"Another immigration team has lost contact with us."
In the city hall of Andorhal, Prince Arthas, with his arms tied, is listening to the report of the frontline scouts. He is currently the nominal commander of the city and the former mayor of Andorhal.
He was mobilized to Lordaeron City and began to take charge of large-scale resettlement work.
Residents of several large cities in Andorhal and Stratholme also began to migrate. Under the protection of the Silver Hand and local garrisons, they moved all the way to Tirisfal Glades, on the Whispering Coast northwest of Lordaeron.
, the first batch of long-distance fleets formed by Emperor Lothar had already set off four days ago, sending the local residents of Lordaeron to Kul Tiras to temporarily escape the war.
And this is just the beginning of the entire empire's eastward crossing of the Endless Sea. In the plan of the emperor and kings, before the Dark Blade Legion from the southern border and the undead natural disaster from the north come in full force, the people of the empire must be sent to safety.
place.
The meaning of the empire's existence is never the land under their feet, but the people on this land... The emperor's proposal was approved by other kings, including the Sun King of Quel'Thalas and the Bronzebeard Princess who had just given birth.
Everyone believed that the emperor's strategic thinking was correct.
But before the human empire had time to complete the formation of the fleet, the demons began to invade, and then a series of catastrophic events began. Now, with the frontline defenses in northern Xinjiang completely paralyzed, sending the people away from this land has become a problem.
The most important mission of the entire empire.
Even the most stubborn commander, under the current circumstances, had to admit that they failed, and they failed miserably.
But it's not that there is no good news... After the demon's first round of landing failed, the undead natural disasters that existed as the demon's minions also quickly withdrew their power from the land of Northern Xinjiang, which shrouded the sky above Northern Xinjiang.
The cold will also disappeared. It seems that the failure of the devil also made these undead in the North feel... fear?
"Where did that group of immigrants disappear?"
Prince Alsace's eyes were fixed on the map in front of him. Of course, after the ecological environment of northern Xinjiang began to change drastically, the original map was no longer useful. The map in front of the prince was urgently drawn by frontline scouts.
"The mountainous area between Cold Wind Camp and the ruins of Tarren Mill is the new hillock that rose up after the formation of the Strait of Dalaran. It is also the shortest road from Hillsbrad Foothills to Andorhal.
.”
The frontline scout marked a red dot on the map for the prince. Arthas looked at the red dot and then at the nearby green dot. He said:
"This place is very close to the Dark Blade's frontline army...Did the undead rob them?"
"We found many corpses of demons in the mountains. Judging from the wounds on those corpses, it does look like fatal injuries caused by the new weapons of the Dark Blade Legion. However, the heavy rain in the past few days has washed away many traces.
Now, it is difficult for our scouts to determine where those immigrants were bundled and sent."
The scout commander on the front line said tiredly:
"This is already the seventh missing immigrant team. We have lost nearly 30,000 people. The Dark Blade Undead have no tradition of recruiting civilians to become soldiers, so those people should still be alive, but my brothers and I are very curious.
, these damn undead souls who are taking advantage of the situation, what do they want with so many humans?"
"Some mages say that Dark Blade is "capturing" humans..."
Prince Alsace replied with a headache:
"But there is also information provided by businessmen doing business in southern Xinjiang, saying that humans in southern Xinjiang are not in a state of "captive" slaves, but live peacefully like us, and the undead do not seem to interfere too much with their lives.
Regarding the environment, it is said that Tyrion has supported a puppet regime called the Federal Council... It is really incomprehensible."
After speaking, the prince thought about everything that had happened recently. Finally, he sighed:
"It's okay, it's okay... it's better to fall into the hands of the Dark Blade than to lose your life in the hands of the devil. At least the group of undead still have some civilized atmosphere. Speaking of which, the king led Lordaeron
Is the immigration operation over?"
"Yes, the missing group is already the last group of people to be transferred. His Majesty the Emperor took advantage of the break between the fight between the Dark Blade Undead and the invading demons to send all the remaining civilians from the royal territory over. It's really weird.
Incident, Your Highness, the group of dark blade undead seemed to be coming for the demons. They didn’t even take advantage of the chaos to attack the royal territory. This is really surprising, as if they were protecting us to complete the evacuation of civilians..."
The scout captain with messy hair sighed, and then suddenly discovered the ambiguity in his words, and he hurriedly apologized to the prince:
"Sorry, Your Highness, I'm not praising the Dark Blade Undead, I'm just..."
"I understand, it's okay, go and rest."
His Royal Highness seemed unwilling to say anything more on this issue, and the scout captain nodded cautiously and quickly left the hall.
Alsace propped up his body with one hand. The moment he stood up, his head felt dizzy. This was because he was too tired. In the past four days, Alsace had hardly left the command room. He had been dealing with
The political affairs near the city of Andorhal include expelling some wandering undead from natural disasters, coordinating the transfer of civilians, and even clearing the entire city of plague, etc.
They are all trivial matters, but they consume a lot of energy.
"Maybe I should go for a walk and change my clothes. Tsk tsk, I already smell. Anna will definitely laugh at me."
Prince Alsace smiled mockingly to himself. As he walked out of the hall, he said in a relaxed tone to the guard captain Marvin next to him:
"Is there anything interesting happening near Andorhal City in the past two days?"
Although he is a real adult, Alsace still retains a trace of the mind that a young man should have while being serious. He knows how to relax his mind. Perhaps, he should invite Anna to go to a circus with him.
Performance?
"Well, there's nothing fun. Everyone is busy moving recently."
Marvin and Farric were almost loyal guards who grew up with His Highness the Prince. After the prince asked the question, Marvin thought hard for a long time, and then remembered a "strange thing" that happened a few days ago.
.
"But weird things do happen. Lieutenant Thassarian of the Andorhal City Defense Force. Your Highness, do you remember him?"
"Of course, that brave lieutenant saved me and you, as well as Farric, and several seriously injured brothers."
His Highness the Prince shook his hair and asked:
"Didn't he get transferred to my bodyguard? What happened to him?"
"When Thassarian was patrolling the Soldo River three days ago, he rescued a strange Dark Blade Undead. Well, how should I put it? I heard people say that the undead... is very interesting."
——————————————————
"Is this the undead soul you "saved"? Tsk, tsk, how strange!"
After hearing about the strange thing, Prince Alsace took a bath and changed his clothes, and then followed his guard captain to the military camp. After the anxious Lieutenant Thassarian heard about the prince's arrival, he thought he was
He came to punish him. After all, as a human being, you should not deal with the undead. He even saved an undead from the hands of a demon.
This is simply outrageous!
But due to Thassarian's expectations, His Highness the Prince did not punish him, but asked him to "call" the strange undead out of the simple wooden coffin to open his eyes.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Thassarian, wearing a smock, said to the curious Prince Arthas:
"It told me that its name is Rurid."
"Huh? It can still talk?"
Arthas looked at the fully armed undead infantry in front of him, and then turned to look at Thassarian, with a hint of vigilance in his eyes: "You mean, it has its own intelligence? Can it think?"
"No, it cannot think, Your Highness."
Thassarian shrugged and reached out to knock on the helmet of the undead infantryman in front of him. Amidst the sound of metal clanking, the undead infantryman named "Lurid" raised his head and looked around like a real soldier.
Look, then stood in front of Thassarian with hands tied, and said in a hoarse voice:
"Waiting for orders!"
The sudden move of the undead startled Maween. He quickly drew out his long sword and blocked it in front of the prince. This action seemed to be regarded as a threat by the undead infantry, which protected Thassarian behind him.
The fingers with black gauntlets reached behind his back, but found nothing.
"Wait a minute! Don't be nervous, Captain Marvin, Rurid doesn't mean any harm."
Thassarian saw the high-level warrior Maween about to strike with his sword, and he hurriedly shouted:
"It's just protecting me. Trust me, Your Highness, it won't hurt anyone without my order!"
"Okay, put down the sword, Maven."
Arthas was also attracted by the strange behavior of the undead infantry. He reached out and pressed down the sword in the guard captain's hand, and then walked around the vigilant Lurid several times. After confirming that Lurid was not in danger,
Arthas turned to look at Thassarian:
"How did you save it? And why did it only obey your orders?"
"Uh, okay, I'll say it again."
Thassarian, a young man, shook his head in despair:
"At that time, I was patrolling the Soldo River with a few brothers. Near Daron County, I saw a winged demon falling from the sky, so my brothers and I went over to have a look, and then
I discovered that Rurid and several other undead were fighting the demon. They were fighting fiercely, but they were no match for the demon... Anyway, my brain twitched at that time, so I rushed forward and killed them together.
That devil."
"Then it listened to you?"
Prince Alsace asked with interest as if hearing a bard's story, but Thassarian shook his head:
"No, when we killed the demon, Rurid was seriously injured. Its body and armor were torn open by the demon. You see, there is still a claw mark on its armor."
The prince turned his head and looked, and there was indeed a torn and ferocious claw mark on the front of the armor of the undead infantryman Rurid.
"I didn't want to save it at the time. I swear, Your Highness, this was really an accident!"
Thassarian continued his story:
"At that time, we wanted to burn those undead, but Lurid was still able to move, and it also had a soul stone in its equipment. It seemed to want to crush the soul stone to save itself, but it was injured.
It was so heavy that I saw its eyes. There was a feeling of reluctance and reluctance in those gray-white eyes. I swear I'm not lying. Your Highness, several brothers around me saw it at that time. They can testify for me."
"In short, it looks like a real warrior, so after discussing it, we decided to let it go. I know this is against military law, but Your Highness, after all, we have fought with it and fought against demons together. In short, I will help it
I smashed the soul stone, and then...and that's it...it has been following me since I woke up..."
Thassarian said dejectedly:
"The military judge thought that I was an undercover agent of the King of Dark Blades. I was almost sent to the gallows, but that was not the case. Your Highness, I have asked the high elf mage to come and see it. They said that Rurid's simple thinking
It is completely independent and has no signs of being manipulated. Maybe it was loyal to Tyrion before, but after I used the soul stone to revive it, it is now "loyal" to me."
"It's incredible..."
Prince Arthas looked at the undead infantryman Rurid who was standing aside waiting for orders, and he asked in a low voice:
"Are you sure it's not controlled by some consciousness? Just like the undead of natural disaster, maybe Tyrion is looking at us through its eyes now."
"No, Your Highness."
Thassarian shook his head. He looked at Rurid beside him. He looked left and right, then pulled up the curtain of the tent. After he, the prince and Captain Marvin were the only ones left, he whispered to Rurid
An order was issued:
"Tell me your own story, Rurid!"
"My name is... Lurid, I am... a soldier from the Western Wilderness. I died in the Battle of East Valley... His Majesty resurrected me, and His Majesty's voice... told us that we must protect the Federation.
The living, protect this world...against...against the evil! The Old Gods...our cause...is just!"