The old man's attitude in front of him was kind and did not have too much of grandeur of a man in high-order position. While he spoke, the armored woman turned to look curiously at them. Hao Ren found that she was a much younger woman than he had expected, she looked around 25 years old, fair skin, looked very beautiful, but there was a faint heroic spirit in her face which seemed to have lots of experience on the battlefield, not just a beautiful woman with no actual strength.
Becky was a little nervous when she saw the rector. She hurriedly folded her hands in front of the chest to make a special gesture and then bowed deeply. She said with a stiff tone, "Your Excellency, I am Becky, I am a second-class mercenary, from Lamberg town, the... Yes, we have an important intelligence!"
"Don't be nervous, I've heard it." The rector waved his hand to signal Becky that she did not have to be over-courteous. He looked curiously at the people behind Becky, found that these people neither salute, nor tension, but with a subtle sense of alienation. He could not help but looked at them again but said nothing about it. He just turned to Becky and went straight to the point, "All of you have just come down from the mountains? And know something about the rock giants?"
Becky nodded hurriedly and replied, "Yes... We do. We saw them split from a peak on the southern side of the mountain trail!"
"Split from the peak?" The old man's eyebrows fluttered, a surprised glow flashed through the muddy eyes. "How? Please tell me the details."
Though Becky was usually careless and fearless, she was a civilian after all who had a deep-rooted fear of the Disciples of Glory. For the first time in her life she met the rector such a big shot, she hurriedly told him everything they saw in the mountain, and also mentioned the battle in the east of the mountains.
"Three of you settle the rock giants? You seem to have the actual strength." The old man looked at Hao Ren and the people beside him who did not even have weapons or armors with surprised. He did not feel much of a warrior's vigor from them, which surprised him and asked, "Are you also mercenary corps?"
Lily jumped up on the spot and said, "Dogs Have Gotten All The Good Names…"
Hao Ren tried to stop the girl immediately, but he did not make it. Lily acted too quickly.
The old rector heaved a long sigh and said, "The mercenary now... are getting more and more outrageous. When I was young, there were names like Silver Hand, Silver Fist, and Silver Eye. Now the names are getting weird. Young people these days really didn't take the names seriously."
Hao Ren muttered, "All good names are taken. Why don't you say that the last mercenary corps of the silver series is called Silver Knee?"
"Just now we saw the situation outside the town." Vivian did not want to dwell on this topic and took the initiative to divert attention. "There's been an attack here? What's the status?"
"Two attacks, the Knights had some casualties, but after finding the weaknesses of those giants, they beat them off." The old man did not conceal the situation here and roughly explained what happened this afternoon. Hao Ren then knew that after the rock giants split from the cliff, they immediately attacked the small town at the foot of the hill, with two consecutive attacks.
The first attack took place three hours ago, about a one hour or so after the loud bang coming from the mountain. There are more than 10 rock giants rushing out of the mountain path. Most of the casualties of the Knights occurred in the first attack. The powerful combat capability of those monsters was still not that vital. The hardest part was that they could regenerate whenever they touched the ground. No one knew this at first, and there was no one as powerful as Y'zaks who could take time to figure out the weakness of the opponent while fighting. So the Knights went through a tough fight, but eventually, they fought off the rock giants after a certain amount of casualties.
The second attack took place one hour ago, just before the Hao Ren and the rest of them arrived in the town. It was still more than 10 rock giants rushing out of the mountain path, but because of preparations, the attack was easily disrupted.
"It was very sudden, those monsters almost rushed into the town," said the rector in a low tone, "Fortunately, this is the last stop before the Holy Land, there are many knights stationed all year round, so nothing serious happened."
"Reckoning by time, after the rock giants split from the cliff, they should be heading straight for the town." The young woman who spoke to the rector just now remained silent for some time, and now she spoke. Her voice was steady and magnetic. "Your Excellency, what do you think of this matter?"
The rector bowed his head, pondered for a moment, and began to speak slowly, "The Dragonspine Ridge is a sacrilege built by the arrogant ancient mage-emperors, every stone in this mountain is a challenge to the authority of the Goddess, and all the unusual phenomena that occur should be attributed to the evil motive, and the rock giants that are split from the mountains are undoubtedly full of evil. I think their goal should not be this checkpoint, but... Beinz the Holy Lake."
"I think so," the woman nodded, "The disappearance of the Orb of the Holy Synod, the unusual changes in the Holy Lake, and the emergence of monsters in the Dragonspine Ridge, and these monsters are now trying to attack the Holy Lake. This is a series of events which is an obvious and planned provocation."
The rector was silent. He did not like 'offense' and 'provocation' the two words of obvious directivity, but the fact in front of him was difficult for him to make a strong retort, and finally he could only nod and said, "Perhaps those evil souls in the ancient times have not yet given up, they are preparing some..."
The armored woman said slowly, "Eloken has declared war on the Goddess, Your Excellency."
"It's too early to think it's a holy war," the rector seems to be insisting, "the Goddess's authority is not so easily provoked."
"But the ancient mage-emperors did succeed once--we have to respond to it before they provoke the second time. Otherwise, we can't be sure if the Goddess would not be angry for a second time."
This time, the rector was silent for a longer time. Finally, he could only wave his hand and said, "...Your Excellency, please keep in mind that certain things are taboo and not to be mentioned frequently near the Holy Lake. Even if there is no Orb of the Holy Synod, the Goddess can also know what is happening in this world. Well, I'll consider opening the Holy Sepulcher, but at least until three months later. I hope can explain this to His Majesty."
"Wise move." The woman said and nodded, and then suddenly remembered that there were others in the room. She smiled at them with a little apology and said, "Sorry, we're busy debating and ignoring you."
Hao Ren was still in a daze. Becky was surprised and suddenly jumped up, "Wait… Wait a minute! Your Excellency, Ophra?! You, you... You..."
With her hands on her chest, Ophra seemed to find Becky's response interesting and said, "I'm Ophra, the Kingdom Marshal. What's wrong?"
Becky thought for a moment, then slapped herself and fainted.
Nangong Wuyue was nearest to Becky. She quickly supported the mercenary girl with her hands. Becky slowly opened her eyes and saw the heroic legendary heroine was still standing in front of her, so she was going to faint again. Luckily, this time before she fainted, Nangong Wuyue smashed a water ball with ice to her face.
"Is it so surprising? I've seen a lot of interesting guys, but this is the first time that I see such intense reaction," she said and smiled cheerfully.
"I am... I adore you!" Becky jumped up and wanted to pounce, but she stopped halfway and then stood to attention in a weird posture, and then began to bow and salute, "Lord Marshal... Uh, no, sir... Uh, no, Your Excellency."
"Come on, I'm not royalty, and I'm not a duchess." Ophra smiled, waved her hand and stood aside. It seemed that the way Becky addressed her made her awkward. "I heard your name, Becky, right? You have made a great contribution this time, you are a good mercenary."
At this time, Hao Ren really could not help asking and came to Becky, whispered behind her, "Who is this?"
"How can you not even know her?" Becky stared at Hao Ren like he was a monster, and then remembered that he was 'a wizard from the Northern Empire', but she still found it a bit inconceivable, "People from the Empire of Hognar should also know Ophra, the Grand Marshal. She is one of the three heads of the kingdom, the famous heroine of the whole continent! You are too ignorant."
"It's not that dramatic," she smiled, and now looked approachable, totally without the aggressive look of arguing with the rector, "I just happened to have experienced a lot of things."
Then she turned to the rector and said, "Your Excellency, I'll go first. I'll let my knights taking charge of the night defense, and tomorrow we'll discuss in detail what to do with the monsters that come out of the mountains. If the information of these mercenaries is accurate, we have to face more than 20 rock giants."