Although she was usually patient when needed, Emilia wasn’t one to miss striking when the iron was hot.
While the government was still busy scrambling to reorganize things from the robbery at the northern military base and also investigating her ‘disappearance’, she decisively struck at the central military base.
Unlike the one in the north, which they had managed to empty without a single casualty, this time it naturally wasn’t going to be so easy.
Not only was the opponent much more vigilant, but the ‘traitors’ they had within the base itself were nowhere near the number that they had in the northern base.
Emilia knew that they would need external support to pull this thing off, and the sooner it happened, the better.
The sound of blaring horns and the glare of emergency lights overwhelmed the central base before the morning sun ever had the chance to rise, and a violent struggle quickly broke out among the troops who were summoned to defend.
The combination of internal turmoil and external invasion immediately caused the man in charge to panic… before he was shot directly in the head by his deputy.
The two armed men by his side were momentarily shocked, but before they could retaliate, there was a sound of steel hitting skulls before their world went dark.
The deputy immediately straightened up in a salute. “Princess!”
Emilia flicked the blood off of the military baton before she gave him a nod. “Continue. We can’t let them regroup and discover that they aren’t really outnumbered. The sooner they feel their situation is hopeless, the more likely they are to surrender.”
”Yes, princess!”
The deputy didn’t dare to delay anymore, and they immediately proceeded to the next zone.
”The third zone needs reinforcement!”
”We’re outnumbered and surrounded here, what do we do sir? Sir, are you there?!”
Unfortunately, the soldiers seeking instructions were only met with deafening silence, not knowing that the command center had been the first target of the rebel forces.
Seemingly outnumbered and surrounded by the enemy at all fronts, they felt like they were sinking boats in the middle of the ocean, completely without hope.
The sound of gunshots and screams of terror and rage continued almost until the first ray of sunlight finally hit the base, its red light painting a beautifully tragic scene of death and decay.
Emilia, who had sneaked into the base in advance and was responsible for a vast majority of the sabotage, could only purse her lips and look away from the scene after capturing the base. “How is it?”
Four of the five provincial leaders had already retreated back to their respective zones to organize and regroup everyone to prepare for their next step, leaving only one by her side.
”We managed to kill over six thousand, and captured the over thirteen thousand who surrendered.”
Emilia sighed. “That’s not what I was asking…”
”Y-Yes… well, two hundred and thirty of our people have perished, while five hundred and eighty-four are undergoing treatment for their wounds…. P-Princess…”
The crimson-haired girl turned her head away without a word, but anyone could tell that she was dissatisfied with the result.
The gruff man felt distressed in his heart, but didn’t dare to go forward to really console her. ‘I wish Ginny was here, ahh. The northern province could have waited a little, our princess is obviously more important!’
Of course, he knew that if he dared to say such a thing, he would only be scolded by the princess herself.
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Although the news was being suppressed by the Blue Dawn’s government, it was inevitable for it to leak to the top-level officials of the country.
Soon enough, it became clear to everyone that Emilia had been ‘kidnapped’ by the rebel forces of the Blue Dawn Republic, and no one knew her current whereabouts.
Fortunately, that is where the ‘leak’ stopped… for a while.
The president naturally didn’t dare to fire the ‘incompetent’ intelligence director at this time, no matter how much he wanted to, because there was simply no one ‘competent’ to replace him.
Feeling as if he had aged over a decade within just hours, the president decided to try his best to milk whatever he could out of the Gray Wolfe while moving forward with his plans of making a getaway to a remote island country that had agreed to give him refuge.
He had the feeling that things were about to change soon, and he didn’t want to be stuck here when that happened.
Unfortunately, the wheel of fate turned faster than he expected, and there was soon some news of Emilia, but not the type he liked.
”The central base was taken over?! And Emilia was sighted among the rebels?!”
This was exactly what he never wanted to see! No, it was even worse than his worst nightmares!
The shivering intelligence director didn’t dare to delay, and quickly handed over the documents in his hands to the president, while the military chief remained completely silent. “T-Their numbers and strength completely exceeded our expectations, a-and w-we weren’t ready at all. W-We have already confirmed that it is indeed her, and after consulting the experts, we can conclude that she must have been brainwashed by the rebels to take their side.”
To be fair, none of them were really surprised that the girl would choose to join the other side, since her views had aligned more with them from the start, after all. Maybe that was why they kidnapped her in the first place.
In his opinion, such a stupid girl could probably be convinced of and trained to do almost anything by someone smart enough to do so. In fact, that was what they should have done when she first got here, but everyone except him believed it was better to leave her alone.
Had they been smart enough, it made much more sense to brainwash that stupid bitch first and get her on their side when they still had the chance, instead of just keeping her confined and wasting such a valuable resource.
Not only would she be a good bargaining chip on her own, but who knew what kind of help they could convince her to get from her family if they really tried?
Much more than Emilia’s news, however, what really shocked them was just how strong the rebels were. How could these little rodents who didn’t even dare to show their face under the sun suddenly be able to strike and take over a military base just like that?!
Although it was terrifying enough when they had managed to sneak in and steal the resources of a military base before, that had still been when ‘they hadn’t been prepared’, and it could still be written off as them getting incredibly lucky somehow.
This time, however, was completely different. Although it had been without a warning and there were signs of sabotage… the rebels still won a fight in their own military base!
Didn’t that mean that the military could no longer be trusted to be able to deal with the rebel forces? If so, who could they depend on to protect them in the future?!
No, if things were really like this… wasn’t it just a matter of time before they lost in a completely frontal, open conflict?!
Of course, no one would dare mention such thoughts to the president’s face.
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