Lord Of Puppets

[Current location: Royal castle of the Garmfon kingdom – Meeting hall.]

"Absolutely fucking not." – said pissed off general Oranox Bearmight.

"You want to invest and upgrade further our military army!?"

"Are you insane?"

"Please calm down duke Oranox." - said duke ash.

"I'm just looking to just secure the peace of our kingdom."

"Secure?!" – shouted the pissed off bear beastman.

"Do you have any id- "

"Enough." – said king Alex Garmvoar as he stepped in, instantly shutting up the bear beastman.

"…"

"Duke Ash."

"I know you are concerned about the kingdom future."

"But right now expanding our military might may be the worst possible option right now?"

"How so?" – asked duke Ash.

"From what I know, our neighbors had been glaring for us for quite some time now."

"We may had stayed neutral with them for long time, but who knows? Maybe they realize that they may have chance now to strike us down?"

"There is also the prince of the Marok kingdom and the queen still missing."

"So we- "

"No." – said the king before the human noble could finish.

"The kingdom of Marok despised their nobility and the royal familiar because of the countless years of abuse and exploit."

"Even if both princes and queen show up, nobody would dare to fall them."

"We had also made citizens of the Marok kingdom much more happy compare to when they were ruled by the previous royal family."

"As for the neighboring nation, they know that we are not war mongers."

"But if we start expanding our military non stop at the alarming rate, their image of us may change and they may even prepare."

"And do you really think we are stable enough to go for the another war?"

"A year has yet to pass and yet you wish for more conflicts?"

"I'm going to say this straight."

"The answer is no."

"Increasing our military power now of all the times would only bring unnecessary conflict."

"And one that could threat our entire kingdom." – said the king, which in turn caused many nobles in the room question the words of the duke Ash.

"…"

(Hm…. This isn't going the way I hoped for…..Oh well.) – thought duke Ash as the meeting continued for 2 more hours, before then ending, with all the nobles going their separated ways.

[After the meeting.]

"SON OF A BITCH!" – shouted Oranox as he smashed the table.

"For crying out loud. You can only blame yourself for this." – said king Alex.

"He was provoking you during the entire meeting and you almost fallen for it."

"!"

"I-I'm so sorry, your majesty." – said the bear beastman.

"Enough." – said king Alex.

"This bastard is dead set on expanding our military at any cost."

"And he is also trying his best to diminish our own supports as well as strength."

"Yea….. Fuck me." – said the annoyed bear beastman as he sat down.

"Do you have any fucking idea how many times we had bandit, assassin and what not attack!?"

"They all are saying the same thing."

"Either 'I've was just paid' or 'screw your corruption'."

"That bastard is making sure that the expendable pawns won't know shit."

"Because of that, any form of the blame, evidence and proof would just go 'poof'."

"He is making sure that he will stay 'innocent looking' no matter what."

"And any of our attempts at exposing him would just in turn look like we are trying to manipulate the public."

"He got us good….. Too good to be specific….. And there is also what you said about dungeon growth."

"Is it really that slow?"

"Unfortunately, yes sir." – replied the beastman general.

"The dungeon is growing, but its pace of the growth isn't….. It will take a long time before the dungeon reaches the desired stage."

"Honestly, we even wondered about throwing some stuff into dungeon and having it absorbed it, boosting up its growth a bit."

"But that strategy is way too risky right now of all the times…. And with those bastards looming around."

"Not only that, our security around dungeon is too high."

"They are dead set on obtaining the dungeon….. But if I'm honest, I don't know if we should even try and have that dungeon become nation dungeon….. For now, that is."

"You are saying we should first do something with noble faction?" – asked king.

"Yeb." – replied general.

"…"

"As much as it annoys me to admit it, no." – said king.

"If we try and slow down the dungeon growth, we could be playing right into duke Ash hands."

"But if we continue with how things are right now, we could also be walking into a different trap." – said the general.

"But how?" – asked king.

"How would we deal with the duke Ash?"

"If we try being more 'rough', he could just expose us and spread slander about us, making himself look like a victim in all of this."

"…"

"…"

"Use that plan."

"Feed the dungeon."

"!"

"Wowowowow."

"There is no way these bastards would sit idly if we were to try do something like that." - said general.

"If anything, he will definitely pull something."

"And do you have any other plan?" – asked the king.

"Honestly, we cannot allow duke Ash to gain any more power."

"We need to stop him in tracks AND gain something that will give us a huge advantage against him."

"…"

"You sure about this?" – asked general.

"Worst results would be that guy getting desperate, which in turn would make him and destroy the dungeon ASAP….. But if that were to happened, things would end up bloody."

"…"

"Do it." – said king.

"…"

"I understand." – said the beastman general before then walking out of the room and then starting exploring the castle halls.

"…"

(Things are not looking for.)

(For the past months the noble faction was somehow keep getting more and more support without us even realizing.)

(…. No.)

(We did realized, but somebody withheld the informations.)

(We have traitor…. Probably more than one as well.)

(Dammit!)

(That bastard have his people everywhere!)

(As much as it annoys me, things are not looking favorable to us.)

(Public support is also completely even between our two factions….. And that bastard may have already some other tricks being prepared as of now.)

(Alex made a strong points that caused fat ass and his supporters to back down….. But there is no way it would stop him from scheming.) – thought the general as he left the castle and began heading straight towards the carriage.

"Back to my manor." – said the beastman as he boarded his carriage.

(But seriously, what could that bastard be scheming?) – thought the beastman general as the carriage started moving.

(He is already using "fraud" and "bandits" to disrupt our operations as well as destroy our image.)

(But what could he do that would deal us a massive blow, which would allow him to take over the rights.

"…"

(Making dungeon go on complete rampage.)

(If we were to start feeding the dungeon, he could probably mix something in and have his men add even more stuff that would be consumed by the dungeon, making the dungeon grow too much.)

(But that strategy is too risky.)

(He would have to either replace all the guards with fakes, but if that were to happened, he could leave a solid evidence of corruption and sabotage.)

(If he were to take over the rights, some people will realize that the corruption and sabotage was his doing.)

(Would he really make that kind of sloppy mistake? After all the stuff he did?) – thought the bear beastman as the carriage continued traversing through the capital city, before reaching the check point.

(Nah….. He would do something else.)

(But what?)

(Is there anything he can do, that would not only destroy our names enough which would also leave his hands "clean"?)

(Fake "corruption"? Framing us for something?)

"…"

(Possible….. But would that really be it?)

"…"

(Maybe we are doing this wrong.)

(We are going straight for the head.)

(Maybe we should just attack the guys at the very bottom first in order to destroy balance of the noble faction and then we can…..)

"…"

"?"

"Hey. What is going on here?" – asked the bear beastman as he looked out of the carriage window.

"Why are we in the forest?"

"We were supposed to go through the east checkpoint and not god damned west one!"

"…"

"HEY!"

"SPEAK UP YOU BAS- "

The beastman tried complaining to the carriage drive about taking a wrong direction….. But in the next moment, a giant sphere of magic flew right towards the carriage, blowing up right on top of the carriage, which was fallowed by the hail of arrows.

"…"

"!"

However, after the hail of arrows stopped, a lone alone flew through the flames, but was instantly blocked by the wall of dirt.

"Tch."

"Motherfucker." – said the bear beastman as he walked out of carriage wrecked with parts of his cloths destroyed.

"To think that bastard would go for me?"

"Well fuck me."

"I wasn't expecting him to use this tactic." – said the bear beastman as he walked out of the flames and noticed a large group of armed people surrounding him, including a archer with bandages covering half of his face as well as female cat beastman that wielded mage staff.

(And those bastards aren't some trashes either.)

(I know these two.)

(Owan The Bandaged and Vivia The Burner.)

(They are one of most wanted criminals in the whole kingdom that were on lose for many years.)

(And now they are working for that fat bastard?!)

*Sigh*

(This is just getting better and better.)

(Just when did he….. No.)

(For how long were these bastards working for him?)

"…"

(No matter.)

(For now, I need to deal with these bastards as soon as possible and go back to the king.)

(I need to warn him about the danger.)

"I'm going to ask you this one time."

"Get the fuck out of my way, you pieces of trash."

"Or I will rip every single one of you with my bare hands."