56 days after the explosions - Army tent

"Hey little bro, how are you doing? I hope ruling the Empire doesn't give you too many problems

I am sorry I couldn't contact you before, but I have been kind of busy

Anyway, I wanted to tell you I am alive and I have two interesting pieces of news for you

First, It looks like our little sister was behind the little explosion on the temple, in case you didn't know yet

And the second and more important, I am organizing a rebellion over the Zergeit Kingdom

It should start at the same time your battle is (taking advantage of the lack of soldiers) so if you are losing, this information may help you strike a deal

Something like dragging the battle if they don't give you something in return or something like that. I know you are not an idiot so you shouldn't have a problem figuring in it out

Good luck

Your favorite bro ;-)"

Was what the letter

complete silence. Both the general and Alice read the letter and were white and completely silence. As for the rest, they were waiting in suspense since they could tell the letter had some really bad news for them

Meanwhile, the prince was enjoying all of it

"Is it real?"(Alice)was the first to react

"Yep"(prince)

"But it doesn't make any sense!!!Do you expect us to believe that!!??"(Alice)lost her cool

"I agree, how can we know what the letter says is true?"(Rexford)on the other hand calmed down and at the same time was panicking inside

"I am sure you can contact the capital easily enough and confirm it. But you do understand what does it mean, right?"(prince)made an evil smile

And obviously, the general understood what it meant perfectly. Since the only troops he had left were on the forts, he would need to empty some of the forts to provide back up against the rebellion

The problem was that the prince forces were almost intact, so if they to leave the forts, they would be struck from behind on their retreat

And in the worst case, they would even support the rebellion, they would have almost no chance of winning since they would have enemies both at the front and on their backs

They couldn't also deploy troops from the borders since the help the prince got from both the elves and dwarfs meant they could get an invasion at any moment

So their best option was holding the forts to stop the prince troops advancements or strike a deal

And that deal was basically handing him the forts, hostages, and money in exchange of their lives, and the possibility of stopping the rebellion

Sadly for general Rexford, the deal the prince was offering was completely fair since they would exchange his hostages(him and prince Damian) for the soldiers, and since they would get the forts for free anyway, the Zergeit kingdom had to pay money to be left alone or else....

Basically, they were screwed

No matter how much he tried to find a new option, his two best were a deal or hope for the best

Meanwhile, Alice was still completely pale, and you could see she was in denial for some reason

"I understand, but I need to know first if the rebellion is true or not"(Rexford)

"WHO CARES ABOUT THE REBELLION!"(Alice) shouted red in anger

Of course, everyone stared at her utterly shocked. Not only was it like finding that an angel could fart, but what she said also didn't make much sense

Even the prince was surprised at her sudden break of character

"What do you mean who cares!?If we don't do something fast, the Zergeit Kingdom is at risk?"(Rexford)

"Are you an idiot? can't you see what this letter means? This means that this idiot managed to stop a rebellion, survive an assassination attempt, get rid of the most powerful figure in the Griffon empire at that moment in ONE day and receive the help from both the elves and the dwarfs, he did it without the help from my brother Jorge. HOW DID HE DO THAT?"(Alice)completely lost her cool

This information also shocked general Rexford now that he thought about it. He knew about all the stuff that had happened to the prince since it was relevant to the invasion, and he also knew about Jorge escape, since the spies that got him were his. Since he also discussed the information he got with Alice, they both agreed that the reason the prince managed to be so resourceful until now was because of his brother Jorge helping him from the shadows. Since the general saw the effect Jorge had in his experienced spies, he didn't doubt Jorge capabilities

But if what the letter said is true, then the prince managed to accomplish all that without Jorge help. That could only mean he had help from something else that could be considered on the same level that Jorge, and that wasn't good news at all

"You don't mean!There are more of those monsters alive!!!"(Rexford) panicked

It was the worst news possible, one monster easily caused a rebellion on his country, who knew what another more could do.It even explained how they lost the battle so easily

"Yes, and for the looks of things, it is probably my sister Rebecca. If it was my father, we would never have taken the forts, if it was my mother, we would be dead and if it was Paul, he would have obliterated the army alone. On the other hand, easily knocking out every mage a few miles away is something only she could do, so she is the most likely candidate"(Alice) guessed correctly

The prince wanted to praise her deduction abilities with so little clues(even if it feel like she was completely looking down on him) and now that he thought about it, he could even use that deduction as an even greater bargain point

"Ho!not bad sis, you are completely right. So you can understand why my offer is absolutely fair, right?"(prince) kept acting smug

"Not so fast, You think I am an idiot!?I know that Rebecca is a really selfish and egocentric person. I don't know what you offered her, but I know that unless you give her something good, she won't do you a favor even if the world was about to end as long as it doesn't affect her and she is really expensive. If you try to use her again, we can always try to make a counter offer and knowing her, she would take the better offer, right? "(Alice)

Not good! that was the thought that came to prince mind. That was one of the biggest fears when using that selfish b-stard. You never knew what she would do

Still, he wouldn't show his panic even if it kill him. This was too important to show any weakness

"Well yeah, and a meteorite could come down and kill us all. You think she would just appear in front of you and let you speak? she is the kind that would just finish the job quickly and efficiently and be done with it. Besides, the offer I made was still fair even if we didn't take her into account, so her involvement can only increase my demands, not lessen them"(prince)

And Alice, or general Rexford for the matter, couldn't argue against it. with a sudden rebellion, all the important people from the Zergeit empire as hostages, and an army in full health at their backs, if they didn't act fast, they may not have a country to return