"Please share your plan with us."

Leader sighed,

"We can convince the first king. But I don't know if he'll be convinced. Besides, we don't have much time."

I thought about the situation we were in, the idea that the leader offered made sense, but if it didn't work, we wouldn't have time, and it was quite dangerous for us to go where the King lived. I looked at the leader,

"Leader, if this plan does not work, our time will be reduced, and we do not know if he will be convinced. Are you sure we should implement such a plan?"

"None of us knows the outcome, but if we go to war with this state, our loss rate will be fifty to fifty."

Hiroshi said,

"Let's just say we got lucky. If we can convince the King, what are our chances of winning?"

"Eighty percent, maybe ninety percent, we win the war. If the King's power is with us, our Army power will be even higher than we imagined."

It was a risky idea, but it wasn't in our time to lose. We had to try.

"How much time do we have if we leave?"

"If you leave now, you have to return in four days."

Lezlie looked surprised,

"Four days? But that's even less time than we might need."

"We've already declared war. We'll begin preparations shortly."

Hiroshi said,

"Why would you do that?"

"Of course, having limited time is bad for us to ask for help, and of course, it would be good if we had some time to prepare something for war. But the same thing I said applies to them. Although we will not be able to ask for help, neither will they."

"Leader, how far is the castle of the first King from here?"

"If you leave now in horse-drawn carriages, you will be there by noon tomorrow."

Babu said, "What are you guys going to do if we can't convince them?"

"There's no turning back from this anymore. The war bugle has already rung."

I said, "All right, then, me and my friends, we'll go convince the King. I'll meet you in three days where the war will take place. Until then, try to make the necessary preparations."

"Then we have a deal."

The leader turned to his man,

"Tell your men to prepare the horse-drawn carriages."

"Yes, sir!"

The soldier, on the orders of the leader, left the room and went to prepare the horse-drawn carriages.

As we left the room, the leader grabbed my shoulder,

"I trust you all on this, I cannot afford to lose any more men, I have to win this war for the sake of Xolis and for my people."

I nodded,

"We'll do our best."

After talking to the leader, we went to the carriages. Before I got in the car Hiroshi said,

"Hey, Kid!"

"Are you sure we should ask the king for help? We can waste our time, you know that right? And we may not be able to convince the King too."

"I understand what you're saying, Hiroshi, but we have no choice but to try, do we?"

Hiroshi lit his cigar and said,

"Okay, have it your way. But as I said, You have to be prepared for any situation. We are talking about the king here."

"Of course I will, Hiroshi."

When I thought about what Hiroshi said, I realized something. He didn't want to lose anyone as he did in his past. Although he was the least obvious among us, he was actually the one who thought about us the most. The more I thought about it, the more peace I felt because it showed that there were still people who cared about other people's dreams. He cared about all of us.

Because he was my friend. Because he was our friend.

Lezlie shook me slightly as I ducked into thoughts,

"Ryuu! Ryuu! Did you hear me?"

I turned my head and said,

"Huh?"

Lezlie smiled and said,

"I asked how we would convince The First King. Do you have any ideas in mind?

"I don't have an idea yet, I think we'll improvise as usual."

Lezlie smiled and said, "I actually have an idea for it!"

I said, "An idea?"

"I went there with my mother a long time ago. The houses are quite tall. If we go through the rooftops to the castle, we won't stand out."

Babu scratched his chin and said,

"But Lezlie, what is the distance between the houses?"

"Not much, it can be easily jumped."

"I'm really relieved that you said that."

"Why?"

Babu said while touching his belly, "Because I don't want to get too tired before the war. I've lost a lot of weight since I met you, people."

Hiroshi, lying next to Babu, gently lifted his head,

"You look the same to me as you did in the first place."

"Ah! Because I had a little snack before I left."

"I think that's a good thing, that means you're on a panda diet, right?"

"Pandas do not diet, according to pandas, diet is officially madness."

It was really heart-warming air. Babu's positive air covered everything around us, Lezlie and I were listening to Babu smiling, and even Hiroshi listened to Babu calmly.

We continued on the carriage until morning, after a while the person driving the carriage stopped the carriage,

"I've been assigned to drop you here, and it's up to you from here."

We began to walk slowly down the carriage. After a short walk, Lezlie called out to us,

"Ryuu! Hiroshi! Babu! Come and look at this!"

We went where Lezlie was, and we saw something amazing. We were on a hill, and the whole kingdom seemed right in front of us. From the hill, we could see all over the entire kingdom. The four of us lined up side by side, looked at the kingdom.