3 days passed since the second battle of the Zraka Fortress ended. During these three days, many people were expecting the Zulux Dynasty to send another large army. But contrary to their expectations, the Zulux Dynasty showed no sign of deploying their troops. It was as if they had forgotten about the ongoing war. This confused many people as they couldn’t understand why would the Dynasty stop after experiencing two huge defeats.

The Dynasty was a proud Kingdom with over 115 years of long history. In that period, the dynasty had over 4 kings. The dynasty in that period of time did its best to maintain good political relations with other neighboring 3-tier Kingdoms while conquering all the 2-tier small Kingdoms around its borders. While the previous Kings didn’t see any value in conquering land that is full of mountain ranges and were dependent on neighboring Kingdoms for food supplies. However, Sebastian Walker, the current King of the Zulux Dynasty saw the real value and potential that this small Kingdom had.

Sebastian Walker was by nature an ambitious man. He wanted to conquer more lands and expand his territory. His dream was to eventually let his dynasty become the overlord of this part of the continent by letting his Dynasty become a 5-tier powerhouse. However, his conquest plans were forced to be postponed due to several issues. Before becoming the King, his father previously had only 60,000 troops and one 3rd-order general under his command. Knowing that his Dynasty would be too weak to start his conquest plans, he had to wait 3 decades for his Dynasty to have four 3rd-orders.

The land of the Zulux Dynasty had 7 main cities and 29 small towns. Each main city was located either near the borders or in a strategic location for quick transportation of foods and other supplies. Unlike other neighboring Kingdoms, the title of Duke wasn’t given to governors of the main 7 cities of the Zulux Dynasty. The Kings felt to main absolute control over all 7 cities that is the backbone of the Dynasty, they needed to maintain strong control over the 7 main cities.

He instead made the nobles of his Kingdom sign a special contract. If any noble tried to plot anything against the King of the Kingdom, they and their whole bloodline would instantly die, and their souls would be burned. This prevented any traitors or any rebels from rising.

The contract made all the nobles and their future generations the slave of the King and the Kingdom. All the nobles were very upset with the King because of the contract. Being tied to this contract meant, they had no free will. Every decision they want to make has to be discussed and approved by the King himself.

“Asharc city, one of the 7 main cities of Zulux Dynasty, located at the north-west border. The distance between the Asharc city and the Zraka fortress is about 50km but the mountain ranges made it difficult and consumed more time for traveling.”

Currently, Sebastian Walker, the current King of the Zulux Dynasty, and John Mitchell, the noble house that is named as the governor of the Asharc city, was having an important meeting. John Mitchell was the governor of the Asharc city only in name, as the real ruler was King Sebastian._.

“My personal spies had found that the Istarin forces are planning on attacking the Asharc city. It would take them approximately 9 to 10 hours to reach Asharc city. For now, we don’t know when the Istarin forces will attack. But my theory is, that they will attack within this week. To prepare for the invasion, recall all the troops that were sent to guard the small towns.” After giving several instructions to John, the king finally ended the meeting that was taking place with the use of 3-star artifacts.

3 days ago, when King Sebastian was thinking of stopping the war, for now, one of his personal spies came with very important information. Knowing that the Istarin Kingdom was going to attack the Asharc city, the King wanted John to increase the Asharc city’s defense to the max. If one of the main 7 cities fell, it would be a huge loss for the Zulux dynasty. Losing a city to the Istarin Kingdom would be as same as being slapped millions of times.

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Scene change

While the defense of the Asharc city was raised to the maximum, King Aditya was busy doing something else.

“Your Majesty, I can’t express how impressed I am. Your intelligence is out of this world.” Currently King Aditya, Majin village head Zachary and charming royal fox queen Amber were in the Zulux Dynasty territory. Everyone had big smiles on their faces.

“To think you would mislead the whole Zulux Dynasty with false information. Genius!”

The reason Aditya was trying to recruit the Majin under his command had something to do with his future plans. With the food shortage, Aditya’s options were limited. He used the Majins’ to spread false information about invading the Asharc city. Just like he expected, under King Sebastian’s orders, John recalled all the troops who were meant to guard the surrounding towns. This left the towns unprotected.

What everyone failed to notice was that these towns held great importance for the Istarin Kingdom. By diverting the entire Dynasty’s attention, Aditya was easily able to enter the Zulux Dynasty territory.

‘Each of the three towns had more than 1000 acres of huge farming lands which is equal to having 38 football pitches. Each town specialized in growing corns, wheat, and rice. What I truly need is not territories, but rather food supplies. The farming land of the three towns located in the 100 km range of Asharc city had fertile land. These three towns fulfilled the high food demand of Asharc city. Last year, one of these three towns grew over 22000 quintals of rice.’

(Note: – 1 quintals is 100 kilograms or 220.462 pounds)

The plan was to bring down the food prices and eliminate the food shortage problem by lotting all the harvests from the three towns. No Kingdom in the dying Isle continent has ever done something like this. Many kings would strongly condemn this kind of act thinking that only thieves and bandits would do this kind of thing. But Aditya was different. Being a man who has worked for the Prime Minister, he didn’t give a sh*t about his reputation.

‘Thanks to the Majin who had gathered information on the enemy, I was able to form this plan.’ Aditya has sent Majins to both Zulux and Nepoca Kingdoms.

‘A great man once said, “Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every battle.”

Aditya followed this principle. Since he lacked military powers, he wanted to have an advantage when it came to information. In this world where modern technology didn’t exist, information was like possessing a powerful weapon. Information was the key to victory.

By bringing the Majins under his command, Aditya not only gained a powerful force of assassins but also a force that can deliver him the latest news.

“Grand East Springs, one of the three towns that provide food to Asharc city.” The Grand East Springs had a population of 15,000. Almost 80% of the population of these three towns were slaves owned by John. Having slaves work for the farmland was cheaper and more effective.

Wearing black cloaks and covering their faces with hoods, the trio entered the Grand East Springs town by jumping over the walls without any effort. The whole town, including the farming lands, was surrounded by 3 meters tall wooden walls. The walls were built to prevent the slaves from running away and also to keep outsiders from entering the Grand East Springs town.

Previously there were a total of 10,000 troops guarding the three towns. Now there were less than 100 soldiers left to guard each town.

“Your Majesty, should I kill the guards?”

“Not now. You will get your time to play.”

In the darkness of night, the trio approached the Warehouse, where all the harvest was being stored.

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When the first ray of sunlight fell on the Grand East Springs town, two soldiers lazily walked up to the Warehouse that was located at the center of the Grand East Springs to guard the warehouse.

“Man, I don’t understand why the hell we are supposed to guard the Warehouse. It’s not like the Warehouse has anything valuable in it. The only thing that this Warehouse has is grains.”

“Yeah, it’s not like anyone has the balls to come and steal all the grains.” The two soldiers walked up to the Warehouse. Just like every other morning, the first thing they did was to open the Warehouse and check if everything was in place.

Clang!

Pushing the two iron doors, the two soldiers entered the Warehouse. Looking at the empty Warehouse, the two soldiers were left dumbfounded.

“….Brother, I think I am hallucinating. I think I am still drunk. I am going to take a nap.”

“…..You’re Not Hallucinating brother. If you sleep now you might never wake up again.”

And just like that, in a single night, the last six month’s harvest disappeared without a trace.

Within a single day, the news spread like wildfire eventually reaching the ear of King Sebastian. “You’re telling me, while the soldiers who were meant to guard the Warehouse were having fun, someone mysterious person emptied our Warehouses.”