Back in the capital city Jacobstadt the city was in chaos. The kingdom was in a civil war and a large grey skin army had invaded all at the same time. The masses had heard that and panic and hysteria spread like wildfire.

In the Royal palace, the nobles had been ordered to attend an emergency meeting. Every noble from every corner of the kingdom was present.

The nobles were all arguing in the royal palace blaming each other. The prince looked extremely amused by everything. He just smiled looking at the nobles pointing and playing the blame game. It was like looking at a bunch of rats running back and forth on a sinking ship. The king just massaged his eyes and was completely inadequate to lead and control the arguing nobles.

"Sillence!" Duke Mihalh yelled.

The throne room went silent.

"I believe I did tell everyone that it was just a matter of time until the count would revolt. A couple of nobles who are dissatisfied have never really mattered, but count Hunyadi is one of the major lords who controls one of the six major regions of our kingdom. He has always been a problem that needed to be dealt with," Mihalh explained to everyone.

"And what does your obvious hindsight help us?" yelled one noble back.

"Yeah, not much help stating the obvious now."

Soon the throne room exploded again into arguing and bickering. The prince just thought all of this was perfect. They were all like little big playing in the palm of his hand.

"Look at you. All arguing like a bunch of women," Rikard Plangent yelled getting the full attention of the crowd.

"We all know what to do. We will raise a great army and we will crush the rebels and their grey skin friends. I already sent word to every part of the kingdom to start mustering troops and start marching towards an agreed rallying point," Rikard said and told everyone.

The throne room exploded in cheers. They all clapped that Rikard was going to face them personally. The strongest person in the kingdom would surely win and end this war.

"Thank you, my friend. Finally, someone had some initiative. How long until the army is raised?" The king asked and praised Rikard.

"A few months at most. I will field a strong army and crush these insurrectionists and monsters like I have done so many times," Rikard said and ensured the king.

"Great. We will have this petty war over before winter. Rikard, I give you all the powers to do anything you see best. Destroy the enemies of the kingdom." The king said and excused everyone.

The nobles started to leave the throne room. August left with the prince and walked close to him.

"Send someone to Rufus. They must know how much time they have." Markus whispered to August.

Duke Mihalh realized that he had not actually won against the prince yet looking at him smiling. He ran to Rikard trying to catch up to him and his entourage.

"My good grandmaster. Can you wait for me?"

"I could, but I would not want to," Rikard said and kept walking away.

"I insist," the Duke said and released a bunch of divine aura.

Rikard also released a lot of divine aura. The two auras collided with each other with both of them being insanely strong, which smothered the others around them. Duke Mihalh sighed and stopped pouring out his divine power.

"Why do you hate me so much? I have always wondered that," Duke asked with a small grin.

Rikard also stopped pouring out his divine power.

"You have never shown true loyalty towards the king. You are a self-centered person and you have many times only used your influence with the king to increase your own wealth and power."

"If you worry about the kingdom so much, why haven't you neither done anything?" Duke asked pointing at the lack of action made by Rikard.

"My duty is to be a tool for the king. The king is the kingdom and the king needs a tool to use. That way I am being most useful to the kingdom," Rikard explained.

"Ahhhh. The legendary loyalty of the Plangents. Loyalty strong enough to even kill once own son," Mihalh said trying to provoke Rikard.

"Without loyalty there is nothing."

"Well anyway, I believe we now have a common goal. Let me join you in your mission to squash this insurrection?" Duke asked Rikard.

"Why would you want to do that. You have never been too enthusiastic about answering the call to war for the good of the kingdom," Rikard asked with a little confused look.

"I happen to need a prove a point, and for that, I have to crush certain people who happen to be marching with the enemy," Duke explained and smiled with a menacing grin.