116 The War Begins I

"Your majesty we will reach Korrinth in just a few hours"

Currently, King Garreth and his men were passing through the small villages and settlements to reach Korrinth. Since they outnumbered the Korrinth's army, the morale was pretty great as the men sang and whistled while marching like they were going on a picnic.

Having Jowan's friend from Redland Academy on his side gave King Garreth more confidence as he knew that he had the chance to end this without even losing a single man from his side if King Harold chose to surrender when he sees the disciple from the Redland Academy.

While marching towards Korrinth, King Garreth specifically told the mercenaries to show their magical fluctuations so the spies of Korrinth could inform King Harold and sink his and his men's morale.

King Garreth's real target was Emir and Korrinth was just a bonus. Thinking about the Azrite deposits, he felt goosebumps all over his body.

"So Brother Irvin, how's your training going? "

While King Garreth was imagining the benefits of having an Azrite mine, Jowan asked his Redland academy friend.

After getting beaten and losing his friends by Arrora's hands, Irvin's teacher chewed him for being so weak. Even though Peggy and Sabrina were rescued along with him, they couldn't cultivate or even move their bodies for another couple of years. Part of Irvin wanted to find the girl who beat him and her friend who killed Dan, his best friend, and avenge him by killing those two.

However, getting beaten by a girl opened Irvin's eyes and showed him how vast the world is and how weak he is. At first, he begged his teacher to get revenge for him and his friends yet his teacher refused by saying that Irvin should be the one to avenge Dan.

Since the line between long-ranged and close combat almost disappeared due to the recent change in life energy, Irvin learned a few close combat spells in this short amount of time to compensate for his lack of short-range combat spells.

Irvin wanted to be in his best form before entering the Archeron competitions since his chance of entering the dungeon was crushed by his teacher due to his obvious failure.

And taking part in a war between two rank 4 kingdoms was a perfect place for him to hone his abilities.

" It's going okay Jowan, I still have a lot to learn"

"I'm sure you can learn a lot more by killing some Korrinthians"

Hearing Jowan, Irvin smiled and focused on the path before him rather than spending his time small talking with Jowan. Every time he closes his eyes Irvin could see him being under the heel of that girl and Dan's head rolling on the floor with opened eyes. The worst of everything was that it's all Irvin's fault because if it wasn't for his lust for that girl, Dan would have been breathing now and it's been a thorn in Irvin's heart ever since.

Eventually, after a long march, King Garreth and his men reached Korrinth's border and he could see Korrinth���s army was waiting for them.

And Jowan's eyes locked with Darlene as a smile appeared on his face

"Hello gorgeous"

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"King Garreth"

"King Harold"

King Harold was standing in front of his men just like King Garreth was.

Seeing the size of King Garreth's army, King Harold's men started to shiver as Jowan sent a flying kiss towards Darlene who was standing beside Don and King Harold.

"Ew"

Looking at Jowan from the distance, Kate frowned.

"King Harold, as you can see" King Garreth looked at his men behind him and then King Harold and said

"If we fight, you will lose so why don't you surrender and I'll let you live. Of course, Darlene has to marry my son"

Hearing King Garreth's offer King Harold looked at Darlene to see her shaking her head in disagreement and looking at Don

"What did you think when you decided to annul the marriage, King Harold? You shouldn't have done that"

"You think"

King Harold thought to himself as he sighed and said

"Even if I didn't break the marriage agreement, my daughter would have King Garreth then it would've been a shame to both of our families and kingdoms"

"Don't act like I don't know King Harold, I know why you want to marry your daughter to that brat"

King Garreth couldn't openly speak about the Azrite deposit in Emir with Jowan's friend beside him and since Don was going to die anyway, he skipped the honorifics.

As King Harold heard King Garreth, he had no idea about whats King Garreth talking about

"I don't know what you're talking about King Garreth, we should have talked about everything "

"Talk?"

King Garreth started to laugh for a moment

"You didn't even have the decency to tell that you are going to annul the marriage in person, I had to hear it from the ambassador"

"Do you know how many scrolls and messengers I've sent to you asking for a meeting, King Garreth? You're the one ignored all of them"

Now King Garreth had no idea what King Harold is talking about

"Sorry I've never gotten your imaginary messages, King Harold"

Darlene knew that her father sent many messages to King Garreth and seeing King Garreth, she found no signs lying in his eyes or on his face.

"So you don't remember this?"

As he said, King Harold took out a parchment and raised it towards the direction of King Garreth.

And looking from his point, King Garreth saw the yellow parchment and asked

"What the hell is that? I've never seen that"

However before he could continue, King Harold sent the parchment flying towards King Garrenth and the parchment landed on King Garreth's hand

Opening the parchment, King Garreth started to read the contents but when he was reading, his eyes went wide in surprise and he couldn't help but look at King Harold for a moment

"He offered me half of Emir as compensation? No no it's a trick, it must be"

According to the parchment, King Harold was offering half of the Emir to Agoria including all the mines of Emir.

"Father!"

Seeing King Garreth's eyes glued onto the parchment, Jowan yelled at King Garreth.

"Do you think I'm a child King Harold? just like everything else, I've never seen this either "

But instead of an answer from King Harold, he heard a whoosh sound as he turned to see an arrow sticking out of a mercenary's chest.

"You bastard"

"What happened! Who the fuck did that!"

The sudden turn of events shocked both sides as everyone formed a defensive formation around their respective kings

King Harold was shouting and searching for the one who shot the soldier of Agoria

"It's your last chance Harold, surrender and I'll let you live or resist and die"

"Your majesty forgive me for being blunt but we should take the deal"

General Wil insisted King Harold as he looked at his men and clenched his fist but before he could speak, another arrow was launched from his side and killed another mercenary.

King Harold's eyes turned blood red and his veins started to pop out on his forehead and he wanted to scream but he couldn't find any words to shout, he was furious and mad as hell. And Darlene was searching for the insolent soldier who shot the arrow but she was unable to find the one.

On the other side, King Garreth ran out of patience as he shouted at his men

"I wanted to settle this without shedding blood but they want this to be a massacre, so we are going to give them one"

Hearing King Garreth, everyone in his side roared and prepared for the battle. Even though King Garreth planned to use the Redland Academy name to make King Harold surrender, now he couldn't do that since King Harold had killed two of his men before his eyes. And if he continued to bargain with King Harold, Jowan's friend would probably look at it as a sign of weakness and King Garreth didn't want that to happen because showing a sign weakness could make others think him as weak.

"This is a good time for you to step in, Don"

Seeing the eight hundred or so men on the other side preparing to come at them, King Harold shouted at Don who was looking at the scene with a calm and cool face as usual.

Darlene already started to conjure the life energy and prepared to cast the spells as Arrora noticed some of the soldiers in the back of the line sneaking away from the battlefield. Fortunately for them, King Harold or General Wil didn't notice the soldiers sneaking away due to the stress and panic and Arrora didn't want to point them out to anyone so she pretended as she did not see anything.

Until now the mysterious person did not contact Darlene so the only one who could save her and her kingdom is no one but Don. As the seconds go by, she had started to blame herself for getting her family into this mess because of some unknown person.

"Hey, its that guy"

While Darlene was preparing to cast the spells and King Garreth was panicking, Arrora recognized Irvin.

"Small world indeed"

Since Arrora was wearing the magical mask and Don wore one when they met Irvin and his friends at Royal Dine, Irvin was unable to recognize both of them as they did.

However at the moment, Don was focusing on the war rather than on Irvin as King Garreth gave the attack order to his men

"Charge!"

Yet before they could take a step forward, Don leaped and landed before Korrith's army

"I will give the same offer to every single one of you. If you surrender, you'll live"

But when King Garreth and his men heard Don, they burst into laughter and even the men from Korrinth thought that Don had gone mad.And after a few moments of laughing, King Garreth looked at Don

"You must be crazy or blind brat, we are not going to surrender" as he mentioned the word surrender, they started to laugh again thinking about Don's offer

"Then you'll die"