[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
...
...
Madara was listening to the people in front of him discussing the case while trying to interrogate the man from Agrem and the servant. The soldier seemed quite tough, mocking them.
"You've already killed a kingdom's ambassador, now you're imprisoning our soldiers... You'd better get me out of here, or else His Majesty will see this as a declaration of war," he exclaimed angrily at them.
"You talk as if we're not already on the brink of war. Your king has already sacrificed his own noble; why wouldn't he do the same with a soldier?" Eist mocked.
"..." The man fell silent after that.
But this silence couldn't be applied to the castle servant, who was trembling, especially with Calanthe staring at him like a hawk, looking at him as if he were already condemned.
"I've told you everything! Please spare me, my queen!" he exclaimed.
"Do you think I'll spare you for conspiring against me with my enemies? You disgust me, you and that noble family of the Chips..." she commented with a dangerous tone.
"We should imprison them for trial..." Mousesack suggested.
"Yes, let's prepare an order with the royal guards once again," Calanthe said.
"Finally some action, it's been over a year since we've had one of these, hasn't it, boy?" Eist said, looking at Madara in a corner, who hadn't spoken much.
"..." He just nodded without speaking.
"You can help me with this, boy. We also need to gather some evidence. I'm sure you'll manage that easily. And I intend to reward you very well for it..." she said.
"Yes, but I need to do something first. I will meet the royal guards soon," Madara simply said as he began to leave.
"He never changes..." Calanthe couldn't help but murmur, seeing the disrespect the boy continued to show. It was hard for her to get used to such behavior, but she said nothing more.
Madara left the castle after that, heading to the city and moving south while passing through the northern region. It wasn't late in the afternoon, so the one he was looking for at that moment still had his shop open when he finally spotted the forge he was after.
The dwarf, already accustomed to Madara demanding weapons from him for a year, was not used to Madara's sudden appearances, almost as if he were an apparition.
"You're here!?" the dwarf exclaimed when he saw Madara finally looking at him from the side as he was doing his work.
"Yes, did you prepare my weapons?" Madara asked. The man nodded, after all, Madara had placed a large order last month.
"100 of these kunai... as you call them... and these strange stars too, 400 of them... also, there are 10 of those giant things..." He listed each item, showing crates to Madara, the last ones being shurikens that he asked the man to create for the first time as well.
"Good... but I feel there are some imbalances of a few milligrams..." Madara analyzed the kunai and immediately complained, wanting perfect items.
The dwarf, despite being grumpy, remained silent, not wanting to contradict this child's judgment. After all, even before hearing the rumors of the past year, he was already afraid of Madara. "I'll do my best next time..." he said finally but didn't stop there. "Why do you have so many strange weapons? Are you going to war or something?" the dwarf asked with some curiosity, after all, he had some freedom to ask questions since Madara was a recurring customer, canceling a lot of work to cater specifically to the boy.
"I didn't plan to enter one when I asked. I just wanted to have a good stock, but it seems I might have to enter one..." Madara murmured and looked at the man, as there was an item missing. "Did you get the fine steel wire I asked for?" he asked, and the man nodded, retrieving a roll of wire from behind a box.
"They are of good quality..." Madara commented, analyzing the wire. He took a bag of gold and tossed it to the dwarf. "Here's the payment. I want you to take everything to my house, don't leave anything out. In the meantime, I'll take some things..." Madara said, grabbing some items, while the dwarf nodded without complaining about the demands and looked at the coins. A moment later, when he looked up, Madara was no longer there.
"He's a kind of ghost..." the dwarf couldn't help but murmur as Madara was already leaping from rooftop to rooftop, heading towards the warehouse where he had caught the servant.
Back at the castle, things were in motion, as the soldiers of Cintra were once again summoned, with a part of the guard preparing for battle at that moment. Royal guards were preparing their men under the command of Commander Varys, and they would arrest the entire Chip family and confiscate all their assets in the city before attacking their main property outside the city.
"Come on, I hope there's better action than last time!" Eist commented, appearing with his Skellige axe.
"..." Mousesack remained silent beside him.
"Grandma, let me go too, I want to fight, I'm already very good with a sword!" Cirilla appeared at that moment, not wanting to stay on the sidelines like last time.
"You will stay with me, child. Besides, you shouldn't even be here," Calanthe complained to her granddaughter.
"That's unfair! Speaking of which, where is Madara? I don't see him anywhere..." Cirilla looked around as torches were lit due to the day beginning to end and the sky getting darker.
"I don't know what the boy is doing, but he will soon join them," Calanthe said, making Cirilla pout.
Meanwhile, Madara was perched high in the warehouse of the target family of the night, as he knew they were waiting for a mage to create a portal. He wanted to take advantage of this after reading the servant's mind.
He remained in the shadows until the warehouse door opened, with three men emerging with symbols of the Chip family, followed by hooded men with symbols of Angren on their necklaces.
"It's almost time," some of the Angren men commented to each other.
"Wait!" A Chip family guard suddenly said, making everyone stop in confusion.
"There's something wrong, there's no one here..." he murmured, as there should have been the servant and the Angren soldier.
"What do you mean, where are they then?" one of the Angren men said immediately.
Madara decided to act and landed in front of them, startling the whole group with a shadow coming from above. "So you are waiting for your ride back... are there no members of the Chip family here? So they are confident enough that the crown will not act against them? What idiots..." Madara commented as the men drew their weapons from their sheaths.
"You're that freak!" they exclaimed immediately as they prepared for the fight, the nobles looking a bit scared.
Madara just stood there, while a shadow appeared behind the nobles, and before anyone could react, started slapping their heads, knocking them out quickly. As the guards looked back in surprise, the original Madara advanced and did the same with the distortion of his clone, taking down all the soldiers.
"You tried to escape without anyone seeing... but you're still important alive, so stay quiet," Madara said, and his clone stood there to make sure none of them escaped. He crossed his fingers again, and a new clone appeared. "Stay outside and watch for anyone coming to the warehouse and let me know," Madara instructed as the clone nodded and jumped to the wall, exiting through one of the windows.
"We'll just wait now," he murmured, sitting in the middle of the place to meditate and recover some chakra, as clones were a significant chakra consumption for him.
After an hour, something happened in the place, with no one else appearing. The space in the middle of the warehouse began to distort, and with a brilliant explosion, a portal opened, creating bright circles without being able to see the other side.
"I thought I wouldn't be part of today's fight..." he murmured as he approached the portal, standing in front of it.
Madara knew that Cintra could do nothing with this war. After all, it was Angren's initial interest to gain territory or even all of Cintra. So Madara decided to leave a bitter taste for the other kingdom. He knew Calanthe wouldn't approve of something like this, and for him, he would pass through that portal and try to kill everyone on the other side. But it wouldn't be very smart, as he would be classified as a bandit by all the northern kingdoms, which wasn't something he wanted. But that didn't stop him from going to war and committing a massacre or even sending a hot message to the other side of the portal.
"Take this," Madara commented as he quickly formed hand seals. Once he completed the sequence, he filled his lungs.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" He spat a massive flame straight into the portal, infusing it with a large amount of chakra, sending it through with great intensity.
He watched as all the flames entered, and three seconds later, the portal simply closed, leaving Madara unaware of what happened on the other side.
"That should leave quite a memorable message... No matter who I might have killed," Madara commented, shrugging.
He looked at the men now tied up by the clone. "Stay here until the Cintra soldiers arrive and explain the situation," Madara instructed before leaving.
He headed to the Chip family's main property, which was surrounded by Cintra soldiers. The men on the walls were prepared for battle and guarding the gate. Madara simply leapt over without being seen and began knocking out the gate soldiers before easily lifting the wooden log and opening the gate.
"Do you need help?" Madara calmly asked Commander Varys, who was stunned by the boy's sudden appearance.
"Damn, the boy has already acted. Let's go!" Eist, beside Varys, shouted and rushed into the place ahead of the others, who quickly followed.
The battle wasn't lengthy or particularly bloody after that. The Chip family soldiers surrendered, and Varys quickly arrested the brother of the family's patriarch, as he was managing the properties in the capital and ended up being escorted to the castle and the dungeons, joining his nephew who hadn't seen daylight for a year.
Madara helped investigate some evidence and ended up visiting the man a few times in the dungeon until, after several attempts, he managed to uncover some of his secrets, leading to real evidence that would condemn the Chip family once and for all.
"We will attack their properties; they have committed an act of treason!" Calanthe exclaimed, and the men began preparing to leave the next day from the capital to the family's lands. Madara didn't want to participate in this, as he had already helped as much as he could and handed over the evidence. He just wanted to spend his time training again.
---
Raccoon here:
What happened on the other side of the portal...
Let's start the next battle with the Witcher in the upcoming chapters...