Chapter 1314: Camp infiltrating the Mankeys
The night continued to pass, and the Red Mankey general waited in the Sacred Tree for the news of his soldiers’ success.
Even from up above, he hadn’t seen any signs of the human camp moving about. This was good. This meant that the Red Mankeys hadn’t been found yet, and that they were continuing their pillaging.
However, as the evening continued to pass, nothing was still happening.
"Red Mankey scout. Report."
A Red Mankey with makeshift goggles on top of his head appeared upside down next to the general. "We haven’t been able to make contact with the inner group, general."
The general tapped his foot anxiously on the ground. "Then go inside and see what’s happening. Something is unnerving me."
The Red Mankey scout scratched his head. "That’s the thing, general. We’ve already sent two scouts, and they also haven’t returned."
Once he heard that, the Red Mankey general turned to his scout. "What?! Why haven’t you told this to me sooner?"
The scout cowered. "Well, we thought they were just busy..."
"Useless!"
"We– we’ll send more scouts and soldiers, general!"
"No, you bipedal hominid! Clearly something is going on inside that camp! Don’t send any more of our scouts. Just make sure to be ready for anything that comes outside."
The general peered down from atop the tree, his eyes trying to see the miniscule details of the camp far below.
"If anything had gone wrong with our Red Mankeys, they’d have made a fuss by now. They know to smear bioluminescent moss in the air to signal an emergency."
Yet, there was nothing. Not even a smidge of moss. Everything was eerily quiet, both from the human and Red Mankey side.
It was possible that their entire army was captured by the humans. However, it was impossible for all of them to get caught. That’s why there was an entire Division dedicated to overseeing the entire battlefield.
If even a bird flapped their wings at the wrong time, these Red Mankey soldiers were trained to immediately signal their outside forces that something had happened.
They made lots of redundancies in case, too. Amongst a thousand Red Mankeys, it would only take a single one of them for them to retreat and report to the rest of them that something wrong had happened.
But still, there was nothing.
And as the moss lost its bioluminescence and the artificial sun in the skies started to regain its brightness, the general was a hundred percent sure that something wrong had happened.
"Hominid, hominid, hominid!" the general cursed. He paced back and forth, wondering if he should report back to the Monarch about what happened.
However, the fear of reporting such a colossal failure had stopped him in his tracks.
How could he explain losing tens of thousands of Red Mankeys in a single mission? And what’s worse, they hadn’t even caught a single one amongst them! There was no casualty on the human side!
"Damn it. The others will use this as a way to bring me down."
The general was the 2nd strongest commandant of the demi-human kingdom out of the three of them. If he reported what happened, he’d surely drop from contention! He wouldn’t even be a general anymore.
A fall from grace such as this was unacceptable. He was so close to getting that promotion and finally being the 1st strongest general in their army!
But just as he despaired, he suddenly saw movement.
"Scout!" he shouted.
The goggled Red Mankey looked down from the Sacred Tree. "It’s our soldiers!"
Immediate relief lightened the general’s shoulders. "How are they? How many are injured?"
It was at this point that the scout frowned and began counting in his mind. "One, two, three... sir. Everyone is accounted for. No casualties and no injuries. They are now on their way to exiting out of the human camp."
"Great! I never doubted them in the first place! They must have annihilated the humans, then!"
The scout pursed his lips, hesitant to say what he saw. "Umm... sir, there’s no casualties on the human side as well."
"WHAT?! How is that even possible? How were our soldiers able to get out unscathed?!"
Gulping, the scout said; "they were being escorted by the humans, sir."
The general leaned on the branch, to the point where he was just a few inches away from plummeting hundreds of meters down to his death. But he didn’t care. He wanted to see the truth for himself!
And just as the scout had said, a sea of Red Mankeys began walking out of the human settlement with hesitant steps in their pace.
Behind them, the humans simply just looked at them and waved. And what’s more, some of the Red Mankeys waved back! Preposterous!
The general quickly descended the Sacred Tree and travelled for hours and hours to welcome his soldiers. And then finally, he was able to meet his army.
"What happened. Tell me everything."
Each of the Red Mankeys looked at each other, not knowing what to say. It wasn’t until one of the battalion leaders stepped forward did they finally reveal what had happened.
"It was a trap," he said. "They were fully prepared for our infiltration. They confined us in their own buildings."
"And? Did they torture you for information?" the general seethed.
"No, sir. They... fed us, bathed us, and accommodated our every need."
Hearing this, the general’s jaw just dropped to the floor, unable to say anything.
"They showed us how they lived, sir. Did you know each of them gets to eat fish anytime they want?"
"They also have infinite water! They have so much that they even use hot water to bathe themselves in these giant tubs!"
"BURP. And their alcohol was pretty good too. They even gave me a few kegs of their beer as a gift," a soldier said, hauling a wooden barrel behind him.
Then, the general heard something that truly appalled him. "Sir. These humans aren’t that bad. Maybe we can be friends with them."