It had been an entire day since the capital city of Landis fell to the combined might of the loyalists and the Darklight Host and Queen Gurda was about to begin holding her first public meeting to pronounce her return to her rightful place and the defeat of the traitors.
There will be major changes announced to the country this time, no longer will there be a Senate overseeing everything, no more politicians or bureaucrats without oversight either. The fact that this is possible is down to her chief advisor Symbia. The Doll Witch is now level 199, and has gained a number of new skills from repeatedly running the dungeons inside Blood Sands Castle.
Her Dolls, like the Puppets of her Guild Master can now perform all basic tasks at a reasonable level, and she's put many skill points into their planning, strategy and accounting skills, furthering the plans she made with Gurda while the Queen to be was in hiding.
With one truly loyal follower and a staff that can take care of the duties of her ministers alongside the Knights led by Lancelot, Gurda is certain that she can make things work, without letting the old pattern of the Royal Family being figureheads in all but name begin again.
They've attracted a few more loyal followers as well. Carlos and Lancelot finally made up, and Carlos is moving into Landis to be with his children, who went into hiding, helping they loyalists just before the Academy fell to the Rebels. The entire staff of the academy was killed and replaced by zealots intending to indoctrinate the kids, and it's become quite an issue for Queen Gurda.
The staff obviously has to go, but the damage that they did to the students might not be reversible. If they've converted any significant number of them, it's possible that a culture that isn't compatible with the rest of the Kingdom could be festering inside those hallowed walls.
So, the academy has been closed for the next year or two, enough time to repair the physical damages from the battle, but also enough time to start over with a whole new batch of teachers and students.
That might not be as good of an outcome as she might have hoped for, but it seemed to be the best call in the end.
The battle at the Blood Sands Castle, that happened while the high level members were away helping Queen Gurda reclaim the Landis Capital ended in a resounding victory for the defenders, once Neffie and King Aggramor showed up to help out. Earl Mills, knowing he would be under surveillance, had hired mercenaries from other coastal nations, plus a large number from the Nothern Continent to avoid arousing suspicion before launching his offensive.
Both the Earl and every one of the mercenaries he hired perished in that battle, and the effects are beginning to be felt all over the coasts. The men he hired were often guards for the Merchant ships, which are now nearly defenseless against an uptick in raiding by the Wave Riders. They've looted more ships this month than they did in the entire last year, and a rumor is going around that Earl Mills had done something to directly offend them.
Certainly, many of the ships that were targeted were his, but others were freelance merchants, so not every Captain believes the rumors, but very few of them are willing to ply the routes towards Landis for any reason right now.
That's caused Gurda some headaches, but compared to the fact that half the nation's former territory now belongs to the Orcs it's a minor inconvenience. She didn't realize before returning that the rebels had lost so much territory during their brief rule of the region, but she's started negotiations with the Chiefs to arrange a ceasefire and negotiate a proper end to the battles now that she's taken over.
Who will eventually end up with the larger portion of Landis is up for debate, but at least she holds the capital and surrounding areas, giving her the advantage of having the ports at her disposal.
With the threats in the Capital of Landis under control, the members of the Darklight Host took a small detour up the coast, clearing the zealots from the desert and returning rule of the coastal cities to their residents.
Only one city was ignored, the City of Behar, which is doing just fine on its own, since the King managed to make that cloak to mind control humans, with the help of the Royal Spider Silk that Cain traded them. That place is best avoided at all costs right now, despite the fact they don't actually have many humans in the guild.
Despite Gurda becoming Queen, the greatest beneficiaries of this war have definitely been the Orcs and the Darklight Host. The Orcs got a lot of new territory, and the Darklight Host has become a legend on this Continent, with their fame spreading as far as the coasts of the Eastern and Northern Continents, calling them a merciless military powerhouse with the influence to topple nations anytime they wish.
The reputation is good for Earl RhickJaymz as well, since they're so often in Assah, and have a house in the city. He's known as a friend to the greatest military on the Eastern half of the Central Continent, as well as to the Wave Riders, who started showing up at his docks daily once the ships belonging to Earl Mills started disappearing.
The routine is the same every time, they send a representative to the house belonging to the Darklight Host, talk to the members there or the Puppets that maintain the building, and then return to their ships in a great mood before bringing the majority of the crew ashore to party.
Sure, they trade goods in and out of the port, but to RhickJaymz, as well as his dragons, it seems much more likely that they've got a deal going with Cain, who is paying them to cause very specific types of chaos on the high seas.
Whether it's temporary or the ambitious Duke intends to make some much larger move on the global trade routes isn't their concern. What does matter is that his guild now has enough high ranking and powerful members that the Earl can bum along on dungeon runs with them. With that extra free time, he's gained quite a few levels lately, and might even make level 300 himself within the next year or two.
If he'd known such a great castle site had existed, he would have moved there years ago, but no need to fret now, their alliance is strong enough that he can go visit anytime he likes.
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