A startling piece of news quickly spread throughout the Stantin Duchy.
Count Wellen had formally declared war on the Grand Duke of Stantin!
Given how the situation had developed, everyone had known that Count Wellen would confront the Grand Duke of Stantin sooner or later.
But no one had expected that day to come so soon.
No matter how rapidly Count Wellen had expanded recently, he had only just annexed the territories of a few minor lords. His strength might have increased considerably, but he had yet to stabilize his newly acquired lands, and his army had been fighting one battle after another. Surely he should have stopped to recuperate for a while. How could he go straight into a war against the Grand Duke of Stantin, the most powerful man in the duchy?
Moreover, the Grand Duke of Stantin had held his position for over thirty years. No one could gauge just how much strength he had accumulated.
Count Wellen's rash decision to declare war on him was simply far too unwise.
Yet, just as in Count Wellen's previous wars against other lords, once the fighting officially began, the grand duke's troops proved utterly incapable of resisting his attacks. They retreated steadily from the very beginning.
In just half a month, Count Wellen's army advanced a full two hundred kilometers into the grand duke's lands, capturing more than a third of his territory in one sweeping offensive.
The other lords in the duchy had eagerly anticipated a bitter struggle between Count Wellen and the grand duke, preferably one that would leave both sides badly battered-or at least see the grand duke teach Count Wellen a harsh lesson. Faced with this outcome, they all fell silent.
Soon, calls to replace the grand duke arose throughout the Stantin Duchy.
Seeing that