PoV Neil Desmond
"I do not like this," An older man said.
The man was the newly appointed leader of the Military. He was the Head General, taking over after the defection of the Duchess Greenwald. The man was sharp, and he looked at the information coming in from the new spies. There was a lack of concrete information, but the Empire had just started sending these new spies. They were former Beast-kin slaves that the Empire had been using for spying on nobility. Now they had been ruthlessly pulled from their station and sent to the Beast-kin Nation.
Not that the Empire was complaining about those Beast-kin being sent there, but the Nobles and the Empire were complaining about the sudden loss of a slave force that was larger than most people thought. They were intrinsically tied into many households as Maids, Butlers, Laborers, and so much more. From the tame to the beastly, the Empire had been using these slaves for over a generation, and some were even family units that the Nobles had thought were tied to them. Granting them more freedoms because of their service.
What they did not expect was that many of those beast-kin households would leave without looking back. They happily regained their freedom from people who treated them as less than even pets. Over ninety percent chose to leave, showing the treatment these slaves had been receiving while in the Empire. Even the Free Beast-kin were looked upon as if they should be captured to be 'taken care of' by humans.
With this overwhelming emigration, it actually helped the Empire in one way: with those slaves gone, the Nobles were hiring new people, and many businesses too. Many training places were opened up, and now there was a labor shortage, causing new issues at the home front.
But that was also incurred with the Military hiring more than ever. We have even lowered our standards, and there was no populace to pick up all these now newly available jobs. Normally, that meant others from other countries would come to the Empire to fill these roles, but that did not seem to be happening right now.
I sighed as I looked at the Information before us, wondering what it all meant. The Information was scarce, scattered, and many did not understand it.
No, no one really understood it since it was so fragmented.
"Alright, let's stop looking at it," The new General said, and he leaned back.
I looked at the New head General and took in his appearance. The man was a tall, silver-haired, serious man. He was a tall man with muscles and two swords upon his hips and a spear upon his back, an A ranker and much older than the Duchess, he was not one to want to stand out, and I did not know him before he suddenly appeared in the camp after the Duchess Greenwald defected, and his arrival did not bode well for the military.
He was ruthless and smart.
A purge was upon the Military higher ranks, and I found myself profoundly happy I had only recently been elevated to the rank of Strategist. I did not have the dark taint of the Duchess Greenwald upon me. Many around me did not dodge this problem and were ruthlessly cut from the top of the food chain of the Military.
Although they were not killed, to my surprise, many were sent home, and many were sent to less influential places. It was a purge of the top from being the top of the Military. They were the ones who failed to see this war coming, then lost the war, and so a reshuffling was maybe a more appropriate turn for what happened to them.
Although something told me that they might not survive, as I heard quiet whispers that each and every person related to the Duchess would be investigated deeply.
I looked again toward the Man before me, as did others, all of whom were frowning. General Victor Dunberry, a man whom I had not heard of before he showed his face with the Emperor's Decree, and a hard face, and now, all those around me were new faces, and I was the last one of those who had worked with the Duchess before.
"So in the back, they are building something massive," The general said slowly, "Let's assume at this point, without more information, it is not something needed for the Negotiations. I need something to move these negotiations forward. We have been doing this for a year, and in just a few more days, which is something I would like to avoid. I have not made progress since I was appointed as the Head General, and if something does not change soon, I will look incompetent."
"General, I think in the new Negotiations, I think putting a heavy foot down might change things, threaten them that we would love-" A new Aide began, only for the General to turn an icy glare at him.
We all shuddered as Cold thick mana moved around us, and it started to freeze the air before disappearing. "Gentlemen, Ladies," He said, nodding to the two women strategists, "I need something that will not allow them to break off negotiations."
"Honestly," I said, finally speaking up, "I think they want to delay a little longer," I said, my voice slow.
"Why do you think that?" the General said, looking toward me, and I almost flinched under that gaze. But I straightened my back.
"Because, Politics, I believe," I said slowly. The General looked intrigued and tilted his head.
"What makes you say that? Seeing something I am not?" He asked.
I felt a shiver up my spine as he smiled, and I wanted to flee. I felt like prey before this man, but I took a deep breath. I thought about the fragments that we had received somehow from the Intelligence branch of the Empire, which finally had spies doing their job after sending the slaves to the Beast-kin Nation.
"General, the reason I say that is because of the actions of the Beast-kin negotiator, some of the historical data, and some of these reports. Then the fact that they have not left the front," I said, taking a deep breath, "First, let's consider keeping them here at the front. If they were fighting, they might have a reason, but almost five or six months ago, before the Duchess Defected, they could have finished negotiations. At this point, even people back home can probably see that they might be delaying. But we hear no discontent in these reports from the spies." I said, reaching out to the one report from a beast-kin slave that was recently returned to a tribe in the Beast-kin Nation. "No, instead, the reports were hearing about rumors and discontent about the Duchess Greenwald being taken from us."
I scoffed as did a dozen others, "Obviously, if we were going to send over someone from the Empire to defect, it would not be the Head General from the Military who would be the one to plan something like this. Even those uneducated beasts should understand that," I scoffed at the absurdity of it, and the General nodded. "That means there are at least two factions at play. One being the faction that just recruited the Duchess, which I believe to be the Bunny-kin with Chelsea Loveknot being a strong player in. Then there is another, which, if I am thinking about it, would be the Dragonic, the head tribe of the Beast-kin Nation."
The General frowned, picked up the report, and nodded slowly. "Why Chelsea Loveknot?" He asked.
"Because she is the Lead Negotiator, her hands seem to be in everything in the Beast-kin Nation outside the Dragonics Tribe. Even the construction seems to be related to her," I said, grabbing another report and handing it to the General. "She created a new Military, was the strategist for the taking of the BOrder city, and much more. She has her hands everywhere we see in our intelligence. It could be the Bunny-kin Elders or something behind her, though. So I think there is a play for the top of power or something between the Bunny-kin and the Dragonic, if I were to guess. Although I have little evidence to see it other than rumors and the fact that normally a WARCHIEF should be negotiating with us, she sits down quietly and watches during the negotiations."
The General looked up at me, his eyes seeming to be enlightened, then looked down and picked up the reports, but saw nothing in them, and so they dimmed again. "That is a nice theory, it puts a lot of things together, but no evidence," He said, frowning deeper. "I like it though, it fits a lot together, and the delaying tactics might be about keeping soldiers at the front instead of defending their tribes when they make a move. Problem, though," The General said, and he sighed.
"What?" I asked, feeling my theory was solid.
"Even if this is the truth, it does nothing to help me move forward with negotiations, and frankly, I cannot act upon them even if I knew. Colluding with the other side to help us both out would be off the table with the Defection of the Duchess, and frankly, I would love nothing more than to go to war with that woman," the General said, and he sneered and quickly covered it up. "If I could get her to invade the Empire's lands just a mile or two, we would be able to run circles around them on the plains. Their logistics would be entirely predictable, and they would be nothing before us. Those fortifications or not they use them deeper in our land, we would win the war. No, we need to recover, we need time. These delays are good for us, but the Emperor wants this embarrassing display over. He no longer wants us groveling before these Beast-kin trash. So, we must end it."
That was the Crux of the matter, wasn't it?
What the Emperor wants, the Emperor gets, and now we must find out how to end these negotiations, even if we want the same thing.
Time.
"Not only that, but if we move forward with this thought pattern, thinking this is what is happening, we might fall into a trap." The General looked vexed, "Demond, I feel as if you might be somewhat correct, but," The General frowned, "There is little to act upon, which is vexing. I can only now attest to what the Duchess must have been feeling. We are on the back foot, wondering what the Bunny-kin will do next."
"General," One of the Strategists said, "Maybe if we-"
The meeting continued, and in the end, we moved on to more theories and potential plans for the next meeting with the ever-annoying Chelsea Loveknot. It was vexing that we now had to talk to the woman who took the Duchess Greenwald. No one had expected her defection, and now we were missing her presence even more.
Hours later, I left toward my own tent and sighed, wondering when things would start looking better for the Empire.
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