Lord Of Puppets

(Neither options are really good.) – thought emperor Gustav as he stared at his desk.

(No matter what, we will get fucked one way or another.)

"..."

"!"

"Wait!" – said the vampire Korwan.

"Maybe there is another reason why the enemy is making move now."

"They want chaos."

"?"

"What do you mean?" – asked alarmed emperor.

"The empire ever since it has been had been established had been dealing with conflicts nonstop in the shadows." – said vampire Korwan.

"However, thanks to Ariava, the chaos was kept to the shadows, which resulted in the empire not being affected too much by the chaos."

"However, the wyvern attack that did happened had in the past, related to the Warmur kingdom launching their terrorist attack had left its scar."

"There was no way we could had hid this incident... Not only that, some people may had realized that the Warmur kingdom was the one behind the attack."

"However, what if those rumors were started by these new enemies?"

"!"

"Wait, so you are telling me that they had infiltrated our empire more than half a year ago?!" – asked alarmed emperor.

"...Korwan theory makes sense." – said Ariava through the communication device.

"They want terror." – said Korwan.

"And the terrorist attack launched by the Warmur kingdom was the perfect opportunity for them."

"By putting a mental pressure on the entire empire, the citizens will become restless... Which means the enemy could use that to manipulate them or something."

"And now they are adding more pressure with vampires, causing chaos to be sustained."

"...In other words, they were spreading the word around the wyverns, making the people unrest... And when these rumors were about to die because the Warmur kingdom’s corrupted nobility was getting dealt with, they chose to bring in chaos once again."

"They are trying to put mental pressure on us."

"...Okay. I get it from the strategy point." – said the emperor.

"But why now? Again, if they plan was like this, then wouldn’t be for the best to do it from the get go? When the empire was born and all?"

"It would be way too obvious." – said Ariava.

"Pretty much, nobody would believe this and instantly realized that somebody is just attacking them."

"There maybe other things at the play here."

"Like, somebody was maybe thinking that the empire isn’t a threat or anything like."

"Ringley that place would take fucking long amount of time before it could function normally, because you fuckers made it way too quickly."

"However, weirdly enough, you didn’t had any weird problems or the new wars happening."

"Not only that, but you were even able to stabilize your nation at extremely good pace, resulting in the empire existence being fortified, while also getting stronger."

"Meaning, the enemy may had ended up panicking, realizing that the situation was turning for the worst and they needed to move now."

"Maybe they were busy with something else and couldn’t do it before?"

"Maybe their main focus was something else, but they were forced to change targets?"

"Or maybe, the enemy couldn’t make their move before they weren’t here. A.K.A one of the empires."

"There also the problem regarding these new vampires."

"Were they already here and waiting? Or did they needed to CALL THEM TO COME HERE!"

"..."

"In any case, the main problem is the lack of information." – said Korwan.

"All we know that they want to use these vampires from the traditionalist faction to wreak havoc and spread chaos as well as distrust in the people of the empire."

"And that they took action right after the situation with Warmur kingdom ended, resulting in the unrest being stirred up once again."

"..."

"Ariava... Fuck." – said the emperor.

"..."

"Come back."

"..."

"Are you sure about this?" – asked Ariava.

"There is a good chance that the entire Warmur kingdom may end up being destroyed and it would cause a war."

"Yeah... I’m sure... The war will have high chance of happening no matter the option... So, in this case, I’d say that it is far better if we protect our empire over securing new allies from the ruined nation."

"The risk of protecting Warmur kingdom isn’t worth it."

"..."

"Understood." – replied Ariava.

"As soon as possible I will return to the Gorijy empire."

"Oh, one more thing."

"That thing that Thauma warned you about, I would take it serious." – said Ariava before ending the call.

"..."

"Do you really think they may try to assassinate attempt?" – asked the emperor.

"Honestly speaking... The dungeon master worry seems justice based on its past experience... And even worse, those worries may somewhat fit the current situation." – replied the vampire.

"The traditionalist vampires are beyond stupid, so honestly speaking, them getting manipulated into doing the dirty job or be something like expendable pawns? Yeah... It is possible."

"..."

"Still... I don’t like the fact that we are depending on Ariava to do everything for us."

"Yeah... Me neither." – said the emperor.

"But I’m more pissed off about the fact that WE ARE IN NON-STOP FUCKED UP SITUATION!"

"I MEAN! COMMON! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! GIVE US ROOM TO BREATH!"

"..."

*Sigh*

"I think our enemies doesn’t exactly want us to have ’any room to breathe’." – said the vampire.

"So yeah...."

"Fuck everything."

"..."

"Should we make the reveal now?" – asked the emperor.

"I mean, I’m asking you, since those bastards are definitely after you and your people."

"Is it safe for us to do it?"

"..."

"We need to do it." – said the vampire.

"Then again, this maybe what they want."

"They want TARGETS."

"...So by revealing the entire truth regarding the empire vampires, you will be straight up putting targets on your backs." – said the emperor.

"Yeb... But if we don’t do that, then the distrust will grow so much that we may not have an ability to even reveal the truth, since people wouldn’t believe anything, you said or they may straight up say that you are just puppets of vampires."

"So yeah... We don’t really have choice nor time."

"I will start arranging preparations on my end... And... Be ready." – said the vampire as he headed for the door.

"If they are really aiming for the higher ups of the empire... Then the moment we make that announcement, a blood will flow without doubt."

The days would go by and the enemy’s strategy was working.

Unrest and distrust between the people of the empire was growing.

There were no major incident ever since... However-

There were few cases of the vampire attacks happening.

There were not as many victims as before then the city was attacked... But still, that did the trick.

People didn’t know who to trust.

Was their neighbor a vampire? Or maybe their very member of family had turned into the vampire and is planning to devour them?

Rumors spread around, but who did it?

Was it the unrest citizens?

Or maybe the sabotage launched by the "enemy"?

There was also another problem.

The emperor.

The emperor started introducing the vampires as the allies... This obviously meant that he KNEW the vampires were in the empire in the first place.

Obviously, this caused outrage.

However, he still had something in his sleeve.

The achievements.

The emperor arranged for the speech where he would discuss the issue regarding the vampires.

"..."

(There will be blood.) – thought the nervous emperor as he then approached the balcony.

"My people!" – shouted the emperor as he was using the communication device, allowing his voice to be heard across the entire city.

"I know about your worries."

"About the rumors."

"About your fears."

"And that is true."

"The vampires are indeed attacking us."

"However, the vampires that are attacking us are not the same vampires that are helping us."

"You probably heard about me working alongside the vampires."

"And that is the truth."

"If anything, I’ve planned to integrated the vampire race into our empire."

"Or more exactly, the vampires had been part of our empire from the very start."

The emperor revealed the truth.

That the reason why the empire was build, to stop the mad war which could ravage this part of the continent.

That he knew, without anything holding back other nations, wars would keep happening over and over.

The empire was born to make sure that the peace would last.

However, there was no way that Gorjy kingdom would succeed on their own, that they were too weak and there was no nation to trust... And so, he made the deal with the vampires.

The emperor then exposed the shocking truth, the massive contribution that the vampires did for the empire.

The reason why it was kept secret was to not alarm the people, since many feared the vampires and they wanted to take it slowly in order for the people to adjust and accept them.

"However, our enemy didn’t wanted that... If anything, they want to destroy the empire by spreading the mistrust." – said the emperor as the leader of the vampires Korwan Von Kurwiad approached the balcony where the emperor was at.

"And I... No. We will expose them." – said the emperor as the Korwan walked to the edge of the balcony, revealing himself to the people.

"Greetings, citizens of the Gorijy empire." – said the vampire.

"I’m Korwan Von Kurwiad."

"I’m the leader of the vampire citizens of the empire."

"And now, I will tell you the truth regarding these terrorists."