Chapter 285: Arcadia Force

The assembly room they were currently in was mostly filled with knights in identical plate armor. The only difference he spotted among them in terms of attire was the clothes under their armor. In the crowd of Arcadian Knights, one group had blue clothes under their armor while the other had red clothes.

He had read the data about the three divisions of the Arcadian Knights. From what he could see, it seemed that only two among the three divisions were gathered in this assembly room. 

He turned to look at the commanders of the two divisions.

The one who was outspoken in front of the whole mass was the commander of the blue division named Sterling. He was a senior Arcadian knight. As a senior knight, he had quite the influence among the elites of Arcadia. No wonder he dared to speak that way despite Tobias having announced that Tristan was the new king.

The commander of the red division, however, seemed to be quite the opposite. He was a young and good-looking knight with blond hair. If he did not look closely, he might have mistaken him as a girl. And contrary to the commander of the blue division, he did not seem to care very much about the announcement of the new king.

Each division of the Arcadian Knights had 2,000 to 3,000 men; they were the main powerhouse for any wars involving Arcadia, and Tristan himself was a witness to this. He had seen how their cavalry charged at the barbarian tribe, leaving behind a bloody trail of corpses on the path they went.

Sterling, the old commander, questioned further. Not only did he very obviously show his dissatisfaction, but he also completely ignored the new king.

"Tobias, do you have any idea how outrageous those words are!? How can the position of Arcadia's king be replaced so easily!? Not to mention, to a completely unknown individual! Tell us, what happened to King Callan!?" 

Seeing the old commander's relentless display of disagreement annoyed him. 

"This is all that shitty king's fault," Tristan grudgingly thought. If Callan truly wished to surrender the throne to him, he should have handed it over by either issuing an official statement or letting him beat him into a pulp in front of the whole kingdom. 

But instead, he surrendered the throne without saying anything to his subjects. This really made things difficult for him.. 

"Either way, I should just make the best of the situation," he thought to himself.

Despite how violent he was feeling at the moment, he was aware that it would be in his best interest to be patient and see how things would go. He silently observed the crowd once again, taking notes of the reactions of these "Arcadian elites".

Tobias firmly explained, "It was King Callan's wish to hand the kingdom to Tristan." 

With those words, Tobias took out the gold emblem of the king, showed it to them, and handed it over to Tristan. And without showing any signs of doubt, Tristan calmly took the gold emblem.

Tristan never knew that there was such a thing. It appeared that the old wizard liked to play tricks on him, too. Tristan quietly whispered with his expression unchanged, "Why didn't you mention this to me before?"

Tobias calmly answered in a low voice, "My king, with all due respect, I highly believe that if you were to show it yourself, there are bound to be some people suspecting that you stole it." 

Tristan thought about it for a while before nodding in agreement. 

With the golden emblem handed over to Tristan, the announcement of him becoming the new king became much more convincing to the people present. After all, there was no better way to show the handover of the throne than with the gold emblem of the king itself. Meanwhile, Tristan was glad that the Arcadians did not have a crown as the symbol of the throne as it would be too troublesome to have to wear a crown here and there.

Even though the gold emblem appeased most of the people who were previously in doubt, Sterling was still not satisfied. On the contrary, the old commander seemed even more discontent.

From the way the old commander acted, Tristan could see how softly Callan led his people in the time of his reign. This made him think that this had to change, but for now, he needed to stay smart to avoid further complications.

After all, in order to run this kingdom smoothly and properly, he would also need the strength of these people. And unlike the orcs, these people would not simply accept someone as their king just because of strength. 

Tristan once again checked the information on the full force of the Arcadian fighters.

The three divisions of the Arcadian Knights had a total of 6,000 knights. Between the three divisions, one was stationed at the north of the kingdom, one at the south, and one at the east to guard the shore.

The Arcadian Mages had more than 300 mages spread all over a dozen big cities throughout Arcadia. Most of them were in charge of taking care of the Mages' Guild. As for the leader of these mages, there were a total of five senior mages who mostly stayed in the capital and served as teachers for the mages academy. These five Wizards were under the direct supervision of Tobias.

And finally, the cream of the crop, the Kingsblade. There were only 100 of them plus 50 cadets. They were led by 3 commanders and 7 captains.

Tobias began introducing the two commanders who were currently present, Commander Vain and Commander Cecilia. As for the first squad, the squad and its commander were currently on a mission in the northern city, hence their absence in the assembly.

The Kingsblade, the Arcadian Knights, and the Arcadian Mages were separate units under centralized control by the capital. As for the rest of the arcadia forces were the guards under the command of the mayor.  numbering more than 25,000 all over Arcadia.

Those were the entire Arcadian fighting forces.

After they were all introduced, Tristan could tell that even though the gold emblem could officiate his position, it could not force these people to be loyal to him. In fact, as expected, they were extremely far from having any loyalty to him.

Tristan was currently plotting a plan to handle this matter as soon as possible.

Seeing Tristan's serious expression made Serene worry. She just hoped that he would not plan anything similar to what he did with the Forlorn Elves.

After Tobias finished introducing him to them, Tristan noticed someone familiar among the crowd of people. It was Layla, his sister, but before any of them could say anything, another person hurriedly barged into the assembly. It was a skinny man with noticeably strange hair.

Although Tobias did not expect the man's arrival, he still calmly introduced him, "This is Professor Emmet, the genius from O district."

The Professor hurriedly cut him off, "Tobias, where's the king...? We have an emergency…" The man hastily looked around as he spoke, seeming to be in a great hurry.