In a flash, a month passed. Things were pretty much normal at the academy... if one could ignore the routinely patrols Ashton had made compulsory and the lack of students.
By the time Ashton was done investigating the situation, roughly a third of the students from the academy were either in prison or in some sort of confinement. As for those who escaped the academy before Ashton made his move, especially Nick Grunta, were in hiding.
The knights in his team wanted to investigate and bring Nick and the rest of them to justice as well. But Jonathan deemed it unnecessary and called the knights back. After all, he needed them to start preparing for war, just in case, the vampires ended up waging a war against them.
In the meantime, Jonathan had his secret assassins do the spy work in an attempt to find out how the Vanian assholes would try to turn the vampires against Lycania. The information Ashton had delivered Jonathan remained a secret between them and a few others.
After the shit his most trusted minister pulled, Jonathan didn't trust anyone. Therefore, even those actively engaged in training didn't know they were training to fight vampires and not a bunch of night creatures from the swamp.
At the moment, Ashton and Jonathan were witnessing one such drill. The soldiers were brimming with energy, no one would have been able to guess they had already been going on like this for more than 12 hours.
Even after fighting each other for that long, not a single drop of sweat was visible on either of their heads. Their endurance was nothing to laugh at and Ashton finally understood why the royal knights were Jonathan's trump card.
"Your soldiers are... exceptional, your highness." Ashton mumbled softly, not taking his eyes off of the 'artificial' battlefield.
"That they are." Jonathan absentmindedly replied, "But if the 'overlord' makes his move on us, I'm afraid none of them would survive. Also, whatever alliance we have had with the smaller kingdoms run by vampires would be void so that itself is a bit... unnerving."
"I assume your spies confirmed the news I gave you last month?"
Jonathan nodded but remained silent otherwise. The guardians did confirm what Ashton notified him about. Vanian kingdom had made several bulk purchases for weapons and important things such as blood etc, which was peculiar.
It was clear as day that Vania has been preparing for something like this for quite some time now. Whereas, god knows how much time the Lycanians had to prepare for their invasion. Also, the fact that the Vampires were naturally stronger than werewolves didn't help them at all.
"With all due respect, your highness, you could have asked the rest of the werewolf empires for aid." Ashton pointed toward the only thing that came to his mind, "Even though they might be at odds with us if Lycania falls, so will the rest of them."
"I can't give them the explicit proof of what Vania is planning. Or else the lives of my spies would get endangered. I did try to convince them with whatever other proof I could give them. Every single one of them. But those bastards didn't care..."
Jonathan slammed his fist on the railing before continuing, "From what I know about them... they will probably let us fight Vania and then strike down whoever wins the war when we're at our weakest. Since they can't take us down without a proper reason, our defeat will give them the reason they are looking for and turn Lycania into one of their colonies."
Ashton remained quiet. If only they knew what the hell those Vampires were planning, they could have either exposed them or put an end to their sly plans themselves. However, they didn't and that's what put them under so much unnecessary pressure.
From a general perspective, a war seemed unlikely. But all the evidence pointed towards the opposite.
"Enough about this. What about the academy? Michelle spoke highly of you, especially the way you handled everything. It would be a lie if I said I'm impressed." Jonathan patted Ashton's back, "Michelle never speaks good, let alone praises someone, especially someone who once was a human."
Normally Ashton would get annoyed when someone reminded him of his past. Not because he was ashamed of it, in fact, he was quite proud that he was once a useless human. But being reminded that he was a human, reminded him of his parents... which then pissed him off.
However, surprisingly, this time he didn't feel that way. Which was a bit concerning... that anger was the driving force behind his vengeance. If he were to lose it, he would also lose the only purpose his life had.
"Everything is fine. The students are supposed to go on their first subjugation trip as we speak." Ashton replied sincerely.
"I thought you said there weren't enough students for a trip?"
"And I stand by that. There weren't enough werewolf students to go on the trip by themselves." Ashton smirked, "But by adding the vampires from the sister school, they should be more than enough."
"You think it's a wise decision to send two species who are known for their thirst for blood on a trip together?" Jonathan was a bit worried but decided to hear what Ashton had to say for himself before judging him.
"It's not like they are alone. The werewolves outnumber them by 3 to 1. Not to mention, my team, as well as the professors, are with them so there's nothing to be worried about. Also, if anything, this could be a way to show the overlord or whoever he is that we want peace with them. Not a war."
Jonathan shook his head. Ashton's head was in the right place, and so was his reasoning. But if anything went wrong inside the dungeon, then the situation might as well act as the catalyst to spark the war. He wasted no time in conveying his thoughts to Ashton.
"That's what I am hoping for..." Ashton smiled like a crazed bastard, "I didn't want to admit it... but I am hoping those bastards would think of this as an opportunity to cause a mess. It's the perfect lure... the moment they step out of the shadows, I'll hunt them down."