Chapter 42.1

Upon entering the hall, Theodore saw that the white eagle carrying the message had just flown out. Oswald was speaking with Kevin and the other lion cubs who had been summoned that afternoon, and his expression was grave.

"If Your Majesty is busy, I can wait outside. State affairs are of the utmost importance, and this is but a trifle for me." Theodore was dressed in tattered clothing, but he performed the royal ceremony with perfect etiquette. It was somewhat jarring, as he was usually so humble. His self-effacing words were tinged with irony.

Regardless, he is still the king of a majestic city-state. When he left the Golden Lion Kingdom, he was accompanied by a hundred guards, but now only a few remain, and most of them have been captured by the sand ghosts. If this is not a matter of great importance, then nothing can be considered important.

If he were not truly in a hurry, it would be impossible to skip the customary welcome ceremony and proceed directly to the matter at hand.

Oswald waved his hand and dismissed the matter as "trivial."

In truth, it was not trivial. After receiving a series of urgent reports from Peter in the morning, he felt that the situation was becoming chaotic. The city-state alliance that had been agreed upon before had been completely disrupted by the sand ghosts, and the plan to enclose the Northern Emerald Country within it had also failed.

Furthermore, the sand ghosts' attack was swift and merciless. In just one day, nearly all the kings of several returning city-states had been killed. This made Oswald feel that time was extremely limited.

He instinctively felt that the journey of the many armies that were scheduled to depart three days later would be difficult, so he temporarily changed his mind and advanced all the plans.

There were a large number of other troops dispatched to various places, and all the preparations that needed to be made could noooooolpt be ready in half a day. Therefore, each of them was moved one or two days earlier. The two armies that were assigned to Rose Old Castle were set in motion the most.

Oswald spent the whole afternoon preparing everything needed for the two armies to disguise themselves as caravans. He then completely altered the original plan, allowing them to traverse a hidden old road at the bottom of the Great Rift Valley before nightfall and proceed directly to Mirage.

Kevin, who had been competing with Oswald in the morning to lead the team, suddenly changed his mind in the afternoon. Instead of continuing to vie for the position of team leader, he was very supportive of the emperor's decision to send the two teams out in advance.

"Just in case," they both thought almost simultaneously.

After Wood and Nick had led the two teams to depart, Oswald asked Kevin to go to the barracks before nightfall to lead the team. He also asked Kevin to use the unique method of the giant beast race to send the information about the sand ghost raid back to the giant valley where the orcs dwell. Ben had just returned when King Theodore arrived at the palace.

Seeing that the emperor wanted to talk about business, Kevin planned to take Ben out of the hall. However, Oswald raised his hand to stop him. The emperor did not say anything and did not even turn his head to give Kevin a look. Kevin understood what he meant, and simply led Ben to the position below the emperor's right hand and sat down.

He leaned against the back of the chair and hugged his arms, with the fingers of his left hand resting calmly on the handle of the short knife at his waist.

Facing outsiders, it is naturally impossible for the emperor to show any appearance of time urgency. Therefore, Theodore was given a seat and refreshments to relieve his hunger.

The king of Leiyin City was very self-conscious. After entering the palace, he sent the four personal guards who accompanied him to wait outside the palace to avoid being abrupt. Although he sat down in his seat, he did not take a sip of refreshment, It was obvious that he did not want to eat or drink.

"What's going on?" Oswald asked. "Although the rainy season ended early, it is still the time when the humidity is heaviest. Sand ghosts generally do not choose to leave the desert under such circumstances. How could they be so abnormal?"

Theodore shook his head with a look of distress on his face. "I do not know why they left the desert so early. When our team traveled along the long pine forest road outside the border of the Northern Emerald Country towards Leiyin City, we did not even hear any news of sand ghosts. However, when we took the road at the end of the long pine forest road to the ice field fork, we received a call for help from Kathro, a city of Paeda, followed by letter after letter of help. We had to stop."

He pounded heavily on the armrest of the seat with his clenched fist and sighed. "To be honest, when we first received help from Peida City, we planned to turn around to help. However, when I received six or seven letters from different people after that, I was not brave enough". At that time, I conjectured that there would be sand ghosts laying an ambush outside Leiyin City, waiting for us to fall into the trap. So I ordered to return directly, hoping to come to ask for help from you."

"So you ran into a sand ghost halfway?" Oswald asked in a deep voice, frowning.