"So it is that bastard! If there is anyone to do this alone, it must definitely be him!"
Hubertus Strughold took his coat hanging on the back of the chair and put it on in a single move. Each of the pens in the pocket on his chest shone with a different color, just like the deep blue eyes of the man.
"Call the Generals serving as army commanders. We will set out after a short meeting; let our forces start preparing!"
When his assistant left the tent taking the orders, Hubertus, left alone, was showing his ugly face he had hidden for all this time. The murderous researcher, who suppressed his emotions not to look weak next to the others, had attained an appearance doing justice to his name.
"Mr. Scientist!"
"Are we setting out?"
When two people entered through the door of the tent before five minutes passed, Hubertus had entered his 'couldn't care less' mode again; he was busy writing things on the paper in front of him.
"Sit down, I need to explain the situation to you first!"
Two generals, one male and the other female, entered the tent; they had golden armors on them, both had short hair, and they sat on the chairs next to the table to listen to what Hubertus was going to say.
After the woman, who colored her eyelids light blue, sat down, she crossed her legs by putting both her arms on the armrests at the sides of the chair; her legs, which her deep slit couldn't hide, had a pale white color.
Things wouldn't be this easy for the man; the chair, too small to carry his proportions, let out a painful scream the moment he sat down, and then the armrests considered for his comfort couldn't resist anymore and fell to the ground.
"Whun, Suzi, we made the first contact with the enemy's advance units!"
When Hubertus Strughold completed his words, the body of the man named Whun showed a reaction where he sat; the poor chair wouldn't be able to withstand this anymore.
"What is the result?"
The general jumping up understood what he did a second later; when he looked behind him, there was a chair turned into a pile of splinters.
"The reason I called you here is entirely related to the result too! My subordinate and all the researchers we put under his command have been wiped out along with the thousand-strong military force!"
This time Suzi jumped up too; her eyes, possessing the same color as her eyelids, had reached twice their normal size, and her lower lip was trembling.
"Mr. Scientist, I can understand suffering some casualties, but the unit you mentioned was assigned only for reconnaissance and minor skirmishes. How is it possible they were all wiped out?"
"I will explain, please calm down and listen to me!"
Hubertus, pointing to two sturdy chairs with his hand, gathered the papers in front of him amidst the somewhat bewildered and plenty angry gazes of the Generals. He seemed to be in no rush, as if he deliberately wanted to get on their nerves; he busied himself with arranging the table for about a minute.
"The attack where I lost my apprentice too was carried out by a single person!"
Whun, one of the Generals who had reached their breaking point, styling his hair to stand on end like a hedgehog, slammed his hand on the table, and the papers Hubertus spent a minute gathering flew into the air.
"How is it possible? How can a single person destroy a fully-equipped thousand-man military unit, and while your apprentice is with them too!"
Hubertus Strughold calmly gathered the papers scattered around his table, which now had a large crack on it, arranged them, and when he sat back down in his chair, a dark shadow fell over his face.
"I am warning you for the first and last time. When even your Guild Leader thinks twice before speaking his chosen words in front of me, who do you think you are to find the nerve to cause a scene?"
The two generals were succumbing to their ambitious natures; especially Whun had been acting out of line since the moment he walked in, but with Hubertus's warning, all the wind was taken out of his sails.
"We believe the culprit is our civilization's fugitive criminal, Leonardo. Only someone like him could show up against us with weapons of a caliber capable of executing such elemental attacks!"
The two soldiers looked at each other; they had read in the intelligence they received that the rogue orc units were equipped with the technology that person produced, and now he had personally participated in this attack.
"It appears two powers seeking revenge are collaborating. Dimitri Balsici, whose family was killed by the Golden Leaf Merchant Guild, and the Empire of Machines fugitive Leonardo have joined forces for a common goal."
Hubertus Strughold, of course, wasn't saying that his own apprentice was the one responsible for the death of a thousand soldiers. They had found someone to pin the blame on, and the Golden Leaf Army scouts had also seen that the soldiers were wiped out by an elemental attack.
He had twenty-five thousand small pawns, two of them large, in his hands; if he played them smartly, he could take down Leonardo. Furthermore, he also possessed a trump card no one knew about; with the support he would get from White Well and the facility he managed, he had the chance to catch the enemy off guard.
"Our enemy knows our advance unit has been wiped out; if we don't move out immediately, it might be too late. What I need from you is to put all the troops on a war footing and clear the way for us!"
The one with the delicate face among the generals, who had calmed down and taken their new seats, looked at the ceiling of the tent for a while before turning her eyes onto Hubertus.
"Mr. Scientist, fulfilling your request is easy, but first I need to know this. How will we protect ourselves from the attacks of Master Leonardo, who killed a thousand of our soldiers as the Advance Unit!"
"Yes, an army of twenty-five thousand is a much bigger target; his weapons are highly dangerous for us!"
Right now, the two generals were acting much more carefully while speaking; Whun's tone in particular had completely changed, but they refused to compromise on prioritizing the safety of the soldiers they were responsible for.
"That matter falls under the responsibility of me and my assistants; everyone will deal with the traitor emerging from within their own ranks!"
When the conversation ended, the generals left the tent with brisk steps and ordered the preparations to commence. The all-out offensive was beginning; they would charge straight at the enemy just like an army advancing in the central part of the continent.
The mask of the man sitting alone inside a mechanical vehicle covered with emerald stones wasn't on his face; while in absolute darkness, he felt no need for it. He was clad in armor from head to toe, and his longsword, possessing a width of two hand-spans, completely covered the seat opposite him.
"Sir, we are one solstice away from reaching the Field of Mohács!"
The tall man, slipping his mask onto his face along with the voice coming from outside, turned a dial on the panel to his right, and within seconds the inside of the mechanical vehicle was flooded with sunlight.
"Let's set up camp here! Send out the spies, let them find out the current status of the army that bastard has gathered!"
Izumrud's voice was heard in the form of a mechanical tone as usual; there was a mechanism inside his mask to alter his voice. He waited in his transport a while longer; by the time the soldiers set up the camp and prepared the tent that would belong to him, twilight was kissing the peaks of the mountains.
After drawing a perimeter with mechanical vehicles, they had filled the inside with khaki-colored tents; arrayed from the outside in according to order of importance, there were soldiers standing guard at the outermost edges of these tents.
While some wore simple uniforms, others were clad in emerald-colored armor, and another common trait among these people was that they were all making their way toward the tent in the center of the camp.
It was apparent that a pre-battle briefing would be held ahead of tomorrow's clash, and all the soldiers in the chain of command were gathering under the leadership of the Emerald Leaf Merchant Guild Leader.
Izumrud, who possessed a warrior personality, had come all the way to the front lines unlike the other guild leaders, and he maintained this bearing while watching the soldiers before him.