Bab 193: War Time Repression
Throughout the entire kidnapped princess debacle, other countries hadn't stopped what they were doing. Germania's invasion of Albion was underway. Prince Wales had sent many of his forces to intercept Germania's airships before they could land on the floating continent, they used a multitude of ballista's, cannons, mages, and whatever was left of their aerial forces to combat them.
Unfortunately, Prince Wales and his commanders had been anticipating an attack by Gallia first, and thus were caught somewhat off guard by the abrupt hostility by Germania, especially since they had all figured that the country would invade Tristain first.
Albion's forces held off the first few groups of airships, but soon enough they were forced to flee from their positions once the airships got into range to begin firing back. The many fire mages and cannons aboard the ships proved their worth, hammering all the defensive positions the Albion forces were hiding in.
A couple keeps were utterly decimated by this, and not even hastily constructed magical defences could protect them for long. Germania were employing enchanted cannon balls that had been specifically designed to breach through matearial. These were intended to be used against enemy airships, but turned out to be just as effective against keeps, castles, and other fortifications.
Soon enough, despite Albion's efforts to keep them out, Germania had secured itself a foothold on the edge of the floating continent, allowing it to quickly mass its many troops there. Albion's army of monsters were on the march towards it, but the undisciplined and frankly self-destructive army was as slow to move as it was to react.
By the time Princess Henrietta had been returned to her country, Germania had built many fortifications and begun raiding nearby villages to supply their army further. All in all, Albion was on the backfoot in this conflict, with little to no leverage outside of having the obvious home and defensive advantages.
Albion hadn't even started to recover from the most recent civil war, so against a country as large and powerful as Germania, their odds weren't good at all.
Elsewhere, Gallia had also begun its invasion on Tristian. It's army easily snatching up the keeps and castles on Tristain's western border. Villages were subsumed, men were drafted, women forced into prostitution for the soldiers to keep their children and families fed. While Gallia's army was pretty disciplined as a whole, there were many instances of villages being razed, raped, and destroyed by soldiers in the throughs of battle. Specifically, these were the villages which attempts to resist Gallia's control.
The commanders of Gallia's army didn't care all that much for the fate of those who resisted them either, so the soldiers were given a light slap on the wrist afterwards with little to no actual punishment.
Survivors of these massacres escaped to other nearby villages, and the message was quite clear. Resist Gallia and suffer. It was this combined with Tristain's lacking military response that had many villages kneel towards the foreign country, despite having belonged to Tristain for many, many years.
Tristain's military had always been poor compared to its neighbouring countries, but their presence, plus the Magical Academy, plus the presence of Romalia had usually kept them safe. But now, after a civil war in its borders and in its only ally, Albion's land, things were quite dire.
Tristain's military eventually began setting up defences to the west, but it was far too late to properly prepare for the tidal wave that was Gallia's forces. What was the reason for this slow reaction though? This was mainly due to the kidnapping of Henrietta, who was obvious unable to command her forces, leaving her rather witless subordinates to do it in her stead.
Fortunately, not all was going badly for Tristain. King Joseph was utilising Sheffield as a spy for most of war, so to have her suddenly go silent after attempting to acquire an artifact held by the enemy Void Mage was anger inducing to the man. Not because of the loss of his Familiar, but because he now no longer held the information advantage.
Gallia's army stopped their progress almost immediately, now that the commanders lacked the information Sheffield was giving out, they'd have to actually use their minds now. Using actual tactics instead of having a comprehensive list on the opponents weaknesses.
And now that Henrietta was back in command, Tristain had been unified under her, with all of her forces being stationed West, despite Germania still being a threat. Still, there wasn't anything to be done about it. If Germania decided to invade at the same time as Gallia, Tristain would die regardless of what she did. And now, even the choice of marrying the Germania Emperor was lost to her.
Honestly, she was beginning to learn towards using the tactics that General Gramont had employed, using the students in the magical academy as hostages... Unfortunately, doing that would lose the respect of most of her subjects, especially after she'd cut down thousands of her own men stopping them from attacking the Academy... That's not even mentioning Headmaster Osmond.
With Louise sent off to Romalia to learn under the Pope, there was no hope for Tristain. But, the Princess was determined to go down with her ship. It's what a respectable ruler should do, her mother, the Queen had already fled to one of her properties in Romalia, so Henrietta was determined to prove that she deserved her position, even in death.
Now, if only she could remove whatever mind control spell was cast on Agnes, maybe she could die without regrets...
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
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Bab 194: Spy Disinformation
Matilda scowls as she stalks through the streets of Tristania, Tiffania's trail having gone cold days ago. And now what was she left to go off on? A dead rat-faced weapon seller whose rotting corpse she'd found in his shop. A dead city watch commander called Nicholas Grimpt, which rumours say the False-Familiar had personally ended... Judging by the state of his corpse, Matilda was more leaning towards the man's dogs being responsible though.
There were other rumours going around as well, one relating directly to her, as one of her scorned information brokers must've been waggling his tongue about 'Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt' being in town. There were two that peaked her interest though, one stating that a hooded fairy with blue eyes and beautiful golden hair had been renting a nearby inn. And the other, that suggest that the Princess may or may not have been kidnapped.
She'd looked into the latter but found the information basically on lockdown. With anyone daring to utter a word of it getting a visit from one of the town guards. This overreaction had Matilda believing its validity, and she had an idea who would be brave enough to kidnap a princess right out of her own capital city.
Still, she'd leave that perilous meeting for later, for now she was headed towards the inn that Tiffania and the False-Familiar had been staying in.
Once she reaches it, she follows some fellow patrons inside before they head towards a table already filled with other people. Clearly, this place was quite popular, both as a bar and restaurant than as an actual regular inn.
She steps past some boisterous day drinkers and waits for the bar tender to notice her after serving another tray of drinks. "How're you doing, can I get you anything?"
Matilda nods, "Some wine if you have it... Also, would you mind if I asked you a few questions? I know you're quite busy but, it's important, and I'd make it worth your time." she says, dropping a small bag of silver coins on the table.
The man nods, quickly sliding a glass of wine in front of her before leaning over the bar, "So, what's on your mind? Maybe this old man has caught your eye?" he asks with a wink, he and some other patrons laughing good-naturedly afterwards.
Matilda smiles and shakes her head, "Not originally, no, but now that you mention it, you remind me of my great grand-uncle, my father used to call him 'Jeweller', mainly because of all the rings his ex-wives had thrown at him." she retorts before taking a sip of her wine.
...
"Ahahahahaha! My, miss! I spose' you got me nailed there, makes me want to start a collection of my own. already got a head start with two divorces. Might even beat your Jeweller's record by the time I have kids!"
Matilda nods amusedly before turning serious, "Now, I am actually here to inquire about this 'Fairy', and the men she had come with."
The man quirks a brow, "I've had many folk come looking for the fairy, most of them young men for obvious reasons. Why're you looking for 'em anyway? One of the men your husband or something?... She did rent a room with both of them... Maybe we should call her succubus instead of fairy, eh?" he jokes, but trails off when Matilda doesn't laugh.
She shakes her head, "The girl is my sister, and I've not been able to get into contact with her, any idea where they might've gone?"
The barkeep shakes his head, "I'm sorry to say I haven't... You say she's you're sister, prove it... What's her name?" he asks out of the blue, quiet enough so that the other patrons couldn't listen in.
"Tiffania." Matilda easily replies, causing the man to nod.
"Good enough for me I 'spose. Listen, that lot left a message with me for someone. How about I let you know when they get here? Maybe they'd know how to contact them."
Matilda smiles, "That sounds perfect." she slides the pouch of silver towards him, but he returns it with a grin.
"Don't worry about it miss, getting two kind sisters back together is reward enough for me. As you can see, my business is doing quite well! Use it and buy your sister something nice for me, oh," he leans in to whisper, "And I'd suggest you and her stay outta Tristain for the time being. Rumours might say thing'll be fine, but I'm not daft enough to believe we have any chance to even touch those fat sods in Gallia." he stands back up straight, "Maybe Romalia is a good place to settle down, if you can find some vacant land there at least."
Matilda nods knowingly, all too aware of the tumultuous state of the world right now. "I'll do that, thanks for your help. I'll have someone let you know where to reach me should my sister's guests come." she says as she finishes her wine and stands, intending to go visit the palace for a talk with the princess... Hopefully not while in a prison cell.
"See you later, miss! Come back some time" the bar keep says while waving her off, a smile almost permanently plastered across his face.
Matilda leaves and heads directly for the royal palace, fortunately, she was just in time to be present to see the princess holding court, specifically, dealing directly with issues that her citizens were facing, from property disputes, to presiding over crimes, to greeting foreign nobles who'd felt the need to introduce themselves while in Tristania... Indeed, there were even some looking to try and woo the currently single princess... Not that the girl gave them any face at all, sending them out with their tails tucked between their legs.
Finally, it's Matilda's turn to step up. She walks before the princess and bows slightly to show a degree of deference, even if it's not what the guards other side of her would have wished.
"Presenting Miss Matilda, who says she has vital information against the Kingdom of Gallia." a man standing beside Henrietta announces.
Henrietta leans forwards in her throne with a look of interest, "Oh? And what information would you have that you felt needed to be delivered to our public court?"
Matilda shakes her head, "Actually Princess, I'm here in search of my sister, a girl with longer than average ears called Tiffania," she states, causing Henrietta's eyes to widen, "I was wondering if you had heard of her at all?" she asks, but has both of her arms seized by some guards. Obviously, lying about her reason for being there must've been illegal to some degree.
Fortunately, Henrietta steps in, deciding that this might be more important than some simple information on Gallia. "Stop... Escort miss Matilda to my guest room, I believe I have some things to discuss with her."
And with that, Matilda's plan works out perfectly... Kind of...
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
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