Izmar, Oton Continent

“Mommy, I don’t want to go,” said the girl of five as she hugged her mother. “I don’t want you to leave too, honey, but you both need to go,” she said, with tears dripping from my face.

They need to leave.

Their claws had already started extending toward Heron. They might go for Josie too. She can’t let that happen; she won’t let her children suffer the fate; she is suffering.

They will be safe with him. He might be angry at her and will be shocked to see them, but he will take them and keep them safe.

She wiped her tears and looked at the blond-haired boy of eleven. Who had tears in his eyes, but trying so hard to not cry.

"Heron, care of your sister,” I said and hugged him.

“I will not let anything happen to Josie, Mom,” said the young boy. “I know, you will not,” I replied and hugged both of them tighter, breathing their smell to remember them forever.

This might be the last day; she will ever see them.

She got up and looked at a middle-aged man with a thick green mustache. “Thank you, Emer. I will be grateful to you forever,” she said.

“What are you thanking me for? If not for you, I wouldn’t have even been standing here alive,” he replied.

He will be taking a long journey with children, to a different continent.

She smiled and took out the letter from her bag with a shaking hand. A letter is far from enough, but it is the only thing, she could do.

“G..give this to him,” she said, with her voice shaking, before turning to the children.

“Heron, Josie, listen to Uncle Emer. Don’t give him any chance to complain,” she said, and both of them nodded.

Soon, it was their time to leave. I hugged them for the last time and watched them step into the carriage.

The carriage moved and soon disappeared from my eyes.

I wiped tears streaming out of my eyes and walked back toward the arena, praying to every god to make them reach safely to him.

….

“That bastard is making us wait intentionally,” grumbled Lancel, looking at the sun. Which will soon disappear.

He is clearly angry and so am I; he should have arrived half an hour ago, but even now, there is no sign of him.

It would have been fine if he had been a few minutes late, but he was half an hour late. Their mage informed us, they would reach the city, in an hour, but now it had been one and a half hours.

If this isn’t disrespect toward their host, then I don’t know what it is.

Taren Zanav is already proving to be troublesome, before even setting a step into the city.

It is because of him; that I am working non-stop. Since yesterday, I have not gone home or even to the establishment. I didn’t even meet Francesca Charlette. I stole from Norman.

I wanted everything to be perfect; I did not plan to give Zanav any reason to complain.

The stakes are too high.

The Count also wants him, or rather his father, and wouldn’t mind if he destroyed a building or two; he said those very words to me.

In the whole empire, Count Zanav’s name is on the list of every person who is vying for the throne.

Hun!

I was about to reply when suddenly, I felt a faint vibration under my feet, and every second that vibration began to get stronger.

I immediately took out the enchanted spyglass and looked.

What I am seeing through it, had blown my mind. It made me really understand why so many people wanted his father.

Seconds passed, and the vibration got stronger and stronger, till everybody could sense it.

Even the general public stopped in their tracks and looked.

It took another four minutes, and the vibration became like an earthquake. The people, could finally, see the things that were causing it.

“My god!”

People begin to gasp in shock, and it is a scene worthy of gasps. I had read reports of it, but it is entirely different from seeing it with one's own eyes.

From the south, a cloud of dust was created by huge two hundred amos rhinos. These rhinos are more than twice the size of those on Earth and they are completely red; with thick hides that make it hard to breach them with the common weapons.

On each rhino are mounted two huge black cannons. Every rhino has it, including the purple one, that is leading them.

This is the cannon cavalry of Count Zanav.

Taren Zanav had brought only a small number, but this force was more than enough to shake the whole city. Those cannons possess the power to blast through anything, be it men or walls, nobody could stand in their way.

I have read about their destructive power, and it is shuddering.

“I have fought in the battle where Count Zanav had personally led his cannon cavalry. He had decimated the enemies such that we didn’t need to fight at all,” said Atticus admiringly, only to receive a glare from Lancel.

We watched them get closer and closer, making the ground shake louder and louder.

“Show off,” Lancel muttered and descended from the barbican, with us following behind. Soon, we were in front of the gates, watching Taren coming riding us, with might that shook even experienced soldiers.

Even I wanted to take a step back, seeing his cavalry, not slowing down, despite coming close.

Lancel took a step back, before stopping himself and glared at the coming force, which, if didn’t stop soon, would ram us and I don’t know, even if High-Mage York would be able to stop them.

I glance at Zela and Stone, not far away from me, and also the mages. I am not the only one; Atticus is also doing the same, asking them to be prepared.

The earth begins to shake, high enough that some people watching are falling on the ground, but we don’t move even when the huge beasts have reached less than two hundred meters away from us.

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“Whoa!” commanded the young man in the front with the power of his skills and the huge rhinos began to slow down with amazing grace and discipline, before finally stopping three meters away from us in perfect unison.

I saw the beasts and their cannons closely and couldn’t help, but get scared.

The numbers may seem small, but they have terrifying power.

I forcefully calmed myself and turned to the man, who got off the purple rhino. He is a man in his mid-twenties. Tall, handsome with a straight face, deep blue eyes, and dark grey hair.

He is wearing a riding suit with the emblem of the house, Zanav, and a confident smile.

Hun!

He walked toward us, with five people behind him. Four I had read about, and the fifth one surprised me.

Javier Ronda.

Reports have told me, he was following around Zanav in Deerpond, but it seemed like, he was able to bring himself here with him.

Looking at his eyes, it is clear, that he didn’t have any good intentions at all.

“Lord Zanav, welcome to Greltheaven,” greeted Lancel, putting a smile on his face. “Lancel, my friend. It’s been a while,” said Taren Zanav, freezing the smile on the Lancel's face.

Both of them are on the same social level; Lancel could said to be higher, with him from the House of Ravenheart and future lord of Greltheaven.

With his standing, he shouldn’t have to personally come here to welcome him. Atticus or me would have been fine, but Count had sent him.

Now, Zanav, instead of appreciating the gesture, spitted on it, by not appropriately addressing Lancel.

Everybody around him understood what he did, but nobody had said anything.

“My Lord; the Lord Count is waiting,” I said, breaking the freezing silence. “Let’s go, we didn’t want to make father wait,” said Lancel curtly, and we walked toward the carriage.

I noticed; that the rhinos were following behind. Twelve of them, while we have only given him permission for the six to enter the city, given their size.

Soon, we reached the carriage, and I opened the door. Lancel entered first and then Taren, behind him Atticus and two people from Taren’s retinue and then me.

In the carriage, Taren and Lancel sat in front of each other, while we were behind them.

Once again, there was a silence. I had to tap Atticus sneakily to speak because Lancel wouldn’t speak. I would have spoken, but Atticus is more suited, being Commander of the city's forces.

“Lord Zanav, how was your journey from the Deerpond?” he asked and a smile appeared on the Taren’s face.

“Good, very good. The geography of the wasteland was perfect for my forces; here we could move at full speed, without any restrictions,” He replied, without looking away from the window.

Though, a moment later, he turned and looked directly at Atticus.

“If I attacked your city now, would you be able to defend it?” he asked suddenly, making the eyes of everyone wide.

Lancel glared at him but didn’t say anything else.

He is an idiot; he shouldn’t let his anger come between his objectives. Which is to build the rapport with the Taren.

It might make his father have a favorable view of Count and, by association, Prince Grelt. Count also wanted to find out where his father was leaning, but seeing how Lancel was behaving, he wouldn’t be accomplishing any of that.

Instead, he will make things worse.

“Of course, we will,” replied Atticus after a moment of silence. However, the sentence is lacking in confidence.

“You have an army of seven and half thousand people and five hundred more city guards,”

“It is not a big number. You also do not have a sufficient number of archers and cannons. The percentage of mages your army has is also lower than the average,”

“Taking a city would be difficult unless I have an army of three to four thousand, but crushing your defenses wouldn’t be much challenge and it won't take me long to achieve that,” he said.

Every word from his mouth made expressions of Lancel worse and Atticus looked like he had eaten fly. They didn’t like these words, not only because they were demeaning to their city, but also the truth.

“It won't be that easy, my lord,” said Atticus defiantly.

“Tell me, how will stop me? You are all aware of the abilities of my cannon cavalry. The trenches won’t work, nor would the blockades. My cannons and mages will crush through them.”

“Your High-Mages are the only ones who will be a problem and it is why I love my calvary.”

“I could operate from a distance and have enough mages to defend against the high mages while bombarding you constantly till your walls crumble,” he explained with confidence and smugness.

“What you said is true, my lord, but if we focused everything on defense, we will be able to, last, till you empty your supply of the cannonballs,” replied Atticus, to which Taren smiled, with even greater confidence.

“Even that won't be en….” He begins to explain how he will do it, in vague terms. He didn’t say what kind of cannonballs he would use. The kind of mages he had or how many he had.

He seemed overconfident and was smug, but not a fool.

I didn’t say anything. Wars aren’t my forte. Though, I listened to every word carefully and also observed how heated, the discussion was going.

Lancel is getting angry and might burst out. That would be bad, not only for him, but also for me.

So, when I saw a carriage turning from the road, into the compound. I couldn’t help but feel relieved.

“My lords, we have reached the residence,” I informed, interrupting their discussion, and a second later, the carriage stopped.