[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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...
Madara was on his estate, walking through as many employees passed by him. Here, he had to employ full-time staff to maintain the castle and harvest the crops his lands provided, bringing him great profits and responsibilities over all this land. It was unusual for a newly adolescent to own a large noble title like Madara, but it wasn't impossible either. After all, there were cases where the family was killed for some reason, leaving only a young heir, but no one had risen like Madara in the history of Cintra. Madara had made his mark, although he believed that future generations in Cintra would not hear of him, especially since he was holding the letter he received yesterday in his hand.
He walked through the garden, while the servants greeted him respectfully, "Lord Uchiha." It was odd for Madara, but he got used to it after a while. He continued to an area where he usually trained alone, without interruption, where he could cast his jutsus and mold chakra. No one was allowed to enter while he was inside. Madara wasn't exempt from spies on his property, as there was always someone trying to infiltrate his castle for information. Among some of them, he had gathered quite unique information, from people in Nilfgaard and even important figures from the north.
'Looks like I'm becoming known in other kingdoms, it seems, among all of them... Vilgefortz is one of the ones who catches my attention the most, while I suspect that in Nilfgaard, the emperor himself must be asking for information about me knowing his goal...' Madara thought as he entered the area.
He hadn't spent the last two years enjoying life as a noble. Madara went to Angren, two weeks after returning to the capital. He had only asked Mousesack to look after things or to find someone trustworthy for it, while he ended up helping Prince Thorne ascend to the throne. His father, that ambitious fool, was killed by the nobles some time later, and Madara had to ensure it didn't happen to the rest of the family, with the nobles seeing a chance to ascend to the throne themselves. In the end, Madara somehow managed to distance or even eliminate most of the opposition, uncovering some crimes they committed behind the scenes with his infiltration skills, and quickly shifted the opposition. Thorne had to marry the sister of his former love to honor the family, something his father had ensured would have a queen as a descendant.
It's quite ironic, considering he had come to the conclusion to eliminate her at the first opportunity for ascension, which was his ruin in the end. Madara had done this favor and finally returned to Cintra after things settled down. He did this for 6 months and has been managing his estate since then.
He never imagined being this kind of thing, but here he was, doing this and much more. Queen Calanthe invited him to all sorts of events, almost obliging him to attend as a noble of honor, which was suspicious at first, but he was soon surprised as she schemed for him to become king of this kingdom alongside Ciri.
This was quite strange for Madara, as she hadn't seemed to see him as such a few years ago, yet he doubted it would happen... He tried to improve the system in every way and managed to unlock up to 15% of it, opening more jutsus and a great amount of chakra, almost three times what he had at 10%. Madara had gained some points for winning Angren, but most of the points came from the training he did over the last 2 years.
Upon reaching 15% of the system, he finally achieved his sharingan with 3 tomoe, making him so powerful in illusion now that he could pass information to a person with just a look, show some memory, or even create a scenario. He had learned much from Mousesack and his books on illusion, and he had finally mastered fuuinjutsu to a moderate degree, allowing him to do many things with it and having extremely powerful jutsus.
But still, it wasn't enough to defeat tens of thousands of soldiers. Though they were mere ants, the sheer number of them would tire him before he could finish them all. Therefore, Cintra was not outside his known destiny, Madara merely had the power to protect the people he cared for.
Madara also felt ready to travel across the continent, after learning all possible languages with Mousesack, understanding its geography and many landmarks, but his knowledge about monsters was quite limited. He would need to find more precise information and witcher schools. If he and Cirilla ended up at Kaer Morhen, it might be an opportunity for him to acquire the knowledge that Mousesack lacked.
Setting all these thoughts aside, Madara went to the empty site. He needed to inform Mousesack, but he would leave that to a raven that would arrive at the royal castle in a few days, while he returned to training.
He summoned 100 clones the next moment, and they began training among themselves, practicing taijutsu, molding chakra, improving their jutsus, and trying to further increase his understanding of fuuinjutsu.
He spent the entire day doing this, finally finishing sweaty and exiting through the gates as his castellan was waiting for him with a towel. "Did you have a pleasant training session, my lord?" he asked calmly.
"As much as possible, Marcus," Madara replied calmly.
"That's great, we have prepared a meal for you, and I have received all the reports from the last grain harvest on the farms, everything is on your desk," he said politely, and Madara nodded.
He went to the kitchen where some servants were preparing his meal, and he sat alone at a table that could fit about 20 people. He ate quietly, accustomed to it by now, and then went to his solar.
Madara sat like a young lord and began reading the reports of his lands while he had to sign some papers to move some resources or even his received profits.
'It's no use having these things anymore... it's very likely that in less than a year, this place will be taken over by Nilfgaard...' Madara thought. He didn't believe that Cintra or Angren really had a chance against the soldiers, so he had to start acting.
'Let's start selling a lot of things and moving my money out of the capital...' he decided as he began writing some letters. He left with the letters a moment later, but not without looking back at his solar... it had been a different experience from going out hunting monsters and killing people, being able to manage a property, and he would have been very successful in living a comfortable life in this world even if he weren't the king of Cintra, if it weren't for the southern empire.
'I think I've gotten too comfortable... it's time for me to explore this world and face the most powerful beings that may appear on my journey...' His Uchiha blood would never let him settle, despite him not complaining about having spent a year and a half taking care of villages and making his lands prosper.
He walked out the door and went to Marcus, who was waiting as always. "I need you to send these four letters to these four places," Madara said.
"It will be done, my lord," Marcus replied, curious but asking no questions.
Two days had passed since then while Minato was in his library in a corner reading a book in front of a fireplace he liked to sit by, Marcus appeared with Mousesack entering the room.
Madara looked up and nodded at that. "Marcus, could you leave us alone?" Madara asked, and the man nodded.
"Of course, my lord," he said before leaving the library.
"You have an impressive collection..." Mousesack looked at the books Madara had acquired over the last few years, containing titles that Madara couldn't learn from him.
"You could say that... I'm always trying to learn," he said.
"Well, that makes me proud, seeing that boy from 5 or 6 years ago has grown a lot," he said in the end and continued. "Anyway, I came because of the letter, you gave me intriguing things," he spoke and Madara nodded.
"You can be sure of that," Madara said. "I'm keeping this with me all the time," he said, picking up a scroll before handing it to Mousesack, who took it and opened it.
"Is this a route?" He looked at the map of the northern border region.
"Yes, as I said, the movements from the south have started... this is the possible route for Nilfgaard, the Cintra army will be crushed like this," Madara said and continued before Mousesack could respond. "Queen Calanthe doesn't seem to believe in my advice, right?" Madara asked.
"No, you know our queen... she is stubborn and keeps saying that Nilfgaard isn't a problem," Mousesack replied.
"That's what I feared..." Madara said, looking at the fire before turning back to Mousesack, "If that happens, can you get the royal family out of Cintra?"
"Well... I can, but I doubt Calanthe would accept that, she would rather die with Cintra..." He responded calmly. "Eist will also die with Calanthe... and I must be by my queen's side..." Mousesack spoke sincerely.
"That's quite bad..." Madara commented, noting that if it came to that, none of them would survive.
"But there's the princess... if that happens to Cintra... I want you to get Princess Cirilla out safely... with you she will be well, that's all I ask of you, boy," Mousesack spoke with a tone of concern.
"I can do that, don't worry," Madara said calmly.
"Knowing all this... I would like to know your opinion on this possible invasion," Mousesack asked, wanting to know what the boy thought.
"If there's no escaping them, at least I would strike a significant blow to them... you know very well why I went to Angren after the war where I helped massacre thousands of men from that kingdom... as King Thorne of Angren told me in the letter... they have recovered a good part of their army in these last two years. We should at least strike a substantial blow to those fools from the south," Madara spoke.
"I think you're right about that... I will speak with Calanthe, trying to be subtle without saying that her kingdom will break soon..." Mousesack said with a sigh before turning back to Mousesack.
"Where do you plan to take Cirilla? She has many friends in Skagos, there she would be safe," Mousesack asked again.
"That may be... but in Kaer Morhen it would be better for her," Madara replied.
"With Geralt... I think you're right..." Mousesack, who had always been a friend of Geralt and knew of his paternal connection with Cirilla through destiny, agreed it would be the best choice. For him, the witcher would be a castle resident in the capital, but the queen wasn't very favorable to that.
After that, Mousesack smiled, seeing that the future, despite being grim, also had ways for Cirilla to be safe with Madara. He rolled up the scroll and turned back to the boy in front of him. "I would love to read some book from your library, but you know I have some urgent commitments in the capital now, so we'll leave it for next time," he said, and Madara nodded as he left through a portal in the library, leaving only Madara alone, looking into the fire and thinking about the future.
Raccoon here: I will advance a few months in the next chapter, where the black army is already moving north, so the real chaos will start from there.