74 Fish in Troubled Waters

"Why?" Sunier asked.

"Because there is a secret tunnel leading directly to Holy Crown City!"

"What?" Sunier was completely shocked. As a commander who had gone through a real war before, she clearly knew what this meant.

"I have already spread the news. At least, the troops from Black Raven City have already gotten the information and have sent a huge army to attack the secret tunnel. On the other hand, the troops of Holy Crown City are desperately resisting the invasion. While I was leaving, they were still fighting fiercely. Haha..." Han Jin grinned. "The fighting between Holy Crown City and Black Raven City alarmed the army of Beitman. It dispatched several messengers, requiring the two parties to retreat from its territory. Unfortunately, neither of them agreed.

"No wonder..." Moxinke patted on his own thigh. "I saw several knights riding northward this morning despite this terrible weather. They must be going back to send messages."

"Beitman has been on the verge of disintegration. If the four lords of the satellite cities do not unite together, they can hardly pose a threat to Holy Crown City and Black Raven City. It's unlikely that either city will consider the demand from the owner of a small satellite city." Sunier let out a light sigh. "I know you dislike Holy Crown City and tried your best to cause trouble for them, but... Lord Dismark knows better than us how important this tunnel is. Besides, he has been operating it for years. Black Raven City has no advantage at all."

"Have you forgotten what kind of troops Black Raven City have?" Han Jin cracked a smile. "And it is not only a secret tunnel; it is more like a huge underground labyrinth!"

"A large underground labyrinth? How large is it?"

"It connects directly to underneath Holy Crown City. How large do you think it is?" Han Jin gave a half smile. "I suppose, the good days of Holy Crown City have come to an end!"

"You... you really did cause some big troubles for Dismark," Sunier exclaimed. "If it were not for the underground labyrinth, they would have made peace today due to this snow. But now, none of them will cease the war until one party finally completely occupies the underground labyrinth."

"The fiercer the combat between them is, the better it is for us." Han Jin said slowly. "And this time, part of the territory in Beitman has already become a battlefield. Will they do nothing but look on from the side? I think not."

"They won't." Sunier shook her head, "Beitman cannot show signs of weakness since its own territory has been invaded. Otherwise, no matter which party wins, the winner will target it as soon as possible! Beitman must display its strength immediately."

"Now that they are all busy with the combat, no one will take notice of us. That's good news for us, isn't it?" Han Jin laughed. "I am fully aware of how vulnerable we are at present. If we simply progress at the normal pace, we are sure to be strangled in the cradle as soon as any of the lords notices us."

"I am glad you noticed that,"Sunier mocked.

"So our only chance is to make this land more chaotic: make them more hostile toward each other and fight more desperately," Han Jin said word by word. "I sneaked into the military camp of Black Raven City after coming out of the underground labyrinth..."

"Are you out of your mind?" Sunier said in shock.

"I used a special spell. Don't worry, it's impossible for them to discover me." Han Jin still wore his smile. "I saw that soldiers of Black Raven City had very low morale. News came that Dismark had thought of a new strategy after Wild Willow City had rejected his plea for military support. He decided to abandon small cities and towns to clear the field, and then focus his defense on well-defended cities. This strategy of pooling resources and fighting a prolonged campaign worked, and exhausted a large amount of military forces from Black Raven and Depew City. Moreover, even between the two allies, Lord Zaganide and Lord Malith have had quarrels several times..."

"All this was heard from the soldiers?" Sunier asked.

"Yes."

"If they didn't even bother to keep such an important plan confidential, it seems that... neither Zaganide nor Malith has any intentions of continuing the war," Sunier said in a low voice. "But, I suppose they've already reached their goals. Both of them are greedy men. The main reason why Malith invaded Holy Crown City is to get money. Dismark is good at making his territory a rich place. In this case, he is relatively a good leader, totally in contrast with the other two. As for Zaganide, money is not likely the only thing he longs for. He probably wants more subjects under his rule too. Everyone knows most civilians living in his territory have been slaughtered. He is not only a brutal and bad-tempered man himself, but also allows his subordinates and armies to slaughter civilians and slaves randomly. The territory under his government is like hell, or even worse, and that's not an exaggeration at all!"

"You are right." Cessacioun continued, "That bastard is the most notorious and shameless Dark Druid. He'll kill all his people, go rob someone else's land, kill the people there again, then repeat the same cycle. If there truly are gods watching over this world, bastards like him should have been punished by death thousands of times already! Unfortunately..." Cessacioun stopped, and shook his head with a bitter smile.

"If we can choose..." Sunier paused. "I really wish to help Holy Crown City, instead of the butchers from Black Raven City."

"The problem is, we have no choice." Han Jin smiled. "And no matter how cruel Zaganide is, he hasn't raised his butcher's knife against us. On the contrary, your previous allies, the soldiers from Holy Crown City, are now sparing no efforts to kill us."

"It's meaningless to argue about this." Sunier glanced at Moxinke and Cessacioun. "Judging by everyone's expressions, you have made up your minds."

"We are friends, aren't we?" Cessacioun showed her a smile.

"Yes, of course we are friends." She stood up, smilied, and walked to the door.

"Sunier??" Cessacioun called after her in surprise.

"What?" She looked back at him, but soon fixed her sight on Han Jin. "Rest assured. I'm not leaving. No matter how remote this dream is, I will keep my promise."

"What did you promise?" Moxinke asked curiously.

"It's a secret," Sunier replied with a smile before pushing the door open.

"You two... have a secret?" Moxinke squinted at Han Jin. "Tell me, how many things on earth are you hiding from us?!" he queried in a roundabout way. In fact, what he was really interested in was not any secret between them, but the spell Han Jin knew. To escape from the besiegement of the knights was totally impossible for himself, so he was sure that Han Jin knew many other spells that he hadn't displayed to them yet.