CHAPTER 81: CHAPTER 81 – NOBLE FACTION REBELLION.

Chapter 81 – Noble faction rebellion.

Rebellion.

The Noble faction led by Duke Ash Waranai has declared a rebellion against their own kingdom, the Garmfon kingdom.

"The kingdom of the Garmfon has been corrupted and neglected by the current king and his loyalists!"

"They want to sell out our own nation in order to keep themselves in a position of power!"

"And now they resort to nothing more than lies and deception in order to frame us!"

"They don’t want anybody exposing them, so they are trying to get rid off anybody that dares to stand up to them!"

The Noble faction stated.

In response to that, the Royal faction counterattacked with:

"They call us liars!?"

"They call us deceivers!?"

"Look!"

"Those are the traitors!"

"Those are incarnations of greed!"

"The moment we exposed them! The moment we finally managed to let people see their true faces!"

"They call us liars when they never told a single truth!? HA!"

"And instead!? THEY KILL AND KILL AGAIN! JUST LIKE BEFORE!"

"Don’t let the deceivers’ words manipulate you and instead just observe!"

"You are not blind!"

"You can see!"

"So see and tell us! What do you see!?"

"You don’t need us telling you anything, neither them nor us, for you all to understand the truth!"

Neither side admitted to being wrong nor accepted being called the deceivers.

"I’m just" - Both of them stated.

"And he is the deceiver." - Both of them stated.

Neither backed down nor planned to negotiate anymore.

...

And so, the war broke out.

There was no way of stopping it now, nor did either side really want it not to happen.

Both of them wanted to get rid of each other, and now they were using any means necessary.

Both factions rallied their army against each other, and without even waiting, they clashed their blades, instantly enveloping the entire kingdom in their civil war.

Battles took place all across the kingdom, causing chaos and destruction.

Neither side was holding back one bit in this war..... And both of them aimed for the same thing.

Quick victory.

Both Royal and Noble factions knew that the longer this war lasts, the weaker their entire kingdom will become, which in turn could end up possible making them an "easy target" for their neighbors.

Not only that, but the kingdom had very recently been at war with the Marok kingdom, resulting in some "instability" still being present within the kingdom, AND that "instability" will only end up growing if not, maybe even going out of control, the longer the two factions focus more on the war instead of already existing problems.

In other words, the longer this war lasts, the more trouble it will cause to the winner as well as the whole kingdom.

And both sides are fully aware of this fact.

Here is a question.

Who is currently in possession of a stronger army?

The answer: Royal faction.

There are two reasons for it.

[First is tied to politics.]

When the kingdom was still in a more political state between two factions, the king’s words about "peace" had way more "power" and "presence", resulting in any attempts at increasing a personal noble’s army growth being strictly controlled and adjusted.

But even so, the members of the Noble faction were still illegally strengthening their forces or forming new armies without permission.

However, there was an obvious limit of how much they could increase their forces this way, since if they made them too big, they would just end up exposing themselves, ruining everything.

[The second reason is related to controversy.]

With the Noble faction being suspected by the Royal faction and by the people of the kingdom, which in turn resulted in some of the Noble faction’s corruption being exposed, a large number of supporters instantly left the Noble faction, including a large number of soldiers.

The people questioned their trust in the Noble faction, realizing that they may have been deceived all this time by Duke Ash.

Politics and controversy.

Both of those things ended up weakening the Noble faction’s military force multiple times, as well as its control over said army, resulting in a huge disadvantage for the Noble faction right before the war could have even started.

But the Noble faction knew it.

They know that "speaking" right now won’t do.

Or more exactly, they can no longer "speak".

The only way they can win is with "force".

This is their only way forward.

"But aren’t their forces weaker than Royal’s faction right now?"

Yes, they are aware of it too.

And to even have a chance at winning at this point, they need to start playing dirty.

They are planning on destabilizing the kingdom’s control, throwing the entire Royal faction into chaos, AND also harming the Royal faction’s image by making them look both weak and untrustworthy when it comes to protecting their own people.

So, as they planned, the Noble faction struck the kingdom in multiple locations, resulting in chaos instantly spreading, which was instantly weaponized by the Noble faction.

However, the first wave of attacks only focused on more common locations like towns and villages.

And there is a reason why they did it this way.

Distraction.

The Noble faction gave a false image, making it look like the Noble faction was focused on quickly taking over smaller settlements, before then going straight for the cities.

While in reality? It wasn’t their real goal, not even one bit.

Their real aim was the key locations of the kingdom.

They wanted to take over the main locations that stabilize the kingdom, AND are the main sources of income as well as supplies to the kingdom.

In other words, territories that have a huge concentration of farms, mines, and most important locations in the entire kingdom, where most money can flow through, or possess the potential to become one of the main sources of income for the kingdom.

And one such location would be the Golem Forest, where the golem dungeon is located.

They wish to acquire a dungeon that would in the future become a national-level dungeon, a dungeon that can be used as one of the main sources of income for the entire nation.

"..."

*Sigh*

"You got to be fucking kidding me." – said the wolf beastman captain as he was reading through the reports while sitting inside his tent.

(It wasn’t even that long since the Noble faction attacked the golem forest..... And now they are fucking declaring a war!?)

(What in the actual fuck is going on?) – thought the beastman as he threw the reports down on the table.

"Is it that bad?" – asked the female cat beastman captain as she picked up the reports.

"Yeb.... The Noble faction went completely insane by the looks of things." – said wolf beastman with a tired expression.

"I don’t care much about the political world, but fuck me.... They are making so much trouble that now everybody is hearing about this."

"Hell! Did you hear about the plot involving an assassination attempt aimed at the general?!"

"Oh yeah, everybody did." – replied cat beastwoman.

"The news about this spread like wildfire everywhere..... Honestly, it may have been the thing that caused the war to start off in the first place."

"..."

"Honestly, who do you think will win?"

"I mean- "

"Us." – replied beastman without hesitation.

"If the Noble faction had enough power to take over the kingdom, then why didn’t they do it before?"

"Why rebelling now?"

"They are just panicking after they fucked up."

"I’m glad that these sons of bitches will be finally dealt with and all..... But pretty much we will have now a wild goose chase involving bandits everywhere..... Yea..."

"..."

"Huh.... I wonder if they will relocate us."

"?"

"Relocate us? But didn’t they like very recently tell us to reinforce this place?" – asked the confused cat beastwoman.

"Yea, you are right.... But shouldn’t we go and help out in the war?" – said wolf beastman.

"I mean, think about it."

"Why would anybody even think about attacking this place?"

"True, the noble faction wants to either destroy or take over this place, but what is the point of doing it now that the war has started?"

"I just don’t see it."

"...."

"Pfff."

"I don’t know, man." – replied cat beastwoman.

"Honestly, I’m fine with taking easy jobs and stuff."

"With us being sent here to do some repairs to the burned-down outpost?" – said the skeptical wolf beastman.

"..."

"Okay. Maybe not this part. It was annoying repairing this whole thing, and we have still not finished the repairs at all." – replied the annoyed cat beastwoman.

"But what I meant to say is that I don’t like fighting."

"I’m fine with taking easy and peaceful jobs."

"Unlike you, who wants to fight."

"So I think I would rather enjoy my stay here, where it is safe and I can rest, while you can just-"

"CAPTAIN!" – shouted the human soldier who suddenly entered the tent while being covered in sweat.

"E-enemy! Enemy forces have been spotted nearby! They are heading our way!"

"..."

"Wait, what?" – replied both captains with a confused expression.

"?!"

"What the hell do you mean they are here!?" – asked wolf beastman as he snapped out of a confused state.

"In the planes nearby, a nearby village, an army that possibly belongs to the Noble faction has forcefully taken over a village." – said the soldier.

"Based on how they are moving, they are planning on heading straight towards our location."

"As for the number..... Couldn’t really tell, but there are at least a hundred soldiers, possibly even a few hundreds."

"This could be a possible invasion force."

"!?"

"Where?!" – asked the wolf beastman as he instantly took out a map and spread it on the table.

"Here! We found them here!" – said the panicking soldier as he pointed at the location of the nearest village.

"!?"

"They are right next to us!?" – said the scared cat beastwoman.

(Invasion force!? Here!?) – thought, alarmed wolf beastman.

(True, we did increase our security and set up patrols in case of the Noble faction trying to do anything sneaky, but I wasn’t expecting it to really happen!?)

(And why here of all the places?!)

(We are nowhere near the frontlines where all action is taking place! And how did an even invasion force could have ended up here unnoticed!? Did somebody from our side betray us?! This is the only explanation I can think of and it would explain how they got here so close without being noticed)

(But what are they here for!? That part I don’t get above everything else!)

(Hundred of soldiers.... There is no way they are aiming to just take over the dungeon.... No! They are aiming to take over the entire territory while they are at it!)

"Shit!"

"Spread the news! Order all forces to retreat!" – said the wolf captain.

"We are abandoning the forest and dungeon as whole!"

"?!"

"Wait, but aren’t we supposed to protect this place!?" – asked panicking cat beastwoman.

"And you think we can beat an army that has a few hundred soldiers on our own!? We have nowhere near enough people here to take on these numbers!" – replied wolf beastman.

"Not only that, but if they had brough that kind of forces here, then it could only one thing."

"The dungeon isn’t their only goal."

"They plan on conquering the entire territory."

"And to do so, they will aim straight for the city."

"If they get their hands on it, then this territory is as good as theirs."

"There is no way we can defend the dungeon and the city is still completely unaware of incoming danger!"

"We need to run away and reach the city as soon as possible!"

"You! Get our fastest messenger and give them the best mounts!"

"They need to reach and report this situation to the Royal faction!"

"We need reinforcement as soon as possible!"

"And also send someone to try and get to the city as soon as possible! They need to be warned about the situation and issue an evacuation order to all non-combatants!"

"You hear me!?"

"GO!"

"Y-yes!" – replied the soldier before the quickly ran out of the tent.

"..."

"..."

"Do..... Do you think we stand a chance?" – asked nervous cat beastwoman.

"I don’t know...." – replied the nervous wolf beastman.

"We were ordered to protect this place with our lives..... But based on the current situation, there is no hope."

"The only way we can survive is to try and escape the Noble faction and then just hole ourselves up in the city, trying to buy as much time as possible until reinforcements arrives."

(But even without saying anything about our odds.... She can already tell.)

(We may not survive even if we get to the city.)