"Then, what happened?" Geo asked. Along with the progress of the story, Geo was immersed in hearing it.
"We had made preparations in case a situation like that happens, so we could prepare the townsmen in a short time. After everyone had been outside of the town, we closed the gate.
I can still remember the moment we exited the town. We left it with lamps and torches were still on. We put some scarecrows and put on sticks and clothes on them. We hoped the arrangement could deceive the beastmen for a moment.
And it seemed working. No beastmen came to chase us. However, many beasts and insects attacked us along the way. As a result, more than 100 people died because of their attacks on the first day of the journey.
However, we didn't dare to slow down our pace. We could only grit our teeth and continued our journey. Along the way, I saw ruins of many villages and a town. It was truly a miserable state of our kingdom.
The journey took 7 days. Normally, when monsters hadn't been running rampage, the journey only took 3 days. More than 400 people had died along the road. We couldn't ask more, right?
Finally, we arrived at the perimeter of Greendale City. Some horsemen accepted us and asked our matters. After explaining, they took us to the city," Adrian said.
After that, Adrian told us the arrangement of the army. Because of the chaos, the city was in martial law. The majority of the refugees from Blue Moon Town were divided into some camps in the south to help the city fulfill the needs of the army and all people in the city perimeter by farming, raising livestock, logging, fishing, and doing more specialized jobs.
An officer that he med said that there were more than 500 thousand refugees that came to the city to ask for shelter. With the citizens of the city that were more than 70 thousand, it could be imagined how much food and other necessities that people needed daily.
Adrian himself was recruited as a patrolman. Every day he must patrol with his peers from camp to camp to ensure no monsters or other alien people come to attack.
He and his family lived such a life for 2 years. He said, during his time there, several attacks from beastmen, orcs, and monsters occurred. However, the soldiers of Greendale City could repel them in a short time.
Adrian spent his time peacefully while doing his job to ensure that no trouble occurred at the camps.
One day, news came to Greendale city that an army with a total of more than a million undead came from the SouthWest. Iron Gate Fortress asked for reinforcement because there were only 20,000 soldiers that guarded the fortress.
When Adrian mentioned Iron Gate Fortress, Ace could feel the mood of Adrian's family became heavy. Especially Derek who clenched his fists.
Adrian looked at his family with a bitter smile. As he wanted to continue the story, Sampson asked, "Were you sent there?"
Adrian took a deep breath, "It was hell. Greendale City sent 200,000 people. 10,000 soldiers and the rest were refugees to reinforce the fortress. Of course, there were women and children among them. They were the families of the militias. So the real strength of the reinforcement was less than 100,000 combatants."
Sofia couldn't help but exclaim, "How could they do that?"
"It's cruel but an effective method," Sampson commented.
*!!!* Everyone then glared at him.
'My stupid brother!' Ace couldn't help to shake his head.
"You heartless bastard! How could you say that?" The first one who shouted was Cloud.
"You!" Sofia could only say that.
"I don't care who you are, but you must take back those words!" Derek being emotional grasped Sampson's clothes and glared at him.
Nara glared at him without sound, but soon after, she hugged her sleepy daughter and cried silently. As if remembered her painful experience.
An anger could be traced from Adrian's glaring eyes. However, he stood still at his position with tremble fists.
Ace could see confusion in Sampson's expression. However, he couldn't find a way to 'save' his brother. He then felt his clothes were tugged. He saw it was Geo with concern in his eyes. He could only nod to his son.
Ace took a deep breath and said, "Brother, you should apologize to everyone. I know that you are stupid, but you are also a gentleman. Apologize now, or you will be killed."
Sampson then said, "I apologize for blurting out. It just came out suddenly."
"Derek, leave him alone. He must have a reason for saying that.
Mr. Sampson, you should explain to us, what do you mean! Because I still couldn't accept what they have done. You know, hundreds of thousands of people died because of the order.
You can't imagine just how horrible the situation back then. Those undead were killing machines. They stormed like madmen. You can see the abyss in their hollow eyes. And there were vampires and their servants who would take your loved ones in the night and took them away.
I am sure you didn't know the terror that we felt back then," Adrian said in an emotional tone. From there Ace concluded that the human forces were utterly defeated.
Derek couldn't help but cried when hearing that description. He then left Sampson alone and sat down on the corner of the room.
Sampson then bowed his head, "I'm sorry. You are right. It was my stupidity to say such cruel words.
I just looked at it from a strategic perspective.
You can blame them for what they had ordered. However, I think they didn't have much choice.
For a kingdom that had to conscript civilians to face 50,000 trained soldiers and militias, it was impossible for them to face an army with a million number of strength.
However, They must make a choice. So the most rational one is sending a large number of militias to offset the number of enemies. I believe that the order was not only made in Greendale City. I believe every region that had excess manpower would do it.
Am I wrong?"
Adrian nodded. It seemed he was not too angry anymore, "Please continue!"
"Then their decision to bring the families of the militias was so they wouldn't run away from the battlefield.
However, it seemed the plan wasn't working. The undead army was too formidable, the militias were not enough to withstand them," Sampson said.
"You are right. Their appearances were so horrifying. Skeletons, zombies, dead knights, banshee, etc. Most of us couldn't stand straight while facing them, let alone fought them.
As the result, some of us revolted and ran backward. And then the already low morale troops were defeated in an instant because of the chaotic lines.
What in my mind at the time was to find my family and running far away to a distant land. Fortunately, I was placed with my townsmen in the rear. We then left the battlefield and picked my family.
We then ran to the South and enter the Misty Forrest. At that time we didn't know that our decision was a mistake. A very big mistake," Adrian said in an regretful expression.
***