If he wanted to become an independent King, now was the best chance he would ever get. The soldiers of the North were buried under the feet of the New Holy City, the South has just experienced a war and was still lying on the ground while licking their wounds, the East Border Lords and the new King weren’t in a better situation either. But he was afraid that in a few years they would come back into power. As long as he got some people to attack the North, it could easily tear the Kingdom of Graycastle in half. By then the territory and population under his rule would be comparable to that of the Kingdom of Eternal Winter in the North. With the two biggest cities in the south-east under his control his strength would be comparable with everyone else’s in the Kingdom of Graycastle.
And he, Osmond Ryan, would become the first King in this new country.
After he thought everything through, the Duke smiled in satisfaction. He wanted to end this farce with the Prince today and tomorrow he would immediately go back home.
As the sun gradually went downwards, approaching the top of the mountains, Duke Ryan could finally make out the outline of Border Town… and outside of the town, he saw a number of densely packed silhouettes.
“Father, Duke,” Rene, who was in charge of the leading the front, came back to report “The people in front of us should be the guards of the 4th Prince, they are all armed, clearly showing that they don’t intend to welcome us.
“Well, at least we don’t have to bother with going to the castle to ask him to surrender,” the Count laughed, “Inform the knights they should slow down and should stop at a distance close enough for a charge.”
“Yes, Father,” after receiving his orders, Rene turned around and left.
Duke Ryan raised his view and looked at his opponents. The guards in front of him all looked very strange, they were also holding strange weapons, they stood side by side in two lines. If you were to call their weapons pikes that would mean that the pikes did not have the correct ends, and the grip was also too short. Moreover, his counterparts adopting the disposition of trained troops was also against any common sense… their line of defense was so thin, weren’t they running with open eyes into their own death?
This made the Duke a little confused.
Of course, he would still send out a messenger, to try persuading the prince. “Go over and tell the Prince that I don’t have the intention of hurting him,” Duke Ryan said, “but I still have an obligation the new King’s order, they won’t be harmed if they put their weapons down without resistance. On his way back to the King’s City I will treat him according to the treatment of nobles.”
Getting his army into formation was a very slow process, first was the cavalry, they went one after the other onto their positions, while the mercenaries were slowly taking their position at the fore. But at this moment, Duke Ryan suddenly saw four short flashes of fire in the enemy’s camp — first came a flash of light, then there appeared some smoke. He frowned, thinking that there might be something wrong. He even thought about taking out his binocular but then suddenly a series of thunder like noises exploded near to his ear!
When the enemy finally entered his field of vision, Van’er immediately noticed the heavily armed knights who were riding on huge horses, wearing bright and dazzling armor and slowly riding towards Border Town. It was usually the case that the rank of a knight was much higher than that of the common town’s people, and when he was suddenly confronted with about one hundred of these, he had to take some deep breaths to calm himself.
Van’er felt how his palms became sweaty, it was just like the time on the wall when he had to face the demonic beasts for the first time, but this time he faced creatures that were the same species as himself — the joined forces of Longsong Stronghold’s Nobility.
