Chapter 75 : Chapter 75
Chapter 75. The Golden Dragon Crest
The next two defensive lines consisted of a magical detection barrier and sound-listening stakes driven into the ground.
Esmeralda passed through both just as easily.
For her, anywhere that had shadows was her domain.
And in a military camp at night, shadows were everywhere.
The stealth techniques she displayed had already surpassed the realm of ordinary Shadow Assassins.
They felt more like an innate gift.
She was a being born for darkness and assassination.
At last, she reached the core area of the demi-human camp—the legion commander’s main tent.
Outside the tent, four wolf-man guards in heavy armor stood at the four corners.
Their breathing was steady and long.
All of them were Fourth Realm experts.
Their senses swept the surrounding ground like radar.
Yet Esmeralda merely smiled softly and merged into the massive shadow cast by the tent.
Like a drop of ink falling into water, she silently seeped inside.
The tent was empty.
The white wolf demi-human Kane was currently in another tent not far away, discussing with the bear demi-human Ulzok how they would continue “dragging their feet” tomorrow.
Esmeralda slowly “rose” from the shadow of a weapon rack in the corner.
She walked to the commander’s desk and placed Alectos Huiyin’s handwritten letter neatly on top of the most conspicuous battle report.
After finishing this, she even had the leisure to observe the arrangement of the tent.
One corner of the military map hanging on the wall was slightly curled.
She even reached out and kindly smoothed it flat for them.
Then she merged into the shadows once again and silently departed.
From infiltration to departure, the entire process took less than ten seconds.
Not a trace was left behind.
Not a soul noticed.
Half an hour later.
The white wolf demi-human Kane returned to his main tent with a tired expression.
He had just finalized tomorrow’s “acting plan” with Ulzok.
They would organize a grand but completely meaningless “combat drill.”
It would look impressive enough to report upward while ensuring there were no real casualties.
Putting on this act every day was honestly more exhausting than fighting a real war.
Kane irritably loosened his collar and sat down heavily behind the commander’s desk, preparing to take a drink of water.
But as his eyes swept across the table, his movement suddenly froze.
There was a letter on his desk.
A letter he had never seen before.
Kane’s pupils instantly shrank into narrow vertical slits.
His heart skipped violently.
What was going on?
He immediately stood up, every muscle in his body tightening like a leopard ready to pounce.
He dashed to the tent entrance and abruptly pulled open the flap.
Outside, the four guards still stood faithfully at their posts.
Nothing appeared unusual.
“Did anyone enter here just now?” Kane asked in a low, dangerous voice.
“Reporting to the general—no!” the captain of the guards replied immediately.
Cold sweat seeped across Kane’s back.
No one had entered?
Then had the letter fallen from the sky?
He returned to the tent and stared at the letter as if it were a deadly venomous snake.
The envelope was made from ordinary parchment.
There was no signature on it.
But stamped on the seal was an emblem that made his breathing stop.
It was an intricate and majestic golden dragon crest.
It belonged to the imperial family of the Demi-Human Empire.
Only the reigning emperor and the officially designated crown prince had the authority to use that emblem.
The current Regent was far away in the imperial capital.
Which meant…
A ridiculous yet heart-pounding thought uncontrollably emerged in Kane’s mind.
His breathing grew rapid.
With trembling hands, he slowly picked up the letter.
The letter was light.
Yet in his hands, it felt as heavy as a mountain.
Kane immediately sent word for Ulzok to come.
Not long afterward, a large figure pushed open the tent flap and entered, bringing a gust of cold air with him.
“What are you being so mysterious about? Kane, I still need to think of a new excuse to slack off tomorrow!”
The bear demi-human Ulzok complained loudly and was about to sit down.
But when he saw Kane’s unprecedentedly serious expression, he swallowed the rest of his words.
The normally irritable bear-man actually restrained his temper and asked in a low voice.
“Something happened?”
Kane said nothing.
He simply tilted his chin toward the desk.
Ulzok looked down.
A single letter lay quietly on the table.
“A letter? You scared the hell out of me. I thought those black-robed lunatics had caused trouble again—”
His sentence stopped halfway.
He had seen the emblem on the envelope.
A golden dragon crest gleamed beneath the dim oil lamp.
Ulzok’s large hand froze in midair.
The impatience on his face instantly turned into shock.
“Th-This… this is… the royal crest?!”
He suddenly turned toward Kane.
Even his voice trembled.
“Did the Regent send a secret envoy?”
Kane slowly shook his head.
His gaze was complicated beyond words.
“See for yourself.”
Ulzok grabbed the letter and roughly tore open the seal.
The moment the paper unfolded, the first line caused both legion commanders’ pupils to contract sharply.
“To Uncle Ulzok and Uncle Kane.”
The handwriting was somewhat rough.
But the familiar tone and the sharp spirit belonging to a young prince could not be mistaken.
“It’s… it’s Prince Alectos Huiyin!”
Ulzok cried out in shock.
The prince whom the Regent had used as the justification for launching the war.
The prince who had been declared a traitor.
He was truly in the Northern Territory.
The two men looked at each other.
Both saw a storm of shock in the other’s eyes.
They suppressed their emotions and continued reading.
In the letter, Alectos described the shocking events of that night with restrained but painful words.
He had been lured into his father’s bedchamber by a forged imperial order.
There he had encountered an assassination attempt.
Among the attackers had even been cultists from the Corruption Cult.
He had used a life-saving Spatial Scroll and lost an arm before finally escaping.
When they read this part, Ulzok and Kane’s expressions became even heavier.
They had long suspected that the prince’s alleged betrayal contained something suspicious.
But hearing the story directly from the person involved created an entirely different impact.
However, an even greater shock awaited them.
After escaping, the prince had gone to seek refuge with his most trusted friend, Morris, commander of the Evergreen Legion.
Yet Morris, in order to prove his loyalty to the Regent, had actually disbanded twenty thousand elite troops and crippled his own forces.
Then he turned around and attempted to surround and kill the severely wounded prince.
“That Morris is a spineless coward!”
Ulzok showed no attempt to hide his contempt.
As someone within the military, Ulzok knew very well that Morris had only obtained his legion commander position through Alectos’s support.
At this moment, the tone of the letter suddenly shifted.
“Generals, everything I have described above may appear to you as nothing more than a royal scandal and a tragedy of the Empire.”
“But what I am about to say concerns the lives of every soldier under your command.”
Here it comes.
Kane’s heart sank.
He continued reading.
“Regent Remington has already formed a deep alliance with the cultists of the Corruption Cult.”
“The war against the Northern Territory was never meant for conquest.”
“Nor was it truly meant to punish a rebellious prince.”
“Their true objective is to conduct an unprecedented blood sacrifice ritual in Bitter Cold Valley…”
“Using the blood and souls of tens of thousands of soldiers from the Demi-Human Empire.”