Chapter 672: Flight South

Amir bursts into laughter. He picks up his grandson and hands the Thug Box to Karitan. "All right. Arius, you can go."Only then does Arius look at the ashen-faced Jonathan. "Brother, I will be leaving first. Do not see me off."

"Stay here until dawn tomorrow. Don't send out any news."

"Otherwise, my wife absolutely has the courage to detonate this... what was this thing called again?"

"Right. This thing is called the Thug Box."

"Like a thug, it kills everyone without distinguishing friend from foe, good from evil, high from low, or noble from common."

Arius kisses his wife goodbye. "Wait for me to come back and save you."

Jonathan can only watch Arius leave. None of his subordinates dares to chase after him.

Just as Arius steps out, King Amir shouts, "Arius! Go! Walk the Path of Honor that you missed, the one that belongs to you!"

Arius pauses, looks carefully at Amir, then kneels on the ground. "Farewell, Father."

Because he made no preparations at all, Arius has brought very few people with him to Silver Peak City this time.

Even with the secret guards and loyal royal guards Amir has given him, he has barely more than a thousand people in total.

Fortunately, all of them are elites, and every one of them can ride.

This is a time to flee. There is no room to care about etiquette.

Arius directly seizes the royal guards' warhorses and raids shops in the city in the middle of the night as well.

Whether noble or commoner, anyone living near the city gate is robbed once.

Of course, he isn't robbing them for money, but of every kind of supply.

There is no time to prepare provisions, so this is the only method left.

Still, Arius is a prince after all. He leaves written IOUs, telling the robbed people that Yosui City will settle the accounts later.

If Yosui City is gone, Peace Haven will settle the accounts all the same.

After all that chaos, it is already past midnight.

Naturally, the city gate has long since been shut, and the officer guarding the gate is unwilling to let Arius leave the city.

If Arius were alone, he truly would have no solution.

After all, attacking the capital's gate at night is a capital crime of rebellion.

The gate officer is waiting for Arius to make a move.

When that happens, he can counterattack without restraint.

Of course Arius isn't that stupid. He naturally understands the danger.

This is where the Royal Secret Guards come in. Tansentia steps forward and throws over a bundle.

The gate officer opens it suspiciously, then his heart fills with shock.

Inside is evidence of the crimes he has committed over the years. If it is made public, he will surely die.

Then Occam, one of the secret guards, throws over a small wooden carving. "This belongs to your son."

"Open the gate and let us out immediately. Otherwise, your entire family won't see tomorrow's sun."

The gate officer's expression struggles. If he lets Arius go, he will inevitably be punished afterward.

But if he doesn't let him go, his whole family will die.

While he hesitates, Arius rides forward and raises the sealed metal tube in his hand. "This is the edict of succession His Majesty gave me."

"This is a dispute within the royal family. Why are you, an outsider, risking your life for this?"

"If I can't leave today, I don't know what will happen to everyone else, but have you thought about what will happen to you?"

"Will my cousin Fabio, Lord of the Iron Wall, and my brother Henwell, the lord of Blood Hill, let you go?"

"How much benefit did you take? Is it worth gambling with your entire family's lives?"

"Besides, Jonathan isn't king yet."

"This isn't over. Are you truly going to stake everything on him and leave yourself no way back?"

"You may be willing to sell out your family for wealth and glory, but are the brothers under your command also willing to jump into the fire pit with you?"

The gate officer's expression changes greatly. It isn't Arius's threat that concerns him, but the hesitation already showing on the faces of the officers under him.

That is already a very dangerous signal. If he insists on continuing, he may end up with a blade in his back.

Seeing this, the gate officer has no choice but to open the gate.

Before leaving, Arius looks up at the soldiers guarding the city. "Tell me, are there any gamblers among you who want to wager on a rich future?"

"Come with me now. As long as we are lucky enough to survive, I guarantee this will be the most profitable gamble of your lives."

A person's name casts a shadow like a tree.

Arius is no nameless nobody. He is the kingdom's youngest prince.

Among the princes, he is the one with the greatest power, the most territory, the broadest alliances, the strongest backing, and the fiercest army.

If Jonathan had not suddenly pulled such a move, the Vorry crown would have had a very real chance of falling onto Arius's head.

Now Arius has walked out of the most dangerous trap. Although many dangers still lie ahead, there is at least a certain measure of hope.

Do you know what kind of people are most willing to gamble?

It is middle-ranking officers. Their family strength is thin, and they have already reached the end of their own upward path. All they can do is wait for the next generation.

And there is a strong chance that their next generation can only rise to their own rank as well.

But because they have a certain amount of experience and knowledge, they understand more, and that makes them even more dissatisfied with the current situation.

They yearn even more to leap across classes. For that, they are willing to gamble with their lives.

This is the rigid class structure of a feudal dynasty, especially a western feudal dynasty.

The son of a farmer is born a farmer. The son of a soldier will most likely become a soldier as well.

And now, a shortcut that can carry them to the finish line in a single step has appeared before these people.

If they win the gamble, they will accomplish what several generations of a family would have struggled to achieve.

Of course, the stake is their lives, and the reward is tempting enough.

So, right under the gate officer's eyes, several hundred soldiers actually leave with Arius.

Next, Arius races along the official road through the night, changing horses without pause as he flees south.

Why go south instead of east toward his own Yosui City?

Because those roads have already been sealed.

Whether to stop his army from coming to rescue him or to stop him from escaping, Jonathan will inevitably have deployed heavy troops to the east.

So Arius has only two choices: west or south.

Iron Pit City in the west is closest to him, but Fabio isn't there, so going there is useless.

Duveen, the deputy leader of the Iron Wall, can't make the decision. His influence isn't enough, and going there would only waste the most precious time.

This is a struggle for the throne, and time is the most important resource.

If Fabio were in the Western Regions, Arius could go to him, bring the Iron Wall Legion, and directly kill his way back to Silver Peak City. One battle would be enough to secure victory.

If Arius goes there now and drags things out, he will only give Jonathan the chance to be crowned king and make the outcome a fait accompli.

So Arius must go south.

There, he has the Phoenix family that raised him and Henwell, who is essentially on the same front as him.

With the edict of succession in his hand, both sides can send troops directly and enter Vorry in the name of suppressing rebellion.

When that happens, Marquess Descartes won't dare move, and Duke Reyes will continue to remain neutral.

Fabio's Iron Wall Legion in the Western Regions will inevitably follow him. As for Duke Obiken of the Western Regions, for the sake of his own son, the worst result is that he remains neutral.

Duke Marcus of the Eastern Regions can only accept that result passively.

Otherwise, he will lose a good son-in-law and face Yosui City's southward attack as well.

Once Duke Marcus changes sides as well, Duke Quinns of Tyran City in the Southern Regions naturally won't get involved anymore.

In the end, Arius would effectively only need to lead a great army and fight Duke Lowel of the Northern Regions.

As for the other major and minor powers inside the country, and even the standing legion commanders, they aren't qualified to take part in this game.