Chapter 688 A Show of Force
"If we raise a decisively greater force, it would do serious damage to enemy morale. It's best we minimize our losses. We wouldn't want these elite soldiers you speak of to dwindle in number."
"Nonsense! Suppose we crushed them and captured Zhupus with overwhelmingly superior numbers. Who could boast of such a victory? How would the other countries look at us?"
'Well, someone clearly values glory over the lives of his soldiers...'
Evan had that thought as he watched the two Brigadier Generals bicker. Both of them were in charge of 3000 soldiers each and considering there was only a Division of 16,000 present, their words held a lot of weight.
It's just that Evan wondered how one of them had even gotten to his position of Brigadier General in the first place and from Beluar's expression, he could see that the brown-eyed man was thinking the same thing.
"And Sir! I understand we are allying with Heroes for the sake of public appearance but are we going to ignore our tacticians present and go with the words of a child wet behind the ears? One who isn't of Imperial blood, at that?"
Evan was 'surprised' when the Brigadier General suddenly switched targets to him and after looking around he noticed that the man had a lot of supporters in his statement.
To these Generals and Colonels of the Imperial Army who had been informed about Evan's whole campaign to reduce casualties in a War of conquest, they could only see him as naïve.
Powerful, yes, but naïve and lacking experience in war.
What's more, there were those who simply didn't like the fact that a noble from the GWE was interfering in a GEE matter, even though this related to Heroes.
They wished that there were Heroes in their country as well so they could send Evan packing, completely ignorant of the fact that even if all the other Six Heroes were from the GEE, there was nothing they could do about the Base in Agla.
As for Evan, he really didn't expect them to understand the reasons for his actions, given they had no idea of his plans for Aidos.
He also understood their desire to prove themselves and accumulate merits, so it was understandable that the Military Tacticians were none too pleased about the fact that he provided Beluar with a plan that the man liked before they could.
He understood it, but that didn't mean he cared.
If he cared about everyone's opinion on his actions then he might as well just remove himself from the War.
'But I need to be in the war, so I can get in contact with Heather and use her ring to unlock 'that place' and gain a power up!
If things are as they appear, then I might bring Eliza and the Seven Deadly Sins there before the stored-up power runs out.'
As expected, Evan had more hidden intentions of letting the war on Wolfen happen.
'Heather isn't like Laurene who I can just drop by the castle and drag along with me. I'm not close to her so I need certain situations to align so I can get her where I want her.
If the war doesn't happen, then Heather would not leave the GEE and come to Wolfen and if I'm not in the war then Heather would just walk around a treasure she doesn't even know she has the key to.'
The boy emerged from his sea of thoughts before looking right at the Brigadier General who had spoken and asked.
"So, you're against not only my plan for dealing with Zhupus, by my very presence here, huh?"
"Indeed!"
The man was resolute with his answer and seeing this, Evan nodded before getting to his feet and saying something none of them expected.
"That's nice.
Here, gimme a hug."
'I'm a child wet behind the ears' or,
'I'm not an Imperial.' Or
'You want to achieve a victory you can boast of'."
Evan sighed with obvious disappointment as he spoke and the Military tacticians and those who had the opinions that he just spoke of had their faces flush in embarrassment.
"I have a question."
One of the two Major Generals present spoke up, turning his gaze from the Brigadier General, whose petrification was already wearing off and towards Evan.
"I would like to know the source of your information on Zhupus. What makes you so sure they are going to attack today?"
"Now that is a question that I was expecting you guys to ask from the very beginning."
Evan replied the Major General before holding up his hand and speaking.
"First to appear gets an extra 'Ethereal Essence Orb'."
He snapped his fingers after he spoke and in that same instant, the room was filled with a dozen more individuals.
Small 30 cm-sized animal-shaped beings, each one exuding pure elemental energy manifested their bodies and rushed over to Evan.
[I was first!]
[No, it was me!]
[I'm the fastest! I was first!]
The eyes of the soldiers present widened as they recognized these beings—Spirits.
"You didn't forget I was a spirit contractor, did you?"
Very quickly, they understood where Evan's information had come from; he had sent the spirits to check and they had returned to him with it.
In reality, Evan knew Zhupus was moving already because of the game, but he still sent the spirits to confirm while he was speaking with Beluar. He had also already told the man about this, as well.
One of the Light spirits sat on his head and created a projection of an army marching through a low forest, and they recognized the uniforms of the soldiers to be that of the Wolfen Army.
"Okay, she was the one who appeared first. The rest of you go back to watching the army."
The spirits reluctantly agreed before flying out the windows and disappearing into the distance, except for the light spirit to whom he gave an Essence Orb as he promised.
"That answers your question, does it not?"
"Indeed."
Evan nodded after he spoke, and it was then that the Brigadier General's stone skin peeled off like a bottle wrapper and dropped to the ground.
The man regained himself and glared at Evan, but before he could speak, Beluar silenced him. Still, the Brigadier General was still his subordinate so he admonished Evan about his actions and got the boy to promise not to do it again.
