"You're telling me that, with 7 legions and advanced intel from the King, you could not capture a measly 5,000?" The prince of Gumina was peeved beyond measure. "And, what's more, you've come back missing an entire legion!"
The seven legions could not look up as they listened to their prince admonish them repeatedly. They too were shocked by the whole affair.
There had been an advanced plan that only 2 legions knew. They were sent off in a different direction, and while there, they would ambush the fleeing Tristanites and their Queen. It had been so well planned that nothing should have gone wrong. Information compartmentalization was also so well done to ensure few chances of a leak, yet they still vanished.
"Are you sure there was no way?" The prince turned to the King, who was seated on the throne. On paper, there was one ruler of Tristan, but seeing the throne room now, one was not so inclined to believe the paper.
The new King still sat upon the throne, but all the power in the room was squarely held by the man who was prancing around in anger, The Prince of Gumina. He couldn't be bothered to use the proper terms and titles while addressing his puppet.
"None that I know of. The men that she's with would probably have found another path, or maybe a way to conceal it, but as far as I know, that was the only tunnel." The King answered.
"Think long and hard about this king, for if we don't nip this in the bud, your kingship will never be stable," The prince said in distaste. He never much liked traitors, even if they were on his side.
"And neither will your foothold in the Eastern continent be secure," The King retorted in spite. "If I had any answers, I'd give you. People are already saying that Barda made them all disappear after he slew the legion with his bare hands." The king had no idea how true the latter was.
"So other than a fairy tale, you have nothing else to give me?"
"I stick by my statement, If I had any answers, I'd give you."
"Commanders, I want a detailed report of how my legion disappeared," the prince said as he dismissed his commanders, no point in them seeing what was going to happen.
The prince turned and walked up the stairs to where the throne was. His every step was intimidating. Standing over Lord Branton in a boorish and powerful display of power, the Prince hissed, "Do we have a misunderstanding on who's in charge here?"
That question would have irked Lord Branton a day ago, but now, a weight had fallen off. After his actions, he felt he was now no longer a traitor to his beloved city, but a highly placed spy for the Queen. He had no qualms about who was in charge there, and while she may not have been in the room, she was still his leader. He smiled pleasantly and said, "No we do not."
***
Custer had been waiting eagerly to hear what transpired. Everyone had. The attack did not include any Tristan warriors as the Prince of Gumina did not want any leaks. There had been a total curfew and lockdown, restricting all movement. Even if they had intel, they would be hard placed to get it to the Queen.
After the operation, information has a way of getting to the general public, and soon everyone was talking about the raid. The highlights were the part about the dead legion with a missing commander and the sudden disappearance of the group. Every time this story was told, flames of pride and hope were fanned within the hearts of Tristanites, who felt like hostages being held by a usurper. Their Queen was working hard to rescue them. They felt that the pride of Tristan was in her hands, and she held their flag high.
Custer wondered what to make of all this. Did that mean that The King was on their side? Custer was always a pessimist, but try as he might, he didn't see any ulterior motive involved. The King had the Queen in his sights, ready to eradicate her, but he let her go. It could all be an elaborate ruse to flush out the opposition, so Custer did not completely trust his new king, but it was a start.
***
Several miles away, the Queen was thinking the same thing. She wanted to trust Lord Branton, on account of their long years of friendship, but she was not that naive. She was grateful that he had allowed her to get away so cleanly, but she did not put any trust in anything he said yet. She vowed to never make the mistake of putting her people in such jeopardy again.
Now that she had time to relax, she watched as her people made camp for the night. She wished to keep moving but without knowing much about where they were, aimlessly walking was foolhardy, especially with so many people. Therefore she had her commanders send scouts in every direction. Some scouts were sent to check if they were still being pursued.
There was one man she was looking at in particular. She still remembered how he had sat with her as they waited for the report to come. Perhaps she had been too curt. She wasn't too raw about being left in bed, but what had agitated her was that throughout the whole journey, Barda had seemed to ignore her in favor of her teammates.
Looking at him now, laughing with Lady Ellen and the group, a tinge of jealousy flashed in her eyes. She so wanted to be there too or to have such moments with him. Alas, the cost of ruling!
Barda had not spent time with the Dark Flames Adventurers for quite some time on account of him running all over. He got to learn about Zoey from Batoo. Phoenix was doing much better, and there was some light in Lady Ellen's eyes. The grief remained, but she smiled more easily.
This was also a chance for him to relax and just enjoy a quiet time with friends. He had learned to take advantage of such moments given how fleeting they were. Zoey was blown away just by interacting with Barda, something that irked Batoo to no end. She had become part of the group, and it seemed the only thing lacking was an Adventurers Association to make her part of Dark Flames.
There was one other member of the upper echelon group that had set off to Tristan, that was Gil. He had no particular position as far as Barda knew, but his skills and purple-rank gave him authority in the Adventurer Association.
Speaking of the Team, there were 13 members left. Lady Ellen, Barda, Phoenix and Gil made up the upper rank. Batoo, Kia, and 2 others made up the logistics team. Of the remaining 5, 3 were a collection from the various other departments. 2 were from Dark Flames vassal teams. It was quite a devastating loss and destruction of the budding Adventurer Team.
23 other adventurers still lingered, but these were from the earlier group. Many had snuck out to the city where their brethren were. They couldn't be blamed since they didn't have any dog in the fight.
The vast majority of the group present Tristanites who stood by their Queen, refusing to bow down to the traitor King. Many wished to join them, while several others cursed themselves for not joining the group sooner. Finding them now was likely going to be a difficult task.
***
On this night, Barda had prepared a beautiful meal with the help of Batoo and Zoey. They laughed and celebrated their narrow escape. It felt like a burst of sunshine after a dark storm. Many others joined in, and soon, the whole group was having a celebration. They didn't forget, but they took the time to smile and dance. The atmosphere turned to that of hope and optimism for a better tomorrow.
"So what do we call you? a prince? a king-in-waiting, or just the Queen's b**ch?" Phoenix teased Barda who at the time had a very red face across his face, causing a burst of raucous laughter.
"The scouts have returned, the Queen requests your presence, My Lord, My Lady," a lithe figure came up to the group and said to Barda and Lady Ellen. She too had heard the comment and was suppressing her laughter.
"You'll never guess where we are," the Queen said as Barda and Lady Ellen entered, "It's where the 2 of you met."