C4 Be Prepared

[Congratulations Host, Are you ready?]

'heh, from when you started asking for permissions. Will you let me go if I say no. Anyways, lets go.'

[ You have voluntarily accepted to be my 108th host]

'Oh, voluntarily! Are you sure? but system, what happened to the previous 107 hosts? Did they die on other planets? ' Eric was always skeptical of this system.

[ you need not worry about them. They are doing fine. 

Further details cannot be disclosed

If you follow the rules set by system and pay attention to systems warnings, you will survive]

Did he have any other choice than believing the words of the system. However, safety was important. He made a mental note to never take the system's warnings lightly. 

[ Allocating mission

Mission update: 

Make the Kingdom's Administration stable.

Nobles with ulterior motives have rebelled against the kingdom. Making the administrative system of kingdom defunct. 

Rewards: 3000 general points and a chance at spin.]

'hey, how would I do it, at least give an hint. Should I use force or persuasion.'

But the system was gone and he couldn't do anything. Now what? He fell asleep thinking about the shitty system.

Alvaton was not a highly populated or advanced kingdom of this region . Ministers and officers could not complete the projects due to lack of funds and corruption. 

People of Alvaton on average paid less taxes than Dazarians ( his uncle's Kingdom) .

Next morning, he got up and told the door guard to inform others that he had recovered and could walk now.

Adney received the news that the prince had left the bed. He hurried to Eric's Chambers. Adney was the Chief adviser of the king Aland and also the oldest one. His white hairs and wise eyes representative his experience and wisdom. 

A wrinkled elderly face came into his view. Eric recognized him, he was the same old man in previous Eric's memory, who was always by his father's side, Chief advisor of the king. Chief advisor was the highest post that a minister could reach.

Eric was sitting on the bed and asked the old man to sit on the chair. Adney didn't mind him being unattentive and sat comfortably on the chair. Eric was trying to recall his previous interactions with the minister. To his surprise, he had never talked to the old man expect during functions. The old man was too busy dealing with other officials.

 They exchanged greetings. "Chief Adney, what has transpired in the kingdom while I was bedridden" Eric wanted to know the current situation of the kingdom. System had already informed him that nobles have rebelled, but still Adney could explain in much detail.

Adney inspected the prince from top to bottom and said, "Prince Eric first of all congratulations for your recovery. It brings back the hope to all of us. We were deeply troubled by news of your defeat and being injured. Thank God that you are perfectly fine now."

"As for the kingdom, it's in the midst of disintegration. The nobel want us to cede away the two cities , if that happens it would be too humiliating for the royal family. However, it still hadn't reached the point that it could not be salvaged..." Adney summarized the events that took place while he was recovering.

Capital city was stable as it was  directly controlled by the royal family. However, the remaining two cities of the Kingdom were deeply affected. Nobles of these cities had grouped  together to end the influence of royal officials and want  to make these cities independent and free of Alvaton's control . They had started to plan this ever since the assasination of the king.

The bedridden prince presented them the perfect opportunity to surface their conspiracy. They had heard from others that the Kingdom's forces had been badly beaten by Dazarians. Thus, they got the courage to rebel.

However, their information wasn't detailed or they would not have made this mistake. They would have waited for more opportunities in future. 

It was true that Kingdom forces suffered badly but it was just about 3000 men. It was not a full fledged attack by the kingdom, rather a small strike led by the prince in anguish.

The nobles in dreams of instant riches had even held the officials of the kingdom in the city captive, to put pressure on the kingdom. They even dared to demand ransom to free the captives.

Eric was confused how funny these nobles could be, didn't they have a brain of their own to process things. God knows what kind of delusional world they are living in.

It was sure from their behaviour that they were doing all this on someone else's instructions. 

It was a hectic task for the king himself to sort out the differences between nobles. They would fight at the sight of each other.  It shows how difficult it was to manage them. Sometimes they would attack other noble Dominion for absurd reasons like stolen chicken. 

But now these supreme fools have united. 'What kind of joke is this' thought Eric. It must be because of some external force. And that person must have an influential background .

He could suppress these fools to such an extent that they have forgotten their internal strife. This means that this person must have tempted them with bigger rewards and he must have a strong presence( army) to make them follow his every order.

Eric was in deep thought, He had two ways to solve this issue. First one was time and energy consuming. It was by means of talks and negotiations, which would surely not be fruitful because of the involvement of third party.

On Earth it was the most common way of settling disputes between two nations, most of the times it was successful, but not always.

The main concern was that, they didn't have any information about the person who instigated the nobles. What were his objectives and what did he wanted to achieve here.

 "Chief Adney, Suppose that we lost our hold in these cities. What would happen?" Eric asked with an unconcerned and relaxed expression.

Adney was a little irritated, when he saw his relaxed smile, "If we lose the control over two cities. Kingdom would be like a man without limbs. Campbell is the trading city, most of our tax comes from there. Bruns is the mining city, and resources of the Kingdom are located near that city. "

"You simply want to say that the Kingdom would collapse, then show me the way out of this" Eric asked, he picked up a cloth and folded it into a ball.

"We shouldn't attack them, they are our people, probably misled by someone. We should first talk with them and persuade them to be back with us." Adney suggested. Eric was playing catch sitting on his bed. He was angered by the nonchalant attitude of the prince. 

"If they wanted war then, they would have killed the captives and this also means that the other party hadn't provided them with any military support which could rival the kingdoms forces. So this could be easily solved if we initiate the process of talks " 

"Your highness, please be serious. This is important. Lives of thousands of people depend on it." Adney couldn't control himself.

"I am serious," Eric threw the ball in the bin and turned to Adney, and said in a serious tone " I am really serious, I have heard all your argument, okay." Eric paused for a breath "Have you heard of some rumors recently about people living out of city walls."

"Yes, your highness. I heard about it this morning. A man gifted them fifty golds." Adney replied indifferently.

"No, I don't want to hear that. I mean why they are there. Why not inside the city walls." Eric seriously asked.

"Um, your highness, the city would not have space for thousands of people and we don't only have them. There are more on East and West gates. As far as I know, they have been thrown out of their homes from noble controlled cities because they were related to the Kingdom."

"Then whose responsibility are those people." Eric uttered in a slow and serious manner. "Why don't they even have food to eat?" Eric's brows were furrowed and teeths clenched.

"Your highness, let me check up with other ministers, I will handle it personally." Adney was a little nervous by sudden change in their discussion and frequent changes in mood of the prince. 

"Find the person responsible and detain them, after I return to the capital I will deal with them." Eric said.

"Okay, but your highness where are you going?" Asked Adney.

"Didn't you just say that the situation is serious and we should talk with them? I am going to talk with them." Eric replied in a carefree manner."Chief Adney, please send the military Chief we need to plan for our talks trip. And please don't forget about the camps" Eric leaned back on his bed and shut his eyes.

Adney looked at him, and the prince had changed. Then he saw the black cloak on the table. He was also confused about who in the capital city was so magnanimous. He got his answer. 

Whatever changes the prince had gone through at least he was compassionate for his people, that was enough, Adney sighed. Today Adney found it hard to deal with the prince. Even his father didn't have that much mood swings. Anyways his work was done here. Now it was Kipler's time to deal with this unpredictable boy.

… 

Adney narrated his first meeting with Eric, after his recovery, to Kipler, the military Chief. 

"Ah Kipler, you know, I have been in service of the royal family for more than four decades but I feel like I have harmed them the most. The old king died and no one knew about the conspiracy. Then his favored son, Aland got assassinated under my watch. If his grandson would also have died, I wouldn't know how I would face my old friend in the afterlife. It's thanks to the gods that he recovered so soon. Or I wouldn't be able to even face myself in the mirror." Adney said with lowered eyes. 

Kipler could guess Adney's emotions, he also wasn't much better. He had lost his childhood friend and liege , as a knight it was his duty to take revenge. But he couldn't do anything, he felt powerless.

" I agree, I couldn't save my friend but would not let any harm come to his only son." 

...

Kipler knocked on the door, "please come in" Eric called out. Both of them exchanged greetings. Eric was sitting on bed, while he pointed at the chair for Kipler to sit. In Eric's memory Kipler was akin to a demon, who would beat him whenever he tried to slack off from training. It was thanks to his injured leg, his training stopped and so did the beatings.

"Chief, you know our situation, I think I don't need to spell it." Kipler nodded, Eric continued "tell me in current scenario how many soldiers would you require to take down both cities."

"Your highness, It would take more than a week and five thousand soldiers to claim Campbell back. Nobles there have access to only city Garrison, which numbers around 1500. They must have received some more men from their backer, how many soldiers it had provided is unknown to us."

"As for Bruns, it cannot be won by direct action of force as it is a walled city built by flattening the hill tops. So sending soldiers there would be akin to sending them to their deaths." Kipler was confused, Adney had told him that they were going for talks but the prince asked him for military solutions.

"Don't be confused we are going to talk, we need to prepare for the worst. This means Campbell is easy target, while Bruns can't be won back by force." Eric mulled over Kipler's explanation.

"No, your highness, if we lock the people of Bruns in their city, when their food expires they would need to open their gates."

"Hmm, then after sending soldiers to block Bruns , how many did you have remaining." Eric asked.

"We would need at least two brigades of 500 each to surround Bruns completely. After that we would have 3000 soldiers, but we could increase it by adding reserves."

"Then be ready, we will March tomorrow with 5000 men, freeing Campbell is necessary for us. Don't worry these men will be for our protection, we will not attack them until it's absolutely necessary. You are the military Chief, you should be prepared for any situation." Eric seriously put his views.

Anyway, if the prince feels that he would be secure if there are five thousand men with him on this trip then it was his duty to see it through, thought Kipler.

…