With the joint effort of the Armakean Knights and Gaham, they managed to pull Kesiah out from the crevice she had fallen in. She was not hurt or injured, but she got buried under several layers of debris and rubble, and it took them a while to take her out.
"How are the rest?" Kesiah asked Gaham as soon as she emerged from the crevice.
"As you may have noticed," Gaham turned to look at the aftermath of the silver humanoid dragon's attack. "The pit the silver dragon created left our forces in disarray."
Kesiah looked at the battlefield and scowled. Quite a number of the high-ranking officers were still pulling out those who had not emerged from the crevices, while a few protected them from the beasts that took the silver humanoid dragon's side and started to attack them.
One would think their side was not doing good, especially at how fierce the horde of beasts was coming at them. But that was not the case. Miraculously, there were few casualties on their side.
Nevertheless, Kesiah knew the reason behind this was that the three magical beasts were focused on attacking those low-ranked officers who had survived until then.
"Should we proceed as planned, Your Highness?" Gaham asked and looked at Kesiah. Frankly, if he were the sole decision-maker, he would want to continue. They had invested a lot of manpower in today's raid, which would leave a bitter taste on his tongue if they retreated without accomplishing anything.
Moreover, there was still a hidden ploy prepared against Prince Achim.
All along, today's raid was not only meant to finish the situation with the Eidums once and for all but also to assimilate Prince Achim's forces.
That was right.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtToday's raid was the beginning of Princess Kesiah's insurrection.
Kesiah had been preparing for this day for some time now. And the reason she had finally decided to make her move was the appearance of the mysterious helper the Eidums had.
It was Gaham who told her about that mysterious helper's appearance, but Captain Hohen was the one who affirmed the latter's strength.
Because of this, Kesiah changed their tactic in dealing with the Eidums and decided to focus on strengthening her military strength and influence.
This past few weeks, Kesiah did her best to win over the trust of half of the upper six leaders of the Magical Beast Community. Lady Chrysanthemum belonged to the group Kesiah won over.
If others knew what Kesiah had been doing, they might question her reasons. After all, most of the Armakeans knew she was one of the handful of younger generation of the Royal Family that was keen on finding a way to heal the King's illness. Apart from Achim, many believed she had the second highest chance of becoming the King's heir.
From this, many might think Kesiah wanted to eliminate Achim to ensure her chances would increase. After all, he was the only one above her. But her plan today was not to kill Achim but only assimilate his knights.
Because Kesiah never really cared about becoming the King's heir. Even her attempt to find the Abbot and talk to him was not to ask for his assistance and heal the King. Instead, she wanted to ally with the Eidums and dethrone the latter.
Alas, when news of the Abbot being abducted was known, Kesiah did not know how to proceed. Ultimately, she ordered Gaham to reduce the number of Eidums to reduce the chances of her cousins securing a powerful Eidum to heal the King.
Kesiah sought the assistance of the three Upper Six leaders of the Magical Beasts to lend their forces. With the horde she received from them, she knew it would be impossible for the Eidums to survive.
Unfortunately, the Eidums managed to employ the assistance of a powerful being.
The horde Kesiah got from the three Upper Six leaders of the Magical Beasts Community was killed, and they even lost one powerful magical beast.
Not wanting to admit her failure, Kesiah had Gaham prepare another raid. She believed that the Eidums' mysterious helper would not anticipate another raid and would be too exhausted to fight.
Kesiah's belief seemed to be on point when the mysterious helper did not appear during the night raid. Just when they thought they had everything under control, however, he appeared, and Captain Hohen was present on the battlefield to witness the mysterious helper's strength.
After hearing this, Kesiah, Gaham and Hohen decided to meet and change their tactic. If the Eidums had someone like the mysterious helper to assist them, Kesiah risked losing the trust of the three Upper Six leaders of the Magica Beast Community from all the beast horde they lost. Her military strength and influence would suffer when that happened, and she could not usurp the King.
Kesiah had been mulling over these things after the failed night raid and could not think of a better plan. To make matters worse, she discovered her brother Achim's plan to abduct the Saint to heal the King.
When she was on the verge of losing her will to fight, Achim actually approached her and asked for assistance. After hearing his plan, Kesiah's will to fight was renewed.
With Gaham and Hohen's assistance, they devised a plan to ambush Achim and win over his knights. After all, the pact Achim possessed that enabled him to command those knights was similar to Kesiah's. All she needed was to change the pact's ownership. After that, those knights would listen to her.
How would she do that? Hohen's speciality would come into play. All he had to do was torture Achim and force him to relinquish ownership of the pact and surrender it to Kesiah.
But to do this, Kesiah needed a force that could hold off Achim's knights until he relinquished the pact. For this, she went to speak with the three Upper Six leaders she won over.
The truth was that two leaders were already waiting on the site where Hohen and Achim were supposed to rendezvous. They could be in a heated battle at that moment. But Kesiah was not worried about them since the two Upper Six leaders from the Magical Beast Community were far stronger than Lady Chrysanthemum, who decided to assist her in the battle against the Eidums.
Before Kesiah's plan started, she had high hopes for it. Not to mention, her side was supposed to be the first to conclude.
Alas, who would have thought something sinister would befall them before they could start?
They dispatched all their forces ahead of schedule, and all had fallen into a trance. Even the three magical beasts and Lady Chrysanthemum were magnificently controlled to reduce their own manpower.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmBecause of this, the three magical beasts who were only supposed to show up to scare the Eidums into surrender fell to Lady Chrysanthemum's spell and almost went on a killing spree. Topping all of that, a silver humanoid dragon appeared, condemning them for enslaving and controlling his kind.
Kesiah felt her head throb from all these unfortunate events. She felt like something or someone was deliberately messing with her, so her plan to usurp the King would not come to pass.
If this was the case, Kesiah felt it was unfair. After all, she was doing all this for a good reason. Why should anything or anybody be against it?
She only wanted change. At the same time, she wanted to free Armakea from the cycle of war their forefathers had started because of their unreasonable desire to claim all the lost technology in Somuli.
The three Upper Six leaders of the Magical Beast Community also shared her sentiments, which was why they agreed to assist her.
The King promised them equal rights when he offered an alliance. However, he never tried to save or protect them when other nations hunted their kind. When he demanded they provide him a horde to use in waging war on other nations, and they refused, he would withhold their supplies and take their young ones to torture until they agreed.
The other Upper Six leaders had long lost their trust in the Armakea Royal Family. Thus, when the three tried to convince them that Kesiah was different, they did not believe.
If Kesiah had the support of all Upper Six leaders of the Magical Beasts, she knew she had enough military strength to start her plan. Alas, she had yet to win over their trust.
Putting all those thoughts aside, Kesiah observed the situation before them and contemplated Gaham's question.
Like him, Kesiah felt it was a waste to stop now. Besides, she did not want Hohen to arrive with the Achim's knights only to realize that her side failed to win over the Eidums.
As Kesiah contemplated this, she noticed something and asked, "I don't sense the silver dragon."
Gaham also surveyed the battlefield and frowned after confirming her words.
"You're right. I don't sense him either."
Kesiah's eyes narrowed. With this in mind, she said, "In that case. We'll continue."