Lord of the Truth

Another week has passed... 

a week that can be described as *fiery* for the Duchy of Bradley and Alton... and also, the whole kingdom.

The last battalion that came out of the city of Bradley's pearl was the straw that broke the camel's back, It was purely made up of the Duchy absolute elites! 

600 knights headed by Mila Bradley personally, this was certainly not just some regular fight or a hired army as some believed before.

And soon, the much-awaited news was finally leaked... 

The Burton family announced that: 

[in the hunting event, there were five Dolivarian squads that got killed mysteriously inside, 

and instead of doing sufficient investigation, they framed Caesar Burton for their murder.

Duke Tinley gave orders to attempt to assassinate Caesar Burton by sending 5 saints and five knights, had it not been for the care of fate, the Duchy beloved son would have been dead. 

But the assassins managed to kill a saint belonging to the Burton family.

That is why the Burton family wants to take revenge against the Duchy of Tinley in Dolivar... 

And the Bradley family decided to help because Caesar Burton is the most prominent genius of their military establishment.]

A foreign war!!

Any news involving foreign wars travels quickly, especially if the participant is a Duke family like the Bradleys!

Second, a young boy from the Burton family killed dozens of Dolivar's elites in the hunting event? 

No one believed that Duke Tinley would just frame a random young guy and go for the kill in such a manner, he should have strong reasons for this.

But even though... Duke Tinley wanted to kill Caesar Burton and even sent 5 Saints but still failed? a fight between saints happened for a boy!?

with everyone hearing the news, one question would certainly follow:

[Who exactly is this boy?!]

And this is the question exactly is what Billy and the rest of the generals wanted when they declared their intention, to glorify Caesar even more so as to give the soldiers a sense of superiority over their enemy.

~ and of course because that would appeal to Robin too ~ 

And they had what they wanted.. The public opinion in the Black Sun kingdom actually sympathized with their cause and was busy talking about imaginary legends of Caesar and what he did there, 

Various legends about his genius, courage, and strength were woven every single second through the information networks of the Bradley and Burton families.

But if the high officials of the Black Sun Realm didn't like what is going on at all...

They know very well what happened there and that the purpose behind it was to drag them into a war, and now these two stupid families have fallen into the trap... of their own free will?

They can turn a blind eye to the Burtons since they're just an Earl and what they're doing has no weight... But what about Duke Bradley?

The biggest problem is that the chances of stopping them before the war started have become zero! 

They announced their goal on the same day they left Jura towards the Borders, and therefore no orders can be issued to stop them and dismantle the army, otherwise, it will be a slap to the two families and a slap to the kingdom itself.

Ten days have passed already since the army started marching...

the army of 60,000 soldiers entered the lands of the Duchy of Evren and advanced all the way to the border of the kingdom of Dolivar.

------------------------

The capital of the black sun Kingdom.. the conference hall...

An urgent meeting was held in the name of His Highness Prince William, in which the kingdom's senior officials and all those who were able to come from among the senior saints in a span of ten days.

"Galan is crazy! he is always had been crazy! I warned you all but that lunatic many times but no one listened to me!!" A middle-aged saint hit his hand on the table

"Dolivar provoked Stanley, Alton, and Evren families... but the Bradleys were the ones who took the bait? How pathetic is that?" commented another

Another saint stood up, "Your Highness, I demand that Galan be summoned to appear before us and explain what he has."

All eyes fell on Prince William, who was rubbing his forehead with his hand. "I've already summoned him, but he asked for a delay until next week."

"What? Is he the one who stipulates when he will meet us now? this guy really forget what he is!"

"If he wanted to destroy his 30,000 soldiers so bad, he could have told me and I would have wiped them out for him, why should he send them to start a war against Dolivar's madmen?"

"I bet he is scheming with Dolivar against us!"

"That's reasonable, when Dolivar's plan to provoke the three border Duchies failed, he jumped in to save the day for them! He should be held accountable for treason!!"

The saint who had asked for Galan's summons moments before said, "Your Highness if Jalan is coming next week, what are we doing here then? all the accusations are merely empty talk without him present..."

"I called the meeting urgently because the last news I got was that the army is at the edge of the border, they must be setting up camp now and making plans for the clash, 

they would soon start the small skirmishes with the border guards and -testing the waters- movements will begin, if I'm not mistaken, the real attack would launch within two weeks... 

this is our last chance to do something to stop them before it's too late, do any of you have a suggestion?"

A moment of silence filled the hall...

'It seems that the royal family is desperate' This is the first thing that crossed their minds after hearing William's words.

The kingdom of the black sun is based largely on freedom, the dukes, in particular, are free to wage internal and external wars without the permission of the royal family.

of course, if a Duke did this then he would have to bear the consequences alone as well, But still... if the Duke does not have to take permission from the royal family, what can they do to stop them in a case like this?

Of course, they can pressure him politically and economically, or even extract a few lands from him if the need arises, but this is in the long run...

As for now, the Royal family, nor their council can do anything to stop the Duke's army.

"Your Highness, do we have information about the person who leads this army?"

William nodded, "It's Edward Bradley, a level 28 Saint, you must know him well from his epic wars against the laying Water Realm..."

"Edward Bradley... he a really great general... this choice to lead the army made me think for a moment that Galan is serious about invading Dolivar, not that he was leading 60,000 idiots on a suicide mission!"

"It doesn't matter who he is, They will get destroyed the moment they cross the border."

finally, a middle-aged man stood up, "Your Highness, I know Edward. I fought alongside him one day. He is a smart man who knows logic, If we move now at full speed, we can arrive in a few hours and talk to him, perhaps he will be convinced and stop the progress."

"You are right, Edward Bradley is very smart and he will be convinced of the words of reason if we show him the big picture... I am free today, I can come with you."

A few people nodded in agreement with the suggestion, and William too saw a glimmer of hope at last and was about to give his approval and choose the right team for the expedition when...

"your highness, an urgent report has arrived regarding Duke Bradley's army." Someone hurried into the dome and shouted at the top of his voice, forgetting to even bow in respect to the prince.

William furrowed his brow, "take your breath first, what might be urgent about the army? A full day hasn't passed since they got to the border, they must still be pitching tents now."

"Sir, you will not believe this.. the report says that they didn't stop for a second at the Borders, they entered directly into the lands of Dolivar!

and went straight towards Baron Bato's main city!

in there, there were an allied army of 3 Baronies gathering to move toward the border together and stop our army until Viscount Cetina's army arrive,

  they destroyed the stronghold, wiped out or enslaved every single soldier for a total of about 40 thousand, and enslaved everyone else in the city.

the baron himself and his family were captured, and our side casualty is less than 500 hundred soldiers.

and right now the Duke's army is on its way to fight the allied army of Viscount Cetina that consists of 70,000 soldiers !! "