[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
...
...
Several days had passed while Madara was in Mousesack's laboratory, reading some books while Cirilla did the same a few meters away. She seemed to have gotten used to studying ever since Madara came to the castle, and it was a very common sight to see the girl stop to read a book when she wasn't training. This almost surprised her servant and royal guards if they compared the old princess Cirilla with the new one.
"Why are you reading about dragons?!" Cirilla asked curiously, looking at Madara's book in surprise.
"Dragons are one of the most mysterious creatures in this world. I'm curious to see their descriptions. So when I encounter some, I will be a bit familiar with them," Madara commented while keeping his eyes on the book, focused on its content.
Dragons were something he hadn't seen in the games, at least not in the third one, so he was interested in encountering them. This book was a good reference for him. There were reports that they assumed human forms and had great magical power, much greater than wizards. No one could deal with a dragon alone, perhaps ancient vampires and even demons. Madara didn't believe that gods would descend into this world, so he didn't include them either.
"You will encounter dragons?!" Cirilla looked at him with wide eyes, full of admiration.
"Maybe. I plan to explore the world in the future. They say dragons are probably in the northern mountains. So that will be one of the places I'll visit," he said, closing the book easily with his Sharingan, while Cirilla watched his Sharingan deactivate.
She nodded silently, looking thoughtful, until she was about to speak to him. But the door to the laboratory opened at that moment, with one of the royal guards appearing with a letter in his hands.
"Madara Uchiha... This is for you; it's a royal order," the guard said while Madara looked a bit surprised at this. After all, what did the queen want with him after a year of fighting against Angren in the east?
Madara nodded and took the letter while the royal guard left the room, with Cirilla looking curiously at her grandmother's letter, but she waited for Madara to open it.
"..." Madara broke the royal seal and began to read the content.
"What does it say?!" Cirilla asked impatiently after Madara read it without showing any emotion, while lowering the letter the next moment.
"Your grandmother wants me in the war..." he said.
"Really?! Why so suddenly?" Cirilla murmured.
"I don't know, maybe because of the long ongoing war and wars cost money... Maybe she wants to end the war quickly and needs my help..." Madara murmured.
"So you will go?" Cirilla asked, and Madara nodded.
"I've been in this city for two years... it's a good opportunity to stretch my legs, besides doing some tasks and taking down some monsters in the region..." Madara commented while Cirilla pouted.
"I won't be able to train like before..." she murmured.
"Even so, you'll be fine, so don't complain..." Madara said. "There are squires for you to train with too."
"They are weak... I beat all of them..." she complained.
"Then fight the royal guards, I'm sure they will be greatly honored to fight against the pale princess," Madara mocked.
"Who are you calling pale?!" She stomped her foot in childish fury.
"Anyway, I'm leaving, we won't see each other for the next few months, goodbye." Madara said simply.
"Wait!!" she shouted, but he simply turned into smoke the next moment before she could finish.
"It was just a clone...!" she murmured, increasing her pout, dissatisfied with Madara's departure, something he used to do.
Meanwhile, Madara opened his eyes in his mansion while he was training with fuuinjutsu when he felt the memories of the clone. He got up and started getting ready, while more than 20 clones spread around the mansion were undone at that moment, with Madara absorbing all the knowledge.
He went to the storage and took many ninja tools stored there. Madara had stocked them up a lot over the year to be able to store them in his scrolls as soon as he mastered this type of fuuinjutsu.
He had developed a bit and managed to create two scrolls, but they had a great limitation, holding only a few things that would fit in a bag, each of them, but enough to keep at least 20 shurikens, 100 kunais, and hundreds of ninja stars. He also took the witcher's sword, after all, he might as well steal it while he was away.
After everything was ready, he placed his short swords behind his waist and some weapons strapped to his body, while the scrolls were in holsters on his waist. He wore dark clothing and also put on a mask, prepared to travel west.
He left at that moment, as it wasn't even dark yet. Even though the queen had arranged a carriage with guards to escort him, he refused, of course, and headed for the city walls, reaching the forest where he began running through the trees at full speed.
He stopped when he thought he should rest a bit and eat, while the next day he continued his journey crossing some mountains until he finally began to emerge in the East. He rested another night, sleeping in a tree while eating a rabbit he had hunted, and resumed his journey, seeing numerous tents in the distance, with another camp in the distance belonging to Angren. So he ran towards the first camp.
There were at least 13 or 14 thousand soldiers there, even replenishing soldiers throughout the year, thousands must have fallen in the battles they fought, and the camp's atmosphere was filled with burned bodies as they fell.
Madara didn't want to be seen before speaking with the queen and waited until nightfall. He easily passed the sentinels and approached the camp running through the darkness.
Calanthe was discussing logistics with some men when Mousesack gave a slight shoulder twitch without anyone noticing. She finally finished and asked everyone to leave after organizing and was prepared to leave as well.
"My queen..." Mousesack suddenly called her, while Calanthe looked at him confused.
"Can we talk a bit, it's important..." he said as Calanthe stayed with Eist.
"We have a guest that no one has noticed yet," Mousesack said while looking at a corner of the command tent. From the shadows, red eyes appeared, and Madara emerged.
"You came..." Calanthe commented, quite surprised by the boy appearing almost like an assassin, but she was lucky to have Mousesack to detect any assassin, so she nodded to Madara.
"You finally appeared, boy!" Eist said with a smile.
"Yes, I received your letter a few days ago and came here," Madara said.
"I was going to ask if you wanted to teleport, but I feared you wouldn't accept..." Mousesack commented with a smile.
"Well, you are correct," Madara said while the man smiled.
"It's quite surprising that you covered in a few days a distance that takes us months to reach with an army... anyway... let's talk a bit," Calanthe commented and requested as she approached the table again. "I want you to understand the battlefield situation," she said, and Madara began to listen.
It seems there were eight armed conflicts, one each month, while the two armies clashed against each other. Calanthe didn't seem to be doing anything strange while telling this to a child; Madara had proven that he could be anything but a child.
He continued listening to the queen about the war...
"Have you ever tried to flank the enemy, not just attacking from the front?" Madara asked.
"Do you think we have a choice? There's dense forest on both sides, no way to get a group of soldiers through there," the queen commented.
"I understand. If you really want my help, let me look at the region, and I also want to take a look at the enemy camp," Madara said.
"You think you can get into it?" Calanthe asked, raising an eyebrow at Madara, while he nodded.
"I can do it easily, and you shouldn't be surprised," Madara mocked.
"Tsk. Cocky brat. Alright then. You'll have the freedom to do that, just don't show your presence, I don't want to have to explain to a bunch of nobles how a child appeared without warning in the middle of the camp," he said. After all, if Madara entered here easily without being seen, he could still move easily through the shadows of the place.
"That's a shame, I was hoping for some morning training," Eist commented, and Madara shrugged, leaving the tent. As soon as he passed by everyone in the camp again, he created several clones outside it, sending them in all directions, while he looked at the distant enemy camp.
His clones soon scouted all the forests, intending to survey the entire area to use the terrain to Cintra's advantage.
"Hm?! What was that?!" a soldier in Angren's camp said.
"What are you talking about? I didn't hear anything!" the man next to him, wearing the same armor, commented.
"I swear I heard something, I'm going to check it out!" the man exclaimed as he circled a tent at the edge of the camp, looking for anything suspicious.
"What are you doing?! There's nothing here!" the second man complained, going up to him to make him return to his post.
"But I..." He tried to speak but soon fell silent.
"Get back to your watch, quickly!" he ordered, and the man had no choice but to obey and leave.
Meanwhile, a medium-sized stone exploded in the area, and Madara emerged, lightly jumping on top of the tents, passing through the camp with ease.
He reached the main tent, his mask on his face, performing his reconnaissance mission. There were no more meetings at this hour, so he easily entered the main tent and began to look at the map similar to the one Calanthe had.
There were some letters on the table, but probably none of the main ones, as the commander of this camp must have kept those with him. He read the ones there, some in the Nilfgaardian language with some contact from the south, but Madara now knew the language. He read a few things while leaving the tent, passing by the guards, and searched for the larger tents, moving from shadow to shadow as the soldiers were going to sleep at that moment.
He found the tent that seemed to belong to the general of the army, as the king didn't seem to be fighting this war, unlike Calanthe. Madara looked around, searching for anything important until he found a chest hidden under the bed while the man slept.
As soon as he saw it, a dog suddenly entered the tent, looking well cared for, probably the personal dog of this man. As soon as it began to growl, Madara's eyes transformed into Sharingans, and the animal was immediately hypnotized, stopping its growling and lying down to sleep as if Madara had an invisible presence.
Madara resumed looking at the letters as he opened the chest with some lockpicks he had. He had learned a few tricks over the past few years and opened the chest, taking out the letters, which bore the royal seal of Angren.
"This is interesting..." Madara couldn't help but murmur as he read some of the letters, from the king himself demanding things, as it seemed this war had also put him in a bad position in his country. Then he left the camp a moment later, returning to Cintra's camp while his clones continued investigating and mapping the region for the rest of the night.