Chapter 392: A Grand Gift

Once they were out of sight of the beastmen, the convoy suddenly picked up speed.

“You have to trust them,” Nina said once again. 

Wu Qingsong nodded, but he couldn’t suppress the worry gnawing at him.

Two adorable children, a pregnant wife, two more who had just given birth and were still recovering—not to mention the hundreds of thousands of followers who placed their trust in him, entrusting their future to his hands.

Rationality told him that so many days had passed that whatever had happened was already over. Given Ram, Xeila, and the rest of the knight order’s capabilities, even an enemy force of over thirty thousand wouldn’t necessarily be able to inflict much damage on Nagrand. But emotions kept flooding his mind with worry and all sorts of negative thoughts, forcing him to consider the worst possible outcomes.

Back in the presence of the Sarl Alliance chieftains, he had forced himself to maintain an air of calm for the sake of the bigger picture. He knew that if he displayed any sign of weakness in front of them, everything they had worked for would be rendered meaningless. But now that they had left those beastmen behind, he could no longer keep up the facade.

“The patrols would have spotted them in advance. The towns and villages around Nagrand would have hindered their movements,” Nina said as they rode. “Since they came to plunder, they wouldn’t have been able to resist the temptation. Their discipline would have crumbled long before they even reached Nagrand, and Ram and the others would have made preparations well in advance. By now, they must have already been crushed.”

“If that’s the case…” Wu Qingsong muttered, but before he could finish, a silver spindle-shaped object suddenly appeared over the mountains in the distance.

“What the hell is she doing?” Wu Qingsong’s words took a sharp turn. “I told her not to fly.”

A fire-element beastkin launched a fireball high into the sky, followed by another. Ling must have spotted them because the airship quickly adjusted its course and headed their way.

Wu Qingsong wanted to put on a stern face and scold Ling for disobeying him, but the moment he saw her and Xeila, he couldn’t keep up the act.

“How are you? Is everything alright?” He pulled Xeila into a tight embrace before turning to Ling. But faced with her gentle smile, he found himself unable to voice a single word of reproach.

“How have you been feeling?”

“Everything’s fine,” Ling said, a rare expression of playful guilt and amusement flashing across her face as she gently touched her belly. “He’s been very well-behaved.”

“And Daniel and Beth?”

“They’re both doing great,” Xeila replied.

“What about the enemy forces that attacked Nagrand?”

“You already knew about that?” Xeila and Ling were momentarily surprised.

“It’s not like we’ve been doing nothing over here,” Nina said.

She had been urging Wu Qingsong not to overthink things, but in truth, she had been just as anxious. For her, there was another possibility—that Aquero’s army had first attacked the Silvermoon clan’s settlements before turning toward Nagrand. If that were the case, Nagrand would have had precious time to prepare, but the Silvermoon would have suffered devastating losses.

She had simply kept that fear to herself.

“Their leaders are over there.” Xeila casually pointed to a pile of crates beside them. Once Ling withdrew her power, they dropped to the ground. Judging by their size and the white powder spilling from them, each crate likely contained a beastman’s severed head.

“Maybe a few slipped through, but any I could find are all in there.”

There were at least fifty or sixty crates, making the nearby beastgirls quietly suck in cold breaths.

Her face remained as breathtaking as ever, but when she said those words, there was something chillingly eerie about her presence.

It was said that a mother protecting her children was the fiercest beast of all. Looking at her now, that couldn’t have been more accurate.

“Ram asked us to bring them along. She thought they might be useful for you,” Xeila added.

“Jo!” Wu Qingsong made a swift decision. “Clear out a carriage immediately. Take a squad and deliver these to Dustmother. Tell Storm that this is my gift to them, and that our agreement remains in effect. Say nothing else.”

“Yes, sir!” Joanna responded eagerly. She wouldn’t miss a chance to look cool and make an impression.

“Well, that should settle everything nicely,” Nina sighed. “How was the battle?”

“We’ll talk on the way back,” Xeila said.

Because of Wu Qingsong’s warning, Ling had been careful when taking off and landing, which took extra time. Having been away from her children for most of the day, Xeila was already getting restless.

“I’ll take them back. You two go on ahead,” Nina said.

It wouldn’t be right for all the key figures to abandon their forces and rush home. After all, this was the first time the knight order had traveled this far for a mission. But at this moment, Wu Qingsong truly wanted to know what had happened in Nagrand. He knew Nina wouldn’t neglect her responsibilities as commander, so he didn’t argue. Instead, he gently pulled her into an embrace, kissed her, gave her a few words of advice, and then boarded Ling’s newly reassembled airship with Liuli.

“The patrols did their job well. Those bastards were spotted before they even entered our controlled territory. When the patrols returned to report, the outer towns had already been set ablaze. Seven or eight burned down, and over a dozen villages were destroyed. Fortunately, the casualties were low.”

Now that the airship was heading toward Nagrand, Xeila’s mood had noticeably improved.

“The people evacuated under the priests’ guidance, either withdrawing to the flanks or barricading themselves inside their villages to stall for time. That gave us enough time to act. I took out a few of their leaders, Angus led a volley of musket fire, and then the knight order girls awakened their abilities and charged in. Their formation collapsed instantly.”

Just like that?

Wu Qingsong could hardly believe his ears.

“Most of the real casualties happened during the pursuit,” Xeila continued. “Sertans’ men got too carried away. A few of them charged after enemy groups of a hundred or more, and when the beastmen finally snapped out of their panic and counterattacked, we lost a lot of good people. They had gone too far ahead, and by the time we caught up, there was nothing we could do to save them. But we did make sure to kill every last one of their attackers. Not a single one got away.”

Wu Qingsong took a deep breath.

“You mean… every single one?”

“I meant the ones who counterattacked,” Xeila said indifferently. “The ones who surrendered are still alive. We’ve locked them up. The ones who were wounded but stable were treated and imprisoned along with them. The only issue was that interrogating all those captives to identify their leaders took time. Otherwise, we would have delivered these earlier.”

“How many prisoners in total?” Wu Qingsong asked.

“Around twenty thousand?” Xeila estimated.

“Twenty-six thousand, give or take,” Ling added from the side.

“That many?” The number made Wu Qingsong’s head ache slightly. Even counting the mousefolk soldiers, Nagrand’s total military force was a mere fraction of that.

How was he supposed to deal with so many prisoners?

Now, that was a real headache.