Chapter 899 - Home Sweet Home

'Oh, if so then we have one less work to do here,' Arthur nodded in content before recalling the new change in this world, 'inform them about the grandmasters arrival. Make them refrain from clashing with any hostile settlements.'

'What if…' Gege stopped as Arthur interrupted her in the middle of her talk.

'Just make them bypass them and go for other settlements.'

'This will create pockets of resistance against you inside the main body of your empire,' the golden dragon expressed his fears.

'Ding! I believe they won't cause much trouble to us for now,' the system stood beside Arthur in this, 'Ding! And before they could do any harm, we will figure out a way to deal with them.'

Arthur was relieved to know someone was thinking alike him. 'Plus the main goal of that nasty dark angel mage is to hinder my growth. It's something I can't allow to happen. Henceforth I'm going to do my best to expand my empire and fail his plan slowly.'

The three beings in his mind didn't say anymore. However Gege came back later and started directing him towards the nearest city requiring help.

They kept moving fast from one city to another, heading according to concrete instructions and guidance from Gege and the tree of mirrors.

As they visited all cities attacked by the enemies, they found few of them already in ruins. The enemy didn't stop there and kept advancing towards other cities inside, but Arthur and his forces landed over their heads and killed them all.

As they had to travel fast, Arthur had to take in a large number of surrender forces inside his garden to save time. He left a word for Nara to be responsible for dealing with them, turning them all into his own forces.

His gain alone from these hostages was in the hundreds of thousands already. However he knew turning them into his own forces would take much longer time than just ordering them around.

Binding them with slave contracts wasn't an option as well. Their huge number made him unable to do that, or else he would waste months to do so with no big benefits in the end.

These forces would best be described as the future cannon fodders of his empire. He could throw them at any battle without expecting much of them. While he would lose so much in return of their negligent results.

However no army could be considered mighty without a large number of such cannon fodders. That last battle he fought at the sect taught him this lesson and now he was happy to gain such a great number early in this game.

He knew his fight against that dark angel mage would stretch on for months, where the tide would keep shifting from side to side.

However as he finally secured the borders of his empire, he returned to think about an old headache.

The traitor!

Before he left for his expedition outside his empire, he met with an envoy from the enemy forces here. From that meeting he had one month of peaceful period plus a very crucial piece of news.

There was a traitor in his forces. This traitor wasn't someone simple, as he was amidst his high ranks. He tried to uncover the mystery behind this traitor before he left and yet he failed.

And now he returned to point zero again, asking himself if it was Amelia or someone else.

"That dark angel mage I had inside is a gem," Arthur muttered to himself while moving fast inside his territory. He headed directly towards his beloved city, the lake city.

In fact it wasn't the capital of his empire, but to him it was. He loved the scenery there and he felt a familiar tranquility when he lived there.

As he approached there, Gege informed him that all of his friends and leaders of the empire moved to the lake city by her instructions. Only the three girls fighting on the frontlines weren't able to make it.

It wouldn't be wise to call them back for now. The three were starting the grand plan of trapping the settlements with grandmasters inside the big body of his empire.

And later on he could test out the new ways to crack the shields over them to know what would work and what wouldn't.

As he saw the mighty walls of his city and the grand crystal clear lake behind it, he couldn't help himself from smiling.

At this moment he felt really tired all of sudden. It felt like coming back home and when one did that, he would feel all the pain he kept holding back so far.

At the far sight, he could see a few silhouettes standing in front of the gate. As he approached them, he found the leaders of the empire led by his friends.

Ron was with his girl, Madly, standing alongside other friends of his. Arthur hadn't seen them for so long that he felt he left for a lifetime before coming here.

"Welcome home," Ron hurriedly said while patting on his shoulders. The others smiled and said many warm greeting words, however Arthur didn't hear any of these.

Amelia was standing on the side while feeling hesitant. He knew he doubted her before going out, and she knew that. She was leading the work over the mecha, and yet he didn't trust her too much to exclude her from the traitor suspicious list.

In fact he had a point here, she knew it but she seemed to be hurt by him believing it.

"Welcome home," she finally got the courage after noticing his fixed gaze upon him. He knew she wouldn't come without an invitation, and his eyes were the only suitable invitation for that right now.

"Let's go inside," he didn't hesitate to hug her before entering into his lake city.

And once he went inside, he even felt the air tasted different than the rest of the world.

"Home sweet home," he said while taking a deep breath and kept walking on the ground with everyone else towards the main palace.

He planned to listen to their sayings and updates first before he would have a well earned rest.