NOVEL NEXT B1 | Chapter 50
The Central Fortress
Not Long Ago
“Ma’am, we have reports of an army forming on the Northern Pass border wastelands,” Elara’s highest ranking lieutenant general declares while rushing into the room, making all of the Nine Generals within turn to look. “They’re preparing for a conflict there!”
“Do we know when they’re going to march into the Pass?” the Fourth General asks without looking up from the map at the center of the room.
The lieutenant general shakes his head and answers, “They don’t appear to be preparing to enter the Pass at all!”
This catches the attention of all of the generals. Meanwhile the few generals amongst them who know of the First General’s plot all turn to look at her, finding her grinning.
As if on cue, an alarm begins to sound from the fortress walls. Then the alarm immediately cuts off again, signaling that the new arrivals are friendly. And it only takes a few seconds for said arrivals to end up at the very meeting room the generals are in, somehow passing straight through all of the fortress in mere seconds.
The man is wearing a similar outfit to the Two Star Merchants. But instead of two stars showing on his shoulder, a single large star surrounded by four other smaller stars is there. Meanwhile his outfit itself is red and purple instead of white and purple.
“You must be the Five Star Merchant that we’ve been expecting,” Elara speaks up before any of the other generals can say anything as she steps forwards, away from the table. “Welcome to our world!”
The merchant gives her a polite smile while seemingly looking around the room for someone, only to appear slightly disappointed when he doesn’t find them. Then he glances to the side where a Four Star Merchant appears in a flash of purple light, clearly using some sort of spatial magic or ability to teleport.
The Four Star Merchant whispers into the man’s ear, seemingly surprising the man for a moment before the Five Star Merchant nods his head, making the Four Star Merchant teleport away again.
Then the Five Star Merchant focuses on the First General and says, “It would appear as if the Emperor of the Arterian Empire has been assassinated. Therefore we need not have any discussions over how trade between the Dynasty and their Empire shall occur.”
Shock radiates from six of the nine generals’ faces within the room. Meanwhile the Second and Third Generals both have knowing looks on their faces as the First General’s face lights up like a lamp.
“That’s wonderful news! Am I to assume the army stationed on the border is there for the Predator Division?” Elara asks, tilting her head slightly in the process.
The Five Star Merchant nods his head, answering, “That would appear to be so. Please bring the Predator Division to meet me when possible. I will delay our negotiations until after your war has ended.” He looks at each one of the generals before focusing on the First General once more and closing out with a brief, “Good day.”
All without so much as telling the generals his name, clearly showing the difference in his treatment of the Albarians and the Two Star Merchant’s treatment of them.
But none of them are bothered by that. Much. Instead, the six generals who had no idea about the plan turn to the First General, with a few of them speaking at once.
“What’s the meaning of this?” “How?” “The Predator Division again? Aren’t you just abusing them!?”
Of the three who did speak, the Fourth General feels the most upset about the development even if it significantly helps them in winning the war.
The First General raises her hand and clenches her fist, making the other generals narrow their eyes at her as she says, “I never ordered them to go on this mission. They all chose to go on their own.”
Silence spreads amongst the generals.
“Is this why the former emperor has been missing for nearly a month now?” the Fifth General asks while frowning at the First General. And when the First General doesn’t say anything, she sighs and mutters, “You better have a good explanation for that.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” the Ninth General says with a laugh, the woman getting a kick out of all this. “It’s clear as day what happened.”
“The brute’s right,” the Eighth General comments, verbally attacking the Ninth General to her complete indifference. “The Crimson Eternal wants one thing more than anything else.”
“Revenge,” the Third General declares before anyone else. Then he goes silent again, the reserved general in charge of the intelligence division of the Republic as quiet as ever.
“You… captured that piece of trash to hand off to the Crimson Eternal as payment?” the Fourth General half asks half states, feeling bewildered for a moment. Then she just feels conflicted on how to respond to that.
Because that means the First General did indeed give them all a choice.
“How did you get the others on board? I’m sure they’re not all doing it just to help the Crimson Eternal,” the Fifth General asks, clearly not as well versed with the other Category 5s of their nation as she and the other generals are with the Crimson Eternal. “They may be growing closer, but they’re not that close yet. And I’ve even heard that the Crimson Eternal is still distancing herself from everyone.”
The First General just grins and says, “Sorry, but that’s not my secret to tell.”
That has the other generals all frowning at her, but she keeps silent regardless.
“Now, onto the next topic at hand,” the First General says, beginning to drive the conversation away from the subject. “How about we finish off the Empire for good?”
Unlike before, all nine of the Generals join in agreement on this.
The final war was beginning.
And this one would be fought while the Empire was leaderless.
The Northern Pass
The Present
So far everything that has occurred has happened within Elara’s expectations. Within her predictions.
Ever since the invaders arrived, Elara has kept her eye on the Category 5s, simply waiting for them to get enough achievements that she could promote them. So that she could put them under her own command and use them to bring this war to its final closure.
And it all began with the former emperor’s overconfidence in his control over the girl. In his sending the girl off to the invaders believing her to most likely end up captured, only to find her returning with more merits than he can hold back.
Which only sparked the man’s downfall.
He had already been losing power for years, his lack of talent in leading and his lack of power constantly pushing that loss further and further. And his corrupted personality didn’t help either, his killing of the Crimsons enough to seclude him from most of the generals since it led to a major loss in the nation’s combat prowess.
But the First General couldn’t do anything to him until the time was right. When she and the others finally agreed and even held a miniature election.
To turn the nation from an Empire into a Republic.
It was all an elaborate way to get rid of that figurehead on the throne and replace it with the council to the fullest extent of the meaning.
And after the last ball, he had no power left remaining and had instead become a pawn for the First General to use. One meant to be sold off to another of her pawns.
Then it all came falling into place after that.
And the First General can’t help but laugh out loud as she stands atop a cliff looking out over the enemy army with her own forces behind her. She laughs, and laughs, and laughs, seemingly never ending as her highest ranking officers look at her with concern.
Since she never laughs.
Now all she needs before she will finally have her plan coming to full fruition is for the war to end, the child to kill the former emperor, the man’s subordinates to revive Lysandre, and then things will play out on their own.
Elara will protect the Crimson Eternal, placing her in a position directly below Elara for all Elara’s life, making her the perfect pawn while fully claiming control of the planet for the Republic. She will also have gotten favor from the other Category 5s along with the Crimson Eternal, cementing her place in terms of power within the Republic.
And while she does feel some remorse for using the girl, she also knows that the girl will be happy to have at least been able to kill Lysandre. Which isn’t even considering that the girl will be in a higher ranking position than him as well.
The First General laughs for a few more seconds before finally stopping and looking down at the Arterian army before them.
Her army is thirty thousand strong, whereas the Arterian army is only fifteen thousand strong. And that’s not considering the higher quality Category 5 Ability Holders on their side, the fact that their Emperor is now dead, so they no longer have a leader or a Category 5 of their own, and the Eternal Dynasty has already supplied them with the same weapons they supplied the Empire. Evening their technology at least in terms of offensive power.
Since some of the guns they gave the Arterians were capable of killing a person in their level two hundreds so long as they don’t have any magical defenses up or try to block it with an ability.
So, with a wide and terrifying grin on the First General’s face, she raises a fist into the air and projects her voice for all to hear.
“Men, we march! To the final battle of this war! And to our victoryyyyy!!!!”
Every last soldier behind her, man or woman, elderly or middle-aged, Ability Holder or not, charges forwards to meet with the Arterian army, who all appear incredibly low on morale.
Even the other three Generals of the Military who joined her on this campaign charge ahead to join the fray.
“And now, the last pieces will fall into place,” Elara says with one last chuckle before rushing forwards to join the battle herself.