Chapter 222: Incident and Disobeying Orders

Under the fearful gazes of those women, the necromancer manipulated the dead to fill the craters blasted out by spells and buried them inside. As for the carriages carrying large amounts of supplies, after being inspected by the mages, they picked out some valuable items and left the rest on the road, since a bigger force would come by later to collect them.

Those women, perhaps well aware of the cruelty of war, didn't put up much resistance, letting some mages put them on horseback and keep moving forward.

Some female practitioners weren't happy about this plundering of women, but in the midst of such frenzied warfare, such things were unavoidable. Moreover, the military hadn't issued any orders about this.

After all, according to the strategic plans of the Blue Feather Empire and other empires, the people of the Esuoer Empire were meant to vanish from this continent. Of course, some young, pretty women weren't part of the order for quick elimination. After all, lots of warriors and soldiers needed women to blow off steam from the long war.

In the following two or three days, some mages took the female prisoners at night. Things got even crazier after the Blizzard Legion caught up with them later, since the safety let some mages cut loose a little.

A group of three or four Blizzard sub-legions gathered a large number of alchemists and other support pros. Mage Roman told Shaoke it was because a ton of support pros had left the rear cities in droves. The Bald Brute led some knights from the main Blizzard Legion in this group. However, these knights weren't dressed like those in the Blizzard 33rd Corps; they dressed the same as the knights Shaoke had seen in the Bloody Fortress.

After the two groups joined up, they didn't stop to rest but kept advancing toward the recently captured city not far ahead.

"Mage Roman, tell me why you all left the rear. You know, it's still somewhat dangerous here," Shaoke asked worriedly, looking at Mage Roman in the carriage, hoping for an answer. "Was it a military order?" He stared hard at the female mage, who looked thinner after nearly a year apart.

"It was a military order," the female mage sighed softly, feeling helpless and angry about what went down in the rear. "Because we had conflicts with some rear mages, and to keep things from getting out of hand, the military moved us out of there." She closed her eyes, thinking quietly for a bit, as if trying to shake off those bad feelings.

"Can you tell me more details?" Shaoke's question got the attention of many mages, who also started asking other alchemists in the rear what had happened. Under these circumstances, those alchemists, including Mage Roman, recounted the events there.

It turned out that after the alchemists made some magic items, some mage officials used their rank to force a distribution. Furthermore, alchemists from different legions secretly gave extra magic items to their own mages, which pissed off those officials and led to conflicts. Worse, some high-rank mages used their status to force female alchemists and other female support pros to do all kinds of services, greatly displeasing the high-rank mages stationed in the rear from various legions. As time passed, the conflicts grew more severe.

Not long ago, a group of mages from some nobles and magical families raped a group of alchemists fixing magic items and then killed them, sparking a revolt. Finally, the military decided to let the support pros leave the rear cities and dispatched powerful legions to protect them.

After hearing the female mage's detailed account, Shaoke frowned hard. He didn't get why the military hadn't stepped in when this first started, only reacting now. "Didn't the military punish them?" Shaoke couldn't help voicing his question, while the other mages listened quietly.

"Five dukes, nearly a hundred magical families, and some big merchant families were wiped out by the military," Mage Roman said, reaching out a small hand to touch Shaoke's arm before revealing the outcome. "And a large number of mages were executed. I heard that nearly twenty eighth-tier mages were killed." This additional information shocked Shaoke and the others.

After all, in over a decade of participating in this war, Shaoke and his companions had only heard of about a dozen eighth-tier mages dying. To think that the military executed nearly twenty more just because of some logistical issues left them at a loss for words.

The Sleazy Officer, whom they hadn't seen for years, joined the mages' discussion under the protection of a few Blizzard warriors. "This is nothing. I personally led the execution of those eighth-tier mages back in the day," he said, pulling out a light blue dagger from somewhere and waving it vigorously. "We killed even more low-rank mages, probably over a thousand!" He looked at Shaoke and the others with some pride, as if showcasing his greatness.

The march of hundreds of thousands of troops flattened all obstacles in their path. Craters and dense forests were easily leveled by the warriors and soldiers of these legions. After nearly five days of rapid marching, the Blizzard Legion finally reached a city closest to the front lines.

The sounds of fierce fighting drifted into the battered city with the cold wind, where large numbers of wounded moaned day and night. Fortunately, the arrival of the Blizzard Legion brought large quantities of ordinary medicine and many physicians, improving the situation for the wounded. Of course, many ordinary soldiers still died from severe injuries, though Shaoke didn't know if that was good or bad for them.

After resting for only three days, Shaoke's mage team received another order. This time, they would carry out a more dangerous battlefield mission.

When Shaoke relayed this news to the other mages in their team, it caused some unrest. Although these mages had grown accustomed to accepting orders due to the long war, most resisted this particular one. "Mage Xueye, do you think we low-rank mages can carry out a mission on the battlefield?" a fourth-tier mage from the Mage Guild asked Shaoke with some dissatisfaction.

"Mage Xueye, I don't want to join this kind of mission again," the White-robed Cleric said, biting her lip to express her thoughts. Having just reunited with her husband not long ago, she couldn't accept being sent on another terrifying battlefield mission.

"Mage Xueye, in the last battlefield mission, we lost half our companions. Hasn't the military considered this?" the frowning middle-aged mage quickly voiced his opinion, hoping this somewhat reckless mage would consider others' feelings. Though he didn't mind fighting, he chose to refuse given the terrible circumstances.

As for the wandering mages, they outright refused this high-mortality mission, unwilling to risk their lives for precious magic materials and books. After all, having advanced to fourth-tier mages, they could still have plenty of time to enjoy if they were careful—depending on their wealth.

Hearing these objections, Shaoke had no choice but to report to the military that they hoped not to carry out this mission. However, the military issued a stricter order: the mages must obey this command.

Faced with this near-suicidal battlefield mission, Shaoke refused again after much thought. After all, a few hundred low-rank mages would be useless in a large-scale battle, easily pierced by countless arrows.

Moreover, the military's order was for them to infiltrate the enemy's rear and destroy their supplies.

After Shaoke refused the mission again, the military didn't issue any new orders for a long time. Of course, the mages were quite happy with this situation.

The battered city was being repaired by large numbers of prisoners, and some small mage teams stationed there temporarily acted as overseers. They were quite willing to stand on the city walls every day, watching the fireworks-like displays caused by mage duels in the distance.

One day, just after Shaoke had seen Mage Roman out of his room, the grim-faced Bald Brute came looking for him. Although the mage hadn't provoked his wife, the White-robed Cleric, during their decades of war, Shaoke still felt uneasy under the strange gaze of this eighth-tier warrior officer.

"What's the matter?" the host broke the silence first, not used to having a man stay long in his room.

"Did you refuse the military's order last time?" the Bald Officer hesitated for a long time before finally stating his purpose. He hadn't wanted to come confirm this, but the general's orders were not something he could defy. He stared intently at Shaoke's eyes, waiting for an answer.

"Yes," Shaoke replied simply, causing the Bald Officer to let out a long sigh of relief.