Two days have pa.s.sed since the girls had their sleepover. In those two days, the girls were now getting ready for war. Once again New Grenton was about to have a big battle, but unlike before they were better prepared now. Though the forces of New Grenton had diminished greatly due to the attack of the Elder Lich, the ones who have survived the ordeal have become stronger than before. With the training routine, Ren gave them, although they were few in number the quality was much greater. In terms of strength, most of the common soldiers have reached the level of C rank adventurers and some were even considered B ranked in strength.
Before the attack of the Elder Lich, the common soldiers had no formal training whatsoever and were pretty much a mob of farmers. Knowing this Ren had allowed everyone to gain proper training, it was no longer just the n.o.bles who had this privilege. As long as you had the talent for it then you can learn it, that"s what Ren told his allies. No matter who they were as long as they weren"t hostile if they had the talent they needed to be polished. Now, these commoners were no longer the frightened cubs they were, now they were warriors waiting to be baptized in the sea of steel.
...
While New Grenton was preparing for the upcoming battle, the second prince of the Reschbeauch Kingdom, Niel Reschbeauch was frowning. It has been two days since he and his older brother agreed to meet. He has been waiting for two days and even sent some scouts to see what happened to Reynold. But for whatever reason, his older brother was still a no show, and the scouts he sent haven"t returned.
Niel wasn"t an idiot and had a few guesses as to what was happening to Reynold. Normally Niel would have been overjoyed by the knowledge that Reynold won"t be able to make it. This would mean all the honor and glory would go to him. That would have been his reaction if the foe he was facing was normal.
Unlike his idiotic older brother who only believed in brute strength, and was always thinking with his muscles. Niel, on the other hand, believed that information and connections were power. Personal strength may only get you so far. Niel truly believed that the more information he had on his enemies the better his chances of winning. He was also a fan of gathering and nurturing young talents no matter what social background they had.
Because of his vast network, Niel was able to barely deduce Ren"s strength based on the rumors about him. Some of the rumors were too absurd to be believed, most likely a lot of them have been grossly exaggerated. Still, even if he only took half of the stories seriously Ren"s absurd strength was a threat that he wasn"t fully confident in handling.
This was why even though he was currently fighting his elder brother for the throne, Niel decided to work with him to fight this foe. But now that his brother has been delayed for two days, Niel needed to reform his plans. The longer they hesitate to attack New Grenton the stronger its defenses would be.
"That foolish brother of mine is ruining my plans. Even that little sister of mine is doing things behind my back." Niel was already aware of Ashely"s actions but that was also something he expected to happen.
"No use, I didn"t want to show all my cards but against this opponent, I have no choice." Niel felt a bit disheartened knowing one of his trump cards would be used against people from the same kingdom. He was also irritated at how incompetent his elder brother was.
"There"s no use in waiting, we march forward!" The second prince Niel, finally gave the command to move to his retainers. The army of the second prince that was on standby started moving towards New Grenton.
...
In the meantime, the first prince was actually delayed for two days against Sepchel"s forces. Surprisingly there have been no casualties on both sides. This was only possible because of Sepchel"s commanding skills. Seeing him in action just made the first prince Reynold even angrier.
Reynold had already ordered his men to either kill or capture Sepchel. But most of his men were hesitant to do so. Sepchel was their hero and they couldn"t bring themselves to harm their hero, but they also couldn"t dismiss an order from Reynold.
This proved useful for Sepchel"s side as their only goal was to delay Reynold.
...
"That little brother of mine had probably left for New Grenton already. I can"t afford to be delayed here any longer!" Reynold was growing more furious as he thought of his second brother gaining all the glory.
"Sepchel I challenge you to a duel! If I win you let me go, and if you win I won"t march to New Grenton."
When the knights and soldiers heard what the first prince said they were surprised. Even Sepchel was shocked by the challenge. Everyone knew how strong Sepchel was and they also know how strong the first prince was. Though the first prince was very strong he wasn"t someone on the same level as Sepchel. Yet now he was challenging the famous knight to a duel?
Sepchel was hesitating, he wanted to save his liege from Ren and was willing to block his path. But accepting a duel and fighting his liege was a whole other thing.
Reynold could already guess the inner turmoil Sepchel was having at the moment. Since he needed to leave immediately and bypa.s.s Sepchel"s legion, Reynold had thought of this gamble. He was now betting on Sepchel"s loyalty. He wasn"t really planning to fight Sepchel.
After a moment of silence, Sepchel lowered his sword and answered. "I cannot accept the duel my liege, I concede." The moment Sepchel"s men heard what he said they all lowered their weapons.
"Very well, I accept your surrender. Now move aside!" Once Sepchel and his men stopped blocking their paths Reynold ordered his men to quickly march towards New Grenton.