Chapter 300: The Nobles Move Against their Emporer

"My Lord. The Empire is holding its positions, but some of our scouts have reported siege equipment being brought to the river bank." A noble spoke to Snowid, keeping his head low.

"It’s fine. They want a reaction. Never forget. The Blood Child is a conniving snake. We will wait for the Laska reinforcement to arrive." The noble nodded and took out another letter, this time from Lesezek. "The Crown Prince has also sent word. He has married Princess Ada to the Gotic king."

"Good." Snowid smiled. His son had been a massive help in ensuring the war was completely supplied, and whilst it was draining the royal coffers, they didn’t have much choice. "Any news from the South."

The noble froze and lowered his head deeper. Snowid saw the change and frowned, realising it wouldn’t be good. "Commander Marcus Hardly from the Empire took control of the south not long ago. It appears that he has defeated a large portion of the Southern force. We are still waiting for them to send word."

"Shit." Snowid slammed his fist on the table. "We can’t risk mobilising troops south. Not right now."

"Your grace. If we don’t, we risk being encircled." The noble paused for a second. Maybe it’s time to think about hiring Chent mercenaries. Only until the Laskas arrive." Before, Snowid would have shot down the idea in an instant, but he quickly realised they were running out of choices. He didn’t trust foreign support ever since the Church left him to die.

"If Ada gets pregnant, the Gotics will be forced to help. The Church may help now that the Empire has gotten involved." Snowid grabbed his head, his fingers slipping through his wild mane. ’Maybe’s. Should.’ They were words Snowid hated. They inspire no confidence, especially from foreign powers. They didn’t care about him, even if they claimed to. After all, they would have helped him by now if that was the case.

"Send word to my son. Hire from Chent." Despite everything, he gave the order. A mercenary was different from a promise. He didn’t trust them but trusted their greed. "Also, have a few men ride south and destroy every entrance onto the Island."

"Your Grace..."

"If the Empire has secured the Island for themselves, we can’t risk leaving a crossing. Destroy all exits and leave scouts down there. Even if the Island hasn’t fallen, I will send reinforcement when possible."

The noble nodded and bowed. Being left alone, Snowid looked at the map of the Commonwealth. Information. It was the one thing he needed. How big his enemies’ forces were? What fronts had been lost, and which won? It felt like he couldn’t see in front of him, as if he were swinging his sword blindly in the dark.

"Lesezek has gotten an alliance with the Gotic’s. This is good." Despite saying it, Snowid did not make any plans around their arrival. He couldn’t risk relying on an ally he couldn’t trust. Yet, as he thought of ways to try and win, nothing worked unless it was mutually destructive. "We’re not that desperate."

Covering his mouth, he covered a yawn, and Snowid wondered how much sleep he had gotten. He had been on edge for too long, and finally, he could feel his body screaming at him to have a proper rest. "Have no-one disturb me unless it it is important. I will be sleeping." Snowid called out to his guards and fell onto his bed, not even stripping. Closing his eyes, it didn’t take long for him to fall into a deep sleep.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Did you see what he asked us to do?" Within the Safrid lands, a few nobles gathered in a private bar and looked at the letter sent by Konrad. They all had dark faces, wondering if he could do what he wanted.

"Forget about getting in the Palace. He wants us to grab the Crown Prince." One said in a hushed tone as the other looked out for anyone who may overhear. "Let’s not forget that old snake is still here. Say what you want, but that old bastard terrifies me."

"He terrifies you. What will His Majesty do to us if he finds out what we did? It won’t end with torture; he will make us beg for death and not give it to us. The man is insane." They nodded in agreement, nervous as they thought about Alfred’s reaction.

"I think there is only one question we should ask, " one of the nobles said after a few seconds of silence. Two, maybe. First, is the Commonwealth worth the risk? If not, the question is, " Do we want to do this to the Emporer?"

The men looked at one another and frowned. "I don’t give a shit about the Commonwealth or Konrad. I only help him for the money." Some nodded along.

"I don’t mind the place. My wife is from there. But I ain’t risking my life for it." A few others spoke and gave their opinions, all landing one point. They didn’t care about the Commonwealth.

"I do want to hurt that bastard, however." One of the nobles said cruelly.

"Forget the Emporer. It’s that whore by his side. She betrayed her home for what? Because her father didn’t let her play with swords." The noble held back the urge to spit on Isra’s name as others agreed.

"So we are in agreement." Despite that, they were still nervous. The noble sighed. "Let’s not be cowards. I, like you all, want to see that pompous prick knocked down off his high horse. Giving commoners power. It is the final straw. You see what he’s trying to do. He wants to kill the nobility."

"So how do we do it? Do any of you have anyone in the Palace who could help."

"Maybe. I have a nephew who is a servant there. He tells me things sometimes. The problem is the guard on the Prince. A woman disguised as a maid. She separated from all the other Palace staff, which he found suspicious."

"The Old Snake." The man nodded. The noble fell silent and thought about how feasible it was. Eventually, he sighed. "Get in touch with him. See if he can get others on his side. There must be a couple greedy enough to help. But do it quietly. We can’t raise any attention."

"I’ll try and divert The Old Snakes’ attention somewhere else." Someone piped up. "We need him away from the palace, and the Peoples Courts have made enough people angry to do it." The table broke out into low murmurs as they began to plan. While they were all still nervous about going against Alfred, the opportunity to get back at the man who had been forcing them to live in a state of paranoia and fear for years was too good to give up.

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Snowid awoke to frantic shouting from outside his tent as small explosions went off. A guard ran in and profusely apologised. Getting up, he waved the guard off. "What’s happening?"

"Your grace. The Empire has begun to bombard us from across the river. They have also taken a defensive position along the bridge." The guard spoke like a machine gun, hardly stopping in between words. "It’s not safe here; you must leave."

"Calm down." Snowid grabbed his head and listened to the noise outside. The explosion went off rapidly, with a small break between every three. "Three pieces of siege equipment." He quietly spoke under his breath. Getting up, he quickly walked outside and saw the large boulders falling on the camp.

Men ran around in panic, trying to save the most important resources as the camp went on full alert. "ATTENTION!" SNowid screamed doubt, but his men didn’t hear him still running. Squinting his eyes, he watched in disgust at their panic. Looking around, he saw a pile of crates and quickly climbed up them.

"ATTENTION! MEN OF THE COMMONWEALTH!" Snowid shouted at the top of his voice, echoing across the camp. Those closest to him finally stopped and looked up at him as boulders rained down from above. "DO NOT PANIC! GET ALL SUPPLIES AND MOVE THEM OUT OF RANGE IN AN ORDERLY FASHION! THEY WANT YOU IN A STATE OF CHAOS! DO NOT GIVE THEM THE SATISFACTION!"

They all nodded and were much more organised despite moving at a hurried pace. Snowid went to the edge of his camp and looked across the river. Seeing the force waiting for him, he looked past and saw a lone woman at the head of the artillery, grinning at him.

Although it was hard to see, Snowid could tell her face was full of mockery as she watched the panic she caused. Clenching his fist in anger, he turned his back. "Make a shield wall to defend the retreating supplies. We can’t let the Empire capitalise on our chaos." The noble he spoke to nodded and ran off as Snowid returned to his tent and grabbed his claymore. He could tell he would need it before the Laska’s arrived.