Two weeks later, we had gathered everything and were preparing to set off.
The fourth prince's message had come a week ago and it had told us where to go to gather with the army that he was leaving us.
After a week of preparations, we were now heading out.
The ones that came with me were Cecilia and Veronica.
Cecilia was a natural choice since she was the commander of our forces. Veronica was a surprise, but she came with the group of guards that the duke had given her.
There were two others that had wanted to come, but circumstances kept them from coming.
Moon came from the elves and Elsa came from the dwarves. The moment that they appeared on the frontlines, a bigger problem would happen.
When that time came, it would be much more disastrous than just a few kingdoms declaring war on our kingdom.
If the kingdoms thought that the dwarves and the elves were backing us, there was no doubt that they would bring in other kingdoms against us. The threat of the elves and dwarves working together with humans was just too great that they wouldn't be able to ignore it.
Other than that, there was also Shaka and his men who came with us as a scouting team.
Shaka had been quiet this time, so I had forgotten about him, but it turned out that he had been on a secret mission to scout out the other kingdoms which was why he hadn't been in my territory the entire time.
Shadow Garden was an organization that was responsible for controlling intelligence in the kingdom. Now that a war was on our doorstep, it was naturally their responsibility to dig up all the necessary information.
So Shaka had been infiltrating one of the kingdoms until he was called back by the fourth prince to follow me.
I wanted to apologize to him for this, but he said, "It's been a long time since I've been on the battlefield, but these old bones do ache for it sometimes. Digging up information is fine, but it just isn't the same as being on the battlefield."
Though I had interrupted his mission, he didn't seem angry.
In fact, it almost seemed like he was excited to be on the battlefield again.
This was something that I couldn't understand since I wasn't a warrior like him.
It also wasn't something that Cecilia could understand either.
Though Cecilia was a knight, she had never been to war like Shaka had.
It had been a long time since our kingdom had been at war, so most of her service had been spent guarding territory instead of being on the frontlines. The few times that she had been on the frontlines was when she fought in a few skirmishes.
Rose's father, the count had territory that was near the border, so he often had to send his knights to intercept smaller attacks.
That was Cecilia's only experience with fighting the other kingdoms.This chapter was originally shared via N0/vel/Biin.
So going to war for the first time, she was actually quite nervous.
Shaka had tried to calm her down, but it didn't work since she just didn't know what to expect.
The unknown was the most terrifying and there was nothing more terrifying than war where death lay waiting at every corner.
I would have to think of something to calm her down later when we went into battle or else it would be bad for my troops if they went into battle with a nervous commander.
A single moment of hesitation could be what decided life and death after all.
When we left the town, Rose had prepared a large parade to send us off.
I knew that this parade wasn't just for me, but rather for all the men and women who would be following me to war.
They needed to be reminded of what they were fighting for, so they would be able to be at their peak.
People were at their strongest when there was something to protect after all.
So showing them the people that they needed to protect before setting off was the best way of reminding them of this. After seeing their friends and family, they would be filled with morale to protect what they wanted to protect.
I knew that, so I didn't hesitate to go all out supporting Rose's plan.
I let the men and women of the army go interact with the people that had come to see them off.
I knew that doing this would allow them to understand even better about what they were to protect.
Though a part of me was just happy to see them like this.
I also made sure to say farewell to Rose and the others that were being left behind in the town.
As we left, Rose gave me an extra long hug that inspired me to do even more than I was already preparing to do.
I would do all that I could to keep what I currently have.
After the parade was over, everyone had serious looks on their faces as we headed off from the town.
Seeing this, I turned to Cecilia to say, "They're ready. Are you?"
Cecilia looked back at me with a firm look and just simply gave a nod.
With that, we headed off to the rendezvous point.
This place wasn't that far from my town, so we were able to reach it in just a few days.
This was a place that was actually quite far from the border, but this was where the army of the fourth prince had been stationed. They were waiting for us to arrive before heading to the battlefield.
When we arrived, I was immediately brought to the main tent where the former general of this army was waiting.
This former general had been turned into the vice general that would support me in commanding this army since I had no formal training for this.
When I walked in the tent, I could feel the tension in the air.
It was so thick that one could cut it with a knife.
Two weeks later, we had gathered everything and were preparing to set off.
The fourth prince's message had come a week ago and it had told us where to go to gather with the army that he was leaving us.
After a week of preparations, we were now heading out.
The ones that came with me were Cecilia and Veronica.
Cecilia was a natural choice since she was the commander of our forces. Veronica was a surprise, but she came with the group of guards that the duke had given her.
There were two others that had wanted to come, but circumstances kept them from coming.
Moon came from the elves and Elsa came from the dwarves. The moment that they appeared on the frontlines, a bigger problem would happen.
When that time came, it would be much more disastrous than just a few kingdoms declaring war on our kingdom.
If the kingdoms thought that the dwarves and the elves were backing us, there was no doubt that they would bring in other kingdoms against us. The threat of the elves and dwarves working together with humans was just too great that they wouldn't be able to ignore it.
Other than that, there was also Shaka and his men who came with us as a scouting team.
Shaka had been quiet this time, so I had forgotten about him, but it turned out that he had been on a secret mission to scout out the other kingdoms which was why he hadn't been in my territory the entire time.
Shadow Garden was an organization that was responsible for controlling intelligence in the kingdom. Now that a war was on our doorstep, it was naturally their responsibility to dig up all the necessary information.
So Shaka had been infiltrating one of the kingdoms until he was called back by the fourth prince to follow me.
I wanted to apologize to him for this, but he said, "It's been a long time since I've been on the battlefield, but these old bones do ache for it sometimes. Digging up information is fine, but it just isn't the same as being on the battlefield."
Though I had interrupted his mission, he didn't seem angry.
In fact, it almost seemed like he was excited to be on the battlefield again.
This was something that I couldn't understand since I wasn't a warrior like him.
It also wasn't something that Cecilia could understand either.
Though Cecilia was a knight, she had never been to war like Shaka had.
It had been a long time since our kingdom had been at war, so most of her service had been spent guarding territory instead of being on the frontlines. The few times that she had been on the frontlines was when she fought in a few skirmishes.
Rose's father, the count had territory that was near the border, so he often had to send his knights to intercept smaller attacks.
That was Cecilia's only experience with fighting the other kingdoms.This chapter was originally shared via N0/vel/Biin.
So going to war for the first time, she was actually quite nervous.
Shaka had tried to calm her down, but it didn't work since she just didn't know what to expect.
The unknown was the most terrifying and there was nothing more terrifying than war where death lay waiting at every corner.
I would have to think of something to calm her down later when we went into battle or else it would be bad for my troops if they went into battle with a nervous commander.
A single moment of hesitation could be what decided life and death after all.
When we left the town, Rose had prepared a large parade to send us off.
I knew that this parade wasn't just for me, but rather for all the men and women who would be following me to war.
They needed to be reminded of what they were fighting for, so they would be able to be at their peak.
People were at their strongest when there was something to protect after all.
So showing them the people that they needed to protect before setting off was the best way of reminding them of this. After seeing their friends and family, they would be filled with morale to protect what they wanted to protect.
I knew that, so I didn't hesitate to go all out supporting Rose's plan.
I let the men and women of the army go interact with the people that had come to see them off.
I knew that doing this would allow them to understand even better about what they were to protect.
Though a part of me was just happy to see them like this.
I also made sure to say farewell to Rose and the others that were being left behind in the town.
As we left, Rose gave me an extra long hug that inspired me to do even more than I was already preparing to do.
I would do all that I could to keep what I currently have.
After the parade was over, everyone had serious looks on their faces as we headed off from the town.
Seeing this, I turned to Cecilia to say, "They're ready. Are you?"
Cecilia looked back at me with a firm look and just simply gave a nod.
With that, we headed off to the rendezvous point.
This place wasn't that far from my town, so we were able to reach it in just a few days.
This was a place that was actually quite far from the border, but this was where the army of the fourth prince had been stationed. They were waiting for us to arrive before heading to the battlefield.
When we arrived, I was immediately brought to the main tent where the former general of this army was waiting.
This former general had been turned into the vice general that would support me in commanding this army since I had no formal training for this.
When I walked in the tent, I could feel the tension in the air.
It was so thick that one could cut it with a knife.
