Meanwhile in a cave tens of kilometers away...
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late haha." A voice came from outside the cave, then a tall figure with 5 cultivators standing behind him appeared at the entrance.
"Sato! I will complain about this to His Majesty in the final report!!" Phil Shouted when he saw the newcomer
"Oh, calm down boy! I just wanted to kill some beasts first, I want to qualify for the second round, I'm not a loser to give up early like you hehe"
"you..!" Phil almost pounced on the guy called Sato but Prince Henry stopped him halfway, "Fight later, we must start moving immediately to complete the plan. Now we have 12 teams, 11 duchies, and my royal squad, we will split into 3 groups of 4 squads each.
The three groups will head out at the same time in different directions, our targets will be the squads of duchies: Evren, Stanley, Alton... I think you all remember the portraits of their representatives we gave you before the event started, right?
The group that sees one of those three squads has to besiege and kill them directly. Kill all of their members after verifying that the place is safe, do not leave witnesses! Any questions?"
"Your Highness, please add Caesar Burton to the targets, they are also from the Duchy of Alton." Michael Tinley bowed and asked
"Hmmm, that bastard really deserves to die, well that's fine.. the group that sees the Burtons squad should kill them too.. the report I have says that Caesar Burton only brought two with him.. it would be just a side annoyance.
If you don't have other questions, move on! And remember... Be silent and efficient!"
Everyone nodded, after a few more minutes to distribute the squads into the three groups, they split up and jumped out of the cave...
just like that... three small veteran armies took off for a mission even they don't know how big it is...
--------
"Lord Chad, please mark our next course, but keep in mind that we are only 3 now.." A man who appeared to be in his fifties bowed.
"Hmph, I know what you mean! But how do we withdraw when there are 17 more hours left until the end of the event? Do you want me to live in disgrace for the rest of my life? I, Chad Alton, am not a coward!" Chad stated and slapped the man's face.
"my lord, you can blame the kingdom of Dolivar, everyone sees the circumstances around us, who would dare say a bad word about you?" The old man wiped the blood from his mouth and bowed again
A man in his thirties with one arm also stepped forward and bowed, "my lord, a beast ate my arm and this elder brother has no energy left to defend against another attack, if we stay here any longer, we may never get out.. Please order us to retreat to one of the gates at once."
"Right, your life is more important than anything else," said the old looking man
"...Damn it! I wanted to remove the shame of defeat at the hands of that Caesar by achieving a higher rank than him in the Eight Kingdoms Tournament..." Chad Alton gritted his teeth and continued, "..Okay, catch your breath, we'll start our journey back to the gate in a little while."
At that moment, he heard a "Hahaha no you won't"
Chad looked behind him and saw a young man standing with his five followers behind him, "What do you mean? Is there anything I can help you with?" This was not the first time he encountered a squad, but it was certainly the first time that a squad had shown such hostility.
"Actually, you can really help me... by dying!" As soon as the sentence ended, the six withdraw their weapons and rushed towards Chad and his two followers
"Damn!" Chad did not understand what was happening, but fighting against all of them clearly meant death, so he immediately turned in the opposite direction and jumped with all his might trying to escape, even his two companions did not wait for orders and jumped in different directions to mislead the attackers
But the three were surprised by another whole squad in front of each of them.. the area was completely surrounded.
"You..! I remember you all! You are from Dolivar! No... you are yourself the prince of the kingdom of Dolivar!! What the hell do you want from me?! This is against the rules!!" Chad finally felt a real danger to his life and started screaming
"Rules? Hahaha... why don't you look around for a bit?" Prince Henry pointed in a certain direction, Chad's body was already starting to shiver, he forced himself to slowly turn his head until he caught sight of what Henry was pointing at... His followers had become headless corpses.
"A good leader should take responsibility for his followers." Henry smiled big and with a wave of his hand, his followers pulled out their weapons and attacked Chad Alton at the same time... his fate was sealed immediately.
"Tsk~ If I had known it was going to be this easy, we wouldn't have waited for all our teams to gather, two teams in each group would have been more than enough," Prince Henry murmured, this was not half as exciting as he had expected.
"We should always be careful, Your Highness, your decision was the wisest." One of his followers bowed
The rest of the three squads came after they burned the three bodies, "What now, Your Highness?"
"We will, of course, continue our search, perhaps we will be lucky to find another target."
"Haha, I'm afraid the other two groups won't give us that chance, I bet the rest of the targets are already dead."
"let's go!" Prince Henry did not try to delay any longer and gave the orders, the four divisions returned to leave small distances between them so as not to attract attention by moving together, and headed north again..
====================
Far from it all, in the Kingdom of the Black Sun- the Bradley Military Institution, in the front yard of House 207...
Robin sits in his chair facing the sky and closes his eyes, while Zara, who is now becoming more of a young lady, is sitting next to him on the grass and drawing the talismans for the next month's patch, but she stopped as she was drawing a circle and raised her head towards Robin, "Big brother, are you thinking about Caesar again? This is harmful to your health, secondly, there is no need for all this anxiety.. He will definitely be fine."
"..." Robin did not answer, although he refuses to verbally admit this, he is already worried about Caesar, this is his son!
No matter how hard he can be on him, he raised him from a tiny piece of meat to a grown man... he got the milk from the nearby beasts to feed him, changed his clothes when he peed himself and took care of him when he got sick.
It was Caesar who became his right hand when he got old, he was the one who used to feed him, protect him and support him to move!
There is a bad feeling in his heart since he heard about the Eight Kingdoms Cycle, maybe it has something to do with the Law of Truth? Or maybe it's just a worried father's intuition..
All in all, he wasn't in mood for researching, he left everything else aside and started to train only to increase his strength, during this short period since the departure of Peon and Theo until now he has jumped to the top of the eighth level.
"Big brother, why don't you try researching something new? That'll concern you."
"...I think you're right, it's been a long time since I finished the Perfect Wind Law, it's time to focus on something else.. That's the reason I'm alive anyway… Zara, you've reached the sixth level already, tell me.. which major law do you want to study?"
Finally, Robin turned his face away from the sky and looked at Zara, the lost enthusiasm already starting to return to his eyes as soon as the topic was mentioned..
"Hmmm.. I don't know, I don't have a special request, I'll leave the choice to you!" Zara giggled
"Oh, smart girl, this way you're going to make me choose the best for you." Robin smiled and looked back at the sky and thought for about an hour, then suddenly looked back at her and asked, "Hey.... Do you want to grow another arm for your brother?"