A letter from Verum

The Throneroom...

Inside the Royal Palace of Hertalese

Ferum, Hertalese.

...

Hundreds of miles away, across the Morgan channel in the warring kingdom of Hertalese sat an overweight middle-aged king with a portly frame dressed in royal robes sporting a depressed expression on his face.

"Vinne was lost two days ago with a hundred men, eighty-three soldiers and seventeen knights, dead and two hundred more unaccounted for, Torille is currently under siege and..."

He sat there on his golden throne with his bearded chin propped up on his right hand, a half-full wine cup dangling precariously between his loose fingers and his legs crossed over one another as he listened to a minister read off a bunch of reports from a long paper scroll.

King Tuhkus sat there absentmindedly as he occasionally sipped out of his cup of wine. Although that was his favourite wine he couldn't even taste it as it slid down his throat due to his terrible mood.

A couple of days ago he was elated when he got the news that his son had successfully led the invasion and conquered Algrim. Even though he knew his son, Everhard was aided by Sir Richard throughout the event, he waved it off as a 'minor' detail.

Since history would mostly remember his son who was the figurehead leading the invasion and give him most of the credit, Tuhkus didn't want to fuzz over such an 'unnecessary' detail but instead had then begun planning to throw an elaborate party to welcome his son when he returned from his expedition.

The party preparations were underway when King Tukhus who was still in a celebratory mood received an urgent letter from the nobleman in charge of Mryh bay that the harbour was being attacked by Aries and Blacksails who were planning on invading the kingdom.

At first, the poor king was still trying to stay optimistic, thinking that it was just the usual short term confrontation between kingdoms and that everything would be fine later.

Only when he received another letter stating in ice-cold facts that Mryh was conquered and a large number of forces from both Aries and Blacksails, landed and had begun to assault the nearby towns and strongholds to raid the kingdom did King Tuhkus finally accepted that he had been double-crossed by Blacksails.

He was infuriated at first at the revelation because while he knew that the leaders of Blacksails were sly snakes he didn't expect that their appetite would get so big that they would begin to covert his assets so blatantly without in the slightest trying to hide their involvement.

Seeing his assets being defiled so rudely made the obese king angry as he wished he could force these bastards off his lands and be done with them, alas that was easier said than done.

To effectively conquer Algrim in the shortest time frame possible, he had mobilized over seventy per cent of his elite forces and sent them off under his son's command to battle. The forces that remained where spread unevenly across the nation to give the impression to the other nations that about six-tenths of his forces remained.

The plan was ingenious in its own right because when the remaining kingdoms finally discover his ploy they would still be hesitant on how to proceed because of how muddled up the info on Hertalese would be when they investigate.

No reasonable ruler would send his forces to where they knew little about without the appropriate preparation. Because of this, they would become indecisive due to the fear of losing their men to a situation they can not gauge or control. This indecisiveness would provide Hertalese with a little more time for its army to return and protect the kingdom.

The crux of the issues was for the other kingdoms to remain uncertain about the truth and hesitate. But if one of the kingdoms had been made aware of their plans it would prove catastrophic for Hertalese.

Blacksails betrayal gave Aries the time to prepare beforehand and wait for Hertalese's military to head to Algrim leaving Hertalese defenceless.

Now there was little King Tuhkus could about the troops pillaging in his kingdom. He attempted rallying the remaining forces left in the kingdom to aid in resisting these invaders but he knew it would take a long time for everyone to rally given the way the scattered his forces.

Even if he could get all of them here immediately he still can't make a small majority of the nobles bring all their troops for various reasons, one being that there has to be a portion left behind to guard the properties of the nobles and other miscellaneous reason.

Long story short he could bring only about forty per cent of the remaining troops to defend against the invaders. And considering the number of invaders mentioned in the letters, he knew he had nowhere enough men to repel the invaders.

Poor king Tuhkus had already tried seeking aid from the Church of the Seven but was coldly turned down. He was already aware that Pope Heimlich received some benefits from Aries which was the reason he wasn't going to intervene in this matter.

And as to whether he could offer a greater counter-offer Tuhkus already knew that would just be a pipe dream. Aries offered the church access to two of their satellite cities for twelve years and considering how much benefits the church would be reaping from this deal the obese king knew that only by emptying his coffers would he be able to barely surpass that offer.

But one might be wondering why the poor king didn't also offer a few cities as a counteroffer, King Tuhkus only didn't do so because he couldn't. Unlike the remaining six kingdoms Aries is the only kingdom that doesn't have the presence of any major religious power.

The reason is that before the Great war that land that is currently Aries was back then made up of three kingdom's and was also the place where the Church of the seven was deeply rooted. But during the Great War, the other two kingdoms were conquered by the present-day Aries and the roots of the church were removed by the king then to prevent any other power from developing in Aries.

Since then though Aries and the two main churches do have cooperative deals such as this one, neither the church of the seven or the twins could permanently establish themselves and spread their influence there, only able to be content with small cult-like gatherings.

Nonetheless, Aries remains the wealthiest but also the most reclusive kingdom in Udoris, so getting full access to two of its cities for twelve years might even be more enticing to the Pope than King Tuhkus's treasury.

When King Tukhus couldn't get help from the church of the seven, he sought out the board of trade, but it seems they've also been bought over by Aries since they completely ignored all his letters and messengers not even bothering to give a proper refusal.

As to getting help from the remaining kingdom Tukhus didn't even consider it. He was already glad they are still preparing to take advantage of his predicament and hadn't joined Aries in pillaging his kingdom.

With no power to stop it, King Tuhkus could only stare on as his kingdom was defiled in front of him. The only good news was that he had confirmed from Pope Heimlich that the capital should at least be safe, hopefully.

Depressed, the half-drunk king took another swing of his wine as he stared blankly at the walls of the chamber while the minister rambled on.

Just as the king was about to dose off from depression a servant hobbled over with his back bent to the side of the throne with a paper scroll in his hand. The king raised his brow at the letter as only vital messages get sent via fine white paper all information on its production is jealously guarded making it rare hence too expensive to be utilized for single-use reasons like sending messages.

Curious the portly king received the letter before peeling off the waxen seal.

"Verum..?" The king mumbled seeing the royal emblem stamped on the letter.

He unfurled the scroll and began to read it's contents. Soon his eyes brightened as he read on until he burst out laughing boisterously, his belly folds jiggled with each bellow.

"Yes, Take that! You bastards!" The king shouted as he jumped off his royal throne and began a victory dance, seemingly unconcerned about his current image.