The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations

The rift within the subjugation army deepened with each passing day.

Soldiers, forcibly gathered from different territories, had no sense of belonging to the army. To make matters worse, with supply lines dwindling, they were on the verge of starvation, which caused morale to plummet rapidly.

However, the biggest blow was the disappearance of their Supreme Commander, Ghislain.

Not only Ghislain, but even the Julien Mercenary Corps had vanished for several days. By now, everyone understood what that meant.

"That bastard’s insane. He stirred up all this chaos, and now where the hell has he gone?"

"Shouldn’t we surrender at this point?"

"If he really ran away… what’s going to happen to us?"

Unease spread among the soldiers, who whispered among themselves every day.

The leadership, instead of calming them, was too busy fighting amongst themselves.

"We need to negotiate!"

"Negotiate?! We already declared that we were marching to subdue the rebels!"

"Then what do you suggest? We’re out of rations!"

"We should send word to the lords and request more supplies—"

"Like they’d hand them over! That lunatic already looted everything! If we ask for more, they’ll just say, ‘Oh, good! Now give us back the troops you took from us!’"

"Then we have no choice but to raid another territory!"

At this point, it was hard to tell if they were an army of subjugation or a band of marauders.

This was how desperate they had become.

As the neutral lords continued to scream at one another, Count Hurvis, who had been leading the subjugation army in Ghislain’s absence, pressed a hand to his forehead.

Day by day, the situation worsened, and it was becoming nearly impossible to manage.

He had no idea how to hold this force together.@@novelbin@@

Turning to the kingdom’s army commanders, he asked,

"Is there no way to draw more supplies from the royal army? Surely, they must have emergency stockpiles set aside for war."

"The supplies we had stockpiled have already been brought to the front. The rest are under the Marquis of Falkenheim’s control."

"Of course…"

Even within the kingdom’s army, the Marquis of Falkenheim held significant influence.

He had ensured that all military supplies remained under his direct control, preventing even the royal army from using them freely.

Now, all those supplies were in the hands of the marquis’s forces.