Chapter 83: Deep Conspiracy

No one answered Leon’s question. Instead, they turned their heads toward Silvana Dawncrest.

If something has happened to such a high-level race, the most concise information should be known to the commanding families and the royal family.

So as the only representative person from the commanding family, Silvana Dawncrest held the right to answer.

Darius asked. "Commander Silvana, do you know anything related to Emberwombs? Has something happened that is hidden from the world?"

Silvana didn’t outright respond. She contemplated for a moment to recollect her memories.

"Hmm!" Suddenly Silvana recalled a piece of memory where she overheard the elders talk about the top races. "I don’t know fully of the situation regarding the top races, but one time I heard from the elders."

After a pause she continued. "They said that there is something brewing among the top races; an unthinkable alliance has formed. They are trying to eradicate all the races who oppose them."

Everyone’s eyes widened, even Gul-Min’s. Because this was earth-shattering information that might affect the entire world, even be the cause of the next war of contention.

"But I can’t prove the authenticity of the information." Silvana later shook her head, trying to remain as neutral as possible.

Everyone’s hearts eased a little, yet there was still a hint of panic.

"I believe it." All of a sudden, Leon spoke, shrugging his shoulders. He looked at everyone’s astonished faces and unveiled his reasoning. "It is better to believe in a worst-case scenario. This approach allows us to be prepared for the worst possible future.

"Anyway, we have more pressing matters to solve." Leon then quickly shifted the attention to the main topic.

Aldric let out a sigh to calm himself. Leon was right; they should solve the problem at hand while also mentally preparing for the future.

Aldric took the lead and said. "Let’s stop brooding over the matter we can’t solve. Instead, do the one in the realm of possibility."

"You’re right, Aldric." Marcus Ironwall patted Aldric’s right shoulder and nodded his head. "Let’s beat these orcs up first."

Everyone else also mentally prepared themselves before following the two commanders.

As they walked on the wet yet dry soil, the green grass grazed their feet and the sunlight reflected on their faces. It was as if they were in the overworld, not underground.

Leon rubbed his chin, looking around. ’Hmm... why is there no one guarding the outer perimeter? Are they that confident no one will sneak in? What if he spies from other races know their plan and has infiltrated to cripple them instead? Well, maybe I am just overthinking. Let’s see what is going on inside.’

He has used [Life Sense] and hasn’t discovered anyone in ambush either. It was as if he was walking in an abandoned village, but it wasn’t. He could clearly sense hundreds of orcs gathered inside the village.

"Halt." Aldric raised his left hand and whispered softly. He squinted his eyes and looked at the rows upon rows of wooden sheds. If they walked any step further, they would enter the perimeter of the guardian inside.

Aldric turned back and asked. "What do you think we should do now? Do you want to sneak in first or dive to kill them all?"

Marcus Ironwall answered right away. "What sneaks in? Just go in and kill everyone on sight."

"But." Silvana Dawncrest frowned at his suggestion. "What if we destroy some valuable information when fighting them?"

"Miss Silvana, are you saying we would exert ourselves to kill some puny orcs?" Marcus Ironwall crossed his arms and scoffed. The strongest in this underground base was at Expart-Rank; any one of their deputy commanders could take him down except for Leon, of course.

Silvana Dawncrest shook her head in dismay. "Not us but them. What if they do something stupid?"

Everyone watched the two commanders arguing against each other all of a sudden. Leon felt a bag of peanuts should be great here. Watching people have nonsensical arguments was great for passing time.

For Leon, he already knows the correct way to approach this. However, he wasn’t in position to give orders, so he could only wait for their command.

Looking at his two fellow colleagues, Aldric let out a sigh. "You guys stop. If we can’t come to a common ground, then we should hear what our deputy commanders have to say."

Marcus Ironwall and Silvana Dawncrest stopped after Aldric’s suggestion. Now, they looked at the deputy commanders for opinions.

Darius Vale and Elayne Frostveil’s face turned stern, waiting for Aldric’s signal to start. On the other hand, Leon was a bit surprised, as he was the deputy commander now, so his idea could be put forth and be realized.

"Elayna, you go first. Tell us how we should initiate this operation." Aldric spoke to the girl with the glasses as she appeared too eager to start.

Elayne Frostveil adjusted her glass and began speaking what she had in her mind. "Commanders, these orcs might have smartened us, but they are still dumb. We can sneak in easily and gather all the information we can. Also if given a chance, we can secretly kill the guardian without alerting anyone."

’Silent and too perfection-oriented.’ Leon thought in his mind. ’This seems good but too unnecessary.’

The commanders nodded their heads, feeling Elayne Frostveil’s plan to be possible, except for Marcus Ironwall. However, they didn’t immediately agree with Elayne, as there were two more they had to hear.

"What about you, Darius?"

Seeing his turn had arrived, Darius Vale spoke sternly. "I think we should first just rush in and kill everyone in our way. The guardians are the leaders of these bases, so they and their inhabitants should hold all the information we need. We can’t eat everything we want. So we should just eat the most nutritious meal first."

The commanders looked at each other, feeling Darius Vale made the most sense.

Only Silvana Dawncrest frowned to herself as she felt they couldn’t leave a single leaf left unturned. What if that contained the most valuable piece of information?

Finally, Aldric turned to Leon and asked. "Now, what do you think?"

Leon calmly spoke what he had in his mind from the very beginning. "Commander, our main goal is to eradicate this underground base first. The information we find later are our rewards. Our operation can’t be spread anywhere, not even to the outside world, except for higher-ups. So, we will spread into three teams and clean up everything in our way as we head into the center. What we get in our way is greatly welcomed! However, we can’t let a single one of them escape to spread the news."

The commanders looked at each other, now their eyes with clarity. They have become so deeply emotional along the way that they forgot their original goal.

Aldric laughed to himself, agreeing with Leon, not waiting for the other two commanders’ consciousness. "You are right. Everyone, you take your deputy commanders and go in position from ten blocks away from each other. We will carpet rush to the end where the guardian resides and meet up there. However,"

Aldric glanced at Gul-Min and said. "Leave the children and the women. The higher-ups have other plans for them."

Everyone nodded their head, as they could somewhat guess what the higher-ups wanted to accomplish.

Leon chuckled to himself, wondering. ’The people who can sit at the top are truly old foxes. They want to exhort the orcs in exchange with their women and children.’

The entire sum of women and children might seem low, but when all the other underground bases were added together, one could imagine the grim faces of the orcs. They would never want to lose so many women who could continue giving birth to warriors in massive numbers.

Afterwards, they parted ways. With Aldric and co going left while Silvana Dawncrest and Elayne Frostveil are going right. Marcus Ironwall and Darius Vale stayed in their original spot.

"Hmm, this should be it." Aldric halted and faced the village. The only thing separating them was the wooden spiked fence.

Aldric said to Leon as he walked forward. "I know, you kid have some sensory spell. So kill whatever escapes my grasp."

"Understood, commander." Leon’s lips curved up. He didn’t want to be at the forefront, as he didn’t have the strength to be so. So he was glad he only had to clean up the crumbs left behind by Aldric. As for the mention of his spell? He wasn’t surprised, as someone of Aldric’s caliber should be able to feel his wanton usage.

Following behind Leon was Gul-Min, who felt a little emotional seeing the place where she had been forced to stay and used for war.

Leon turned back and smirked. "What? A little nervous?"

Gul-Min shook her head, answering. "I am not, master. I was just reminiscing about the past."

"Oh, then see as much as you want. This place will no longer exist from now on." Leon bluntly spoke as he wanted her to completely forget about the haunting past.