Free Web NovelChapter 20: Expedition preparation⁴
Over the past three days, whilst Lars has been shut away in his room, a great deal has changed outside
The Duchy has withdrawn all its external forces and suspended all its projects outside the Duchy; it has even granted outsiders and civilians a seven-day grace period to complete their work and settle their affairs, and travel costs using public teleports have been reduced to half the original price, in an announcement that once the grace period ends, the Duchy’s gates will be closed
Naturally, with Askelund failing to clarify the situation, rumours began to spread of a readiness to rebel.
The Emperor even sent an envoy, but for some reason this envoy disappeared halfway there, before even reaching Askelund, which fuelled the rumours and placed Askelund under suspicion.
But what is even more interesting is that Cassian Askelund, the Duke’s eldest son, and Vince Askelund, the Duke’s third brother, appeared at the Palace of the Marquis Gaius. That evening, Queen Jori, daughter of the Marquis Gaius, submitted a request to the Emperor to go to her father’s house with her children
Naturally, the request was refused, and a summons was sent to Cassian Askelund to appear before the Emperor ƒrēewebnovel.com
The Emperor stood at the window, his hands behind his back, listening to the reports of the intelligence chief, who was kneeling on one knee behind him
" We have managed to ascertain the nature of the gift sent by Duke Askelund to the Marquis Gaius--- the Badge of the Hymn of Doom, the sole legendary-class artefact in Askelund’s possession. Askelund’s advice to the Marquis was to remove Her Majesty the Queen Jori and Their Highnesses, her princely children, from the Imperial Palace, and to inform him of the Duke’s decision to temporarily suspend all of Askelund’s activities outside the Duchy for the foreseeable future. For the time being, he entrusted the Marquis with the leadership of the nobles loyal to them and the matter of supporting the Second Prince Basil, ... Cassian Askelund and Vince Askelund left the Marquis’s palace immediately afterwards and are now staying at Askelund Palace in the capital, but they left five knights behind at the Marquis’s palace to support and protect him, and the insignia they wear confirms their affiliation with the Requiemknights of the Duchy of Askelund , ...."
"What is the Duke doing?"
"As for the situation within the Duchy of Askelund , Your Majesty, the Duke has already begun to assemble the expeditionary force. According to our information, one thousand elite soldiers from the Duchy’s First Army have been selected, along with ninety knights from the Northern Frontier Knights of the Black Cloud Order, and ten knights from the Requiemknights . According to rumours leaked from the expeditionary force, they will be led by the Duke’s fourth son, Laurentius Askelund, However, our intelligence has uncovered secret movements in the north-west, where it appears a full army has been assembled. According to our preliminary investigations, we have detected more than ten thousand soldiers, one hundred Knights and one of the Requiemknights, and we believe there are more. As for the castle, the Duke’s second son, Lucien Askelund, He was ordered to go to the western border; however, based on our initial assessments, we believe his destination is the north-west, to join the aforementioned army, and it is likely that this army will subsequently join the expeditionary force. However, we have been unable to obtain any inside information due to the absolute secrecy surrounding the Duke’s current decisions; it appears that no one is yet privy to them except the elders, members of the main family, and the heads of the collateral families close to the Duke, and all their movements are shrouded in complete secrecy."
"What do you think the Duke is doing?"
"Given the speed of Duke Askelund’s response and the army’s readiness, I believe the Duke wishes to exploit the current political situation to resume the Northern Campaign, particularly given the readiness of his armies and the speed with which everything was put in place as soon as the order was issued from the Imperial Palace."
"So our previous belief that the Duchy would not want to ignite the Northern War, given the strength of its enemy and their madness... we were wrong... Well, the Duke suffered a humiliating defeat in the war ten years ago, but it seems he has the audacity to return, or perhaps it is just blind rage... But it’s not as if I don’t understand the Duke; even I would feel a tingling in my body if there were unknown armies of Death Knights outside my gates enjoying themselves, even if they weren’t directly hostile to me. Well, this is far better than our initial plan. If this is truly Alaric’s intention. ....investigate the state of the rest of the Duchy’s armies and let me know if the Alaric is making any foolish moves in the south and east of his lands. Those Askelundians are already suffering from some issues in their heads; it wouldn’t be far-fetched for them to attempt a rebellion after trying to deceive us by preparing their armies to target the north, or perhaps they wouldn’t even mind opening up multiple battlefronts."
"As Your Majesty commands."
"I shall send Jori and her children to the Marquis Gaius, but plant some of your men amongst their entourage and keep a close watch on everything, especially Jori and Basil."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"You may leave."
After dismissing the intelligence chief, he remained standing in place, .
As he had said, it wasn’t that he wasn’t prepared for any surprises from the Duke, but the problem was that he really couldn’t understand what the Duke wanted.
So he frowned, and the frown deepened between his eyebrows.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t anticipated the possibility of the Duke abandoning one of his sons, even if he cherished them; after all, for them in power, before being fathers to their children, they were the rulers of their people, and the lives of millions hung on a single decision of theirs. And throughout history, it is not uncommon for rulers to face such a choice in some situation or another, even for him, had he been in the Duke’s position... Well, the problem here is that Duke Alaric’s position isn’t really that difficult; he can fight without sacrificing anyone, and there’s no need for that. Nor is his strength so weak that he would be submissive.
Even Estella wouldn’t dare to confront them alone without the backing of another great power, because Askelund is strong—very strong.
So for someone obsessed with protecting his children to send two of them, not even just one, made him particularly confused, even though the others do not know much about what happened ten years ago, but he was present at the time himself because his father, the former Emperor, had sent him then to support Askelund and also to observe closely what was happening by staying close to Duke Alaric
. By the time he arrived there, he had only partially learnt of the reason for Duke Alaric’s madness at the time, which was that his wife and fourth son had been kidnapped by the enemy
He was there when they finally found the child and the Duchess, and let’s just say it was not the best sight a person could see: the Duchess’s body had been torn to pieces, and strange symbols had been drawn using her blood and her body, and the son was crucified on a flame-iron stake in the centre of the symbol, his whole body cracked and burnt, with a gash in his chest where his heart lay, and crows were feeding on his body, but miraculously the boy was still alive... and fully conscious
