(Author-san here: Rubber is in Chapter 51 and Heavy machines are in Chapter 54......so rubber was made before the heavy machines.... don't get confused guys..😭)

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--Royal Palace, Capital of Arcadina--

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Over the past week, all those involved with the border war had finally arrived at the Capital.

All except one.

Everyone was puzzled about what could have delayed the mighty war God.

King Barn, his 3 sons, some court ministers, and the City lords that would participate in the upcoming the border war, were gathered around the throne room.

In 4 more days, all the men would be heading out towards the border cities that had been conquered by the Deiferus Knights.

There were currently 5 groups dedicated for taking back each border city... And each group had 1 commander and 3 generals for the war.

In some groups, the prince's would act as commanders and have the other city lords within their group act as generals.... And in others, a city lord was appointed to act as Commander.

The men had positive attitudes towards this war.... they felt that they were more in number, compared to their enemies.

With each man having at least 5000 knights under his command, victory was definitely assured.

All through the day, they had been going over their battle plans and strategy.

And now that their meeting was coming to an end, something had to be said about City lord Shannon.

"Your sure that you had previously sent out my orders?"

"My king.. I am most certain...perhaps something happened along the way that caused his delay?"

"My king....We can't continue to wait for him any further..."

"He's right my king..... Our cities are being stolen by those animals".

"My king..... May I suggest that we replace City lord Shannon with someone else who's currently residing within the Capital?"

Alec Barn fell silent for a while.

The whole charade made him feel uncomfortable.

Whenever there was an important battle taking place, it was usually Shannon who arrived earlier than others.

This was really puzzling..... Why hadn't he shown up yet?

As City lord Shannon was popularly known within the Capital, many young knights looked up to him for his strength.

They had heard of his amazing battle skills, and the amazing wars that he had fought alongside King Barn back in the days.

Although the people in the Capital feared King Barn, they had loads of respect for City lord Shannon.... In their mind, he should have been their king instead of Alec.

Actually, the people were simple minded... And would generally prefer anyone who was kinder to them, and better than Alec Barn.

In addition, because of the way the people thought of Shannon, Shannon himself had been planning to dethrone Alec ages ago... That was until he died at Landon's hands.

He had planned the whole scenario with his eldest son Marder.

Marder was to get close to the royal princesses, as well as gradually gain the support of the people.

He himself was to gather his forces slowly, and even buy some of the knights in the royal castle.

He had planned to make a deal with Alec's personal guards, who in turn were to poison or aid him in killing Alec.

Everything was going as planned.... up until he met Landon.

He had ended up dying at the hands of his enemy's bastard son.... And as he died, he couldn't help but feel resentful.

Couldn't he have at least died at the hands of Alec, the crown prince, or someone important?

As a person of great status, wasn't it a stain to his name if people heard that he was defeated by sickly bastard?

People went down in history as war heroes, but no!!!!!..... He just had to end up being a stepping stone for the bastard.

Alec Barn had always known of the people's thoughts about Shannon.

Ever since they were still knights training at the Knight Academy, Shannon had always had a better image in the Capital compared to him.

Shannon was very charismatic, gentle and kind to all the ladies and nobles around...

The stupid people in the Capital actually believed that bullshit acting of his.

Alec didn't blame Shannon at all for his acting..... power play was indeed about keeping up appearances.

In this day and age, those who acted like white lotus, heroes and so on, easily won the hearts of the people.

The people were sheep, that needed a shepherd to guide them.

They only listened, and obeyed.

And if anyone could convince them, then they could even give up their lives for that particular shepherd.

Truly a stupid bunch.

Alec himself used to pretend while he was in the Academy... But after he killed his family, who would stand in his way again?

He had become king and was the law maker.... who did he need to keep on airs with?

Alec knew that Shannon wasn't as pure as he would like the people in the Capital to believe.

In the Western regions, Shannon was known as 'Blood Knight'.

Over there, the people were completely frightened by Shannon... He acted like a bandit and did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to.

He killed sometimes for fun, and tortured innocent people when things didn't go his way..... This was a man who had reportedly killed 3 of his wives once.

He had burned villages down, just because he missed the site of blood or whenever he was enraged.

Shannon also had one of the largest Harems in the entire empire.

He had kidnapped and raped countless women ever since he became City lord.

Some of these women were stolen from their husbands and families.

The sad part of it all was that, some had their husbands and children burnt or buried alive, since Shannon didn't want his new wives to miss their old families.

The thought of another man having anything to do with his wives completely irked him.

Hence he went after their families, towns or villages.

When Alec was King, he immediately shipped Shannon out to the Western regions, which had the worst conditions within the empire.

He also stationed several nobles around the Western region to monitor Shannon's movements...

If Shannon was seen making his way to the Capital, secret messengers would be sent to deliver messages to Alec.

But after 15 years, nothing had happened... Hence Alec dropped his guard down.

But for some reason over the recent years, he had been getting overly suspicious of Shannon.

Shannon would now frequently make trips to the Capital, and would also do things that garnered support from the peasants.

He had decided to use this war as an opportunity to kill Shannon.

The other city lords within Shannon's team, were supposed to team up, and kill him after they had won the border war.

But now, Shannon hadn't showed up yet.

Did he know of their plans way before hand? Was he planning a revolt?

Alec's mind was racing back and forth.

It was indeed the perfect time to revolt.

The prince's were all leaving, and most of his strongest city lords would join them as well.

Did Shannon build up his forces in secret? And if so, how many men did he really have under his command?

Although there were still Barons and ministers in the Capital who had their own armies, how could Alec be sure that they wouldn't stab him in the back as well?

None of them really cared for him, and would even be pleased if he actually died.

Plus even with his personal army, he couldn't guarantee his win since he didn't know how many men his enemy had.

For the first time in his life, he began to regret his decision of ruling the people with fear.

'Shannon, Ohhh Shannon.....hehehe..... Are you really going to bite the hand that fed you?'

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Alec raised his right hand up in the air, and the room became silent.

They had been talking and arguing about who would be the new Commander for Shannon's team.

"Since City lord Shannon isn't here right now, City Lord Campbell will take over his position as Commander..... Also, Baron Unisy within the Capital will join the group, so as to even out the members between each group."

Alec then turned to 2 of the guards at his side, and issued out a command.

"Get Shannon's son, Marder....to see me at once!!"