42

[Vol. 1] Chapter 42: Young Man, Don't Be Too…

When Lilya woke up again, she found herself on the march.

Violet was riding the elite unicorn that belonged to the princess, giving her not-so-professional orders while carefully holding the petite blue-haired girl in her arms to prevent her from falling off the horse.

For this lightweight expedition, the troops weren't burdened with things like carriages. Therefore, Lilya had been riding a unicorn like any other soldier. 

Violet, despite her limited experience with the magical creatures of this otherworld, had managed to learn the basics in a few days. However, she still hadn't quite figured out how to ride even a regular horse, let alone a unicorn.

Fortunately, Lilya's strong physical attributes allowed her to not only ride the unicorn but also run with it. So, there wasn't a major issue.

"Ugh… Violet, is that you?"

Lilya opened her eyes, surveyed the surroundings, and pieced together the situation as she saw the scenes rapidly moving backward.

"You're awake. How do you feel? I used a stabilizing mental skill to let you sleep a bit longer. You really pushed yourself too hard in that battle. Your body was completely exhausted," Violet replied.

Lilya and Violet were joking around, and the princess lowered her head, feeling a bit embarrassed.

She had indeed been impulsive earlier. As the highest commanding officer of the troops, what mattered most was not how many enemies she personally killed, but maintaining a calm mind and strategy at all times.

"I'm sorry, I won't do that again in the future. How long has it been since then? Where are we now?"

"It's now midday on the second day. After burning down that batch of supplies, we followed our prearranged plan and led the troops out of the valley, heading deeper into the Beastman Kingdom's territory to the west."

During their recent observations, Lilya and others had noticed that the beastmen's supplies were quite suspicious. Not only were they abundant and of high quality, but many of them were made up of vegetarian foods that were rarely produced in the region.

These supplies were definitely not native to the Beastman Kingdom's territory, which explained how the beastmen suddenly managed to sustain such a large-scale war.

They had their suspicions about who might be supporting the beastmen behind the scenes, but in the current situation, they couldn't jump to conclusions.

In order to completely cut off this batch of unidentified supplies and to further investigate the conspiracy behind this war, as well as gather crucial evidence, Lilya felt it was necessary to find the source of these supplies.

The information they obtained from the captured beastman soldiers was vague, and the more detailed information from the Tiger General had been killed on the battlefield. So the princess only had a general idea of the location and no knowledge of their internal situation.

As for why Flora chose not to interrogate the leader named Kunnir and instead killed him on the spot…

The explanation for the former was that the Tiger General was exceptionally strong, nearly at the level of an Earth-level close to Sky-level. Moreover, he gave her a very cunning feeling.

If she had shown restraint, Flora couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't have been casualties among the Shadow Guards, or that the enemy wouldn't escape.

The way she put it… there really wasn't anything wrong with it. That was the situation at the time. However, Violet couldn't help but feel that Miss Flora might be hiding something, something she wasn't sharing with her and Lilya.

The priestess didn't have a deep understanding of this legendary-level adventurer's past. She only knew that she and Lilya had been close friends for several years, and Flora's concern for the princess didn't seem fake. Given that, Violet decided not to dig too deep into it for now.

According to the information provided by the enthusiastic soldiers and tracking the traces of the supply convoy, this light cavalry unit covered the beastmen several days' journey in less than a third of the time, arriving on the edge of a basin known as the Tepaya Basin as night fell that day.

The Tepaya Basin was a depression formed by a series of low hills ranging from a hundred to a thousand meters in circumference. Its interior covered an area of approximately a thousand acres. Surrounded by mountains, the outer cold and damp air had difficulty penetrating, making the climate inside warmer and drier compared to the outside, making it a good place for storing supplies.

What was crucial was that this basin had only one entrance and exit, about a few tens of meters wide. As long as the defenders held this position, they could effectively block all attempts to enter. Unless there was a significant difference in individual strength, it would be nearly impossible to breach.

To err on the side of caution, Lilya stationed her troops in a concealed location nearby and sent a few skilled Shadow Guards to quietly gather information.

Their earlier success in infiltrating the supply convoy and even poisoning it had been possible because the beastmen hadn't expected humans to quietly cross the Black River and enter the Beastman Kingdom's territory. Their defenses were weak, and the constant movement of the troops had given Lilya an opportunity.

However, the massive fire last night would have undoubtedly alerted the entire beastman border, and they would have undoubtedly increased their vigilance here. Combined with the terrain advantage, even if only a thousand beastmen were guarding the basin, it would be extremely difficult for Lilya to lead her army in.

With the supplies burned, as long as the beastman commander wasn't a fool, they would immediately realize that a human army had infiltrated their territory and deduce Violet's objective, sending troops to support this area.

Considering factors like the enemy's response time, marching speed, and distance, in the best-case scenario, from noon tomorrow to nightfall, the beastman would reach the outskirts of the basin. Time was indeed very tight.

Therefore, last night, after Lilya briefly lost consciousness, Violet, Flora, and several other commanders decided not to wait for Princess Lilya to wake up and proceeded to march rapidly according to their plan.

In reality, if Violet was willing, there were many ways to easily destroy the supply depot and expose the mastermind behind it. However, this was Lilya Melchior's battlefield and test. If everything was taken care of by Miss Priestess, like on the Black River, it would lose its meaning.

After sending out scouts to gather information, there was a brief period of rest. Even legendary individuals like Flora would feel tired due to prolonged mental tension. Therefore, they needed to recharge and prepare for the upcoming battle.

At the same time, in the Beastman central command tent:

"So, it appears the enemy's goal is indeed to cut off our supplies. You mentioned that among the attackers, there was a young woman with exceptional archery skills and red short hair who single-handedly… erm, killed you?"

The Beastman Priest, the Fox Clan Chief, and the Grand Priest Saharit were still seated on their carpet. Next to them was a shabby-looking wooden stick, and they were looking down at the Tiger General, Kunnir, who was kneeling on the ground.

Especially when it came to the end, even with the wily old fox's composure and wisdom, he couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth and almost wanted to make a sarcastic comment.

"Goodness, if you burned the supplies, just say you burned them. Did you really have to emphasize that you were killed by an enemy's arrow? If you're really dead, who's kneeling in front of me now, a ghost?"

"This is why young people always tend to exaggerate, using the perceived strength of the enemy to lessen the responsibility for their own mistakes. Unteachable, completely unteachable!"