Chapter 313 - A letter from the Empire
Back at Avrion, the weekly meeting was taking place. The council seats now consisted of Slyvia as the head of the table and the other council members. Humfree the white mage, Sir K, Wilfred, and Von.
At the meeting table, there was also the four Master knights. Kyle, who was now in charge of the black sash knights since Monk had left. Harry who rose up the ranks and proved his loyalty for the Redwings after his father died and finally, Dan, who was put in charge of the red sash knights.
There was also an empty seat for the green sash knight master Martha, but she was currently away helping Ray.
If someone was to look at the meeting room from the outside, they would probably laugh at the fact that an entire city, and well-established knight academy was half being run by kids. They barely looked old enough to pass for 18.
But these were the strongest and most trusted knights Ray knew. He had left everything to Slyvia and only had one condition. Those that were put in seats of power must be loyal. This was what lead the leaders of Avrion to be mostly filled with Ray's old comrades.
Everyone the room knew that Ray was the real leader of the Redwings. At the same time, the knights at the academy and the Guild members who had recently joined believed it was an adventurer named Nes.
"How are the members doing sent over by Martha?" Slyvia asked.
Harry then stood up to give a reply.
"We have put them through the trials and assigned each one a sash. We have also given them each a set of soul-bound intermediate armour forged by Randin and has the crest of the Redwings as requested. Unfortunately, he has used up most of our supplies so we must either trade with other cities soon or go out for a hunt again."
"Good to hear, if we are unable to get a fair trade with the other cities this time then don't bother. We will simply use the gold to increase the bounty of our own Quests and allow adventures and our own Guild members to do the work for us.??
As a newly established group, the other cities were giving unfair trades at the time. Either less building materials for beast cores, or less gold in general. At the time Avrion was in desperate need of support as it was being rebuilt, so they had no choice but to accept, but now Avrion were in a strong position.
Sir K was the next to give a report as he stood up.
"There are six months remaining before the confrontation with the shadow. There seems to be no movement from them so far. However, the scouts that we have sent to check on the armies size have not returned."
"There is no need to send any more men to the shadow continent, it seems they really do plan to stick to this year agreement, and even if they don't, we will be ready," Slyvia said.
Just then, a knock was heard on the door from outside.
"I'm sorry to disturb the council meeting, but there is an emergency!" The guard said.
"Come in!" Von shouted.
In came one of the black knights that worked directly under Von. In fact, there weren't many black knights at the academy or in the city anymore. It turned out that most of them worked for Pureblood apart from the ones under Von's command.
"Please read this!" The man said as he handed over a sealed letter to Slyvia and on the front, it had the mark of the Empire.
As Slyvia read out the contents of the letter, everyone was silenced.
"Call the other kingdoms for a meeting and the Alure kingdom Queen immediately," Slyvia said.
"But they have not replied to us once," Wilfred said, "Why would they reply now?"
"We have to try, we have no choice now."
The same letter sent to Avrion, was also sent to the capital of each of the six kingdoms. And soon the news had been spread to the people's ears.
The Empire had declared war on Avrion City or more specifically the group known as the Redwings. Not only that, but they stated any kingdom, allowing the Redwings a place of comfort or stay will be considered their allies and an enemy of the Empire as well.
It was threat asking the Alure kingdom to deal with the Redwings themselves if they did not, then they would be made an enemy. The Redwings were also unable to settle in any other of the kingdoms; otherwise, they would experience the same fate.
A few days went past, and there were no reply from the kingdoms. They refused to meet up with Avrion in person and simply replied that they would comply with the Empire's wishes.
The leaders of the kingdoms knew this was wrong, but the Empire was a powerful force. Only with the power of the 6 kingdoms combined could they even have a chance of fending off against the Empire.
In desperate times, Slyvia sent out a message to the one person she could rely on and updated him about everything that was going on. Ray.
News inside the academy took longer to spread since; usually, they weren't allowed outside the school. But they would be allowed contact with their parents and the news had eventually reached even the students of Roland.
Inside the classroom while on break, Ray and his group were currently discussing the news.
Many of them were devastated by the other Kingdoms decision to ignore what happened, especially after the Redwings had saved their lives. Norah, the princess who had been personally saved, begged her father to reconsider and at least help out the Redwings in any way, but he simply said it was impossible.
"Why do you think this is happening?" Max asked. "The Redwings saved us, they even saved some of the kids who were from the Empire."
"Isn't it obvious." Said Bliss. "The Empire is scared of any powerful force that grows, rather than watch something that might be able to fight against them in the future. It's better to squash them now while they are still small."
"I Can think of another reason," Van said, and his thought was spot on. "Blake, he would never allow the humiliation he received from them to go unheard. And I heard ever since he got back, he has been unable to perform his lightning magic."
The whole continent continued to discuss the big event that was on everyone's mind.
Through Ray's connections with Martha and Lenny though, he was able to get one kingdom to reply to Slyvia. The Alure kingdom.
Tomorrow they would be meeting the queen.