In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

Roland was sitting behind his desk answering a phone call from the front at Fertile Plains.

The word "front" was not actually accurate. Based on the decreasing rate of the reception, it was more a phone call between Neverwinter and the Longsong Stronghold than one between Neverwinter and the front. Without an extender, this was the farthest a wind-up telephone could reach.

Yet they could still go beyond this limit.

The simplest way was to ask Leaf to "forward" calls. When she turned into the Heart of Forest, she could control the entire Misty Forest with her mind and transfer information even faster than Lightning when she was flying at the speed of sound. The front personnel simply needed to call Leaf, who would then transfer the call to Roland. In that case, they could pretty much receive messages instantly.

"Everything looks fine for now," Leaf replied in an unnecessarily low tone to mimic Iron Axe. "As you antic.i.p.ated, the demons made several attempts to destroy the railway tracks afterwards, but their action didn't really impact our logistics. Without the spider demons, they could only move the tracks manually. Moreover, they had to hurry off to avoid a direct clash with the 'Blackriver'. Since there was no need to replace the entire railway, it didn't take our engineer team long to mend the damaged section."

"It seems that the armored trains worked."

"Yes, Your Majesty. The armored trains actually function as a small stronghold. They play an important role in sending reinforcements and repairing the railway. I just wish there were more of them. If we could put a "Blackriver" at every station, that would be great."

"You make it sound like an easy job." Roland could not resist grinning over the phone. "Apart from armored trains, we also need witches to continue to produce freight trains. The two we have now is the best we can do at present. Keep expanding our defensive line. Hopefully we can get prepared for the general offensive by midsummer."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Leaf said in a m.u.f.fled voice.

"Leaf, you can actually... skip the nasal sound," Roland thought in amus.e.m.e.nt.

Roland continued on a cough, "By the way, is there still no sign of a ma.s.sive attack from the demons yet?"

He had been quite restless since Nightingale had woken him up in the middle of that night, telling him that the First Army had encountered a night raid. His heart had been in his throat until Anna told him that the loss was moderate and that Edith had rea.s.sured everything was fine.

In fact, poor lighting had always been a big problem for the First Army. In a dark surrounding, their firing rate would be significantly compromised, and Roland had still not figured out how to manufacture tracers. The soldiers essentially had to rely on the witches' instructions to fire. Roland had not expected the demons would launch their first voluntary attack at night. He was surprised to learn that they had not only developed a thorough understanding of the ability of Sylvie's Magic Eye but also grasped the nature of firearms. He was also quite taken aback at the fact that they adopted a loose formation and sneaked in. Fortunately, the enemy did not possess a weapon as powerful as a cannon, and the First Army had carried out their contingency plan perfectly. Otherwise, the outcome of the battle could have been different.

"I haven't noticed any signs that indicate the demons will attack us at night like last time so far," Leaf said. "Ms. Sylvie is now putting one or two hours every day on patrolling the railway area which the demons must pa.s.s if they plan to attack us. She sometimes also spies on the enemy on the Magic Ark or the 'Seagull'. At least, it's safe for now."

"What does the General Staff say about it?"

"They think there are two possible reasons. One is that the demons have noticed our change and can't play their old trick anymore. The other is that the demons can't a.s.semble enough troops to have a second round of attack in such a short time."

"Really?" said Roland thoughtfully. Apart from the demons' remarkable learning ability, he was also very concerned about that Senior Demon acting as the skirmisher.

Indeed, this was not their first time meeting a Senior Demon.

Now he remembered after they had met the first Senior Demon at the snow mountain, they had encountered this particular type of Senior Demon four times. However, several hundreds of years ago, Senior Demons used to be commanders only. The Union would only have had a chance to kill them after the Blessed Army had slain all other regular demons. They had apparently lost their superior status over the past hundreds of years and started to partic.i.p.ate in a battle more often than they used to. This was definitely not good news for them.

For the soulless G.o.d's Punishment Army, Roland could still develop some specific tactics to tackle them. For a group of Senior Demons with various powers, he could literally do nothing about them but to cross his fingers.

Since there were no particular methods to fight the Senior Demons off, the only way Roland could think of now was a universal strategy, which was to catch the enemy unprepared and eradicate them with more powerful gunfire.

"The demons would definitely not allow us to prowl around the Fertile Plains. We should stay alert, making sure we leave them no chance."

"Noted!" Leaf said while raising her voice. After the communication was over, she said with an abrupt return to her usual manner, "Your Majesty, Iron Axe has hung up."

"Alright..." Roland heaved a sigh and asked, "Who's next?"

"The Minister of Construction, Karl Van Bate."

Roland was a bit surprised to hear the Ministry of Construction have problems, as they had already sufficient materials and manpower to carry out their projects. He thus said, "Transfer the call."

"Your Majesty," Leaf said whilst mimicking Carl's voice this time. Although Roland could still somehow distinguish the difference, the rustling of the twigs and leaves made Leaf's performance quite impressive. "The construction team has encountered some problems recently. I hope the other departments of the Administrative Office could help us."

"It seems... Leaf has got addicted to this voice over job," Roland thought.

The report from the Minister of Construction was fairly straightforward. The night raid had shocked many workers and resulted in a low morale among the workers. As many foremen had noticed their workers were slacking off, they wished to change the workers' s.h.i.+fts or allow their families to visit them so as to raise their spirits.

Roland thought it was practically impossible to change everybody's s.h.i.+fts since not all the workers were willing to trade their lives for a higher pay. As such, he steered the conversation to the second method. "Family visits? I remember more than 70% of the railway workers are immigrants who don't have a family. If we allow family visits, those who don't have relatives would feel bitter against those who do, which would then exacerbate the current situation," Roland replied.

"I've thought about that, Your Majesty," Leaf answered for the Minister. "The railway construction team once asked all the workers to submit a Power of Attorney, in which they named the person who will have the full authority to take care of their personal matters in case they're killed in action. This person must be very important to that worker and thus, in a sense, can be regarded as his family member."

"That sounds like a plan," Roland said after a moment of reflection. "Alright then. I'll ask Barov to arrange it."