"Your majesty, Mr. Lampard, Mr. Pierce, and Mr. Drogba are coming into the camp area with the troops. Mr. Lampard ordered me to come first and inform you with his message pigeon." The guard said as he single-kneeled on the ground.
"Haha, great!" Fei laughed as he got up from his chair. "Let's go and welcome them. After our troops are gathered, I will let those people who laughed at us to learn the lesson!"
Everyone in the tent got excited as they followed Fei out of the tent.
...
...
After a long way, Lampard, Pierce, and Drogba who led 50 Bylaw Enforcement Officers and 25 Saint Seiyas finally arrived at St. Petersburg.
The reason why they were two days late was that it snowed heavily when they got to Moro Mountains. The 50-centimeter snowfall blocked the thin and slippery path and made it more difficult to travel across. Even though the soldiers of Chambord weren't weak, they had to stop and wait for the snow to melt down a little before moving. Finally, they were able to take more risk and get past the mountains.
Just like Fei and the people of Chambord who came here before, Lampard and the soldiers he was leading were stunned by what they saw.
The huge city, the soaring magic towers, the eleven towers at Imperial Knight Palace, the mountain like defense wall of St. Petersburg... All of these structures only existed in the mind of hillbilly-like Chambordian; they didn't know that these could be real. Lampard had a history that was unknown to many, so he acted normally. But Pierce, Drogba, and the 75 soldiers opened their eyes and mouths wide as they all lost speech.
"Only King Alexander fits to control this great city!" Drogba opened his mouth and said something that was shocking and offensive.
Pierce's face changed color as he quickly put his hand over Drogba's mouth.
Lampard's expression also changed. He turned around and said to Drogba: "You better control your mouth more. If what you said was heard by other, do you know much trouble you would have caused for His Majesty?"
The tough man scratched his head and nodded quickly.
Although Drogba was usually careless, Lampard was a brother-like figure to the former king and was still the Number Two Warrior right after Fei. Everyone at Chambord was respectful towards Lampard despite him not having any formal titles.
The side of the mountain that was facing St. Petersburg was much flatter. Quickly, they got to the edge of the camp area.
"Stop! Who are you? Get off of your horses!!" The outer edge of the camp area was tightly guarded. As soon as the imperial soldiers saw the group, they warned.
There were less than four days until the beginning of the competition. Any kingdom that missed the competition without prior permission would be charged with treason. Therefore, all 250 affiliated kingdoms were all settled in the camp area already. Since a lot of influential figures were assassinated today, Lampard and others who just arrived looked very suspicious. Before their identity was verified, the imperial soldiers didn't dare to slack off. The imperial soldiers surrounded the group as if they were being sieged by enemies.
Lampard was surprised to see this. He made a hand-gesture and signaled everyone he was leading to get off of their mounts.
"They must be related to the assassins! Arrest them all..." Suddenly, a captain-looking man shouted as he saw the mysterious yet power armors and the level 4 Roaring Flame Beasts. He got greedy and wanted to keep those for himself.
Events like this had occurred many times today. Arresting assassins was the excuses these military officials used to collect money for themselves.
The corruption at the empire was so severe that stuff like this seemed normal to everyone.
"Wait, there must be some misunderstanding. We are not assassins; we are the troop of an affiliated kingdom who was here already." Lampard quickly explained.
However, the captain didn't listen to this at all. He just hurried the soldiers and shouted: "Don't let any one of them escape! Arrest them all! Get all their equipment and mounts. Kill anyone who dares to resist!"
After hearing this, the imperial soldiers knew what the captain wanted. They laughed viciously as they drew their weapon and closed in.
Lampard frowned.
He already understood the situation as he looked at the captain's eye and sensed the atmosphere. He was trying to come up with a way to get out of this situation.
"How dare you?" Both Pierce and Drogba were raged. Pierce shouted angrily: "We are from an affiliated kingdom and are here to participate in the competition! Who are you? How dare you try to arrest us like criminals?"
The captain only sneered and didn't say anything back. He only hurried the soldiers.
"I don't think you can!" Drogba also shouted.
He grabbed the huge axe from the carrier on his mount and stepped forward. A dangerous sensation came off of him and made the approaching soldiers freeze for a second. They looked back at the captain in hesitation. This man looked too vicious! Just the door-like huge axe was at least five to six hundred pounds, and it was being carried in this man's hands like a straw!
"You guys dare to resist?" The captain sneered and said: "At this moment, the camp area is surrounded by the three battle legions, and there are more than a hundred thousand soldiers! How dare you raise your weapon against the soldiers of the empire? I can wait for you guys to attack first! Huh! When the warrant comes, even your king would be punished by Fire Execution!"
Lampard frowned even more upon hearing this. He turned to the troops and shook his head.
They weren't scared of the battle legions, but they didn't want to cause any trouble for Fei. To them, the reason why their king pushed Chambord forward and ramped up the strength was to soar in this competition and gain the most benefit for Chambord. Therefore, they didn't want their recklessness to ruin their king's plan.
"Put down the weapon and let them tie us up." Lampard decided.
Both Pierce and Drogba made a "humph" sound as they put back their weapons; they were really mad. The Bylaw Enforcement Officers and Saint Saiyas also dropped their weapons. After seeing this, the imperial soldiers rush up and tied everyone up like a bunch of wolves. Anyone who dared to resist a little got beat. However, everyone from Chambord held back; they were telling themselves that they were willing to die for their king, let alone this level of shame.
The captain sneered and walked up. He patted Drogba's face and laughed: "Dumbass, weren't you very loud? Now? Haha, you will get a taste of regret... Take off their armors!"
The imperial soldiers rushed up and quickly tried to strip the soldiers of Chambord; those armors really attracted a lot of attention.
"Stop! Bandits! These are the armors that our King of Chambord, King Alexander, rewarded to us! Don't think of taking it off of me when I'm alive!"
Drogba and his peers couldn't resist the anger anymore. Since they got the armors, they didn't take the armors off this entire trip. They loved the armors so much that they would clean and oil them up regularly to maintain them. They all wanted to win honor and glory for their king during the competition, and they would never let these dirty imperial soldiers rob the armors away from them.
"Hahah, then I will kill you... Rewarded by some unknown king of Chambord? Yuck!" The captain laughed out loud. However, he quickly saw the imperial soldiers around him looking at him with terrified expressions. A lightning instantly flashed through his mind and he thought of something. With a lot of stutters, he asked: "What? Who said that? What King? Chambord? King of Chambord?"
He was dumbfounded.
A chill went up his spines and shocked his brain, and he couldn't help but tremble uncontrollably.