Chapter 129 - Civil War - 1

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Two days passed since Vlad received Alderhine Grigos' allegiance agreement, and on both sides, there seemed to be a chilling calm.

Vlad moved quickly in advancing his plans, and on the second day, he was coordinating so many troops that his blood started boiling in the desire to fight. He found himself yet again in a specific zone, a state of mind that couldn't be affected by anything around him.

The dial snail was beginning to get red from how frequently Vlad was calling people. Even the snail seemed to be sweating a lot and seemed to want a break. Whenever Vlad noticed this change in the snail, he would pour some icy water on top of his head and bring a fresh leaf.

"Not now, little guy. This day is important, and we can't afford any delay. Do you understand me?" asked Vlad in a severe tone while looking in the eyes of the snail.

The snail, who felt a bit reinvigorated and, seeing the fresh leaves, nodded his head slightly while slowly eating the leaves.

"Good boy. Now let's start another round of commands."

When Vlad said that, he began forming numbers on the telephonic device attached to the snail quickly and waited for someone to pick his call, which usually took some seconds at most one minute because of the signal interferences.

"Old Patrick, you know your job. It's about time we get moving and act against the nobles and Dark Union."

"Hah, so the long-awaited day came where I can unleash my fleet against my enemies."

*Gotcha*

Closing the call, Vlad began forming another number which was picked relatively fast.

"Brogg starts moving your men slowly toward Dawn City. Don't worry about Nius. He will be there to help you."

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"Bolt, listen here. I explained your job 3 days ago. You are the main force that would push toward the Royal District and Noble District. The time has come."

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"Prim, get in position and make sure you keep the backs of Brogg and Nius men."

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"Commodore Kirin, it is time for you to act and enforce your status as a marine officer. Make sure no rat escapes my Kingdom. You have the right to shoot any ship trying to approach Kaysang without unfound reasons, such as unidentified weapon traffickers or substance traffickers. As for the nobles trying to escape, don't kill them if you can do this. I still have my use with them."

"Sigh, so you really weren't kidding when you told me you would summon me and use my support. This is all I would do for you, Prince Vlad. I will not overstep my boundaries as a marine officer and fight in your wars. Understood?"

This comment brought a small smile to Vlad, who took a sip of wine, cleared his throat a bit, and still kept his smile he said to Kirin.

"Ohh, don't worry, sir Kirin, you will see how good it will be to be under Kaysang soon. Now, don't overthink about the so-called "bad deeds" you would do right now. Think of it like this: anyone trying to approach Kaysang are criminals of the highest mark that assist the rebelling traitors that fight the legitimate royal family, Vermilion House, who has signed the World Government Collaborating System documents. As for the nobles trying to flee the kingdom, they will be labelled as traitors and as such are criminals that you marines have to catch."

"I got your message, prince. If there's nothing else to be said, I will go prepare my ships and go on the sea to look out for intruders."

"Nothing else for you. Just fulfil your agreement."

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After giving Kirin his signal to participate in the Civil War as stated in their drawn contract, he tapped his finger on the table and feed another leaf to the snail, who showed a tired expression.

"Just a little bit, small guy, just a bit. After two more calls, I will let you sleep, okay?"

Hearing Vlad's voice that sounded assuring to listen to it, he took a bite of the leaf in front of him and didn't struggle too much while in his hand.

Managing to make the dial snail work for a longer period, using some cheap tricks of rewards for work, motivating the snail to not collapse on the job. Vlad quickly called another person from his list.

"Flex, bring your company and also tell Grigos to tell you all the weaknesses of the neighbouring nobles to him. Kill anyone who desires to fight me."

"Don't worry, Your Highness, all my men, were expecting your order for this mission. I will ask Grigos if he wants to join. In the case he doesn't want, I will still storm my way to the backside of the nobles until I get to Sagletius."

"I trust you, Flex and also your men. Don't disappoint me, and don't risk your lives over small gains, because, in wars, those small gains that you gain using a large number are a loss to us."

"I fully understand this, Your Highness. Don't worry, I will not disappoint you, not even in death."

"I look forward to hearing news about your company's success from the frontlines."

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"Old Nius, you can also take your men toward Dawn in your own way, swim or by boat."

"Huh, I am already here, kid. When that kid Brogg appears in Dawn, I will start everything, so you better have your other subjects in place because things will get shaky."

"Still, Nius, wait for a bit, so everyone is in their position. I know you want to kill Allestar Wincester and Cranfon Oliver, but I still have to get to my position, which would take about 20 minutes."

"Right, you are going after Lacilet and his nobles entourage. Fine, I will wait for about 30 minutes, nothing more than that. Do you get it, brat?"

"Hmph, I understand, old man. Do you think I was born yesterday? How many men haven't passed in my hands? How many logistical calculations haven't I done so far in my long years? You are now a soldier with slight privileges, do you get it, Galleot Nius?" asked Vlad in a severe tone that sounded a bit frosty.

"You still haven't proved it to me, kid. This war is your stage to prove yourself to me." replied Nius from the dial snail.

"Haha, old man. I haven't told you much about my past, but I was the most famous commander of my time. When you get to that fame, talk to me. Hah, let's calm down. Both of us are adults. Keep waiting until all my pieces are in place, or we will fuck up. Understood?" said Vlad while placing weight on the word "understand."

Only after what seemed to be a minute did he heard the old man do a long exhale breath, as if he calmed himself, where he only said before ending.

"You have your right on that point kid, we are adults and also have to protect the lives of our people foremost. I will wait for everyone to get ready while I look around Dawn and check possible blind spots where some rats might escape."

"Okay, take care, old man. Also, don't get killed by those two bastards."

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After ending his calls, Vlad turned his eyes at the snail and gently his head, he said to him.

"You can finally sleep, small friend. Thank you for keeping up with my large demands."

The snail let Vlad rub his head with his finger, not getting scared like most snails would do when encountering Vlad sharp gaze. It even moved its head slightly like a pet before, with a sleepy face entering inside his snail.

Placing the snail slowly from his hand, he moved outside of his private room and could see in the main room of the wooden house that there was Sofiya, Robert, Aerius and Tomas, the orphan boy who showed signs of talent in swordplay.

Sofiya looked from where she was seated, wearing her gear for fighting that showed her body features, seeming prepared for the upcoming war, yet she still asked him in a calm, warm voice.

"Is everything prepared, dear? Can we also join the rest?"

Hearing her question, he walked toward where she sat on a decent sized couch and got a seat next to her, placing his arm around her slim waist, he said while looking at her beautiful face.

"In a bit, let me instruct you a bit before I let you all go to your posts."

"Ahh, you are doing that again? Haven't you nagged me enough last night when we were close to sleeping? Dear, you are worrying too much. We know our jobs and also know you have high expectations for us three." replied Sofiya while turning to look at Vlad's dark green eyes with her emerald green ones.

Vlad only gave a small smile while taking fully in Sofiya's expression and face, which made her cheeks turn a bit rosy, yet she matched his gaze until he said to her and the rest.

"You are wrong Sofi, it is my responsibility as commander to make sure that my soldiers know their tasks to the last letter. If something goes wrong with you because you didn't get my orders correctly, whose fault would it be? Mine alone. Now don't get all tense, my love."

Looking at Tomas, who was wearing dark military clothing similar to the Black Amry officers and Robert, who had similar color, but some extra ornaments, even Aerius had a piece of clothing that had some style similar to the army uniforms.

Then, he started explaining to them again that they should approach this war calmly and never rush when seeing a suspicious moment of weakness. He reminded them that, in a war, everything was possible, even using civilians as human shields.

This made them look even more severe, while Sofiya grabbed Vlad's hand a bit tighter and said a bit coldly.

"This is enough, my love. You don't need to fill our heads with such unnecessary things. Robert, Aerius, Tomas, get yourself ready because we will go in some minutes. Do you have any problems with that, commander?" asked Sofiya while giving a serious stare to Vlad.

Hearing this, he laughed a bit before he placed his forehead gently on Sofiya's forehead and staring into her eyes, he reminded her.

"Young Lady, don't show anyone facing you, a sign of weakness. Always look down at them aloof even when outnumbered because you can do so. Do everything I taught you and win for me. If you would lose, how would my future subjects and enemies see me when my fiance and future wife couldn't even win against a ragtag of plebians?"

"Obviously, I would win my part of the war. But what about you, my arrogant fool, would you come in one piece to me? To let me feel your warm embrace?" asked Sofiya back while staring closely into his eyes.

Caressing her face after separating his head from her own, he kissed her and later said with an evil smile.

"Before someone who can kill me approaches to finish me, I will vanish and come back to your warm embrace, my Dutchess."

"You better remember these words, or I will look for you even in death and teach you a lesson. You arrogant prince." ended Sofiya while placing her delicate hands on Vlad's face, caressing his face a bit.

After they finished their small intimate moment, where only Aerius stared at them which a broad smile, as if saying, "You guys can continue on, don't mind me."

"Aerius, you follow little Tomas. He is still young and doesn't have full control of my skills, and you are the perfect guardian for him."

"Wait, what? I thought I will move alone. Fine, fine. I will go with little Tomas, but this will cost you. Five cows, not dead, fresh cows."

Hearing Aerius standard negotiations he kept bugging him about, he could only nod his head just to make this Gryphon collaborate without much fuss.

"Let's move on. We have a war to win."

"Aye, aye, boss. Let's go, Tomas. You are with me. We will go to where Sofiya will go to the Royal District."

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"Little Robert, I trust you fully, let me hear about your victory and your valour." reminded Vlad from Robert's side.

"I know, big brother. Don't worry about me."

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Robert, who noticed as Aerius, who kept the size he was first found by Vlad, attached himself on Tomas' shoulder like some parrot and gave his commands to the young man's ears where he could only follow.

'Tsk, this griffon will for sure have fun killing those noble soldiers. He even has it easy. As for me? I got to fight with the Dark Union bastards. Calm, I have to be calm in the face of any danger, just like how the old master and big brother Vlad taught me.'

'This will be my challenge, to see how worthy I am to return with my head held high when I go home and meet my family. I can't wait to see how big Lily has grown since I've last seen her. I hope everything is fine, and the nightmare from big brother's powers is just an aftereffect of being influenced by his spreading energy.'

As Robert thought that, he began moving with a fast speed toward Sol, with the target being Dawn City, the part of Sagletius controlled by the guilds but heavily infested by Dark Union assassins.

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Sofiya, who also had everything prepared, turned her face at Vlad, who watched everyone from the back, leaving to their own fronts.

'I no longer have to say anything. He seems to be focused on his own things. I have to get my marksman battalion I felt at the farms before taking over the high ground of Sol.'

'I am delighted that Vlad's training worked magic with them. No longer will foolish men question my authority as leader just because I am a woman, and in their eyes, I look like some "frail, delicate'' woman, who would only be good at the side of a man.'

Thinking that to herself, she blew a kiss to Vlad before she quickly moved toward the farms of Sol, with the focus of taking her battalion and starting placing herself on high ground.

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Vlad, left alone by his most important ones, had a shift in his expression that turned cold.

'It is time. My hunt begins now. Let's see how powerful you are, Lacilet Vestios, for you to dare dethrone Vermilion House who ruled for hundreds of years Kaysang and Great Kingdom Atlas.'

Just as he thought that his body vanished from where he was standing, leaving a big wind gust blowing on the floor.

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Minutes passed since the people got their own orders, and the city of Sol, which seemed to be the most prosperous city from the entirety of Kaysang, calmed down. One could only see some people walking around the streets, but they too have their expressions a bit scared, as if they knew something would happen.

The people of Sol and many other locations seemed to be anticipating something horrendous to happen. Like some guys gathering inside a tavern who got to the tavern basement and talked in a quiet tone.

"Guys, it is true the war between Master Blood and the hateful nobles will soon start? Will we be targeted by the enemy?"

The guy who looked a bit more fat and had a long beard, seating on a wooden shuttle used to hold wine bottles, heard what the guy hiding in his tavern said and replied calmly.

"The war is as true as this wine bottle. Calm down, we received the hidden notifications from Mayor Aldenis to have us protect in a safe place."

"Sure, we are protected, but what about the war? Who will fight the war for us? It would be absurd to think that only Master Blood is enough to fight an army by himself."

"Shhh, don't raise your voice, you idiot. Listen here, I will tell you some things because my ears are larger than yours, and I also see many people entering my tavern. Master Blood, since removing the chain the nobles had on us, besides helping us along with old Aldenis develop into the city we are right now, also carefully nurtured an army formed of the most elite young man of Sol and the neighbouring villages who along the years joined Sol.

I encountered a group of those soldiers nurtured by Master Blood, and I can tell you something certain. From their relations, the training they had to survive was gruesome. Many quieted joining the army because Master Blood training was too savage to survive that ordeal. Yet here comes the interesting part, as I talked with those soldiers, one of them who wasn't even drunk as if they barely could get drunk after drinking an entire shuttle, told me this.

"If we would be facing now something similar like the Syndicates, even something to a bigger scale, only one company of the Black Army is enough to exterminate them."

The people in the tavern looked with astonished expressions at the tavern boss, one even asked.

"Are they really that powerful? That they can even exterminate something like the Syndicates?"

"It remains to be seen, but I hope those soldiers were right because if Master Blood loses the war, we will be turned yet again in the slaves of the nobles and their stupid privileged system."

"NEVER!?" cried out some guys with angry expressions.

"Shhh, you morons."  called out to quiet the tavern boss.

More minutes passed, and all citizens of Sol seemed to be prepared in the safety of their homes.

A creepy silence enveloped the bustling city where you could hear various people, from the peoples of the neighbouring islands bringing their children to check on Sol and trying to enrol them to the University to merchants travelling with their goods.

Inside the house of a woman who looked to be around 20 years old, together with her elderly parents and two younger siblings that were twins of 11 years old, seemed to give a prayer toward someone.

"Big sister Minerva, who are you praying to? I don't think God would listen to our prayers." said one of those boys to the young woman.

The young woman looked at her younger brother and shook her head before saying. "No, little brother, I know that it would be useless to even waste my thought in praying for something false. I was giving my prayer to lord Blood, to always protect us from harm's way."

"Ahh, the big brother who cured mom and dad two years ago? He is lord Blood, right? I've seen some red liquid moving like snakes when we came to the hospital with mom and dad." said the other twin.

"Shhh, you better keep it to yourself. Master Blood identity is the most important secret we citizens of Sol have to keep." said the adults to the two boys, while the young woman smiled a bit while her mind was thinking of the time she first encountered Vlad.

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Minerva was only a maid to the infamous merchant Mayer Loftso. She heard from other girls that he would prey on them and do intercourse with them, but because of her need for money, to support her parents, who couldn't work because of an incurable illness and her younger brothers, who were only 8 at that time.

Her only choice was to sell herself to make enough money to support her family at any cost. She didn't think anything about how her future partner would view her for dropping so low, but she didn't care. Yet Minerva's fate smiled at her, and at the night Mayer was at the mansion she was tasked to clean, and where her chances of being r@ped by him were big, she encountered the infamous criminal who appeared for not too long in Sagletius.

She only saw his wanted poster, and when she saw him in person on a fateful night, her fate changed. She only saw half of his face that smiled at her.

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Yet, this wasn't the last time she met Vlad. Because of his reminder, she sold her family small house and land in Dawn and moved toward Sol with her family. Where she could start a new, into a developing city that was constantly under change.

She could get an honest job as an assistant to a clothing shop owner, and her salary was also larger than she was getting from Mayer. Still, all of those reach a pinnacle after finally taking her parents and meeting a handsome young man with short jet-black hair and mesmerizing green eyes.

When he saw her after that event, his reaction was to smile a bit before using a professional expression along with the treatment of her parents.

She could only keep to herself and never approach him openly and ask if he was Blood.

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Thankfully he managed to treat and heal her parent's illness that from his diagnosis was in his serious tone "Anemia" at which he shortly explained that it was a blood disease that didn't allow enough energy to her parents so their body would function.

'Your Excellency, I pray for your success and safe return.'

Suddenly as she said her prayer, the ground suddenly tremored, making the kids get scared.

"AHHH, THE GROUND IS SHAKING. HELP BIG SISTER MINERVA."

"Calm down, you brats. If Lord Aldenis said, we would be fine in our homes, keep quiet and stay calm."

Yet this didn't help because the tremors began getting intense, and a big shockwave blasted the entire windows in their house.

"Master Blood, please win!

This type of prayer ran in the mouths of every citizen that felt the great tremor and even had their windows blasted by a strong shockwave.

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On another part of Sol, in the Administrative Palace, Aldenis, accompanied by Kavos, Faust and Johan, could be seen looking in the direction of Wisdom Palace and in the direction of Dawn City and could only say to himself.

"Your Highness, I pray for your absolute victory, yours too, Marshall Nius. May your fates shine bright on this dark day."

The other administrators could only say their own prayers in a quiet tone while bracing for another tremendous tremor that made Faust drop on the ground.

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