ACT IVTHE CIVIL WAR

  CHAPTER 62THE BRIEFING As they came out of the tent, the sound of beating metal and armours clinking graced them. Everyone was moving fast. First, his sight fell on the magenta-coloured armours. “They are from Utar, right?” Hans asked, and Sierra pointed towards their fg, “two snakes coiling in the sword, they are definitely from Utar.”

  “One… two… ten… what are their numbers?” He questioned again. Despite being directly involved in war, Hans had no idea about the allied nations and how many forces they sent.

  “Really, buddy? This is embarrassing—

  “Oh, come on.” Hans curtly replied. “At least I’m not a hypocrite pretending to know what I don’t.”

  Chris sighed and asked permission from Sierra for expining things to his alleged lord, “Buddy, all three nations have sent: one warship, 1000 knights, and fifty mages with one warlord. Making it a total of 3000 knights with aura grades from fifty to eighty, mages are of at least four circles, and the warlord, well, you know the grades of warlords.”

  Hans pointed to above, the beautiful and powerful product of magic and machinery, “Then what are those?”

  “These are the weapons of mass destruction, logistics, support, offence, and defence. That thing is capable of raining death from the skies—”

  “Did Parv not have those? Why did we only send 100 knights and a single warlord? And they say we are the nation of knights and technology?” Hans whispered.

  “Warships sound powerful, but they have a very big fw, Prince Hans.” A knight who was following the three suddenly interrupted. He was assigned to guard them and keep them out of any unwanted trouble, but speaking without asking was a mistake according to the code. So upon realising what he had done, he immediately knelt, “Please forgive my interjection.”

  “You should very well finish what you interjected, sir…?” Hans asked panning his head.

  “Daniel Clifford.” The knight introduced himself without standing up.

  “Yes, Sir Daniel Clifford. You were saying something about warships.” Hans gestured for him to speak.

  “The warships are fwed, sir. They are huge in size, slower, and hard to manoeuvre. We have griffins as our mounts, superior in movement and evasion. The warship carries huge explosives, but our smaller, pocket-size bombs bring the same impacts.”

  “So you are saying we are better than them, right?” Hans mused.

  “Yes, Prince.” Daniel stood up with pride. “We are better, far better than these primates.”

  “Pft… primates. That is a good one, sir, Daniel.” Hans chuckled, but Sierra wore a solemn expression. “At this rate, you are going to involve your prince in internal fighting, Golden Griffin.” She chided the knight, and Daniel took it on without refuting a word.

  Meanwhile, Hans looked at the blue-armoured force, the Grimgar knights and mages, and Duke Reinhardt, the warlord of their neighbour in Grimgar leading them. Far from everyone’s camp, the bck-armoured knights stood ready with their banner of descending dark sun. “So, these are Cassady’s family’s force: Sunfall. They are the most intimidating after us,” he murmured.

  And suddenly the escorts of Cndor announced, the transfer circle was completed. The SpaceDoor was the way humans and most of the world travelled by feeding an immense amount of space stones to an artefact. The Parvians used the INGRESS light so Hans was curious to see the mass teleportation magic that used Space stones and a magic circle.

  “Ooh! Transfer circle. This will be interesting.” Accompanied by the Griffin Knights, he reached the escorting mages. “Commander Homar.” He addressed the commander of Golden Griffins, “I don’t see, Genas Alliance people, even their head; Norwin.”

  “They won’t be joining us in Cndor but will guard the western rear to prevent any surprises.” Homar answered.

  “So Queen Reina wants the strongest force to be left behind to guard… sounds reasonable—”

  “They are not the strongest.” It was the first time Homar had cut off his words, but Hans could understand; it was the Parvian pride speaking. He chuckled a little and agreed, “yeah, they aren’t the strongest.”

  “So, how this transfer circle works—” he barely got the question out when a glowing circle appeared under their feet. It shimmered with colours, like magic alive and grew quickly, swallowing up everyone in its magical embrace.

  A burst of light blinded them as the circle fred with power. Suddenly, they were swept away in a whirl of energy, leaving their old spot in a fsh. When the light faded, they found themselves in Cndor, right in the heart of Elven territory. The circle had done its job, bringing them where they needed to be.

  Hans opened his eyes and saw himself inside scaling walls. Chris answered his unasked question, “This is the territory of House Reverend—”

  “The Knights of Cndor?”

  “Yes.” Chris pointed past the huge fort in front, “After that is the huge commercial city of Vandikar. It’s the most poputed city after the royal city. And there is no way we will be able to evacuate citizens if the Reverend Fortress falls.”

  “Mhm!” Delimira nodded, but her expressions were far from concern, as if she was waiting for it to happen.

  “Man, she is acting scary. Just what is wrong with her? I’m the one with a score to settle with elves, not her.” Hans let those words remain in his thoughts and focussed ahead.

  A woman, surrounded by warlocks and warlords, was waiting for them. Reina, currently the war general of Cndor, greeted the allies and asked them to settle their troops and warships. Hans could feel the difference between human territories and Cndor in an instant; the mana of elven nds was so dense and vivid that he could feel it without trying. Even the air smelled different. “So, this is Cndor… I like it.”

  “I hate this pce.” Delimira made a disgusting face as she looked at the people staring them. Meanwhile, Chris saw the familiar face, but his father wasn’t happy to see him back. He did everything, even begging Rudolf so his son could stay away from this war, but here he was, right in the middle of it.

  As father and son stared each other with different emotions, Homar came to pick Hans up. “It’s time for us to attend a strategic meeting. Follow me.” Hans nodded and followed; he didn’t realise when he was mesmerising himself in the mana of Cndor. People had settled their troops and were making their way towards the strategic meeting.

  “Woah!” Hans entered astonished inside the buzzing room. The whole pce was filled with warlords and warlocks. Sierra also entered with him and was an eighth-circle mage but she could fight shoulder to shoulder with any warlock there. So in reality he was the only one that didn’t belong there. And everyone was thinking the same.

  “Ahem!” He cleared his throat a little and dismissed his astonished face.

  Finally he met the gaze of the general, the woman who had tried to kill, manipute and even use his death. “I need to be on my toes here.” He thought and stared directly into Reina’s eyes. Their battle of sight continued for a while until the Reverend Lord, the sole warlord on her side in this room, asked her to start the discussion.

  “If a gaze could kill, just how much she hates me.” Hans shook the shivering and focussed on the conversation.

  “First,” Reina began, “I thank you all for aiding us in our time of need. The Cndor family will never forget the kindness you’ve shown.” Pausing, she turned towards Homar and Hans, “Since you deny my authority over you—”

  “Forgive me, Queen Reina,” Hans interrupted, “We do not deny your authority. We just preserve the right to deny any dubious commands. Because of our previous encounter, my senses go haywire when I see you.”

  Reina ignored the obvious provocation and asked, “So, in simple terms, you will reject those orders which are impossible to fulfil for Parv’s knight order, right?”

  “Haa, she is not leaving a breathing room,” Hans sighed, “You can do better if you want to provoke me, Queen Reina. What do you want from us?”

  “Since you’ve gifted your weapons to the council. They’ve seized the Galenhall stronghold. You want to earn respect here. Take the fortress back with just your force.”

  “NO,” Hans rejected outright, but before anyone could compin, he added, “I do not run on others’ acknowledgement. So you people can shove the respect back to your whatever hole it came from. But I… no, we Parvians will get the strong hold back for you. Eborate the situation.” He gestured irritatingly at Reina.

  “You are so conceited to think you could go against everyone alone, Hans Parv. If you continued like this, you’ll have no one on your side in the end.”

  “Is this a concern I hear in your voice, Queen Reina?” Hans chuckled, “But you should worry about your own children, not someone else’s. My faith in my abilities and the blood I inherited makes me this arrogant, and they haven’t let me down yet. So please, eborate on Galenhall strong hold, area, defences, terrain, numbers, everything.”

  Reina saw no advantage in arguing with him and waved her hand. With her swift gesture, a magic projection of Galenhall strong hold appeared. Its high walls and rune protections revealed themselves in real time.

  “This is crazy,” A warlock from House Galenhall stood up in frenzy. He looked at the projection carefully and added, “They’ve doubled down on the defences and armed those walls with Parvian artillery.”

  “To breach those well-defended walls, we need warships, but the Parvian artillery would rid us of holes,” Another warlock added.

  However, Hans was silently observing the whole stronghold for weakness, and oddly enough, the pce had none. “Damn, which genius has arranged the defences?” He cursed inside.

  After the elves had done their bickering, Homar added, “Our artillery can strike from 30 km nd and air both, and the effects of impact are quite gruesome. Things turn to dust, so what do you propose… prince Hans?”

  Homar might’ve addressed Hans as prince in front of others, but both the addresser and addressee know their inner thoughts. Thinking hard, Hans asked Homar, “What is your range, Commander Homar—”

  “None, I can hit it if it’s visible.” Homar answered, annoyed as if Hans had doubted his capabilities.

  “Then can’t you just obliterate the protection barrier of Galenhall and destroy the stationed artillery—”

  “That is a self-healing barrier. Several warlocks are working there to make sure it stays the same.” Reina pointed out. “Cracking it is hard, but if some miracle, you could dent that thing. It heals in an instant.”

  “Hmm… then can you give up your people, the citizens inside the stronghold? I’ve a way, but even your chickens won’t be spared there.” Hans asked, hesitating.

  However, instead of Reina, with a defeated look, the Galenhall lord answered, “Those bastard already massacred everyone. See.” He pointed out towards the bottom of the stronghold wall’s that thing which Hans was misunderstanding for a stoned path were the dismembered heads of people.

  “Sick bastards.” Hans stood up, infuriating. He followed the code of never harming the people who hadn’t pointed their bdes at him. “You can go on a killing spree, but not on citizens.” He said grimly. This was his bottom line. Elves or humans didn’t matter. He took a long breath and stood up, “Commander Homar, ready the knights. We will be taking the Galenhall strong holds, right now.”

  Homar followed the order, but Hans halted and turned back to everyone, “What are you all waiting for? A fucking invitation. Show me the way. I’m directionally challenged. Don’t bme me if I do some friendly fire.”

  Reina understood. Those words were aimed at her since she was the one who maniputed him into going to the wrong direction in Deadnds. But she didn’t respond to his words. After all, like every other, she also wanted to see what this current order of Parvian knights was capable of.

  “Follow me.” They all came out of the meeting room and climbed the eastern wall. Reina pointed to the far east and mentioned, “That is the Galenhall strong hold. It’s more than a thousand of km away.”

  “Hmm… do humans have bad sight, or am I the only one who can’t see it?” Hans questioned Homar, but the knight didn’t answer. “So, Queen Reina,” he turned to her, asking, “if I assume this Reverend fortress is your base of operations, how far are the front lines?”

  “Near the Negoi river, fifty kilometres to Galenhall Stronghold. We are preparing for the third siege—”

  “Even after losing twice, you aren’t giving up. You might be quite a positive person or an earnest fool, Queen Reina.”

  His words since he came to the Cndor didn’t make sense. He was acting like he had seen many wars despite being in his first. And she wasn’t the only one thinking that. Everyone, even Homar, was speechless after hearing his word choices. It wasn’t a kid talking.

  As astonished she was, Reina responded to his early provocation, “It’s easy for you to say things living inside the safe walls, Prince Parv—”

  “Yeah, but it’s also easy for me to get back your stronghold, Queen Reina.” He quipped, sniggering.

  “Hey!” Homar whispered, “it’s not easy. So don’t make a mockery out of yourselves; you are representing our nation. People are ughing, saying we brought a child into the war who is boasting without thoughts. This is war—

  “And I feel quite at home in this chaos.” Whatever his thoughts were before, he felt comfortable in his authoritative position. “Just trust me, Commander Homar; I’m an imperial. We are built differently.” He assured.

  “You aren’t going with us in the assault, you know that, right?” Homar interrupted him. “With our griffins and evasive formation. We can provide an opening to let elves and others charge.”

  “No, you are not doing that, Commander.” Hans denied him, adding, “I want to engrave an image of me so horrifying that our so-called allies lose their sleep at night when they even think of provoking me. I’m here to establish that an imperial still lives. Let them ugh, Commander Homar.” He said aloud, eyeing those who were snickering in silence. “Patience is a virtue. All it needs is an hour, and Galenhall will fall. So, when are we leaving for the frontline?”