[Chapter Size: 2200 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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The prince spent his morning deep in thought about everything he had heard throughout the night, even with that letter, still wondering if it was all just a strange dream.
"My lord... Are you all right?" His advisor was surprised to see the prince outside his tent while the soldiers also noticed it, being something unusual.
"I am, just wanting to get some fresh air." He commented, grabbing something to eat right there.
He stayed there for a while, still pondering everything he had heard about the strange child with red eyes, if he could even call that a child, until a man came running from outside the camp.
"Fire! There's a fire burning the entire forest!!!" He shouted to everyone in the camp, being a scout, he had been scouting the path before the group started moving, until he saw the entire forest in flames ahead of him, and the smoke began to rise on the horizon with the camp starting to see the smoke rising.
"This is bad, it's our way to the army, what's happening?!" Lord Vergan exclaimed, looking for the command.
Prince Thorne stood there, watching the smoke rising in the air, wondering what was happening and if that child was behind it.
'Before you join the Angren army, I will delay you, after all, if the prince arrives at the war and they lose shortly after, you will be seen as someone who brings bad luck.' The boy's words echoed in his head.
"So, that's what he meant by delaying me? Setting an entire forest on fire?!" The prince of Angren couldn't be more astonished.
Meanwhile, Madara was already at the camp after leaving some clones behind, setting the forest on fire, which would greatly delay the group's progress.
He entered the camp and went straight to the command tent, passing through the place with his cloak hiding his face. Calanthe, Mousesack, and Eist were conversing when they noticed the boy approaching.
"You're here, boy." The queen commented, looking at him. "I saw your letter, you had something important to do... Anything I need to know?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I went to do a few things, but I'm back. Actually, I came to talk about speeding up this war," Madara spoke directly.
"Speed up the war, what do you mean?" Eist asked curiously.
"Let's prepare to finish them off in the next few days." Madara said.
"In the next few days... but isn't there still at least 80% of the way left to clear in the forest?" Calanthe said, a bit confused.
"I will personally handle and expedite the path through the forest," Madara spoke calmly. "I just need you to advance the main fight. Summon all the camp's soldiers for the battle in two days. Make the Angren army do the same." He said.
"And the issue with the forest?" Calanthe asked, a bit surprised by Madara's plan while the preparations were still incomplete.
"That won't be a problem. I intend to start organizing this personally today, I'll finish it much faster than your soldiers." Madara said.
"Can I trust you?" The queen asked, with hawk-like eyes, and Madara nodded seriously.
"Very well then. Let's prepare the army. I'm counting on you, boy," she said, starting to leave.
"What do you plan to do now?" Mousesack asked.
"I'll rest a bit since I'll have a lot of work tonight," he said and went to a tent prepared exclusively for him and lay down on the bed to rest a bit after running for over a whole day.
As soon as night fell, Madara went to the point in the forest where Cintra's men were cutting trees. He created more than 50 clones and quickly grabbed the axes that were there along with the rest of the work tools and began to do the work himself, using chakra to strengthen his body, he started cutting the trees while quickly removing the fallen ones from the path, doing this for hours while trying to keep his chakra divided among the clones to speed up the process.
The next morning, Cintra's camp began to follow the queen's orders, while it was bustling with the first rays of the day.
"My lord, we have a problem at Cintra's camp," a man in the middle of Angren's camp went to the main tent to report the enemy's activities.
"What is it?" The general of the army looked at him a bit confused, after all, he hadn't even left his tent yet.
"The camp of Cintra is starting to prepare to attack us!! The whole camp is in motion!!" he exclaimed with an urgent tone.
"But this should only be happening a week from now. What is Calanthe thinking?" He frowned at this, after all, this change was strange, but he sighed a moment later.
"Very well, then. If she wants to advance this, we will give her a great defeat. I hoped the prince would be here by my side, but there is nothing to be done. I will deal with the brat later." He commented confidently and began to leave the tent, analyzing the camp of Cintra from a distance for an hour before starting to issue orders for the soldiers of Angren to prepare directly for battle.
The camps spent the whole day preparing for the fight that would take place the next day, while knights and soldiers took care of their armor and weapons. They had anxious expressions, wondering if these would be their last moments of life.
Meanwhile, the men returning to work in the forest were alarmed and surprised by an immense clearing at least a kilometer deeper into the forest, much larger than the previous day.
"What the hell happened here?! Who could have done this?!" they asked, bewildered.
"Stop talking and get to work!!" the captain exclaimed, although he had as many doubts as his men. The queen had told them not to ask questions and to continue clearing more trees in the forest.
The day went by, despite Calanthe beginning to issue orders the previous day, she had not received anyone to discuss war strategy, but she couldn't delay this much longer as a group of nobles gathered and approached her tent. She sighed and had to exchange a few words with them quickly, stepping out of the tent.
"My queen, what does this mean? Why did you order all the soldiers to prepare for such a sudden battle, yesterday?" some nobles asked, surprised by this, while others were dissatisfied as they did not understand the queen's actions and she barely spoke to them after giving the order, feeling somewhat disrespected.
"This will be explained tomorrow. So, just keep organizing your soldiers and checking your weapons because tomorrow we will put an end to this war," she said confidently and returned to the tent.
Although some looked at her with suspicion, since it didn't seem like the war would end just with words and sudden actions, they nodded to the queen and soon began to return to their posts. The day went by, and the soldiers were ready for the next day's battle until the sun finally began to set.
Madara woke up and went back to the forest, starting the work again after creating dozens of clones. The soldiers had made more progress, and with him being able to work dozens of times faster than those men, by the end of the night, he managed to complete the path that opened into different vegetation, where the trees were more spaced out, allowing a large number of people to pass through.
Angren had certainly seen such a path, but out of fear of getting lost and even being unable to create a path like Cintra had hidden, they had not explored that area much. But Madara knew he was slightly behind the enemy camp, perfect for surprising them tomorrow.
He finally finished and went to sleep a bit. When he woke up again, a few hours later, being called by the royal guards, Madara no longer needed to wear robes. He went out showing his childlike face and followed the royal guard to the main tent.
Some people saw him without recognizing him, wondering what a child was doing there, calmly following a royal guard to the queen's tent, while she was in a small meeting with her main advisors. She nodded satisfactorily as soon as she saw Madara.
"Is everything ready for this war?" Calanthe asked.
"Yes, I have finished clearing the forest," Madara replied calmly.
"That's great, it seems we will finish them off soon," Eist commented, smiling along with Mousesack.
"Very well, then. I know the soldiers weren't very happy that a child will be leading them. However, I have placed some nobles you are more familiar with," she said, and Madara nodded, as he was supposed to guide the group through the forest.
"Now let's get ready. We have a war to win," she said, heading out of the tent with Mousesack, Eist, and Madara accompanying her along with the royal guards.
Everyone heard that the queen was going to give a pre-war speech and began gathering in the middle of the camp while she stood on a platform with her armor shining against the morning sun.
As soon as she saw everyone gathered there, she began to speak with the voice of a ruler and a general. "As you know, we are about to fight another sudden battle against Angren today. But today will be different from all the other days we have wet our swords with the blood of the enemy," she began.
"Today, we will ensure our superiority over this invading kingdom, which came with accusations against us and attempted to steal our sovereignty. Today, we will put an end to it, an end to Angren. We will drive them out like kicked dogs from these lands they should never have set foot on!!" she exclaimed.
The people, although not fully understanding what the queen meant by all this, soon had a moment of excitement with her words and began to cheer, gaining morale.
"Yes, let's show them today how Cintra deals with its enemies!"
"Yes, let's show them what we are capable of!!"
"We will defeat all those idiots from Angren!"
"Long live Cintra!!!"
"Cintra!!"
"Cintra!!"
"Cintra!!"
The people exclaimed, and the crowd began to reach its peak of motivation and morale.
Calanthe began to leave the platform, as she now had a group of nobles to deal with the dissatisfaction of her hiding all the information and plans from them.
While the people were still shouting and preparing for the battle, starting to organize in front of the camp while the soldiers of Angren did the same on the other side with an open field separating the two armies with dense forest on both sides, the queen was back in her tent.
The nobles were very surprised to see Madara standing beside the queen in the middle of that meeting. While some who knew him frowned, others who did not know who the boy was were confused.
"My queen, why is this child here?" a noble who did not know him asked, a bit surprised, while some like Rushford looked at the boy with a murderous glare, as he had tried to kill him several times but only wasted money without any results to avenge his son.
"Well, this boy here is going to participate in the war," she said, with most of the nobles grimacing at this, wondering if the queen was in her right mind.
"What do you mean by that, my queen?"
"This boy has been working on a strategy with me for a long time. Despite being a child, he has proven to be strategically intelligent, and he himself has often cleared Cintra of various problems," she said.
"What kind of strategy is this, my queen?" someone asked.
"I am going to split the army in two," she said, while everyone widened their eyes at this.
"My queen, this is not wise," the nobles quickly contested.
"I know it's confusing for you at this moment, but we have a strategy ready to end Angren once and for all. So this boy by my side will lead a part of the army to catch them by the path we have been creating for days," she said, and the nobles were practically shouting, but she continued with her firm voice.
"And before you say anything, I have total confidence in the boy, as he is the only one who can do this. He is my Hunter, as you heard in the rumors a few days ago. And if you are worried about following a boy, don't worry, he will lead a different group." That was her final word.
"So, I want you to prepare, as I will lead the army directly from the front with you, and we will have a group to surprise our enemies. By the end of this day, we will come out victorious. Understood?" she spoke firmly, with a look that indicated she was not open to discussion about any of her decisions.
And the nobles, despite being skeptical or even thinking all this was madness, nodded in the end. What else could they do?
"Well, then let's begin. We have a war to win," she declared, and they quickly began to leave.