Legacy of the Dark Sage



Gaham fell silent. Now that Kyran put it that way, he really did not gloss over any thing. Still, he found his approach at trying to convince them using Achim and Kesiah was cunning. By using them, the knights would be swayed. Though they appeared to be capable of betraying a Royal Family after they switched side from Achim to Kesiah, it could not really be considered a complete betrayal. After all, they were taught to obey a Royal Family at an early age, and both Achim and Kesiah were part of the Royal Family. If anything what they did was side with a Royal Family member who they deemed could become a better King.

Before Gaham could point this out, Kyran went on to say, "You know about the real situation unlike the other nations. You even know about the existence of outsiders. Rather than condemning me by thinking I am using your precious Prince and Princess to twist your ideals and agree in obeying me, don't you think you ought to question my intentions for helping the Eidums and conquering Armakea?"

As soon as he said this, a hushed discussion broke out among the congregation. Seeing this, Kyran continued, "You guys are far knowledgeable about the affairs in Somuli. I'm sure you've already heard about an outsider wanting to negotiate with the Sovereign, who resides in the Kingdom of Cretea."

By this, any ongoing hushed discussion was cut short and they returned their attention back to Kyran. The knights knew about that information. However, the officers were not privy to it. Nevertheless, their interests were piqued regardless if they knew it or not.

All of them wanted to know what the outsiders wanted to negotiate with the Sovereign.

Unfortunately, their expectations were dashed by Kyran's next words.

"I won't dwell on the topic of their negotiation simply because it is pointless to talk about it."

To this, most of them were in agreement. Even if they knew what the two sides negotiated about, there was nothing they could. They could not step in and counter offer whatever it was the outsider offered to the Sovereign, or in general, to the Kingdom of Cretea. Their nations were not in good terms, after all.

"But I want you to ponder, why is it that an outsider already approached the Kingdom of Createa, and even the Eidums, yet no one did to the King of Armakea?"

The expressions on all of the knights and officers turned grim at this realization.

Even Achim and Kesiah could not help but widen their eyes and look at their master's back in surprise. Similar to the rest, the thought never crossed their minds.

"Then again," Kyran let a short silence passed before he continued. "Was there really no outsider that approached your King? For all we know there could be one, but because of his character… or as you've already know, greed, he will never tell anyone about it because he did not want others to know what he and the outsider agreed on."

"What if the matter of finding his heir is only a farce and in truth, he wants to remove the younger generations?"

Someone blurted among the congregation.

When they heard this, a heavy atmosphere befell them.

"Uncle never really hoped to find a heir," Achim suddenly said. He looked at Kyran discreetly, asking permission to continue.

Kyran gave a short nod and allowed him to speak.

Achim addressed the congregation, who in turned already looked at him expectantly.

"The heir competition is a farce. He wants us to do our best to find a cure on his illness and we all know the only ones who might be able to cure him are the Eidums. Instead of waging war on them because they took our ancestors inheritance, which is the lost technology of their border, he decided to run them over by making us keen on either abducting them, or pulling them over to our side by promising things so long as they heal the King."

"That is not all," Kesiah also chimed in. "Think about it, if his illness has truly been cured, will he really step down and allow his heir to take over?"

No one reacted to her question, but only because all of them were in agreement to the answer.

With the King's character, he would never give up the throne to his anyone.

"For this reason, me and my brother believed, it is better to swear our allegiance to an outsider and have the Eidums rule over us, rather than let our uncle continue to rule with greed and ironclad beliefs that Armakea should be the true rulers of this plane."

The congregation were swayed by Kesiah's words. Seeing this, Kyran went on to say, "Going back to the topic of why outsiders are keen on striking up a negotiation with a leader of a nation, I'm guessing a few of you already have some ideas, right?"

"Something far bigger than us waging war on each other is about to happen."

Gaham answered what most of them had on mind.

Kyran smiled and nodded, "Yes. The people you call outsiders, giving them a proper identification, are Sovereigns from other planes and they are here to recruit your plane's Sovereign in a war. If they succeed, then you can kiss your short lives goodbye because none of you will survive when a war broke out and your plane turns into a battlefield."

Silence befell the congregation following Kyran's revelation. After a long grueling silence, Gaham managed to ask, "And what about you? You did not try to negotiate with the Sovereign and instead approached the Eidums. Why?"

"Not all Sovereigns wanted to participate in the war I mentioned. There is a faction that wants to prevent that. Unfortunately, the faction who approached the Sovereign first is not them."

"Are you part of that faction? The one that wants to prevent the war?"

"No."

"Then why—?"

Kyran shrugged, "I am not affiliated to any of those Sovereigns, nor am I keen on revealing why I am doing this. You only need to know one thing, if you want to survive when that war broke out along with the rest of your loved ones, I am the best option you got."

"Are you saying, the strength of the faction you belonged to can rival those Sovereign?"

"No. I am not part of any faction. I am on this conquest by myself…" Kyran's voice trailed off as a thought crossed his mind and he added, "But that will change soon. Once the true Sovereign of this plane ascends."

Hearing those last words shocked the whole congregation.

"The true Sovereign? What do you mean by that?"

"I've given you guys enough information," Kyran ignored Gaham's question. "Now, let me ask for the last time, will you follow Achim and Kesiah, or choose inaction and rot in this cell?"

This time, Kyran's question was greeted by a roar of unified agreement. They did not know how much of the things he told them was true, or if he would truly uphold his words of helping them survive the ordeal with the war the other Sovereigns were cooking. But they wanted to put their faith in the decision their Prince's and Princess's made.

"In this case, I welcome you all. From now on, you are part of my fold. I will treat you as I would treat my people, and protect you and those you hold dear with the utmost of my ability."

Everyone present felt something warm grew in their hearts after hearing Kyran's words. His words were not poetic, nor were they grand with full of promises, yet they felt reassured. They did not know why, but they felt that they could trust him to uphold those words.

After meeting the Armakeans, Kyran let Achim and Kesiah deal with the rest. Especially on dividing them into different units.

Their overall number could easily make up two companies. But that included the officers. If they only considered the knights, they would only make up a minimum headcount of a company. A very small number if they were to consider conquering Armakea.

The King alone controlled three divisions of Knights and another two divisions of low-ranked and high-ranked officers. That did not include the brigade of low and high-ranked officers that other Royal Family members were in control of.

Still, Kyran was not worried about their current number. According to Achim and Kesiah, every fort in Armakea would have a squad or two of Knights as their core offense. Then there were at least a company of low-ranked officers that kept the operations of those forts running at all times.

Before reaching the capital, they would encounter twenty-six small to medium forts. If they managed to assimilate every knight and officer in these forts, their military strength would shoot up. It might not be enough to confront the King's military but it was not like they would go to war in one fell swoop.

Strategies were made to overcome situation such as a disadvantage in number, after all.

Besides, there was still another community that Kyran was keen on recruiting.

The Magical Beasts. 

He had not spoken to Lady Chrysanthemum yet, but he planned to after they dealt with the reinforcements that were expected to arrive tomorrow.

For now, Kyran let her stay in his Void World while his puppets tried to educate her of some key things about his relationship with the Spirits from the Human plane. Since she had been receptive to their teachings thus far, Kyran reckoned she was at least interested.

When Achim and Kesiah finished grouping up the rest of the knights and officers, they met with the fighters of the Eidums.

Kyran and Nahir discussed how they would be grouped, since the latter had already started assigning prior to the former's request when he told them he would pave a path for them.

When all of that was done, the two sides familiarized themselves with each other.

Finally, after completing every preparations they could do, they received news from their scouts that the nearby fort's reinforcements had been sighted.

Kyran did not plan on participating in the upcoming battle because this was a good opportunity to let the Armakean and the Eidums work together and start developing a good synergy.