(*^*)

-Silence-

Everyone leaned forward and listened sternly as Landon began the briefing.

And coupled with the images projected out, they knew just what they were getting in for now.

Location: Veinitta!

Mission Target: Princess Tilda Lockhart. Half-sister of Prince Skye. Lives in the empire of Dafaren. But after her 14th birthday, this upcoming September 28th will be bundled and sent to the empire of Lingingburg for marriage.

Mission Goal: Rescue Target without raising so many suspicions.

Target's Immediate family: Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, bLah...

....

Like so, everyone got a proper and comprehensive outline of Tilda's life within the Dafaren Empire, as well as her family situation and even the man she had been promised to.

Well, the information given was what was commonly known to even the people within Veinitta.

Who didn't know that Princess Tilda was a 'cursed' person, said to only bring and have bad luck roaming around her?

There were so many superstitious stories about the little girl too.

But only her grandmother secretly cared for her.

Everyone else wanted nothing to do with her.

That said, the Baymardians didn't really believe in all this.

Well, what they believed in was his majesty, Landon.

That's right.

If Landon had to help this girl, then the stories must not be valid.

Generally, everyone can see that the sort of people Landon went above and beyond to help were those who weren't bad at heart. Look at his majesty Henry? Or even the now King-Father Micheal of Terique?

His majesty had helped these people even when the people in question hadn't met Landon at all.

In fact, listening to Tilda's life story, they could also assume that she had no idea who Landon was.

So they had faith in the fact that there was no such course around Tilda.

Sure. In this world, strange things did exist. And even the Zalipnians who had seers were also evidence of the blessings from the heavens.

That said, if there were blessings, then somewhere in the world, there should also be punishments of curses.

Thus, they somewhat believed in horses being real.

But at the same time, they also knew that a majority of rumours were fake too.

.

One should know that over the years, Baymard had been debunking countless rumours here and there.

Like the case where seriously ill or deformed patients got treated as the children of evil, which wasn't right.

Or how a woman would be blamed for not giving their husband a male child.

Thanks to Baymard, many people started understanding that a female body was more or less like the soil on the ground.

What you put and plant in it was what will germinate after a while.

And of course, some soils were fertile while others weren't.

Thanks to the brief explanations from doctors when one got pregnant or when one was thinking of family planning, and so on, the information was spread throughout the region fast, as more and more people started understanding the true nature of things.

The hospital alone had thousands of tourists and visitors swarming in for treatment regularly.

So when they typically went back, the news would spread out like wildfire.

And it has been spreading out like this for years now.

Of course, thanks to this, women weren't punished, put to death or tortured because of their 'inability to give male heirs.

Now, it all fell on the men.

Heh. You can't blame a bean seed and expect corn to grow, could you?

The ladies now felt very confident and sneered when they thought of it all.

What were they? They were just soil, okay?

.

Yes! Countless rumours like this had been debunked by Baymard, with several people finally realizing how fake and baseless the rumours were.

Of course, there were always those who still refused to believe otherwise and kept acting the same, throwing babies away into the forests, isolating the 'devil children,' offering human sacrifices to appease the heavens, killing women for male heirs, and whatnot

And indeed, there were still some curses and heavenly punishments in this world, but the people didnt know that the so-called punishments were through the humans of other humans.

If the heavens wanted to bless someone with riches, the wealth wouldn't just drop from the sky.

No! Opportunities would appear, with another human indirectly giving the money to the individual blessed. Maybe a surprising job offer would come through at that time.

Likewise, when the heaves wanted to punish, misfortunes would follow through the hands of humans too.

Of course, sometimes, hardships we're also tests as well. And after the tests came the reward.

In short, it was hard to understand how the heavens thought.

Well, with the faith in Landon, the men instantly knew that the rumours about Tilda were false.

The introductory part of the briefing was done, and now, it was time to dive into the real matter of things.

Landon calmly placed his retractable printer away before walking closer to the front edge of the podium/stage, facing everyone sternly.

"Everyone here is seated according to the name tags at the back of their seats.

So as per usual, please grab the documents underneath your seats immediately!"

.

With that, they all did what they were told, sending their hands onto the pouch pocket underneath their chairs.

They didn't know it, but their actions were similar to those reaching for life jackets underneath their plane seats.

Everyone reached for the documents and took them out swiftly.

And as expected, all document holders had different colours.

But those within the same team had the same colour folders.

One might never have known that there were so many shades of blues, pinks, red, purple, grey, etc.

It was astonishing that with the massive crowd and turn-up, there were still different colours for each team.

Lying through. Who knew there were so many colours in the world?

The soldiers, Navy and Marines all looked at the well-enclosed envelope-type folders sternly.

And on the front of it had their names and Code names boldly written there too.

Well, after getting the go-ahead from Landon, they immediately began immersing themselves in their future roles.

"For this mission, we will only act during the Night.

First, we will arrive 3 days before the appointed attack time and send out some scouts to land at night to get information on how to get to the Capital city.

Of course, some of you will also be in the air, scouting the regions around.

We need as much information as we can, as well as any crucial information about the things that have been going on in Dafaren this whole time.

And after that, all attack teams will board the travel balloons and head towards the Capital as planned.

Travel by night, hide and look for information during the day.

This is the strategy we will be implementing here.

That said, some of you will be on the sea, others on land, and others up in the air.

For those at sea, A.K.A, the Navy... Your primary focus is to stay out of sight undetected.

You will also be the central control or communication towers for reports. So I expect you all to be on high alert.

At the same time, if plan A or B doesn't work, then you will also be the backup and rescue teams for any S.O.S messages... Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..."

.....

Very quickly, the air became tense, as everyone started feeling the heaviness of the matter when listening to the general outline of their roles.

For the Navy, even though it looked like they had fewer jobs than the other armed forces, that wasn't true at all.

They always had to be prepared for air forces and land forces at all times, and even had to assist with underwater tasks too.

As for the soldiers and marines, their primary duty was to get to the Capital city and begin the rescue mission.

Even if they had to create a diversion or create a 'heavenly punishment scene, they would do so.

They only needed to distract everyone and maybe even fool many into thinking that they were under attack.

And in the wave of it all, Tilda would be saved.

Think about it deeply.

Even Tilda's father, Alexander Lockhart, would never think that anyone would care enough to rescue Tilda.

She had no support. Not even a single fan or crowd support.

Only her miserable grandmother tried but failed and was immediately punished by her grandfather.

Tilda was openly treated like a slave within the palace, and people didn't even bother to guard against her.

What could she do? She was weak!

So it would be impossible for anyone to think that the entire bizarre happening had anything to do with Tilda.

Thus, when the chaos would rain, no one would be thinking of her.

The only reason they guarded against her now was because her birthday was coming, and they didn't want her to flee before being shipped away.

That said, if a calamity were to strike the palace, do you think they would really care about her that much?

No! They would be rushing to protect Alexander and the other promising royals.

That's why they had to take this opportunity and get her out!