Chapter 449: The Desperate End Has Come!

With a vicious grin, the Beast King raised his hand and made a throat-slitting gesture toward his subordinates nearby.

Instantly, the orcs guarding the nobles moved.

They slammed the flat of their blades hard against the backs of several human nobles’ knees.

The bound nobles cried out in pain and staggered to their knees.

Before they could recover, the orcs swiftly raised their greatswords, aiming at the nobles’ necks.

“No!” came the warlord’s thunderous roar from the city wall.

But the orc swordsmen paid no heed to the warlord’s cry.

With swift strokes, wet thuds of blades sinking into flesh echoed repeatedly.

Round, severed heads shot skyward, then crashed down, rolling meters across the wasteland.

Thud, thud, thud—followed by the heavy thumps of headless bodies collapsing.

In that instant, over a dozen royal nobles became corpses beneath the orc blades.

Such a scene was rarely seen in the past.

For most of the time, nobles never fought on the front lines but supervised from behind, so even if hundreds or thousands of soldiers died, noble casualties remained limited.

Splash!

“Damn it! They… they killed Baron Nak and Baron Debain! These filthy bastards!”

“Yes! These bastards—how dare they? That’s over a dozen nobles!”

In an instant, every noble on the wall erupted in fury.

They were nobles!

Over a dozen nobles.

The orcs just slaughtered them without hesitation.

This was a profound humiliation and contempt toward all nobility.

“Bastards, damn you orcs! I, Mil, swear eternal enmity—I will avenge Lord Gervas!”

“Correct! I, Ian, swear I will kill every orc I ever meet—make these bastards pay!”

Mil and Yi’en and others were already eyes blazing red, desperate to rush out and tear the Beast King apart.

Because the Beast King had killed Gervas.

Gervas had saved them from death’s edge multiple times.

They had never even had the chance to properly repay his kindness.

“Ha! It seems you human nobles are quite stirred up!”

“But don’t get too worked up—because in the coming days, this will be your fate!”

“By the way, perhaps you nobles don’t know yet? Your last supply of grain was burned this morning!”

“So from today on, you’ll have nothing left to eat—then, it will be time for our orc army to harvest you!”

“Of course, you may not believe me—but wait until noon, and see if you get any food today, and you’ll know whether I’m lying! Hahaha!”

Facing the nobles’ curses, the Beast King didn’t grow angry—he grew even more delighted.

This was exactly what he wanted: kill these captured nobles to crush the morale of those inside the city.

They’re shouting now because their rage is at its peak.

But once that rage fades, what remains is deep terror.

Combined with the loss of grain, the entire human army will sink into despair.

Of course, one thing deserves mention.

Among these dozen nobles, all were real—except Gervas, who was fake.

Moral had been gone nearly a week and still hadn’t returned.

So to make this intimidation more perfect, he simply used a servant to impersonate Gervas.

After all, the captured nobles were all disheveled and heads bowed, standing hundreds of meters away—no one on the wall could tell the difference.

The effect was perfect—exactly as he’d hoped.

The Beast King saw his goal achieved and stopped taunting the warlord, returning straight to the rear camp.

Then, the slave army resumed its attrition tactics.

As the Beast King departed, the royal army’s morale plummeted, just as he predicted.

Especially by noon, when the nobles received no food at all, everyone fell into despair.

They knew the Beast King’s words were likely true.

“Where’s the warlord? We demand to see the warlord! He took our grain—and now it’s burned! He owes us an explanation!”

“Yes! The warlord must appear and compensate us with grain!”

The lesser nobles, inflamed with rage, vented all their fury on the warlord, gathering en masse before Lindongbao’s gates demanding answers.

The warlord received word and rushed to the mountain-foot gate.

Listening to the lesser nobles’ shouts, the warlord’s eyes were filled with bitterness.

“Gentlemen! Our army’s current plight is my failure as warlord! The Beast King spoke truth—our last grain was burned at dawn today!”

“I have no grain left to distribute.”

“But rest assured—I’ve sent aerial riders to break through at any cost, to seek aid from Redstone City. If you hold on just one or two more days, our reinforcements will arrive!”

The warlord no longer concealed the truth—there was no point anymore.

He also tried his best to calm the nobles.

But the lesser nobles wouldn’t listen—and clearly, there were orc spies among them.

“We don’t believe you! Even if some grain was burned, maybe you’re hiding the rest?”

“Exactly! The high nobles love to exploit us lesser ones—there’s probably still grain hidden inside Lindongbao, and they just won’t give it to us!”

“Yes! We don’t believe you!”

The lesser nobles were instantly stirred again, erupting in fresh uproar.

“Gentlemen! I, the warlord, swear by the God of Radiance—I have hidden no grain whatsoever!”

Duke Hernade frowned slightly, scanning the crowd.

But the instigator-spies were cunning, blending into the mob with heads bowed—impossible to identify.

“Gentlemen, I, Duke Hernade, vouch for the warlord—there is no hidden food inside Lindongbao!”

“And if you don’t believe me, you may enter Lindongbao yourselves—after all, the grain is gone; there’s no reason to keep it sealed anymore!”

With Duke Hernade speaking in support, the lesser nobles’ fury finally eased slightly.

Then, without delay, the warlord ordered the gates of Lindongbao opened, allowing the lesser nobles to enter and search.

As Duke Hernade said, with the grain burned, Lindongbao no longer needed to be sealed.

After entering and inspecting the charred grain courtyard, the lesser nobles finally accepted the truth.

Once they confirmed even the high nobles had no grain left, they could no longer blame the warlord.

“Gentlemen, rest assured—our reinforcements will come! Hold on just a little longer, and victory will be ours!” the warlord urged again.

Though the lesser nobles dismissed his words, they had no other options now.

After all, they had witnessed the orcs’ cruelty firsthand that morning.

To hold on was the only path left—death awaited all else.

In the next two days, the royal army, now without food, gathered every possible edible material.

Bark, roots, even leather.

The nobles began slaughtering their horses in large numbers.

This time, not for gluttony—but to save the army.

Though with the massive number of soldiers, each man received only a tiny portion of meat.

Yet even a single sip of greasy broth could restore a sliver of strength for battle.

Now, the nobles no longer cared about personal gain—they did everything possible to endure, waiting for the warlord’s promised reinforcements.