Chapter 449: Desperate Straits Arrive!

With a vicious grin, the Beast King raised his palm and made a throat-slitting gesture toward his subordinates not far away.

In an instant, the beastmen guarding the nobles moved.

They brought the flat of their blades down hard on the backs of several human nobles' knees.

The bound nobles cried out in pain and immediately stumbled to their knees on the ground.

That wasn't all—the beastmen quickly raised their great blades high, aiming at these nobles' necks.

"No!" A heaven-rending roar came from the Grand Marshal on the city wall!

Unfortunately, the beastman swordsmen paid no heed whatsoever to the Grand Marshal's cry.

As the blades rose and fell, wet thuds of blades sinking into flesh rang out one after another.

Round heads flew skyward one after another, then crashed heavily to the ground, tumbling several meters across the wasteland.

Thud, thud, thud—following close behind came the collapse of headless corpses, one after another.

In that instant, more than ten kingdom nobles became souls departed beneath the beastmen's blades.

And such a sight was rarely seen in days past.

Because the vast majority of the time, nobles would not take the field themselves, but rather supervise the battle from behind the front lines; thus, even if hundreds or thousands of soldiers died, the noble casualties would remain limited.

Whoosh!

"Damn it! They… they actually killed Baron Nark and Baron Debian and the others—those damned bastards!"

"Exactly! You whelps, how dare you do this—those were more than ten nobles!"

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

Those were nobles!

More than ten of them.

The beastmen had killed them just like that, without a second thought.

This was absolutely a deep humiliation and contempt shown to every noble.

"You whelps, damned beastmen! I, Mil, will not share the same sky with you—I swear I will avenge Lord Gervas!"

"That's right, I, Ian, swear that in this life I will slaughter every beastman I encounter and make these whelps pay the price they deserve!"

And Mil, Ian, and the others were already red-eyed, itching to charge out and tear the Beast King apart with their bare hands.

Because the Beast King had actually killed Gervas.

Gervas had pulled them back from death's edge time and again.

They hadn't even had the chance to properly repay Gervas's kindness.

"Haha! Looks like you human nobles are all very worked up!"

"But don't get too worked up, because in the next few days, these nobles will be your fate!"

"Oh right, you nobles probably don't know yet, do you? Your last supply of grain was all burned up this morning!"

"So, starting today, you'll be reduced to having nothing at all to eat—and when that time comes, it will be the moment our beastman army reaps you all!"

"Of course, you might not believe me, but just wait until noon—see whether you can receive today's rations, and you'll know whether I'm lying! Hahaha!"

Faced with the nobles' curses, the Beast King was not only unangered, but grew even more exhilarated.

This was exactly the effect he wanted—to kill these captured nobles and strike at the morale of the nobles inside the city.

Don't be fooled by how fiercely they're cursing now; that's only because their fury is at its peak.

But once this surge of rage passes, what remains will be a deep, gnawing fear.

Add the cutoff of supplies, and the entire human army will surely fall into despair.

Of course, there is one thing worth mentioning.

Among those more than ten nobles, all of them were real—except for that Gervas, who was fake.

Morar had been out for nearly a week now, yet still had not returned.

So, to make this intimidation more perfect, he had simply found a servant to impersonate that Gervas.

After all, these captured nobles were all disheveled and unkempt, heads lowered, standing several hundred meters away—the people on the city wall couldn't tell them apart at all.

The effect this time was indeed excellent, meeting his expectations.

The Beast King knew when to quit, and without further words with the Grand Marshal, he headed straight back to the rear camp.

After that, the servant army once again began the war of attrition.

And with the Beast King's departure, the kingdom army's morale, just as he had predicted, plummeted to rock bottom.

Especially when noon arrived and the nobles still had not received their rations, everyone fell into despair.

Because they knew the Beast King's words were probably true.

"Where is the Grand Marshal? We want to see the Grand Marshal—he's the one who collected our grain, and now it's been burned; he must give us an explanation!"

"That's right, let the Grand Marshal come out—he must compensate us for our grain!"

The lesser nobles were in an uproar, venting all their discontent onto the Grand Marshal, gathering one after another before the gates of Winterfell Keep to demand an explanation.

Upon receiving the news, the Grand Marshal rushed swiftly to the mountain-foot city gate.

Listening to the lesser nobles' shouts, the Grand Marshal's eyes were full of bitterness.

"Lords! That the army has fallen to such a state is the incompetence of I, the Grand Marshal! The Beast King spoke true—the last of our grain was indeed burned at dawn today!"

"Now, I can no longer produce any grain to distribute!"

"But rest assured, my lords, I have already dispatched aerial knights, ordering them to break out at any cost and seek reinforcements from Redstone City. As long as everyone holds out another day or two, our reinforcements will surely arrive!"

The Grand Marshal did not conceal it any longer—after all, concealment was no longer possible.

At the same time, he did his utmost to pacify the nobles.

But the lesser nobles at this point would not listen, and clearly, among the nobles there were beastman spies.

"We don't believe it—even if some of the grain was burned, what if you lot are still hoarding some?"

"Exactly! These great nobles love to squeeze us small nobles dry. There's probably still grain and fodder hidden inside Winterfell Castle — they just don't want to hand it over to us!"

"That's right, we don't believe it!"

The small nobles were immediately swept up, and once again began clamoring noisily.

"Lords, I, the Legion Commander, swear upon the God of Glory — I have absolutely not hidden any grain or fodder!" The Legion Commander gritted his teeth and swore directly upon the God of Glory.

Duke Hernande frowned slightly, his gaze searching through the crowd.

But that troublemaking spy was cunning — mixed in among the crowd with head lowered, shouting, impossible to catch.

"Lords, I, Duke Hernande, can also vouch for the Legion Commander — Winterfell Castle has not privately hoarded any food!"

"Moreover, if you don't believe it, you may enter Winterfell Castle directly to inspect. After all, the grain and fodder have already been burned out, and there is no longer any need to keep Winterfell Castle sealed off!"

With Duke Hernande also speaking up in support, the small nobles' agitation finally eased a little.

Then, without further delay, the Legion Commander simply had people throw open the gates of Winterfell Castle, letting the small nobles enter and inspect as they pleased.

Just as Duke Hernande had said, now that the grain and fodder were burned out, there was really no longer any need to keep Winterfell Castle sealed.

And when the small nobles entered Winterfell Castle and inspected the small courtyard where the grain and fodder had been burned, one by one they finally gave up hope.

And once they confirmed that the great nobles too had no grain and fodder left, naturally they could no longer shift their anger onto the Legion Commander.

"Lords, rest assured, our reinforcements will definitely come! So, as long as everyone keeps holding on, victory will surely be ours!" Seeing this, the Legion Commander once again encouraged the small nobles.

Although the small nobles scorned such encouragement, at this point they had no other choice.

After all, they had witnessed the beast-folk's cruelty with their own eyes that morning.

Apart from holding on, there was only the road to death.

And over the next two days, with no food, the kingdom's great army began gathering every material that could be eaten.

Such as tree bark, grass roots, even leather and the like.

And the nobles also began slaughtering horses in large numbers.

This time it was no longer for the pleasure of the palate, but to preserve the great army.

Although, given the vast number of soldiers, the meat each person could receive was very limited.

But even if it was only a mouthful of greasy soup, it could always let the soldiers recover a sliver of strength to fight.

Now, the nobles truly no longer weighed gains and losses, but thought of every possible way to keep holding on, waiting for the reinforcements the Legion Commander had spoken of to arrive.