City Of Sin

191-200

Dilemma(2)

The upper class of the Sequoia Kingdom fell into idle chatter once more. Of course, they had been taught a lesson to not directly ridicule the Highland Unicorn making a mountain out of a molehill, but the countless innuendos and gazes were obvious. Everyone eagerly awaited the result of this fight between elephant and ant, as if they were watching a new drama. They didn’t care about victory or loss; no, that was obvious. They were waiting to see how long the grand mage behind Richard would take to show himself.

However, there were also people calmly watching this farce. Although the Direwolf Duke was not at Deepcliff City, the more powerful of his vassals were visiting the city more and more. Bordering Richard’s lands were a marquess and some viscounts and barons. Many amongst them were silently increasing their defences.

There was a joyous atmosphere in Twilight Castle. Once Old Hogan’s army had reached them, the former gloom had been swept away.

Within the most luxurious conference room in the castle, Hogan, Layton, Booker, Senth, the cleric Bayenne, and others with power were sat discussing their next move at a round table. The young Baron’s uncle had no right to enter the conference room, treated more like an errand boy. As for Fontaine and his mother, they had been chased out of the castle. On the surface, they were on a vacation in the country, hoping for the fresh air to help the young Baron grow strong and calm his mother’s grief.

Earl Layton had already finished a brief on Richard’s territory, terrain, and troops. He also listed any important forces that belonged to Richard. He didn’t want to keep the introduction simple, but there was pitifully little information on Richard’s core party. Most had been taken from the surviving warriors from the battle with Sinclair.

They also had information from Deepcliff City, but by the looks of it it was not as reliable as that from Viscount Zim and the released prisoners of war.

Sir Hogan, whose hair was already half-grey, was stood in front of the map with a magic pen in hand, marking out a few important choke points as he chose their path of advance. The plan was already prepared, and they were in the midst of carrying out. Hogan was only repeating himself for the sake of the mage and the cleric.

These magic classes were very troublesome. They did not understand anything about warfare, but if they didn’t know the battle plan they would grow cross. Mages could normally choose their position on the battlefield; outside of cooperating with the main forces to launch bombardments, duels with the opponent’s mages were something they decided on their own.

Sir Hogan drew a wiggly line from Earl Yatu’s territory to that of Baron Fontaine, “Gentlemen, Sir Odom’s army has already gathered. We are awaiting the arrival of the Highland Wargod’s clerics and another great mage. They are estimated to be here in ten days.”

“Ha! Once Odom’s army gets here, we’ll be able to teach that Richard an unforgettable lesson!” Sir Booker said with a chuckle, spreading his arms, “Let’s hope Richard can build his magnificent castle in ten days!”

Loud laughter rang out within the conference room. Although they had been gathered into such a massive army, everyone who had come late was confused by Layton making such a huge fuss about this. The death of the Golden Eagles had already become a taboo topic that nobody was told about. Outside of the core members, most of the people here only knew that Richard had annihilated Viscount Zim’s army.

“Should we give Richard a little lesson first? That’ll exert some pressure,” a great mage suggested. This 40-year-old man had complicated resentment towards Richard.

“No! Our first order of business is to strengthen our defences. Firstly, we have to station more troops at Twilight Castle. Secondly, we have to protect the path from here to the Earl’s territory.”