Cannon Fodder Cheat System Chapter 74

Chapter 74
Legend of the Holy Light (Arc 6.7)
The one who came to negotiate with them was an elder from the demon clan. In his hand he held a skull wand, his slender and dark eyes swept through the crowd and finally stopped on Orede. "I heard that the great prince has already cleared out his demon magic, originally I did not believe it, but now I am half convinced.”
"Whether you believe it or not does not matter to me. Let us directly get to the topic." Orede had already dealt with this demon elder before on the battlefield, and knew that he was quite difficult to handle.
The demon elder let out a strange and unpleasant laugh. "The great prince has really not changed a bit, it's just that the two princes are both in, right now which one can make the decisions?”
As soon as the demon elder came he first started to provoke their relationship. Louis's expression changed, he could understand the meaning of the demon elder's words, that as long as Orede was there, he as the second prince would not have any voice.
Orede instead did not pay attention to his words. "Who has the authority you are naturally very clear about in your heart, why pretend to be confused here. The people who had previously come to an agreement with you, and the people who are now here to discuss with you, are all here. You just need to speak clearly, when does your demon clan prepare to leave our cities.”
The demon elder lost his smiling expression. "You killed our demon clan's demonic beast, how would you compensate us? I think that using those three cities to trade would be just right.”
"Your demonic beast is not worth our humans' three cities, not to mention that in these five years, your demon clan has not brought less harm to our people. If we really want to calculate carefully, ten demonic beasts would not be enough." Orede had no intention to retreat, when comparing temperament or strength, he had never lost before.
"It seems that you humans, or perhaps the great prince you yourself, completely have no intention of maintaining peace with our demons!" The demon elder let go of his already very flimsy facade.
Orede looked at him. "If it were based on my own intentions, I simply did not even have plans to negotiate with you. I will give you two days, after two days, my soldiers and I will make all the demons that appear in the humans cities vanish completely.”
"The great prince's meaning, is to go to war?" The demon elder asked.
"If you want to understand it that way, that's not impossible. If the demons do not retreat, then the only choice will be to go to war.”
"Do you all agree with him?" The demon elder looked at Louis and Carnia.
Louis clenched his fists and did not respond. Even the news about losing three cities had not been sent back to the capital, even though Barron was an idiot, he still knew the severity of these matters, and used his father's power to suppress the news. If he let the entire empire know about this, then when Louis was in charge of state affairs, his cousin directly giving three border cities to the demons would destroy his painstakingly created image. So those three cities had to be taken back, and he had to be the one to take them back.
"It seems that we simply have no need to negotiate today." The demon elder stood up. "Did you think that the demons would be afraid of going to war with you!”
"Then we will meet on the battlefield." Orede also stood up.
The demon elder gloomily stared at Orede, moved to turn around and leave, but instead suddenly attacked Orede with his magic wand.
Orede immediately pulled out his sword to resist, and the soldiers on both sides began to fight.
The civil servants saw that the situation was not right, and quickly started avoiding the battle. Louis and Carnia also completely had no intention of meddling, just hiding and watching from the side. In their hearts, they even hoped that the demon elder could take care of Orede. That way, the main power could return to their hands.
The demon elder had no way of winning against Orede just relying on combat power. He used his wand to release a lot of demon magic, wanting to use this demon magic to restrain Orede. He also wanted to use the demon gas to trigger the blood in Orede's body. He simply did not believe that Orede had already cleared out the blood essence, no one could have overcome the power of the demon blood pearl.
The thick and dark demon magic slowly permeated the entire room, only the demon clan could see clearly through the magic. The humans were already basically completely blind.
Just when the demon elder and the demon soldiers thought that they could start casually killing as they wanted, a bright light flickered and quickly grew larger. In just a moment, the demon magic in the room instantly and completely vanished.
The demon elder looked at Jing Yang, who had just released this light power, surprise flashing through his eyes. Before he came, he had received news of a person with extremely strong light magic, and this person was still the previous saint's grandson. He had originally thought that this was some fake news that the human royal family had deliberately let out, but he had never thought that this person really existed. He actually could use such a fast speed to clear out all of the demon magic that they had released, this person was really very powerful.
The demon elder quickly turned his attack target to Jing Yang, using that magic wand to let out destructive demon magic toward Jing Yang. That demon magic formed the shape of a skull with an open mouth, rushing toward Jing Yang.
Jing Yang calmly raised his hand, and just as the demon magic was about to devour his body, white light appeared on his palm. The light made that demon magic quickly and easily dissipate, just like some sort of fragile mist.
The demon elder desperately tried to release demon magic, but the magic he released extended out less and less, while Jing Yang's holy light was reaching farther and farther. When the holy light completely shrouded the skull on his wand, it let out a cracking noise. That skull broke into four fragments, scattered on the ground.
The demon elder stared in shock, and before he had time to react, Orede had already rushed in front of him like lightning and pierced his body with a sword, ending his life.
All of the demons were completely eradicated, and those civil servants hiding in the back could only come out one by one.
Carnia saw that Jing Yang's holy light was so powerful, and his jealousy eroded his heart. He stepped forward and said to Orede, "Your Highness, you have killed the demon elder and their soldiers, the demon king will definitely not let you off.”
"I have killed countless demons and never worried about whether or not the demon king will let me go." Orede looked at those civil servants with contempt. "If you are afraid, you can just hide like you did just now. But you all better remember, my soldiers and I resisted the demons regardless of life or death, for the sake of bringing peace to the people, and not for those of you who only know how to sacrifice others to protect their own interests.”
"War will only sacrifice more people." Carnia self-righteously said. "We worked hard to maintain peace with the demons so that our people will not have to suffer from the pain of war, so that our soldiers do not need to die on the battlefield.”
"Your words sure sound quite nice." Jing Yang sarcastically smiled. "Who doesn't know how to speak such grandiose words? If just saying those words can really allow the people to live a peaceful life, I can continue to say them day and night. But what is the reality? The so-called peace treaty you have drawn up with the demons has left the people living on the border subject to the humiliation of the demons, making them anxious and afraid to even leave their doors. The number of people who have been killed by demons in the past few years is dozens of times more than when we were fighting with the demons several years ago. This is what you call not having to suffer from the sorrows of war? This is the peace that you have brought to the people?”
Carnia was left speechless by Jing Yang's interrogation, becoming furious. "What kind of thing are you, what qualifications do you have to speak to me?”
Jing Yang raised his chin. "I am the saint, what kind of thing are you, and what qualifications do you have to express your opinion here?”
Carnia had forgotten that he was already no longer the saint, and Jing Yang was. He couldn't even speak from anger.
"Louis." Orede glanced at Louis and asked. "What kind of punishment do those who provoke or disrespect the saint receive?”
Louis heard Orede's question, and his expression grew increasingly ugly. He clenched his teeth and didn't speak.
Orede saw that he wasn't speaking, and said to the attendant next to him. "You answer for him.”
Letting an attendant speak in the place of a prince was an immense insult to the prince's majesty. Louis's heart was filled with fury, but he still did not dare to speak.
The attendant stepped forward and replied, "A person who provokes or disrespects the saint, depending on the severity of the circumstances, will be punished by whipping, ranging from ten to thirty lashes.”
"Then fifteen lashes ba." Orede waved to his soldiers. "Drag him down.”
"Wait!" Louis spoke out to stop them. "He has not even held the saint ceremony, and is still not considered the saint!”
"The laws of the empire did not stipulate that a ceremony must be held to be considered a saint." Orede said. "Father's decree has already been promulgated, do you want to disobey his orders? Or do you want to take his place for the punishment? If you want to take his place, I will personally satisfy you!”
Princes defying the emperor's orders was a huge disrespect, and a crime that Louis did not want to bear in any way. Of course he could not take the punishment for Carnia, for a prince, flogging was a matter of utter humiliation. And everyone knows that Orede was born with an almost divine power, being whipped by him a dozen times, even if you didn't die you would be half dead.
So when Orede again motioned to the soldiers to drag Carnia out, Louis did not stop them.
"Your Highness! You can't do this to me, you will regret it!" Carnia shouted.
The soldiers tied Carnia to a post and beat him a wet whip. He could resist crying out from the first few whips, but later on, his screams grew louder and louder. The whip beating on him not only hurt his body, but also whipped his heart, making him feel endless humiliation.
When Carnia was let down from the post, he was not injured enough to fall unconscious, but still could not stand up for quite a while.
Louis quickly stepped forward to hug him up. "Carnia, are you all right?”
The pain of the humiliation in Carnia's heart was far worse than his physical pain. He vowed that everything that he had endured today, he would pay Orede back several times over!
Those civil servants saw Carnia's punishment, and even though they did not dare to plead for him because of Orede's majesty, they were still extremely dissatisfied with Orede in their hearts. Now that Orede was in complete control of the initiative, Louis had no room to intervene, and if this continued to the end, there was no point of them being here. They had thought that as long as Carnia stood by Louis, they could cross the border to take control of the initiative. But it did not occur to them that Sylvie's light power was several times stronger than they had imagined, and not in the least weaker than Carnia's light power.
Just as those civil servants were thinking about how to get Louis to seize the initiative, Jing Yang said to Orede, "Since Carnia feels that Your Highness's conflict with the demons will hurt more people and soldiers, the second prince must share his views. Then it would be better for us to let the second prince go retrieve back those three cities occupied by the demons, and see if they can do it without harming a single soldier."
Orede looked at Jing Yang, a little confusion flashing through his eyes.
No one else thought that he would say such a thing, and looked at him in surprise.
Just as they thought that Orede would not agree, Orede actually looked at Louis and said, "Then you go and try it, those three cities were lost when you were overseeing the state affairs, and it is reasonable for you to take them back.”
"Royal brother is serious?" Louis looked at Orede in surprise.
"When were my words ever not serious." Orede disdained.
Jing Yang said, "But there is something that we have to say first. All of the consequences, you will have to bear by yourselves, don't make the great prince go clean up after you later.”
Louis's eyes flashed with a glint of success. "As long as royal brother does not take the initiative to intervene, we will definitely not ask royal brother for help.”
Carnia did not think that Jing Yang's words would have such an influence on Orede, whatever he said was what, Orede not only did not object, but did not even ask for the reason, completely showing an appearance of letting him do whatever he wanted. Carnia went insane with jealousy in this heart, but was also silently excited because of Jing Yang's initiative to send the opportunity to his door.
Carnia felt that with his demon magic, it would be no problem to recover the three cities occupied by the demons with very little damage. Unfortunately, it was temporarily inconvenient for him to meet with the demon king, otherwise letting the demon king order for the demon soldiers to not put up too much resistance when they went to take back the three cities would really allow them to succeed without harming a single soldier.
But it didn't matter, based on his tacit understanding with the demon king, after the demon king knew that he wanted to take back those three cities, he must know what to do.
Carnia was full of confidence. He had already begun to imagine the scene of them taking back control of the initiative, and at that time, he must find the opportunity to kill off both Orede and Sylvie. No, he would first make them half dead, and then kill them after viciously torturing them.
Translator Notes:
[1] let me go – 善罢甘休, leaving some matter at that, being prepared to let go, willing to take things lying down
[2] grandiose – 冠冕堂皇, idiom, means high-sounding, dignified, pompous
[3] becoming furious – 恼羞成怒, idiom, flying into a rage out of humiliation, being ashamed into anger
[4] him – unclear whether this is Orede’s attendant or Louis’s attendant, personally I would prefer Orede forcing one of Louis’s attendants to speak out words that Louis is unwilling to say
Random Notes:
About one hour: 3:30 pm – 4 pm, 11 am – 11:30 am, for 4k characters to 2.6k words. I have found that I really can’t translate in the afternoon, that just makes me drowsy and I end up writing nonsense. It’s pretty funny actually.