World Development System 105 36. News From Duke Sapphire.

Jake spoke to John, "Lord I won't mind if that scum dies at the hands of another man, I already had my closure when I confronted him last time around. I was glad that I choose to defy him in my past or else I would have died in shame for my whole life. I wouldn't even be able to meet you if I didn't resist him in my past. Now looking back into my past I don't have as many regrets as I had earlier before confronting Evan and his men a few days back."
Sapphire thought, 'It seems he doesn't have a naive mentality and he really has moved on after that confrontation. I guess he really trained under that demon Vlad."
John smiled and said, "It's ok, we can still teach that Petty Prince a lesson later on and since he wants war and wants to involve everyone, we might as well give him his war. You can go and kill Evan yourself since they would any way blame us and things would anyway escalate to bigger matters. We might as well take an opportunity since we are already strong enough to resist them. If you are able to reach in time, first meet up with Dearil and both of you can act together, I will write a letter to Dearil so both of you will act together in this mission. Taylor, what is the current population of our city and the number of people in our armed forces."

Taylor immediately reported, "Currently we stand at 60000 population right now. The total men in our forces currently stand at 8500 men in Border security forces and 1100 men are in the internal police force and training schools. There are 600 men in Jake's spy force that we recently created, however not all the preparations are finished when it comes to the Ghosts."

John nodded and spoke, "It looks like Duke Sapphire already waited for enough and is bored a lot and since all the plans are made I would like to personally tour you North-frontier city and our ways. Jake, you can head on to meet Dearil. Let's go, Duke Sapphire."

Duke Sapphire smiled, "It would be my honor for you to take out your personal time and tour me this city."

John laughed and answered, "hahaha, I guess the truth is, even I wanted to relax a bit today and since you are here today I would like to use this opportunity to tour North-frontier city as even I hadn't toured my whole city since I only read the reports from my men and checked the site once before giving my decisions. So we will have a lot of fun today."

Taylor immediately signaled one of his servants to make the spy guards ready to head out and protect both Duke and John as they will be visiting civilian and military places.

Duke Rose nostalgically said after watching the architecture, "I would like to meet the Architect of your City, from this I can see that he has a lot of freedom to express when it comes to making various new architecture in your city."

John thought as he remembered, "Now that you mention about architecture, we have only recently finished the construction of our administrative headquarters. Let's head there as my chief architect is also stationed there as making a grand Administrative headquarter was the most important task for him."

Duke Rose remembered the biggest structure when he arrived at North-frontier city, "Is it that tallest grand structure in the center of City that I witnessed after coming to this town, It looked like an imperial palace just from the size of the structure. I saw that it was a sealed area protected by your new internal force called the police. It is good knowing that its construction is already finished and I can be the first man to visit it with you."

John spoke, "Coincidentally, my Cheif architect is also a half-elf. I guess it is fate for you to meet him today."

****
Simon was in the northeast of the Aelius kingdom at Riverside town. He was currently tailing Evan's after he left Duke Blackwolf's communication point.
Simon roared to his right-hand man, "Where is that damn magician, we have to make sure that all of the entourage dies or only Evan dies in secret."

One of his men responded, "Master, he is currently resting in the carriage."

Simon grunted as he heard his men and ordered him, "Is he here for work or for a picnic on our expenses while we are doing all the field work, geez this is one of the reasons why I hate working with others apart from my team and especially those magicians. We are going to start our operation right now, tell him and our men to get ready."

The men responded to him, "Okay, Immediately to the orders sir."

Dearil meanwhile was tailing both the parties and watching the show from sidelines. He thought as he saw the current movements, "I guess we are too late, It seems these guys are intending to do something big. That foolish Duke is done for right now, I guess Jake won't be able to personally take revenge against him." Dearil sighed as he thought of the current situation.

****
Duke Fjord meanwhile got severe damage reports from his men when they started attacking the Morgan family naval fleet.
The marine scout from the port came and reported it directly to the Duke, "Milord we suffered severe losses at the sea after the Morgan family was deployed with those new ballistas. Particularly those runic ballistas were very dangerous to our main ships. Any ship directly hit by it sunk into the sea after catching fire. Milord, I think the situation right now is very serious and we need to do something about it since we lost a whole fleet of 50 men, Captain Shannon is awaiting your orders.

Duke Fjord thought and gave his orders, "It seems I really underestimated that guy, from the looks of reports I can see that he is a hard nut to crack. Try making a deal with the pirates that they would be allowed to sell their loot in the eastern port of Laguna city if it is only the Morgan family fleet that they are targetting. We won't attack them blindly, attack with caution and know about your enemy before engaging them fully. However, use the harassing techniques to them at night so that they can't sleep at night peacefully. This would at least fatigue them mentally. However, be careful about keeping a distance from them. Use our best scouts so that they can easily gauge the distance of their ships."

Meanwhile, Ralph thought as he heard of the reports from the scout in the court. 'It seems they aren't paper tiger like we thought previously. From this, I can say that they have some real firepower when it comes to naval warfare. I wonder how would father react at the news of his favorite son's death.'

One of the Ministers gave a suggestion, "why don't we target them on Land instead of Seas, that very weapon is giving them an edge over us at naval warfare, We can't hope to use Magicians so early when there isn't even a war or a need to assassinate someone in sea."

another of his ministers, "Why don't we ally with Duke Black..."
Duke Fjord showed his hand and interjected, "Don't even mention him or that Northern Barbarian Norman."

Ralph suggested, "Father, Why don't we attack that port east of North-frontier town belonging to that noble Mendez, isn't he being too chummy with Prince Hector and Duke Norman. And since we know the source we can at least nip it in the bud."

Duke Fjord nodded, "This plan of your's is better and suited for our current needs, however, we would need the legality to attack that town since it belongs to that baron. I would rather have the dwarves from the east attack them. However, the Royal family wouldn't be happy if we give them a route to that town. Well, I would still consider your plan since it is better for us."
Ralph suggested, "Why not threaten the crown that you would open the eastern front if they interfere in this personal matter. Or why not use the pirates to attack the town?"
Duke Fjord laughed at this childish remark and then said, "That won't be possible as they too would put sanctions on our trade which would be lethal for us. We would need a bigger reason to hold the crown hostage where even they hesitate to take action against us. As for pirates, you think they won't know about them? Pirates can only be used in seas."

Chapter end