Chapter 595 - 503
"I hope the outcome of the war won’t be so dire," said Maxwell.
The ministers left in the Royal City snorted derisively at Maxwell’s words. They ridiculed the Earl, saying he was senile, incompetent, no longer the brave man of his younger years. Some even treated the Earl’s words as a curse, secretly recording them to use as evidence in his trial to augment Maxwell’s punishment.
But as it turned out... the events that unfolded later did not align with people’s wishes but instead confirmed Maxwell’s words.
Nearly three months later, shocking news from the front lines reached the Royal City, throwing it into great political turmoil.
King Hudson III and his Crown Prince had been captured by the King of Kaelonde.
And the forty thousand troops that accompanied the King on his campaign were crushed by the Dwarves within a mere three months. Nearly ten thousand were killed or wounded, with more than nine thousand captured, leaving only just over ten thousand battered soldiers to return from the Helong Mountain Range.
The arrival of this dire news was so sudden and so bizarre that the nobles and ministers had no time to censor it before the entire Royal City was engulfed in violent upheaval that quickly spread throughout the Kingdom.
To add insult to injury for Golan, after the defeat of Hudson III, the Kaelonde Dwarves didn’t halt their offensive. They crossed the Helong Mountain Range, advancing into the heartland of the Kingdom, and under Hudson III’s name, they sent letters to the lords around the country demanding their surrender.
The King was captured, the army defeated, and the Dwarves continued their advance... A string of calamities pushed the Kingdom to the brink of chaos, with uprisings breaking out in various places, and everyone suddenly felt endangered.
For the people of Golan, this crushing defeat brought unprecedented shock and humiliation.
The Golan Humans had always looked down on the shorter stature of the Dwarves, and the unbroken record of victories in wars since the foundation of the Golan Kingdom brought them incomparable pride and arrogance.
Yet, those very Dwarves they despised had effortlessly routed the proud and arrogant Golans, even capturing their King, who became like a lamb to the slaughter.