Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich - Chapter 152

Chapter 152: Notebook

“Word has already spread far and wide that every beastman has set off for war. There are over 270 known tribes. Although they declared that they have an army the size of 800,000, in reality, we know very well that they can barely muster up 200,000. If we take their 30,000 non-military personnel out of consideration, they would still be left with around an army of a 170,000. And they have all split up into four different directions. Clearly, they have already committed military suicide.”

The long-neglected opera house that had stood for over 600 years in Maple city had now found itself occupied once again. It was now a temporary meeting hall. The middle-aged, but still handsome man dress in a military uniform was running his mouth off, on the stage. Clearly, the audiences were not giving a shit about him talking on the stage, some were sleeping, reading, or talking.

“Although beastmen are typically stronger than us when it comes to brute strength, our allied forces total up to more than 300,000. In terms of military strength, we still hold the upper hand. We can take advantage of their scattered state and annihilate them one at a time.”

“Bearman Ronde, the potential candidate for the next Beastman Sovereign. He has 20 tribes under his command, and around 55,000 military personnel. There are several types of units within his camp, with members ranging from the weakling wererats to the strongest bearmen and elephantmen. Take note that the bearmen who currently form the backbone the military force tend to slip into hibernation; and thus, their marching speed is the slowest. Recently, they have started to gather provisions and other necessities to go through the winter. It seems like they intend to stay within their territory until the winter is over.”

“Haer the Centaur has 30,000 of military personnel under his control. The bulk of the troops are the agile riders and similarly quick beastmen. They are the smallest echelon among them all. They do not have a base camp, but tend to partake in guerrilla warfare. Small as they are, they are giving us the most trouble at the moment. Currently, they are trying to break through the eastern defense line. It seems like they are trying cross the borders to the other countries. It will be a mess if they manage to break through the southern defense line.”

“Saustero the Wolf King has 40,000 under his control – a mix of lionmen, tigermen, wolfmen, and other variations of their race mostly known for their brute strength. I have no idea what the hell is going on through his head, but he has actually turned around to attack the western defense line. Maybe they are trying to attack and invade the Kingdom of the Elves. Rumor has it that a fox man is serving as their strategist, so it’s likely that there’s more to that seemingly reckless maneuver.”

“Eron the Eagleman has 60,000 military personnel under his command, with a wide variety of beastman soldiers. There are a lot of airborne forces and flying type of beastmen fighting alongside him. According to the intel, Eron is also the advocator of the United Army of Beastmen. Rumor has it that he owns most of the elite troops. Currently, they are invading Antuen. I don’t think Antuen can last much longer.

Crosses and circles were all over the diagram, they highlighted the enemies’ position and places that they were likely to attack. The military guy tried his best to continue his speech over the growing buzz of the uninterested, skeptical audience. “I don’t think our military forces is really having the upper hand. More than 300,000? That must be a joke. Take out all the non-military personnel, and we’ll be left with 200,000 men at most. Moreover, those beastmen are like what, thrice as strong as we are? Technically speaking, our military force would probably match up to one third of beastman’s military force. How are we going to win this war?”

“There are almost 100,000 troops stationed in Antuen, but with the constant attacks coming from Eron’s troops, our armies have been calling for reinforcements for quite a while, now. It seems like we’ll lose Antuen. That ratio of one to three needs to be reviewed again.”

“Have you heard there is a gigantic beast named The Biz? He was the one who led the bearmen in tearing down the defensive walls of Wender City. It was destroyed with little effort. That’s the tenth city seized by them. Now, my only wish for them is that they get into their hibernation as soon as possible! I don’t want to face those giants in battle.”

“All is well if that’s the case, but I heard the situation is getting even more bizarre. Somehow the beastmen are not bothered by the cold and are able to fight in the winter unhindered. This is why they’ve been ambushing us out of expectations. So much for hibernation. Our own troops are shivering all the time, it is obvious that there’s a big gap between us and the beastman in terms of physical strength. And now we are going to fight the final war? It seems like we can’t wait to meet our maker.

“The beastmen are really going to overrun us, they have already taken control so many cities, they wouldn’t even have to worry about supplies. Moreover, we didn’t even bring our siege engines and catapults with us. Our supply line is constantly fractured. How are we going to fight this war? Are you asking us to fight with the beastmen with empty stomachs in the freezing winter?”

“Isn’t this a matter for those super empires? Why are small countries like us at the northern side, fighting this war? How about the Kingdom of Kasolan? Has the Empire of San Antonio mentioned anything yet?” If the leaders of beastmen are fighting against their own King, then we humans are like platters of sand, hiding behind each other’s backs, hoping that we don’t become cannon fodder.

Due to the sudden attack from the beastmen, our first fallen city provided them with enough supplies and shelter. The reinforcements that came after, looked more like guests and soldiers. A huge amount of beastmen came down from the Oregon mountains. Their numbers aren’t much in the face of any of the super empires, but most of them are elites, and the other six northern countries couldn’t possibly send out all their troops to assist us. The total number of troops from all five countries is 200,000. On average, each country sent out 50,000. The final war has yet to start. People were looking for more reinforcements but the beastmen merely fortified their positions, obviously with different purposes and goals in mind. Thus, they couldn’t have been acting as one. The main focus of Eron’s troops was to take down Antuen city, so that their leader could take credit for it.

There was no conflict of war strategies between humans and beastmen. Naturally, the war had been dragged longer. Also, most of the generals from the northern countries were hoping that the war would be dragged on until next spring. It was to buy them time to carry out large scale stratagems and take the upper hand of this war; and then, they could proceed to the final war. What about the Antuen city that was currently waiting for reinforcements? Sleuweir Kingdom was going to be destroyed soon, who cares about its opinion. Of course, it is impossible to simply stand aside and witness Antuen city’s destruction.

The general continued spouting empty fallacies and propaganda that fell on deaf ears. It was a total waste of time. Someone couldn’t hold it any longer. “Enough! We are soldiers! We are not drunkards or cunning politicians.” The angry middle-aged man was plain-looking, of medium height and had a long cape that was made of white fox skin draped on his shoulder. When he shouted angrily, the whole hall fell silent. “Leave the liberation of Antuen city to our Kasolan Kingdom alone.”

His voice was calm but it shook the entire hall. Every country had rejected that role because it was too risky fighting with Eron’s troops. When the middle-aged angry general spoke up, he actually decided to pick up this impossible mission. “Time is of the essence and you people are wasting it. We have reinforcements and the beastmen have reinforcements as well. There are at least thousands of beastman tribe inside the Oregon mountains, but not all tribes will respond to Eron’s command. Some tribes who may or may not have had good relations with us in the past will definitely see our weakened state and the lands that are just waiting to be claimed. Do you think they will just sit there and not attack us?”

“The Kingdom of Sleuweir has to be saved. If nobody initiates this rescue mission, please don’t expect someone to come and save you when your country is in trouble. Let’s think from a different perspective, if Sleuweir Kingdom is destroyed, the beastman will border your own countries. Do you have fortresses such as Kamo’s Tear? When that time comes, the beastman’s wolfriders will start to hunt on your ground, killing your people, burning villages, and grabbing your women and children. Is that what you want?” The general of Kasolan had gradually raised his voice into a shout.

“Fine! You can continue to hide if you want! When all of you find yourselves up on the board of sin, please don’t drag me down together with you guys. I, Ainro am not a coward, I will take the mission to rescue Antuen city. If you are a soldier…no….if you are a man, buy me some time by holding back the other beastmen. Don’t let them stop me from marching to the final war.”

Finally, some solid talk after listening to three days worth of bullshit. I started to stir from my slumber when I heard the speech from general Ainro. “Who is he? All the missions have been debated angrily. These bunch of imbeciles has finally done something good. I wonder why all these arrogant bastards are listening to this deafening general. Is he famous?”

“Of course, he’s different from those imbeciles who were being manipulated for three full days. He’s the big shot from the meritorious board. Also, he’s not considered as the general of Kasolan for nothing. Ainro ‘The Black Bear’ is quite famous in his own country, San Antonio.” Amelia was here earlier than me. She lived in Maple city because she did not want to travel everywhere to hunt down rangers. Naturally, she became the temporary leader of East Mist Communal Country. She did not look like she was in her best mood, with all the sarcasm dripping from her speech.

“Meritorious board? What’s that? And also, what was that sinner’s board he mentioned? Looks like I became a piece of antique, left out of this era.”

“We had all these stuff in my era as well, maybe you didn’t notice, the name is; The Notebook of Pixies.

“The work of those pixies, seems like they are free as usual.” Pixies were inherently magical creatures. They were quite similar to those pure looking fairies. Their maximum height was around ten centimeters. Their height allowed them to dance on human’s palm. There were different types of pixies; pixies with feathered wings, shadow pixies that lived in the shadows. They had different personalities, living habits, and living environments as well. There was one common trait that all these pixies shared; they loved to talk and gossip. Their race is all over the earth, and they are natural born neutral group, thus, they have good relationship with most of the races. Also, they had their own trading and cooking centers all over the world. In the human world, something that was made by pixies was considered to be a treasure of impeccable quality.

Usually, their trading centers also served as the best place to obtain different kinds of intel. If you can afford their intel, there were no secrets you couldn’t get from them. The pixie’s notebook that Harloys mentioned earlier was written by pixies. The notebook recorded all the significant points history, caused by famous people and incidents.

“The Meritorious board was created by the pixies, it records all the famous warriors who ever walked on earth. The ranking system was based on war records and even includes your rank among your own troops. Obviously, this was a good thing for small countries. Actually, a Master Meritorious Board supersedes this board, known as the Board of the War God. All the famous warriors throughout history will be included in this board. This board is pretty convincing. Basically, if your name is listed in this board, you can be considered as a valuable asset of your own country.

Historical people? Ancient warriors? Seems like I’m overthinking things now.

“But me…”

“You died too young when you were still a human. You didn’t even get the chance to be listed in the meritorious board. However, you are actually listed in another leaderboard that is actually more famous. In addition to that, your ranking in it is actually quite high.”

I was getting really hyped up. I couldn’t believe that I was listed in a board that was even more popular than the meritorious board. Did I become such an important figure? Wasn’t the point of living in this world, to leave some marks behind? Could it be that I actually left some historical marks behind without me realizing it? This was a huge surprise for me.

“What kind of leaderboard?”

“The ‘Calamity Ranking’. You are the Undying Roland, ranked 33.”

My face turned black after hearing what he said. I knew this leaderboard. The people that were listed in this leaderboard were known as trouble makers, walking catastrophes, and plagues. If they were dangerous enough to the point that no one would even dare to lay a finger on them, they will eventually be listed in this leaderboard.

“This is bad news. No mortal being can fight against it. If you see them, just run for your life. If you run into them, well, you’re just out of luck” I thought this was the essence of Calamity Ranking.

“My other identity?”

If Roland could get on the board, then, Emperor Yongye should be listed on the board as well.

“No. He was not listed in the board from the beginning. It looks like the pixies deliberately left out the person. They never explained any further. I will need to pay more if I need more intel.”

“Shit! Doesn’t that mean my true identity has been uncovered.”

“Isn’t it normal to be found out? Did you even try to hide yourself? All you used was a piece of the Wind of War flag as the flag of the Royal Guard. Do you think you’re surrounded by idiots?”

I nodded my head. The truth was, I did not even try to hide myself. When I decided to avenge others in the past, I had let the opponent know the reason why I killed them. It was totally normal for all these well-informed pixies to know my true identity. Also, they have probably sold some intel on me for a lot of money.

“Actually, I know quite a few people from the leaderboards. The one who is ranked 99 is Molly The Red Dragon. She leaves a trail of destruction behind everywhere she goes. I think you should know her. Also, the Evil Professor, Harloys is ranked 46. Looking at the name, it does not look like she has a lot power to bring destruction. She did produce a lot of “good” students. For example….”

“For example, you! What is your ranking?”

I sighed, remember how tough The Dragon Mother, Molly was. When she failed to bring more destruction underground, she went above ground again to create more trouble. I was so full of confidence and I asked, “If Harloys and myself are on the leaderboard, I’m pretty sure the Amelia standing in front of me is in the list as well.”

“Last I checked, I was ranked 57, under the moniker; The Naughty Storm Lady. Initially, I was ranked 69. Three of my friends who ranked in front of me had kicked the bucket. I happened to have killed one of them. As a result, my ranking jumped again. All in all, my ranking has gone up by twelve.”

She stated it with some pride, but I don’t think she has anything to be proud of in the first place.

“Nice! That title is way cooler than mine. What the hell is Undying? It’s so not cool. Can I request to change my title?”

“I’m glad that you think my title is cool. Hehe..You have good taste. Others say that my name is totally uncool. That actually makes me very angry. But, no matter how you try to compliment me, I will not give this title away to anyone.”

“Shit! I can’t believe you saw through me. Then, can you please contact the pixie? This title is really bad. I have to change something cooler. For example, titles like; The Invincible, The Genius, or even, The Forever Loveable Rolan.”

“So, the title that you decided is, The Stupid, Selfish, Hideous Rolan. Leave it to me. I will contact the pixie for you. I can’t believe the elves were actually so bound to reality. Titles like this should be easy to acquire.

They couldn’t do anything about our daily arguments. Reyne and the others were compelled to listen to the arguments. The general on the stage was talking non-stop again about the so-called strategy. These two persons had totally no idea about what was going on here.

For these three days, I knew that if I continued to be a bystander, I would become one of those soldiers who will drop dead in a second thanks to stupid orders that I was stupid enough to obey. So, I stood up.

“Ainro , your setup is suicidal. I have a few suggestions and some intel. Maybe it is time for you to listen to me.”