Capítulo 109: Chapter 109
Ben anxiously monitored his map as they traveled toward the Galeran capital city. He was almost half expecting to find some unknown army standing in his way.
Brandomma had interfered at the Trareniel Kingdom and Galeran had interfered with him outside of the Brandomma capital. The way things were going he wondered if one of the western kingdoms would decide to invade Galeran before he arrived.
He kept a watchful eye on his map up until they stopped for the night a half mile from the capital city. Ben could finally relax knowing the area around Oceansong City was clear of obstacles. Ben had his men eat a decent meal after they had put up their tents and had them go to bed early.
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Two hours before sunrise the following morning they packed up their camp and left a few men behind to take care of the horses and carriages.
They used the darkness to hide their advancement toward Oceansong capital city.
Ben held his men back a hundred yards from the walls and went forward on his own. From the base of the wall, he cast Sleep on the few guards who were patrolling the walls. He leaped up onto the wall and quickly zip-cuffed their hands and feet and gagged them with a strip of cloth to prevent them from alerting the other guards.
Galeran only had one enemy and it was Brandomma. Their king and troops were currently surrounding Baymeadow city from what they had heard from the reports sent back to the city. The last thing they thought would happen is an army would come along and invade them.
There were not many guards watching the walls and city gate at this early in the morning and Ben had no problem subduing the sleepy guards without killing anyone.
Once the area around the gate was clear, Ben quietly removed the barricade bar from across the gates and led his men into the city.
Ben sent General Kaseo to capture the guard's barracks without killing everyone if possible. When the sleeping city and palace guards were woken up to find over six hundred heavy spearmen around them they should surrender. It would be difficult for them to put up any resistance while waking up in their underwear.
General Victor was ordered to have the Elven archers spread out on the city walls and make sure no one came in or out of the city.
General Decius had seven hundred dismounted knights currently under his command. Three hundred of them were escorting the surrendered Galeran troops toward their location. Those seven hundred men he had with him were split up into fifty man squads and sent out into the city to stealthily capture any patrolling guards.
General Cassius was ordered to have his one hundred Javelin Cavalry soldiers to stand on the walls near the city gate with their javelins. Even if they were not mounted they could still play the role of a ranged soldier on the city walls. They were given the same orders as the archers. No one was to come in or go out of the city. Anyone who attempted to go out or in through the gate would be skewered by a barrage of steel tipped javelins.
General Justinus followed behind Ben and his elite squad with two hundred mounted knights who were now on foot. General Justinus was ordered to surround the royal palace with his men.
The drowsy palace guards stationed at the royal palace gates were quickly captured and placed under guard by General Justinus men.
Ben left the Half-Giants just outside the entrance to the royal palace and entered with his squad of elite young ladies.
The city was now captured without having to kill a single person. Ben could now relax and casually walk through the royal palace and round up everyone who was currently here at these early morning hours.
Everyone they came across did not expect Ben's squad to be an enemy force. There were no warnings of an attack and he was calmly walking through the palace without displaying any weapons.
The large group of attractive young women looked more like an entourage than a death squad of cultivator/magi.
Whenever they came across anyone Ben would order the girls to herd them forward. They took everyone to the throne room and had them sit down quietly. A few of the palace official tried to complain or resist and learned the hard way it was better to remain quiet and follow along after these young ladies gave them a few heavy-handed body blows.
Ben sat on the throne and sent out half the young ladies to search the palace for any remaining staff or servants. The rest of Ben's squad guarded the exits to the throne room to prevent any of the captured staff from escaping.
Any palace staff found on the streets or who made it to the royal palace were escorted to the throne. Ben called the king's assistants forward who were in the throne room and had them write down the addresses of any palace staff who were not present in the throne room and he also had them provide the address of any cultivators who lived in the city.
Ben left the palace staff under guard in the throne room and went outside with Mythia following him. He gave a list of palace staff to General Decius and had him send his fifty man squads to each home to bring the people on the list to the throne room.
Ben and Mythia went off to three cultivators estates and informed them the king had died in battle and that the city had been captured. One of the cultivators decided to fight and did not stand a chance against Ben and Mythia his cultivation wasn't much higher than Mythia's so he died a foolish death.
The other two cultivators were handled in a different manner. Ben instantly applied his Aura Assault technique on them to let them know he had a high Stage cultivation as he explained what had happened with the king and the city.
The remaining two cultivators decided to surrender knowing they could not beat Ben and Mythia. They were escorted to the throne room and asked to take a seat with the assembled palace staff.
The throne room was now full of palace officials, assistants, servants, maids, and other specialty staff who worked here.
Ben cast his Voice Projection Spell and gave everyone present a detailed explanation of what had happened since the time he had attacked the former Trareniel Kingdom and how he had ended up here in the Galeran throne room.
They were told the king was dead and the royal cultivator would not return. The remaining eight hundred plus levied Galeran troops were in route here and would be released to return to their families and jobs.
The palace officials, assistants, and remaining military officers were ordered to make a list of possible regents to delegate Ben's orders and to govern the city under his rule.
They were told to only choose people who were not power hungry and would do there best for the region. If they were to vote someone into office that would end up causing troubles for Ben then they would all be stripped of their current positions and imprisoned for treason.
If everyone continued to properly do their jobs and work to better the region Ben would allow them to remain in their current position and would have the possibility of being promoted if they excelled in those positions.
It was made perfectly clear if you accepted Brandomma was now a part of the Avalon Kingdom and did not create trouble your life could only improve over time, but if you stood out and rebelled against the crown you would be locked away or worse executed depending on your crimes.
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Two days later the escorted Galeran troops were released into the city and the people saw the Avalon King had kept his word. Ben also was presented with a slip of parchment with a name on it. The name on the paper came as a mild surprise it was the person who was voted to be the regions regent and her name is Gloria Hamilton.
Ben was surprised a group of older men from this era would pick a woman to be their regent. Ben had no problem with it himself and it went to prove the people who voted had picked who they thought would truly do their best under Ben's rule.
Gloria Hamilton met with Ben in private and they spent the good part of the day talking and getting to know one another. Gloria was a smart sensible woman who reminded Ben of Cordelia, his sales manager in Goldcrest.
They talked about what needed to be done in the region and what Ben planned to improve. Ben once again lowered the kingdom's tax rate to increase his new subjects morale and filled empty occupations with recruited servants.
The Oceansong City's defences were upgraded to concrete walls with a moat, gatehouse, and a drawbridge. The Oceansong streets, the small town roads, and the wilderness dirt roads were all upgraded to concrete with Heating Coils under them. They were connected with the southern CIral roads and the western Brandomma region roads.
It was now possible to travel over concrete roads through the Ciral kingdom, the Galeran region, the Brandooma region, and the Trareniel region. A person could travel over the smooth roads from the western kingdoms all the way up to the Aregard Kingdom.
Ben spent just over a week in Oceansong city arranging for Gloria to take over as regent of the Galeran region. The collected taxes were to be kept in the treasury and recorded in detail. The treasury's disposable income could be allocated to projects to improve the kingdom. Ben felt he could trust Gloria so he left it up to her discretion on what to improve.
From now on the gulf was divided between the Brandomma and Galeran regions. They both had their own water to fish zones and these prime fishing spots were equally shared between them. There were to be no more fights over who fished where. Both regions depended on the sale of fish from the reefs in the gulfs so they would both be given access to the waters around the reef.
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Ben felt he had done everything he could for now and had his men mount the carriages and they traveled back to Timbershield in the Trareniel region.
The same procedure was used to hire a regent for the Trareniel region. An older dependable man named Nicholas Shawcross was voted as the regent for the Trareniel region.
By the time finished up preparing Nicholas for his regent position it was nearing the end of spring.
Ben and his army had set out to invade Trareniel and to depose Soren Knotley and it led to a military campaign that took them across three kingdoms.
He was now the King of four capital cities and eleven towns. It was at the point that his Avalon Kingdom had grown into a small empire on this continent in only a couple of seasons.
Ben left Timbershield with seven new cultivators and the former king of Brandomma. They all rode together toward Dragonshome with Mythia in the carriage who was always by Ben's side.
Three days later after a relaxing ride, they reached Dragonshome fortress. The troops returned to the barracks and were given a week of relaxation from training.
The seven new cultivators and Leofric Cosworth the former Brandomma king were provided luxurious apartment style rooms in Ben's Renaissance Castle for now.
Each of them was provided with proper cultivation techniques after being submitted to a HALO scan.
Leofric Cosworth and these seven old cultivators were given Springtide Rejuvenation(1) pills. They all lost their gray hair and wrinkles to look like healthy middle-aged men.
Leofric Cosworth was taken to the Sect Headquarters and he used the HALO to become a cultivator. He would now train along with the thirty young ladies and the seven men from the conquered kingdoms.
Ben made sure to place a Slave Command spell on the new cultivators to prevent them from causing trouble when he wasn't around or running off to other kingdoms. Now that they were on the inside and would be shown many of the fortress secrets they could no longer be free to leave the Avalon Kingdom.
Additional QI chambers and Gravity Chambers were built so that everyone could cultivate at once without having to wait.
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One week later every soldier, cultivator, and magi were given Indigo Iron Fruits. The first week of summer was going to be remembered for a long time as the festival of pain.
Over two thousand soldiers including Mythia spent a few hours in agonizing pain until they passed out if they were lucky. Everyone who was considered a combatant who lived in Dragonshome would now have dramatically increased bone density.
From then on everyone returned to training, school, or cultivating to improve themselves. Summer was just around the corner and the world was green and warm once again.
Ben stood on the fortress walls looking out across the grasslands and reminisced on how he woke up in a field by a stream with only Athena to help him adjust to this new world.
He is no longer alone with hundreds of thousands of peoples lives now under his rule. He had climbed his way up from a small time vendor in the Goldcrest square to a young sovereign.
This is far from the end of his journey! Ben has only seen a small corner of this world! There is still so much more out there for his to see and discover, waiting for him beyond the horizon.
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(1) [Springtide Rejuvenation]: This pill reshapes the body, revitalizing the blood, and imbues the skin with new life. An elder with a face full of wrinkles can regain the appearance of their thirty-year-old self.
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As promised this is the completion of Volume One! I currently have thirty-five chapters pre-planned for Volume Two.
Volume Two will introduce some romance. Ben may meet multiple future wife's through falling in love or possible political decisions as he grows in power.
On a final note I can not promise how far Volume Two will progress or if I will release a chapter everyday! I will do my best with the time I have after work to provide an enjoyable story. We can only wait and see how far things will continue to progress from here.
I would also like to thank everyone who has supported and voted for the novel and hope you continue to enjoy Volume Two! Thanks!
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