The situation is extremely dangerous for James and his royal inspectors.
The only chance of survival is if the Count doesn't want to kill them. James doesn't even dare to think of running away if it is genuinely the Count who surrounds them.
He has only 3,000 people in an unfamiliar land, in the middle of the Highlands family's territory. Even if he runs from Count Highlands, there is still another Viscount Highlands and six other Baron Highlands.
"Who's surrounding us?" James asked.
This is key. If the rebels are the ones surrounding them, then there is little chance of survival. On the other hand, there is still hope if it's Count Highlands.
The guard said, "Their clothes are like those who attacked us last night," he said.
James bit his lower lip and asked, "How many?"
"At least 5,000!"
James cursed, "Damn it!"
No matter how one thinks about it, a rebel army of 5,000 in a powerful Count's territory is too weird. The only explanation is if the Count allows them to stay.
He immediately took out a pen and paper and started writing.
The written language is the same worldwide, so even if people speak a different language, they can understand the written text.
After writing a few lines, he closed it and handed it to the guard. "Go and give this later to the rebels! Make sure the leader reads it."
The guard bowed and went away.
…
The city of Height is the capital of Count Highlands. To be more accurate, it can be said to be the center of all Highland nobles in the area.
The Highlands family is a massive family in this area and throughout the kingdom. They have two counts, 12 viscounts, and more than 50 barons.
It's not uncommon for noble families to have branches.
Each Highlands family has a last name other than Highlands'. Count Highlands in this area is Theodore Highlands Wild, with Wild as his exclusive last name.
In any case, they are part of the Highlands family first and Wild second. They are all descended from Count Nell Highlands, who died long ago.
Highlands family in this area has one count, one viscount, and six barons. The rest are scattered throughout the kingdom.
In a palace in the middle of Height City, a bearded man was listening to a report from another kneeling man.
"Idiots!" the bearded man shouted, cursing at unknown entities.
"I shouldn't have allowed them in!" He regretted.
A while ago, a group of close to 10,000 rebel army reached his territory. They came from the southern border, running from Count Firewood's troops.
Count Highlands hated Count Firewoods, so he allowed the rebels in and prevented Count Firewoods from arresting them.
He planned to use them against Count Firewoods later, so he placed them in a remote area of his territory.
He wasn't worried about Count Firewoods reporting it to the royal capital.
Nobles are autonomous. They may as well be different countries.
As long as they pay their taxes to the royal court, they can do nearly anything they want.
The court doesn't care what they do in secret. As long as no noble titleholder gets killed and no one occupies each other's territory, the royal court won't intervene.
Count Highlands also didn't intend to occupy Count Firewoods' land. He just wanted to make trouble.
It's just that his luck was too bad.
A group from the royal capital wanted to pass through the territory, and it just happened that they would pass through the area where he had placed the rebel groups.
Furthermore, it just happened that the rebels wanted to drag him into the mud with themselves, so they attacked the royal envoys even though they knew those were royals.
The royal court normally doesn't care, but it does respond strongly when anybody dares to attack it.
If just anyone dared to attack the royal court's representatives, they wouldn't have been able to stick to power for so long.
It was a disaster for Count Highlands.
He is responsible for protecting royal envoys in his lands, and he definitely failed on that point.
Worse, it wasn't just bandits; the ones that attacked were rebels!
Rebels were commoners who rose against the rule of nobles; the royal court would never let them stay, even if they paid double taxes.
They want to tear the fabric of the Blue Blood Kingdom. Such a disruptive force was sheltered in Count Highlands' lands and attacked royal troops.
It was fine if they were just stationed there; Count Highlands could have made up lots of excuses. However, everything changed when they attacked envoys; now, the royal court won't accept any excuses.
"Bring my sword! I'm going to kill them myself!" he shouted with rage.
The guard reported that the rebels were now surrounding the envoys! He must save royal envoys before things get worse.
Royals are powerful; they can call up an army of millions at any time anywhere in the country.
A count is just a small fry in comparison.
In general, barons usually have fiefs with populations of 10,000 to 200,000. They have around 50 to 1,000 standing army.
Viscounts usually have fiefs with populations of 50,000 to 500,000 and standing armies of 250 to 2,500.
Counts, considered major nobles, have a population of around 400,000 to 4,000,000. They keep standing armies of 2,000 to 20,000.
Marquises are real big shots. Even the smallest holds a territory with a population of 10,000,000 people, and the strongest marquis, Marquis Swordland, has a territory with a population of 120,000,000 million people.
Their army varies; some have hundreds of thousands of elites as standing armies, while others only keep a few tens of thousands.
In any event, nobody dares to attack them. Marquises were influential people in the capital; if they got attacked, they could call the national army to help them.
They use this advantage and use national troops as a deterrent and keep the money that would have been spent on the army in their pocket. Dukes are similar in size to marquises.
Soon, he gathered 15,000 trained soldiers and marched. His trained soldiers were all in chain armor and equipped with crossbows, good swords, and spears; rebels had no chance against them.
…
In the rebel camp, a man in full-body armor was sitting on a chair, which looked like it might break at any moment.
The chair was fine; the problem was the man, who was too big.
The man teared up a letter without even opening it.
He was the commander of this group of rebels.
They were originally from the city of Backfire. It was a peaceful city with a population of 100,000, controlled by Count Firewoods.
Nearly a year ago, the count wanted to raise taxes once again. Commoners were already starving, so any more tax hike would have endangered their lives.
At that time, Hank, the man in armor and a former bandit leader, convinced young men in the city to join him and transform from a bandit leader to a rebel group.
He quickly destroyed the local stationed troops of Count in the Backfire City and ruled it for months. Unfortunately for him, good things don't last long.
The count gathered a large army of 100,000 peasant soldiers and attacked them with his 10,000 elite standing army.
In short, they lost and were forced to run to Count Highlands, who allowed them to stay.
Count Highlands was just using them to annoy Count Firewoods; Hank knew it.
Even though he provided them a place to stay, he was no ally. He would dispose of them sooner or later.
Hank was unwilling to go out like this, so when he realized a royal envoy was coming, he immediately ordered his troops to attack and deliver the news that Count Highlands had defected to rebels.
They also deliberately allowed them to return the news to the royal capital.
The next thing was to kill as many royal envoys as possible. If only normal soldiers died, those cruel royals wouldn't care and most likely just tax Count Highlands more for a few years.
But if royal envoys die, then even the Count would be in danger.
Hank wanted more disruption; he would die anyway, so why not take a noble with him? If it could do anything that weakens this cruel system, he would gladly die.
He didn't expect the royal envoy's guards to be so strong. Even though there were only 3,000, they managed to resist the assault of a battle-hardened 10,000-man rebel army for a long time.
Hank was stressed; Count Highlands would arrive and spoil his plans if things continued like this.
So, he ordered all his men to get ready. He and all remaining rebels will join the battle and fight to the death!
Slowly standing up from the chair, he firmly moved toward the door.
…
The Blue Bloods kingdom is massive. It takes a year to reach from one end to another.
But, that is when one moves without hurry. The one James sent to deliver the news rode his horse for five days.
By the point he reached the royal capital, he was in a terrible state. Horse riding for a long time is very taxing on the body. After this, the poor man has to wait weeks to return to his peak.
Still, he managed to do his task successfully.
…
"Defected to rebels?" Elizabeth nearly screamed. She truly didn't expect such development.
She only sent 3,000 guards because she assumed local nobles would secure the road.
"How dare he? Does he look down on me?" She had been worried about this for a long time because, because of men-centered rule for many years, many male nobles may have looked down on a woman as their king.
She quickly ordered her royal commander to send 10,000 cavalry to help the royal inspectors first. She looked hard to find trusted people, so she didn't want them to die.
Then, she ordered the defense minister to send 100,000 elite troops there. Royal family directly controls 20% of the world! They have a standing army of 3,000,000 people.
Elizabeth will not use the national army; she will only use the royal army to crush them and deter others from doing the same.
Still, she won't kill the innocent; she ordered the minister of defense to be careful not to kill innocent civilians and not punish any enemy low-grade soldier who surrenders.
Low-level soldiers are commoners who were coerced by money and are innocent; they have no choice but to do what their lord says.
Elizabeth not only does not hate them but pities them and feels guilt. Many of those poor people must die because of a noble's greed!
If she were better, those nobles wouldn't have dared!
The more she thought, the angrier she got.
After a while, she decided to act on her own. As a vampire, she had the power to kill the leader without sacrificing any innocent lives.
Looking at the clock, there are 10 hours till the morning. If she moves fast, she could reach there very quickly.
"This is my responsibility!" she thought.
She didn't cancel the previous orders. Those royal troops would be needed to restore order in that area and, more importantly, instill fear in other nobles.
After notifying the eunuch guard chief of her absence, she moved toward Height City!