Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

796  Chapter 796- Raid On Castledor (4)

The kingdom of Ellesmere hadn't had a history of a queen ruling the land but Alfred felt like a change was needed for a time like this.

And so, he finally made his decision. Bending his knee a little, arching his back and while extending his right hand forward, he made a noble's bow.

"If Your Highness is determined to take the kingdom of Ellesmere back from the invaders and rule it as its queen, then allow me Count Alfred Eude Bergest, to help you in your endeavour".

.

.

 Capital City Ellesmere...

The once prosperous city and an infrastructural marvel of the kingdom, had now succumbed to the ravages of war. Streets ran scorching black with reside of destruction and the buildings reduced to nothing but mere rubble.

Shattered glass littered the ground like morbid confetti, the air was heavy with the burnt scent of wood and the despair of a city that had witnessed its own demise.

The current capital city of Ellesmere painted a bleak picture of what was once a thriving metropolis. That said, it was not like the entire city had been razed down as there was still a structure that was standing tall.

Amidst the desolation, the royal palace stood like an island of grandeur in a sea of ruin. Its majestic spires, though marred by the signs of conflict, still retained an air of regality. The royal palace was one of the few structures that had yet to crumble like everything around it.

At this moment, inside one of the hidden underground chambers of the palace, bound in sturdy chains to a pole, was a handsome young man or what remained of a handsome young man now marred with injuries and wounds. His body released a dark greyish aura and he lay there chained motionless just like a corpse.

"Hey, isn't it bad? That prince really died. If we don't have him won't we be unable to convince those remaining nobles of this kingdom who are still fighting to give up?" One of the guards responsible for monitoring the prisoner, spoke.

 "Mind your own business. Soldiers like us shouldn't poke our noses where it doesn't belong. I'm sure His Majesty and the general knows what they are doing" the other soldier monitoring the situation along with him, replied.

CLACK…CLACK… at this moment, the sounds of footsteps rang out and a person with an impressive build and decked out in full body armour, walked in.

"General" The soldiers saluted.

"At ease" the man who was the general nodded before shifting his attention to the man behind the prison.

"There are no movements Sir. It looks like his body was too weak to take in that energy"…

 "So he failed to become a Tainted Warrior huh? It would have been much easier to take control of this country had he become our puppet. Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk. We need to change our strategy, I will let his majesty know. You two get rid of that body, before it goes berserk" Leaving behind those instructions, the general left the underground cellar.

"Let's hurry up and dispose of the body. You know how hard it is to deal with a tainted warrior when they go berserk"

With that, the soldier got to work. And just like that, the curtain closed on the Second Prince of the kingdom of Ellesmere, Aiden Ethan Ellesmere.

 Around a week later, inside the Castle of Duke Montford, the first prince received a report from one of his subordinates.

Alstin crumpled the paper on his hand and threw it inside the fireplace "This can't be happening, there is no way this is true. You… have you checked the authenticity of this report" he asked turning his eyes at the kneeling subordinate.

"Yes Your Highness, there is no mistake that it was sent by the spies we dispatched in the city of Mountmend" the latter responded. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ Novᴇ(l)ꜰɪre .ɴᴇt

"Tch, why now of all times? I was about to convince the southern nobles too" Alstin clicked his tongue and ordered the subdordinate.

"Make sure you don't spill the content of this report to anyone else, not even to Duke Montford and especially not to Lucas. I will deal with this mess myself. Do you understand?"...

 "Yes".

After the two of them left the room, a figure covertly entered in and pulled the parchment from the fireplace. Surprisingly, even after being thrown into the fire, most of the page was yet to be turned into ashes completely.

 "Hoh" the figure muttered, reading the contents of the page. Flames burned in his hand and quickly turned the parchment into ashes.

 "I guess, I'll go pay her a visit".

.

.

Inside the city of Mountmend, near Alfred's manor, lines of tables could be seen placed in a neat and orderly way. Placed on top of all those tables, were large boxes containing food and rations.

Large queues of people lined up before those tables who were handed out these foods.

"Please don't cut lines. We have enough for everyone" the workers distributing the food announced.

"Here you go old man"

 The old man in the line reached out and grabbed the rations. He then bowed his head and with tears streaming down his cheeks, he cried "Long live Her Highness… long live Her Highness"…

"Alright, alright… next"

The worker handed out the ration to the next person and they spoke the exact same line. In fact, whether it was at this table or the many others, the long queue of people lining up before it spoke the same praise.

Everybody in the city of Mountmend knew that the food that they were given, came from Her Highness, Princes Cynthia. She was the reason that they were able to go to sleep with a full stomach for the past few days.

That's right, the distribution of rations wasn't a new thing today, it has been going on for the past week.

 "Your Highness giving out food to the whole city like that, is there even any meaning to it?" Inside the manor, Alvara glanced out of the window looking at the long lines of people as she asked.

"Feeding all the citizens of the city which has been overpopulated thanks to the aftermath of the war puts a serious burden even on our resources that we got after defeating the criminal organisations. If we keep feeding them like that, we won't last very long".

Her concerns were warranted after all, feeding a population of over 200,000 wasn't a small matter. If they didn't receive any benefit from it, this whole endeavour would go to waste.

As the princess and a businesswoman who built the Serene Palace Merchant Guild all on her own through perseverance and hard work, Alvara knew that Cynthia would never do something that would result in a loss.

However, no matter how much she thought she couldn't figure out what the princess was thinking.

"Alvara what can you see when you look at the city?" Cynthia answered by asking her a question. Her gaze was also focused on the long queue of people outside the manor.

 "A gloomy and starved city filled with refugees"

This was Alvara's honest answer. In fact, no matter who saw the city, they too would come up with the same response.

"Right, a city filled with starved refugees who have been displaced from their homes, grieving at the loss they suffered and barely holding onto their lives. What do you think they need the most?"

"Food and work. In a situation where they can't even fill their bellies, if we force them to fight for us, how do you think they would see us? What we need to do right now is give them time and a proper meal to heal their hearts. Once they are satiated they will have time to think other things in their head" Cynthia answered.

So that was the case, the guard captain nodded her head in understanding. A population that has to scrounge for food every single day, would have no time worrying about anything else.

By providing them food, not only it freed them from scavenging for food, but they now also had enough time to worry about other things.

With time, these people would surely realise the benefit of fighting for Her Highness and the fires of hatred which had been snuffed inside their hearts, would rekindle once again.

It was a move that grasped the hearts of the people. However, Alvara was sure that, the aforementioned reasons weren't the only objective the princess had in mind. No matter how calculative and business driven exterior she showed on the surface, she was a kind person at heart.

Distributing rations and food was her way of showing care for the people who were in the end the citizens of her kingdom.

"By the way, how goes the infiltration on our next target?" Shifting her attention away from the window and towards Annette, Cynthia asked.

"Theodore and his kindreds have already sneaked inside the duke's castle and are currently monitoring the actions of the first prince. From the message they sent me, it looks like Your Highness' brother is losing the war at every front. The easter region of the kingdom has fallen and the southern nobles have thrown their towels and defected to the enemy's side"

Annette reported. She had already sent Thedore and Maybell to spy on their next target, the dukedom of Montford where the first prince currently was.

Cynthia who aimed to become the queen, not only needed a large army on her side to fight for her sake, she also needed to take out the other contenders out of the game.