novelraw Chapter 76 : Chapter 76
Chapter 76 : Chapter 76
Chapter 76. The Choice of Negotiator
Ulzok felt as if a thunderclap had exploded inside his head.
Blood sacrifice.
Using their soldiers.
The letter even included several descriptions—details that Logaris had excavated from the souls of captured cultists.
They described the rough location of the altar, the conditions required to activate the ritual, and the horrifying number of sacrifices demanded.
Every word was like a piece of red-hot iron, searing itself brutally into the hearts of the two legion commanders.
Ulzok and Kane’s minds raced.
Combining everything that had happened during this period, they instantly understood the truth.
Why had those cultists been urging them to attack every single day?
Why had the Regent issued such a foolish order, forcing them to charge into certain death?
Because they were never meant to die in battle.
They were meant to become sacrifices.
“Remington—!!!”
Ulzok suddenly smashed his fist down onto the table.
CRACK!
The sturdy ironwood command desk caved in under the force of his furious punch, leaving a deep fist-shaped dent as cracks spread outward in all directions.
His eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
His breathing grew heavy, and a terrifying aura of barely restrained rage radiated from his entire body.
“How dare he!”
“How dare he use my soldiers as sacrifices!!”
“And those damn cultists babbling their nonsense!”
“I’m going to chop them into minced meat right now!”
Kane’s face had turned equally grim.
He suddenly recalled the warning given by First Legion Commander Leonard—
“An unjust war.”
This was not a war.
This was a complete and utter conspiracy against their own people.
At the end of the letter, Alectos’s tone was no longer filled with grief and anger.
It became extraordinarily calm.
And extraordinarily sharp.
“Generals, both of you are real soldiers who clawed your way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.”
“Are you willing, for the ambition of a usurper and the filthy ritual of a cult, to let the soldiers who trust you and follow you die without even knowing why?”
“Are you willing to personally send your own brothers onto the altar?”
“I sincerely hope we can speak about this matter in detail.”
Every word struck deep into their souls.
The tent fell into a dreadful silence.
Ulzok’s fury gradually subsided, replaced by a deeper sorrow and a resolute determination.
He thought of the veterans who had followed him for more than a decade.
He thought of the young soldiers who joked with him while gnawing on dry rations in the freezing snow.
They were his soldiers.
They were his brothers.
They were the men he had sworn to protect with his life.
A long silence passed.
Ulzok slowly raised his head.
His bloodshot eyes locked onto Kane, and his voice came out hoarse, yet carried an ironclad resolve.
“Kane.”
“I, Ulzok, would rather be branded a traitor and hanged on the gallows in the Imperial Capital by that bastard Remington…”
He paused for a moment.
Then he spoke each word slowly and clearly.
“…than watch my brothers become sacrifices for those cultists.”
“I’m in.”
Kane looked at him.
The rigid tension in his face finally loosened slightly.
He nodded heavily.
“General Leonard was right.”
“We cannot shed blood for a usurper.”
“Let’s take the gamble.”
A consensus had been reached.
Kane wasted no time.
He picked up a pen and quickly wrote a single line on a fresh sheet of parchment.
He did not write much.
He only made a request.
“Tomorrow at midnight. East side of the Dragon Mountain Range. Beneath the third peak. The Throat of the Withered Dragon. We will talk.”
There was no signature.
But the recipient would understand.
After finishing, he folded the letter, sealed it inside a new blank envelope, and walked to the window of the tent.
He gently placed the envelope on the windowsill.
Ulzok looked at him in confusion.
“What are you doing?”
Kane did not answer.
He simply gestured for him to remain quiet.
The two men held their breath.
A moment later, a faint night breeze passed through.
The envelope on the windowsill vanished into thin air.
Silently.
As if it had never existed.
Ulzok’s eyes widened.
What the hell was that?
Kane stared at the now empty windowsill, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.
The methods of the Northern Territory were far more mysterious than they had imagined.
…
Northern Territory Frontline, Decision Chamber.
The veteran general Victor, clad in heavy armor, leaned over a massive sand table.
His brows were tightly furrowed as he carefully simulated every possible movement of the Demi-Human army.
Logaris stood nearby with his arms crossed.
Behind his glasses, his blue eyes lacked focus, as if his thoughts had wandered far away.
Sylvia sat at the head seat.
Her slender fingers tapped lightly against the table, producing dull knocking sounds.
Tap.
Tap.
Suddenly.
The shadow cast by a torch in the corner twisted without warning.
The darkness seemed to come alive.
Thick as ink, it slowly “seeped” outward, forming the outline of a human figure.
Esmeralda’s silhouette emerged from the darkness just like that.
It was as though she had been standing there all along, merely blending perfectly into the shadow until now.
General Victor’s eyelids twitched violently.
The hand gripping his command pointer unconsciously tightened.
Damn it.
He still could not understand how that woman moved.
Esmeralda ignored the general’s reaction.
With light and graceful steps, she walked to Sylvia and gently placed a letter—sealed in a blank envelope—onto the map on the table.
“A reply.”
Her voice carried a lazy, magnetic tone, like a cat that had just awakened.
Sylvia picked up the envelope.
It felt very light in her hand and bore no markings.
She opened it.
Inside was only a small piece of parchment.
There was only a single line written on the paper.
The handwriting was rough, but the force behind the strokes felt as if it might pierce through the parchment.
“Tomorrow at midnight. East side of the Dragon Mountain Range. Beneath the third peak. The Throat of the Withered Dragon. We will talk.”
There was no signature.
But everyone knew who had written it.
The Throat of the Withered Dragon.
General Victor knew that place well.
It was an extremely treacherous canyon deep within the Dragon Mountain Range.
The terrain was complex, filled with jagged rocks, and only a single narrow passage allowed entry.
It could be a location chosen to demonstrate sincerity in negotiations.
Or it could be the perfect site for an ambush.
“Your Highness, forgive my bluntness, but this is far too dangerous!”
General Victor immediately pointed out the critical issue, his voice booming.
“The terrain of the Throat of the Withered Dragon is perilous.”
“If there is an ambush, our people might not even be able to retreat!”
“Furthermore, the other side consists of two legion commanders.”
“Both of them are genuine Sixth-Tier powerhouses!”
However, Sylvia’s response was immediate and decisive.
“This was my plan.”
“Therefore, I should go personally.”
She stood up.
Her silver-gray eyes swept across the room, carrying an authority that permitted no doubt.
“A meeting with the enemy commanders requires my presence.”
“It represents the sincerity of the Northern Territory.”
“And it is also the greatest respect we can show them, considering they are risking the crime of treason to negotiate with us.”
She slowly walked to the sand table.
Her hand rested on the hilt of the sword Moonfall at her waist.
“Besides…”
“I am also a knight.”
Those words were both a statement and a declaration.
“I oppose this.”
A calm voice sounded.
Yet the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.
Logaris pushed up his glasses.
Behind the lenses, his pale blue eyes were as cold and rational as ice.
“Sylvia, do not forget.”
“Your current identity is the Acting Governor of the Northern Territory, not a knight from the academy.”
“Placing yourself in an uncontrollable danger is strategically foolish.”
“This is not courage.”
“This is gambling the entire future of the Northern Territory.”