"You are really not going to eat?" Nedis looked relaxed as she sat on a chair. In front of her was the dinner sent by an officer. She held a grilled fish in her hand and smiled, "Do you have a habit of watching people eat?"
Rody just frowned and did not reply.
It had been two full days. Nedis, this stowaway, remained in Rody’s room and did not go outside. Rody did not allow anyone to enter his room without permission. Someone would send three meals, every day.
For some psychological reason, Rody did not want others to know of the presence of Nedis.
Nedis elegantly raised her cup and drank the milk in it down to the last drop. She then leaned back satisfied and smiled, "Well, I have finished eating."
Rody coldly looked at her. He walked over and finished off the rest of the food. He then lightly said, "Alright, go back and sleep!"
Nedis sighed. "Don’t you know any courtesy? You are always so cold and unreasonable."
Rody finally gazed at Nedis for a while and then indifferently said, "In that case, tell me about the dwarfs."
Nedis smiled cunningly and replied, "I have already said. You must promise to take me ashore once you reach your destination. Otherwise, don’t expect me to tell you anything!"
Rody frowned and his expression sank. "You have already guessed correctly that we are going to war, yet you still want to follow! When the time comes, you better stay on this ship! Don’t even think of going anywhere!"
Irritated, Nedis asked, "Do you think I will listen?"
Rody shrugged his shoulder. "If you won’t listen, then I will knock you out when the time comes."
The two of them glared at each other for a long time as if unwilling to give way. Finally, Nedis smiled and softly said, "Well, I won’t argue with you. Hmph…I want to take a bath! Get me some water!"
"What do you want?" Rody seemed shocked.
"Take a bath!" Nedis boldly repeated. "I have been shut in here for two days without taking a bath! Have you never taken a bath before?"
That time, Rody really laughed. However, it was a bitter laughter. "Take a bath… You really know how to cause trouble...Don’t you know that every drop of fresh water is valuable on a ship at sea? On top of that, we are currently going to war. Having hot meals to eat is already good..."
Nedi glared at Rody and said, "In your capacity, you can live in such a large room and eat such good food. Yet you don’t have water to take a bath?"
They once again glared at each other for a long time. Rody finally sighed and said, "Well, I will arrange for you."
As he turned to walk out, Nedis once again shouted, "Wait!"
Rody impatiently asked. "What is it?"
"I also need clothes!" Nedis’ face seemed to turn crimson red. "I have worn this for two to three days now."
Rody was speechless. He then slammed the door as he left.
It seemed like the King thought highly of Rody. The people on the ship all complied with his requests. For a short while, there were several officers carrying a few barrels of hot water to Rody’s room. However, they had difficulty getting him the clothes. There were no women clothes on the ship. Rody also did not dare say that he wanted women’s clothes. They only sent him a set of ordinary uniform.
A few barrels of hot steaming water were placed in the outer room. After those officers went out, Nedis then came out from the inner room.
The room was misty with the steam. Nedis seemed shy as she said, "You… what are you doing here? Quickly, go out!"
Rody laughed bitterly. "Go out? I just only asked for hot water to bath. How am I supposed to leave now?" He lightly said, "You bathe here. I will withdraw into the inner room."
"No way!" Nedis’ face turned redder. She forcefully pushed Rody out of the room as she shouted, "You are not allowed to be in here!"
Rody felt helpless. With Nedis' strength, she would not be able to push Rody, but it was not nice to forcefully stay when a woman wanted to take a bath.
Rody sighed once he was out of the cabin door. He looked around and saw that there was no one near the room and sighed again. After thinking for a while, he decided to go and see the King.
The King’s face was paler, and his breath was weak. A few guards outside allowed Rody in. Rody then said, "According to our travel itinerary, we should arrive there by tomorrow, right? I believe we will be able to see the land before dawn tomorrow."
Rody waited for a moment. When he saw that the King did not respond, he frowned and said, "Shouldn’t you be gathering your officers to give them orders now?"
The King’s eyes had a profound look as he whispered, "It is not the time yet."
Rody pondered for a moment and softly said, "According to the map on the distribution of the dwarf soldiers that I saw, there will be a valley fifteen miles inwards from our pre-selected landing site. After passing through that valley is their medium sized city. There are about fifteen thousand soldiers stationed there. I guess they will have small groups of cavalries patrolling around town. After landing, I suggest that I personally lead a team of cavalry to rapidly assault them. We will quickly capture that base and at the same time get some supplies there..."
Rody gave a detailed account of his opinion but he saw that the King was squinting and looked as though he was not listening carefully.
"Your Majesty, are you listening to me?" Rody felt rather odd.
The King stood up and looked at the hourglass at the side. Suddenly, he smiled mysteriously and said, "Well, we will discuss this later. Three hours from now, I will give the order for the fleet to stop. I will then assemble all the officers here. We will talk about your opinion then."
Rody was startled and felt that the King’s attitude was suspicious. He could not help but ask, "Talk about it then?" Rody tried hard to suppress his anger and said, "If you want the battle to go smoothly, it is better to determine the advancement plans now."
The King seemed to ponder as he looked at the hourglass at the side. After a quarter hour, the King finally asked, "Rody, have you seen a spirit fox before?"
Rody frowned.
The King continued as he smiled, "The spirit fox is a wild animal with precious furs. It is very small and very beautiful but also very cunning. Many noble ladies from the Roland Continent like to keep this animal as a pet."
Rody’s calmed his heart. He knew that the King’s words would definitely have a purpose. So, he simply sat down and quietly listened until he finished.
"Unfortunately, the natural disposition of this kind of animal is extremely strange. An adult spirit fox cannot be tamed! Even if you capture an adult spirit fox, it will struggle until it dies. This is why only the young spirit foxes will be caught and tamed to become pets."
The King did not speak hurriedly, nor did he speak slowly. He said, "However, this spirit fox has another peculiar aspect. A spirit fox’s nest will only have two baby foxes at most. Besides that, if the hunter were to touch the nest and try to catch them, the adult spirit fox would immediately bite his baby foxes until they die! It would rather they die than to let them get caught! These foxes are really strange creatures.
"On top of that, the spirit foxes are really cunning and clever. They rarely leave their nests." The King smiled. "Fortunately, they still have to hunt for food. When an experienced hunter finds a fox's nest, he will first place a hare in the surroundings to lure the adult spirit fox to come out. After that…Haha…"
Rody’s heart sank. His expression changed as he asked, "What do you mean by that?"
The King stopped smiling and softly said, "The dwarfs are suspicious and cunning. Do you really think we can deceive them with our plan? Although this plan seems feasible, there are still flaws! Right now, we can only succeed and must not fail. That is why we must think of ways to make up for these flaws..."
The King raised a few fingers and said, "First of all, with such a large-scale mobilization of the army, even if we tried to keep this a secret it would inevitably leak! Second, our internal section is not secure! For example, the Senior Prime Minister's position has been very subtle the entire time…Someone smart like you should be able to see this, right? With his identity and position, do you think we can conceal the mobilization of our army from him?"
The King sighed and continued, "The Temple will naturally not stand idly if we fight against the dwarfs. If the Senior Prime Minister really collaborates with the Temple…" The King’s voice gradually became gloomy. "Then, it was not even necessary for the Temple to appear. They will only need to just send the information to the dwarfs...then our surprise attack will be known, and we will lose our advantage."
Rody suppressed his anger then said, "Carry on."
"This is why…" The King smiled and continued, "This is why our original plan will not work...In that case, we must adapt. If...if the dwarfs are the spirit foxes and their country is the nest, then in order to touch the spirit fox’s nest, we must lure their army…or rather, the adult spirit fox to come out."
"So, in fact, our ship here is the hare, the bait!" Rody coldly said, "Our fleet does not intend to attack. We are only luring the enemy’s fleet over, right?"
The King did not refute Rody’s words and calmly said, "Yes! Even the Senior Prime Minister believes that our fleet is the real offensive force! We must not take this risk! Do you remember, a few days before our departure, the last batch of the fleet setting off for the Radiant Empire..."
Rody coldly joined in, "That fleet is the real offensive force, am I right? We only hold out here to attract the dwarfs over. And then, the fleet that had set off earlier can land successfully!" Rody’s eyes were filled with anger. His glare was sharp and penetrating as it focused on the King's face.
The King sighed as if he could feel Rody’s anger. He gently coughed a few times and said, "According to the intelligence obtained, the dwarfs have received information about us and seemed to be aware of our original plan. Their navy did not track our last fleet all the way. They had already returned to their port on the day we set out…If the Senior Prime Minister was really collaborating with the Temple and had revealed the news, then if my guess is correct, the naval fleet of the dwarfs would not be very far away from our vicinity.
"Haha haha…" Rody suddenly burst out laughing. His laughter was filled with anger. He suddenly stood up and said, "It’s a good plan! It is really a good plan! In order to attract the dwarf's navy over here, you had actually sent out so many warships and soldiers…no, not right." Rody raised his head and coldly glared at the King. "Since it is a bait, then there is no need to have so many soldiers! If I am right, the fleet that we brought does not have many soldiers!"
"Yes." The King admitted. "There are not more than twenty thousand soldiers on board these one hundred and fifty warships."
The King sighed when he saw that Rody was not surprised. He then said, "I know you must be very angry right now. However, as an experienced commander of the army, I believe you will be able to understand our predicament. His Majesty also said he believed that Your Excellency will understand our approach."
"What did you say? His Majesty…" The muscles at the corners of Rody’s eyes suddenly twitched.
The King sighed. Suddenly, a white light emerged from his body. Under that light, his facial muscles gradually transformed. His body also seemed to be wrapped in that light which instantly changed his appearance.
"You are…" Rody gritted his teeth. "You are the leader of the Sorcerer’s Association, Master Sith! I have met you before!"
Sith's aged face was somewhat apologetic. "I am sorry. In order to make others believe that this is the real offensive force, I needed to disguise as the King and board the ship with you. So, I had no choice but to use a transformation spell to change into the King’s appearance."
Rody sneered. "Very good!" He stared at Sith and hatefully said, "So why did you involve me? Since our fleet is just bait, then why must I be involved in this plan?"
Sith’s expression turned serious and said, "This is because we really need you. In fact, our operation cannot be carried out without you."
He then showed a strange expression and said, "Rody, do you really think that the Sauron Kingdom cared a lot about the natural resources of ironwood that belongs to the dwarfs? That's true. After conquering the dwarf territory, we perhaps will be able to control this precious resource of ironwood and command the other kingdoms on the Roland continent. However, is this reason alone enough for us to take the risk and start this war?"
Rody’s heart stirred as he suddenly remembered the conversation he had with Seth a few days before departing.