Goddess Kaleidoscope

Although he is a priest of the God of War cult and can provide powerful buffs to armies of thousands, he is not so good at commanding troops in marching and fighting.

Just like when he spearheaded the formation of the Valiant Army, Narad recruited soldiers indiscriminately, only thinking that the more the merrier, without considering any other issues at all. The ragtag army of over a thousand men was cobbled together without any training or adjustment before it impatiently set off for the campaign.

After all, in Narad's view, war is all about having more people.

Their target this time was a large lizardman tribe with a population of over two thousand. Considering that the enemy was a fierce barbarian tribe where everyone was a soldier, their side would also need over a thousand usable soldiers. Only with the added buffs from their War God Cult could they ensure a victory in this battle.

Considering that their movements had been detected by the lizardmen on the other side, Narad thought for a moment and decided to speed up the march, trying to cover the remaining hundred-plus miles of mountain road in three days, and then charge up to wipe out the lizardman tribe.

However, when Narad issued the order requiring the entire army to speed at "three times the speed," the men below immediately started to protest without saying a word.

Keep in mind that this stretch of 140-150 li was a rugged mountainous area with dense vegetation, not a wide, flat plain. Even Narad, riding on horseback, had his buttocks aching from the saddle, let alone the other unfortunate kids without horses.

As a result, the leaders of various factions and groups within the Valiant Army came to him one after another, hoping that Narad would retract this unreasonable order.

"Priest Narad, I don't object to your order to speed up the march, but demanding that we arrive within three days is asking too much of us!"

"Exactly, we're not livestock!"

Faced with the agitated crowd below, Narad clearly did not expect his order to provoke such a strong backlash. In fact, he had a vague feeling that his order might be a little bit outrageous.

However, Narad's stubborn and arrogant personality prevented him from bowing his head and admitting his mistakes in front of a group of "subordinates." Therefore, when questioned by a group of people, Narad kept a straight face and asked in a rather displeased tone.

"What? Are you questioning my orders? Is it difficult to travel fifty miles a day? The King's Guard can do it (on the plains), and the Duke's and Earl's personal troops can do it too, so why can't you?"

"..."xN

Faced with Narad's confident retort, everyone present was stunned and speechless for a long time. It felt as if they were being questioned by their parents about why they were not as good as "other people's children".

Seeing everyone's stunned silence, Narad assumed they were speechless because they were ashamed.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say?"

“Lord Narad, if they could truly reach the same level as the King’s Guard, they wouldn’t have become adventurers. If they were to travel fifty kilometers a day, even if they could make it, they would probably be too exhausted to fight. A qualified commander needs to understand both the enemy and himself.”

In the silent crowd, Ludwig stepped forward. Although his words sounded slightly derogatory to those around him, at least the reasoning behind them was sound.

Seeing that Lud had also come out to refute him, and even subtly mocked him for not being a qualified commander, Narad couldn't help but sneer.

"Oh! What brilliant idea do you have, Priest Ludwig?"

"Hehe, it's not a profound insight, just some life experience from an older person."

Lud spoke slowly and deliberately, the word "elder" making him slightly uncomfortable, but he couldn't refute it. Because judging by appearance alone, Lud, with his white hair and beard, was indeed older.

"I have three strategies here, the upper, middle, and lower ones. I wonder which one Lord Narad would like to hear first?"

"Three strategies? Top, middle, and bottom ones. Let's start with your top strategy!"

"The best course of action is naturally to retreat and return to the village..."

"Deserting in the face of battle! You call that the best course of action?"

Upon hearing Lud say that he was withdrawing his troops, Narad interrupted him rudely with his deafening voice before he could finish speaking.

Lud simply smiled when he was interrupted, and then continued.

"Although the Valiant Army has over a thousand men, we are clearly not qualified as an army. The only ones who can truly be called elite are your twenty guardian knights from the Church of War and a very small number of experienced adventurers. If we rashly attack the Lizardman tribe with such a hastily assembled ragtag army, we might be able to win with your buff spells, but the casualties will inevitably be heavy. In fact, it would be better to retreat and wait for the reinforcements from Earl Ramli's territory to arrive."

"No way! We've come all this way, there's no reason to give up halfway."

Upon hearing Lud's explanation that the retreat was to wait for reinforcements from Earl Ramli's territory, Narad immediately shook his head in denial. The reason he was in such a hurry to send troops was that he was afraid that once the Earl's army arrived, they would put up a show of force.

Ludger seemed to know that the other party would definitely not agree, so he went on to say the second strategy.

"The best course of action is to proceed cautiously and wait for reinforcements to arrive. To be honest, I have some connections with Earl Ramli because of the previous Black Dragon incident, and I have already sent people to request reinforcements. And it seems that you, High Priest Narad, have also sought help from Duke Gammelin. It doesn't matter which side's reinforcements arrive first!"

"You...you delivered a message to Earl Ramley?"

"Yes! I was afraid you'd forgotten."

"you……"

Upon hearing that Lud had secretly sent a letter to Count Ramley, whom he least wanted to know, Lud's expression immediately became a mix of anger and uncertainty. However, in front of so many people, he couldn't afford to lash out, so he could only risk internal injury by suppressing his anger and forcing himself not to show it.

Tell me your worst option.

"The worst option is to take a risky gamble. We can split our forces into two groups, concentrate the elite of the Valiant Army, feign a retreat, and then take a detour to continue our rapid advance toward the ancient city occupied by the lizardmen. With a small number of elite troops and your buffing magic, traveling fifty miles of mountain road a day should be no problem."

"What about the rest?"

"The main force is advancing at a steady pace, making a big show of it. The lizardmen probably don't know our actual numbers yet. Even if we're a hundred or two short, I don't think they'll notice. The main force should try to draw their attention. Ideally, we should lure out their main force. With our two groups cooperating, we can completely wipe out their base. I call this tactic 'base swap'!"

End of this chapter

After listening to Lud's three strategies, Narad pondered for a moment, and his tense face suddenly relaxed, revealing a slight smile.

“Master Lude, forgive my previous rudeness, but your life experience as an elder is indeed useful. However, I think your three strategies—superior, middle, and inferior—are reversed. This third strategy is the best one, so let's go with this one!”

So Narad immediately "adopted" Lud's suggestion and decided to split up and show off their skills. The others present looked at each other for a moment, but since they didn't have to grit their teeth and walk fifty miles of mountain road a day, they naturally had nothing to object to.

After everyone left, Ludwig led Hume back to the tent.

Seeing that no one was around, Hume asked Ludwig in a low voice.

Why did you give that Narad advice?

Have I ever given him any good advice?

Luther smiled and asked in return, causing Hume to furrow his brow slightly.

"Just tell me what kind of crazy idea you have this time!"

"After spending these past few days with Narad, I've gotten to know his temperament very well. In a word... stubborn! He doesn't like others interfering with his decisions. The more you tell him not to do something, the more he'll do it. To put it bluntly, he's headstrong and has a strong rebellious streak."

"But he still took your advice."

"Don't you understand? Of my three strategies, the first two weren't meant to persuade him, but to block him. We know exactly what he wants to do, so when I made the suggestion, I specifically emphasized waiting for reinforcements from Earl Ramli's territory to arrive. Do you think he would agree to that?"

"And what about your third point?"

"What a terrible idea! But it just so happens to suit his tastes, so we'll go along with it. Let me put it this way: from our perspective, I'd love for him to accomplish as much as possible on this expedition. That way, if he makes a mistake, we can fix it. Who do you think the masses will trust more in the end?"

Looking back at Narad's main tent, Lud said with a wicked grin.

"Just you wait! He might even thank us in the end!"

After a morning of preparations, the Valiant Army officially split into two groups. The main force, led by a disciple of Narad who held priestly qualifications, continued to advance slowly at a pace of less than ten miles per day.

Meanwhile, a special task force composed of elite troops pretended to escort the wounded to their retreat. Shortly after leaving the ruins, they quickly changed direction, took a slightly longer route, and headed towards the settlement of the lizardmen tribe.

This elite force included eighteen guardian knights, thirty combat monks under Narad, eighty elite veteran adventurers and mercenaries, twenty militiamen familiar with the local terrain, and Rud's group.

It's worth mentioning that Erwin's Hydrangea Blade squad was also in this elite team, and Narad had even assigned them to protect Lud.

Who knows if this is out of genuine sincerity or deep-seated malice?

It must be admitted that by shaking off a bunch of insignificant fry, the speed of this elite special operations team has significantly improved.

Thanks to Narad's buff spells, they traveled nearly thirty miles on the first afternoon after separating from the main force, bypassing the main force by going around through another mountain pass on the east side.

In less than four days, the special operations team successfully arrived at the eastern side of the lizard people's settlement and found a high slope to conduct observations.

Judging from its appearance alone, the ancient city ruins occupied by the lizardmen are larger than the other one, and are built against the mountain, with a very layered architectural style. Sentinels can be seen walking back and forth on the broken city walls, but the exact number is still unknown.

Although Narad was arrogant and had a high opinion of himself, he was not a complete fool. He knew that if he charged straight at his 150 men, he would most likely be killed.

Although the ancient city had fallen into disrepair over the years and had not been well maintained under the rule of the lizardmen, the city walls, which were over ten meters high, had not completely collapsed. The main gaps were guarded by soldiers, and there were ranged units on higher ground.

As a race with a very low level of civilization, the lizardmen cannot make iron tools and bows and arrows, but they are very good at using spears and slingshots.

In the previous night raid, the lizardmen's melee units didn't gain much advantage. Three of them were killed on the spot by the humans, and the rest were forced to retreat in a sorry state.

But just as the valiant army was preparing to press their advantage and launch a counterattack, the enemy suddenly threw a bunch of sharp spears at them. Many of them were hit and died before Lud could come to their rescue.

After cleaning up the battlefield, Lud discovered that the spears used by these lizardmen were coated with poison, which had a strong anesthetic effect. If the skin was broken even slightly, it could completely paralyze most of the body within a few seconds, leading to cardiac arrest.

So, in order to prove that he wasn't just reckless, Narad solemnly declared that he would "outsmart" the enemy—wait until it got dark before charging in!

Fortunately, Lude once again stepped forward to dissuade Narad. He said that the special forces had been marching for a long time and had accumulated a certain degree of fatigue. If they launched a forced attack tonight, even with the buffing magic of the God of War, their combat power would still be greatly reduced.

In addition, they should first organize a close-range reconnaissance to find out the details of the lizardman tribe in the city before taking action.

Despite his desire to recruit Lud, Narad was somewhat annoyed by Lud's repeated interference along the way, but his personality made him resentful of Lud, even though Lud's words made some sense.

So that night, the special operations team set up camp.

To avoid being discovered by the lizardmen, the group didn't even dare to light a campfire. They found a grove of trees downwind to rest temporarily, drinking cold water and eating dry, hard rations to stave off hunger. If they wanted to sleep, they had to huddle together for warmth, otherwise the cold night wind would easily make them catch a chill.

Narad selected a group of skilled professionals from the special operations team and organized a reconnaissance squad to infiltrate the ancient city ruins late at night, in order to find out about the situation of the lizardman tribe and the layout of the buildings.

Out of caution, Ludwig sent Hume along as well; with her, the master thief, by her side, the reconnaissance team would at least avoid a disaster.

According to Lud, the special operations team must not make any careless mistakes that might alert the enemy and disrupt the next act of the show.

After Hume set off with the reconnaissance team, Ludd was suddenly left with only two nuns. Meanwhile, the Hydrangea Blade, who was supposed to be "protecting" them, started making trouble.

Erwin ordered his men to surround Lud and his two companions, then sat down in front of Lud and asked him with a malicious smile.

"Priest, would you mind having a chat with me?"

End of this chapter

Lud's first impression of Erwin was very poor. He was a typical spoiled aristocrat, arrogant, domineering, and vicious!

This guy caused a lot of trouble for other adventurers in Pine Village, and even once set his sights on Lud's cult. He thought he could use the power of his family to force a small cult like theirs to compromise.

So when this guy suddenly resurfaced and wanted to talk to Lud again, Lud's first reaction was that this bastard was going to annoy him again.

But to Lud's surprise, Erwin's first words were to bow his head and apologize to Lud.

"Your Excellency, I apologize for my rude behavior before. I hope you will be magnanimous and forgive me."

"Young Master Erwin, what are you putting on this for?"

Seeing Erwin's attitude suddenly take a 180-degree turn, Lude suddenly laughed, while Aina and Shanis beside him were both dumbfounded, feeling that something was wrong.

Seemingly aware that his sudden change from arrogance to obsequiousness would surely puzzle Lud and the others, Erwin waved to his men, signaling them to step aside, before speaking.

“Your Excellency, I am well aware of the image I have in your eyes. But you must also know that although I am the son of Marquis Masdak, I am the second child in my family. Unlike my eldest brother, who was born early, or my third and fourth brothers, who were born to my stepmother and were born with extraordinary talent, one became a trainee priest of the Cult of the God of War, and the other entered the Three-Person Tower to study magic. So, in order to make my father think that I am still a useful son, I have to play the role he asked me to play well.”