The day was cold yet beautiful!

Nature had done it's best to paint out a perfect portrait for all to see.

And even though the snow hasn't fallen for a while now, the place was still as coated with a thick layer of snow.

The bare trees were filled with snow, and the ground itself looked like a white blanket that had covered up the entire Hertfilian world.

But of course, even amidst the beauty... one would also realize that the more beautiful it was, the more poisonous it could be.

The bitter cold breeze blew against the bare trees, instantly making them come to life as they continuously shivered chaotically.

And every time they danced, several sprinkles of snowflakes would fall off their branches and drip onto the thick snowy blanket below.

The entire place looked like a winter wonderland!

It was already the first week of March, which meant that in another 2 weeks.... winter would be officially over, and Spring would take over from there.

In short, the place was like a painter's portrait come to life!

And on a certain deserted forest trail within Arcadina's western territory, several hundreds of men could be seen hastily riding silently through the deep cold forest.

'Gallop! Gallop! Gallop! Gallop!'

Their horses rode into the forest majestically, as if imitating the powerful auras of their riders.

The lead rider was placed at the center of the whole squad.

He was an extremely hard man that had a very noble air to him.

Of course, he was none other than Alec Barn.

.

Previously, when leaving Baymard.... he had been attacked and ambushed within Arcadina's western territory.

So of course, from the moment he had passed through the first major city within the territory, his vigilance had gone up even more.

They rode for a bit, before finally meeting up with another group that they had dispatched earlier on.

"I salute his royal majesty!" Said the leader of the other group.

"Hm... so do you have it?"

"Yes, your majesty... I do."

The man said, before passing on a letter to Alec.

Alex opened it and silently read it for another minute and a half, before finally bursting out in laughter.

'Bahahhhahahahahha!'

His laughter immediately made his subordinates shocker uncontrollably, as they knew more than anyone else..... that their king laughing like this, meant they some poor soul would experience hell sooner or later.

Alec laughed hard while gripping the letter in his hands angrily.

His entire body trembled violently from anger, and his breathing became rapid as well.

And even though he was laughing, his face was still very distorted from rage... as several green veins suddenly popped up on his face, making him look even scarier than he already was.

Bastard!

How dare this insignificant ant make a move against him?

Had he grown too weak that these termites would dare to go against him in broad daylight just like that?

He took a deep breath, before finally passing the note to his most trusted confidants.

'Good! Good! Good!

Cain!

Since you dared to scheme against me, then don't blame me for forgetting our old friendship.

There can only be one outcome for you, and that will be death!' He thought.

Right now, he knew that the person who had tried to assassinate him was Baron Cain.

What truly surprised him was that, that good-for-nothing butt-licking lowlife had the guts to plot against him.

Did the sun rise from the West and set in the East?

Just who the hell had given the fool so much confidence as to plot against him?

He knew that the fool was always jealous of him, but the idiot never made any moves before.

So he just treated him like a barking dog that couldn't bite.

But who would've known that the seemingly useless dog would learn to do a trick or two?

If not for his quick thinking, then he would've really ended up dead during the last assassination attack.

One by one, his confidants read the note and almost pulled out blood from rage as well.

Son of a b**ch!!

Last time, even though Cain's name had come out as a suspect, they truly didn't pay that much attention to him.

But like the old saying went: one could never judge a book by its cover, or else they would be swallowed whole by the contents of that same book.

The confidants then turned to the test of the squad and told them the general gist of things without actually telling them who the culprit was.

And knowing that the culprit had been identified, many of the knights also felt their blood running hot as well.

Kill!

Kill!

Kill!

Kill!

They wanted to gut the bastard up and place his head on a stake as their trophy.

Alec's confidants all crowded around him angrily too.

"Your majesty!

Do we deal with the bastard now?"

"Your majesty... we are close to his city, so why don't we kill him and be done with it?"

"Your majesty, his head needs to roll tonight!"

"_"

Alec stared silently at them, before finally raising his hand his call for silence.

Right now, they were on their way to Baron Cain's city.

One should know that their main goal was to attack Baymard sometime this Spring.

So of course, they had been riding and making quick stops at different cities in order to get more men for the battle.

Travelling with such a large pack would undoubtedly cause too much trouble.

Hence, Alec had made sure that they travelled in different packs as well.

When he was back in the Capital, he had been sending teams of 900, to leave the Capital on a daily basis.

So he would send 300 in the morning, 300 in the afternoon and 300 in the evening.

And he did this for close to 3 weeks straight, sending a total of 18,900 men out.

He had already told them of the rendezvous place that they were all to meet at.... which was 3 cities, 1 town and 7 villages away from Baymard.

One should one that after Riverdale city, one would pass at least 3 more villages and one town just before getting to the next major city.

And after that, one still needed to pass through several other villages before reaching the next city, and so on.

In short, the rendezvous point was just 3 cities away from Baymard.

Anyway, before leaving the Capital, he had sent out 18,900 men.

And when he left, he took 400 more men with him as well.

Understandably, when they travelled.... they stopped through several major cities and collected at least two thousand more knights from each city lord, and a few hundred from the other nobles within those cities too.

Of course, they had also sent those ones out in batches as well.

And Alec had pointed some of his men to lead each group to the rendezvous point, since they wouldn't know it at all.

Anyway, they had only come here to take Cain's men, but surprisingly... their spies and informants had brought in such juicy gossip about Cain's betrayal.

Indeed, Alec was fuming mad.

But now wasn't the right time to take any form of action.

Cain had some secrets that he was interested in, so killing him just like that would be a true shame.

And since they didn't have time to waste on torturing him at the moment, then they could only play dumb for now until they came back from winning their battle against Baymard.

"Your majesty!

Aren't you being too kind here?

The man was trying to kill you!

Are we really going to let him get away with this?"

"For now, yes.

But who said that he wouldn't be punished?

Come!

Let's go see the fool shall we?"