Doreen had planned that they would march east towards river Ins the is the border of Hessen and Insbeck. They would make every village they passed to give their grain and produce. Large smoke clouds rose into the air as acres of fields were being put to the torch.

They made sure that all the villagers who left their homes would march south trying to avoid the royal army coming from the west. Large caravans of refugees started to head south towards the royal capital. Women, children, families with elderly among them.

"How is everything going," Edward asked from Doreen.

"Everything is going as planned," Doreen answered.

"Good. And how about you?"

"I am fine," Doreen said trying to avoid the conversation.

"You say that, but you are no miracle maker either. This is your first war. I can see that you also are exhausted. I have seen your hands shake. Don't try to take everything on yourself. If you fail we fail, so try to take care of yourself also," Edward explained

Doreen listened and understood that Edward was right. She also was baring the quilt and the stress was creeping on to her.

"I know. I have to keep going for him," Doreen said and continued with her work.

"Just remember, when you fight for whoever that person is, remember who actually cares about you and would cry on your gravestone," Edward yelled and left.

~ ~

Rikard's army was the entire kingdom's military with around twenty-seven thousand soldiers. The soldiers had been marching almost non-stop with only short stops for rest. What made the situation even worse for the royal army was that their supplies were being depleted.

For a week the sorrowful state of the royal army was getting more and more unbearable. The soldiers were forced to start boiling grass and other weeds and make soup with only a small amount of it being actual food. On the other hand, the nobility enjoyed good quality food with plenty to spare. Many times more food was found as leftovers in the trash than on the daily rations of the soldiers.

Soon deserting started to occur, but when word of deserting reached Rikard's ear he ordered the execution of ten suspected deserters as a fear tactic. It guaranteed that there would be no more deserters, but the already low morale of the army reached a new low.

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The army of the Jacob kingdom worked as a feudal state with the king having vassals and powerful vassals having their own vassals. Every region sent its own soldiers led by the lord of the region. In total, the kingdom had six large regions with the seventh being the royal lands.

Wallach was one of the six great regions so they were not among the royal army, but all the others were. This made the leadership of the army hard with often the might lords arguing not wanting to share the commanding of the army, but Rikard commanded everyone with his fearsome presence alone. No lord or noble would stand against him.

The royal army consisted of about twenty-five thousand infantry soldiers. Most of them were basic spearmen of halberdiers. The gear of every soldier represented the region they were from. For example, the soldiers from Teutonia were extremely militaristic including the knights of the black sun who came from the Teutonia region with Rikard being the lord of the region. Unlike the soldiers from Teutonia, the soldiers of Hessen just wore simple leather armor with small wooden shields. Every soldier could be recognized the gear they wore and the colors of their banners.

The rest of the army was the cavalry. As the cavalry of the rebels, they also were not as heavily armored as the grey skins. They wore chainmail armor with long spears and kite-style shields. The cavalry was commanded by no one else than Duke Mihalh.

What also was a threat was the elite knights of the black sun. They were the spearhead of the army and the vanguard. It would not be easy to stop them, and many were afraid if they would face them. One knight was easily worth ten soldiers or grey skins.

~ ~

The mighty royal army was trying to catch Rufus's army. Rikard Plangent's face was hard to read, but he was always confident in his own victory even though his men were tired and miserable. Just with him being on the battlefield would raise the morale of his troops even if they were forcibly recruited. Rikard Plangent was said to be the strongest person in the kingdom with his reputation expanding beyond the borders of the kingdom.

Duke Mihalh had a splendid tent set up for him. It had a fancy table with expensive wine that was being carried by his men. He was pouring wine and had two glasses

"Thank you for coming," Duke said in an empty tent.

"Well, we are friends by now. Why wouldn't I come and help my friend when he asks?" Dorothy said and came inside the tent.

Duke Mihalh gave Dorothy a glass of the expensive wine.

"Well, I just thought we were just business partners? What changed?" Mihalh asked.

"Well realizing that you also are a person who wants to send a message as badly as I."

The duke chuckled as he was sipping his wine.

"Would you be interested in stopping this war in one go?" the Duke asked.

"Go on."

"This Rufus is about a two days march away. If for example, a small cavalry retinue of skilled assassins would ride out now they could easily assassinate him by tomorrow morning."

"So you want me to kill that Rufus before the battle?" Dorothy asked to clarify.

"Would that be a problem," asked the duke and drank some more wine.

Dorothy laughed and turned her arm into a sword.

"I would be glad to kill that bastard. He is a person I really want to send a message to," said Dorothy and summoned many of her assassins.