After Caesar pa.s.sed by Akari, he headed out of the over-sized palace to personally oversee the warriors. He a.s.sumed that they were still tired from the battle, and were currently mourning for their losses, however, they didn"t have time to sit around and do nothing.
As such, Caesar stretched his limbs, walked down the fleet of stairs, and surveyed his surroundings. The nearby soldiers were spread out, either talking, being bandaged, or eating. A few women had set up a stand which served dried meat and some sort of stew.
Two long lines of men were waiting for their turn to eat when Caesar walked by. They greeted him with a casual salute and then refocused on the food being served. It was clear that their hunger was currently much more important to them than showing respect at this given moment.
Perhaps a normal commander would be bitter about this fact, however, Caesar didn"t mind such insignificant details and continued on his way to the outer walls. He treaded atop the many lifeless bodies and b.l.o.o.d.y ground until he finally reached a tall ladder.
The towering ladder led up the walls which surprised Caesar, who expected there to be stairs, similar to Rahvin kingdom. Caesar smiled wryly and climbed up the stairs for roughly 30 seconds until he reached the top.
He walked to the edge of the wall and peered down at the surroundings. It was covered in a dense, green forest full of life. No animals were in sight and even the birds didn"t dare fly in this area.
The thick smoke that rose into the air from the troll-kingdom had just about disappeared and the signs of battle were much less apparent from outside. Seeing this, Caesar nodded his head whilst stroking his chin and walked along the edges until he reached a guard tower.
The sides of the guard-tower were quite weathered and had plenty of strange markings that looked similar to hieroglyphics. Caesar observed them for a few moments but couldn"t decipher them in the slightest, thus, he pushed open the thick, wooden door and walked inside.
Immediately, a dull and dusty smell a.s.saulted his nose. The room wasn"t very large and was full of books and pages everywhere. The floor was a mess and empty plates and cups littered the ground while the desk was covered in scribbles.
Curious, Caesar tiptoed to the desk and sat down on the wooden chair. He grabbed a nearby box that was full of firesticks, also known as matches, and grabbed one. He sc.r.a.ped it against the part of the box and lit the half-used candle at the side.
A dim light soon illuminated the surroundings and barely made the words written on a few parchments of paper legible. Caesar used his slender index finger to trace the words as he deciphered the strange pattern that they were written in.
"Day 1: After delivering the gifts, the trolls have accepted our conditions"
"Day 4: The trolls have requested more elven women, I shall notify the church immediately to sate their desires"
"Day 9: Using our superior engineers and architects, we"ve increased the troll defenses exponentially… the chance of losing is zero, as long we don"t anger any of the stronger clans"
"Day 32: apparently the legendary nine-tailed-fox bloodline has been revived in the medium strength fox-kin clan, my personal mission has been altered"
"Day 92: …
Caesar read the useless journal for a while before shifting his attention to a half-written letter located at the far right corner of the table. An ink-pen still coated with ink was rested atop this paper.
Caesar examined the letter for a few moments before chuckling and altering the letter a tad bit. He then rolled it up neatly and walked towards the messenger bird that was sitting in a cage at the corner of the room.
He opened the cage and attached the small scroll onto its neck and then it proceeded to fly out of the window and fly somewhere. Seeing this, Caesar smiled slyly and glanced around the room one more time before his eyes landed on a silver sword attached to a wall.
Its sheath was a shade of dark blue and its hilt was golden. Even from a distance, Caesar felt repulsed by the sheer holy energy radiating from it. He slowly walked towards the sword and wrapped his hand around the sheath, and in response, his skin slowly started to burn.
He placed the sword into his storage ring and then walked out of the guard"s tower, he figured the weapon would be a great gift for Elizabeth, that is if he makes it out of the war alive. Caesar then hopped off the large walls and used his long fingernails to slow himself down as he fell.
Once he reached the ground, he headed back towards the palace and rounded up the soldiers that were now finished with their food. They huddled up in a circle with Caesar at their center. The expressions of the soldiers varied greatly.
Some possessed antic.i.p.ation on their faces, while others contained fear, "My warriors, no, my people… we are few in numbers, and our past leader, Musashi, has presumably fallen to the enemies. Our lands have been taken, our food stolen, and our lives threatened" His words paused for a moment as he scanned the surroundings.
"We no longer have anywhere to run, the citizens are relying on our return and the empress could be attacked at any moment we aren"t there. We must prevail in this war, avenge Musashi, avenge our fallen brethren and take back our home!" Caesar roared and lifted the spirits of the nearby fox-kin.
"Archers, get to the walls, and I want the heavy infantry at the gates. One battalion of swordsmen will stand behind the archers in case they scale the walls, but I want the rest behind the gates" Caesar ordered curtly before walking to a nearby building made out of stone.
It was blocked by a huge wooden gate that opened as Caesar pushed on it. Immediately, armor and weapons presented itself before the army, and even Caesar took out his armor he had used back at Rahvin kingdom from his storage ring.
"Armor up, we are no longer required to use guerilla warfare" Caesar spoke whilst adorning his black and red armor that possessed intertwining dragons on the breastplate. He knew that once the trolls realized the fox-kin stronghold was empty, they would rush back to their home.
In response, the fox-kin army rushed into the troll armory and geared up. An ominous wind suddenly coursed through the entire stronghold and fluttered Caesar"s hair, revealing his facial expression in the process.
A bloodthirsty smile was plastered on his face as walked to the front gates, his dark scythe resting on his shoulders, "Zul"thar, In my entire life, I have never failed to win in the end" he whispered quietly as the wind pa.s.sed.
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Inside of a s.p.a.cious tent, Ahri was vast asleep and ten shadows appeared on the outside of the tent wielding weapons. However, Joe, who was also asleep, woke up first. His muscles taut and veins running down his neck.
"a.s.sa.s.sINS!" He roared and woke up the rest in the tent, even Ahri. Immediately, the ten shadows attacked aiming for Ahri but Joe blocked them with a large axe.
"Don"t underestimate me you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, I fought on par with that monster, after all" he roared with saliva escaping from his mouth as he charged forward, Tiberius and Magni joining him. Their strength was not to be underestimated, and soon, a huge scuffle was created during the night.
Ahri, who was still shocked, turned around to see Charlie walking towards her, "are you alright?" he asked worriedly as he approached.
"Charlie? I thought you went to war with my husband?" she asked, the word "husband" striking Charlie in the heart.
He smiled wryly, "No, I wanted to protect you… come with me" Charlie said while reaching his hand out, however, Seraph from behind Ahri stood up and shielded Ahri.
"This is a bad man!" he called out cutely, shocking Ahri and all of those present.