Sacrificing someone was the thing Ash wanted to avoid the most. To him, every life was precious, and every life was necessary to help him escape the tutorial of this character.
And if that life was that of his soldiers, who currently had a strong will to fight, then he didn't want to abandon them even more.
They were necessary resources.
But based on the current situation, in order to make use of those Shadow Eagles, it was necessary to leave someone behind.
However, how many people would agree to his plan? After all, all those prisoners wanted to live, no one wanted to die.
And worse, if Ash said that they needed to sacrifice someone, he was worried that the fighting spirit and courage of his soldiers that had just been inflated would be immediately extinguished.
Ash sighed because there were too many things to worry about.
He stared at the soldiers moving in front from behind.
Then, sighing once more, Ash decided that he would have to tell them his plan.
***
After moving for another 2 hours, Ash's army finally met the scouting group - the brave people who were willing to sacrifice their lives to gather information about the enemy.
Because those people already had a strong will to fight, Ash didn't need to waste any effort to encourage them.
As soon as the two sides met, they didn't hold any celebration party, not even take a short rest, but immediately held a meeting to discuss the upcoming plan.
An hour passed, and that was when the plan was almost done.
And now, it was time for Ash to speak his mind.
He understood that many people would disagree with his plan of sacrifice and they had every right to feel that way. But so what? Ash still had to say those words.
Just like that, in a slow, somewhat sad tone, he began to tell all his soldiers about his plan.
When the last word was uttered, he closed his eyes tightly, clenched his fists, ready to hear the curses from his loyal soldiers.
However, that never happened. All the soldiers said nothing but just turned to look at each other with indescribable eyes.
'The reaction...is not as expected.'
A minute passed and still no one spoke.
2 minutes passed, at this time, whispers had begun to appear and were spreading.
3 minutes passed, the entire area was once again covered in an uncomfortable silence.
And when the fourth minute arrived, a hand was raised from the crowd. It was the hand of a skinny death row inmate, someone Ash didn't know the name of.
"What's the matter?" He asked.
"Sir…I…agree to sacrifice myself." The death row inmate clenched his other hand, so tightly that blood oozed out. His face showed his desire to live, but if that was the case, why would he choose to sacrifice himself?
Was he dumb?
"Have you thought it over? Remember, I'm not forcing you to sacrifice yourself. I'm just sharing my plan."
"I've thought it over. But…in exchange for my sacrifice, may I ask you for something outrageous, my Prince?"
"Speak…"
"Since I have chosen to sacrifice myself… then… I hope you can give my family a better life, not a normal life but give them enough money to live the rest of their lives in happiness." His eyes were closed tightly, as if he was about to cry.
Hearing those words, Ash paused for a brief moment. But then, he quickly returned to normal and slowly approached the brave soldier.
All the soldiers standing around moved aside, opening a path for the Prince to go to that person.
"What is your name?" Ash placed his hand on the loyal soldier's shoulder.
"My…my name is Louis…"
"Very well Louis, I have received your request."
Ash took a deep breath before continuing:
"I, Ash "Worthless" Voidveil, swear that your family will live a prosperous life and your name will forever be engraved in the history of the Voidveil Empire!"
"Thank you!" The death row inmate shouted loudly, but tears started to well up in the corners of his eyes.
Ash couldn't tell whether they were tears of joy or tears of fear.
After the death row inmate named Louis, several other people had also started raising their hands, volunteering to sacrifice themselves. And all of them had requests for Ash.
It was only natural, who would volunteer to die in vain?
But what he didn't expect was that all of those requests were related to the families of the death row inmates.
To be honest, Ash was quite moved to the point of wanting to shed tears.
Louis, Oliver, Daniel, Garp, Jayden, Steve, Ben, and Joe were the names of the heroes who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the Voidveil Empire.
They were also the names of the people who would forever be engraved in the history of the Empire.
***
"Then sir, do we need to send a scouting team to search for the nest of the Abyss Creatures you mentioned?"
Currently, in the commander's tent, there were only Ash and Serena, and of course, the one who asked that question was none other than Serena.
"No need." Ash replied quickly, he didn't even bother to look at her, just intently observing the pile of information that the scouting team had gathered.
"Why is that?"
"Shadow Eagles have very good hearing, so they can hear even the smallest explosions within a range of 5 km. So all we need to do is arrange the people who will be sacrificed in the correct positions and it will be fine."
"Alright." Serena replied quickly.
Feeling something a little bit odd, Ash slowly put down the information he was holding on the table, slowly turned towards her and looked at the girl with a suspicious gaze.
"Aren't you wondering how I know that information? Aren't you curious?"
"Of course I am curious, Your Highness. But would you tell me if I asked?"
Ash paused for a moment, the answer was obvious.
"No."
"See?" Serena replied with a slightly disappointed smile.
Ash had seen that smile very clearly, but he chose to pretend not to see it.
And then, when the time had come, Ash slowly stood up from his command chair, put on a black cloak and slowly walked out of the tent.
Following him was of course Serena.
It was currently nighttime.
It was time for the battle to begin.