Chapter 253: To the front lines
The war is going on and, in a month, all the generals and the Marshalls are on the front lines. The Novices took backseats, even the Great realm and Grand realm experts are now only minor characters.
The Nascent cultivators themselves are now having the major battles, which means it is about time, Sam and Emperor Arian moved to the Front lines and they did.
The Orion's border was moved backward, all the territories are conquered by at least half and the southern star is the worst as the whole territory was conquered completely.
The southern star Duke was extremely disheartened. Now the southern side is cleared and Arian can invade directly.
Duke who is a Peak stage Nascent moved towards the imperial capital so that they can guard this side.
Sam along with Arian Emperor moved towards the southern star.
The whole dukedom which he was very familiar with came to his sight again.
Now, he can walk around openly and no one would dare say a word about it.
He is looking at the signs of war and the new temporary personnel from the Arian taking charge of the city's activities, the officials being captured and being interrogated.
He sighed at the sights he had brought upon this once-stable empire.
And all of it was caused because an egoistic prince and his father looked down and coveted his possessions and are so conceited to accept their defeat and tried to kill him.
Now the whole empire which gave that arrogant prick his status as an emperor has to pay the price. But Sam has a feeling that it was for the better.
Because, from all the journeys he had been in this empire, he didn't hear a single good thing about the emperor, the citizens are so indifferent towards him and they almost behaved as if the emperor never existed in the first place.
But the few days he was in the Arian, he saw the exact opposite. The soldiers' conditions are hundreds of times better than that of the soldiers in the Orion.
There are many training facilities which would improve various aspects, even the food is extremely delicious and nutritious.
Even the citizens give great respect to the soldiers and as for the popularity of the emperor, he is like a god to the citizens. They respect him so much and they identify him in a single glance.
There are very few slums in this area and those are also only occupied by some small-time criminals rather than the dirt poor.
Even the people who have no cultivation are being given adequate safety, the city guards are working properly and there is a very less percentage of tax being collected.
Simply put, the Arian empire is a great place and the emperor Arian is a great ruler.
This whole might have started based on Sam's personal agenda and there is a lot of his help in winning this one, but it is going to be a good thing for both the empires.
Sam along with the emperor is stationed near the imperial capital. But they didn't advance. Because, in at most two weeks, the whole territory will be occupied and that would be great timing to have an all-out battle at the imperial capital.
This is always the norm, the most damaged will always be the imperial capital. The most elite of the forces are all stationed there.
Even Sam's battalion is stationed at the imperial capital.
As for the beasts in the wild, they all stayed put and this mainly accounted to the Thunder Vulture of Emperor Arian.
All the beasts stayed put deep inside under the guidance of the kings of the respective forests.
Now, all they have to do is wait it out for the final battle and show them who is the boss.
But the waiting was only for Sam, Emperor, and other big fish. The normal troops have to move and they are now attacking the southwestern and southeastern through the border between the southern star and those two territories.
They started doing a pincer attack and now the territories are being occupied at a rapid pace.
This increased to the point that they finished the whole thing ten days. The Dukedom's surrendered.
Some Dukes escaped to the imperial capital and some of them surrendered. Now, only the final battle is remaining.
On the eleventh day of them staying near the imperial capital, they finally surrounded the city wall and the emperor yelled with all his might.
"Emperor Orion, your capital has been surrounded, your lands conquered and your armies defeated, it is for the better if you surrender, there is no need for further bloodshed."
At this moment there was an uproar in the city, the most loss was suffered by the soldiers and then the merchants and the secondary nobles, their assets have been annexed by the government in the name of the war tax, and the most profitable are the four professional towers, their business boomed like never before.
Their towers are only things that cannot be attacked, they are like foreign embassies in another country. They cannot be touched no matter how great the war is.
At the same instant, inside the imperial palace.
There are many people inside the imperial court. They are the strongest of the Orion empire.
All of them are discussing how to deal with this when the voice of the Arian Emperor was heard.
Many of them are having a hard enough time already and this announcement only made it worse.
Many of them looked at the emperor viciously. If they had enough power, they would have smacked him senseless right there and then.
This guy brought this all upon them.
This guy and his stupid son did this and right now that stupid son is not even in the Orion, he is now in the thunder god temple receiving training safe and sound.
Now, because of the temper of this useless father and son pair, their lives are hanging on a thread. They cannot just surrender because they might get killed by this stupid emperor and they don't have any other choice but to fight.
Now, there is a well in the front and a pit in the back, they cannot just walk away.
Vickers who is beside the emperor shook his head and sighed.
He didn't expect that his suggestion was too later, Sam didn't even give the emperor a chance to consider, he just went away and did what he wanted to do. He clearly didn't take the habit of Sam purchasing the information into account and delayed his visit and now because of that information, everything was over just like that.
There is no way that Orion could recover, even if by a miracle Orion could win, what's next, all the territory was occupied and they can at most rule this imperial capital.
He made his move and appeared at the entrance of the city.
He looked at the Emperor of Arian and said.
"How are you Arc?" He asked as if he was meeting his old friend and it turned out to be true.
"Nice to meet you again, Old friend." Arc, the Emperor said in reply.
"Do we have to do it this way?" Vickers asked but his gaze is not on Arc anymore, it is on Sam.
His question was not answered. Vickers looked at Sam and continued.
"Sam, why do you have to do this? You could have had your revenge a few years later, with your talent, you would be able to take revenge in just a decade. Do you have to go this far? Do you have to take it to this extent, even causing a whole empire to collapse?"
Sam looked at Vickers with no expression but inwardly he was surprised, he didn't know that Vickers is someone this powerful, he didn't expect this creepy middle-aged man was an existence on par with an emperor. But the surprise didn't last long.
"Revenge, you say. You are actually right. I can kill him in a decade, in fact, I can slaughter him like a lamb right in the center of the Imperial capital while the whole city is watching.
But until that time, what should I do? Do you guarantee that I can have a peaceful night after escaping? Can you guarantee that an inflated and unfounded arrogance filled person like him would be able to let go of the fact that I would be able to leave unscathed?"
Vickers was stumped. He only thought of things from his side and the empire's side. He didn't think much of Sam though. What kind of person is Sam? He saw it first hand, he is an extremely prideful person who is capable of the glory and majesty he displays. He might be arrogant but he had every right to be. Would a person of that caliber able to take a loss?
Of course not.
But before he could answer, Sam continued.
"Above all else. I can still do the same right now, so why should I let the vermin that came after me, live an extra second if I can kill him now?"
This time Vickers replied.
"You seem to be too confident of yourselves. Are you sure you can do this? All I could see is you using tricks to make both empires fight. If you had the ability why do you have to do all this?"
"I want to kill the emperor before killing him."
Sam replied to him in one sentence and the spectators are confused only a few people understood what he meant.
Sam not only wants to kill the emperor himself he wants to kill whatever that makes him an emperor. He was so arrogant enough to make an attempt at Sam's life.
So, Sam wanted to kill that arrogance before anything else.