Chapter 3

Capital City of Milton Kingdom

In the palace at night a urgent meeting was held. Its content were the First Commander's reinforcement request and how their army wasn't going to be able to repel Saris Kingdom's army. King sat not on the throne but in a council chamber that was secured by runes, wards and various kind of arts to make sure nobody unauthorised hear anything spoken here. The First prince, also the Crown Prince, Spoke first. "The situation in the border is grave. The First Commander, Varant, has sent an urgent reinforcement request detailing hiw the army fared on the first day. If don't dispatch the reinforcement immediately, the whole army currently engaged will be wiped out. "

The king looked shell-shocked." How could that be? Saris kingdom were never attacked us. And what have they got to make such a light work out of our forces? Even if First Commander's army isn't match for them, would we really able to fight them of?" The Minister of war interjected "Your majesty, what we should do now is, we should think of a way to halt the advance of Saris's army and try to negotiate with them. We are on the backfoot because Saris have gotten their hands on new weapon. It is only matter of time our field Commanders learn how to counter it. It would be great if we can get our hands on couple of them. We did discuss what we do in the meantime and Crown prince has an suggestion that would make acquiring new weapons lot easier. " The Crown prince looked at the minister of war for a moment, then turned towards the king " Your majesty, what I propose is we not only have to dispatch a large army to halt their offense but also dispatch a unit of king's guard and also request the help of our Archmage. I already have talked to the Archmage and he is not against the idea."

"And what does the Archmage wants?" Asked the king.

"He only wants to analyse the new weapon. If he were to be able to reverse engineer them he would be more than happy share that knowledge with us." Crown prince replied.

"Why am I not surprised? Okay, I will accede to your request. We will do as Crown prince said." King concluded the meeting. As soon as the King was getting ready to leave, Fourth prince glanced at the his brother Second prince which in turn nudged the First prince. The First prince said to the king " Your majesty, we brothers want to trouble you for couple more minutes and ask of you that only those who belong to royal family may stay"

King asked "Do you wish to discuss the Third Prince?" Crown prince replied "Yes, you majesty."

The king motioned his retainers and ministers to leave, after they left he turned towards his sons and said "What is it that you want?"

The Crown prince replied "We only want what is best for our brother. He is more scholarly type, that we understand. But as he is presently no influential household doesn't want him as their son-in-law. We fear if doesn't have a decent proficiency in combat, as long as he isn't able to hold on his own against a common knight, he wouldn't get any marriage proposals from any reputable house. "

" What do you want me to do? " King asked back.

" His shouldn't have any guards assigned to him anymore. Third Brothers always learnt when it was necessary. I think taking away his guards would encourage him to learn how to defend himself, nay, he will make sure he is able to defend himself by himself."

The king wasn't oblivious to dirty politics that royal family was. The brothers choose this moment to disarm their brother. He was in the battle that was going badly. Even if he wasn't the real Commander he would still get the blame. The First Commander Varant had enough political clout to side-step any fallout as long as the battles wasn't a disaster. The three sons in front of him didn't let this golden opportunity to lessen the importance of the third prince. He could refuse the request but that would not make any huge difference. He could only protect him until he was alive. And it seems age had caught up with him. If his third son couldn't even able to retaliate to this, then any amount of help from the king side wouldn't help him in the future. Geralt needed know how royal politics worked and learn to use it to his advantage. Thinking that king agreed to Crown prince's request.

"No longer kingdom of Milton will send any escort knights to the third prince and all current guards will be assigned to different duties once the battle ends."

The Crown prince fully knowing he couldn't get any more than this accepted the result. "May His majesty live long and healthy." said the Crown prince and others and exited the room.

King walked back to his office and called his trusted aid and asked him to deliver a message for the maternal uncle of the third prince.

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Daymoore City, Count Daymoor's mansion

Cylix, aide of the third prince, arrived at the Count's mansion at the predawn light and told the guard there is an urgent message for the Count from the Third Prince and he would like to meet the Count as soon as possible and handed the letter to them instructing them to give it to the Count.

After some time passed but still before sunrise Cylix was able to meet the Count.

"This better be important to wake me up in this time." Count Inquired

"Your Highness, the situation at the battlefields is very perilous to the army. The Third Prince request you to send him Mythril Rhinos for the war. He would be grateful for your help." Cylix answered.

"Why doesn't he want more soldiers if he's short on them?"

"Your highness, Saris army has brought never before seen weapon to the war which caused great deal of casualty. He believes more soldiers wouldn't help but he thinks he could use rhinos."

"Oh, he wants to use rhinos to get to the weapon. Interesting. I presume that this new weapon is extremely potent?" Cylix nodded. "If the army loses then next stop for the Saris army would be my county, as such I will give you 1000 Mythril Rhinos. Hope your prince uses them wisely." The Count Said.

Cylix was more than happy as he completed his task without much effort. He bowed to the Count and said "His highness Third Prince will be happy to hear this news. Thank you, Your highness for your magnanimity."

Count wished the enoy of the third prince, Cylix, for the victory and sent him off with the 1000 Mythril Rhinos and their handlers.