General Green had been in the Blue Dawn army for over thirty-five years. He was the one who presided over all the operations in the eastern military base, and also one of the most widely acknowledged war heroes of the country.
There had been many times that he wondered when they might face a major crisis in the hands of their neighboring enemies such as Red Dusk, but never did he ever imagine that the real crisis would come from the heart of the country itself, and not the border.
”Who the fuck is behind this little brat?! I can’t believe that all but that corrupt idiot in the south surrendered to her willingly!”
Naturally, he didn’t believe that a little girl less than half his age had the ability to do all that she had on her own.
If she wasn’t the puppet of a power that didn’t want to show its face, General Green would gladly shave away his meticulously maintained beard and mustache with a rusty knife!
One of his lieutenants couldn’t help but step forward at this time. “General, you may not know, but this girl was actually already quite famous before she took over, she’s actually the daughter of one of the richest men in the world. The public believes that she led the rebellion out of sheer goodwill, and is perfectly deserving of her current position.”
Although he managed to keep his face neutral, none of the men in the room were idiots. Just from the tone of his voice, it was more than clear that it wasn’t just ‘people’ who believed she fit in that position, but the lieutenant himself.
Seeing how the general’s face was getting darker, one of his colleagues couldn’t help but clear his throat awkwardly. “While I’m sure the second lieutenant always sees the good in people, there are some things you may not have paid attention to. For example, although she’s indeed the daughter of the White Deer Corporation’s leaders, she’s not the actual heiress at all. In fact, no one really knows how much of the property she’ll inherit in the end… if she’ll get anything at all, that is.”
A little girl like her selling herself for her vanity fit General Green’s expectations quite well, and he quickly made up his mind on the matter.
He couldn’t help but sneer. “So it’s like that, is it? Most of the wealth she enjoys will later belong to just her older sibling, so out of greed, she probably agreed to someone’s demands to lead this rebellion, right?”
Of course, while he didn’t acknowledge her takeover of power, General Green wasn’t willing to shed the blood of his own countrymen to get her off her post.
”Alright, I’ve decided. We cannot acknowledge this puppet as the one who will lead our country moving forward. If the people are blind enough to follow her… then I have no choice but to lead them back myself.”
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”The eastern military base under the leadership of General Green has declared that they refuse to acknowledge you as their monarch, and have requested a call for a public vote in which every citizen over the age of twenty-one can take part.”
The lady reading the message paused as her brows furrowed in displeasure. “T-They’ve also said that they want to be the ones in charge of overseeing all aspects of the elections. Also… the southern base has also stated that they intend to follow the arrangements of General Green, whatever they may be.”
Emilia smiled nonchalantly, not looking surprised at all. “Oh? Since they’ve said so much, there must be a threat attached to the message, right? Like, ‘if you don’t do as I say, I’ll do this and that’, hm?”
The lady quickly scrolled through the message again, refreshed the window, and even restarted the app, but the message still remained the same.
In the end, she could only shake her head awkwardly. “P-Princess, I-I’ve already checked it, but there doesn’t seem to be anything extra?”
Emilia finally looked a little interested as she curled her finger towards the woman. “Bring it to me?”
Taking over the tablet from the blushing lady officer, Emilia hummed thoughtfully after going through the whole thing again. “There doesn’t seem to be any hidden message or code language, either. How interesting.”
’Do they believe I’ll be more scared if they just don’t mention what the threat actually is?’
Cynthia hummed. “It’s possible? After all, humans often say that nothing is scarier than the unknown, do they not?”
’Isn’t the unknown more exciting than scary, though?’
The raven-haired girl chuckled, but she couldn’t deny it. Perhaps this was the difference between people, and Emilia’s taste was simply different from most.
After all, even though she wasn’t human, Cynthia herself didn’t like the ‘unknown’ very much.
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While General Green was impatiently waiting for Emilia’s ‘reply’, a certain authoritarian figure in the Oriana country was also about to have a stroke for similar reasons.
Both the White Deer and Black Tiger Corporations were already a cornerstone of Oriana’s economy, so it went without saying that not only would he not want them to suffer, but the president would also never accept these golden egg-laying hens leaving the nest.
Of course, after they had remained loyal for decades and built so much trust, he also couldn’t bear to just slap them in the face. As long as there was no indication of their betrayal, he would not tighten the leash on their collars.
Although it had never been said out loud, both of these corporation’s leaders understood that they must never leave the country without giving him a ‘collateral’ through which he could maintain his ‘trust’.
For example, in case an unavoidable situation came due to which Mr. Black had to go overseas, his son could absolutely never travel together with him, and must stay grounded in Oriana until his father’s return.
Similarly, either Samantha or one of her parents must always, always be in Oriana. As for Emilia, well, he could be a bit more lenient towards the second daughter, as long as the real heiress was still alive and well.
Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine, however, that this family would dare to just up and leave one day!
They didn’t dare to do so openly, of course, but did it in an extremely insidious way.
Samantha had a business meeting scheduled for the Phoenix country months ago, but it kept getting delayed, and the flight was inevitably ‘rescheduled’ over and over again.
Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. White were both ‘shocked and alarmed’ at the fact that Emilia had been made the ‘face’ of the rebellion after being kidnapped and brainwashed, and had immediately taken a private jet to take her back the moment they knew about it.
This fit with the president’s intentions as well, since while he didn’t care about their estranged daughter being a little rebel, he wasn’t very comfortable with her leading a rebellion in a foreign country.
Not only did it not look good, but it might also give some people certain ideas that they definitely shouldn’t have.
But his thoughtless approval on the matter ended up biting him back almost immediately, as he realized far too late that Samantha’s ‘rescheduled’ departure just happened to be on the same day.
Unfortunately, by the time he got the alarming news, both planes were already at their destinations, far out of his reach.
Moreover, his hopes of this being a ‘false alarm’ were also completely dashed after he had his men conduct an investigation ‘just in case’.
A heavy fist slammed into the mahogany table with a dull thud, and the president’s expression twisted hideously. “These ungrateful swines! They’d been preparing for this move for so long while pretending to smile in my face?! Slimy snakes, the whole bunch of them!”
Not only did they quietly move away whatever assets they could, but even the most valuable employees had been shifted away to ‘other branches’ weeks if not months in advance!
And as if that wasn’t enough, even the friends and family members of everyone who was close to any of them were also silently moved out of Oriana’s borders, as if they thought he would be low enough to threaten innocent people!
This was just a slap to the face, and the worst thing was that there was very little he could do about it.
Even if he were to seize all of the White Deer Corporation’s assets right now, what they would lose in the end might not even be thirty percent of their total net worth.
Moreover, doing so would not only completely cut off their relationship, but it would also make other corporations far warier when it came to investing and working in Oriana.
After all, even if he made up a good enough reason, the people at the top weren’t fools who would just believe any nonsense without proof.
”Fucking ungrateful little snakes! Spineless bastards!”
As the president of Oriana who had been in power for decades, never had he ever felt as frustrated and powerless as he did at this moment.
That is, until he received another report at his table from the intelligence department. Not for the White Deer, but the Black Tiger.
At first, he had the foreboding feeling that the Black Tiger Corporation had also abandoned their country, but fortunately, it wasn’t that.
Unfortunately… it wasn’t any better at all.
”Are you absolutely sure that the weapon blueprint you received is identical to the one from the Black Tiger?! I tell you, if there’s even a single percent chance—!”
The intelligence division’s head bowed. “Mr. President, I dare not joke about such things. The two blueprints… are completely identical.”
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