Lord of the Oasis

“I…” After reviewing the reactions of the other two people, Portlem slowly raised his hand.

Bunduk turned his gaze to the young man, who was only twenty-three years old.

He thought to himself, this kid’s reaction is quite fast. The Lord would probably rather have such a person as a commander.

Looking at his square face, Bunduk suddenly recalled that in the battle with the undead, this young man seemed to be one of the warriors who had helped him break out of the encirclement of the undead knights.

“What about the other two?” Bunduk asked again.

Derrick and Bill frowned. After a while, Derrick replied, “I think I’m more suited with what I’m doing for now.”

“Don’t you want to be promoted?” Bunduk asked.

Derrick shook his head and introduced himself as someone responsible for managing the supply and demand of logistics and cleaning up the battlefield. His experience on the battlefield couldn’t be compared to the other officers.

“What about Bill?” Bunduk seemed to understand as he nodded. Then, he asked the officer sitting in the middle.

Beads of sweat appeared on Bill’s forehead. Finally, he exhaled and said, “I don’t think I’m suitable either. Officer Portlem has done a lot in this area. I think he’s much more suitable for the position you mentioned.”

“Alright.” After hearing everyone’s reply, Bunduk replied thoughtfully, “This time, I want to choose a candidate from among you to be a new commander. However, this matter should be decided by the Lord in the end. Remember to make more preparations. You may name any one of you to take the position of commander at any time.”

“Yes!” the three officers replied in unison.

…

After Kant finished reading the letter from the Undead Kingdom, he carefully wrote a reply to the letter.

The garrison of the Undead City reported to him the number of the remaining undead and wrote a proposal for exile.

However, Kant still ordered in the reply, “Euthanize all the undead soldiers.”

He did not want the second Undead Kingdom to appear out of nowhere one day.

The purpose of this expedition was to protect Drondheim’s absolute autonomy in the Nahrin Desert. He did not need to worry about the undead invading him from time to time.

Kant would not think of showing mercy to these powerful undead warriors.

As dusk approached, Kant recalled that he had sent someone to summon Bunduk to enter the palace at this time. After instructing his attendants to welcome him, Kant began to drink afternoon tea in the dining hall.

Right now, Drondheim’s development was rather smooth, despite having gone through all sorts of ups and downs. But now, it had already begun to take the shape of a strong and prosperous empire.

As a Lord, Kant also relaxed his state of mind, making plans for Drondheim’s future.

“Lord, Commander Bunduk has arrived,” an attendant entered the door and sent a message.

“Alright.” Kant came back to his senses in his imagination. He took off his napkin, wiped his hands with a wet towel, and walked back to the Senate Hall.

“Lord.” Bunduk walked in front of him and bowed.

Kant helped him up and asked cheerfully, “During these few days of vacation, I heard that you followed other soldiers to visit the families of the soldiers who died on the battlefield?”

“Yes, although killing and injury are inevitable on the battlefield, as a commander, it is inevitable for me to let the soldiers sacrifice themselves,” Bunduk replied.

“If you have such thoughts, your soldiers will definitely follow you without any scruples,” Kant commented.

Bunduk shook his head silently.

“Speaking of which, have you found any soldiers for the commander selection?” Kant sat back in his seat, looked at Bunduk, and asked, “I heard that you called out the names of several people when you returned to the military camp today.”

Bunduk smiled and said, “The three people that I called out all had outstanding performances in this expedition. However, to become a Commander, you still need some time to train and observe.”

Kant nodded. “It’s good that you have a clear idea of this matter. After selecting the candidates, report to me. Then, I can give the order to bestow them with official positions.”

“In order to become a competent commander candidate in the Lord’s mind, we still need to carefully consider it,” Bunduk replied.

“We can’t drag this out for too long.” Kant shook his head, raised three fingers, and said, “We can only have three weeks at most to consider.”

“Three weeks?!” Kant’s reply slightly surprised Bunduk, and he immediately asked, “Why are you in such a hurry?”

“Cumberland sent a message saying that the lizardmen and jackalans have been harassing their borders recently,” Kant explained. “The Elf King is discussing with me when to send troops to attack the lizardmen and jackalans. At that time, we will definitely need to eliminate a large number of troops. In addition to you, we will also need a new commander as the commander.”

After hearing Kant’s words, Bunduk’s brows were tightly furrowed, and he immediately replied, “I didn’t expect that Cumberland would be abused so badly right after it was newly established.”

“The Elf Kingdom has already completed the battle plan according to the terrain,” Kant continued, “The Elf Kingdom’s reaction this time was so fast, it really surprised me.”

“What about the time? When are we going to the Elf Kingdom?” Bunduk asked anxiously.

“It’s about a month away from now. So the military must make arrangements as soon as possible,” Kant said earnestly.

Bunduk nodded solemnly. Then, he bade Kant farewell and walked out of the palace.

There were only three weeks left to select a new commander for him.

During these days, Bunduk ran more frequently to the barracks.

The soldiers in the army were all surprised that the commander seemed to be the first person to arrive at the training ground every day.

In order to not appear lazy in front of the commander, the entire army gathered a lot earlier than usual in the morning.

When the soldiers were training, Bunduk sat on the main general stage to supervise the training while observing the three-man team that had been called out previously.

After days of observation, Bunduk silently commented on each of the three men.

Derrick like he usually did, was very careful with his soldiers. However, such a person was still insufficient as a commander.

Bill was a standard competent officer, and he always thought that he had to do everything well. Overall, he was somewhat similar to Pam when he was young, and his leadership ability was also strong.

For Portlem, who was the most proactive in becoming a commander, his thinking was very active. This could be seen from his daily requirements for the soldiers. He was also very confident, exuding a unique leadership temperament in the crowd.

After checking the previous qualifications of these three people, Bunduk finally reported Portlem’s name to Kant. He also carefully wrote down his considerations in the document he submitted. After all, this was the new commander.