The Rise of the Black Plain

After hearing Minos' warning, the two brothers soon left that office, heading for the local prison, where they could see their mothers.

Wilfred had not seen his mother for months since he had passed out next to that woman in his family's royal palace and then woke up away from her. Meanwhile, Blake had not seen his mother for years due to his previous situation, and so he was the most anxious at the moment.

They were under the impression that Minos kept his words. Still, apart from certain insecurity about this idea, those women definitely did not know that.

After all, unlike them who had for all this time kept track of Minos' actions, those people were hostages, individuals who usually received no information from their captors.

This way, they must have been in the dark about what had happened in the past months, perhaps living in daily fear that their lives could end at any moment. Or, more than that, their children would do something stupid and end up dead by other enemies or young Stuart himself.

With this in mind, they followed one of the local soldiers to the local prison, quickly making their way to those people.

...

Upon reaching the highest level of the Dry City Prison, Blake's group found themselves in a dark place, with light sources only in the corridors between the many black cells in that area.

And while this place was not crowded, there were a certain number of people to generate occasional chattering noises at any time of the day.

Therefore, as the Walker brothers' group descended the final stairs to that floor, they could hear strange sounds from the area where criminals and police officers were present.

"Hehe, looks like more important people have arrived, huh?"

"Hahaha, it looks like the whole Walker family has fallen into the hands of the wretched Minos!" One of the many individuals trapped there commented as he laughed, seeing the figures of those two princes in that place.

But after he said things he should not have, this person saw one of the many guards there enter his cell and stab him hard in the ribs.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Damn you!"

"Ahhhhhh!"

"You worm, speak ill of the young master again, and we will punish you for a whole day!" The guard beating that man said this loudly as his victim's screams circulated through the area.

But while such a thing was happening, the atmosphere in the surrounding area did not change. No, the people there were already used to new prisoners of war saying things they should not talk about the local leaders, which always led to good beatings.

Therefore, those more accustomed to this life continued their side conversations.

"More and more powerful people are coming to this place..."

"Maybe the Black Plain has already won the war!"

"I don't doubt it..."

While hearing these things, Blake finally saw the figure of his mother inside one of the cells of that place, where three other women were imprisoned together with her.

Seeing the Queen's face, Wilfred ran toward his mother, happy to see that she was not as bad off as he thought.

Despite her age, the Queen of the Kingdom of the Waves was gorgeous. But at the moment, not only did she look a few decades older, her face was pale, her skin did not look as beautiful as ever, and she seemed to have lost weight.

But this was not pretty slimming since such a woman already had perfect measurements before.

As such, Wilfred could see that his mother had had a hard time during this period of captivity. However, it was not the end of the world, and apart from her melancholy, she did not look injured or unable to recover.

So, he was not unhappy to see her like that.

As for Blake, he was experiencing similar sensations as his older brother since his mother also seemed to have lost some of her beauty, but not to the point of being a hopeless case.

"Mom!" The two shouted almost at the same time as they stopped outside the bars of that cell, putting their arms between the spaces of that to hug them.

"Blake..."

"Wilfred!" The two women finally saw these two and approached the sides of that cell with surprised looks on their faces.

"What are you people doing..." The Queen was about to ask something as she worried they would meet the same fate as them, but Wilfred suddenly stopped her from continuing such words.

"Mother, don't worry. We have done as promised to Minos, and he will release you later today!"

"Oh?" The other two stepmothers of the two who were there stood up in surprise, gaining the lost glint from their eyes.

"Is that true?" Blake's mother asked him.

"Blake nodded in confirmation and said. "Yes, that's right."

"Later, Blake and I will confirm our agreement with Minos, and he will release you to return to the kingdom with us."

"Everything will be fine from now on."

After this was said, three of those four women began to smile, happy to finally be able to leave this scary place where they had not stopped fearing the future since they arrived.

But the Queen was still not satisfied with knowing only that. "What happened in that period? Will Minos respect the agreement he proposed? How will the other kingdoms handle it?"

Wilfred then smiled awkwardly, feeling that his mother had become someone without any current information from the region in just a few weeks.

"Mother, the Black Plain's war of independence is practically finished. After the incident in our city, Minos spent weeks traveling the region and acting against other regional powers."

"Among them, House Carline has withdrawn from the war and accepted its subordination to Minos. So has House Snow, which has even carried out extermination missions on behalf of the Black Plain in this war." He said this, causing all the people on that level of the prison to stop their conversations.

In that instant, all the inmates there were shocked by Wilfred's words, astounded that the war had evolved to such an extent so quickly.

Just a few months ago, they were talking about how the war had finally reached its peak, but then, boom, the conflict was already about to end.

That was surprising for each of them!

And it was no different for Charles, who was also stuck there, not far from his stepmothers' cell.

"What?" Charles said in a fragile tone, which his brothers did not even notice.

"Is that serious?" The Queen asked this while her eyes were wide in shock.

Blake then continued what his older brother was doing. "Not only that. King Brown and the Brown Kingdom reinforcements were killed by Minos a few days ago."

"The counter-revolutionary troops have already completely left the Black Plain!"

"What? How can that be? There should be Spiritual Emperors in His Majesty's group!" One of the Brown Kingdom vassals in that place shouted in disbelief.

He could not accept such a thing. It was simply absurd!

"That..."

Several doubtful tones arose in the area, while even those women had difficulty believing Blake's words.

The future king of the Kingdom of the Waves then said. "I am telling the truth."

"I wasn't there when it happened, but Jade Carline herself confirmed the information to a regional periodical, saying that Minos eliminated almost the entire Brown Kingdom entourage single-handedly."

"In fact, he killed two Spiritual Emperors, and the third one he needed help from the reinforcements of the Kingdom of the End." He commented on this information that was popularized in the region.

And listening to her son's resolute tone, Blake's mother could no longer doubt the veracity of these facts.

"Sigh..."

"So the war is about to end." She commented in a low voice, feeling that at least the terror of recent times was nearing an end.

As for the other three widows of King Walker, they were all open-mouthed, not knowing what to say at this point. Even the Queen was surprised at such a turn of events.

"So, we didn't fall alone, huh?"

"Good!" She commented in a low voice as a slight smile appeared on her face and tears trickled down her eyes. 'I wonder what Willian would have thought of that outcome?' She thought of her late husband.

'He would probably laugh to find that the Brown Kingdom has fallen to such a position while we found a way to save ourselves!' She remembered that man's final moments, regretting that he could not be by her side but glad he was not humiliated along with her.

'I will finally be able to experience my grief, my love...'