Arknights' Lock of Heaven

But even if there are problems, what can they do to themselves?

Could it be that I could pull out a huge treasure and buy it all in one go?

382 I am the general!

“More and more.”

At six o'clock in the morning, Boris was in the command room on the Ural, looking at the report submitted by his adjutant, his brow furrowed.

“Don’t worry, General,” an officer said confidently, seeing his demeanor. “Nikola has over five thousand men on his side. Even if things go wrong, nothing bad will happen. At most, they’ll just mess up the mission.”

“Franz,” Boris paused upon hearing this, “that’s not what I’m worried about…”

“I know what you’re worried about,” Franz shrugged and said casually, “The situation on Nikolai’s side is indeed unusual, but so what?”

"You're worried that even though we're almost 70 kilometers away from Cheprini, we still haven't seen him or his troops. You're worried that even if communications were disrupted, we should have seen a few messengers along the way, but none of these things have appeared."

“You’re worried this is a trap,” Franz Kai said. “Nikolai and his troops have already met with misfortune.”

“But how could such a thing happen? General, this is Ursus! Cheprini is deep within the Empire!”

He raised his head and declared confidently, "Who could do such a thing? To annihilate five thousand troops in the heart of Ursus without revealing a single clue?"

The officers around him chuckled with secret delight upon hearing this.

Most of them didn't have much of a background, so they could only secretly grumble at Boris's preferential treatment of that good-for-nothing Nikola.

But Franz is different. He has a count's title to inherit, a strong family background, and outstanding personal abilities.

Although this count's title was bestowed by the late emperor and should theoretically be considered a new noble family, his family sided with the old noble family after the late emperor's death and was highly valued under the Grand Duke.

Others might not dare to criticize Nikolai, but he certainly does. He's always been sarcastic and cynical, so he's bound to kick someone when they're down in this situation.

"If you ask me, all these anomalies are due to Colonel Nikolai," he said sarcastically. "Because of various 'accidents,' the mission has been delayed, but he's afraid of being punished and doesn't dare to send anyone to restore communications. I bet he's having his soldiers hunt people down all over the mountains right now."

"I might not make such malicious speculations about others, but Colonel Nikolai is another story. After all, he has done far more outrageous things than this."

Upon hearing this, Boris felt a throbbing sensation in his temples.

But he couldn't do anything to Franz, who was a direct descendant of the Grand Duke. The task of arresting people was originally his, but he intercepted it and gave it to Nikolai.

It's all Nikolai's fault, that good-for-nothing, really... sigh.

Boris felt exhausted.

But the situation did not allow him to abandon his responsibilities.

“General, I must remind you of something,” Franz said, looking at the silent Boris. “Because we’ve stopped so many times to recover those scrapped vehicles, we’re now more than ten kilometers away from our target. We can’t continue like this; we should close the distance immediately.”

"Furthermore, General, we haven't reached the expected battle location yet, and we need to pay attention to our officers' schedules. If we are notified to have a meeting at six in the morning when there is no fighting, the officers will not get enough sleep, which will have a significant impact on the afternoon's battle."

Franz was clearly unhappy with Boris waking them from their warm beds at six in the morning.

Just because of that good-for-nothing Nikolai? We're going to torment them like this?

Normally, Franz wouldn't have confronted Boris so directly, but on one hand, we all stayed up with him until 1 a.m. last night, and now it's only 6 a.m. and you've woken us up again; on the other hand, it was that useless Nikolai who dragged us out of bed...

Who is Nikolai? Does he even deserve it? Even Franz, who has always looked down on Nikolai, couldn't hold back any longer.

Franz got a little angry and started yelling. The others didn't have his guts, but they couldn't help but nod in agreement with what he said.

We really shouldn't go through all this trouble for that good-for-nothing Nikola.

"Can't even handle something like this nowadays?" Boris glanced at him sideways. "If it were the Ukrainian War or the Eastern Ukraine War back then, officers like you would have been dismissed within a day!"

"During the Battle of Blood Peak, we didn't sleep for days and nights."

“But if I may be so bold, General,” Franz retorted without backing down, “we are not currently engaged in a war, nor are we facing the Knights of Casimir or the warriors of the East this afternoon. We are only attacking a cargo ship!”

Is it really necessary to take this so seriously?

"..." Hearing this, Boris sighed and then turned to look at his adjutant.

How far are we from Cheprini now?

"Sixty-four kilometers, General."

Upon hearing this, Boris suddenly looked up and stared intently at the map.

If they proceed at full speed now, the two warships will be 12 kilometers away from the Orville... Based on the speed of both sides, we should be able to catch up with the Orville at a distance of about 82 to 83 kilometers from the Cheprini.

Two seconds later, he turned to his officers and announced, "Now, gather your men and get everyone ready for battle!"

"We'll speed up now, catch up, and take down that ship as quickly as possible."

"You mean the battle will begin here?" Franz frowned upon hearing this. "But the agreement with Ceprini's side was..."

“I am the general of the Sixth Army,” Boris interrupted him, standing up and calmly looking into his eyes. “Now, I order you to prepare for battle!”

“…Yes, it is your will,” Franz could only salute upon hearing this, then turned to gather his troops.

The same applies to other officers.

Watching their retreating figures, Boris sighed inwardly.

Even he admitted that Franz was indeed a talented young man, and what he lacked now was experience and qualifications. Given time, he would surely become a pillar of Ursus.

Compared to Nikolai, that good-for-nothing good-for-nothing, he's on a completely different level.

But this time, he really wasn't doing this because of the safety of that good-for-nothing Nikolai.

Franz lacked real experience in facing war, so he could talk glibly in front of himself; his family had no long history, so he was fearless.

But Boris can't.

He couldn't do it because he had witnessed real war.

He still clearly remembers the sunset over the golden plains of Kazimir, and the other 'sun' rising on the horizon at the same time.

I remember those forty-odd knights, led by Pegasus, charging against the overwhelming Ursus army.

I heard that the Qazimir people called that battle the Dawn of the Golden Plains.

Dawn, yes, dawn, how fitting.

More than forty knights charged into the Ursus army, which outnumbered them by thousands.

At first, Boris, who was not yet a general and was still as young as Franz is today, felt that they were like ants trying to shake a tree. He even felt that the victories they had won along the way were the last swan song of the Kingdom of Knights, and he was in the mood to mourn for them. He was thinking about how to describe this scene in the salon after returning home so that everyone would feel regret.

But his dream was soon shattered.

Those forty-odd knights, who had previously suffered a crushing defeat against the Ursus army, were just scattered soldiers whose organization had been broken up.

But facing an army of Ursus that outnumbered them by thousands, they advanced with unstoppable momentum, crushing everything in their path, and repeatedly breaching the Ursus ranks...

The light behind that horse was like a sun rising on the earth.

And so, the once invincible Ursus suffered its first defeat in this war.

Boris, caught up in the fleeing enemy, couldn't understand how forty knights had managed to do all that.

Just like Franz just now, he didn't know that Ursus wasn't invincible either.

I heard that of the forty-odd knights, only seven returned.

These seven men are heroes of Kazimierz, but also a persistent nightmare in Boris's heart.

Upon learning of the death of the leader of the Pegasus tribe, he even got extremely drunk.

He was ignorant back then, just like Franz is now.

For a general, ignorance means destruction.

Everyone in the Sixth Army thought the cargo ship was easy to handle, including Boris at the beginning.

But with increasingly suspicious intelligence, and the fact that the ship came from Kazimierz... he was no longer prepared to continue like this.

He also knew that there couldn't possibly be forty silver-speared celestial horses crouching on that ship waiting for him.

However, nipping all dangers in the bud is a good option.

Boris hates risk.

I hate even the smallest risks.

Having witnessed the miraculous comeback of the Kazimierz Knights and participated in the bloody battles like the Battle of Bloodpeak, he, a commander who was not particularly talented but simply down-to-earth, developed a steady and reliable habit.

At first, he, like most people, didn't take the ship seriously, until those reports came out.

Eighty kilometers... that's not much different from one hundred kilometers, right? Lermontov probably wouldn't have anything to say about that.

If Boris hadn't been worried about pushing him too hard, he would have already taken action.

Everyone along the way thought that he was so uneasy because of Nikolai.

But no, that might be part of the reason, but it's mostly based on intuition.

From the Ukrainian War to the Eastern Ukrainian War, he had earned his place through real combat experience; otherwise, the Duke wouldn't have valued him so highly.

He once thought that those incredible things were actually fabricated and exaggerated by ignorant ancient people, and that not everyone was the Witch King of Letania.

But having witnessed the dawn of Kazimierz, coupled with the information he had gathered over the years while holding a high position of power, he knew that the so-called myth might not necessarily be nonexistent.

The Witch King is not necessarily an isolated case.

Kazdel, a place rife with endless battles, is a prime example.