Chapter 261: Tied Together (1/2)
Brenden watched the dragon take off with mixed feelings.
[I suppose I should be happy that things turned out alright, but I feel like the gap has widened again...]
Dismissing the slight melancholy, he turned to face the prince. ”Well, I'm pretty much done here, Your Highness. If you still have business to take care of, I can give you a hand as thanks for accompanying me this far.”
Johnathan smiled, ”That won't be necessary, but I appreciate the offer nonetheless.”
He bent down and scooped up a small bone fragment from a pile of ashes, before placing it in a small leather pouch. ”This is what I came for, and so I shall be taking my leave as well. We will head back to rejoin the rest of my forces. You are welcome to come with us, since there is no telling what undead monstrosities still roam the battlefield. It would certainly be safer to travel in a group.”
”I'm going to have to pass. On the way here, I ended up leaving my subordinates behind. They are probably frantically-”
He was interrupted by a distant yell, ”MY KING!”
A large group could be seen heading this way.
One of the knights, a cat beastman, turned to look in the direction of the sound. ”Is he calling Your Highness? But you haven't ascended to the throne yet.”
”Something may have happened to the king in our absence.” Johnathan replied gravely. ”We should speak with them and find out.”
Brenden, who recognized the voice as belonging to Fang, began to panic. The last thing he wanted was for the prince and his group to run into his criminal followers at this juncture. At best, it would lead to some awkward questions. At worst...well, he didn't want to think about it.
”AH! Don't worry. That was a friend of mine. He has a habit of calling me that. As a joke, you see. I've told him to stop on a number of occasions, but he never listens.”
One of the knights frowned. ”That's a problem. You should tell your friend that such a thing is close to treasonous. While I doubt any magistrate would truly prosecute him for it, he would be better off avoiding any undue attention from that kind of behavior.”
”Come now, Ian.” The Prince broke in. ”It's just a harmless nickname. There is no reason to take it seriously. I mean, it's not like he's trying to rebel against the crown and form his own government.”
”MY KING! I BRING WORD FROM THE COUNCIL!” Fang yelled again.
Brenden had to use every ounce of his willpower to not let his emotions show as they descended into awkward silence.
”Haha...Well, it sounds like he has an important message from the rest of our friends. I better go meet up with him to make sure that its nothing too serious.”
”Ah...yes...that makes sense.” The Prince replied with a strained smile. ”May you have safe travels until our paths cross again.”
”You as well, Your Highness.” Brenden replied with a half bow before taking off running.
Thanks to his replenished stamina, it didn't take long for him to meet up with Fang's group. The bear beastman had evidently taken charge of the best of their fighters as they followed after him. This meant that nearly a hundred of the most dangerous criminal enforcers of the city of Almirn were streaming across the battlefield for one purpose and one purpose only.
As soon as he got close, Brenden was welcomed by a loud cheer that sounded half joyous and half relieved.
”King of Thieves!”
”He's alright!”
”I'm so glad!”
”Long live the King of Thieves!”
”My King!” Fang added with a bellow. ”I prayed for your safety, and now I see you have returned to us!”
”Quiet! All of you!” Brenden yelled in response, immediately silencing his surroundings. Feeling slightly guilty at the looks of hurt confusion he saw in several of their faces, he coughed. ”We aren't exactly in friendly territory, so we don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves. Now come on, lets rejoin the others.”
Fang nodded. ”As you say, My King. But what of the battle, should we not lend our aid?”
”While there are a few pockets of the enemy left, the Lacotian general has fallen, and the rest should soon follow suit. We no longer have a reason to be out here.” He replied while trying to direct the crowd back the way they came.
”You mean to say that the battle is over, and that we won?” The old bear beastman asked, a bit breathlessly.
Brenden sighed. ”That's more or less the case. Of course there are still-” The rest of his words were cut off as they spontaneously burst into cheers and started to chant.
”King of Thieves! King of Thieves!”
”QUIET! What did I just say?!”
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Count Graveston sat down in his chair and waited for the door to his cabin to finally close as the last of his aides left. Once it did, he allowed the fatigue he was feeling to finally show. Sagging against the chair's back, he rested his head against its polished surface as a wave of dizziness passed through him.
Although his efforts had been successful, performing that kind of ritual had taken a lot out of him. If not for the potency of the focus device he was using, he doubted if he'd been able to maintain it for as long as he had.
[Ha...It seems I've been slacking in my training. A few decades ago, I could have worked the Ebon Heart Ritual for days without rest. Now, even a couple of hours is enough to leave me feeling faint. How pathetic.]
Resolving himself to increase the amount of time he spent training every day, he forced himself to begin sorting through the various reports on his desk. Even with Mike's victory over the Skull Lord, there were still a multitude of things that needed to be taken care of, and it would be a long and difficult road to begin repairing the devastation caused by two successive invasions.