Chapter 306

"I'm leaving now…Fiona, You will be in charge of dealing with the villagers and any guests. Miles will assist you through it.", Ali told Fiona, who nodded. 'Sometimes a job can help forget pain', Ali thought, looking at Fiona, who smiled at Eldora. It was the first time he'd seen her smile since her husband died.

Ali floated slowly into the air, but then he exploded up thirty metres into the clear skies before Abeloth swooped down. Ali climbed up the red dragon's rough scales as Abeloth's large body cut through the wind and propelled forward at high speed, with a trail of smoke behind it in the air.

At the same time, in the Tolka castle, the gates into the large courtyard of the stone castle swung open. In the courtyard, a young man with short orange hair and a manly figure with a six-foot-tall muscular body was sparring with an older man in his fifties who was an older version of the young man but with a scar across his nose and left cheek.

These two were son and father of House Nolan: the father, Kale Nolan, and son, Thomas Nolan. They were fighting with wood swords, but the swords had an orange light to them and they would slice the air sharper than any sword.

"MY LORD", the guards at the gate shouted to Kale Nolan, the current head of the family. "The scouts are back, but—", the guard cut off his sentence when a horse ran through the gate with the decapitated head of a young man strapped to its back. It was the head of its now-dead owner and scout that was sent to watch the border between House Nolan and House Cinder.

Then another horse came running through, but this one had an alive rider who hurriedly jumped off his horse. But then his tired eyes landed on the horse of his dear friend, and that's when he saw his friend's bloodied head seated on the horse's back.

"NOOOOOOO, IT CAN'T BE NOOO", he fell to the ground and clutched his head in shock. They were supposed to rise through the ranks and become knights of House Nolan together, but life was cruel. It was very cruel to the weak and unlucky.

"Take him away", Kale shouted at the knights who were training in the courtyard. They snapped out of their shock and ran to pick up the shocked scout into the garrison at the end of the courtyard.

"Father…", Thomas picked up a paper from the dead scout's horse and handed it over to his father.

Kale opened the letter that had the seal of House Cinder and read its contents. His brows sharpened and his expression darkened. Once he finished reading it, he gave the letter to his son and looked up at the sky with a focused face.

Thomas read the letter: "House Cinder declares war on House Nolan. Be ready to lose your life on the battlefield, and tell Thomas I will take back what's mine". Thomas's eyes went down to a burnt fingerprint, and he knew immediately who wrote this letter.

His body tensed up and started to light up in a deep orange. The air around him blew back, and raw power was on display from his anger.

"Father, no matter what happens, he's mine to kill. Edwin Cinder is mine to kill…", he looked at his father, and his orange eyes relayed the deep hatred he had for the young lord of the Cinder House.

"Son, war is not to be taken lightly. Go gather the family and the knights in the hall", Kale ordered his son. As he spoke, from experience, he knew what war meant for any Baron house. It was all or nothing.

Thomas nodded and went inside the castle, looking at the guards and knights that were watching him silently. They all had great respect for the man and would blindly go into war with him because they knew he would always be the first man on the front line.

'I should have plucked the root from the ground before it grew into a venomous plant that will kill many', Kale thought, and flashes of Edwin crying in the rain with a sword wound on his chest resurfaced.

'They used to be brothers, that was until…', Kale looked up at a window in the castle where a pretty red-haired young woman looked down at him before she turned around and walked away from the window.

Minutes later, Kale and Thomas were standing side by side at the front of the hall, facing an older woman who had an elegant and wise air around her. She was the lady of the house Nolan, and Thomas's mother. Next to her was the same red-haired young woman and the soon-to-be new lady of house Nolan, and pregnant wife of Thomas.

Behind the two women were three level two aura knights in silver armour that bore the crest of house Nolan. Behind them were ten level one knights wearing lower-quality armour, but they were knights nonetheless.

"The Cinders have declared war on us. They have chosen the river valley between us as the battlefield where we will fight them in one week", Kale announced, and no fear was in the room. His wife had a contemplating expression, but she had the utmost confidence in her husband and the man she raised.

"Every able knight will fight, along with the knight trainees in the castle", his words sent the message that he was putting everything into the war, risking the now and future of the house.

"Long Live HOUSE NOLAN", one of the three level two knights shouted, and all the other knights followed suit. "LONG LIVE HOUSE NOLAN", they all shouted in unison.

CREAK

The large doors of the hall opened, and the scout who returned alive walked in with a dark face and dried tears on his face.

"Are you ready to report what you saw?", Kale asked, and the scout nodded. The knights didn't reprimand him on the lack of respect in that response, as they understood the kid was grieving his close friend.

"The village was attacked…", he said, and all eyes widened. "I spoke to the villagers who were fixing their houses. They said that Knights of house Cinder attacked them at the dead of night. They killed twenty-five men and all the guards.", the scout spoke, and the anger in the hall only rose.

"To attack defenceless innocents…", Thomas said with his aura flaring…

"Let him finish, son…", Kale raised his hand and calmed his son down.

"After the knights took most of their food stock and valuables, they handed over the village to forty bandits. They also said that fifteen men were captured and hung from ropes with their women left to hold them up on burnt feet for hours…", the scout's words only got worse.

"Such cruelty and brutality, what has House Cinder become…", the lady of House Nolan spoke.

"So then how did they survive the night, are the bandits still there?", Kale asked with his hand on his sword handle.

"Well, the villagers who ran away at the start of the attack to the south to Castle Stork. They were met with a dragon rider…", the scout said.

"What? Are you sure that's what they said? Dragon rider?", Kale shouted at the scout with surprise filling the hall at the mention of a Dragon Rider.

"Yes my Lord, they all saw it, hundreds of them, they said a man who looked like an angel of death dropped from the sky on a green dragon's back, and he had more than one dragon. Also they told me that he announced himself as the new baron of the south taking over from Lord Stork…", the scout said.

"He calls himself Lord Ali", the scout continued.

"A dragon rider taking part in these lands, what is happening?", the lady of House Nolan commented as the situation only got more complicated.

"What happened to Lord Stork and how did this man save the village from the bandits, is he a knight? Did he use aura?", Thomas asked for his father and everyone in the room.

"The refugees asked the guards of Fortress Stork and they said the new lord bought the land and title from Lord Stork. And the men who were captives in the village said that the dragon rider was like a ghost, he killed all the bandits in the blink of an eye and that every single bandit had his head decapitated, they buried the bandits themselves. They also say that he didn't use a weapon, he only used his hands to kill them…", the scout reported.

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