[A/N: For all the golden tickets and even the magic castle, I thank you all. I’ll be uploading 6 Chapters a day for this whole week as a token of appreciation!]

The important figures rode their horses, but the five thousand soldiers jogged on foot. All of that training seemed to have worked as they ran for eight hours straight without that much of an issue.

Two hours of rest, and then they were back on their feet before they continued jogging. And right as the sky began to turn orange, five thousand men stood in front of Alexander’s territory.

Adrian did not wait until morning. After all, he wasn’t someone who cared about the people who went against him first.

He looked at Claire.

Claire nodded and turned to Burke.

The bald guy pulled a massive, curved animal horn from his back. Adrian stared at the massive curved bone.

It was almost three feet long and looked pretty heavy.

Burke lifted the heavy thing up, put the mouthpiece against his lips, and sucked some air in before blowing into it with all his strength.

The sound that came out was loud, extremely loud.

Adrian felt this strong urge to punch someone in the face the more he listened to it.

That aside, the war had officially begun.

Viscount Alexander was just sitting at his massive dining table.

He was casually was eating a perfectly roasted drumstick right as his dining doors slammed open and his butler stumbled inside. The old guy was wheezing, had a face pale, and he completely ignored basic noble etiquette as he just practically pushed a scroll right into Alexander’s hands.

Alexander frowned.

Stuff like this never happened. His staff knew better than to interrupt his meals over minor issues. Screaming at servants was his usual response. But the sheer panic in the old man’s eyes made Alexander pause.

So he just grabbed a rag, wiped his hands and fingers, and untied the thread that was tied around the scroll.

He unrolled the paper and read through the contents inside.

"As the Baron of Oresfall, I have acquired solid information confirming that you were the mastermind who manipulated the Ironhold Kingdom into attacking my territory. Due to this act of treason, you are officially declared an enemy of my people. I, Adrian Sterling, as the Lord of Oresfall who has been the direct target of your schemes, will be taking the first step toward revenge today."

Alexander blinked and looked at the bottom of the page.

There was a heavy wax stamp. It depicted an owl in mid-flight with its wings angled up in a sharp V shape. A monocle sat over one of the owl’s eyes.

’So this is his new little symbol.’ Alexander thought.

But he really didn’t care about the design even one bit. He just rolled the parchment back up and looked at the butler.

Adrian was declaring a literal war.

But Alexander knew exactly how the political game worked. Adrian was only targeting him, and Oresfall wasn’t launching a blind attack against the whole Crestwall Empire. Which meant no other nobles were going to step in and help him defend his walls. If he doesn’t have a good reason to ask for their help, at least.

And usually, based on Alexander’s information, a guy like Adrian had two choices here.

The first way was to do exactly what the letter said and go to war.

The second way was to take this tangible proof to the royal court, present it to the Emperor, and let the messy legal system handle it.

The second option was incredibly annoying. Court politics took months and it was a massive headache full of bribes, endless paperwork, and tedious negotiations. Alexander actually thought the legal route would have caused him way more trouble.

’He actually picked the stupid option.’ Alexander mused.

Because bringing a tiny, newly built army to fight a veteran Viscount on his home turf was basically suicide.

"Since you want a war," Alexander muttered. "Then that is fine."

He had three thousand heavily armed men stationed in this city.

What did Adrian have?

Based on what Alexander knew, Oresfall had sixty knights. He hadn’t received a single piece of intel suggesting Adrian had hired any more than that. Sure, sixty was a lot but knights were just slightly better than regular soldiers and how many did he have? A whopping three thousand.

’All those knights are still just humans.’ Alexander smirked. ’Maybe much stronger than regular soldier but at the end of the day, they will still die to arrows if they are hit enough.’

He already formulated his winning strategy in his head.

As long as his archers slaughtered the regular foot soldiers, he could just use his massive three thousand man army to completely outnumber the knights and crush them through sheer exhaustion. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

He felt completely confident.

He tossed the scroll right into the fireplace. He did not care.

Alexander picked his drumstick right back up, took a messy bite, and spoke while chewing.

"Fetch Thorne."

The butler scrambled backward and vanished down the hall.

Five minutes later, Captain Thorne walked in and threw up a perfect salute.

"My lord."

"Prepare the men for war." Alexander said casually and pointed a chicken bone at the commander. "Get the archers stationed on the outer walls immediately.I need crates filled with arrows on top of the walls. I want them there so the men can just pick them up and start shooting without running back down to the armory."

"Yes, my lord." Thorne saluted again and marched right out.

Alexander chewed his food slowly. He figured he had plenty of time since an army marching from Oresfall would take at least one or two days to get here.

He didn’t really know the actual extent of Adrian’s military power. And that ignorance was going to cost him everything.

Because Adrian was already here.

Adrian had sent the messenger the night before. The guy rode a fast horse in the night, reaching Alexander’s estate and handing over the scroll right before noon. And Adrian had already marched out with his army early in the morning.

On top of that, it wasn’t really a march but a pretty fast jog.

So by the time Alexander finished his lunch and the sun started going down, the enemy had already arrived.

It was late evening and Alexander had literally only been given six hours to prepare his entire city.

And he had completely wasted it.