The God of Jesters
Chapter 422 - 7.09.2 Ghouls.

Chapter 422: 7.09.2 Ghouls.

"Lucius the vicious, is this what they call this new Prince?" There was no age written, but considering that his title was Prince, he should be under the age of fifty, like Amir and his cousin Ludwig.

The report told much about his opponents in detail which went a bit personal when it came to the details of the aforementioned Prince Lucius, who seemed to be a problem child that even General Vera didn’t want to deal with, It’s why his posting was far away from the barracks, which made it so that he won’t be a nuisance to the people who were doing some actual work.

As for the two talented mages that were mentioned before? None of them actually held in the Royal Politics, they never cared if anyone beside each other due to one reason.

They were competing with each other and belonged to a rival faction from the Tower of Arcana of Durum. What was at stake was never written in the report. But what was written was how the two were paid to suppress Ludwig as Lucius was far away from him.

’It’s why the three got special treatment.’

The two mages and one royal made up the strongest three factions of nobles in the Durum Barracks. The other four factions were based on the interest of nobles who didn’t wish to partake in any competition and just wished for their conscription to come to an end.

Meaning they were the neutral side among the nobles and made up the largest force of nobles if population metrics were to be taken into account.

’I have to thank General Vera... if not for him, I would have to manage all these distracting people by myself.’ The more he read, the more he felt glad that General Vera chose to give him a chance.

Making things much easier for Amir for a while. But life still hit him fast and hard, the time has come for him to walk out of the shadows of his laboratory and face the snobbish nobles.

’Erratic, chaotic and prone to violence. He was thrown to the borders because he beat someone half to death, someone very high on the command chain.’

"He feels more like a mad dog than someone capable of ruining Ludwig’s life." There was no one in his room at the moment, and Amir was left to his thoughts as he found it all odd how this madman, was capable of suppressing Ludwig even after he came here. "There is someone else, someone that Ludwig is hiding."

’Someone dangerous enough that I might get scared of.’ With his intelligence, it wasn’t hard to notice that this Prince was nothing more than an animal, while the one holding the leash of this animal was someone else, someone that Amir didn’t wish to speak about in fear of scaring Amir and chance this whole cooperation.

’Someone he is scared of? Meaning the generation of our fathers?’

The Camps mostly acted as the resting place for soldiers, but still, more than 20% of the soldiers still lived in temporary camps strewn around the border during their regular patrols, so although one can be ahead of the Camp, it doesn’t make them the leader of those that lived in the camps.

Most of the soldiers only followed the words of their captain, and those captains followed the words of their commanders. As for the chief Commander, he was nothing more than managing the needs of the camp and barely held the power to move the soldiers. Meaning the amount of factions and groups that exited in the camp can be huge.

Making it much harder for Amir to predict who this individual was that was causing Ludwig so many problems.

But this should be enough, it at least gave one thing away to Amir.

’He doesn’t know how strong a relationship I have with my grandfather.’ Ludwig didn’t hide the fact that he knew how Grand General Deimos was backing Amir. It’s why he came forward with the whole deal, to begin with.

What he didn’t know though was how deep the relationship between the two was. Which gives Amir an edge against everyone present in this report. ’They can’t suppress me.’ So he smiled.

Oddly enough, he was looking forward to going to this noble meeting. Seeing the faces of all those snobbish bastards as they try to pick a fight with him. ’I am still a child?’ Amir felt disappointed in himself for having such emotions at his age. But he just couldn’t help it.

He looked forward to the meeting, the chaos, and the ensuing destruction he would bring these spoiled children.

And while he had such thoughts, Amir failed to notice the hint of red that flashed by his eyes.

*****

"Henkle, don’t you think this is a waste of ammunition?" Asked a young soldier with a tired expression, sadly his colleague was too tired to bother with this foolish youngster that recently joined their regiment and just ordered. "Our job is not to think, it’s to do... things get easier when you just do and don’t think." With those words, Henkle dropped the bomb in the pipe and set off the charge, throwing the mortar a kilometer away. The sound only came after a few seconds had gone by.

"No one, again." The youngster spoke after watching it through the telescope. "Do we have to keep doing it?"

"Don’t ask the reasoning, and just keep doing. It’s not our money that is being burned here." At such words, the boy remained silent.

’Ignorance.’ The boy, who was obviously me wondered.

This whole mission was done to keep the ones on the other side on edge. It’s to make them know of our existence and to warn them that they better not think of advancing on the line, or they will be hit with the mortars.

Of course, the true distance these mortars can travel was much further, this all was done to fool their perceptions and cause the Cynark military to come under the range of our attacks.

But such details will always be hidden from a common soldier like Henkle, a man with no ambition, nor any desire to stay on this battlefield, for he felt tired from all this fighting.

’Hope Henkle lives.’ I say, looking at the man who appeared more like a machine than a human. A common aspect among many of the old soldiers who have already experienced a full-frontal war.

None of them appeared normal, they seemed to have lost a part of themselves and become a husk of their former self.

And in the eyes of people like Henkle, the same will become of me, who kept asking nonsensical questions of him. A husk just like him.

’Well, that was the intention, to begin with.’

It’s been a month since my basic training ended and all the conscripts were forced into a regiment that were lacking members. And I was forced into one as well, whose name didn’t matter considering I won’t be staying for much longer, but while I was here, I intended to do everything correctly and not give anyone a chance to complain, considering the people’s life was on the line and I didn’t want to be a murderer.

That’s the reason why I asked such questions, I was acting the same as what Henkle and many before him did.

It was around night, and I was standing on top of a Guard post, overlooking the wide passage to the other side when I noticed something odd crawl out of the ground. Something very common to see on the battlefield.

It’s why I gestured to Henkle, who was on my side, and pointed toward the direction. "I found another one."

"They have been hatching frequently these days, seems like these monsters can smell war." These monsters in Henkle’s words were Ghouls. Born from the rotten dead and always found feasting on rotten flesh, they were once considered a scourge on the land as the ghouls were the cause of many plagues in the past.

But now? They were nothing more than common pests for the military.

"Keep watch over him." As Henkle said such words, he took out of bullet.

A hollow bullet filled with Silver nitrate solution specifically made to kill ghouls. "210 meters, it’s walking northeast, it seemed to have smelled us." And due to our smell, it started to run in the opposite direction.

To it, the living was not that interesting, it didn’t like to hunt for its food, instead, it acted more like a scavenger, which made their movement predictable. "10 seconds before he hides in cover."

"7, 6..." Before I could end my words, with a booming sound that made the right side of my ear deaf for a bit, the bullet flew into the air and exploded against the body of the ghoul, rupturing its back and throwing its body forward for some distance.

"Success, it’s a body hit," I announced the result after confirming that the beast was not moving anymore.

"Good job, if you keep doing work like this, you might just survive this war," Henkle spoke in a much lighter tone than before, seemingly happy with my performance. And I didn’t reply to him, I just bowed and showed my appreciation for his words with my posture.

That was the respect that seniors deserve.

As for the ghoul?

It was morning and the soldiers went ahead and dragged the remains of the ghoul back to the base, but there was an issue they came across. "This thing is still alive."

.