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Chapter 52: The Magic of Trickery

Xeron was very dissatisfied with this siege, very, very dissatisfied!

He thought he could have killed to his heart’s content and harvest thousands of delicious souls. But unexpectedly, his opponent’s defense was weak to the extent that it seemed as though they had no defense at all. The gates to the city were blasted open in less than two hours, and the battle ended.

Not only did the city not have large numbers of elven troops, but the civilians had already evacuated long ago. After killing the guards, Xeron had only received one hundred souls, even fewer than with the pegasus knights before! How could Xeron possibly be happy?

To think that he especially stopped for a day to repair the siege equipment, but they had not been put to much use at all.

In his battle, Roy had discreetly seized a few larger souls, but he did not take more as there were just too few souls, and he would be easily discovered. After the battle ended, Roy found Xeron and said, “Your Excellency Xeron, there should have been a large number of troops in the city, but they’ve all withdrawn for some reason!”

Xeron did not need Roy to tell him that. He could certainly see for himself. He asked Roy curiously, “Why do you think they withdrew?”

“Um...” Roy feigned thinking for a bit before replying, “I think it’s most likely because a stronger enemy appeared...”

“What do you mean?” Xeron looked distracted for a moment. “Is there a stronger enemy besides us?”

“Of course!” Roy replied affirmatively. “Isn’t His Excellency Rashka a stronger enemy? Maybe His Excellency Rashka attacked the other cities, causing the elven troops here to go support them. I can’t think of another reason why the elves would have left!”

Xeron laughed in annoyance. “How is that possible? Supporting another city means losing the city here. The elven druids aren’t so stupid. Besides, how could Rashka’s army be stronger than mine?”

“It might not have been possible at first, but it’s not necessarily so now!” Roy said in a meaningful tone. “Your Excellency Xeron, with all due respect, since you’ve received reinforcements, His Excellency Rashka should have too, right?”

Xeron was startled. “You... you mean...”

“Yes, that’s what I mean. The reinforcements should be the responsibility of His Excellency Ignatius from the rear, right? So he decides how many each side gets!” Roy’s eyes sparkled. “What if he summoned more troops than these but only gave us a small portion while Excellency Rashka Rashka got the majority?”

Xeron went quiet. If this is true, then Rashka’s army is definitely stronger and larger than mine. We agreed from the onset that Ignatius would summon mostly middle-rank and high-rank demons. Even if there aren’t many high-rank demons, their combat strength is leagues above that of low-rank demons. Now that I only have some evil spirits as reinforcements without a high-rank demon in sight, who knows whether Ignatius managed to summon them or gave them all to Rashka?

Roy’s words planted a seed of doubt in Xeron’s heart, and he could not help but say, “Shouldn’t be? What good does this do for Ignatius?”

“Pardon my frank words, Your Excellency Xeron!” Roy said. “If I haven’t remembered wrongly, His Excellency Rashka and His Excellency Ignatius came to meet you together?”

“Yes...” Xeron nodded.

“Then, do you think it’s possible that His Excellency Rashka and His Excellency Ignatius reached a certain agreement on the way?” Roy continued guiding him. “For example, he would send more reinforcements to His Excellency Rashka, and since he has a stronger army, he has a higher efficiency in sieging cities and looting. In exchange, the souls His Excellency Rashka obtains...”

Roy only said to here and then kept quiet. But the underlying meaning was already very obvious, making it hard for Xeron to think otherwise.

Yes, maybe those two have really reached an agreement in secret. No wonder Ignatius was willing to stay in the demon city and not come out to fight and kill. They must have already come to an agreement!

The moment Xeron thought of this, he began to calculate how many souls Rashka would have obtained because of the increased military might. If he had not known and used his own gains as the standard, then Rashka could keep quiet about the additional souls he obtained. In the end, they would split it among themselves secretly, and he would get nothing... Bastards! How can they do this?!

Xeron finally saw the light after Roy’s words! He could not bear but burst out cursing in the most vicious language at Rashka and Ignatius.

After swearing for a while, he finally calmed down and asked Roy, “Fortunately, you’re here. Otherwise, I would have been kept in the dark. Now, tell me, what should we do? Return and question Ignatius?”

“No, no. Don’t ever do that!” Roy shook his head. “Your Excellency Xeron, have you thought about it? If you raise your suspicions to His Excellency Ignatius over the unfair allocation of troops, and then he used it as an excuse to have you remain in the demon city to summon the troops while he leads an army out, what would you do? By then, they’ll both be able to be unbridled in concealing their gains...”

Xeron suddenly understood, Indeed, he could not ask Ignatius about this to his face.

“Your Excellency, it’s as you have seen. Now that His Excellency Rashka’s army is so strong, the elves view him as a threat and would rather abandon the city to provide reinforcements to fight him!” Roy said. “In other words, this is equivalent to His Excellency Rashka snatching away the souls that should have belonged to us. If this carries on, we’ll get fewer and fewer souls!”

Xeron nodded. “Yes, I understand. The only thing we can do now is to rush ahead of Rashka!”

The elves only had so many soldiers. The more Rashka killed, the less Xeron had to kill. Under these circumstances, all Xeron could think of was to fight over the headcount.

He was now misled by Roy. In fact, the elven army withdrawing had nothing to do with Rashka. Xeron would have only needed to send a messenger to Rashka’s side to have a look and would have realized it. But now, Xeron was overcome with anger and had not thought of this. His focus was placed on how he could fight over the headcount with Rashka.

Next, Xeron’s army began another round of rapid marching, deep into the territory of the kingdom of Erathia, slowly moving away from Rashka’s forces!

Roy silently watched on. It could be said that he had promoted all of this in secret. Because of the letter of challenge, the elves had discovered the true motive of the demons and began shrinking their defense lines. And Xeron started to lead the army in deeper alone out of jealousy, anger, and greed. At that time, he would likely encounter the ambush of the elves who had gathered superior forces! Without Rashka and Ignatius to support him, his future was bleak.

All of this was the outcome of a letter and a few words from Roy. Although these small actions were simple, they were precise and direct, resulting in these serious consequences... Ever since becoming a demon, Roy found himself being more skilled at using deceit and manipulation. He wondered if this was the inherent nature of demons at play...

Of course, since Roy was in Xeron’s army, he would also be in danger when Xeron was in danger.

Therefore, Roy’s next step was to consider how to get out of it. It was very dangerous on the battlefield, and preserving his life was his first and foremost priority. Only by ensuring he lived would he have a chance to escape Xeron’s control...