Chapter 277: My Goal

It took a little over a month for Tristan to finally be able to take over all the territories within the Chaotic Plains, and now he had returned to Caerleon with the hordes of orcs trudging loyally behind him.

10,000 strong green creatures walking together in line formation was certainly a very intimidating sight.

For comparison, Caerleon city only had about 5,000 civilians and just a little over 500 guards. It was said that the whole of Arcadia had over 30,000 soldiers in total, all of which were human warriors, hence the reason why the forces that Tristan brought could seriously bring calamity and destruction to the entire kingdom. 

But as soon as he began to approach Caerleon city, he realized that a dozen figures were waiting for him outside of the Southern Gate. Tristan first thought that the group consisted of his subordinates, but when he got closer, he was surprised at what he saw. Not expecting the sight that laid before him at all, he began to laugh hysterically.

"Hahaha! This is certainly a surprising welcome!"

His companions, Serene and Hererra, did not have the same enhanced sense as he did, hence they had to get a little closer in order to see the line of people in white uniform Tristan was so amused about.

"That's - that's Callan!" Serene exclaimed, extremely confused as to why he was standing there.

Serene, as princess of the Vanyar, was actually quite close to Callan. Hence the reason why this situation immediately worried her. A dozen Kingsblade as well as the king himself were waiting at the front of the city gates, while Tristan and his army of 10,000 orcs were situated right behind her.

She looked toward her mate and said "Tristan, what's your plan, really?"

The white hair elf only smile and said "Don't worry, Just follow my lead."

She was definitely worried, the last time she was accompanying Tristan, it ended up with a fight and Tristan being subdued by the King. Of course, he's much stronger now but the facts remain the same, she was worried they would fight and kill each other in the heat of the moment.

Tristan raised his hand, at the same time, all 10,000 of his warriors stopped marching altogether. He then looked over to the side and called out Ghral the Overlord to follow him as he walked forward. Serene decided to tag along out of concern, and all three of them headed towards the middle ground between their two groups.

From the other side, it was King Callan and Tobias who approached them. In the end, they all met in the open area, the neutral area between Caerleon CIty's walls and the orc hordes.

As they faced each other, both the king and Tobias seemed utterly fascinated as they looked in the direction of Ghral. Tristan knew that the two of them knew exactly what Ghral was, thus the reason for their scrutiny toward the latter.

In fact, the reason why he took Ghral to join the meet was exactly to intimidate them. To show not only that he had a legendary orc next to him, but also the fact that he could tame one.

Tristan smiled at the king as he said, "Ah, how honored I am to know that the king himself would welcome my return so warmly… You are here to congratulate me on my success, I presume?"

Right away, it was Tobias who shouted vehemently in response. He stepped forward so that he was standing almost chest to chest with Tristan, who was still smirking. "You are being disrespectful toward the King!"

Upon hearing the accusation, Tristan merely replied with a smile. "Disrespectful, yes, it's true! But to call him King, however... I'm honestly still undetermined as to whether or not he's really my King." 

"You Insolent elf…!" Tobias the great wizard said before cursing Tristan out in anger; eventually, the King told him to stop at once.

King Callan, who had remained completely silent up until this point, finally opened his mouth to respond. He addressed Tristan with a cold look in his eye, brows furrowed.

"What exactly are you planning to do with those hordes behind you?"

Tristan turned his eyes to the Arcadian King and calmly said, "I merely did the task that you asked me to do, can't you see? As the mayor, I just made sure that no threat came upon the city, not from the barbarians, orcs, nor the elves. All three of which I already handled."

With a smirk on his face, he continued. "I think the 3-month long task had just passed. Now I see that you have come to check on what I have done with the city, so please tell me; did I do a good job?"

The king stared at him intently. "You did a fine job. There are some issues you went too far on, but in the end, you cleared up your objective, so it's still a job well done."

Tristan smiled and quickly responded. "Aahhh, thank you! Thank you... Yes, I worked really hard... I did!" 

Despite the good naturedness of his words, everyone could clearly see that Tristan was mocking the king with his sarcastic tone. This made Serene grow even more worried. 

The victim of the sarcasm, on the other hand, still maintained his calm and said, "Let's stop all the pretense and tell me the truth, are you planning to massacre everyone from here to the capital?"

Tristan stopped smirking when he heard that, and this time he stared at the king with a serious look.

"Yes, if I have to, to achieve my goal."

The king replied "To what end? What is your goal?"

Tristan has been thinking about it since he took over the Forlorn kingdom. 

Take over the chaotic plains and the orc forces were actually part of that of the deceased Forlorn Prince's plan. He thought it was always a good idea to have thousands of warriors under his command, and now that he had achieved it, he had been thinking about what he should do with it.

At first, he only thought about using the force to intimidate the king and get his sister to return to him and maybe some benefit, like a permanent home in Caerleon or somewhere within the elves kingdom for some living in peace, outside of any threat.

But now as times went on, it was as if he already experienced what he was thinking before and knew it would never work. Something within him warned him that as a blood elf, there would never be a true peace for him. The only way of peace was to dominate all future threats, like what he did for the last three months.

Tristan knew that it was definitely the blood elf part of him talking, but as it was what he was now, he might as well embrace it. There was no other choice for him, and therefore, the answer for the other party's question was:

"My goal right now is the Arcadian's total submission."

The moment the words came out of his mouth, Tristan knew that was what he wanted. This revelation quickly surprised Serene who stood next to him and was instantly received as a threat by Tobias the wizard standing next to the Arcadian King.

The king, however, seemed to be amused by Tristan's words. He strangely didn't show any anger at all, and instead, asked another question.

"You wish to be our king? What do you know about ruling?"

Tristan replied, "I have no experience about being mayor too, look how Carleon become, I believe I can do better with Arcadia."

Tristan had actually picked up a few things since he became the mayor that he disagreed with about how the other party managed his country. The other party was being too soft with the way he handled the town tax which led to corruption, and the way he handled the Forlorn was also what caused the rebellion itself. 

Of course, Tristan was sure there were still many things he didn't know about governing, but somehow something in him gave him confidence that he could do it along the journey.

His answer could certainly be considered as an insult, however the king was still calm and unexpectedly smiled as he said, "You have changed.. That's very good."

The next thing Callan did was even more surprised he calmly removed his royal coat while saying

"I do not wish to see bloodshed, but I will definitely not let you get my throne easily. So I believe unless we know who is stronger between us, whatever we are discussing next is only a moot point."

Hearing this, Tristan showed a wild grin and replied, "Agreed" 

Serene and Tobias were both dumbfounded by the unexpected development, and the latter begged the king to reconsider his decision. Unfortunately, it seemed nothing they said could stop these two figures.

In the end, they were forced to step back as the two prepared themselves to brawl with each other.