The Prince notes on this show of respect and nods his head. He then took a chair and sat down on the opposite side of the single table in the camp.

"What do you want, Grayton?" he asks with a sneer.

"I was just wondering to myself, what do you hope to gain from the destruction of the City-State of Jowston?" Grayton replied back. Fear still ringing in his voice. He may be older and most definitely wiser than Ruka, but make no mistake, he is scared of him. Ruka is one of the most ruthless person ever to grace the face of this planet. Even monsters fear him.

"Why do you want to know, old man?"

"I'm just curious. It seems to me that you don't really want to conquer Jowston, or you wouldn't have destroyed that little town. In fact, I've heard rumours that the other small town, Ryube, is in plans to be burnt down. This, to me, seems weird. From what I know of invasion, people would invade the opposing country to take it over, not..."

Grayton stops after looking at the grim expression that Ruka now bears on his face. Ruka's upset with the current topic of discussion. Though Grayton knows this, he still wanted to proceed with it. Grayton gulped.

"... errr... not to, uhhh... destroy it." he finishes.

"Yes, a mere technical in definition. I do intend to grind these small towns to dust, merely because they are not worthy of a takeover. Plus, my whole intention of burning these small towns to the ground is just for the cover. They would of course, soon, expect an all out attack of destruction on their capital, Muse, but we will go in slowly and surely, and take over that place. Once that place is ours, the rest of the City-State will be easy pickings. Does this answer satisfy you?" Ruka answered. Face still grim, but his tone is calm and unperilous. But his eyes still stick to it's iciness and deathly visage.

"In some ways I am satisfied by this. But still, this won't make us look good to the rest of the world. Destruction only brings destruction, nothing good."

"So let it be destruction that comes then. In fact, I believe the rest of the world would thank us for getting rid of the City-State. Most of them find this place quite an annoyance from what I have gathered."

Grayton shrugged at this. It is somewhat true. The City-State has somewhat of a problem with their foreign affairs. It's not only the Highland that have had problems with them. The Grasslands are always at war with the Tinto region and Toran have had large unsettled wars with the South Window region. But Grayton has a feeling that this war would not bring anything good towards Highland at all.

"Look... you may think I'm crazy to say this, but..." Grayton begins.

He fell to his knees seeing what had happened to his hometown. He was out to Ryube for awhile to buy some flour, only to return to ashes. Piles and piles of rubbles, ruins and ashes. These ashes don't even belong to furniture or roof or doors. Most of it belong to living humans. Heh. Living. Being ashes now, supposedly they're not living anymore. Tears trickled down his cheeks as he looks at the burnt town of Toto.

"Carol... Ben..." he wipes his tears away from his cheek with his sleeve.

He got up from the ground with a murderous glow in his eyes. He searches around for a clue as to who was responsible for this. He lifted a rubble and found a piece of cloth underneath it. It has an emblem on it. His eyes grew wide as he saw what it was.

"The White Wolf" he said, in a volume almost a whisper.

He was a Highlander once. Living in the small village of Sajah. He was a thief. Wanted all around Highland. But he changed six years ago, when he fell in love with Carol. But nonetheless, he knew this emblem belonged to the White Wolf Brigade. The Prince of Highland's own personal army.

He took the emblem into his hands and clutched it strongly. And then he ran into the woods, trying to find the people responsible for such atrocity.

"A HUNCH?!? I am supposed to stop this invasion to follow a hunch? Much less, YOUR hunch, old man?" Ruka snapped at Grayton. His face full of bewilderement. This man, this old man, has the gall to ask him to stop his invasion, something he has been wanting to do for such a long time, over a hunch? Ruka gave out a hearty laugh.

Grayton looked at Ruka in amazement. But the amazement later on turned into a scowl. The young prince is mocking him.

"HAH! I needed a good laugh, old man. Thanks for coming down here."

Grayton stood up abruptly, startling even Ruka. The old man puts on a face of anger, something that really surprised Ruka. Usually, Grayton was like a patsy, just sitting in the meeting room, giving suggestions on how to tighten the tie between Highland and some other country, but here, now, Grayton almost looked menacing. Ruka find this very amusing.

"LOOK! I am dead serious here! If you go on with this war, what I predict will happen is that we will fall! If not by the City-State, then by some other country. If you have not realised, Highland is a small country, while the City-State is an alliance of several..."

"ALLIANCE?!? These people quarrel with each other ALL the time. Especially the loud mouthed Gustav of Tinto. And do you think Gordo even CARES about the rest of the City-State? He doesn't even care about that small town in his Matilda region. The City-State are all conceived of selfish, useless people. The sooner we get rid of them, the better!" Ruka interrupted Grayton.

Grayton slowly backed down and sat. He took a deep breath and let it out, "Fine... you do what you want. I suppose with the way you see the City-State, there is no way to convince you to stop this invasion."

"Glad you agree with me. Now..."

"BUT, don't expect me to follow you in what you do. I will still become the Foreign Affairs Advisor, but I will not do what you ask."

Ruka, wide eyed, looked at Grayton. Not only did this Peon interrupted him, but he also had the gall to say that he would not obey Ruka's order. This man has more guts than he had given him credit for. Ruka smiled, "Fine. All I wanted you to do is just send some papers to the other regions of City-State that we have gone to war with them. But since you can't, we'll just surprise them."

Grayton grimaced. Maybe if he would send warning papers to the City-State, then the City-State would be ready for the invasion and maybe even give up when Ruka's forces start to invade. That would avoid a lot of bloodshed. He closed his eyes and cursed under his breath, "Fine. I'll do that."

Ruka grinned, "Good to know that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to continue my bath." He got up to leave the tent, until Grayton stood up and called out.

"At least come back to L'Renouille for awhile and confirm the letter I wish to send to the City-States. Maybe we can discuss of maybe sparing Ryube from destruction."

Ruka looked at Grayton. One thing's for sure, this old man is determined to save lives. Ruka almost admired him for that. Ruka gave out a huff and then said, "Fine, tho I doubt I'll change my mind about Ryube, but I will go back to L'Renouille to at least confirm your papers."

"Good." Grayton smiled.

He sneaked into the camp site.

Since he was a thief, and a very good and widely experienced one at that, slicing the throats of the guard who was posted at the entrance of the camp site was easy, and done with no feeling of remorse or mercy. After all, these people did destroy his town, without any remorse or mercy.

He hid mostly in shadows. Going from one tent to the other. Trying to find the man who is in charge of this operation. He has an idea it is the young Prince himself, but then, he might be wrong. He saw the young Prince getting out of a tent, followed by an old man. Who the hell? That old man is a totally unfamiliar face. Maybe he's the one in charge of the operation. Who knows, after all, the old man is coming out of the tent smiling while the young Prince looked annoyed. Well, no time for thinking, he'll just kill them both, starting with the old man. After all, killing a higher ranking officer might just put the whole numeral advantage to his side.

He moved swiftly behind the old man.

Grayton may be a pencil pusher now, but he didn't make it into office just by writing thesis. He used to be in the army himself. So sensing danger was a part of him.

He quickly ran up to the young Prince and took his sword, and in a swift motion, made a 180 degrees turn while holding the sword out. The sword hits the stranger's chest, cutting it not so deeply, so it wouldn't be fatal. The stranger fell to the ground and doubled back. He hold onto his bleeding chest but showed no pain in his face. He stepped back and hid in the shadows.

Grayton had a short moment, but managed to catch a glimpse of the man's clothing, and it was definitely a Jowston civilian. A thief from the looks of it, because he seems to have a talent of hiding in the shadows. Sword ready in his righ hand, Grayton looks around.

He's probably come from the right side, seeing as how his sword is in his right hand. Swerving the sword to the right side would be difficult and would take too long, so this would be an advantage to the stranger, unless the man the stranger is facing has though of this, which is, in fact, why the stranger failed. The sword pointed to his neck, the stranger stepped out of the shadows. Grayton caught the stranger dead on. He smiled after finding out that his age has yet to affect his sword skill.

"I do not wish to kill you, Stranger, just tell me what you want. Money? Food? I'd gladly give it to you." Grayton asked with a sound of sympathy in his voice.

"Don't try to trick me with your words Highlander." the stranger replied and made a lightning quick move, which in result, swayed Grayton's hand to the side. The man had swatted the sword aside. The man also at the same moment, used his other hand to force a dagger into Grayton's throat.

A Throat Cutter. Experienced thief. But too bad. Grayton twisted his hand, and the sword that is in it cut the man's hand clean off and Grayton proceeds to do this with his other hand that's holding the dagger. The daggered hands flew into the air while the empty hand fell to the ground with a thump. Grayton puts the sword at the man's throat.

"Again, I will say, I'm not trying to kill you. You'd just as well run away now." Grayton said. But the man just wrapped his armless hands around Grayton's collar and pushed Grayton into his position.

Surprised, Grayton lost his balance and kneeled to the ground. Then he remembered something. He looked up and saw the daggered hand coming to him. Grayton cuts the man's body in half and backed up just in time as the dagger fell straight into the opened body of the man. The dagger dug deep into the man's innards and blood splashed onto Grayton's face.

Grayton looked at awe. That was a close call. But... but... he had to sacrifice the man's life to save his own. Was it... worth it?

He heard sound of hands clapping behind him. He turned to see Ruka, who smiled at Grayton, coming closer. Ruka bent down and picked up his sword from Grayton's hand and wiped the blood off it using his cape.

"I am impressed old man. That was a good show. Seems like you still have it in you to kill a person after all. And here I thought you had gone all soft. There's still a chance for you yet." Ruka said, and then walked away.

Grayton sat on the muddy ground, thinking of what Ruka just said. Eyes wide, looking into the pit of darkness that he thought he had climbed out of. He looked long into the pit and heard something.