Hearing the name of the famed ‘war hero’ from the intelligence director’s mouth, the despairing ex-president suddenly felt a spark of hope re-ignite in his heart.
”T-That’s right! Even if they managed to take over the northern and central provinces along with the capital, there’s no way that my people would surrender so easily to these outside forces!”
Thinking about how his loyal men must have fought tooth and nail to recapture the capital before they finally managed to come to his rescue, even he couldn’t help but feel a little moved.
Seeing how the man was still waiting outside, the president frowned. “Wait, what are you waiting for? Let him in already!”
The ex-director of the intelligence division hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth. “Mr. President, I-I hate to say this, but… what if it’s a trap to get us to unseal the entrance?”
The president pointed a finger at him in disbelief, but recalling how badly they had been duped before, he couldn’t help but lower his hand begrudgingly.
If he were to claim that there was no way someone as smart as General Green would fall for the low-level tricks of that little bitch, wouldn’t that make him look even more stupid?
After all, regardless of whether she had been pretending from the start or if she had really been ‘brainwashed’ later, it was undeniable that Emilia had managed to catch him completely off-guard multiple times.
Recalling how he had only thought of her as a stupid little brat who only knew how to preach about things she could never really achieve, he couldn’t help but want to vomit blood every time.
Even after all this time, he still had nightmares where people would jeer and laugh at him for being a blind dog and keeping the knife that would stab him to death right by his side.
Moreover, this ‘knife’ named Emilia was handed over to the enemy so easily that those hateful people in his nightmares even seemed to wonder if he hadn’t deliberately sabotaged himself from remorse and regret.
The toxic mixture of their fake sympathy and derisive laughter almost caused him to suffocate multiple times in his sleep.
Fortunately, he still managed to wake up in the end, though his mentality was always just a little shakier than before.
If there was really a mastermind pulling her strings in secret… the president shuddered in terror at the mere thought.
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General Green naturally hadn’t expected things to go anywhere near as smoothly as they had, and while that in itself may not be a bad thing, he couldn’t help but feel a little unsettled in his heart.
After all, even if the little girl was arrogant and proud, there was a limit to how lucky they could be while sneaking in and out of the capital.
Moreover, the fact that there was such an obvious fifteen-minute gap between the day and night shifts of the guards just made all sorts of alarm bells go off in his head.
But like a starving little mouse, no matter how well he knew that the piece of cheese was mounted on a trap… he still had to take the bite.
After all, if he was smart and quick, there was still a slight chance for the mouse to be able to take off with the bait before the trap could even finish fully springing!
But after waiting in front of the entrance of the president’s bunker for almost a full five minutes, General Green couldn’t help but feel a little numb in his heart. ‘What the fuck is going on? Does he not want to leave or something?!’
His confusion was soon cleared when the communication device by the entrance buzzed to life once more.
”General Green, first of all, the president wants to thank you for—”
The general frowned. “We don’t have time for this! Mr. President, if you’re listening, we have to leave quickly, or else—!”
The voice from the other side changed, this time to one he could definitely recognize as the old president. “I’m listening. But General, you must understand that unsealing this entrance is the same as giving up our last line of defense, and we can’t just do that without being sure of your affiliation, right? So if you could prove it somehow that you—”
The general almost fainted from disbelief and rage the moment he realized what was going on, and he couldn’t even bring himself to care that the person on the other side was the president himself. “Fuck! Is that what you morons were dallying for?!”
How could he have risked his life for such utter buffoons?!
Unfortunately, they were now firmly tied to the same boat, and he couldn’t just watch it sink.
General Green sneered. “Only around ten minutes are left before the guards return, and we’ll be dead meat if we’re caught in the middle of the capital. So get out of there right this moment if you want to leave with me, or just stay there forever!”
After a moment of stunned silence, the president’s face turned hideously ugly. ‘How dare he speak to me, and even threaten me like that?!’
Unfortunately… it was true that he really couldn’t pass up this opportunity, even if it was full of risks. After all, if he turned down even General Green, who else would come to rescue him later?
The president frowned. ‘Forget it. I’ll cooperate with him for now, but once we’re in a more stable position… I’ll definitely make him pay for this insolence!’
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Meanwhile, the rest of the world was completely unaware of the struggles of both the old president and general Green, as most of their focus had long since been attracted to the rapid growth and reformation of the ‘Blue Dawn Empire’.
”Wait a minute… am I hearing this right? I thought the White Deer Corporation would surely take over as the ‘giant’ of Blue Dawn now that Emilia is the empress there, but… it doesn’t seem to be the case?!”
”Right? I also thought Blue Dawn would become just the smaller, weaker version of the Carmen country with the Gray Wolfe, but what exactly is going on now?”
Their confusion wasn’t unwarranted, as shortly after taking the throne, the empress announced her intention to have the empire’s official presence in almost every field and industry of significance.
With the amount of control and power she had at the moment, it made no sense for her to do something like this if she really wanted to let the White Deer dominate the country later. That would just be smashing herself in the foot for no good reason.
Some people couldn’t help but sneer. “As expected of a narcissistic girl like her, as soon as she found herself in a position of power, she immediately forgot how she got there in the first place.”
”A white-eyed wolf at its finest, I see. Although I can’t deny that she has slightly above average skin, that is probably all she has. Underneath, however, is just a heartless monster who only knows how to take, take, and take!”
Of course, the backlash from her fans was both fierce and immediate.
”Hello? Does your conscience not hurt when you badmouth our princess like this? Even the fact that she didn’t immediately use her position to benefit her parents’ company can be made into a ‘bad thing’ by you?”
”Our princess is an angel! Whatever she is doing must be for the good of the people. So don’t talk about things you don’t understand!”
”Slightly above average??? I dare you to look in the mirror, compare your face to her photo, and say that again honestly with a straight face!”
The reaction of her fans was only to be expected, and the haters had already been prepared with dozens of eloquent and clever counterarguments before they even started.
Before they could start, however, the news of the White Deer Corporation taking the initiative to send over a tremendous amount of resources and manpower caught them completely unprepared.
”What’s going on?! Is this some trendy new way for the rich people to respond to betrayal, or am I too much a peasant to understand?!”
”Breaking news! The White Deer just issued a statement clarifying that all of these are their ‘donations’ to congratulate their ‘little princess’ for being able to achieve what she wanted. It all comes with zero strings attached!”
Before they could even finish digesting that, however…
”Another breaking news! The Empress of Blue Dawn just said that while she’s happy to get some help when she needs it the most, she will still consider it a ‘loan’ that the empire will honor once they’re more stable in the future!”
The people who had been speculating on how the venom and insults will fly once Emilia’s parents and elder sister responded to her ‘betrayal’ couldn’t help but feel as if their faces had been slapped over and over again to the point where even their own mothers wouldn’t recognize them.
”Hello? If the parents and elder sister of the princess see this, can you please not be so over the top all the time? We realize you just want to dote on her, but this is really too much!”
Of course, while most of the fans pretended to complain, in reality they were just trying their best to slap the faces of the haters even harder.
But not to mention the regular haters, even the few who had been well compensated by the Black Tiger to stir up trouble found themselves speechless at the situation. ‘We really don’t get paid enough for this, do we?!’
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