Firearms in a Fantasy World 2

Chapter 232: Preparations

Translator: Cinder Translations

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In recent days, Maltz Kent's mood had been growing increasingly irritable.

By all accounts, the situation was still on track according to the plan, with the only minor hiccup being Henry Fraule's escape.

But this should have been insignificant. As a prisoner personally ordered to be detained by Duke Fraule, once he escaped, he could only spend the rest of his life in exile. Henry's family had already been arrested, and his territories and assets had been confiscated.

There was just one thing that troubled him—how did he manage to escape?

This unresolved matter seemed to foreshadow an ominous future, becoming a thorn in Maltz Kent's heart.

It was as if fear summoned what it dreaded. Two weeks after Henry's escape, Earl Kent began to hear unsettling rumors—someone seemed to be secretly rallying the local lords to oppose him.

Naturally suspicious, Earl Kent immediately dispatched spies to investigate, and the situation gradually became clear: a vile and disgraceful conspiracy was brewing, and the instigator behind it was none other than Earl Pryce Parker, who harbored a grudge against him.

"This old fool is truly courting death!"

After reading the secret report, Earl Kent roared in fury and overturned the table in front of him, causing the nearby servant to panic and kneel on the ground.

The earl paced anxiously around the room. He initially wanted to immediately summon the army and crush these sneaky conspirators in one fell swoop, but after careful consideration, he decided against it.

First, he needed to identify who were his enemies and who were his allies.

Now, Maltz Kent, as the duke's heir remaining in Sente to handle various matters for Duke Fraule, quickly wrote a letter and had it copied many times to be delivered to the local lords, inviting them to Sente to discuss a pressing issue—whether to continue sending troops to aid the royal family in suppressing the rebellion.

In the end, only half of the invited lords attended the meeting in person, while the others either made excuses or sent representatives just to fulfill their obligations.

Among those who did not come was Earl Pryce Parker, who had already been identified as the mastermind behind the conspiracy.

There was even that little rascal from the Grayman family; he should have been dealt with last year.

These absent lords surely had something to hide.

The lords who came to Sente could not come to a conclusion after a day of bickering, and the meeting ended on a sour note. Maltz Kent did not care at all; the meeting itself was not his goal—understanding the scope of the enemy's forces was what mattered.

As the crowd dispersed, he warned in a stern tone, "Those who dare challenge the duke's authority will never end well."

The lords sneered to themselves, thinking, "Won't it be yours sooner or later?"

After roughly determining the range of enemies and allies, Maltz began to gather his trusted subordinates and contact potential allies to form his own coalition. As the greatest vassal of the Fraule family and now the Duke's heir, he soon attracted a large number of followers.

With the Kent family's strength, he could easily handle any one family in the Northwest, but facing a coalition of many lords required careful planning, so he also needed to organize his own faction.

Thus, the lords of the Northwest Bay began to choose sides, gradually forming two camps. Both sides were sharpening their swords, preparing for a decisive battle, and a small-scale civil war was imminent.

What shocked Maltz Kent was that his enemies had managed to expose his secret dealings—using dark magic to coerce the duke, plotting to make Giles betray the kingdom, and so on.

How did they find out? Earl Kent was bewildered; he had always been extremely secretive, and due to his reverence and confidence in mysterious magic, he had never suspected the dying Duke Fraule.

However, these matters were only spread through rumors, and the enemy had not yet made a big deal out of it, but they had already made Earl Kent anxious and restless.

On the surface, the earl pretended to be dismissive of the "rumors" and too lazy to argue, but privately he became paranoid, suspecting that spies had been planted around him.

Many of the earl's servants and guards fell into misfortune; some were imprisoned, and others executed. The duke's residence where Maltz lived was in a state of constant anxiety and unrest.

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Back in Alden Town after leaving Earl Parker's castle, Paul threw himself into preparing for the impending war. His southern border was right next to Maltz Kent's stronghold—Emden. When the war started, he would be the first to face it, so he had to prepare in advance.

In the days that followed, Paul had a real taste of how the lords of this era conducted their wars.

It had been nearly a month since the meeting organized by Pryce Parker, yet the war still had not begun.

During this time, rumors flew everywhere. Someone with a loose tongue had leaked Maltz Kent's major crimes, and news of the lords' conspiracy to overthrow the Parker family also spread.

Naturally, this news reached Maltz Kent's ears, prompting him to start organizing his own forces.

Now everyone knew that two powerful factions in the Northwest Bay were gearing up to fight each other.

"This era's sense of secrecy is truly terrible! I was planning to use our preparedness to launch a surprise attack," Paul lamented during a staff meeting, emphasizing again the importance of keeping secrets.

Both sides were sluggishly gathering their forces, and Paul considered using his standing army's advantage to launch a surprise attack on Emden in the south. However, due to the objections from the officers, he abandoned this idea.

If the enemy's gathered forces turned out to be stronger than his own, and his allies could not provide sufficient support for Alden, it would be disastrous. It was better not to be the one to stick out.

Thus, Alden Town made full use of the calm before the storm to strengthen its own forces. Both the regular army and militia units underwent intensified training, and the soldiers were so exhausted that they had no energy left for leisure, collapsing into their beds as soon as they returned to the barracks.

Under the organization of the Government Affairs Office, the population from the southern villages began to move north to avoid the plundering of the Kent family.

The shipyard in Frand Port started working overtime to build suitable transport ships. If the war went poorly and land trade routes were cut off, sea transportation would become a lifeline between Alden and Byerldine, which now depended heavily on external trade.

The ironworks in the valley were also expanded again. With the outbreak of war, the surrounding lords' demand for iron would increase significantly. Paul planned to sell iron at a low price as a favor, thereby strengthening his voice within the alliance.

The sword was already out of the sheath, just waiting to strike the enemy.

(End of the Chapter)

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