"We might- actually, there’s a very high chance that we might need to officially march out for the northern war tomorrow or the day after," Claire added.
Burke nodded firmly.
"Okay, Ma’am. I’ll make sure that I get the soldiers prepped for the war. How exactly many are you planning on taking with you on this campaign?"
Claire crossed her arms.
"Well, get them all ready just in case. The one who officially makes the final decision isn’t me, it’s going to be Lord Adrian."
Burke nodded.
"I completely understand that, but aren’t you the commanding General? You should definitely have a rough estimate for this, right? I’ll need to prepare supplies and all of that stuff."
Claire just stared at him. She knew that he was entirely right about the logistics.
She thought about it for a while, running the numbers in her head.
"Okay. Let’s get exactly ten thousand people fully prepared to march. But don’t just give me the best frontline soldiers. Split them apart evenly in two balanced groups. I want exactly half of the best veteran soldiers kept right here in Oresfall. I want them being stationed here on defense just in case something happens while we are gone. And the other half of the top-tier soldiers? They can come with us to the frontlines to act as the vanguard."
Burke nodded sharply.
"Okay. I’ll make sure that I get them evenly sorted and ready."
Claire nodded.
"Okay then. I’ll get back to my private quarters and start packing my armor and things up."
Burke just nodded respectfully and quietly watched as Claire quickly walked away from the training grounds.
That same night, Adrian walked out of his mansion and went straight to the underground prison cells.
He walked down the long, torch-lit corridor and stopped directly in front of the cell where the Prince and the Princess were kept inside.
He looked through the bars and saw that they both looked completely broken mentally. They were huddled together on the floor, shivering. But physically? They were perfectly alright.
His dedicated healers had definitely done a great job of keeping them alive through the torture. Specifically speaking, Hugo, who was still standing right there outside the cell acting as the primary medic.
Adrian nodded and he looked directly at Hugo before gently patting the massive kid’s thick shoulder.
"You did a really good job down here, kid."
Hugo just grinned and nodded.
Adrian then looked back at the Prince and the Princess through the bars before he turned to look at the shadow assassin leader, who was basically just the acting leader of this specific prison group right now. Jack, the younger assassin, was basically just lazily slacking off near the wall at this point, but Adrian didn’t really care as long as the job was done.
He just looked at the leader and gestured to the cell.
"Release these two."
The royals both looked up, their eyes widening in sheer disbelief.
"Send exactly two of our men, and get them to escort these two idiots all the way back to the Ironhold Kingdom border."
Adrian pulled a sealed envelope from his pocket.
"And do hand this specific letter over directly to their King," he said. "Or... just let these two idiots carry it back to their father."
He handed the envelope over to the assassin leader.
The guy nodded silently and safely put it inside his cloak pocket before he looked back at the terrified Prince and Princess.
"Okay, my lord. I’ll make sure that I send these two back to their kingdom safely."
Adrian nodded firmly before he just looked around the large underground room at the rest of the shadow squad.
"Do send them over quickly and get the whole elite squad ready to move. You guys will also be coming with me to the war this time."
He crossed his arms.
"I have a special mission for you out there, and I’ll tell you about the details once these two royals are completely out of my territory."
He glanced back at the other occupied cells.
"Only the Prince and the Princess are leaving though. The Ironhold knights and the mages will be permanently staying right here."
The assassin leader just nodded respectfully.
Adrian didn’t say another word. He just turned around and walked out of the dark underground room.
Adrian went right back to his mansion and immediately looked at Damien, who was just standing right there in the main hall, quietly looking down at the small notebook that he always carried around with him.
Adrian walked directly over to his butler.
"Bring me Wang Lei. Tell him to come straight to my bedroom."
Damien nodded respectfully, smoothly put his notebook away, and bowed.
"Right away, my lord."
Adrian just nodded and went back to his bedroom. He locked the doors behind him and immediately looked at his system screen, which was basically still hovering right in front of his face.
His current system screen was just showing him his own personal stats and his updated status screen after his intense training week, which hadn’t really changed much but Adrian could sense that he was very, very close to breakthrough.
Now, it was finally time to move on to something else entirely. Something to prepare for the war.
Adrian looked at the glowing interface.
"Open up the Monster Catalog. And give me a list of... give me a list of high-tier monsters that specifically effective in war situations and mass destruction."
He tapped his chin.
"Actually wait, give me something like True Dragons. I want the top-tier monsters that I can use for Wang Lei’s blessing to make him as insanely strong as possible before tomorrow."
[Affirmative.]
[Searching database...]
[Error: The Monster Catalog does not currently possess genetic information on True Dragons. It does not possess biological data on Ancient or Mythological tier creatures.]
[Note: The system only has access to the genetic information of the standard monsters that are currently available in the active dungeons across the world.]