The convoy led by Hector and Levi are now proceeding to advance even more deeper through the inner ring. The barren land was no threat for the two as they went on a rampage, heavily injuring the star beasts that will come on their way.
The mercenaries and knights were on high alert, knowing that an attack from a [Black Rank] star beast can easily injure them severely. That caused the formation to be more tight as it was before.
A [Blue Rank] reptile star beast was under Hector's feet as it struggled to save it's life, it knows that if it can't get away, it's fated to die in the hands of the humans. But, unfortunately for the beast, Hector crushed it's throat with a loud snap and died.
"Hey, old man... Look at this one. It seems unfamiliar for me."
Hector called out for Levi to recognize the star beast he just killed.
"Let me see it... Hmm..", Levi crouched down and studied the star beast if it was really recorded in the books.
"Light blue scales, red eyes, with two thin arms, almost ten feet. If it wasn't for it being a [ Blue Rank], it would've put up a good fight.", Levi touched every detailed part of its body that can be illustrated in books, it's just disappointing that it was easily killed by Hector as the lizard-like star beast was at peak of [Blue Rank].
"Let's take it to the camp so that it can be drawn more accurately."
Levi stood up and absorbed the star beast's corpse into his storage ring.
"Yeah, coz' your drawing is terrible.", Hector said with a straight face.
Levi looked at him if he was joking or not with suspicion.
"You guys are just idiots that can't appreciate art.", Levi then run ahead to the camp, leaving Hector alone.
"Haha, yeah right."
Hector just laughed as he followed his offended old friend.
Back at the camp, the three children inside the carriage were worried about Luce, he is still suffering from severe headache.
"Uncle.. okay?", Hestia asked the two men that was protecting their carriage.
She still can't speak a full sentence, but the three year-old girl in front of Perez was asking him and he finds it super cute.
"Don't worry about Uncle Luce, he is strooong!"
Perez flexed both of his fat arms to look cool, but it just made him hilarious. Hestia giggled to what the fat man in front of her did, "Fat man, so funny."
Marquis Rain covered his mouth and tried to cough to hide his laughter, but the merchant king saw it and was embarrassed.
"Haha. Thanks for calming the children, Merchant King. They will be anxious here with me if it wasn't for you two.", Luce said.
He was still laying in the carriage, almost occupying the space meant for the children to play in. That's why, he was now being played by Aidan, who was tying his hair with Mir.
"This is your punishment for getting in our carriage, Uncle Luce."
That's what Mir said to him when he got transported to their carriage. So now, only a little hair is left untied on Luce's head.
"This is nothing compared to what you have done for the empire, my lord.", Perez said.
"And yet, here we are, running far away from that same empire.", Marquis Rain said, rubbing his mustache.
"We're running away from the emperor, not the empire itself. A good herd will turn bad if their shepherd is bad. His greed for power and land drove him to madness. That's why he did the... ugh!", Luce stopped saying the word he was about to say halfway when he saw the looked at the children inside the carriage, especially Aidan and Hestia, there's some unspoken guilt inside into his eyes.
The two men protecting the carriage felt that the mood suddenly became awkward so they just turn forward and never said anything again for the rest of their trip.
At midnight, they finally reached the place where they need to rest and reassemble. The two noble family heads called their vassals and their friends that went together with them in this hard journey.
With their backs facing the bonfire made with bones and weeds that they found and gathered, Levi as well as Hector took a glance at the people, soldiers that resisted throughout the journey. Their people, with different faces and colors, stood proudly in front of the two with no prejudice from each other's side, there was only peace and harmony from everyone.
"Men, women, all the people here who struggled traveling with us even though you didn't know where we were going, from the bottom of my heart, I, Levinous Regulus de Leviathan, thank you personally."
Levi bowed, with full respect for this people in front of him. He then patted Hector to say something for his own vassals, too.
Hector cleared his throat first before stepping forward.
"So, uh, to all my people he came with me, 'Thank you' is the word I would normally say. But in the Iron Mountain, we give thanks by treating your brothers to a drink! Right, Ironborn!"
Hector's people cheered and saluted to their Marquis, even nobles were saluting to him. This is the tradition of the Iron Mountain, they respect each other not based on status but, based on the merits they have done.
That's why there were so many mercenaries and merchants with Hector even though he never expected them to come with him. Even the Merchant King and leader of the mercenaries shows respect towards him.
"Now then... This place that we'll be living from now had been the Demon's Army's castle but, was destroyed during the conquest. We will try to establish a town, even a village here, just to keep us away from the hands of the emperor. That nephew of mine was driven to madness by his greed and lust for power, we have no connections with them anymore. We are now nothing, in their eyes...", Levi then move closer towards the crowd so that he can set the flame of the people's hearts even stronger.
"We are the traitors. They forced us to exile, even though we made more contributions to the Empire than them. We shed our blood and flesh just to protect our family behind us! We protected the Empire! Not them! So don't you dare say that you were useless without them! They are the ones who are useless without us!"
All the people roared with mix emotions; rage, sorrow, and excitement filled their hearts. They gave all of their best to cheer for a minute, then Hector raised his fist to make them stop.
"Their western and northern fronts are now unguarded. That should give us some time to gather our strength while they defend it from other countries. Lord Levi and my territory will definitely be ransacked by pillagers and bandits but, who cares! The people are the ones who carry their place, without the you guys, Iron Mountain will not exist... Without you guys, Leviathan's Den will not exist. They exist with us, we are carrying the place where we lived!"
"We will rebuild this place. The den and the mountain, together!!", Hector roared while the people cheered and screamed in fervor.
The whole night, they drunk and partied, never leaving any person unhappy. But, now that the first light of a new day has come, the people started to move, rebuilding the castle that was previously owned by the demons even stronger than it was before.
Levi was resting on a fallen pillar laying on the ground, he looked around to see the development of the new castle that they were. Then, he reached down to feel the sand, together with the rubble fall from his left hand.
"Remembering anything, or anyone?", Levi heard Hector's voice in surprise.
"Why are always talking so suddenly? You could've given me a heart attack.", Levi protested, holding his chest.
Hector just laughed as he sat next to Levi.
"Do you still miss him... Eric?", Hector looked at him with a serious face.
Levi stared at the sand for a moment, then sighed, "Of course, he was my son after all....It was just saddening that he suddenly died without us even knowing the cause. His death destroyed me and his mother. She died from sorrow a month after we held a funeral.", Levi tried not to cry, but his voice betrayed him.
"Eric's a good man and a friend. He was strong enough to stop me back then, he even befriended Luce who was criticized because he is a commoner.", Hector looked up to the sky and remembered his friends' flame red hair with his friendly and easygoing smile.
"That was his charm. That's why he never got close to Leopold, the two was just... extremely different from each other.", Levi proudly said.
Hector stood up, catching a bottle of rum from a worker from Iron Mountain.
"When a new prince is born, the whole empire flips a coin. Head or tails, madness and greatness, bad and good, all of it. Leopold just turned out to be the bad side.", Hector said. His eyes flickered a little, remembering the face of Leopold.
Levi looked at his friend who was now chugging his bottle of rum like it was milk then sighed. He stood up and head towards the children's carriage.
"I'll go check up on Luce while you drink your 'milk'."
Hector choked and spurted out a mouthful of rum then laughed.
"How funny you are, old man!"
Hector watched Levi waved his right hand without turning back, then he continued chugging his rum.
However, their peaceful morning was suddenly disturbed by the sound of a bell ringing repeatedly. Hector immediately run towards where it was coming and it turns out, it was the scouts that ventured deeper in the inner ring.
"What's happening here?! Why are you ringing the bell?!", Hector shouted a few feet away from the three scouts that he sent.
"I apologize, M'lord! Randy just started to ring the bell when we got back to the camp!", one scout apologized to Hector while stopping the young scout who was ringing the bell.
"Stop!! I need to do this!", Randy said, his eyes were full of fear.
"Stop it, Randy! Your causing distress to the camp!", the other scout pleaded.
"No! I need to tell the camp! They are coming! They are coming here!", Randy cried out.
"Who's coming? Who are they?!", Hector pulled Randy away from the bell by his arm and looked into the young scout's eyes, it was filled with fear.
"Demons, M'lord! Demons are coming here!!"
Randy pointed towards the direction he went scouting while crying on Hector's arms.
'Wait, isn't that where we are supposed to go?! I need to get to Luce!', Hector thought.
He started running towards the carriage to tell Luce what's going on but, he was too late.
A powerful pressure suddenly crushed all the soldiers inside the camp, except the [Saint Rank] masters that were suddenly became aware of what's going to happen.
"TO THE KING!!!"
All the people in the camp all heard the roars of their impending doom. The soldiers in the camp never expected something like these to happen. They all just greeted their teeth, picked up their weapons and arms, and prepared to clash with their unannounced enemies.