CEO In A Fantasy World Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Undercurrents

Caesar lazily stretched his limbs got out of his bed and walked towards his closet. He picked out a simple military outfit and put on his cap.

"Knock"

"Knock"

"Young master, breakfast is prepared"

"Thank you, Sebastian, I will be right there"

Caesar finished putting his outfit on and walked towards the dining room… When he arrived he noticed the table was empty, confused he looked towards Sebastian "where is everyone?"

Sebastian bowed deeply and replied respectively "Lady Elizabeth has already eaten and headed for the academy, as for the other three I believe they are supervising at the place you asked them too"

Caesar nodded his head in understanding "I see, so I was the last person to wake up this morning" Caesar said somewhat surprised

"That would be correct young master, today I have made simple bacon and eggs along with sausage and an a.s.sortment of fruits"

Caesar sat down at the table and began eating "I had thought that the spices in this world would pale significantly in comparison to earth but the foods are actually quite tasty"

After finis.h.i.+ng breakfast Caesar stood up and thanked Sebastian, "I will be back in the afternoon"

"I will prepare lunch for you and one other then" Sebastian bowed and replied

Caesar nodded thankfully and headed outside of his manor, Caesar stepped in the carriage that was already waiting for him and opened the window "Head towards the palace" Caesar said with a smile

"As you wish lord"

The carriage started slowly moving towards the palace as Caesar sat back on his seat… "I truly do wonder what is here in Rahvin that is making all of these kingdoms attack us. The king has to know right?" Caesar thought to himself while looking out the window

The carriage soon pa.s.sed by the checkpoint, A guard came rus.h.i.+ng towards the carriage "Identification please!"

Caesar presented him the house of Pheles insignia and smoothly pa.s.sed by the checkpoint. Once Caesar made it to the palace gates a minister came out and stopped the carriage.

"Do you have an appointment with the king?" The minister asked quizzically

"Yes, I would like to make one" Caesar said slyly

The minister looked at Caesar dumbfounded for a minute before replying "O-okay I will go inform the king, wait out here please"

The minister hurriedly ran back into the palace with an anxious expression.

Caesar tapped his thigh while waiting for the minister to return "I hope he doesn't make me wait too much" He said quietly

----

Inside the palace, the minister's footsteps rang throughout the halls "y-your majesty, the marshall is requesting an audience"

A majestic voice replied to the minister "what is he here for?"

"I-I didn't ask your majesty, should I turn him away for now?"

"Hmmm, I heard he had a disagreement with my son… bring him here for now" The king contemplated for a while before answering

"As you command your majesty"

---

The sound of footsteps soon invaded Caesar's ears after about 5 minutes of waiting, Caesar stepped out of the carriage to see an out of breath minister in front of him.

"The king has accepted your request of an audience, please follow me"

Caesar nodded in response and started walking behind the minister… "I wonder if that brat told his father… well no mater" Caesar thought while slowly walking behind the minister

After a few minutes of walking they reached the throne room, the minister called out "Marshall Mephesto of the Pheles household has arrived" before bowing and backpedaling away.

Caesar took a few steps forward and kneeled on one knee "I greet your majesty" he said respectively while on the ground.

The king raised his hand and called out "haha, no need to be formal in front of me… Rise"

Caesar naturally rose after hearing the kings words and looked into his eyes "I didn't notice it last time I was in the presence of the king but he has a decent amount of mana inside" Caesar thought to himself while looking at the king.

"I heard you had a disagreement with my first son" the king broke the silence and asked Caesar in an amused tone

"Yes, he had threatened my father so I naturally retaliated back" Caesar replied with a calm smile

"Hoho, that boy is not suited for the throne… Alas my third son is also not suited" The king replied in an exasperated tone

"Your majesty, I suggest you let the crown prince join my knights on their training sessions… I will train him quite thoroughly"

"Haha, that does sound like a good idea… I will order him to attend this afternoon, how does that sound?"

"That sounds perfect" Caesar replied with a wide smile

The kings smiling expression was soon replaced by a serious one "I know you did not come here to banter, what is your real reason for requesting this audience"

Caesar's smile was also replaced by a serious one "your majesty, I do not take you as someone that is foolish… so you have to know the reason why those three kingdoms have banded together to attack us. The number of supplies used to travel that distance will be close to the merit they would gain from splitting our kingdom by ⅓"

Caesar paused for a second and continued

"So what exactly are they attacking us for?"

Surprise flashed in the king's eyes but was soon replaced by sadness…

"Sigh" the king sighed deeply

"6 months ago one of our scouts spotted a large cave that traveled far in the ground, at first when the scout reported back I didn't think much of it. However, your father grew interested and sent a few knights to scout inside of it"

"What the knights found was easily identified as the rare mineral called cloudsteel, this mineral is used for all of the best weapons and armor, it is extremely durable but as light as clouds. While the rest of the dukes were excited I felt dread… Our kingdom doesn't have the capabilities of protecting that much valuable minerals"

Caesar nodded his head in comprehension

The king continued "So I ordered everyone to keep it under wraps, I made sure to act as we had never found anything in the first place. Your father naturally agreed with me and we moved on quite smoothly… However, someone in our kingdom started to excavate some of the minerals and sold them to the merchants at a low price"

"The merchants traveled through the northern forest but someone in our kingdom had contacted the elves and I a.s.sume made a deal with them. All of the merchants were killed by the elves and the steel they contained was stolen"

"So why did you send me on a suicide mission to the northern forest?"

"I proposed to send you and 500 of our elites to the northern forest to take back the steel because my second son has told me they only numbered 500… but according to the information you brought back that was false information my son gave us"

"I don't know how the three kingdoms south of us figured out we have cloudsteel but that is most certainly the reason they are willing to use so much manpower to attack us"

Caesar looked at the king perplexed "what is my father doing?"

"He decided to supervise the excavation of the mine himself, he told me that since they are coming for the cloudsteel anyway, we should put it to good use"

Caesar nodded his head and contemplated "If I could use that armor for my elite troops that I have been training…." he smiled inside

The king broke Caesar out of his thoughts "I a.s.sume my second son was the mole… It seems as though because you won the battle at the forest they sent a.s.sa.s.sins and killed him."

Caesar nodded his head "that seems extremely likely, however, I doubt that he was the only one, he might have leaked information to the elves but there is one more person that leaked information to the three kingdoms south of us"
Caesar somewhat understood the reason why everything was happening but asked one more question "why did you send me specifically towards the northern forest?"

"I left it to my first son as a test to choose the best candidate possible… I did not have any say in choosing you, although it turned out to be a splendid choice hohoho~"

"I see, when will the cloudsteel be placed into the kingdom..?" Caesar asked the king

"Crowley wrote me a letter and told me he should be back with a large amount in two days… 1 week before the enemies are estimated to arrive"

Caesar stroked his chin in contemplation "1 week should be enough time to make a decent amount of weapons and armors" he said out loud

At Caesar's words, the king made a troubled face "unfortunately I don't know if any of our blacksmiths are capable of working with such a steel"

"I think I know a guy that can work with it," Caesar said with a slight smile

"Sigh, your father had asked me a favor of granting you the marshall position… I was hesitant at first but it seems that my worries were for naught"

Caesar started walking out of the palace "thank you for being truthful with me your majesty"

"No need to be so formal when it's just me and you in the room hoho~"

As Caesar was about to step out of the hall he turned around with a smile "Ah! I almost forgot your majesty but please do remember to send the crown prince to the training grounds this afternoon… I will surely make him an excellent prince" Caesar smiled widely

"Haha, I will"

Caesar stepped out of the palace gates and headed towards where he sensed the most mana… "all this talking has gotten me a bit thirsty"