***

The next day, Maxim said goodbye to Lord Hirsch and his family. The young king would continue the journey to Summeria with twenty of Greenborough's best knights to go with him and protect him on the road.

Renwyck had departed first with Eris who came to pick him up in the morning. The people were in awe when they saw the big majestic creature leaped up and started flying in a beautiful movement above the mayor's residence.

None of them had seen a dragon before. So, they were very excited and kept talking about it for days to come.

After Renwyck left, it was time for Maxim to go. The journey to the next city was done still at a leisurely pace. Now that he already sent Renwyck to come and get Raphael or Margueritte, Maxim felt some peace of mind.

He could just wait for them to come to Castilse and hopefully, Raphael could help wake Emmelyn up..  At this pace, he was sure once he and Emmelyn arrived in the capital, Renwyck and Raphael would reach Castilse too.

***

As Maxim expected, by the time he and his entourage reached Cromwell one week later, the pigeon with news from Castilse had arrived with a letter for him.

"Your Majesty...!!!"

Maxim was surprised to see Lord Sforza came rushing to see him. He just arrived in front of the mayor's residence and asked the gatekeeper to notify the mayor of his visit. Not even ten minutes had passed, but the mayor had run out to welcome him.

Maxim knew the mayor would be excited to see the king... but he did not expect Lord Sforza to be this excited that he ran until he was out of breath.

Now his men had to hold his arms to prevent him from collapsing to the ground. It looked a bit comical.

"Slow down...!" Maxim raised his hand and motioned the mayor to take a seat and regulate his breath. "You are not that young to run a sprint. I just arrived. I won't go anywhere. No need to chase like this."

Lord Sforza panted and tried to speak, but he couldn't utter a single word. 

"Give this poor man water," Maxim told the servant nearby.

Then, to the two knights holding Lord Sforza's shoulders, he motioned them to take the mayor inside. They all followed his order because they already knew that this guest was the king of Summeria himself. Lord Sforza had shrieked and called him 'Your Majesty' earlier.

They all walked inside the mansion, carrying the mayor, followed by Maxim who walked in firm steps. The knights were told to wait for him outside the gate because he wouldn't be long.

Maxim didn't plan to stay in the mayor's mansion since they reached Cromwell still quite early in the morning and he thought they could continue their journey to the next town.

However, Maxim already asked in his letter to his prime minister that the reply to his letter should be addressed to the mayor of Cromwell, so he could pick it up there. That's why he was here now.

After he got his letter, the young king would immediately continue the journey to the next city. They would only spend the night there. 

"Y-your... Your Majesty..." Lord Sforza finally could pull himself together and started speaking to Maxim. "We are going to war. The capital has been waiting for you to come... but.. but Duke Goodwin and General Longfellow finally had to make the decision to send troops to the border because the situation is quite urgent..."

The words he uttered were a bit confusing at first because he was speaking in panting breath, but Maxim could understand that Lord Sforza was talking about going to war.

Going to war with whom? They had not got into any war with anyone since the past five years, after his father fell ill and finally died.

Just like Jared Strongmoor, the late King Ashborn believed that to secure their position in their continent, they had to conquer all the lesser kingdoms in Atlantea and rule them under the same government. Now, their power expanded to around 70% of their continent.

Maxim wasn't interested in expanding more. He already found it a lot of work and such a hassle to manage such a big empire and didn't wish to take on any more work.

That's why Summeria had stopped doing any expansion work or conquests after he ascended the throne. 

Their power was very secure and the past two years had been blissful, to say the least.  So, it was so hard to believe that suddenly they were going to war again.

Who dared waging war with Summeria? Wait...

Was it his brother-in-law's family?

Maxim knew all his sisters would love to overthrow him, and if they were not all greedy and wanted the throne for themselves, they would have worked together and tried to attack him in Castilse.

Did they do just that now? Ha.

His sisters and their lousy husbands were finally working together? What a joke!

"How did you know this?" Maxim asked Lord Sforza. "When did you hear that we are going to war?"

"Just... yesterday, Your Majesty." Lord Sforza took the water given to him by a servant and gulped it in one go. "Duke Lance Goodwin sent two pigeons here. One has a letter for you, and the other one for me. He explained that our kingdom is being attacked. The enemy has reached the border and two of your brothers-in-law joined them to attack Summeria."

Maxim clicked his tongue. "Tch."

So, he was right about his brothers-in-law. Dammit. He furrowed his brows when he realized the mayor mention another enemy whom his brothers-in-law were currently helping.

"Who is the enemy?" he asked the mayor impatiently. 

Maxim had a suspicion as to who it was, but he wanted to hear it directly from the mayor.

Lord Sforza massaged his temple. "It's a kingdom from across the ocean."

Maxim clenched his fists. He wanted to laugh at hearing this information. 

So, he came here immediately, Maxim thought to himself.

He did tell Edgar that he would go to war to get Emmelyn, Wintermere, and Harlow from Mars's hands. At that time, Maxim wasn't aware that the stupid curse that befell Emmelyn had everything to do with him.

He foolishly thought he still had a chance to get Emmelyn for himself.

He would turn the world upside down for her.

He would take back Wintermere, and he would take her daughter from Mars Stongmoor and gave Harlow to Emmelyn.

Then, someday, he would win Emmelyn's heart and they could live happily together. He would raise Harlow as his own. And maybe... later, he and Emmelyn could have their own children.

Hell, even if Emmelyn didn't want to have children with him, he wouldn't mind. Maxim could just consider Harlow as his daughter.

What's important was he could be with Emmelyn, the love of his life.

Now, he wanted to laugh at his stupidity. Emmelyn would never be his. She had married another man and was in love with him.

She just didn't know that he never betrayed her. If she knew what her husband did for her sake.. she would definitely come running back to him.

How foolish of Maxim to tell Edgar he would declare war against Draec.

Apparently, Mars Strongmoor took his threat seriously and made the first move.

Even though Maxim had never met Mars, and he hated the man to the core, he couldn't help but grow respect for Emmelyn's husband.

Mars Strongmoor was a real man who took action and did everything he could to get his wife back.

"That foolish man," Maxim muttered. "He should just sit nicely and wait. I will return Emmelyn to his side soon. He is wasting so much time and effort."

"What do you mean, Your Majesty?" Lord Sforza could hear Maxim speak but didn't quite understand if the king's comment was directed at him or someone else. 

Who was this foolish man he was talking about?

"Forget it. I wasn't talking to you," Maxim narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Give me the letter from the prime minister."

Lord Sforza shrank in his place and then turned to a knight beside him to go inside and get the letter arrived with the pigeon the day before.

Then, he told the servant to bring some wine and refreshment for the king and the twenty knights that came with him. 

Half an hour later, Maxim was reading the letter from the prime minister. It was quite long and detailed. So, he could finally understand what was going on during his absence.

Gosh... he didn't really expect so many things to happen after he left Castilse. Usually, winter was the slowest season and people didn't do much, basically just trying to survive the season until spring came and life returned to the earth.

However, within just three months, an unexpected force came from across the ocean and talked the lesser kingdoms around Summeria to revolt against the Ashborns.

They promised independence to those countries if they supported Draec in the war against Summeria.  And it looked like they were quite successful.

Many kingdoms on the most outer part of Summerian's colony were helping them by providing the logistics and opened their access for Draec to pass leisurely.

They were now less than three months away from Castilse. The prime minister, all the ministers, Summerian's great houses, and the army commanders had done an urgent meeting to discuss what they should do because the king was nowhere to be found.

Now that they had received news from Maxim, the prime minister begged him to come home as soon as possible, by all means, so he could lead their country in facing this enemy.

.

.

**********

From Missrealitybites:

Sorry for the delay in publishing this chapter. I was working on back-to-back interpreting sessions for my client today.

Talking nonstop for five hours apparently killed some brain cells and the remaining ones refused to work... ahaha. I will try to publish more in the next hours.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.