56 days after the explosion - battle ground

The prince was pretty pleased with himself, the battle was a compleat success, and only the final negotiations were left. All he had to do was get inside the tent and press the a-s holes inside to surrender

And the best part was that after this, he would be filthy rich, with no worries about his future, all thanks to his planning

Why would he be filthy rich? simple, he made a deal with the elves and dwarves

It went like this. After capturing the duke, he made him spill all relevant information, got rid off any spies in the castle and vicinity, and started to think how to deal with the sh-ty situation he was in

The solution was simple, he would take advantage of the mana potion

He had numerous recipes(from his experiments on how to improve them) materials he carefully collected with his earnings, and a stock of potions ready to sell

The first option was to give a lot of mana potions to normal soldiers to improve the kingdoms battle strength. The problem was it wouldn't help much in the war

It would help increase the battle strength, yes, but they would be novices, meaning that they would be stronger than normal soldiers, but weaker than seasoned mana warriors(knights)

He also had his sister, that would be a great war potential, but he also didn't want to use her much for 2 reasons. She was too unpredictable to count on her in a war, and if something happened to her, she would be screwed

And there was no way he could win in a straight fight, or even using great tactics since the difference of strength was too great. The prince had to praise the duke for how much he managed to screw him over

So, if he could count on his forces or his sister, and knowing that using the mana potions to increase the war potential of his country would be pointless, he had one more trick to use. Make a deal with the elf and dwarves(not the beast men since they didn't have a country, but communities)

He knew that his mana potion was worth a lot, so he could easily get the help from those two if he offer the recipe as a reward

And that is exactly what he did

He sent in secret a request for an urgent meeting, with a mana potion as a sample to both kingdoms. It was a compleat success, he got an ok for a meeting for both kingdoms instantly

So, with the help from his sister, he instantly teleported to the elf kingdom first and met with the elf king a little later. The reason he visited the elves first was simply because the needed it more, and were worst at negotiation than the dwarves

As for why they need them more, it was simply because they easily learn outer mana, but it was harder for them to learn inner mana. Basically, they had a lot of outer mana users and little inner mana users, so the usefulness of the mana potion was too great to let it pass

This meant that he could easily get a great price for it here, and then press the dwarfs more since it was dangerous for them to be the only ones that didn't know how to make it

And the prince plan went perfectly

He managed to get 500 elite elves to help him with the war, and a stupid amount of money after. The deal was simple, he would offer 200 mana potions in advance in exchange for the 500 warriors and the recipe after the war for a stupid amount of money

These elite elves were both inner mana and outer mana warriors that specialised in sniping. With the elves great sights, ability to manipulate mana around them to control wind and strength to control stupidly long and heavy bows, they could accurately hit anything miles away. Their only weakness would be if enemy wizards would also control the winds, reducing their accuracy a lot, but they were great as a surprise attack, and since the prince was planning to knock out all the enemy mages with Rebecca's help, they would shine on the battlefield

Well, even thougth the prince managed to strike this great deal, they did try to steal it from him first. Since they were on their territory, they tried to kidnap him and force him to reveal the recipe, but thanks to Rebbeca, the attempt was stopped, and even helped increase the reward as "compensation"

Besides, even though he asked for a stupid amount of money, it wasn't on a level where a nation would go bankrupt and could be covered from the elf kingdoms reserves, so they preferred to make the deal than lose to the opportunity

Meaning that after the war, the prince should get a stupid amount of money(a kingdom worth) that would be impossible to get if he tried to simply sell the potions on the black marked. And since the recipe was his, he wouldn't need to give it to his kingdom, and could keep it all

Well, not all since a share of the reward would go to Rebbeca as compensation for her troubles, and some of it would go to the Griffon empire as a cover so no one would suspect he earned a lot of money from the side

Anyway, he got a lot of money from the elves and enough forces to win the battle, so after the deal was done, he went to the dwarves and made another deal with them

What he got from them was a couple of death golems in exchange for 100 potions, and a way to make them himself(with proper modifications for human uses and the tools to manufacture them) in exchange for the recipe after the war

With this golem, he was planning to make one after the war to protect himself and leave a copy on how to make them in the Empire(with the elf money included) in exchange for his freedom

Basically with this deals, he had secured money, security and a clean way to escape his responsibilities

So after securing his war potential and future, all that was left was decided how he would use them. In the end, he chose to do a simple battle on open field, since there was no way he would lose as long as the enemy didn't know what to expect

That left him with the problem on how to convince the enemy to meet him on open field but after thinking for a little while, he realised it shouldn't be that hard. All he had to do was choose a place and they would meet him since they were sure of their victory, no matter what kind of plan he could cook up. The advantage of been screw over splendidly

This meant that he only needed to chose a time and place, and after choosing the best place to meet that meet all the conditions(open field close to the 4 kingdoms) and calculating how long it would take the troops to get there without troubles, he sent a letter to the enemy general

And everything went according to plan after that. They meet on the battlefield, no ambush or traps, and the battle was a compleat massacre in the end, as the prince expected

Besides, he got an unexpected piece of news just before the battle, that would help a great deal in the final negotiations with the Zergeit Kingdom

So all that was left was to get inside the tent, and strike a deal with the people inside, and with the help of his resources, battle potential, and e¡information, it shouldn't be too hard

The prince gathered his courage, readied his mind, and with an escort, got inside the main tent

What await him inside was the general he just beat and the enemy country prince holding a knife to his little sister throat

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Note: Careful with the spoilers in the comments, not like there are a lot anyway :(