In the wilderness of southeastern Dagos, Prince Kaizon looked at the stack of reports that had been received in the last day.
"What is all this? Bandits, bandits, deserters, peasant uprising? How inept was the former King that things have gotten this bad in the east?" He demanded of his advisor.
"Your Majesty, the Nobles of this region were never wealthy, and they have suffered a decade of drought. Most spent every penny of their coffers to avoid starvation, then went off to war and didn’t return.
The siege at Burton alone killed ten thousand local peasants and many of their Barons. The massacres outside Cleowey were even worse, and it is said that half the population of Midgexe is buried in Cygnia now.
The Noble rulers are largely dead or young men of no accomplishments, and the populations are so depleted that the remainder of the peasants feel that they have been abandoned.
Should we return to the Capital and send a compliance army to the region to get things back under control before Cygnia’s infiltration forces arrive?" The Advisor asked.
The border spies say that the Natural Sons Butchers are somewhere in this region, and if they’re here, then Princess Alexis is here as well.
Continue on this course, and have the scouts ask about battles and reports of large bandit groups." Kaizon demanded.
The Advisor bowed and retreated so that the Prince wouldn’t see him roll his eyes.
The Prince might have strong political support, but that was in the capital. Out here, he had only a small retinue, under a thousand men, and some of the peasant villages were close to that number.
If they got caught up in a local uprising, they might be mired for days or weeks while the nation needed strong leadership.
"Advisor, I believe that we’ve found a sign of the Natural Sons. There was an attack by bandits, stripped the convoy searching for the Princess clean. But when the scouts found the site, there were signs of explosives.
Either the bandits have artillery, or there was a powerful mage with them." One of the Dagos Royal Guards reported.
"A powerful mage? Like a Dragonkin? If he is there, then the Princess is there as well.
Bring the convoy to the site, and we will start our search for the wayward Cygnia Royal." The Advisor decided.
Two hours later, their convoy was at the site of the battle, and Prince Kaizon was out with his advisor, examining the decaying bodies, which had now been set upon by wild animals. It was clear that they had been completely stripped of valuables, and the convoy was looted.
"These explosions, they’re not magic." The leader of Prince Kaizon’s guards declared.
"What do you mean?" The Prince demanded.
"Look here. There is shrapnel in the bodies. The grass is powder burnt, I can still smell it. And on these jackets, there are blast burns, along with fragmentation damage.
They were not ambushed with magic, they were attacked with explosive cannon fire designed to make it look like they had died to magic.
I fear that someone is baiting us into a trap, Your Majesty." He explained.
Prince Kaizon sat down on the running board of his truck.
"If this wasn’t the Princess and her Regiment, then where did she go?" He muttered.
"There is some hope that it might be her. Many of the guards were shot with lead shot. Now, those could be any sort of rifle, but your agent was shot twelve times with a mana weapon." The Guard Captain suggested.
The Advisor walked over and shook his head.
"He was shot at point-blank range twelve times. Almost certainly a revolver. You can see how they continued to shoot as he was falling by the way that the wounds angle.
"How so?" The Prince asked.
"A mana revolver holds six shots. He was shot twelve times, and they took both his sword and scabbard, which suggests that he was not holding the weapon when he died. Most of the others still have the scabbards, as they’re not valuable enough to resell.
Whoever did this stopped to reload, then shot until the weapon was empty again." The Advisor replied.
"Someone is definitely messing with us. It could be a robbery gone wrong, it could be a message. Who has a map? Where would they have been headed if they were ambushed here?" Prince Kaizon asked.
"If they continued on the route that brought them here, they would pass the Foneven River and into Albroles territory. They’ve been moving almost perfectly straight away from Cygnia City, if they came from the reported checkpoint incident here.
It is possible that they’re headed for the Duke’s estate to install one of his relatives in the position to challenge for the throne.
All his sons are dead, but his brothers have many sons, and strong military merits of their own. If someone manages to stop their infighting, they could well challenge for the throne, especially with the tragedy in defence of the nation." The Advisor noted.
Prince Kaizon frowned. "How many people live in Albroles City?"
"Eight hundred thousand, give or take?" The Advisor replied.
"Fuck." Prince Kaizon turned and punched the door of the truck. "We can’t afford the chance that they’re headed to unite Albroles behind a political successor. Turn northwest and make for Albroles City. Call off the search for the Princess for now, but keep sending me all reports of suspicious activity along with the banditry reports."
"Sir, we found the tracker. It took shrapnel from one of the explosions, which is what deactivated it." One of the Royal Guards reported.
"Understood. Everyone, load up. We have work to do."
The guards retreated from Prince Kaizon’s temper. Nothing was going right for him lately. The King of Cygnia had laughed at him, one Princess was missing, while the other taunted his armies from the walls of the Capital, and now his search party had been ambushed by bandits with stolen military equipment.
The Advisors and Officers knew that more likely than not, it was half starved peasants from the next few villages up the road. But none of them would dare to tell the future King that the level of mismanagement was truly so bad that open rebellion was the status quo any time Royal tax collectors passed through.