Alec and his men hurriedly made their way towards Baron Cain's location with one thought in mind.... and that was to take all of his men, and bully the poor bastard to death.

"Your majesty!

Since the Scumbag initially wanted to kill you, then wouldn't it be too risky to go in just pike that?

I know that we already agreed to stick to the plan, but what if it backfires?

What about your safety?" One of his confidants asked anxiously.

The confidant wasn't worried about his own life but Alec's instead.

It just went to show that even Scum men had loyal followers too.

Alec marked and caressed his chin lightly.

"Relax Roupol, nothing is going to happen to me."

Of course Alec knew of their worries, but to him.... they were truly worrying over nothing.

Right now, he only had 372 men riding with him.... as he had sent some out to lead the knights taken from the nobles to the rendezvous spot close to Baymard.

So with just 372 men, if Baron Cain really wanted to kill him, he could easily do so.

And it was precisely because of this, that he had also lied to all of his knights here as well.

All except for his personal confidants.

In truth, the rest of the knights thought that there were thousands of hidden guards travelling alongside them.

So if there were any spies within his camp, they would immediately tell their employers to back off from fighting him.

Also, because no one would know the exact amount of people he was travelling with... some people might think that it was 3,000.... 7,000 or even 15,000.

Consequently, without an accurate number, no one would dare to match out against him just like that.

With that said, he could now march into Cain's city with his 372 men..... and act as if the had just walked in with his bodyguards instead.

After all, everyone would think that the rest of his men were camping somewhere deep in the forest instead.

So how could he be afraid that Baron Cain was going to kill him again?

His confidants were really worrying over nothing.

As for how he was going to bully the Baron, well.... that was the easy part.

With other nobles, they only took a thousand men, and sometimes only a hundred men.

But with Baron Cain, they were going to take all of his official knights.... which were at least 4,000 in number.

And even though the bastard probably had some unofficially appointed men hidden away... so what?

One should know that this was akin to a trap.

Because if Cain had no official knights by his side, then he couldn't do anything or make any public moves for the time being..... as he would need to explain to Alec where he got these extra men from.

Of course, nobles in Arcadina could recruit as many knights as they wanted to..... but the key point was that a formal letter, accompanied by a list of chosen candidates had to be sent to Alec for approval.

This way, Alec could keep tabs on how many men each noble had.

Because knowing this could also help him predict who were the most likely people to lead a revolt against him.

It one's subordinate had the strength which was equivalent to his, then wouldn't that mean that the noble in question might also develop some ideas about his throne later on?

And so with all this in mind, Alec had made several requirements and rules when any noble wanted to recruit or hire new knights under their camp.

He had given them a specific number of people that they could have under them at any given time.

So those who had secret bases with extra knights were definitely going against his laws.

And just to make sure that they don't hire more knights, Alec had always made sure that their allowances were just enough to take care of the number of official knights while living a lavish lifestyle with their families.

It was precisely because of this rule, that the city lords became tyrants who bullied the other nobles in their cities nonstop..... by taking a fraction of their allowances and so on.

Because what generally happened, was that within the cities... everyone had to pay their taxes, which was sometimes 1/3 or half of what they made.

It was completely unfair, but what could they do about it?

Of course, nobles paid higher taxes as well.

And money from official sites like gold mines, salt deposits and money from other mineral fields, mines and caves..... was also collected as well.

One should also know that some city lord's also had jurisdiction over several small villages around their cities..... And some Town Lord's also have jurisdiction over some other villages around too.

So taxes were also collected here in the form of money or food like wheat, grain and so on.

In short at the start of each month, everything was generally collected and sent to the city lord's or the Town lord's mansion.

And from there, these lord's would send part of the funds to Alec..... and keep the rest as allowances for himself and the other nobles.

Their allowances were very important to these nobles since their subordinates usually got paid from what was given to them at the beginning of each month.

Additionally, they also used part of their allowances to purchase other weapons too.

In this way, their forces within their territories would strengthen with time..... Which in turn strengthened Arcadina's forces too, lest a war broke out at any given time.

Bottom line, Alec was going to take all of Cain's official men and see what he would do in the meantime.

Of course, he would do other 'accidental things' too when he finally met the bastard.

After all, how could he be completely still in the face of a traitor?

So even though he wouldn't kill him now, he would still vent a little by bullying the chubby idiot a little.

That was only natural!

With these thoughts in mind, Alec's smile slowly broadened across his hard cold face.

Soon, he would get rid of all these pesky flies around his empire.

But first, he needed to start with the peskiest problem of all... Baymard!