Debuff Master

Chapter 744

“Please focus on the meeting,” Bahamut said, imploring the officers to concentrate on the meeting.

Unfortunately, his request fell on deaf ears once again.

“What do you say we meet up for some wine tonight?”

“Sure! Count me in!”

“Join me at my quarters. I’ll see to it that you’re all properly hosted with some fine wine.”

Their response was expected, as these high-ranking officers were mostly from the elite academies. They were alumni of the Zavala Kingdom’s military school, the Macallan Kingdom’s academy, or they were from influential noble families.

Thus, the Zavala Kingdom’s military was split into three factions.

However, Bahamut belonged to none of them. He was a rare case, as he began his career as a low-ranking officer and made it to the top. By all rights, his rise to Lieutenant General was nothing short of a miracle.

“Once again, I must ask for your attention,” Bahamut appealed yet again.

However, the generals ignored his words and continued their meaningless chatter.

The minutes ticked by until finally...

“Military Police,” Bahamut called, his voice cutting through the room.

“Yes, sir!” a guard responded.

“Arrest all of them,” Bahamut said icily.

In an instant, silence fell upon the entire room.

“What...?”

“Is he serious?”

“Did I hear him right just now?”

The senior officers turned to Bahamut with obvious disbelief on their faces.

Even the military police hesitated...

Ordering the arrest of generals? This was by no means a small demand.

“What are you doing? I said, arrest them all, now!” Bahamut raised his voice.

“Have you lost your mind, Bahamut?!”

“Tsk... Does he think being the commander makes him untouchable or something?”

The generals mocked him until their faces turned serious. They were prepared to teach the lowly commoner a lesson—until a group of young men in stark white uniforms appeared behind Bahamut.

These men had faces drained of color, looking ghastly pale, and the generals immediately recognized them to be the Mercury Knights.

The appearance of these elite soldiers immediately silenced the entire room. The Mercury Knights were a special unit that answered solely to the commander, and they possessed unmatched combat prowess that even the famed Ironblood Knights paled in comparison.

“You have two options. Face immediate execution for insubordination and contempt, or participate in this meeting as ordered,” Bahamut said, breaking the silence.

Confronted with the ultimatum, the generals held their silence and returned to their seats.

“I know very well what you all think of me. You see me as a dead man walking toward the gallows. But there’s a saying about granting a dying man his final wish, so while I’m still alive, at least show me the respect due a commander,” Bahamut said, his voice laced with irony.

After having said his piece, Bahamut turned to the map, inspecting the battle lines.

“Tsk... Does he want to play commander for a few days before he dies?”

“Fine. Let him do what he wants.”

“He’s doomed anyway, so let’s humor him for now.”

The generals grumbled and followed Bahamut’s lead—no, they pretended to follow him for now.

“Until our Iron Fleet is fully operational, we will be...” Bahamut said. Then, he marked several locations on the map before adding, “...conceding these five fortresses to the enemy.”

“What?!”

“Have you lost your mind?!”

“Who the hell gave you the right to do that?!”

The generals erupted in utter disbelief after hearing the words that came out of Bahamut’s mouth.

Everyone in the room knew very well that conceding those five fortresses to the enemy would be detrimental to the Zavala Kingdom.

Why?

It was all because yielding those five fortresses would leave the path to the capital wide open for the Proatine Alliance to march on.

***

Ninetail and her agents were dispatched to assess the situation in the Zavala Kingdom’s munitions factories while Siegfried led his forces toward the heart of the enemy, their capital city, Feiogh.

The campaign proceeded smoothly, as the Proatine Alliance won victory after victory and seized enemy fortresses one after another.

Siegfried made full use of their air superiority to lay waste to his enemies, making their fortresses easy pickings.

All in all, seven fortresses fell to the Proatine Alliance, and from this, only two allied lives were lost, and barely a hundred were injured.

Meanwhile, Siegfried’s Divine Power continued to grow at a rapid rate.

[Alert: Your Divine Power has permanently increased by 3!] Nôv(el)B\\jnn

[Alert: Your Divine Power has permanently increased by 1.5!]

[Alert: Your Divine Power has permanently increased by 19!]

[Alert: Your Divine Power has permanently increased by 2.222!]

[Alert: Your Divine Power has permanently increased by 1!]

Each message informing him of his Divine Power permanently increasing came with voices whispering into his ears. The voices were slowly becoming harder to ignore the more Divine Power he obtained.

"Please... I beg of you... Your Majesty..."

"Protect us..."

"Your Majesty... help us..."

The messages popping up one after another, and the constant murmurs gnawed away at Siegfried’s concentration, causing a migraine.

“Ugh...”

“Kyuuu! What’s wrong, owner punk?!” Hamchi asked after noticing Siegfried grimace in discomfort.

“It’s that thing I told you about before—argh!”

“Kyuuu! We should do an exorcism ritual or something! You’re haunted!”

“Hey, you! Watch your mouth—argh!”

“Kyu?”

“Argh...! H-Hamchi...!”

“Kyuuu?! Are you alright, owner punk?!”

“Y-You...!” Siegfried muttered, his voice growing faint.

“Kyu? O-Owner punk...?” Hamchi called out, sounding alarmed.

“Do I... still look like Siegfried to you?”

“KYUUUU?!”

“Come here, you little rascal!” Siegfried lunged forward, subduing Hamchi before pulling his ears.

It was then.

“Do you have a minute?”

The legendary pro gamer of Space Craft, Kim Gi-Tae, entered Siegfried’s tent.

“Ah! Senior!” Siegfried exclaimed. Then, he promptly stopped playing with Hamchi and went to greet him.

“Hello.”

“Oh? You leveled up quite a bit. You are now Level 220?”

“This is nothing! Haha!”

As if to prove his natural talent in video games, Kim Gi-Tae had already surpassed Level 200. He had become what most people would consider a high-level Adventurer.

“Anyway, I dropped by to tell you something. Are you free?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Will you keep charging full steam ahead?”

“Huh? What do you mean by that—”

“I have a feeling we will be in huge trouble if we go any deeper than this,” Kim Gi-Tae said. Then, he pointed at the map and asked, “This, right here, is their capital, Feiogh, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Since we already occupied this fortress... We just have to occupy three more before we’re at Feiogh’s doorsteps, right?”

“Precisely.”

“No matter how strong our air force is, if we go all the way there, then...”

It was then.

‘Huh?’ Siegfried suddenly realized that things could go terribly wrong. There was no doubt that marching all the way to the doorsteps of the enemy’s capital city uncontested was a good thing, but what would happen afterward was the real problem.

What if the Iron Fleet was rebuilt the moment the Proatine Alliance was at Feiogh’s doorstep?

The outcome was all too clear. They would get encircled and annihilated.

A shiver ran down Siegfried’s spine as he met Kim Gi-Tae’s gaze.

Initially, Siegfried planned to leverage the enemy’s lack of air forces to seize as many key strongholds as possible while advancing swiftly toward Feiogh. However, after seeing the map with fresh eyes and heeding Kim Gi-Tae’s warning, he realized that he completely overlooked the biggest risk to his plan.

He was leading the entire Proatine Alliance straight into a death trap.

A sweat dropped from Siegfried's brow as he muttered, “That... would have been a disaster...”

“Yes, I had a hunch something felt off, so I double-checked everything,” Kim Gi-Tae replied. Then, he continued, “From the way I see it, they’re deliberately drawing us in. They're purposely giving us their fortresses one by one to buy time for their Iron Fleet's completion.

"Once the fleet is fully operational, they could simply crush us and retake everything—including our kingdom.”

“Yes, you are absolutely right, senior. This was a trap,” Siegfried replied, nodding in agreement.

“And a very elaborate one, too.”

“Thank you, senior. If it hadn't been for you, our men would have walked straight into a disaster.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“No, I almost missed it. To think I would overlook something so crucial...”

Even Siegfried was only human, and there was no way a human could be perfect. He, too, could miss things from time to time and make mistakes.

“It’s bound to happen sometimes. No one can keep track of everything, and that’s why you have your advisors,” Kim Gi-Tae replied, reassuring him.

“Thank you, senior.”

“But this puts us in a bind. We could advance to their capital and lay siege to it, but we’re doomed the moment their Iron Fleet takes to the skies. Yet without a different plan, assaulting Feiogh will be impossible...”

There was no chance they could neutralize Feiogh’s anti-air defenses like they did with the fortresses, even with the combined might of Siegfried and the Masters.

“Hmm... That is quite the problem...”

They had two choices before them—conquer Feiogh before the enemy’s Iron Fleet was operational or destroy the munitions factories which were building and arming the Iron Fleet.

The Proatine Alliance had only these two choices, as pressing forward recklessly without any plan would only spell their doom, just as Kim Gi-Tae had pointed out.

“What do you think is our best move here, Senior?”

“Let’s start by reviewing everything.”

Thus, Siegfried and Kim Gi-Tae put their heads together to strategize for the upcoming battles.

***

The next morning, under Siegfried’s command, the Proatine Alliance made a surprising move. They shifted their direction entirely opposite of the Zavala Kingdom’s capital city, Feiogh. Instead of advancing and laying siege to the capital, they turned around and headed south.

The news swiftly reached Bahamut, the Supreme Commander of the Zavala Forces.

“Hmm...” Bahamut looked troubled as he processed the report on the Proatine Alliance’s movement.

“Are you just going to let this happen?!”

“Hurry! We must mobilize our troops immediately! They're heading south!”

“We have no time to waste!”

One after another, the generals protested in unison.

While Bahamut’s strategy of letting the Proatine Alliance advance toward Feiogh was understandable, this new development caught them off guard. Without an aerial fleet, the Zavala Forces would likely be defeated in any direct confrontation.

Bahamut’s plan revolved around holding the capital as a final line of defense while waiting for the Iron Fleet to be operational. The capital was armed with anti-air defenses that would render the Proatine air forces obsolete, effectively taking away their biggest advantage.

However, it was clear that the Proatine Alliance had shifted their sights elsewhere, which was the Smecta Plains to the south, one of the continent’s richest grain-producing regions.

“Harvest season is right around the corner! Have you thought about what it means for our kingdom’s food supply if the Smecta Plains is razed?!”

“Winter is approaching! Having the plains razed before the harvest will be a massive hit to our food reserves! We might not even have enough to last the winter!”

“We have to stop them!”

The Smecta Plains was a vast region providing roughly seventy percent of the Zavala Kingdom’s food supply. If the Proatine Alliance were to lay waste to it, then a devastating famine would await the entire kingdom.

Tens of thousands of people—no, perhaps even millions would starve to death before spring could come.

Bahamut’s expression grew grave as he realized the impending crisis.

“This is an emergency!”

“It won’t just be your job and your head at stake! We’re talking about millions that would starve to death this winter if we lose the Smecta Plains!”

Surprisingly, the generals completely forgot about their factions and hierarchies, setting aside their differences in the face of disaster as they pressed and urged Bahamut.

“We will...” Bahamut finally spoke, breaking the silence. “...not be moving our troops.”

However, everyone was left stunned in disbelief after hearing his response.

With those few words, Bahamut effectively dismissed any concern over losing the Smecta Plains, putting millions of people at risk of starvation in the coming winter.