Alexa stared blankly at the new crisis window in front of her.

  She had just received earlier news about the sudden death of the commander of the 4th Group Army, who had already been apparently replaced by another officer nobody even knew before his appointment.

  The 4th Group Army would be responsible for guarding Perlenstadt and its surrounding area. That was already bad news enough since Alexa found this suspicious, as it was a unilateral act from the 4th Group Army, but now, she was staring at a crisis window that depicted a burned village of elves, while soldiers in Imperial Army uniforms marched through it.

  W-what?

  Immediately, Alexa cancelled her remaining daily tasks at the school, before recalling Wilhelm and Alfred into her office by afternoon. Even Phoebe and Adele showed up, as the news about the Regency Council announcing another slew of laws targeting ‘bandits and rebels’ gripped the academy.

  It was a sudden turn of events, something which Alexa struggled to understand.

  “It’s simple,” Wilhelm coldly analyzed. “The Imperial Army is acting on its own because it’s trying to intimidate the government. They’re doing this by deploying themselves without directions from the top, and they did that in Letia. It’s quite the nasty way to send a message.”

  “Letia?”

  “Much of the southern region is previously conquered territory from the defunct Kingdom of Letia, the last demihuman nation led by elves. For years now, rebels have been slowly taking over Letia’s countryside. So these opportunistic generals are pacifying the region as a show of force.”

  “H-hey,” Alexa awkwardly laughed. “Aren’t I their enemy? Shouldn’t he be targeting me? I’m a bit confused…why attack someone else?”

  “You can actually beat someone else to scare your opponent when you’re not in direct conflict yet.”

  “B-but that’s so messed up!”

  “Lady Alexa, you are quite good at figuring something quite obvious.”

  “Hey, cut it out,” Alfred growled at Wilhelm. “You’re going too far. She’s already scared as it is.”

  “I’m getting annoyed by all this,” Alexa stood from her seat, pacing frantically around the room as she placed a hand under her chin. “I feel like my subjects are being used as playthings for petty power struggles.”

  “But it works. The Regency Council folded quickly by approving the crackdowns with great hesitation,” Wilhelm said. “I imagine Sir Ludwig is now on the full back foot now that he’s bending over without an ounce of resistance. Whoever ordered this show of force must be quite satisfied. Should they succeed at pacifying Letia too, they’ll also have that region as their de facto territory. I’m sure that’s also one of their primary objectives. Ludwig, Ludwig…you’ve gone truly senile.”

  “Curses. My entire plan hinges on him buying me time!” Alexa complained loudly.

  “To be fair, Ludwig’s also your enemy, you know?” Wilhelm asked.

  “Yes, but he clearly is trying to kill disloyal upstarts like Henry first, so I thought he’d take attention off me for a good while.”

  “In any case, the Grand Academy is compromised now,” Alfred uncrossed his arms. “Not only do we have Henry roaming around its halls, we have ourselves surrounded by rogue army units.”

  “It’s so confusing,” Alexa mumbled. “I know he’s our main enemy, but what are we really dealing with here? It’s hard to plan when people I thought of as our allies or at least neutral are randomly turning on us or fighting each other.”

  “Power struggles sure are a messy affair,” Adele placed a hand on her cheek as she lowered her head, looking down at her teacup. “I just hope my family won’t get caught in the crossfire.”

  “Those fools are just ruining our progress!” Phoebe puffed her cheeks, as if she were protesting at the conspirators. “If they just worked with us, we’ll get further with the projects that Lady Alexa is doing, for the betterment of the people. Why are they doing this?”

  “Right. That’s why I want to know what exactly we are dealing with!” Alexa bashed her fists on her desk, now red with fury.

  The idea that out of nowhere, soldiers claiming to serve her acted independently to beat down her subjects, even if they were conquered subjects, was something out of the question.

  She may not be Empress yet—but someone was going to be having a bad day soon.

  The glow on her white crown halo intensified a bit, as the room fell into a dark silence. For a few seconds, even Alfred and Wilhelm remained still, until Wilhelm coughed.

  “If I may, I’ll offer you a rundown of the battle lines then?”

  “Please proceed.”

  “Then we’ll start with ourselves. As we are the ‘good guys’—”

  “Don’t place air quotes on there, Wilhelm,” Alexa pointed angrily at him. “Of course we’re the good guys!”

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  “Right, of course, so obviously we’ll get the best name. I’m calling us the legitimists.”

  “Legitimists?” Alfred narrowed his eyes.

  “Well, I can call us Royalists, as we’d like to keep a monarch on the throne, but so is the Regency Council, the difference is they want Alexa here as their puppet.”

  “Ah, right.”

  “In any case, we are the legitimists. We want Alexa to get into the throne, the legitimate heir of the late Emperor. We have, largely, the backing of many nobles, the Royal Guard, the church, and of course, a growing number of commoners.”

  Alexa finally smiled, satisfied with Wilhelm's assessment of her righteous side.

  “All fruits of my labor,” she bragged.

  “Of course,” Wilhelm tiredly sighed. “On the other side, we have three other factions to deal with. First is of course, the Regency Council. I’ll call them the usurpers, as they want to usurp the throne from the shadows.”

  Everyone nodded at Wilhelm’s characterization of Ludwig’s group.

  “The usurpers are made up mostly of high-ranking opportunistic nobles in the Empire who want to have their man lead it, most likely, to further enrich themselves,” Wilhelm laughed. “Standard villains, I should say.”

  “I wanna cut their throats open,” Alfred grumbled.

  “Second is the Imperial Army. They’re just a bunch of glory hounds. It seems that a lot of our fine generals and officers are angry that the battle of Perlsenstadt ended in humiliation for the Imperial Army—so they want to save it on their own terms. They must be the morons who ordered these pacification measures.”

  Alexa blanched.

  “Remind me to clean up the Imperial Army once we’re done with this, okay?” Alexa asked.

  “I’ll take note,” Wilhelm nodded. “Finally, we have the true insurrectionists. Henry Richard von Hecker himself. It seems like they want to fully turn the empire upside down, and remake it in their own image. I’ve probed into their group. They want to turn us into a republic—a nation without nobles and royalty. He’s planning to do that by absorbing the previous two factions on his side. Once united, he’ll turn his sights on you, Lady Alexa.”

  “How preposterous!” Alfred fumed. “What kind of a lunatic even wishes for that? A nation has to be led by people better than the unwashed masses. This is a grave insult not just to Her Highness, but to the entire nobility.”

  Alfred nearly turned around with his hand on the hilt of his sword, before Wilhelm stopped him.

  “I see how it is,” Wilhelm chuckled coldly. “Do you have a death wish, brother? You know how everyone he fought ended up, right?”

  “Tsk, I am afraid, yes, but I realize we can’t go anywhere until we test him,” Alfred shoved Wilhelm a bit. “I won’t know what’s special about him until I face him off with my sword.”

  “I’m not letting you throw your ass away uselessly, dumbass,” Wilhelm audaciously declared. “You will stay and you will follow my orders. You’re only allowed to die when you fulfill your purpose.”

  “Are you one of these insurrectionists then? You’re blocking me from stopping a threat to Her Highness’ life,” Alfred hissed.

  “No. I’m just delineating where you belong, Alfred. You and the Royal Guard will follow me. I have a plan. Better than what you’re cooking up, at least.”

  “Enough, you two,” Alexa called out, her arms crossed. On the side, both Phoebe and Adele seemed like they were trying to hide, as the two brothers once again clashed in front of Alexa.

  Wilhelm gave a curt nod, while Alfred backed off with a grunt.

  “I’ll try something,” Alexa said. “This is the best I can do for now at least.”

  If they’re doing all this to puff their chest and intimidate me…

  Then I’ll intimidate them too.

  And so, her pink eyes glowed a bit.

  +++

  Knight Captain Johann von Kopp rallied his knights forward. It was night in one of the provinces of the former Kingdom of Letia, a subjugated nation under the Lotharingian Empire.

  He and his comrades from the Royal Guard had been deployed here, alongside multiple healers and missionaries from the Holy Church to train and expand access to healers in the region, as it had been neglected for years now, and there was a chance of plague or worse coming from its impoverished towns and cities.

  Or at least, that was what the young crown princess told them during a speech before they were deployed. For weeks, he and his comrades had been at work organizing the recruitment of healers, constructing and opening hospitals and clinics, alongside clearing monster-infested areas to allow the gathering of medicinal and magical herbs to resume after years of neglect.

  It was difficult work. It was something that Johann found ridiculous as a Royal Guard knight, whose task was supposed to be protecting Her Highness, not muck around to mingle with commoners, worse, demihumans.

  But in the time he spent here, he had learned that such a job was strangely fulfilling. He made friends and acquaintances, and he saved a lot of lives, which made him feel more knightly. His opinion of demis also improved a lot because of it.

  But now, all of it has turned around.

  The 2nd Group Army, tasked with garrisoning the former lands of the demihuman Kingdom, overreacted to an attack by rebels earlier. They deployed out of their forts in huge numbers, attacking towns and villages suspected of harboring rebels and leaving trails of blood and corpses in their wake.

  Johann tried to demand an explanation from the leader of the 2nd Group Army, because Johann knew they weren’t ordered to do such an outrageous thing by the Regency Council. And indeed they weren’t. Until this morning, when such orders came from the top, signed by Sir Ludwig, the grand regent himself.

  But Johann and the Royal Guard knights refused to cooperate with such a dishonorable act. It would sully the good name of their angel, Her Highness Alexa Theresa. As such, since midday, skirmishes with the Imperial Army began, with deaths racking up into the dozen.

  “This town has been marked for supporting the rebels in the mountains!” An Imperial Army officer shouted from behind his men’s shield formation. “Knights of Her Highness, we order you to stand down and cooperate at once!”

  “Who are you to dare order me and my men!” Johann retorted. “You lowly soldiers should be the ones to stand down. Have you no honor? You are attacking women and children, citizens of the Empire!”

  “There are no citizens. They aren’t even human!”

  “Those are bold words to say in front of me. Name yourself, for I will ensure that your head departs your body today.”

  “You’ve disobeyed direct orders, thus you’re a traitor! Even the future Empress will side with us once she learns of this! Men, charge and scatter them!”

  Johann found the audacity of the commoner officer on the other side grating. He not only refused to name himself, but he also claimed that Johann and his men were the traitors, not his group.

  Johann immediately brought forward his crossbowmen, while his other knights formed their own shield wall to face the enemy’s charge. He knew this nonsense could be the start of something big.

  So he’ll stand his ground and fight for—

  “Members of the Imperial Army and of the Royal Guard, it is I, Crown Princess Alexa Theresa von Wolgast speaking,” a powerful, steely, and womanly voice interrupted everyone’s ears. It was as if the goddess herself spoke.

  And everyone was transfixed, both the knights and the army soldiers. Johann looked at the army officer on the other side. He was looking at the sky, terrified.

  “Who amongst you dared start this unpleasant bout of violence I’ve heard of?”