Preparations

With having found Loraine, the uproar in the city also started to die down. The large band of knights lead by the Bloom and the Herewealth families started to make their way back to the King's City.

Meanwhile, James filled Alice in with the missing parts about the story. That he and Loraine were engaged for a long time and that out of the blue the engagement was nullified by the Bloom family. Because of that, they decided to flee the capital and try their luck in Valencia. It all worked out, until they went to the party and got recognized.

Alice was rather sad for both James and Loraine that they had to go through all those problems. Moreover she was also angry at the Herewealth family, that they forced such a shameless thing happen. It was not common to marry off a person that was already engaged.

That day ended without any major events. The following days, James started to organize the power he had together with Alice. In order to get a certain income for the coming war effort, Alice decided it was a better choice to leave open the store. For that, she sent several of her workers to take care of the store in the absence of Loraine and James. They agreed that Alice would handle most of the financial issues and even help them with the war effort.

Even Margret decided to help. Initially she decided to only help financially. However after the discussion progressed, she decided to use her contacts that she gained from working years in the tavern. This also helped with finding some mercenary companies that were strong and affordable.

However, James could not just return with mercenaries. Therefore, he went to ask for help from Jacob and his men, in hopes that he would help him get Loraine back. Initially Jacob was reluctant to reduce his family's power by helping James. However, after James received an official document from the church that he and Loraine were officially married, Jacob was convinced. However he had a request, if they were successful, James would get into the service of him for the coming 5 years. As a bonus to help the war effort, he would receive 10 gold from Jacob as well.

Without much thinking, James agreed. At this moment, he was not in the state to negotiate as he needed all the help he could get. The group that was willing to help James was his recruits. The group that James was training for Jacob's Family.

Having taken everything into account, James started to distribute the funds accordingly with the help of Alice. In the end of everything, James was prepared for a 6 months campaign with 89 men at his back. With that, he made his way towards the King's City.

During his preparation, James had sent a few letters out to the friends that he made during his stay in Hermes. A few days before he decided to leave, he received replies. The first one came from Francis. The letter surprised James as he did not expect that Francis would be such a good friend, to the end. He had promised James that he would meet up with him when he arrived at the King's City. He would bring with him a 'small army' of 100 men, as Francis had described it.

As for Christopher and Warren, they were not against the idea of helping James. They even had some problems with the Herewealth family themselves. But they could not promise anything. It was better for James to go to Silver City and ask personally form the family heads. With that, he would have a better chance to recruit a bigger army.

Having a destination set, James decided to make his way towards the Silver City. To meet up with Christopher and Warren. Before he left, he wrote down a letter to Francis to meet him there as well. With that he could set Silver City as a gathering point to head towards the estates of the Herewealth family.

The journey would take him a few weeks. During this journey, everyone they passed showed their respect. Most people were thinking that it was a certain high lord that was traveling with his guards to the Capital. That sense sometimes even helped when visiting inns on the road, as they got discounts from time to time.

After a few weeks of travel, they finally made their way to the outskirts of the Silver City. It was finally time for James to try and convince the families of both Christopher and Warren to join him. Moreover he would meet Francis here after a long period. With their helps, James started to get more confident in himself to be able to defeat the Herewealth family.

…