While the atmosphere on the front line was tense to the limit, the Icourt Valley was also tense and oppressive, and the town of Hope, which had grown in size again in the past year, was patrolled back and forth by heavily armed soldiers, and scouts hurried in and out of the town.

In addition, the crossbow machines outside the town's walls are enough to show the urgency of the current situation.

The war hadn't broken out yet, but the whole town of Hope was already on the verge of an enemy - because everyone knew that they were about to face the army of Stacy, who had been fighting for more than a decade.

Even if the lord of the Ikot Valley was the Earl of Iro, who supported the new king to ascend the throne, this did not annoy the tension in people's hearts in the slightest.

"Again, what do you mean that the enemy is on standby? Can they give us a reliable report...... I want to know: the front, the hell, what's wrong!" General Igor scolded, looking at the map, angrily.

As the commander-in-chief of the Yanlong Fortress, he is not in the fortress at the moment, but in the Ikut Valley, which is dozens of kilometers away from the fortress, it does not mean that he is a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death, but that he was not sure to hold the Yanlong Fortress from the beginning!

As previously analyzed, this war was definitely not a close one, and Falkenridge's army was inferior to Stasi in almost every way, and the result of the head-on confrontation was definitely a complete defeat.

The disadvantage is so big that I am afraid that a famous general like Duke Tuttle will not be able to recover, let alone Igor is just a general with a decent level.

So General Igor did not set the goal of completely defeating the enemy, but tried to consume the opponent's forces as much as possible.

In addition to the Dragon's Fortress, Igor has placed four lines of defense in front of the Icourt Valley in order to weaken Stasi's living force layer by layer—in this situation, Falkenridge's only advantage is to wait for work.

If the war had gone the way Igor had envisioned, the Stasi side might have reconsidered their plans to go deeper and occupy Falkenridge because of the heavy casualties, and that's when Falkenridge came into being.

Moreover, as the Supreme Commander, he needs to worry about more than just the strategic level.

On a tactical level, the news just now made him almost scold. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that this was Iro's territory, and many of the people around him were Iro's subordinates, Igor really wanted to scold.

Look at it, it's disgusting enough to put him under so much pressure on strategy. And now when Stasi was about to attack in full force, there was suddenly no movement on the other side, which made Igor feel even more weak.

He suspected that the ghost of Grand Duke Jon was doing some small thing, or even planning some big conspiracy. Driven by this thought, his now irritable heart almost jumped out of his chest.

"Hell, inform Count Elo at once, and let Count him ...... We know what we are going to happen!" he was silent for two seconds, and then he opened his mouth to tell the herald behind him about what was in front of him, first of all, to the mysterious Count of Ello.

But before the herald could walk out of the door, several men walked in the doorway, all dressed in black robes and pinning a badge with a rose on their chests.

"General Igor, what is going on, why are you in such a hurry?"

The first person Igor knows, that is, the mayor of Hope Town, the goblin Raja.

It is said that Raja followed Count Aylo a long time ago, and was considered a close confidant of the latter. And recently he seems to have joined a small church founded by Count Elo to believe in a god called the Flame Dragon.

The black robe and the badge are the second iconic symbol of this church.

Although he looks down on Yanlong in his heart, and he doesn't like goblins very much, but this is the territory of Count Elo, Igor is not the Duke of Tuttle, he has all the capital, and he doesn't want to stiffen the relationship at present.

So he had to tell Raja what had happened to him: "It just so happens that you need to know about it, and it is better to tell the earl." ”

"In front of me, Stasi's army stopped in an inexplicable position, and it was unusual that they were so close to us that they did not attack immediately. ”

"Oh, my general, the Earl has expected that the enemy will not attack. Raja breathed a sigh of relief, turning to the retinue of goblins, lizardmen, kobolds, and orcs behind him, and smiling, "It seems that the Earl is truly wise. ”

"Yes, yes, the Count knows everything!"

"The one I admire the most is the Count. ”

The retinue, who were also members of the church, nodded in agreement, not knowing whether it was true or false.

Seeing this scene, Igor couldn't help but snort coldly in his heart, but he still didn't show it.

Look, what kind of Yanlong Church is definitely a place for unscrupulous people to gather! Even if you absorb goblins and orcs, how can even lizardmen and kobolds be believers?

And after a few days of contact, he found that some members of this church seemed to have an almost blind fanatical belief in the leading Earl of Ello.

This reminded him of some of the churches of the dark camp that had appeared in history, and because of this, he believed in the god of light and became more and more displeased with Count Ello, whom he had never met.

If it weren't for the enemy army pressing down now, he wouldn't want to stay here for a minute longer!

"Maybe it's just that they want to encircle and eat our troops in one go. Igor struggled to turn his attention to business, he thought for a moment and uttered a less likely guess.

"I don't think it's possible, General. Raja was confident in the soldiers on his side, "I'm not very good at military affairs, but I can tell that they would be too arrogant in that case." ”

It's not that Raja is, it's true. Although Falkenridge's army is not as good as Stasi, it is said that Falkenridge is also one of the nine kingdoms, as the saying goes, "the sleeping lion is more terrible than the barking dog", Falkenridge's background is still there, and there is no world of difference between the two countries.

In other words, Stacy could now defeat Falkenridge even if they attacked, but the ensuing losses would make them unable to launch any more attacks.

"Makes sense......"

General Igor also had to admit that Raja was really right this time - but in this way, he couldn't understand what Stasi was trying to do.

Now, not only him, but almost all the middle and high-ranking officers in the Falkenridge Border Force have finally understood a truth: sometimes, it is easier to be reassuring to fight than to wait dangerously and strangely.

Everyone is speculating about what exactly the army of the Duchy of Stasi is doing and what they are waiting for. Will it be a sudden attack after waiting, or will it quietly retreat as if nothing had happened.

"What exactly do they want to do?" was a question that lingered on the minds of every commander at this time.

A moment earlier, in the central castle of the Icourt Valley, Iroh, who had also heard the question, let out a sneer.

"Raja, my faithful servant. ”

The black dragon straightened up, a large amount of gold and silver jewels rolling down from his body, "Grand Duke Jon will not give the order to attack. ”

"Master, please forgive your foolish servant. ”

Raja leaned down in some trepidation—if he hadn't known that Iroh had a deadly substance on his body, he might have even kissed Iroh's front paws now—and took a deep breath, as if that would have summoned up courage.

A year has passed, and the effect of Eloh's dragon power has become a little stronger, and Raja has passed the peak of his body a year ago, and his endurance is not so good. This increase and decrease made Raja even more awe-inspiring in front of Ayroh.

"Although Raja doesn't know much about war, that's what the other adults mean......" Raja bowed deeply, "If they attack, I'm afraid that the Yanlong Fortress will be difficult to prevent, and then the flames of war will be drawn into the valley......

It's no wonder he's so concerned about war, after all, his clan has finally found such a place where they can develop with peace of mind. If the Icourt Valley is affected, everyone may be uprooted again.

That kind of hard life, if it had been changed five years ago, maybe Raja would have gritted his teeth and survived. But for five years, he has lived in a situation where he has almost no worries about food and clothing, and he has long been unable to get used to the life of being displaced.

Of course, the more important thing is the community.

In the past five years, Raja has almost watched his race grow from less than a hundred to nearly a thousand now, and that's just the number of goblins. If you count kobolds, lizardmen, orcs, half-orcs, humans, and other residents living in the area around Hope Town, then he has more than 2,000 people under his command!

This is not a small number, and even if two thousand people are only nominally in his charge, the huge sense of vanity can completely excite an otherwise penniless intelligent creature to the point of suffocation.

Conversely, once the war starts, it is not known how many of these 2,000 people will be left in the end, and the blow to the Raja will naturally be huge.

But before Raja could finish speaking, Airoh let out another sneer.

"Raja," he deliberately lowered his voice, but the developing vocal organs that had grown since he entered adolescence also made his voice very loud, "You are my most loyal servant, and the only imam of the Yanlong Church at the moment, you know what you have to do. ”

"The host ......"

A cold sweat broke out on Raja's forehead.

It is true that Aelo has always avoided calling himself this way in front of outsiders, so all the inhabitants of the Icourt Valley know that they are the lord's favorites.

Moreover, in recent years, in the church that has just taken shape, Elona has also taken on the position of patriarch, and the badge with a black rose and four silver leaves on his chest at this moment shows the nobility of this status.

At present, there are seven classes in the Yanlong Church, from the bottom to the top, they are ordinary believers, internal believers, high-level believers, core believers, patriarchs, popes, and popes. The last two of these classes are so small that they have no actual occupants – that is, the Raja is already somehow below one dragon and above ten thousand!

Although it is nominally impossible for Raja to be their equal to Hirkat and them, to the other dragons, Raja is undoubtedly the property of Ello, and they cannot risk falling out with Elloh to touch him.

However, with great power comes great responsibility.

As the de facto leader of the Church, you must obey and fulfill the will of Ello, just as the Pope of the Holy See of Dawn will never disobey the God of Light.

That's what Iroh meant by that.

"Raja, don't let arrogance blind you. Iroh said as he looked at the trembling goblin and swept his gaze around the castle.

He stood up as he spoke, his tone slow but unmistakable: "I've always chosen those of my rebels for food, but that doesn't mean ...... I will not choose my subjects for food. ”