[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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...
Calanthe was in the midst of the troops as they were organizing in the south of the country, preparing to face the enemy forces.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan with the troops preparing around her; she sighed as she headed to her tent, looking at the map of the region where the battle would take place.
"How are we doing?" she asked.
"The troops are ready, my queen... Lord Hugkil has just joined the army as well with an additional 1500 men," Lord Varys informed, pointing to the map.
"Great, and how is Eist?" she asked Mousesack.
"They have secured a good fleet in Skagos and are coming to the coast of Cintra, to combat any Nilfgaardian ship that tries to attack the coast," the druid reported.
"Great... I want to speak with Lord Hugkil, since it's not just the gorge and coast we need to worry about..." Calanthe said as a royal guard was summoned and advanced to the location where Hugkil was settling in.
The man entered the tent a moment later, kneeling in front of the queen, "Your majesty," Calanthe murmured.
"Rise, my lord. How are things at the camp?" Calanthe asked as Hugkil stood up.
"We are well, my men are a bit nervous, but still determined to defend Cintra from the invaders from the south," he said.
"That's great, we'll need every available sword... we have a bit of an advantage since a part of the army has moved to attack our neighbor, so the pressure will be less and we might gain some advantage against the enemy," Calanthe spoke and continued. "How is your region?" she asked.
"My children are taking care of everything, I'm sure Victor will do a fine job," Meril commented as the queen nodded.
"That's good, my lord, I hope to find you soon wielding your blade against our enemies," she spoke at the end as the man nodded and he left the place.
Calanthe saw this and turned back to her royal guard. "Could you leave me alone, Lord Varys? Mousesack?" she asked as the men bowed.
"Of course, my queen," both responded, leaving the place while Calanthe sighed.
'Mousesack warned me, but I want to talk to him alone,' she thought before turning her face to the intruder in her tent, Mousesack gave the signal as soon as he noticed him, but she kept silent until this moment.
"Why are you here?" she asked with a tone of dissatisfaction and disapproval.
"You know that I need to be here," Madara said calmly, stepping out of the shadows, his loose black hair matching his equally black eyes.
'He will certainly become a handsome man, and I am sure that Cirilla might not be the only princess enchanted by the boy if he continues like this,' she murmured internally.
She had asked Madara to stay in the capital and take care of her niece's safety, but it seems he was here after all that was requested. But Calanthe also knew of Madara's important presence in the fight; he could boost the morale of the entire army, after all, he was the hero of the east.
"Are you at least using one of your tricks to keep my granddaughter safe?" Calanthe asked.
"Yes. If you're asking about the clones, I've placed many to watch over the capital and even the region," Madara spoke.
"All right... then... I just want you to return to the capital as soon as possible if this fight doesn't end well for us, take my niece and leave here as fast as possible, understood?" she spoke as the first order she gives to Madara and there was no room for refusal.
Madara nodded, while she sighed and asked him to grab a tent with Varys and wait until the army started moving south again.
The days passed until the army began to move again, heading south.
"How are our forces?" A man in black armor with yellow trims from Nilfgaard was in his tent with a woman with pointed ears and blonde hair, alongside a few more officers.
"We are doing very well, Cintra has raised an army of 20,000, but we will win with a grand margin," the officer spoke in the Nilfgaardian language. "We are about to enter Cintra's border from the south, launch a ship attack on its coast, and also attack Angren and also our secret surprise is happening at this moment," the man spoke firmly.
"That's great, let's start moving and prepare for the fight," the man who had asked, who was a general, nodded satisfied.
"You are quite confident," the woman said at the end after they were left alone.
"You could say that 20,000 men are nothing; we have much more than double that here," the man said.
"Yes. But just for one kingdom... how will you conquer the north if you lose half your men?" The elf commented with a serious tone.
"We will win this battle much more easily than you think. Angren lost many of its men years ago, we will easily take down two kingdoms before continuing our expansion," the man said.
"You know that Queen Calanthe knows how to fight very well," she taunted as the man looked displeased with her approach.
"She is just a woman. You better help me when you open that mouth, elf mage, otherwise, you might as well leave me here alone," he said in Nilfgaardian.
"I am just saying that there are powerful people on the other side. Have you heard about that Madara Uchiha?" she asked, there were enough spies infiltrated in Cintra to know what was happening in the kingdom and Madara was not a subject limited only to the capital.
"Yes, and you are afraid of encountering a 12-year-old child on the battlefield?" the general did not cease to mock the elf.
"You think I believe the story of a 10-year-old child leading an army and changing the course of a war? Do not offend me, general." This woman was Francesca Findabair, an ally of the Nilfgaardians to conquer the north in exchange for rewards such as a place for the elves to live in peace without being hunted or discriminated against.
"Then stop talking and only open your mouth to say useful things, damn elf," the man growled as the elf took offense at that, but held herself back and no longer provoked the human.
"Even so... how are we going to deal with the child, you know very well that she could escape to Skagos, right?" Francesca said.
"The emperor's daughter will be captured alive and well, we will take care of the coast of Cintra as my men said... and we have a spy in the capital already," the general spoke as they continued to initiate a discussion about the strategy in the fight.
On the high seas, 200 Nilfgaardian ships continued moving north from the south, their plan was to block all exits of Cintra to the sea. While thousands of Nilfgaardian men were preparing for the fight reaching the sea of Cintra.
As ships with people fleeing Cintra could finally leave the country, with the servants of Madara's mansion along with one of those ships attempting a life elsewhere, Eist was at the prow of a ship advancing with a small fleet of 100 ships as Skagos could provide with 4,000 men.
"Are we ready for battle, king?!" A bearded man with his axe asked, despite the number being smaller than the opponent, they still had plenty of confidence in the battle.
"Of course we are! Let's make our axes bleed with the blood of those idiots from the south!!" Eist exclaimed making his men gain some morale, with the Skagosi beginning to shout, preparing to face the people from the south.
On the eastern side, an army of 20,000 Nilfgaardian men advanced through another gorge above the region of Toussaint, and their goal was to pressure Angren, not for a direct battle as was going against Cintra. After all, they needed to hold that kingdom a bit, and as soon as Cintra was defeated, Angren would have to face two battles, one coming from the south side and another with men from the west invading their kingdom, this would allow the army to advance easily before beginning to conquer the other northern kingdoms.
As they prepared to invade the border and meet the army of Angren, which was already preparing with King Thorne in command, in the mountains to the west from there, a group of soldiers from Hugkil's men approached the forest while there was a loud sound coming from the place.
Thus emerged the first Nilfgaardian soldiers, beginning to come out of the forest surrounding the mountain. More than 10,000 men began to appear over the next few days as they began to establish themselves in the lands of Hugkil. It was a lengthy process, after all, they left the army going to Angren and began to open a path through the mountains.
Hugkil's own men received them with a smile on their faces, as they had been instructed by Lord Luk Hugkil to let them pass. With these 10,000 black soldiers, the army of Cintra would be surprised from the east side while they fought to the south.
"My lord... the men have started to pass through the mountains and we are killing all the nearby villages that could report to other regions about the Nilfgaardians," the knight responsible for Hugkil's men went to a meeting with the boy who nodded satisfied.
"That's good. I want you to lock my mother in her room, I want her to accompany me to deal with my brother," Luk said with a diabolical smile, as he was finally going to act.
Meanwhile, outside, there was a servant listening to the entire conversation in shock, before running off to warn Victor about what she had heard.
Returning to the south of Cintra near the gorge, the original Madara was walking calmly until he received some very important information. This made him alert and quickly advance approaching the queen.
"Hm?" Mousesack, noticing his behavior a bit more altered than usual, raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"
"Yes, they are advancing through the gorge. They are entering Cintra at this moment. It seems they came faster than we anticipated," Madara said, after receiving the information from his clone.
"What?!" Calanthe heard that as if lightning had struck her. After all, she was hoping the gorge would limit the enemy army. She clenched her fist and set aside that thought, returning to her men, as she was the general of this army and trusted Madara's words deeply.
"No matter, we will head south and confront those wretches and drive them out of Cintra," she said, hastening the army for the eventual battle.
Raccoon Here:
I believe that originally, there was an army of 40,000 to 50,000 Nilfgaardians... But I increased it here, there are 50,000 to face Cintra in the south, 10,000 passing through the mountains, 20,000 going to Angren, and 12,000 on the ships, forming an army of 92,000 men.