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A few days later.

"I heard that you’ve begun recruiting soldiers in the Town of Crewe?"

The joint military conference between the Wood army and the Black Nightmare Army involved the senior members of both parties gathering in a hall to discuss handling the matter of eradicating the Church together. However, the meeting had just begun when a commanding general that came from the Wood family looked at Benjamin up and down. He opened his mouth to speak in a direct and undisguised manner; there was some dissatisfaction in his tone of voice.

Benjamin nodded, expressionless. "That’s right."

Although the Black Nightmare Army had suffered severe losses, they had not launched their soldier recruitment drive on a large scale. It was necessary to supplement themselves with some new blood. Furthermore, the spread of The Declaration of the Freedom of Magic throughout the kingdom had previously birthed a new batch of mages. After hearing that the Black Nightmare Army was in the Town of Crewe, this batch of people would often give up on joining the Wood family as well, changing their minds and choosing to seek asylum with them instead.

This long term investment had still ended up bringing them returns.

However, because of that, the internal members of the Wood army were beginning to get slightly upset.

"Now there are a few dozens of the mages who’d promised to join us a few days ago, running over to your side. How could you be like this?" The commanding general was more than just upset; he even seemed to be really angry. "We rescued you out of the kindness of our hearts, and this is how you repay us?"

The atmosphere had become a little tense. Elizabeth immediately turned her head and spoke to the commanding general. "The Black Nightmare Army are our allies. I was the one who invited them to enter and settle in the Town of Crewe. Of course they can freely recruit soldiers. General Trey, watch your words."

"But..."

"This general. We’ve built the reputation of the Black Nightmare Army ourselves, bit by bit. Those people are joining us on their own accord as well, so you can’t blame us for that," said Benjamin in a tone that was neither hostile nor friendly. With that, he rendered the commanding general speechless.

The commanding general glanced at Elizabeth once more. All he could do was shut his mouth and retreat a few steps back.

Elizabeth nodded and turned around, setting her sights back on Benjamin. She said, in an extremely courteous manner, "Lord Director, I hope you won’t be offended because of that."

Facing her, Benjamin waved his hands and said nothing.

"Then... Let’s come together and discuss the latest information that has reached us." Thus, Elizabeth took out a letter and unfolded it on the table. "The Church has promoted another batch of priests, and has even made an exception by promoting quite a number of bishops. Rumors in the region of the Imperial Capital have been kept under wraps more and more tightly. I think, everyone should understand what this means."

"The enemy is going to attack?" Someone asked in astonishment.

Elizabeth nodded.

Benjamin was not surprised. The powers of the Church had been on the wane, while the two most powerful rebel forces in the kingdom had joined forces at this time. This sort of a situation was already a little too awful for the Church. If he were Grant, he would be panicking too.

"If he wants to attack, we shall meet them in battle head-on."

Because of that, he opened his mouth to speak, representing the attitudes of the Black Nightmare Army and setting his own attitude down. Behind him, a few mages who had joined the meeting with him revealed confident smiles as well. They nodded, and even seemed rather excited.

This well-prepared appearance caused many from amongst the Wood army to be quite taken aback.

"Are you guys going to dismiss the Church’s desperate retaliation?" The commanding general could not stand it. He took a step forward to say, "On both military power and armaments, the Church is still well above us. They also have powerful artilleries of Divine Arts, how could you guys take this so lightly?"

Benjamin shrugged. "Because they’ve already launched their ’desperate retaliation’ at us quite a few times, but aren’t we still alive now?"

"Still alive now? You’ve been beaten into such a condition, don’t you drag us down..."

"General Trey!"

Before Benjamin could decide on what to say, Elizabeth reacted first by stopping the commanding general in a loud voice. She even hardened her face and lifted her hand to point at the great doors of the room, signifying that she wanted him to leave this place. The commanding general was stunned. Nevertheless, Benjamin waved his hand from the other side of the table, to show that he did not care.

"This general hasn’t been in the Kingdom of Helius much. He doesn’t understand the situation, which is why he has so many opinions. We’re not angry." He shook his head, saying, "I’m saying that the attacks of the royal army isn’t frightening, actually. You guys sit on and possess the Crusader Gateway, so you have an escape route. If you were really to defend the gateway to the death, they won’t be able to do anything about you in just a short time. All they’d be able to do is to wait outside and waste time with you, but the Church now... They aren’t really able to afford wasting anything, so our chances of success are actually really great."

The commanding general said, in an unsatisfied tone, "But if they surround the gateway, it’d be impossible for us to defend the place for long without replenishing our rations."

"Yes, so we must fight." Benjamin nodded, and continued to speak. "The Church might have a lot of soldiers, but when it comes to spellcasters, we can even gain the upper hand by joining the mages on both our sides. Since that’s the case, using our dominance in high-end combat power, we’d be completely able to set aside a team of mages during battle and launch a surprise attack on the enemy’s artillery battalion, so that they wouldn’t be able to fire a single cannon."

"Then... even if we fight, it would only be a fifty-fifty chance of success."

"You’d feel that the chances of success are the same because you haven’t counted me in yet." Benjamin raised his chin slightly, as he spoke with a calm expression. "Just give me enough time, and I’ll be able to defeat the Pope and help turn the entire situation around to our favor."

"..."

The commanding general did not say a word. He frowned and glared at Benjamin, with an expression of ’this man is insane’ on his face.

"You guys don’t believe?"

Benjamin looked at the other side of the table. Other than Elizabeth, practically everyone had some uncertainty in their eyes. After all, based on rumors, the Pope and the Director of the Academy of Magic had engaged in a few fights before, but it seemed that neither one of them had emerged a victor. As for the details of the incidents, only those who had been present knew. Moreover, most of the members of the Wood army actually came from outside of the country. They did not understand the situation in the kingdom enough, so it was inevitable that they would have their doubts.

Elizabeth did not say anything. All she did was look at Benjamin, as though waiting for him to clarify his position a step further.

Thus, Benjamin decided that he would rather continue with his arrogant claptrap. "In fact, we could defend the Town of Crewe just by relying on the Black Nightmare Army."

The members of the Wood army were all shocked.

"...Defend the Town of Crewe, are you for real?"

"Why would I lie to you?"

"What are you going to defend it with? Hasn’t the Runic Defense Technique been broken through by the Church a number of times?"

"So all you know is this one thing, the Runic Defense Technique?" Benjamin shook his head, putting on a disdainful expression. "You don’t understand the Academy of Magic, and even more so, you don’t understand the Black Nightmare Army. We still have many trump cards hidden other than that, we can use them against the Church."

The commanding general was quiet. There was still doubt on his face, but he did not say it out loud.

Elizabeth was rather startled as well. She nodded and said, "Since you have such confidence in yourselves... Why don’t we divide the army into two?"

"Divide the army into two?"

"The Church would obviously rush at you. If you could defend the Town of Crewe, and even drag them on here, we’d have space to get more things done. For example, attack Havenwright." Elizabeth continued to speak. "The Church has been operating in that place for too long. Even if we defeat the royal army on that day and surround the Imperial Capital, it’s possible that they’d even manage to use that city and make a comeback. Because of that, it’s best if we can take over the Imperial Capital when the Church isn’t there, and what’s coming up next might be an excellent opportunity."

This time, it was Benjamin’s turn to be shocked.

Go and attack the Imperial Capital? Such boldness.

Also, this plan... was just too... perfect for his tastes!

He held his chin, as his expression quickly turned from surprise to fascination.