Even Hugo, who was considered one of the most insane people in the territory when it came to pain tolerance and physical training, couldn’t even come close to beating Adrian’s new schedule.
Adrian only ate two meals a day but they were massive ones. He would sit down and eat a crazy, impossible amount of food which had a lot of calories. And then he would immediately just go back out and train his staff skills.
He would just swing his staff around and train for hours on end. He didn’t even stop to rest until it was midnight.
He would basically sleep at twelve at night, wake up at around six in the morning, and then go straight back to training. Six hours of sleep. Eighteen hours of intense physical training which only barely included the short eating times.
Adrian barely spent any of his time on anything else during this period.
But his time in Oresfall was extremely limited. Adrian kept up this psychotic pace for almost five whole days. And once he was done with the fifth day, he knew that he had just one more day left before he would have to leave for the capital.
But he had been waiting.
He had intentionally been waiting for one single specific thing to happen before he actually made a move to leave. He had heavily gambled on one thing, hoping that his cheeky letter might help him find a legal loophole to not attend the war for his ex-wife’s territory. He didn’t want to participate in the proxy war if he could just stay back and build his city.
But not everything would go exactly as he expected.
A few hours ago, a royal messenger arrived at the mansion gates. Unlike always where Damien would be the one to officially receive the guests; which was still the rule because Damien would only attend to the messenger if the messenger actually knocked on the front door. This time was different.
Before the tired messenger could even walk all the way up to the front door, he saw Serena standing outside.
She was just quietly standing around the corner of the mansion, peaking out and looking into the training field at Adrian. But when she heard the footsteps of boots behind her, she turned around and saw the messenger wearing the royal Crestwall colors.
When she saw the sealed scroll in his hands, she immediately walked over.
"Is this letter for Lord Adrian?"
The messenger bowed deeply when he recognized the Duke’s daughter.
"Yes, my lady. This is for Baron Sterling. And it seems like His Majesty the Emperor is highly displeased with him."
Serena nodded.
"Okay. Give it to me. I’ll hand it over to Lord Adrian."
The messenger nodded in relief, not wanting to face the infamous Baron himself, and he handed the heavy scroll over. He had heard a few things about how the man had killed a Marchioness’s husband in front of multiple other nobles. He had no intention of getting involved in a fight between the Emperor and this crazy Baron.
Serena took the scroll and waited for the messenger to leave. Instead of directly walking over and giving it to Adrian, she decided to open it herself. She broke the royal wax seal and unrolled it.
She read through it because she knew that he was busy training right now, and she didn’t really think that a standard royal decree was important enough to directly interrupt his flow.
She read through the contents.
The top of the scroll basically said, ’From Emperor Maximillian of Crestwall.’ And right beside that text was the intricate gold-leaf design that was usually found on highly official royal scrolls like these.
She just skipped to the next line and continued reading the actual message.
Baron Adrian Sterling.
I do understand that your territory was allegedly attacked by the Ironhold Kingdom. Or at least that is what you claim is what happened.
But it is highly unbelievable without actual proof. Your territory did not sustain any structural damages or heavy casualties based on what intelligence I received from my scouts. Which means that there is no way to officially confirm that you were attacked by the Ironhold Kingdom’s military.
I did receive the news that you currently hold high-value prisoners from the Ironhold Kingdom, and they do consist of Prince Valerian and Princess Isolde. And just like you have arrogantly mentioned in your letter, I have confirmed it through my own channels, and it seems to be true.
But that does not definitively mean that they attacked you.
It could also simply mean that you illegally attacked them while they were hunting for food or animals near the border and you just captured royal blood without any valid reason.
You are not permitted to imprison them anymore. I order you to immediately release them and make sure that they are sent safely back to Ironhold with an official apology. We, the Crestwall Empire, do not wish to engage in an all-out war against our neighboring kingdom that has not been aggressive against us.
Furthermore, I want you, the Baron of Oresfall, to contribute to the ongoing conflict in Vaneira’s former territory which is now in control of the Avarice Army.
I want you there at the battlefield. And I want you there supporting Marquis Draven Voss’s army with your forces.
You are not allowed to sit back at your territory like a coward. If you do not participate in this war, your direct actions of defiance will be treated as high treason against the Crown.
Once Serena finished reading the letter, she sighed and looked at Adrian who was busy training a few hundred meters away.
She walked over to him and Adrian immediately stopped swinging his staff around the moment he saw her. He looked at the scroll first and then, when he looked at Serena’s expression, he could tell that the outcome of his letter wasn’t what he expected.
’Haa... let’s see what he wrote I guess...’