crowded since troops from the capital arrived this morning. Many of them relax around in the yard while joking after tidying up their belongings in the barracks, inversely proportional to Gale's dishevelled face.
"I am bored!!!" shouted Gale, entering one of the meeting rooms there. After a few weeks, he guarded the southern border with his troops, now he was nearly bored to death.
One of his aides immediately closed the door swiftly so that Gale's voice would not be heard by the troops in front. "Be patient, general. Guarding borders is an important mission from the king," said the other who had understood Gale's childish behaviour.
Gale dropped into a chair and put his head on the table lazily. "Who knew guarding the border could be very boring," he began to ramble as his two aides could only exchange gaze while shaking their heads.
"There is no city, no town, no cake, there is nothing. If I know this, I better be assigned as before, wandering around Euphorion," he complained again. His face is getting sour.
"Are you already bored?" a male voice came from behind him.
"Of course, I'm bored," Gale answered nonchalantly. But a second later he realized his aides had bowed respectfully with a panicked expression. He paused while turning slowly towards the origin of the voice as he began to realize the owner was. "Yo-your Majesty..." he said, grinning awkwardly.
"Then I have good news for you. We will attack them after King of Draconis left for Zephyrus," he said calmly without regard to Gale's casual attitude.
"Is that true?" said Gale eagerly. The sooner this war is over the sooner he can get out of here. At least he can walk to other places not confined like this. During all this time he could only stare at the forest and the boring hills.
"Yes, for the time being, we have to prepare troops without alarming the enemy. We will attack them at night."
Gale got up from his chair and bowed to him. "I will immediately order my troops to get ready!" Then he stepped out with an enthusiastic step followed by his aides.
"Wait!"
Gale's steps stopped, and so did his aide.
"Place some spies around their outposts. If anyone tries to send a 'magic messager' kill it, so will the mail courier. We will cut off their communication with the capital."
"Fine, I understand," Gale answered. Then he walked out.
"But before that, I must give fake news to the King of Draconis," he murmured.
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Meanwhile outside the South Outpost, two Draconis spies sat in a tree, their eyes watching the Euphorion outpost day and night since a few days ago. They even made a small camp nearby, since they assumed this would last a long time. Today they were shocked by the arrival of many people to the enemy Outpost. Strangely these people who came did not wear military uniforms but wore carpenter's clothes. The carts also arrive openly which clearly shows that they carry some woods which is commonly used to build a house.
After they arrived at the outpost they just put their belongings in the warehouse and then relax. There were no war preparations or weapons prepared, making the spies even more confused. "Do we need to report to the general about these carpenters? It seems that their arrival is too strange," said one of the spies. His eyes continued to look suspiciously toward Euphorion's outpost.
The others nodded in agreement. "Let's go back to camp."
Both of them returned to the camp that was not far from where they were. But when they arrived, their camp looked deserted, no one was seen there. "Where are our other friends?" he said as he swept his gaze around him.
"Are they returning to our Outpost?"
"They won't return without tidying up the camp."
Not finished with their confusion, suddenly one of them could feel a sharp object stuck to the back of his neck while the other one immediately collapsed with a slash on his back. Angel walked in front of them while his subordinate was still pointing his sword at the spy. After he gave the order to Gale, he cast an 'evil eye' spell to check the surroundings. According to his estimation, even though Draconis didn't seem panicked, it was very likely that they sent spies to find more information around his outpost. And as expected, he found their camp hidden in the forest.
The spy could only be stiffened in surprise, not believing in his eyes. Didn't King of Euphorion just conquer Asteria? Even if he returns, he should still be on his way.
The other Euphorion troops kicked the spy's legs, forcing him to kneel. The spy looked at him with anger. "Even if you torture me, you won't get any information from me!"
"No, I need something else from you."
"Forget it! Whatever it is I won't do it!"
"You will obey me." Without further ado, he touched the spy head and slowly flowed his dark aura to manipulate him with the 'devil puppet' spell.
The spy's eyes turned blank and slowly lost consciousness like a puppet who obeys all his orders.
He pulled his hand away. "Send a message to the King of Draconis and your camp, that there is no movement here."
The spy nodded and reached out his hand, slowly light blue from his hand formed two blue Sialia birds containing the message. 'There was not any movement from the Euphorion troops in their Southern outpost. All is safe. '
After the bird flew away, Angel nodded his head at his troops. In one slash, the spy's body collapsed to the ground. "Bury them well," he said.
"Yes, Your Majesty," they answered. Then they immediately cleaned up the bodies.