Chapter 127 - 126 – Arrival In The Capital... Again

We started to prepare everything around the village. The first choice of my dad was to set some traps through the forest that circled the entire village. I had no experience with traps, so I was just helping him.

My dad was a little more skillful at this than I thought.

With the help of locals, he dug holes and placed sharp objects made of iron at the bottom to pierce anyone who fell. And there, he covered it with dry leaves that he found in the forest, it was well camouflaged.

He did this in some other parts of the forest.

But not only that, with a strange mechanism that used magic, he could make arrows fire as soon as someone was detected.

"How does it work?" I asked as I watched him set it all up, I had never studied traps so I honestly couldn't imagine how it worked.

"See this here, it's a crossbow. We can say it's a little stronger than a bow but it's a little slower to recharge, so people usually prefer to use a bow."

"I know what a crossbow is."

"I see, but now I'm going to explain how this will work." My dad walked to one of the trees and climbed it: "Let's position this loaded crossbow here pointing to where you are, then let's use magic to create a line."

"Create a line with magic?"

"Yes, it works like a magic circuit of some artifact, but it lasts less time."

"I understand." Normally magic circuits were assembled into artifacts to give it some special power, so my dad is doing something like that?

"So you'll put another crossbow on the other side too." My father went to the other tree and placed another crossbow: "Now let's put several crossbows on each side, then we'll continue."

After that I helped him set up several crossbows that were pointed down, that's where Beastled's soldiers would pass if they were going to attack our village.

This lasted for a few minutes, but we finally managed to set them all up.

"Now, I'm going to put a magic line on the triggers of every crossbow. And after that, I'll connect the lines of the triggers of the crossbows o the right side, to the triggers on the crossbows on the left."

"Hmm..."

"As soon as the soldiers pass, they will activate the crossbows on both sides and will be attacked by various arrows, do you understand?" my dad asked as he smiled and used his magic to connect the crossbows.

So it was simple, a magic line was there in the center, and as soon as a group of soldiers passed they would activate all of the crossbows and they would be attacked by several arrows. But this is a little "useless".

"But isn't that a little bad? And if only one soldier comes, he will activate all the crossbows and you will have taken all your time to kill just one of them."

"I had thought about it, but I don't think we can do anything about it right now, we're going to have to get on with it."

He was right not to think about it too much.

It's not like there is such advanced magic that it detects how many people there are and shoots a certain amount of times. I think I need to study pitfalls in the future, it's a very interesting knowledge.

But after that, we had to do it in the entire forest.

There were so many traps set that even I was afraid to walk around and end up activating one by mistake.

And since we use so many crossbows, we had to use some of our villagers to make some. They were amateurs, but with my dad's help, it looks like crossbows would be strong enough to pierce armor.

But now a lot of time had passed, maybe it took us 3 days to set all the traps? Even with the help of the villagers, it still took a while.

####

Another day has passed since then.

"I think I'll be able to reach the capital today, I think it was faster than I imagined." I was a little worried about the state of the village, was everything okay there? Should I have come here?

I guess it doesn't matter what the war is about at the moment, what matters is that it ends, my coming here just to find out why is it happening is a good idea?

"No, I didn't just come here to find out why, I also need to know how Lisandra is doing." Ever since I got the news about this war, I couldn't stop thinking about Lisandra.

Is she scared? I need to be there to support her.

"And could I do anything?" When I left the village, Lucio asked me to try to stop this conflict. Come to think of it, couldn't I do something about it? Considering the number of things I've done across the country, maybe that damned king will listen to me.

Haaaa~~

"But now, I'll go to the castle first to find out exactly what's going on."

With those words, I stamped my feet on the horse and made him run even faster.

"I'm sorry boy, just hold on a little longer." We didn't get much rest during the trip, he must be pretty tired. When we make a stop, I'll make it up to you.

####

After a while, I could see the walls of the capital.

As I approached the gate, I noticed that the number of guards there had doubled. They seem to be quite scared of the capital being attacked by someone, don't they?

"Who is it? Identify yourself." As soon as I was a few feet away, the guards drew their swords and pointed them at me.

"It's me, Emma, ​​hasn't the king sent me a letter?" I smiled at the guards.

"Is this that Emma?"

"Yes, I think it's her."

Some guards were talking to each other, it seems they don't know what I look like, but the king must have told them about me.

"Alright, come with me, the king is waiting for you." One of the older-looking guards approached and then motioned for me to go after him.

"I need to put my horse somewhere before going to the castle." I got off the horse and then started pulling him.

"Don't worry, my men will take care of it for you." After he said that, the other guards approached and took the horse from me. They seemed to be quite competent, so I think my horse will be well taken care of.

And they would never do anything to make me angry.

I continued behind the man walking the main street towards the castle. The stores were closed and there were no people on the street. The only people I could see were some of them looking at me through the windows of the buildings.

But when they noticed that I had seen them, they hid again.

'I've never witnessed a war before, but isn't that much worse than I thought it would be?' I honestly didn't have an exact dimension of what a war was, but it feels like it's much worse than I thought.

I've never seen people so withdrawn and scared as they are now, that's scary.

This somewhat gloomy climate that the cloudy sky was providing, and the unusual silence in the capital were making my body shiver.

"Please wait here for a while." After arriving at the main gate of the castle, we were greeted by a large number of guards. Leaving me there, the guard who had accompanied me before went into the castle garden.

The other guards who were looking after the main castle gate were confused as they looked at me.

Looking at their posture, and how scared they looked, I assumed they were novices. Is it a good idea to put newbies in to protect the castle? I think that the king is not thinking very well about the situation he is in.

'If an enemy manages to invade the capital, he would be killed very easily" I thought as I watched the old knight talking to a younger man wearing a black robe in front of the castle door.

After listening to what the old man had to say, the man in the black robe ran into the castle.

"Alright, you can come in, open the gate for her." From inside the man gave the orders and the other guards opened the gate.

It had been a long time since I had been in here, so again I was in awe of the quality of the grass and flowers in this garden.

But what impressed me most was the castle door that had been changed. Not just it, but the castle had undergone some changes that I could only notice as I approached it.

'Maybe it's been six years since I've visited the castle?' That damned king has never invited me to dinner here again.

I waited at the door for a while until someone inside opened it. As soon as they opened, I got a big surprise.

All along the main corridor of the castle, there were guards wearing full-length shining armor. At the time I visited this castle, there were no such guards here, so it was a big surprise.

I couldn't see their appearance, but I could see they were strong, very strong.

I continued down the main hall of the castle following the old soldier in front of me. The castle was big, so as we walked down that hallway a few minutes passed.

After walking for so long, we had finally arrived in the room where the king's throne was located. It was a tall, luxurious door, much like the castle's entrance door, things have really changed.

Everything here is much more luxurious.

We stood there at the door for a while until a man with a steady voice called out from inside the room.. It wasn't the king's voice, it was probably some new subordinate I didn't know.