Chapter 15: In front of the Capital

The Capital of the kingdom was a gigantic city with more than hundreds thousand inhabitants.

In the middle of the city was a large palace, forming a no-go zone for normal citizens. An impressive tower stood next to the palace, towering over the entire city from its height.

The palace was the place where the king and his family were residing, while only the royal guards and domestics trained to serve the king, and only the king, were authorized to live near the main building. The massive tower was the place where the kingdom's wizards were living, and at the top was the wizard the most powerful of Prasthana, a rank 11 Advanced Wizard.

While a rank 11 Advanced Wizard didn't seem that incredible, it must be known that the most powerful wizard of the whole empire of Elyria was known to be only a rank 15 Advanced Wizard, unable to rank up.

Around the palace and the tower was a protective wall, certainly not very high, but which had the merit of existing.

Around this defended zone, the intramural city stretched for kilometers, forming a circle of tall buildings and wide streets.

The people living inside the walls were definitely the wealthiest in the area. It was for this reason that this city could be considered beautiful. Each street was wide enough to allow several carriages to pass side by side. The closer we got to the center and the palace, the more the status of the inhabitants increased considerably.

Protecting this city were high gray walls, about ten meters high, with watchtowers stationed at a constant distance. The wide towers were almost one and a half times the size of the wall, and overlooked the surrounding area. These walls thus formed a regular polygon with about twenty towers forming the vertexes.

Outside these walls was the other part of the city, a much poorer part, which spread out all around. Normal citizens lived here, while the slums took up a small area. These inhabitants were regularly seen with disdain by those who lived inside the walls.

As simply as with a well-placed wall, an overwhelming difference in status was created by previous kings. Actually, almost all the nobles who were governing a city were doing this same thing.

And much further from the city, on the edge of a forest, was a military encampment, which had been set up a few hours ago. This camp indeed belonged to the soldiers of the Duchy of Barnes.

The general Edwin had decided to launch the attack the next day, and give his troops some time to be in good shape. After all, the siege was likely to last several days at least.

Suddenly the city gates opened slightly, and three horsemen came out. The soldiers, tense by the door opening, let out breaths of relief.

These three horsemen headed straight for the camp, it was obvious who they were: probably the king's messengers.

Duke Chrisfold came out of his tent, and approached to see these messengers. Beside him was Edwin as well as Mardrick. It will be silly for such a stupid assassination attempt to succeed like this, so they will defend the leader of the Duchy of Barnes in case of an enemy attack.

The three horsemen, arriving in front of the camp, did not even dismount from their horses as they waited for the Duke to arrive.

"What can I do for you on this beautiful day?"

Keeping a distance of ten meters, the duke spoke. He could of course have launched an attack directly on these horsemen and killed them, or even to capture them in order to interrogate them, but he did not. The king will not send an important man to a possible death like this. The loss of his honor was not worth the possible gain. So he decided to listen to them.

The one in the middle, a young man who must have been in his twenties, spoke up, and spoke in the loudest possible voice, while the other two did not move.

"Under the orders of your king, Duke Chrisfold, I ask you to lay down your arms immediately. You will be held responsible for rebelling against the kingdom and will be executed. But at least the soldiers under your command will not be slaughtered like insects !"

"My king?" An expression of ridicule appeared on the face of the Duke. "He ceased to be my king the moment he chose to no longer support his own people, and let them starve to death. My people will not be slaughtered like bugs? Bullshit! If I let them depose their arms now, hundreds of thousands of my citizens are at risk of excruciating starvation."

"Pffff, the lie of a poor greedy duke. You only want to take the throne for yourself! You dare to deny your own king ?! You deserve death! I have come especially to give you a chance to save your troops, but you are meaner than I thought! So that's what the barbarians of the southernmost duchy look like. No wonder you have the Barren Lands as your frontiers! "

The man kept yelling with his finger pointed toward the Duke as if he was some kind of god's messenger. If it was another day, this guy would probably pee his pants if he dared to talk to a Duke in this manner. But like a good puppy believing that he was the one with the power here, he kept howling loudly.

The Duke didn't even want to talk to this fellow and his ridiculous words anymore, so he just turned and walked over to his tent. He stopped for a moment, and looked up at the rider.

"Go back to your king, boy, and tell him he doesn't deserve to be one anymore. This war and the thousands of people dying for it are only because of him and his greediness."

With these words, he returned to his tent in a steady pass, accompanied by his guards. The young man, on his horse, looked indignant for a moment.

"You! How dare you talk about your King in this way ?! Outrageous ! You are the one who chooses the outcome, Duke Chrisfold, and because of you thousands of soldiers will be slaughtered! Forward, we go back to see the king, these savages do not want to hear anything. "

As the horsemen headed back towards town, not far away stood two people, who had observed all the exchange. One of them was a young man with his black hair tied back with a purple ribbon. The second one, slightly behind, was a middle-age man with a thin beard and black short hair.

"You see captain, we have before us a typical nobleman who has undergone a good brainwashing from birth. Not only does he seriously believe his words, he also thinks he was perfectly fine for coming here. Look at that, he didn't even realize that the two guards weren't there to protect him but to prevent him from running away if he ever understood what kind shit he was in. What a sad character. "

"If you say so, young master."

* sigh *

Rohan let out a sigh. He was starting to miss his butler, at least he would have answered something crispy. For days he had been enduring the blandness of the captain.

Not that he didn't like talking to this guy, but although he and Jonas share the same common point that both had facial paralysis, at least the latter was saying what he thought, while the former never dared to say too much.

"Strangely enough, I don't really see any difference between this young nobleman and those we have back home. Maybe if the King and the Duke saw their places exchanged we would always be in the same place. My father's words on the warriors and mages who regard the others as insects seems to be more than valid for the nobles."

He turned around without waiting for the captain's response, having already assumed that it would look like a 'if you say so, young master'.

"Let's go back to rest, tomorrow is going to be a tough day."

The sun was completely set, and the moon had hidden behind the clouds, leaving the camp lit only by torches here and there. In the distance towards the city, only torches and flames moving in the void could be seen. No doubt they were the guards who patrolled the walls.

A heavy silence fell over the camp of the soldiers, who came here to protect their families and land. This heavy silence prevented more than one from sleeping properly.

They had no choice but to be here, each of them knew it, but the next day there would be a battle against their own kingdom. Being identified as rebels when they just wanted to protect their lives and provide food for their families could only lower their morale.

Rohan, for his part, had no difficulty sleeping. He would see what happened, and he would undoubtedly kill other opposing soldiers, but he had no choice. He will remember each of his victims, it was the wish he had sworn to himself. It was the only thing he could do.

The night passed thus. And the sun began to rise quietly, without hurrying, like every day before, and as every day after this day.

The army was in formation several hundred meters from the enemy walls, ready to launch the assault.

But suddenly, before the horns had time to sound, the large doors swung open.

Stress and apprehension appeared on each of the soldiers, but disappeared with a sigh just as quickly.

Only a man out of the city.

At this distance, Rohan had a little trouble distinguishing precisely the appearance of the man.

He was apparently an old man, with long snow-white hair that fluttered in the wind.

He didn't even have any armor, just a golgen robe that seemed to fit his every move.

Only a sword was in its scabbard, attached to the man's left hip.

He walked in a straight line, step by step, his hands behind his back, towards the men of the Duchy of Barnes.