Chapter 84
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Soren Knotley the King of Trareniel was sitting at his desk looking over the last reports delivered by his military messengers. He had not received any progress reports from his royal cultivator since they had taken the Aregard kingdoms most southern town and was looking for anything that could hint to what may have happened in the past reports.
For the past two years, the Trareniel King Soren Knotley had been secretly working to arrange an alliance with Leofric Cosworth the king of Brandomma.
When King Knotley of Trareniel had successfully infiltrated the Aregard Royal Palace with one of his best spies, he had learned the Aregard Royal Cultivator Brom Duven had severely injured his cultivation. Brom Duven of Aregard was a higher cultivation than the Trareniel royal cultivator and he loyally stood beside his king Tobias Sletten as a friend and mentor.
The royal cultivator Brom Duven was a friend of Aelric Sletten the twentieth king of Aregard who also happened to be the current king Tobias Sletten's grandfather. Royal cultivator Duven now 135 years old had served three generations of the Sletten royal family kings to protect the kingdom and mentor the twenty-first and twenty seconded kings as they grew into their roles.
Brom Duven's loyalty and cultivation stage helped keep the Aregard kingdom safe from outside influences over the years.
Now, cultivators generally were not the most dependable of people in times of trouble. They preferred to focus on their cultivation and remain detached from the politics of their kingdom.
The only exception to this would be the royal cultivators of each kingdom. They were generally the strongest cultivator in the kingdom and were provided anything they wanted for their allegiance to the throne.
Many people would wonder if these royal cultivators were so strong why wouldn't they just take the throne for themselves? Why would they need to do this though when they had no desire to be tied down with running a kingdom and when anything they asked for was given to them?
They could remain in their luxurious estates cultivating day after day without a worry or care in the world. On occasion, they would have to attend a meeting or event but they were free beyond that to cultivate and grow stronger.
Another benefit besides growing strong was they were also extending their lifespan. The longer they lived the higher they could climb in cultivation thus further extending their lives. It was a circle of growing stronger to live longer while enjoying the benefits provided by the kingdom.
The two late fathers of the current kings of Aregard and Trareniel had once worked together during their reign to influence trade between their kingdoms. They could not be considered allies but they had formed trade agreements between their kingdoms.
Things began to change between the two kingdoms when these two fathers stepped down and their sons were crowned as the next generation of kings.
Soren Knotley the current King of Trareniel is an ambitious and conniving king who has looked beyond his borders over the years with a greedy eye.
When he learned the Aregard royal cultivator was actually injured and could not fight with his full strength he began to devise a plan to work with the Brandomma king.
If the Brandomma king agreed to send his royal cultivator to participate in the invasion of the Aregard kingdom, he would later send his royal cultivator and troops to help the Brandomma king invade the southern central kingdom of Galeran.
Over the years the Brandomma kingdom and the Galeran kingdom had conflicts over the lucrative fishing waters in the gulf between their two kingdoms. Off the coastline on the border of their kingdoms a large shallow reef which almost broke the ocean surface. This reef provided shelter and feeding waters for a multitude of rare fish species.
These two southern kingdoms were able to provide the other kingdoms of the continent with large varieties of fish only found in these shallow waters which made up a large portion of their kingdoms and their subjects trade profits.
Instead of sharing the reef or splitting it into sections of ownership these two kingdoms continuously fought over it. These conflicts had even escalated to battles which fueled their hatred for one another.
The Trareniel king used this hatred to gain an alliance with Brandomma. The Brandomman King could eliminate the rival kingdom of Galeran and take full control over the shallow gulf. This would provide him with more land, resources, and all the profits gained from the fishing trade.
What the conniving Trareniel king did not tell the Brandomma king was after he had gained Aregard and had helped him to take Galeran he would use the extra profits from Aregard to build a larger army to invade the kingdom of Ciral!
The kingdoms of the continent are arranged in the shape of a horseshoe with the Wayward Woodlands in the center of the horseshoe. Aregard kingdom is the top upper right area of the horseshoe then under Aregard is Trareniel and under Trareniel is Brandomma. In the center, of the lower curved part of the horseshoe is the Ciral kingdom and directly south of Ciral is the Galeran kingdom.
Once Brandomma invaded and occupied Galeran the neighboring Ciral kingdom to the north who also shared a border with Trareniel would be wide open for the Trareniel king's large army to invade.
On the left side of the horseshoe shape bordering the Ciral kingdom was the kingdom of Ferrama. North of Ferrama is the Gilaith kingdom and the north of Gilaith is the Yardom Kingdom.
These three western kingdoms did not have any real ties to the lower central kingdoms. The Trareniel king assumed if he were to conquer the centrally located Ciral kingdom the western kingdoms might have something to say about it but he couldn't see them sending troops to try and drive him out.
This was the key part of King Knotley's plan. If he could hang on to Ciral without interference from the western kingdoms he could build his treasury from the occupation of these three kingdoms he would control.
A few years later when he had a large enough treasury he could raise a well outfitted unstoppable army. He planned to sweep through the western kingdoms one at a time thus taking control of six of the eight kingdoms on the continent.
His ambitions did not end there though once he controlled these kingdoms he would bring his troops back south and conquer his ally of the Brandomma kingdom. The Trareniel king and his military advisors had worked out a three-pronged invasion where they would send troops from Ciral into Galeran and Brandomma. At the same, time the main army would invade from Trareniel along the east coast and strike the Brandomma capital from behind.
It would take a few years for his plans to come to fruition but he was confident they would succeed.
There was one factor he did not add into the formula for success and this was Ben King. Of course, he had spies in the Goldcrest capital and he was aware of a foreign cultivator who had recently begun to do business in Aregard.
Why would he concern himself with a foreign cultivator though? It was difficult enough to get a local cultivator to participate in a war and they would often wait until the last possible minute before they decided to intervene in a battle. Unless the enemy was storming through the city gates they would generally remain behind closed doors and ignore the kingdom's conflicts.
A foreign cultivator would never risk injury by standing against two royal cultivators and a mage. Why would he stand up and defend Aregard when he could simply move into the next kingdom to continue his trade?
Ben was not simply a foreign cultivator but a transmigrant from another world who had a completely different outlook on how a cultivator who is taken care of and given benefits should behave. Ben had too much invested in the Aregard kingdom and the king had always shown him favor and never looked down on him for not being one of his subjects.
Instead of Ben thinking why should I help them, Ben would think why shouldn't I help them? The Aregard Kingdom's people and royal family had always been good to him. There were, of course, a few who tried to drive him away but this was to be expected.
This way of thinking could not be understood by the Trareniel king and this is how he ended up in his current situation. All communication from his invading army had gone silent and the last messenger scouts he had sent to the occupied Aregard town never returned.
He was beginning to grow concerned and had sent out another larger group of troops to scout across the border and link up with his main army. The only explanation he could come up with was that somehow a group of town guards had escaped his troops and were now performing ambushes on his lone messengers. There was no way that the Aregard kingdom could be aware of his invasion and his spies and even sent reports stating the Aregard king had not made any moves to raise an army.
Even if the Aregard Kingdom attempted to raise an army it would take at least a week to gather enough troops to match the size of his invading army. The Trareniel king knew his troops could siege the Goldcrest capital by then while his royal cultivator and the borrowed royal cultivator took care of Brom Duven and any other Aregard cultivators who chose to stand against them.
Besides the royal cultivator, most of the Aregard kingdom's cultivators were of lower cultivation so any who chose to stand with the crippled Brom Duven would die along with him by the combined strength of the two invading cultivators.
It had been a few days now and as King Knotley was sitting at his desk when his Chancellor came into the room and reported the commander of the last scouting squad had returned and was waiting in the throne room.
King Knotley was impatient for news so he immediately made his way into the throne room. Before he could say a word he could tell something had gone wrong just by the condition of the officer in front of him.
The officer had a bloody bandage wrapped around his head along with muddy blood splattered armor.
The king stopped next to his throne and spoke to him.
"What happened? Why do you look like you were in a battle when I sent you to simply link up with the main army and gather information?
"Your majesty we never managed to link up with the main force. After we had crossed the border and traveled towards the occupied Aregard town we were greeted by troops who we thought were our own at first. Once they got closer we discovered they were Aregard troops and there were at least two thousand of them who immediately attacked us. They launched a volley of arrows at us when we attempted to run and killed most of the scouting squad. Two other men from the squad and myself were the only ones to survive and make it back across the border." The wounded officer reported.
"WHAT! How is this possible! Our troops had occupied and slaughtered the town's populace and were on the move to head toward the next targeted town on the invasion route! How could an Aregard army of that size make it past them and retake the town?!" The king asked in a rage.
"I have no idea how this could have happened sire. Their troops looked fresh and uninjured as if they had not seen any combat. All we could think of is they had circled around from the west as our troops marched along the northeast coast. It doesn't make any sense though, where did this army come from and how did they know how to bypass our troops unless it was only coincidental?" The injured officer replied.
"Coincidental my ass! They just happen to have two thousand troops appear from nowhere who slid around behind our army to retake the town and secure their borders! Enough! You're dismissed!"
The king sent the officer off and sat down on his throne trying to think through what could have happened.
'Could my spies have been compromised somehow and provided Aregard with information on the invasion? Everything was going perfectly, there wasn't supposed to be a defending Aregard army and if they did raise one why would they send them south?'
'If they knew of my invasion wouldn't they choose to try and block the invasion route or man the Goldcrest city walls? It just doesn't add up by sending their troops south to the border they are allowing my invading army to march straight to Goldcrest!'
'If they had raised two thousand troops like the officer reported that should be near the limit of what the Aregard kingdom could provide. I had even borrowed five hundred men from Brandomma who were added to the twenty-seven hundred men I had raised after a couple months of recruitment.'
'Even if my invading army can take Goldcrest I have to be wary this southern Aregard army doesn't invade us now! After bleeding the kingdom dry of any capable men who can fight there is no way I could raise more than another couple of hundred men to defend my kingdom!'
'Dammit! I need more troops now! I need to come up with a way to have Brandomma send me more troops so that we can deal with this Aregard army and find out what the hell is going on with my main army!'
Soren Knotley the King of Trareniel sat on his throne scheming of ways he could raise more troops as he worried about what this turn of events meant to his future plans to conquer the continent.
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Soren Knotley the King of Trareniel was sitting at his desk looking over the last reports delivered by his military messengers. He had not received any progress reports from his royal cultivator since they had taken the Aregard kingdoms most southern town and was looking for anything that could hint to what may have happened in the past reports.
For the past two years, the Trareniel King Soren Knotley had been secretly working to arrange an alliance with Leofric Cosworth the king of Brandomma.
When King Knotley of Trareniel had successfully infiltrated the Aregard Royal Palace with one of his best spies, he had learned the Aregard Royal Cultivator Brom Duven had severely injured his cultivation. Brom Duven of Aregard was a higher cultivation than the Trareniel royal cultivator and he loyally stood beside his king Tobias Sletten as a friend and mentor.
The royal cultivator Brom Duven was a friend of Aelric Sletten the twentieth king of Aregard who also happened to be the current king Tobias Sletten's grandfather. Royal cultivator Duven now 135 years old had served three generations of the Sletten royal family kings to protect the kingdom and mentor the twenty-first and twenty seconded kings as they grew into their roles.
Brom Duven's loyalty and cultivation stage helped keep the Aregard kingdom safe from outside influences over the years.
Now, cultivators generally were not the most dependable of people in times of trouble. They preferred to focus on their cultivation and remain detached from the politics of their kingdom.
The only exception to this would be the royal cultivators of each kingdom. They were generally the strongest cultivator in the kingdom and were provided anything they wanted for their allegiance to the throne.
Many people would wonder if these royal cultivators were so strong why wouldn't they just take the throne for themselves? Why would they need to do this though when they had no desire to be tied down with running a kingdom and when anything they asked for was given to them?
They could remain in their luxurious estates cultivating day after day without a worry or care in the world. On occasion, they would have to attend a meeting or event but they were free beyond that to cultivate and grow stronger.
Another benefit besides growing strong was they were also extending their lifespan. The longer they lived the higher they could climb in cultivation thus further extending their lives. It was a circle of growing stronger to live longer while enjoying the benefits provided by the kingdom.
The two late fathers of the current kings of Aregard and Trareniel had once worked together during their reign to influence trade between their kingdoms. They could not be considered allies but they had formed trade agreements between their kingdoms.
Things began to change between the two kingdoms when these two fathers stepped down and their sons were crowned as the next generation of kings.
Soren Knotley the current King of Trareniel is an ambitious and conniving king who has looked beyond his borders over the years with a greedy eye.
When he learned the Aregard royal cultivator was actually injured and could not fight with his full strength he began to devise a plan to work with the Brandomma king.
If the Brandomma king agreed to send his royal cultivator to participate in the invasion of the Aregard kingdom, he would later send his royal cultivator and troops to help the Brandomma king invade the southern central kingdom of Galeran.
Over the years the Brandomma kingdom and the Galeran kingdom had conflicts over the lucrative fishing waters in the gulf between their two kingdoms. Off the coastline on the border of their kingdoms a large shallow reef which almost broke the ocean surface. This reef provided shelter and feeding waters for a multitude of rare fish species.
These two southern kingdoms were able to provide the other kingdoms of the continent with large varieties of fish only found in these shallow waters which made up a large portion of their kingdoms and their subjects trade profits.
Instead of sharing the reef or splitting it into sections of ownership these two kingdoms continuously fought over it. These conflicts had even escalated to battles which fueled their hatred for one another.
The Trareniel king used this hatred to gain an alliance with Brandomma. The Brandomman King could eliminate the rival kingdom of Galeran and take full control over the shallow gulf. This would provide him with more land, resources, and all the profits gained from the fishing trade.
What the conniving Trareniel king did not tell the Brandomma king was after he had gained Aregard and had helped him to take Galeran he would use the extra profits from Aregard to build a larger army to invade the kingdom of Ciral!
The kingdoms of the continent are arranged in the shape of a horseshoe with the Wayward Woodlands in the center of the horseshoe. Aregard kingdom is the top upper right area of the horseshoe then under Aregard is Trareniel and under Trareniel is Brandomma. In the center, of the lower curved part of the horseshoe is the Ciral kingdom and directly south of Ciral is the Galeran kingdom.
Once Brandomma invaded and occupied Galeran the neighboring Ciral kingdom to the north who also shared a border with Trareniel would be wide open for the Trareniel king's large army to invade.
On the left side of the horseshoe shape bordering the Ciral kingdom was the kingdom of Ferrama. North of Ferrama is the Gilaith kingdom and the north of Gilaith is the Yardom Kingdom.
These three western kingdoms did not have any real ties to the lower central kingdoms. The Trareniel king assumed if he were to conquer the centrally located Ciral kingdom the western kingdoms might have something to say about it but he couldn't see them sending troops to try and drive him out.
This was the key part of King Knotley's plan. If he could hang on to Ciral without interference from the western kingdoms he could build his treasury from the occupation of these three kingdoms he would control.
A few years later when he had a large enough treasury he could raise a well outfitted unstoppable army. He planned to sweep through the western kingdoms one at a time thus taking control of six of the eight kingdoms on the continent.
His ambitions did not end there though once he controlled these kingdoms he would bring his troops back south and conquer his ally of the Brandomma kingdom. The Trareniel king and his military advisors had worked out a three-pronged invasion where they would send troops from Ciral into Galeran and Brandomma. At the same, time the main army would invade from Trareniel along the east coast and strike the Brandomma capital from behind.
It would take a few years for his plans to come to fruition but he was confident they would succeed.
There was one factor he did not add into the formula for success and this was Ben King. Of course, he had spies in the Goldcrest capital and he was aware of a foreign cultivator who had recently begun to do business in Aregard.
Why would he concern himself with a foreign cultivator though? It was difficult enough to get a local cultivator to participate in a war and they would often wait until the last possible minute before they decided to intervene in a battle. Unless the enemy was storming through the city gates they would generally remain behind closed doors and ignore the kingdom's conflicts.
A foreign cultivator would never risk injury by standing against two royal cultivators and a mage. Why would he stand up and defend Aregard when he could simply move into the next kingdom to continue his trade?
Ben was not simply a foreign cultivator but a transmigrant from another world who had a completely different outlook on how a cultivator who is taken care of and given benefits should behave. Ben had too much invested in the Aregard kingdom and the king had always shown him favor and never looked down on him for not being one of his subjects.
Instead of Ben thinking why should I help them, Ben would think why shouldn't I help them? The Aregard Kingdom's people and royal family had always been good to him. There were, of course, a few who tried to drive him away but this was to be expected.
This way of thinking could not be understood by the Trareniel king and this is how he ended up in his current situation. All communication from his invading army had gone silent and the last messenger scouts he had sent to the occupied Aregard town never returned.
He was beginning to grow concerned and had sent out another larger group of troops to scout across the border and link up with his main army. The only explanation he could come up with was that somehow a group of town guards had escaped his troops and were now performing ambushes on his lone messengers. There was no way that the Aregard kingdom could be aware of his invasion and his spies and even sent reports stating the Aregard king had not made any moves to raise an army.
Even if the Aregard Kingdom attempted to raise an army it would take at least a week to gather enough troops to match the size of his invading army. The Trareniel king knew his troops could siege the Goldcrest capital by then while his royal cultivator and the borrowed royal cultivator took care of Brom Duven and any other Aregard cultivators who chose to stand against them.
Besides the royal cultivator, most of the Aregard kingdom's cultivators were of lower cultivation so any who chose to stand with the crippled Brom Duven would die along with him by the combined strength of the two invading cultivators.
It had been a few days now and as King Knotley was sitting at his desk when his Chancellor came into the room and reported the commander of the last scouting squad had returned and was waiting in the throne room.
King Knotley was impatient for news so he immediately made his way into the throne room. Before he could say a word he could tell something had gone wrong just by the condition of the officer in front of him.
The officer had a bloody bandage wrapped around his head along with muddy blood splattered armor.
The king stopped next to his throne and spoke to him.
"What happened? Why do you look like you were in a battle when I sent you to simply link up with the main army and gather information?
"Your majesty we never managed to link up with the main force. After we had crossed the border and traveled towards the occupied Aregard town we were greeted by troops who we thought were our own at first. Once they got closer we discovered they were Aregard troops and there were at least two thousand of them who immediately attacked us. They launched a volley of arrows at us when we attempted to run and killed most of the scouting squad. Two other men from the squad and myself were the only ones to survive and make it back across the border." The wounded officer reported.
"WHAT! How is this possible! Our troops had occupied and slaughtered the town's populace and were on the move to head toward the next targeted town on the invasion route! How could an Aregard army of that size make it past them and retake the town?!" The king asked in a rage.
"I have no idea how this could have happened sire. Their troops looked fresh and uninjured as if they had not seen any combat. All we could think of is they had circled around from the west as our troops marched along the northeast coast. It doesn't make any sense though, where did this army come from and how did they know how to bypass our troops unless it was only coincidental?" The injured officer replied.
"Coincidental my ass! They just happen to have two thousand troops appear from nowhere who slid around behind our army to retake the town and secure their borders! Enough! You're dismissed!"
The king sent the officer off and sat down on his throne trying to think through what could have happened.
'Could my spies have been compromised somehow and provided Aregard with information on the invasion? Everything was going perfectly, there wasn't supposed to be a defending Aregard army and if they did raise one why would they send them south?'
'If they knew of my invasion wouldn't they choose to try and block the invasion route or man the Goldcrest city walls? It just doesn't add up by sending their troops south to the border they are allowing my invading army to march straight to Goldcrest!'
'If they had raised two thousand troops like the officer reported that should be near the limit of what the Aregard kingdom could provide. I had even borrowed five hundred men from Brandomma who were added to the twenty-seven hundred men I had raised after a couple months of recruitment.'
'Even if my invading army can take Goldcrest I have to be wary this southern Aregard army doesn't invade us now! After bleeding the kingdom dry of any capable men who can fight there is no way I could raise more than another couple of hundred men to defend my kingdom!'
'Dammit! I need more troops now! I need to come up with a way to have Brandomma send me more troops so that we can deal with this Aregard army and find out what the hell is going on with my main army!'
Soren Knotley the King of Trareniel sat on his throne scheming of ways he could raise more troops as he worried about what this turn of events meant to his future plans to conquer the continent.
Soren Knotley the King of Trareniel was sitting at his desk looking over the last reports delivered by his military messengers. He had not received any progress reports from his royal cultivator since they had taken the Aregard kingdoms most southern town and was looking for anything that could hint to what may have happened in the past reports.For the past two years, the Trareniel King Soren Knotley had been secretly working to arrange an alliance with Leofric Cosworth the king of Brandomma.When King Knotley of Trareniel had successfully infiltrated the Aregard Royal Palace with one of his best spies, he had learned the Aregard Royal Cultivator Brom Duven had severely injured his cultivation. Brom Duven of Aregard was a higher cultivation than the Trareniel royal cultivator and he loyally stood beside his king Tobias Sletten as a friend and mentor.The royal cultivator Brom Duven was a friend of Aelric Sletten the twentieth king of Aregard who also happened to be the current king Tobias Sletten's grandfather. Royal cultivator Duven now 135 years old had served three generations of the Sletten royal family kings to protect the kingdom and mentor the twenty-first and twenty seconded kings as they grew into their roles.Brom Duven's loyalty and cultivation stage helped keep the Aregard kingdom safe from outside influences over the years.Now, cultivators generally were not the most dependable of people in times of trouble. They preferred to focus on their cultivation and remain detached from the politics of their kingdom.The only exception to this would be the royal cultivators of each kingdom. They were generally the strongest cultivator in the kingdom and were provided anything they wanted for their allegiance to the throne.Many people would wonder if these royal cultivators were so strong why wouldn't they just take the throne for themselves? Why would they need to do this though when they had no desire to be tied down with running a kingdom and when anything they asked for was given to them?They could remain in their luxurious estates cultivating day after day without a worry or care in the world. On occasion, they would have to attend a meeting or event but they were free beyond that to cultivate and grow stronger.Another benefit besides growing strong was they were also extending their lifespan. The longer they lived the higher they could climb in cultivation thus further extending their lives. It was a circle of growing stronger to live longer while enjoying the benefits provided by the kingdom.The two late fathers of the current kings of Aregard and Trareniel had once worked together during their reign to influence trade between their kingdoms. They could not be considered allies but they had formed trade agreements between their kingdoms.Things began to change between the two kingdoms when these two fathers stepped down and their sons were crowned as the next generation of kings.Soren Knotley the current King of Trareniel is an ambitious and conniving king who has looked beyond his borders over the years with a greedy eye.When he learned the Aregard royal cultivator was actually injured and could not fight with his full strength he began to devise a plan to work with the Brandomma king.If the Brandomma king agreed to send his royal cultivator to participate in the invasion of the Aregard kingdom, he would later send his royal cultivator and troops to help the Brandomma king invade the southern central kingdom of Galeran.Over the years the Brandomma kingdom and the Galeran kingdom had conflicts over the lucrative fishing waters in the gulf between their two kingdoms. Off the coastline on the border of their kingdoms a large shallow reef which almost broke the ocean surface. This reef provided shelter and feeding waters for a multitude of rare fish species.These two southern kingdoms were able to provide the other kingdoms of the continent with large varieties of fish only found in these shallow waters which made up a large portion of their kingdoms and their subjects trade profits.Instead of sharing the reef or splitting it into sections of ownership these two kingdoms continuously fought over it. These conflicts had even escalated to battles which fueled their hatred for one another.The Trareniel king used this hatred to gain an alliance with Brandomma. The Brandomman King could eliminate the rival kingdom of Galeran and take full control over the shallow gulf. This would provide him with more land, resources, and all the profits gained from the fishing trade.What the conniving Trareniel king did not tell the Brandomma king was after he had gained Aregard and had helped him to take Galeran he would use the extra profits from Aregard to build a larger army to invade the kingdom of Ciral!The kingdoms of the continent are arranged in the shape of a horseshoe with the Wayward Woodlands in the center of the horseshoe. Aregard kingdom is the top upper right area of the horseshoe then under Aregard is Trareniel and under Trareniel is Brandomma. In the center, of the lower curved part of the horseshoe is the Ciral kingdom and directly south of Ciral is the Galeran kingdom.Once Brandomma invaded and occupied Galeran the neighboring Ciral kingdom to the north who also shared a border with Trareniel would be wide open for the Trareniel king's large army to invade.On the left side of the horseshoe shape bordering the Ciral kingdom was the kingdom of Ferrama. North of Ferrama is the Gilaith kingdom and the north of Gilaith is the Yardom Kingdom.These three western kingdoms did not have any real ties to the lower central kingdoms. The Trareniel king assumed if he were to conquer the centrally located Ciral kingdom the western kingdoms might have something to say about it but he couldn't see them sending troops to try and drive him out.This was the key part of King Knotley's plan. If he could hang on to Ciral without interference from the western kingdoms he could build his treasury from the occupation of these three kingdoms he would control.A few years later when he had a large enough treasury he could raise a well outfitted unstoppable army. He planned to sweep through the western kingdoms one at a time thus taking control of six of the eight kingdoms on the continent.His ambitions did not end there though once he controlled these kingdoms he would bring his troops back south and conquer his ally of the Brandomma kingdom. The Trareniel king and his military advisors had worked out a three-pronged invasion where they would send troops from Ciral into Galeran and Brandomma. At the same, time the main army would invade from Trareniel along the east coast and strike the Brandomma capital from behind.It would take a few years for his plans to come to fruition but he was confident they would succeed.There was one factor he did not add into the formula for success and this was Ben King. Of course, he had spies in the Goldcrest capital and he was aware of a foreign cultivator who had recently begun to do business in Aregard.Why would he concern himself with a foreign cultivator though? It was difficult enough to get a local cultivator to participate in a war and they would often wait until the last possible minute before they decided to intervene in a battle. Unless the enemy was storming through the city gates they would generally remain behind closed doors and ignore the kingdom's conflicts.A foreign cultivator would never risk injury by standing against two royal cultivators and a mage. Why would he stand up and defend Aregard when he could simply move into the next kingdom to continue his trade?Ben was not simply a foreign cultivator but a transmigrant from another world who had a completely different outlook on how a cultivator who is taken care of and given benefits should behave. Ben had too much invested in the Aregard kingdom and the king had always shown him favor and never looked down on him for not being one of his subjects.Instead of Ben thinking why should I help them, Ben would think why shouldn't I help them? The Aregard Kingdom's people and royal family had always been good to him. There were, of course, a few who tried to drive him away but this was to be expected.This way of thinking could not be understood by the Trareniel king and this is how he ended up in his current situation. All communication from his invading army had gone silent and the last messenger scouts he had sent to the occupied Aregard town never returned.He was beginning to grow concerned and had sent out another larger group of troops to scout across the border and link up with his main army. The only explanation he could come up with was that somehow a group of town guards had escaped his troops and were now performing ambushes on his lone messengers. There was no way that the Aregard kingdom could be aware of his invasion and his spies and even sent reports stating the Aregard king had not made any moves to raise an army.Even if the Aregard Kingdom attempted to raise an army it would take at least a week to gather enough troops to match the size of his invading army. The Trareniel king knew his troops could siege the Goldcrest capital by then while his royal cultivator and the borrowed royal cultivator took care of Brom Duven and any other Aregard cultivators who chose to stand against them.Besides the royal cultivator, most of the Aregard kingdom's cultivators were of lower cultivation so any who chose to stand with the crippled Brom Duven would die along with him by the combined strength of the two invading cultivators.It had been a few days now and as King Knotley was sitting at his desk when his Chancellor came into the room and reported the commander of the last scouting squad had returned and was waiting in the throne room.King Knotley was impatient for news so he immediately made his way into the throne room. Before he could say a word he could tell something had gone wrong just by the condition of the officer in front of him.The officer had a bloody bandage wrapped around his head along with muddy blood splattered armor.The king stopped next to his throne and spoke to him."What happened? Why do you look like you were in a battle when I sent you to simply link up with the main army and gather information?"Your majesty we never managed to link up with the main force. After we had crossed the border and traveled towards the occupied Aregard town we were greeted by troops who we thought were our own at first. Once they got closer we discovered they were Aregard troops and there were at least two thousand of them who immediately attacked us. They launched a volley of arrows at us when we attempted to run and killed most of the scouting squad. Two other men from the squad and myself were the only ones to survive and make it back across the border." The wounded officer reported."WHAT! How is this possible! Our troops had occupied and slaughtered the town's populace and were on the move to head toward the next targeted town on the invasion route! How could an Aregard army of that size make it past them and retake the town?!" The king asked in a rage."I have no idea how this could have happened sire. Their troops looked fresh and uninjured as if they had not seen any combat. All we could think of is they had circled around from the west as our troops marched along the northeast coast. It doesn't make any sense though, where did this army come from and how did they know how to bypass our troops unless it was only coincidental?" The injured officer replied."Coincidental my ass! They just happen to have two thousand troops appear from nowhere who slid around behind our army to retake the town and secure their borders! Enough! You're dismissed!"The king sent the officer off and sat down on his throne trying to think through what could have happened.'Could my spies have been compromised somehow and provided Aregard with information on the invasion? Everything was going perfectly, there wasn't supposed to be a defending Aregard army and if they did raise one why would they send them south?''If they knew of my invasion wouldn't they choose to try and block the invasion route or man the Goldcrest city walls? It just doesn't add up by sending their troops south to the border they are allowing my invading army to march straight to Goldcrest!''If they had raised two thousand troops like the officer reported that should be near the limit of what the Aregard kingdom could provide. I had even borrowed five hundred men from Brandomma who were added to the twenty-seven hundred men I had raised after a couple months of recruitment.''Even if my invading army can take Goldcrest I have to be wary this southern Aregard army doesn't invade us now! After bleeding the kingdom dry of any capable men who can fight there is no way I could raise more than another couple of hundred men to defend my kingdom!''Dammit! I need more troops now! I need to come up with a way to have Brandomma send me more troops so that we can deal with this Aregard army and find out what the hell is going on with my main army!'Soren Knotley the King of Trareniel sat on his throne scheming of ways he could raise more troops as he worried about what this turn of events meant to his future plans to conquer the continent.
