Samara Kingdom, Conquered

In the end, Helena chose to detain King Samara first because he didn't want him to have a quick death, and currently, they had limited options so she wanted to temporarily imprison him while waiting for Blanc to arrive.

Of course, how could King Samara resist against three Swordmasters? He was quickly tied up in chains and dragged by Helena towards the City Plaza.

She then issued an order to her men to summon all the citizens in the Plaza for an important announcement.

Helena's men quickly acted on her orders and in just one hour, everything was ready. 

As expected, all of the citizens were scared because this was the second time they'd experienced their city being conquered by the enemy so they couldn't help but fear for their future.

All they knew was they would now be under the rule of the Rougenfort Kingdom but they didn't actually know if this was good or bad for them.

However, what could they do? They are only ordinary citizens with no choice but to obey the high command.

The citizens waited for Helena's announcement with anxious looks on their faces.

"Citizens of Lockridge…I know for a fact that all of you did not like living under a self-centered and greedy king such as this bastard over here"

Helena said as she roughly threw King Samara's tied up and unconscious body in front of the Citizens.

"I also know that you are concerned about what the future has in store for you under the rule of King Rougenfort. However, fret not because we were once citizens of the Kingdom of Lockridge"

*GASP*

The citizens gasped and a commotion started among them trying to figure out if Helena was lying or not so Helena immediately followed up and introduced himself.

"I know it is hard to believe but it is the truth. My name is Helena Laurelei, the eldest daughter of Count Leonardo Laurelei who formerly governed the Laurelei fiefdom on the southern side of Lockridge Kingdom, and King Rougenfort formerly served my father as his right-hand man"

After hearing Helena's explanation, the unease in the hearts of the citizens completely vanished as they remembered the tales of how Count Laurelei stalled the Samara Dukedom's army for a long time which gave the Lockridge Kingdom a chance to retaliate.

Although in the end, the Lockridge Kingdom still lost, Count Leonardo Laurelei was remembered by many as a brave and loyal noble who protected his citizens and his country.

This is the reason why the anxiousness of the citizens completely vanished upon hearing that the Rougenfort Kingdom was built by former Lockridge citizens.

Indeed, Helena was right. The citizens loved King Lockridge far more than King Samara.

This was because although King Lockridge wasn't that talented in being a king, he was always trying his best to give his citizens the best life he could.

After seeing that there were no more worries on the faces of the Lockridge Citizens, Helena smiled warmly at them before announcing Blanc's policies and how they would live in the future as Rougenfortians.

Of course, the citizens initially couldn't believe what they were hearing because such a life was far too good to be true and they haven't experienced such a life even once.

However, upon remembering the rumors about Rougenfort Kingdom, they started to believe that maybe, King Rougenfort could grant them such a fantastic life as long as they obeyed his policies.

After Helena was done with her announcement, the anxious looks on the faces of the citizens were replaced with a wide smile as they happily went back to their homes.

…

Meanwhile, the Kairuku Kingdom didn't stay idle, when Helena and her men were out conquering the capital of the Samara Kingdom, the Kairuku Kingdom immediately sent men to conquer the capital city of the former Samara Dukedom.

The reason why they did this was because they knew they were in trouble.

Their former allies, the Samara Kingdom, had already fallen and they had no choice but to stand on their own two feet against two allied kingdoms, the Rougenfort Kingdom and the Terravalle Kingdom.

In addition to this, they already sent out messengers to other kingdoms from other regions in hopes of establishing an alliance before the Rougenfort-Terravalle alliance decided to attack their kingdom.

King Kairuku had sharp instincts when it came to war and he knew that he was already in deep shit, unlike King Samara who didn't even understand the importance of the battle of Fort Shadowsong.

…

Inside Fort Shadowsong's great hall, Blanc smiled widely after receiving a report about their victory but what made him very happy was, that King Samara was captured alive.

Every time he reminisces about the painful experiences they had to go through because of King Samara, he can do nothing but gnash his teeth and clench his fists in anger.

However, now, King Samara fell into their hands, completely at their mercy.

Blanc looked into the distance with a cold smile on his face as he enthusiastically thought of more than a hundred ways on how to torture King Samara.

After realizing that he was investing more time thinking about torture than he should, he temporarily forced himself to stop because Blanc knew that he had more important things to do.

Yes, thinking about how to torture King Samara felt good but as a king, he shouldn't be irresponsible.

Right now, he had a new bunch of citizens who would live under his rule and he had to make sure that this would be the last time they experience the fear of being conquered by another ruler.

This is why he immediately made preparations and headed towards Samara City where Helena and the others were waiting for him.

Samara Kingdom is around a month and a half away from the capital of Rougenfort Kingdom, Resonance City, so he had to personally watch over the development of his new territory for a while just until the situation stabilizes.