Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 520: Surrounded City (3)

The king’s children had all already been sent away, the royal city’s resurrection tower had also been destroyed due to corruption, and it was also very possible that there was a spy within the city. The Rosa Kingdom’s last line of defense had also turned into an undead army and was assaulting the royal city.

With more and more disagreeable conditions rising up, everyone felt like the city would not last for much longer. Furthermore, the rebels corrupting the resurrection tower showed that the enemy had close ties with what happened to the resurrection tower in Wildfire Town, meaning they definitely did not harbor any goodwill toward Dawn Academy.

“Our only choice is to leave.” A spectacled lady voiced her opinion after everyone had added in their thoughts.

“If we leave now, it won’t be as simple as abandoning a city.” Even if the situation was clear, not everyone agreed with the suggestion.

“That’s right. If we leave now, we’ll completely lose control of the Rosa Kingdom. Based on our data from three months ago, we have thirteen resurrection towers in the Rosa Kingdom. If the royal city falls, we might not have access to those towers anymore.”

“Compared to destroying the resurrection towers, I’m more worried about the corrupted resurrection tower. This is the basis of our existence in this world. If a country has thirteen dark resurrection towers, I won’t even be able to sleep well at night.”

“Everyone knows how hard it is to build these towers. Starmetal is very valuable. It’s fine if we lose the resurrection towers, but if we lose all that starmetal, I think we should all just quit our jobs!”

…

The small meeting had a lot of differing opinions. Different perspectives offered different suggestions. Xiao Lin did not speak, since he was not high enough in status in this situation. He spent his time in a corner, sipping some hot tea, thinking about something with his eyes narrowed.

Liang Taibai listened in for almost twenty minutes before raising his hand and interrupting everyone. “Can we please have some more practical suggestions. If we retreat, how will we leave the city safely? If we defend it, how are we going to do that?”

Everyone suddenly fell quiet, looking at each other. They suddenly found it hard to speak. As envoys from Dawn Academy, they were very good at politics and administration, but they were definitely no military specialists.

“It will be hard to defend.”

“It will be hard to break out as well. After all, we don’t have the resurrection tower, but it should be safer.”

…

Another debate ensued. It seemed like leaving was definitely easier than staying. In terms of the conclusion, the choice seemed simple. Tossing aside the benefits to the government, their first priorities were still their own lives. After all, no one wished to stay in this foreign country and be buried with Rosa’s king.

Just as the decision seemed like it was going to be made, Xiao Lin suddenly raised his hand in the corner. “If we tried to break out, how high would the success rate be? Do we have an approximation?”

The others looked at each other, uncertain why Xiao Lin asked the question. Liang Taibai answered, “We’ve long since made similar plans. In truth, we were planning on using the griffins to leave at the right time, but the rebels came too suddenly, and the griffin landing point outside of the city has probably been overrun. However, we have other plans.”

Liang Taibai gave a simple explanation. They would use the fact that the undead troops did not attack at night (1) to leave the royal city through the northern gate deep in the night. Since the rebels attacked from the south, it would be hard for them to gather too many forces in the north. If they left at the right time, the complicated terrain toward the north would be hard for the undead to get through. After losing the undead army, they would move in a big circle, passing through the British Royal Academy’s land before returning to Dawn Academy’s territories.

“It might take very long, but it’s the safest plan we have at the moment.” Liang Taibai did not hide anything from Xiao Lin.

Xiao Lin furrowed his eyebrows, suddenly saying, “I object. I’m against leaving.”

The others did not understand, and Liang Taibai did not get angry as he said, “What’s your reason?”

Xiao Lin smiled bitterly. “If we only have one way out, I don’t think the rebels will be stupid enough to not notice. If they prepare an ambush on the way, even if we manage to defeat the enemy with our combat ability, our casualties will be massive without a resurrection tower. Don’t forget, aside from us, there are still many merchants in the city.”

The others had skeptical expressions. Xiao Lin paused before adding, “What I mean is, it’s very possible that the enemy has been trying to force us out of the city from the start. This is basically a trap. Surrounding the city and leaving one obvious point of escape.”

“This feels like something that would only appear in a TV show…”

“We don’t have any grudges against them. Even if they don’t plan on being friendly with us, I doubt they would face us straight up. I feel like they would deliberately let us escape. A royal city without the power of Dawn Academy would easily fall into their hands.”

“What would be the goal of that?”

Liang Taibai sighed, putting his hand up. At the highest-ranked person there, everyone else immediately shut up at his motion, looking at him with a confused expression, because Liang Taibai had obviously been starting to think about Xiao Lin’s suggestion.

“I received some reports a long time ago that I never really believed, but Xiao Lin’s words caused me to rethink my position.” Liang Taibai hesitated before saying, “Ordinarily you shouldn’t know about this information, but it’s not time to think about all of that. Take a look at this report. You don’t have to ask about the source; we’ve never verified the news.”

Liang Taibai took out a document. Most of the documents had been burned away in the cleanup over the past two days, and the important documents were all carried around personally.

The document was passed around, and Xiao Lin was the last to receive it. He had already felt something from everyone’s looks, but opening the document and looking at the words, his expression changed instantly as well.

The document was titled, ‘Report on the Investigation of the Dark Resurrection Tower in Wildfire Town’.

‘Attention: The document is a preliminary analysis. Due to the lack of experimental material and data, a conclusion has not been reached. The report will only be used as a reference and is not to be circulated.’

What followed was a chunk of information, even using various complicated chemistry formulae. Xiao Lin knew that Dawn Academy did not lack geniuses and highly-educated figures. It was them that managed to combine Earthen technology with Planet Norma’s magic.

Xiao Lin did not understand those figures, and skipped everything. Just like everyone else, he flipped right to the conclusion on the last page.