A Demon's Journey

Azaroth and his retainers successfully retreated after attacking 6 checkpoints on the Sinyalian-Glerian Border.

The news that 6 checkpoints of the Sinyalian Kingdom had been attacked slowly spread among all the troops within the army stationed there.

It shocked the border force because they never expected that the Glerian Kingdom would attack 6 of their checkpoints so suddenly.

When they asked further, they found out it wasn't an attack from the Glerian Kingdom's side but from their own side.

Colonel Nate was one of the two on-field commanders of this border. Currently, he was in Yhord City where he was in an important meeting presided by the Major General who was in charge of this area.

Usually, the Major General resided in another city but he had come to Yhord City to assign an important task to Colonel Nate. It was an idea on how they could improve their defenses and launch a counterattack at the Glerian Kingdom.

A man soon knocked on the door. The Major General and the Colonel were surprised. It had to be known that everyone in the building knew that an important meeting was going on. Just who dared to interrupt them at such a moment?

The Major General was annoyed but he still spoke out, "Come inside."

It turned out to be a soldier. He had a serious look on his face as he stepped inside and greeted the Major General.

"What is it?"

"It's urgent information, Major General. Our border points have been attacked." The soldier spoke with a grave expression.

The Major General and the Colonel's eyes widened in shock but they hid it quickly. The Colonel asked, "What were the number of the enemies? And their cultivation?"

The soldier spoke, "Seven warriors attacked our checkpoints, sir. Five of them were 3 Star Warriors, a woman possessing a rare Wood Element was a 4 Star Warrior. And lastly, there was also a 5 Star Warrior who appeared to be their commander."

Now, this news shocked the Major General and the Colonel greatly. Just 7 warriors attacked their border points?

"What are our damages?"

At those words, the soldier hesitated before speaking out, "There were nearly a thousand casualties. Most of the casualties were of 1 Star Soldiers and only a hundred of them were 2 Star Soldiers. Also, a whole team led by a 4 Star Soldier had been crushed."

The Colonel was taken aback when he learned of this information. He looked at Major General anxiously, and sure enough, there was a spark of fury in his eyes.

"Whatever. So what information have you found out from them?" The Major General asked this question while trying to calm himself.

The soldier looked especially nervous when he heard this question. A frown appeared on the Major General's face as he ordered in anger, "Speak!"

The soldier instinctively spoke, "Yes, Major General!" He then took a deep breath and further added, "…We failed to capture anyone or kill anyone."

The Major General who had barely managed to calm down immediately flared up when heard that sentence.

To think that just 7 warriors attacked the checkpoints and there were thousands of casualties on their end, not a single one of those attackers was captured or even killed.

"Nate, you better have an explanation ready for this blunder!" The Major General looked especially angry at him.

Even the Colonel was shocked by this information and knew that his superior's anger was well deserved. He glanced at the soldier and gestured him to go away.

The soldier looked at the Major General for confirmation and soon received the nod. He gave a salute and walked out of the meeting hall.

Once the soldier went away, the Colonel immediately knelt down in front of the Major General and spoke quickly, "Forgive me, Major General. Your subordinate lost himself to his greed."

"Explain." The Major General coldly spoke.

~~

Nearly 3 hours later, the Major General could be seen walking towards Earl Burke's mansion with a furious look.

Once he entered the mansion, he ignored any servant that came into his way and charged inside Earl Burke's personal chambers.

Within his chambers, Earl Burke was having a private moment with one of his concubines. They both were startled when they saw the Major General forcefully opened the door.

Earl Burke had never met the Major General. He merely had a typical idea of how he looked like. When he looked at the Major General, he didn't recognize him and yelled angrily, "Who are you?! How dare you enter my personal chambers?!"

"You ask me who I am?" The Major General sneered and took a large step forwards before tightly slapping Earl Burke's face.

There was a loud crispy sound when Earl Burke's face was slapped. He looked absolutely flabbergasted.

Not just him, even his concubine couldn't understand who this man was and how he dared to slap her husband here.

The Major General then asked while still trying to hold back his anger, "…You understand who I am, now?!"

"…" There was still no response from Earl Burke as he was still thinking about the identity of this individual.

The Major General gave him another couple of slaps in a fit of anger!

Earl Burke's face had swollen because of those slaps. He looked at the Major General and whimpered, "…please, just who are you?"

His tone wasn't as haughty or authoritative this time. He uttered a faint whimper that sounded like he was on the verge of crying.

It was natural. He was beaten like a dog by the Major General.

The Major General sneered and replied this time, "Hector Lloyd."

"Major General Hector Lloyd?!" Earl Burke shouted in shock.

Suddenly, the Major General slapped him once again and shouted, "Is my name something you can say?!"

Even though Earl Burke had been slapped, he didn't dare to show the slightest bit of resentment.

He, in fact, spoke with a submissive tone, "No, Major General."

"Not only did you ditch today's meeting, giving an excuse that you have an important task, but you were also committing corruption and giving bribes to my officers?! Your guts are truly not small!" Major General Hector Lloyd spoke with a furious tone.

Earl Burke's complexion darkened as he understood the situation.

He immediately knelt on the ground while facing the Major General and spoke, "Forgive me, Major General."

"Forgive you? Hahaha…" The Major General began chuckling. That chuckle seemed to be tinged with wrath.

Soon, he stopped laughing.

When Earl Burke noticed that Major General had stopped laughing, he immediately began speaking up, "Yes, please forgive me. I shall return give away the entire sum to the army. I will even buy weapons and hire formation experts at my expense. Please, just let me go, Major General."

The Major General scowled upon hearing those words, "Thousands of my men died all because of your greed! If not for the fact that you halted the supply of resources and even bribed Colonel Nate to join hands with you, the enemies would have never managed to launch an attack on us!"

Earl Burke was getting nervous as the Major General spoke with an angry tone. He immediately responded anxiously, "They were merely low-rank soldiers, Major General. I will immediately hire more soldiers and make up the number. They will be even stronger than the ones who died."

The Major General suddenly stopped speaking. In fact, he was staring at Earl Burke with a blank stare.

Thinking that the Major General was actually tempted by his offer, Earl Burke added, "They will be 2 Star and 3 Star Warriors all who have graduated from the Palm Valley School of Martial Arts. They will make your army even stronger-"

Before he could finish his words, the Major General suddenly kicked Earl Burke's face.

Neither was using any Ardor. Because he didn't need it, the Major General didn't use it, and Earl Burke didn't dare to use his Ardor against him.

Even though they were both 5 Star Experts, the Major General could easily kill him!

Earl Burke coughed a mouthful of blood while the Major General gave him a deathly glare. He soon moved closer to Earl Burke and grabbed him by his hair, "Congratulations, you have truly infuriated me."

"Plead the King for your life." He soon dragged Earl Burke away.

This entire incident was witnessed by Earl Burke's concubine.

Soon, along with the information regarding the attack on the checkpoints on the borders, information about Earl Burke's corruption also spread in the entire city.