Age of Adventure

Aero is also thinking of solving that mystery.

If it’s true that the Emperor is the one that kills the Vlad family, then for what reason?

The Vlad family is very loyal to the Imperial family and one of those who would defend the Empire in Karak

What would cause the Emperor to fall out with such a supporter than not only he had sent killer to kill the patriarch of the Vlad family, he also massacres his entire bloodline?

’A secret’ Aero muttered under his breath.

Vlad family must have known something about the Emperor. And it must be something that the Emperor did not want the world to know. A secret that he would kill for.

Aero frowned a bit as he now slowly updating his information on the young emperor and slowly getting to know the Emperor

’Heh’ he smirks a bit. Aero had always suspected that something was off about Edward. He was too timid. Even that is something very abnormal.

But he was too accustomed with the Emperor being timid, that even he had underestimated that young lion. After all, a young lion...is still a lion.

It is very patient of him to pretend to be timid and fearful all the time. Aero expedition is also a warning to the Emperor. A silent one but warning nonetheless.

And the shield that would protect him is the will of the people. Aero still sitting on that chair look again at the Karak map and smiles bitterly

Taking Karak is not the problem. The problem is always what should they do with it?

One of his consideration is that he also had to think about whether Karak would rebel.

Even if they do, their rebellion would not be as destructive as the Niovarian rebellion considering that since the beginning, the Karak is not a militant nation and could easily be brought under fold.

They are brave...in the past. But now, they could no longer muster that courage. If they did, with their gold and silvers they could have long expanded their lands toward the Vor kingdom in the past

They focused on mercantilism and neglected everything else

The only reason that they were such a problem is because of the attack of Veranis that forces the Empire to split their forces. There is also the fact that the great Orc horde stationed themselves on the eastern border that further restrained the ability of the Imperial Court to send more soldiers to the western front

Aero had a plan brewing in his mind right now on how to handle Karak

but he believes that he should focus on the matter of Duvar first and he could discuss all of this with the Emperor when he returns back to Vanheim.

That would surely be something to be excited about, he thought to himself.

He also like to see how the Emperor would act. Would he still act like the timid cat? Or would he bare his fang onto him?

Aero took another letter and read it once again and then put it back to the letter and rub his chin.

The letter is about Veranis.

On Veranis, there is report of many political power that is forming on the northern and southern part of Greater Veranis.

That is something worrying. But as long as they divided, Aero had complete confidence that sooner or later, the Empire would swallow that region in the end.

And as for the imperial palace letter there is news that had come from the Six Councils and the Emperor.

The Six Council is now united for this moment as they listen to his orders to send reinforcement to Karak, to the border of Veranis and the capital of Veranis

Aero realizes that in his absence, the Six Council was divided on who to follow.

There was the loyalist that adhere him and there is some that wanted to change the core of the Six Council.

They choose what they believe for the good of the Empire and that choice for them is becoming flexible in slowly giving the Imperial authority more power in the Six Councils.

That is something that Aero would not allow. It is not because it infringed his power but it is because Aero did not want all powerful Emperor that rules everything, unchallenged.

If the Emperor is wise beyond his years and could disregard the temptation of the flesh, the temptation of desire and could contain the expanse vast world and embraces everything in his heart, looking thing with an objective perspective, then that is fine.

But what if the Emperor the Empire ended up with is an egotistical, evil and overbearing tyrant? At that time, regret would mean nothing.

Of course Aero is not saying Edward is an emperor that is like that. But, once the power is given, it is hard to take it back.

It is good that the Six Council did not yet went to that last step and he could still reverse it.

As for those who follow the Emperor, Aero did not feel what they did is wrong. They only decided that unity under the Emperor is beneficial to the Empire.

But... They did not understand at all the reason why the Six Council was formed.

Of course, now that Aero had returned, the Six Council, the Directorate all united again listening to his orders.

But the division shows him that the Emperor do want to dig deep into the core power of the Chancellery.

There is also another moves that he made. He classified this as a testing move.

Aero had also send a letter to King James, ordering him to send his soldiers to the southern border of Veranis to quickly defeat the generals of the borders.

His letter to King James also serve as a test.

If King James tries to defies him, then Aero would not hesitate to suppress him until he could not even speak in the court later when he comes back to Vanheim.

Of course, Aero would not suppress him to the point of death.

After all, he still need James to rile up the Emperor and to test the Emperor.

The Emperor fear James. But it is clear from what Aero had known, the Emperor fears him more than he fears his brother. And who knows? Maybe that act of fear is simply also an act.

The Imperial family is really terrifying as they could lie without even blinking an eye. George would be saddened in the Underworld if he knows about this.

These past couple of days he got many reports and reading it all and creating plans and strategies around these information of course bring headache to Aero

Aero sighed a bit as he massages his temple for a few minutes.

’I would prefer a bath in my bathtub, with warm water at this moment. With rosemary scented liquid to make me feel refreshed after a long day of battle’

Aero reminisce the day he spent in Veranis. While he lives in hiding, he had a lot of money and he live very comfortably.

He also thinks about his Chancellor residence and what would it look like right now. The Six Council have been paying the workers and servants of the residence and from what he knows, his residence is still there and maintained.

He could not help but wanting to get back home and return back in glory to Vanheim.

But he could not return yet. Not after he had gone this far.

>>>>>>>>>>

The moment he shows himself in that Plain and keep moving forward, he knew that the only way to end this and truly return in glory is if he could achieve the objective of taking Veranis and defending Duvar.

He then sighed

The capital of Veranis is secured. At least knowing that fact, Aero could confidently go on to Duvar without worrying being enveloped from the back by enemy forces

Aero had already taken the capital of Veranis and put it under the control of his people. He leaves Quentin there to quell any resistance.

He did not leave Kyle there. Kyle would be a great help to him if Duvar is already taken and they need to take it back

After leaving Quentin there to pacify the surrounding area and fortify the capital, he and Kyle had quickly marched forward toward Duvar

Quentin would not be able to join and he is more suitable on pacifying the region of Veranis as he could also persuade the other nobles to surrender since he is an old noble that surely would have relation with the nobles.

It is unavoidable. The attack that they employed against Veranis was fast and efficient.

But just because they take the capital did not mean that the entire kingdom is now in their grasp.

They take Veranis. But they did not take Greater Veranis. As someone who knew the history of how Great Veranis was formed, Aero also understood the difficulty in taking all of Greater Veranis.

After all, he was the one that help Veranis break the situation between the other two partitions of Veranis

Greater Veranis is composed by the Gerad Stratocracy and Tian dynasty. As such, Aero had expected that these old elements would also come out during the unstable time

And just like he had expected, the report shows that the old regime is making a comeback.

There are some general that surrender and swore their fealty to the Empire. This makes it easy to pacified the region of Veranis

Most of these generals were generals that were loyal to the previous King and knew about the deeds of King Alexander.

They hated Alexander and they do not have any intention to fight against the Empire. Their hate stemmed for the way the old king was treated

They did not deny that Alexander was the most suitable heir to sit on the throne. It is how he takes the throne that have been the reason for these general distaste

There is also another reason in which Alexander cut off the benefits of these old people who had benefited the kingdom in the past and how they were shafted to the back of the administration as Alexander only promote those how are close to him

All of these had been the reason why it was so easy to persuade them to join the Empire.

Promise them benefits and promise them safety, and they fold easily

There are also some generals that could see the trend of time and did not want to fight against it.

Fighting the Empire right now is not a smart move.

The Great orc horde had retreated so there is no longer that restraining force on the eastern border of the Empire, which frees up those soldiers stationed on the east

This translate to the Empire could now send all of those soldiers, to the western battlefront. Whether that bulk of the army is going to Karak or Veranis, it would be a huge army that Veranis in its current divided condition could not fight

There is also the fact that Aero of the East had returned and the Six Council is also united right now under his orders.

The reason why the matter of the Empire versus Veranis could drag out that long is because there is internal conflict that delay many responses of the Empire to deal with the fats moving condition of the battlefront.

Now, that weakness had been removed. As such, the Empire right now is like a lion been given wings.

Those generals that guarded Veranis mainly agreed, that if such an army were to come to Veranis and they still insistent to be stubborn, the consequences would not be pretty.

Who knows what Aero of the East would do?

He might not slaughter the civilian like King James did toward the Niovarian population but he would surely kill all the nobles of the city that is stubborn and did not want to surrender

Aero of the East had long been known to scoff at noble power and have deep mistrust to the power of nobles.

As such, the great general of Veranis when they heard that Aero of the East had taken the Capital and then marched forward to Duvar to stop Veva invasion of it, they all decided to swear fealty when the messenger from Quentin come

But as there is people that could bend their knee and swear an oath of fealty, there is also some people that would not.

Ambitious generals had risen up all over the Greater Veranis region. The central had been pacified with most of the general of Veranis decided to accept the rule of the Empire

However, the moment that Aero had taken the Central authority, the similar situation of hundreds of years ago happened again.

It is the second partition of Greater Veranis with the old regime establishing itself again with the collapse of the central authority of Veranis.

Most of these generals that rises up are general of the kingdom that is far from the capital, the so called border generals.

They rise up during this chaos and created their state, seceding from Greater Veranis.

After all, greater Veranis had been created by Gerad Stratocracy and Tian dynasty being conquered by Veranis

There is still survivors and people from those country. Philip had done his best in the past to suppress them and put his people in the position of power.

But it is clear now that his effort was not through.

Most of the border generals are people from those two kingdoms.

Their status as border generals was given because of their abilities but also because Phillip wanted to watch over them.

After all, he could not appear to be suppressing people of his own kingdoms when they are talented.

Philip could be said lack the generosity that George had in accepting the people of other kingdoms in the administration of their domain.

On the other hand, Philip fears that the people of those two old kingdoms would once again try to partition the Greater Veranis that he had built

Phillip would not dare put people of the Tian dynasty and the Gerad Stratocracy members near the capital to plot against him

In the past, by putting them on the border, it would pressure them as they would not be able to do anything suspicious.

This is because, at that time Veranis is allied with Vanheim.

If for some reason any of these border generals declare a rebellion and tried to reestablish their kingdoms, then Vanheim could also help Veranis, creating a pincer position with Veranis attacking from the back and Vanheim attacking from the front

But, now, the situation is very different. Vanheim and Veranis is at war. King Alexander march toward the Plains of Ethylred and got himself killed.

The entire Greater Veranis is in chaos. The Capital has been taken down and the central authority collapsed

Chaos is a nightmare for some, a ladder for the others.

As such, these border generals could use the chaos to establish back their kingdoms. There is still many loyalist of the old regime in the army of these border generals.

And one such general that had establish his country is a general in the northern region of Greater Veranis