Chapter 353: Striking It Rich

The current situation seemed to be stuck in an unsolvable vicious cycle.

Alleria couldn't stop the Sun King and the Silvermoon Council from their suicidal course. Because the elven high command was stuck, the Alliance couldn't help even if they wanted to.

Similarly, even if Duke was a formidable fighter, he couldn't possibly single-handedly deal with over fifty thousand elite orcs. Moreover, Alleria discovered something - it seemed that Gul'dan, the strongest warlock of the Horde, had caught up with Orgrim's troops riding a red dragon with his confidants.

Against Gul'dan, a super magical powerhouse who could actually beat down Antonidas, the strongest human mage, sending Duke, a Morningstar mage, would only be sending him to his doom.

Moreover, even if Duke wanted to go, he was thoroughly opposed by all the leaders of the Stormwind Kingdom factions.

At this moment, Alleria fell into despair.

"Sister! Let's go! Since the humans are unwilling to help, we must return on our own." Sylvanas was resolute, she firmly grabbed her sister's hand.

Alleria cast a final pleading look at Duke.

Duke took a deep breath: "Actually... there is one last way."

As Duke spoke, the room fell silent. Every pair of eyes stared at Duke, every heart momentarily stopped beating, everyone held their breath.

"Speak." Alleria instinctively became excited.

"Alleria Windrunner, are you willing to be a patriotic traitor?"

"A patriotic... traitor?" Alleria, as well as everyone else, was baffled by Duke's words.

Duke said solemnly, "Even a great lord, inviting foreign troops into his own country is a treasonous act. But you, Alleria, you can become this traitor for the sake of patriotism, to save the high elven people. Of course, this comes with a price."

"What price?" Alleria's eyes lit up.

"I can, as a wandering duke, bring all my private soldiers to accept your employment, Alleria Windrunner. The problem is, everyone knows I'm not short of money. So the price is: after this war, you must bring at least 1000 elite members of the Windrunner family, give up your position and identity in Quel'Thalas, and become my vassal."

As Duke's words fell, everyone was stunned. The next moment, everyone began to ponder, it seemed, it might actually be feasible.

Firstly, Duke was not a king. His status was not so noble that it couldn't be fudged. It wasn't wrong to say Duke was a wandering duke. Stormwind Kingdom had already been destroyed! A kingdom without territory is not recognized. Didn't you see that after Duke Fairwind left Kul Tiras, he was just a pirate leader? Who would truly recognize him as a duke?

Secondly, even if he brought so-called private soldiers, the strength under Duke's command was quite astonishing. Apart from the basic ten thousand private soldiers, Duke also had a mage group. Moreover, if they wanted to fudge it, there was a lot they could do.

Finally, there was the price.

From a legal standpoint, even if Quel'Thalas joined the Alliance afterwards, someone would have to take the blame for this. Duke and Alleria's ambiguous relationship was well known. The problem was, if Duke really wanted to marry Alleria, it would be super troublesome.

A foreign duke's union with a Marshal of Quel'Thalas would have to be approved by the Sun King and the Silvermoon Council. At that time, what kind of difficulties Duke and the Windrunner family would face was unknown.

Duke taking this opportunity to pluck Alleria out was indeed killing two birds with one stone. Moreover, he would also get a thousand of the strongest elven rangers on the continent?

Because of these conditions, Duke's 'deal' seemed not to be a loss in the eyes of all the nobles. Otherwise, the nobles would only think Duke was an idiot, and if the Sun King really wanted to pursue it, no one except Stormwind Kingdom would protect Duke.

At this time, Alleria fell into infinite struggle.

A patriotic traitor, in exchange for the survival of tens of thousands of her compatriots.

Alleria's conscience and her fondness for Duke, for a moment, took the upper hand in both rational and emotional aspects: "Duke, I can personally agree to you. But I cannot make a definite answer on behalf of the Windrunner family's rangers."

"No! 1000 rangers, not one less. This is a matter of attitude!" Unexpectedly, it was Jandice who was bargaining for Duke.

Duke was taken aback.

What surprised Duke even more was yet to come.

"I understand my brothers and sisters, there can't possibly be a thousand Windrunner family rangers willing to give up their homeland. 300, that's already the limit." Sylvanas interjected.

Jandice was anxious: "We can't accept these conditions!"

"Of course it's not fair. However, as long as you, Duke, can cover more than twenty thousand civilians in Eversong Woods to evacuate to Silvermoon City this time, I am willing to give up my position in Quel'Thalas and become your vassal with my sister."

Duke's brain was in a state of shutdown for a second.

Surprise!

Absolutely unexpected surprise!

Duke had never thought that by taking advantage of the Horde's attack on Quel'Thalas, he could gain such a huge benefit. That was Alleria and Sylvanas! The eldest and second eldest of the Windrunner family! The two strongest rangers in the world! In terms of strength, even their younger sister Vereesa was still quite a bit behind them.

Not to mention that in the original history, one of them was a great hero with a statue in Stormwind Valley of Kings, and the other was a queen who made waves in the Horde and even became the Warchief of the Horde in the distant future.

Damn, this time I really hit the jackpot!

If it weren't for so many people watching, Duke really wanted to shout out loud three times: "I've got Alleria and Queen Sylvanas under my command!"

At this moment, Duke finally had a sense of pride in completely changing history.

No matter what, as long as they get through Quel'Thalas this time. Then there won't be that Sylvanas who died in Silvermoon City. Nor will there be that future Forsaken Queen.

Forsaken?

Bah! I'm a living person! I don't care how those bones die!

Originally, Jandice still wanted to help Duke gain more benefits and so on, but seeing Duke's excited eyes, she quietly retreated to the side behind Duke.

Similarly, Bolvar and Windsor didn't want their boss to run so far to be some kind of mercenary. After seeing Duke's eyes, they both sighed deeply.

Well, hopefully helping the elves this time won't be too much of a loss.

Once there's a plan, everything becomes easier. When Duke woke up King Llane in the middle of the night with a magical message, explaining the seriousness of the situation, Llane gave Duke and Alleria a surprise.

"If some soldiers from the Gryphon Legion volunteer to become your private soldiers, I can't stop them. Sometimes nobles like to secretly increase their number of private soldiers, but if the king can't find out, it's not a violation. However, in the future, we can't do without the elite of the Gryphon Legion on the front lines!"