Chapter 003: Departure

After Wang Bo left the palace and returned to his castle, he instructed the steward to pack his belongings, as he was going on a long journey that evening.

The steward was somewhat puzzled. "Master, I don't understand why you would obey the command of a king. He is merely a human."

In the steward's heart, humans were far too fragile, even a king was no exception.

He could kill this king with ease.

Even if the entire kingdom's humans came to attack them, he was not afraid. With the master's strength—no, even without the master's intervention, with the power of these few hundred demons, conquering this kingdom would be far too easy.

Whether in strength or power, they held an absolute advantage.

So the steward truly could not understand why his master would obey a human's command. It was not magical.

Wang Bo calmly explained, "I am not obeying a king's command. I simply want to travel around this other world and incidentally rescue some humans. That's all."

Yes, if Wang Bo was unwilling, even the king could do nothing to him.

But having finally arrived in an otherworld he had never seen before, Wang Bo felt something was missing if he didn't go around and experience the sights and customs of this world.

After all, when he was a shut-in, he had once dreamed of traveling in another world.

Now that he was here, he naturally wouldn't miss the chance.

Even without the king's command, Wang Bo would have found time to go out and explore.

The king's command merely allowed Wang Bo to realize this idea earlier, and during the journey, he could also save some innocent lives. Why not do it?

He was not some cold-blooded creature.

Upon hearing Wang Bo's words, the steward suddenly understood and immediately ordered the demons under his command to prepare for the journey.

Soon, an afternoon passed in busy preparations.

By evening, Wang Bo rode in a carriage, leading a team of soldiers disguised as humans—actually demons—and set off from his castle in a grand procession, heading toward the kingdom's border.

However, before they had gone far, a troop caught up from behind.

"Duke, please wait a moment." The shouting came from afar, growing closer.

Wang Bo waved his hand, signaling the procession to stop.

A well-trained troop galloped up and halted beside Wang Bo's group. At the head was the spirited young man he had seen in the palace that afternoon—Prince Kit.

Beside him was the ever-present captain of the guard.

After the prince led his troop to catch up with Wang Bo, he reined in his horse and flashed a bright smile. "Allow me to travel with you, Duke."

Wang Bo glanced at the troop behind him—all cavalry. It seemed the king had agreed to the prince's request and dispatched this elite force to protect him.

Then Wang Bo nodded and said flatly, "It is my honor, Prince."

Thus, the two groups merged and set off together toward the border.

Wang Bo's troops were all demons. Even disguised as humans, they still looked down on weak humans, so they maintained an arrogant attitude throughout the journey, completely disregarding the prince's troop.

The two groups had little to no extra communication from start to finish.

But all this fell into the captain's eyes. What he saw was a disciplined, unsmiling, well-trained force that followed orders strictly, which surprised him.

Even the palace guards could not achieve this level.

It seemed the duke was quite skilled in military management.

So he reported this discovery to the prince, not to make the prince wary of the duke, but to urge the prince to learn from the duke how to train troops. If the entire kingdom's army could be as disciplined as the duke's private force, they would no longer have to fear those powerful nations.

After hearing the captain's urging, the prince was somewhat tempted. As a prince and heir to the throne, he fully understood the importance of the military.

So at noon the next day, during a meal break, the prince sought Wang Bo's advice on military matters.

For instance, how could a weak nation defeat its enemies?

Or how could an army turn the tide when facing overwhelming odds?

To be honest, these questions left Wang Bo completely bewildered.

Military matters? He knew nothing about them.

Wang Bo had always fought alone, never formed alliances, and certainly never trained troops. In this area, he was like a person with seven orifices, six of which were open—utterly ignorant.

Faced with the prince's question about how to defeat a larger force with a smaller one, Wang Bo thought it over and finally offered a sixteen-character maxim.

"When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy camps, we harass; when the enemy tires, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue!"

This was a famous saying from the guerrilla warfare of the founding emperor, which even someone like Wang Bo, who was not well-versed in military affairs, could recite.

When he told this to the prince, the prince was utterly amazed.

Though these sixteen characters seemed simple, they were indeed the essence distilled from countless wars.

The prince had received an elite education since childhood, excelling in horseback riding, archery, military affairs, literature, and fencing. He was not one to boast idly.

Precisely because of this, he could grasp the meaning within.

The prince turned the sixteen-character maxim over and over in his mind, chewing on it again and again. The more he pondered, the more profound it became. He felt that this maxim contained boundless wisdom.

This filled him with great admiration. He bowed to Wang Bo and said, "Duke, it is wonderful that our kingdom has you."

Yes, for such a weak kingdom to have such a wise duke was truly fortunate.

Wang Bo sighed with emotion, realizing why his father trusted him so much.

He decided that after he ascended the throne, he would, like his father, rely heavily on this wise duke to govern the kingdom even better.

Wang Bo looked at the prince, who was now extremely excited, and had no idea why the other had suddenly become so worked up on his own.

Was there something wrong with this guy?

In the duke's memories, there was no information indicating the prince was an idiot.

Wang Bo curled his lip, decided to ignore the prince who was excited on his own, and ate his meal absentmindedly.

Setting aside the little incident on the road, three days later, the group finally arrived at the kingdom's border.

Yes, their kingdom was that small—it took only three days to travel from the capital to the border.

Wang Bo estimated that their kingdom's territory was even smaller than a state in America, perhaps just tens of thousands of square kilometers, with a population of no more than half a million. It was a truly small country.

And every neighboring country was larger and more powerful than theirs.

To say their kingdom was surviving in the cracks was not an exaggeration.