Chapter 700 - The Royal Family's Counter-Measures.
Since the news had gone viral, it was expected that the Norfolks would have seen it as well.
Emperor Rawal was forced into holding an emergency meeting to deal with the anti-royality alliance's plan of getting everyone on their side.
"We can't be quiet about this." Emperor Rawal spoke sternly, "We will be given a whole year to prepare in the new virtual battlefield. That is a long time to convince many backgrounds into joining those maggots."
The Royal family remained quiet on this one, knowing that Emperor Rawal was addressing his governors, advisors, and Generals.
"Isn't better this way?" Princess Alma whispered near her brother's ear.
She knew that her father was taking his sweet time in his preparation because he wanted the anti-royality alliance to recruit as many allies as possible.
So, when he strikes them, he would be getting rid of a lot of 'leeches' at once.
Prince Balin shook his head as he answered her telepathically, 'It's different. Father knew that the anti-royality alliance will mostly just lower bracket backgrounds. They hold no threat against us whatsoever.'
'However, this new federation dream would be attracting the big boys in the empire. The top ten strongest kingdoms, bloodline clans, unions, and more. Although most of them don't have an Origin Bloodliner in the lead, their fleets aren't a joke.'
'Oh, I get it.' Princess Alma nodded her head with a bit of worry on her face.
She couldn't imagine how the war would turn out if all the strongest backgrounds in the empire decided to go against them.
"Your Majesty, may I speak freely?" Commander Hade requested with a deep voice.
"Please."
Upon getting permission, Commander Hade stood up and spoke composedly, "It's impossible to fight off forest fire with water only. To completely eradicate the fire, you need to use fire as well. So, our solution is to offer something that can comes closes in value to the federation dream and turn those leeches into our allies."
The royal family was slightly irked to hear such a suggestion.
That's because the Commander wanted them to join hands with those maggots, who infested their territory.
It was the same as asking a family to work together with a bunch of mouses in their house to eradicate the other insects.
Sure it was a solid plan, but for those proud royalties, it was quite humiliating.
Still, they kept their dissatisfaction in their heads, not daring to bash him loudly in front of the emperor.
"Hmm...What do you suggest we offer them?" Emperor Rawal shared, "I believe that it will be difficult to move them with materialistic items when an opportunity to have it all is right in front of them."
In other words, why would they accept resources when they could have legit authority over the empire after they win the war?
At that point, resources would come naturally after they split their territory.
"How about a cease fire contract?" Commander Hade proposed, "If we make sure to offer them a peace of mind for the rest of their lives in the empire, I doubt they will risk everything they built on this war."
"Father, you can't do that!" The savvy 4th prince couldn't help but exclaim in disgust.
The thought of offering their territory permanently to those leeches made his skin curl in revulsion.
Right now, those backgrounds might be occupying their territory but at least the royal family could get rid of them one day.
"Brat, didn't I warn you to not jump like this in our discussion." Emperor Rawal gave an irritated side-look at his 4th son, making him flinch and sit back down with his head lowered.
"Commander, your suggestion is well thought of, but I do agree with my son." Emperor Rawal narrowed his eyes dangerously, "There is no way I will give out my territory willingly to those maggots and cut off any chance of returning them."
"Understood." Commander Hade nodded his head and sat down, not wanting to push his suggestion further.
He could see that Emperor Rawal was adamant at keeping it all even if it meant risking losing everything.
"Still, I like the suggestion." Emperor Rawal turned into his advisors and order, "Try to write down a contract that will appeal to those maggots without giving off territory permanently. Everything else on the table...Get creative."
In Emperor Rawal's mind, there might be a few strong backgrounds that would reach out and accept his deal.
Maybe, they were already on the fence and this slight push would help them get in their side.
Naturally, they wouldn't fight with them but at least they would remain as bystanders in this war.
"Any other suggestion?" Emperor Rawal asked.
After a few seconds of silence, one of the advisor asked for permission to speak. When he got it, he recommended, "How about we try to hit the credibility of the anti-royality alliance and their contract."
"How so?" Emperor Rawal inquired, knowing that it would be hard to achieve since contracts can not lie.
"Cough, I thought we can discuss it together." The advisor said sheepishly.
"Sit down." Emperor Rawal glared at him for wasting his time.
Upon seeing so, the others were even more inclined not to speak. They knew that Emperor Rawal wanted well-articulated suggestions like Commander Hade's.
When dealing with such a big problem, it wasn't easy to come up with such solutions.
"You guys can speak as well." Emperor Rawal gave permission to his family after seeing that his subordinates were useless.
Unfortunately, the royal family members all started avoiding eye contact with him, having absolutely nothing to offer.
Before Emperor Rawal could give up on them, he saw Prince Balin raise his hand with a polite smile.
"Speak."
The moment he got permission, Balin stood up to drew attention on him.
The 4th prince, and the other royal family members all gave him a hidden nasty look, not pleased that he dared to give off his own opinion on such a important matter.
In their eyes, the twins deserve to be kicked out of the family or killed to clean the filth and restore their bloodline purity.
Fortunately for the twins, Emperor Rawal didn't think like that and also had different plans for them that he never disclosed.
"Your Majesty, I believe that we can use reverse psychology on them." Prince Balin spoke fluently, "We need to demonstrate in a subtle manner to those background that we will be pleased if they decided to join the other side."
"This will give them the wrong impression that we have prepared our armies to deal with them even if they allied together."
"Since they had no idea about our hidden weaponry, we can leak some fake news like we own three planet destroyers, Origin Bloodliner Killers and such."
"They may believe it or not, but it doesn't matter since it will arise a sense of crisis in their minds."
Prince Balin paused for a second and concluded his suggestion with a faint cunning smile, "The moment we notice that some of them started to waver, we can then buy them with rich contracts, following after Commander Hade's suggestion. It will be hard for them to reject it if we promised that we won't come after them for the next five hundred years or so."
"That's all." Prince Balin nodded his head and then returned to his seat.
"At last, a good suggestion came out of this meeting." Emperor Rawal smiled in a pleased manner as he praised Prince Balin.
"But father, his idea can screw us over." The 4th Prince immediately interjected after his father's praise, "We might get found out to be faking it and push the backgrounds to side with them even faster. They will think that we are weak and afraid of their alliance."
This time Emperor Rawal didn't berate his son since he did have a solid point. Prince Balin's suggestion was a double-edged sword.
If it worked, it would help them minimize the backgrounds they would be fighting without much effort.
But if they failed? Even the backgrounds that weren't interested in joining the war would jump on this boat after they realize that the royal family was scared.
"That depends on you to make it work." Emperor Rawal eyed them in a threatening manner, "Make it work at all cost."
His advisors, governors, and family members all nodded their heads in understanding.
"Discuss it carefully and come back with a solid plan." Emperor Rawal excused them with a hand wave.
Everyone started to teleport outside the throne chamber until only Emperor Rawal and the guards were left behind.
Now that they were gone, it was his time to start thinking of other ways to play this. He liked Prince Balin's idea, but it wasn't secure enough.
He wouldn't be an Emperor for so long if he relied on luck to push him through.
'Winning the war isn't enough. We need to crush them as fast as possible..' Emperor Rawal frowned, "We really can't afford the SGAlliance's penalty.'