Starting as a Prince, I Don’t Even Know How I Could Lose Chapter 160 : Chapter 160

Chapter 160. Determined to Perish Together, Jackals on All Sides

Inside the Silver Oakleaf Royal Capital, the air was thick with suffocating panic.

The commoners clutched the three days’ worth of rations they had managed to buy from the Royal rchant House and hurried through the streets with their heads lowered. No one dared say a word. Only the sound of footsteps tapped out a nervous rhythm across the empty stone roads.

The nobles, anwhile, had their manor gates tightly shut. Servants rushed in and out, carrying away the last of their valuables, their faces full of alarm.

No one noticed that when night fell, faint runic light quietly began to glow from every inch of the city walls and every crack between the paving stones in every street of the Royal Capital.

Those runes linked together and wove a giant net through corners no one paid attention to. It was the formation Odyssey V had secretly ordered carved, both a defense and a final killing move.

Deep within the royal palace, the Teleportation Array flashed one final ti, swallowing the last batch of royal family mbers along with the mountain of resources piled beside them.

Standing next to the array, Odyssey V looked at the now-empty hall and tugged out a bitter smile.

He slowly walked out of the palace and stood atop the towering battlents, gazing at the Kroll Legions’ encampnts spreading outside the city like a black tide.

“I never thought... even the ancestors would all fall at Magic Serpent Fortress.”

He muttered under his breath, his voice laced with bone-deep chill.

“It seems the Silver Oakleaf Kingdom really is going to end in my hands.”

Below the battlents, soldiers from two Silver Legions stood in solemn formation, their armor reflecting a cold light beneath the moon. They were the Royal Capital’s final shield.

Odyssey V closed his eyes. When he opened them again, only resolve remained.

“But it doesn’t matter.”

He raised a hand and stroked the runes that had just lit up on the city bricks.

“As long as the Secret Realm still exists, as long as the family’s last spark has not gone out, there will co a day when we rise again.”

He turned to the attendant behind him.

“Release the final lock of the Ashen Extinction Array. Tell the soldiers to hold the line until the very last mont. If the Kroll Kingdom wants this city, then they will have to pay for it in blood.”

The attendant’s face went pale, but he still bowed and replied, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

As the order was passed down, the runes all across the Royal Capital suddenly flared with dazzling red light, and the formation’s energy began to surge upward at a terrifying speed.

The commoners looked up in panic as they watched the red light weaving through the streets and alleys. At last, they realized that this city had long since ceased to be the ho they knew. It had beco an enormous trap waiting to explode.

Outside the city, William was staring toward the Royal Capital when he suddenly frowned.

“Your Highness, what is it?” Kru asked.

William’s gaze landed on the pale golden magic array above the Royal Capital. At this mont, the array’s mana fluctuations were becoming abnormally violent.

“Sothing’s wrong,” he said in a low voice. “Notify all legions to withdraw three miles at once. Get away from the Silver Oakleaf Royal Capital.”

A powerful sense of unease gripped him. Odyssey V of the Silver Oakleaf Kingdom was probably about to do sothing insane.

Standing at the highest point of the castle, Odyssey V watched as the Kroll Legions slowly pulled back like the receding tide, and a cold smile appeared on his face.

“If you do not dare co, then we’ll simply drag this out.”

He spoke softly to himself, his gaze sweeping toward the distant horizon.

“Now let’s see whether those jackals around us can move quickly enough.”

And yet, over the next few days, the Silver Oakleaf Royal Capital remained strangely quiet.

The red runes moving through the streets only continued to flicker, without showing any further changes, as though they were rely an empty threat ant to intimidate others.

Inside William’s command tent, the Shadow Guard had just sent back the latest intelligence.

He spread open the parchnt, where the situation inside the Royal Capital had been clearly marked.

Red runes covered the entire city, and the energy signatures matched almost perfectly with the Ashen Extinction Array described in ancient records.

It was a suicidal formation capable of reducing the entire city, along with any invaders inside it, to ashes.

Moreover, because food had run out and the array was hanging over their heads like a death sentence, the nobles within the Royal Capital had organized several uprisings. All of them had been bloodily suppressed by the Silver Legions. Now, the city had fallen into utter silence.

“Ashen Extinction Array...”

William’s fingertip traced the writing on the report, his expression grave.

Odyssey V was clearly determined to drag them down by force, betting the price of an entire city on the hope that the neighboring kingdoms would intervene in ti.

He picked up several more intelligence reports, and his brow furrowed even more tightly. The Dwarf Kingdom had already dispatched eight heavy legions and was advancing toward the Silver Oakleaf Royal Territory.

The Dragon Kingdom and the Kadiya Kingdom were no less eager. Both had mobilized legions of their own, and the borderlines were now packed with battle banners.

Most direct of all was the Orc Kingdom, which had actually sent an envoy to Kroll II demanding the grassland territories in the southeastern part of the Silver Oakleaf Kingdom. The tone of their ssage was forceful and openly threatening.

“So these people really couldn’t sit still after all.”

William slapped the reports onto the table.

“What a pack of jackals.”

Standing nearby, Kru said in a deep voice, “Your Highness, if we drag this out any longer, it will be disadvantageous for us. The dwarf legions excel at holding defensive positions. If they coordinate with the Royal Capital from inside and outside, we’ll be attacked from both front and rear...”

“I know.”

William cut him off and turned his gaze back toward the Royal Capital.

“But that Ashen Extinction Array is a ticking bomb. A forced assault will only cost us dearly, and it will hand the surrounding kingdoms an opening.”

He walked over to the war sand table and jabbed his finger heavily along the advancing routes of the dwarves, the Dragon Kingdom, and the Kadiya Kingdom.

“Pass down my orders. Have Duke Lane withdraw to defend the western side of the Royal Territory and block the dwarf legions.”

“Order Marquis Peter in the Southern Frontier to split his forces and assist Duke Tuso in the Northern Frontier in tying down the vanguard troops of the Dragon Kingdom and the Kadiya Kingdom. As for the orcs...”

A sharp glint flashed through William’s eyes.

“Tell Father to send the Orc Kingdom a reply. If they want territory, they can have it, but they will have to trade their warriors for it.”

“If they want to snatch it away, let them first weigh whether they have the ability to take anything from beneath Kroll’s blade.”

On the war sand table, he rearranged the flags representing the Kroll Legions, forming a curved line of defense that balanced both the siege of the city and defense against outside threats.

He knew that in the days ahead, he would not only need to keep watch on the death formation inside the Royal Capital, but also fend off the greed coming from every direction.

The wind outside the tent swept up sand and dust as it passed, carrying the battlefield’s unique aura of cold slaughter.

William stared at the sky above the Royal Capital, tinted red by the runes, and slowly clenched his fist.

Odyssey V could afford to drag this out.

He could not.