Chapter 21 The conference meeting

"Fatherrrrrr!" The princess cried.

The king of the city of Malistro was lying on the floor, blooding coming out of his chest and his mouth, he had been killed by Shio.

"What happened? Didn't you block the attack?" The queen, in tears, asked.

"I did, but the enemy sent out two attacks, and I was only able to block one of them, and the others got the king." The boss of the [ASNO] replied.

"My queen, we are so sorry, we beg for forgiveness, the enemy got away. We searched for them everywhere but we couldn't find them." The guards begged.

"No it's not your fault, I'm the one who ordered you to escort them to us. This would never have happened. My queen, I am ready to face any form of punishment." The boss pleaded.

The queen looked at her children, who were crying for their father. She locked in and was determined and said, "I want you to kill those knights of Lakhar, even if it's the last thing you do!"

———

Shio, Iguro, and James were riding back to Lakhar.

"Man, Shio, that came out of nowhere." James complimented.

"But do you really think that going to war with them was a good idea cause i think it's dangerous, it's not that I'm afraid but, we don't have the forces to face them." James explained.

"What other option did we have? Should we have just handed them Akiyoshi? Who knows what they were gonna use him, the worst case scenario would be bringing back the Dragon God of flames." Shio explained.

"They can do that?" James wondered.

"Yes they can. Now shut up, James." Iguro angrily said.

"Sure going to war with them wasn't a good idea, but handing over Akiyoshi might've made things worse, considering the fact that they want some sort of system we don't know about."

The horses sprinted as though they had engines, but they had horsepower.

For the rest of the journey, they were quiet, and finally, they reached Lakhar.

They went to the Headmaster's office, ignoring anybody who came and asked them about the trip.

When they reached inside, they took their seats and called Andrew.

As soon as he heard his name, he dashed inside the office.

"You called sir Shio." He said.

"Take a seat." Shio offered.

After Andrew sat down, Shio, Iguro, and James broke the news to him.

"We're going to war with Malistro!?" He shockingly asked as he stood up from his seat after hearing the news.

Shio, Iguro, and James nodded to him.

"We need you to inform the king, and tell him that there's gonna be a conference meeting tomorrow to discuss this with the other kings of Lakhar, also known as the government." Iguro ordered.

"And also inform the six other Headmasters and their division Captains on all six other cities in Lakhar." Iguro continued.

"Yes sir, I'll do just that." Andrew responded before he left to carry out his mission.

"Wait Iguro, there are other Headmasters?" Shio asked.

"Where were you born when you don't know about these things? Didn't you also say that you traveled the whole world?" Iguro asked.

"I was born in the continent Drectar at the city of peace, and when I traveled the whole world, I was using an old map so I might've not traveled the whole world. Also, I never asked such information." Shio explained.

Iguro looked at Shio hopelessly, then he said, "Just so you don't embarrass me tomorrow, I'll tell you. Every city has a Headmasters of the Knights."

"So wait, we have about six more Iguro's?" Shio asked.

"I wouldn't say six more Iguro's, I would say we have maybe 10 more Iguro's cause some of them are twice as strong as Iguro." James stated.

"Wohoho! Iguro, is it true that some of those guys would totally demolish you in a fight?" Shio excitedly asked.

"Don't place it like that! Buy yes. Some of them would beat me in a fight." He confirmed.

Shio couldn't hold how cited he was. He stood on top of his desk and shouted, "We're coming for you, Malistro!"

———

"We're coming for you, Lakhar!" The boss of the [ASNO] declared at the funeral of the king.

"Sir! Did we really have to make the funeral the exact day he died?" A member of the [ASNO] asked.

"Yes it was necessary, we needed to do this as early as possible,cause starting romantic tomorrow we won't have the time." He explained.

———

Back at the Hideout of the Black Art Division, Annie was training all on her own. She was training herself in handling a staff.

She trained and trained until she was tired. She did not give up on her training. Despite being very tired, she continued with her efforts.

"Now now, don't over exhaust yourself." A familiar voice appeared from behind Annie.

She turned and saw Shio.

"So you decided to come and visit me." Annie smiled.

"Speaking about visiting people, I heard from the hospital that your mother is doing much better. She's now back to shape." Shio reported

Annie looked shocked by the news. She was so happy that she fell on her knees and cried, and she cried tears of joy.

She got up and hugged Shio, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Now then, do you wanna visit her? This will be your only chance, because from tomorrow nobody will get the chance to take a day off." Shio took out his hand and waited for Annie to take it.

"Thanks but I wanna see her again after this whole thing with the [ASNO] is finished." Annie said.

Shio returned his hand back to his pocket and said, "It's your call."

"Anyway you didn't come here to tell me that, did you?" Annie wondered.

Shio looked at her with the eyes of a caring person. He reached out to his back and took out a staff, then he tossed it over to Annie.

"I heard from Akane's report that you used a staff against the enemy at the castle, so I asked the weapon designers to make this for you."

"Your last staff was only middle rank, but this one is Elite rank." Shio explained.

Annie looked at her staff. It wasn't golden like her last one. It had a magic gem in the middle, and it was silver.

She smiled, and her face showed satisfaction, a question that she wanted to ask him a long time ago but forgot, and so she decided to ask him now.

"Shio why do you care so much for me?"

Shio froze for a while. He had never anticipated that she would ask such a question.

He looked at her and made a quick reply, "Cause you remind me of someone I knew."

"Well goodnight." He said and left since it was late.

The next day was the time for the conference, the conference was to be held in the conference room.

All the kings of Lakhar were present. They sat at the front row in the conference, the Headmasters except for Shio sat in the second row, and Iguro sat in Shio's place.

The captains and supervisors sat at the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth rows, and the Headmaster's assistants sat at the seventh row.

Shio went to the front of them all. He was the one who was going to present all the news to them.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." He greeted.

"Some of you know me, some of you don't know me, so for that reason, I will introduce myself."

"I am Nakamura Shio, the new Headmaster of the city of Lakhar, and I called you all for a very important meeting."

"I know that all of you have probably received the news, but I'll say it anyway. We are at war with Malistro." He explained.

The crowd gasped, especially the kings.

"They declared war on us, and we had no choice but to accept. They have already attacked us twice."

"Firstly it was the castle incident, and the next one was a day ago. They attacked the hideout of the Black Art Division."

"At first, we thought that it was a rebel against me for some reason, but now it is clear that they have different intentions." Shio continued.

"What kind of intentions?" They asked.

"Malistro has tried to kidnap one of our knights who has a fragment of powers from the Dragon God of flames."

The crowd gasped more, "The Dragon God of flames? A kid has those powers." "There's no way." Voices in the crowd whispered.

"It's a lot to take in, we know, but that's not the worst part. The worst part is that the enemy knows all of our powers and all of their weaknesses."

"And they also have the ability to share their powers."

"What!" The crowd exclaimed. "And what have you knight done about these attacks? Did you just see around on your butt's?" They asked.

"No, we went to them in hopes of fixing the issue and stopping war from happening. But they denied and declared it."

"And so we striked back, I killed the king of the city of Malistro yesterday. There are only five kings to worry about now." Shio explained.

"Yeahhhh!" The crowd praised and some even whistled.

"We are going to crush Malistro, but we need all the kings to be in agreement, or we surrender." Shio said and left it all to the kings.

And just as he thought the kings agreed and the planning was to begin.