******* Xaerin's General POV *******

I can't believe this is happening to me.

Why did it have to be me?

I lost more than two-thirds of my army because of monsters and attacking the castle head on without a plan.

We are now quickly marching back home.

I can't even imagine that the Kingdom of Astikuviel will just sit back and watch us march in the middle of their kingdom. They will probably retaliate for all the things we have done especially that we are so few in numbers.

Even by some miracle, we managed to get back home, the king will absolutely execute me for my failures.

The plan the king so meticulously conducted is now in shambles and his well-funded army is now eaten or killed by monsters.

I decided to clear my thoughts and keep moving forward.

We keep traveling through day and night.

All of us are so exhausted especially the foot soldiers.

I ordered to left behind all the wounded soldiers and just keep all the healthy ones with me.

There are a lot of monsters in this forest that is chasing us right now. I can't afford to be bringing dead weight with me.

Also, the morale of the army is already so low after burning down innocent villages and slaving the populace so there is no longer room for sympathy.

It is now night time again but I still push my army forward instead of camping.

I'm not stopping for anything until we got out of this forest.

Most of the reports coming from messengers are that some of the foot soldiers are beginning to tire themselves and pass out but I just replied to them to just leave all of them behind too just like the injured and weak.

Thankfully, no reports about monsters but I know it is just a matter of time.

The march is starting to slow down and I'm beginning to feel that the monsters are gaining on us.

"AAAH! MONSTERS!" Someone just shouted from the rear.

I ordered my entire army to halt and turned around.

This is it.

This is the end.

No.

I still can do something.

"Army of Xaerin! Heed my words! We can no longer outrun them! We will fight to end!" I shouted to all of my people.

There was no cheering or applause from my words unlike when I made speeches about wealth and glory.

There are only desperations and despair here right now.

Dammit! If only most of the kingdom's soldiers are not sent to the western border to defend the kingdom from the rising threat and are here right now, the kingdom of Astikuviel will not stand a chance and all the monsters in this forest will be slaughtered.

"Battle lines! Form a battle line now!" Even I could see helplessness in my soldiers, I still urge them to move and fight.

They quickly form a line and stood strong.

Less than a thousand men line up in the field compared to the more than three thousand men that march forward to conquer the Kingdom of Astikuviel.

"This will be our last stand! Let these bastards know who are the real monsters in this world!"

This time, they began shouting and cheering.

What else could we do right now?

They rather go down swinging than dying with their backs turn.

An army of monsters can now be seen in the distance and quickly charge forward.

Zombies, skeletons and giants spiders.

The army's cheering quickly died down.

My army began to shake and even some of them started deserting but I know they will never get out of this forest.

There is an old tale that used to tell by mothers to their children about this forest to scare them so sleep.

I don't remember the full story but I remembered an important line.

'Anyone who dares to enter the forest of monsters will never come out alive or return back as a human.'

I should have listened to those mothers.

******* Carolus POV *******

What?

My eyes are now wide open and I can feel my face pressing on a hard surface.

Great.

I'm lying face flat on the floor.

I quickly get up and sort myself.

I can't remember what happened.

It feels like I'm back when I first got here in this world with my face hurting and have no idea what is happening.

I started to think deeply about what happened before I passed out.

Right.

Everything is starting to come back to me now.

I was about to leave this room to start brewing potions for the injured but blacked out.

It seems I passed out cold because of fatigue after fighting for a long time in the nether and recently in the field of the overworld.

I looked at the clock in my inventory to see that it is already noon.

How long did I pass out?

Guess I have to ask the people outside to find out.

I quickly re-clean myself and change my clothes. I wore my original clothing the one I was wearing when I first got here since I felt nostalgic.

I opened the door of my room to see a stranger facing here standing straight with a spear and a shield in his hands.

I quickly armed myself with a sword and was about to wear my armor when suddenly he kneels in front of me.

Okay.

This is new.

"Your majesty. I apologized for alarming you. I was ordered by my queen to guard this door and let no one disturb you."

Wait. Did he just call me Your Majesty? Well, I don't care. I stop caring about what other people call me a long time ago and just roll with it.

But I was stunned about what he said.

Someone just ordered somebody to watch this door while I'm sleeping.

This is the first time that I'm being monitored by a dude while passing out.

I don't know if I should be glad that someone is looking out for me or creep out since it really a strange thing to me.

I just ignored it for now since this is probably a goodwill gesture from the queen.

"Stand up," I said to the guard since it is starting to bother me looking down to him.

He quickly rose up to his feet and face me with an indifferent look.

"Where is Arthur?" I quickly asked since I'm really curious where is he right now.

I am going to start asking Arthur things about why they are a lot of people in my territory and was just happened with the human and monsters invasions.

"He is with the queen and the general in the map room discussing things." He quickly answered my question with a nod while pointing his hand to the map room.

'I know where it is. I built that room myself.' I was about to tell him that but I just walked past him towards the map room.

There are two guards standing on the door and the moment they saw me they quickly kneel on the floor.

Okay.

"Open the door." I quickly ordered since it is really getting awkward having people kneel in front of you.

They quickly rose to their feet and one of them knock on the door shouting something about His Majesty is here.

I don't know what with this shouting and knocking when you can just turn the knob to open the door. I should have just opened the door myself but I was worried that the guards will do something if I did.

The door opened and I can see everyone on the room quickly rose from their chairs.

I slowly walked inside and I can see everyone eyes on me.

They are about 5 people here and they are sitting around the table with maps on top.

Glad to know the chairs came in handy. I placed multiple chairs in this room since I try to use this room to explain things to Arthur and his people about this forest but only Arthur came and we just have a one on one conversation.

They are only one woman among all the people in this room but I just noticed that the guards outside are women.

Why can't they send a woman to greet me outside my room?

I also noticed that the woman across the table is also staring at me like she wants to eat me. Is she a zombie? I hope not.

Now that I noticed, all of Arthur's people have the same look like her when they stare at me.

I ignored for now and just started walking towards the vacant chair on the front.

They just keep on standing and they are not saying anything.

I was starting to worry about how to communicate since I remembered that she was a queen or something.

When I sit down on the chair, all of them quickly followed with an orderly fashion with the woman sitting first and the rest at the same time.

Wow. I don't know what is that about but it is really cool to see.

Arthur is on the right side of the table while I'm facing directly to the queen.

I was about to say something when suddenly the queen started talking after clearing her throat for a moment.

"King Carolus. I'm glad that you are now fully recovered from your recent battle. We are starting to worry since you didn't come out in your room for one whole day."

Her voice is soft like cotton candy, unlike the first time I heard her on top of the east wall.

She also called me King which is shocking since I didn't know that my Lord status is now King.

How did that happen?

But I just ignored it like everything else and was glad that I only passed out for a single day.

I don't know what to reply or how to reply since this is my first time talking to a queen so I just nodded my head my head to her.

"I believe we haven't fully introduced ourselves so allow me. I'm Queen Thea of Kingdom of Astikuviel." She said while her hand on her chest.

"This is my general and officers." She moved her hand around the table while introducing them.

I still didn't speak and just nodded my head again.

The room is now quite.

I can see the queen is now having trouble communicating with me since I just stayed silent.

"How is your injured?" I finally managed to muster my courage to talk. I try to be as calm as possible.

She was stunned to hear my voice and I was starting to worry that my tone is probably rude or something.

"All of the injured have already been treated and we only used the potions that you gave us to the people who are in really grave danger. We still have 4 of them left." She quickly said to me and my worry is suddenly gone since I thought I managed to offend her.

Oh. Great. I thought the potions that I gave her is not enough.

"Here. I will return them to you." She then put 4 potions on the table and one of the officers picked them up and walked around to put them in front of me.

I quickly picked two of the potions while handing the other two to Arthur to used for his two injured people.

He hesitated at first but I just force it in his hands and he accepted it.

We started talking for a while about what happened while I was passed out.

Queen Thea also started talking about thanks and about paying for all the things and stuff but I don't want to have this kind of conversation so I quickly cut her off and just change the topic to discussed other things but she really insisted that they need to give me something for all the things I've done so I just said to escort all of Arthur's people back home.

She still has qualms about paying me in emeralds but I just keep saying no since I have plenty of that downstairs and I don't even know what I'm going to do with them.

She also said about giving me lands but what I'm going to do with those since I already have a home.

The meeting went for a while and after discussing things, I quickly head to the roof of the castle keep to have fresh air.