The man was at the first step of the foundation establishment stage. At her level, she wasn't supposed to even look at him twice even if she wasn't a princess. But there was something about him she couldn't quite place... He looked powerful and somewhat familiar for some odd reason. It was why she allowed him to follow them. If Laluri hadn't refused, maybe something might have happened...

"We are all going to die here." Prince Jubu's voice filled their ears.

The room immediately became quiet. Juwaira opened her eyes to look at him.

"We're all ears," prince Nimu said. He didn't sound surprised. It was as though he had been waiting for Jubu to say just that.

But Jubu didn't add anything to that, and Juwaira got tired of waiting and closed her eyes again. Jubu was known for his arrogant nature, it wasn't surprising for him to say that.

But would they die there?

***

While these people were being captured and imprisoned, many things were happening in the outside world.

The parents of these Royal children didn't take lightly the disappearance of their children.

Each of the five empires on the continent had lost its heir. The only empire that was spared was Shurein.

The Shurein emperor had a son and a daughter. The daughter had left home some years back and no one knew where she was.

But the crown prince was safe at home.

That made the affected empires turn toward him. Suspicions arose. Why would everyone lose their heirs but not Shurein?

The emperor of Biyakis had three children, a son, and two daughters. He lost them in one night. Why was Shurein spared?

It was then that some covert information began to spread. The information revealed that prince Nimu was seen the week before in a town at Shurein. Eyewitnesses came forward to declare that they certainly saw the prince with an entourage near the Shurein capital about ten days ago.

Nimu was the crown prince of the Ura, and the empire's stakeholders turned their agitation toward Shurein.

Some of the members of the Ura council began to call for an army to be sent to Shurein.

It took much effort to calm them down a little.

The Shurein emperor sent a message promising to come in person to Ura and have a dialogue.

This made the matter settle down. It was an emperor's word against the witnesses'. One was a ruler of a whole empire while the others were peasants who could be bribed or coaxed to tell a lie under duress. It was obvious who would win.

But it didn't stop there. Two weeks later, prince Nimu's body was found at the Shurein capital.

No one knew how it happened, but the newsmen saw the body live.

It was said that the Shurein government tried to sweep it under the rug, but the news had already reached Ura.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The Ura emperor himself wrote a letter to Shurein asking for his son's body to bury. And Shurein was forced to release the corpse.

Three days after Nimu's funeral and internment, an internal crisis broke out at Ura.

The emperor was very old and most times, it was his queen, Nimu's mother who executed things.

The woman asked for an army of twenty thousand warriors, so she would lead them and take her son's revenge. But the commander wouldn't release an army unless the emperor approved. And the emperor kept quiet.

The debate took days before the empress finally won. She selected an army of nineteen thousand warriors and marched toward Shurein.

Everyone was unaware that Nimu and the other Royal children were kidnapped and kept hostages at Enula in Biyakis.

Abdin, who at the moment was sitting down reading the news of the world, was also not aware of this fact.

But he, like many experienced others, could tell that this was a conspiracy. Especially as he knew that a Nànata army was lying in ambush in Biyakis, waiting for the right time to strike.

Abdin glanced at the crib that stood beside him. An infant lay within, sucking at a bottle of milk.

He had been taking care of the baby whose mother died for months now. He had tried to place the baby in an orphanage but the carers were all dead. The neighbors were gone and the town of Nanila hadn't recovered yet.

Many people had fled the town thinking that there was some sorcery or omen responsible.

The town could be said to be a shell of its former self at the moment.

Biyakis empire, which would normally not allow such chaos to take long before addressing it, was also trying to save themselves at the moment.

Abdin opened the next page of the newspaper. It seemed the emperor of Biyakis was a man of wisdom and understanding.

He was one of the few who first began to notice the signs of foul play.

He was also one of the few that could do something about it. As soon as the news about the Ura empress and her army reached him, he dispatched his 1st division commander, the third most powerful man in the empire, a person called Kininura, with five thousand men to block her way.

Even as cultivators, the journey from Ura to Shurein would take at least two to three months. And the Dadiyan empire was situated between the two, it would probably not let such an army pass through its borders easily.

Kininura would have the chance to stop them before they reached Shurein. His orders were to bar them from entering Shurein, at least until dialogue was reached.

In the previous loop, there was a man who came and revealed his name to Abdin as Kininura. Was this the same man as the commander sent by the Biyakis emperor now, or was it an altogether different person?

Four weeks after Kininura left Biyakis, the two armies met somewhere along the borders of Dadiyan.

No one knew what happened there but newsmen reported that the Ura army had easily defeated the Biyakis army and had moved on to Shurein without any hitches.

This piece of news caught Abdin's attention immediately.

Kininura alone was stronger than almost everyone at Ura. He was the commander that singlehandedly brought down the Dikan empire and shattered it.

When it came to battle tricks, his kind was hard to come by even in level 3 empires.

He had long since attained Pseudo-Deva, and only a little time remained until he reached Deva.

It was laughable to think that empress Ura, despite that she had also reached Pseudo-Deva, could overpower him so easily. Especially as he wasn't out to fight, but just to prevent her from passing.

Abdin was certain that the man could overcome an army of twenty thousand with just five thousand men of his own.

Just like with Abdin, the news also attracted many professionals. Most of them believed that it was a conspiracy. But who could do anything about it? There was nothing right now that could stop a war between Shurein and Ura.

It was a matter of a few weeks before Ura would arrive at Shurein and begin to attack.

Shurein would then have no option but to defend herself. A seemingly minor misunderstanding would then become a full-blown war.

The emperor of Biyakis had tried severally to send messages to both Ura and Shurein, telling them to hold on. But he was yet to receive any answers, according to Aminiya Times.

Was someone intercepting the messages, or did both emperors didn't feel like replying?

Biyakis empire called an emergency meeting. The emperor resolved at that time to ally with the Dadiyan empire to calm things down.

But there was one setback: Dadiyan and Biyakis were not on good terms. Or to be more precise, they didn't trust each other to become allies.

Historically, Dikan empire was closer to Dadiyan than any of the other empires - they had marital ties between them.

This was why, they didn't support it, when years ago, Biyakis ruined Dikan. They had tried severally to send help to Dikan, and since then, the two empires were at loggerheads.

Dadiyan would certainly snub an invitation from Biyakis.