"What? What are you doing here?" Samira asked in a panic.
The man that stood behind her was no other than Gaileo's right hand man, Shion. A man that Carrihan high command had thought had deserted the army. In order to properly explain how the current state of events came about, we must go back to the very beginning of the Carrihan campaign.
As the Gaileo Army first entered the country, it very quickly became clear to them that the Carrihan Army had intended to fight a war of attrition rather than engage them in a direct confrontation. Moreover, they knew that they had taken all of the water in their path back to the city.
Their next issue was the cities seemingly impenetrable walls. They spent several days trying to find a way through the walls. They figured that the only way to get their army through the wall was for Gaileo to repeatedly knock a hole in the wall so it didn't have time to repair itself. However, that wasn't the only solution they had come up with.
When they found the ground water, Gaileo knew immediately that it had been poisoned. That is the reason why he didn't allow the newer soldiers to drink it, because he had drilled his veterans to gain an immunity to poison but he hadn't done so yet with the newer members of his army. Furthermore, the tunnels they dug were not only made to search for ground water. They were also made to tunnel their way under the walls into the city.
The soldiers who the Carrihans had thought deserted or died of thirst had actually been staging a second assault force that would attack from under the city. The underground assault force was led by Shion who had made a show of leaving the camp to make the Carrihans think that he deserted and to further reinforce the narrative that the Imperial Army was discontent and on the verge of collapse.
At every turn the Carrihans thought that their Prime Minister's plans had left the Gaileo Army utterly broken and defeated. The reality was that the Imperials only wanted them to think that. The masterminds of this plan was Ma Ten and Shion. In the end, although Kazuma and Gaileo's brute strength were invaluable components of the strategy, the true driving force of their victory was the brilliance of Ma Ten and Shion.
"What am I doing here?" Shion said as he repeated her question back to her. "Why, that should be quite obvious. I'm here to accept your surrender."
"You can't be serious. You must be joking. Why should I surrender? My men have your commander and your main army surrounded. We still have the upper hand." She replied.
"If you really believe that then you must be the one who's joking." Shion said as he drew his sword. "So do you surrender or not? Surely despite your bravado, you can see that this battle is over and you have lost."
Samaria exhaled and sat down. "Fine, I surrender, but just tell me. Where did we go wrong? It seemed like everything went exactly the way I planned. How is it that we've lost now?" She asked.
"The fact that everything went exactly according to your plan should have been your first warning. It was your belief that you were the smartest person in the room that lead you to believe that there was no way that your opponent could outsmart you. That was what made you so easy to fool." Shion replied.
"So all along I was just a puppet being pulled by your strings?"
"I wouldn't go quite that far, you did push us to some pretty desperate measures. However, there were three major mistakes you made in your strategy."
"What were they?"
"First, is as I mentioned that you should have been more suspicious about how smoothly your plans went. Secondly, you should have engaged us in guerrilla style combat on our way to the city. That would have wore down our army even more."
"I see, I can understand that much, but as hard as I think about it I can't figure out what the third mistake could possibly be."
"Your third mistake was underestimating our General." Shion said as Gaileo it through enemy soldiers outside. "Even if all of your plans had truly gone exactly as you wanted, Gaileo would still have been able to crush you through sheer brute force alone. That's simply how powerful he is."
"Don't you think that you're exaggerating?"
Shion chuckled. "Perhaps just a bit, but still the fact is that he has the power to flip even the best laid plans on their heads."
With Samira's surrender, the battle and by extension the war was over. Carriha was now completely under the control of the Empire. The next several days would see many diplomats and bureaucrats come to the city to administer the necessary measures needed to ensure a smooth transition to Imperial rule. The Gaileo Army would stay in the city during this time to stabilize the region.
During their stay, Gaileo received a letter from the Emperor.
"What does it say Shion?" Gaileo asked.
"The Emperor wishes to congratulate us on our accomplishments during this campaign." Shion replied. "In fact, he plans to give Carriha City to you as your own personal fief. You are to marry the princess Samira as well to secure the lineage of the Carrihan royal dynasty."
There was a brief pause before anyone spoke, and many had concerned looks on their faces.
"What's wrong? This is a good thing right? Carriha City is a great city especially for your first fief. Plus, Ms. Samira is a beautiful and brilliant lady. If you ask me you'd be pretty lucky to get to marry her." Elara said. "So why is everyone acting like this is a bad thing?"
"On the surface, you're exactly right." Shion answered. "However, the real problem is a bit more complicated. As you may recall, our previous campaign in the North saw many Northern kings and chieftains pledge their allegiance directly to Gaileo. He has a growing base of supporters among the men of the North. Carriha is on the opposite end of the continent. This 'reward' is clearly a ploy to separate Gaileo from his supporters. In fact, if Gaileo were to become the Lord of Carriha I suspect he would eventually lose the loyalty of the Northerners completely."
"Ok, so he should just refuse the reward. Shouldn't he?"
"No, that wouldn't work either. To refuse an Imperial appointment is considered a great insult to the Emperor. If he refuses, he may never be offered a fief again." Ma Ten answered.
"Oh I see. Why would the Emperor but him in such a tough position?" Elara asked.
Gaileo banged his hand on the table in frustration. "Because that old corpse will stop at nothing to stop me from succeeding!!!" He shouted. "Here I thought that we'd just won our biggest victory yet and actually that decrepit fossil has me in checkmate."
"Gai, please calm down I think you're missing something important here." Shion said.