My Extraordinary Childhood Friend (#Wattys2016)

35 - Orders

Akihiko's POV:

"Oh, there you are, Alice. I was looking for you."

Alice entered into King Joshua's throne room...accompanying her is Napoleon and Darwin.

"Umm...Alice, why Napoleon and Darwin accompanied you?" A curious Regine asked her.

"Well...I just prevented them to fight again over some random stuff...by turning them into my familiars."

"Oh! Good for you! Hehehe!" Lily laughed in relief. "Anyways, do you have some updates about our upcoming uprising?"

"Yes, Princess Lily. I used my magic to contact all of the Generals in Nova Ascia that I know by long-distance telepathy. They said that they will be ready to strike by tomorrow morning."

"But how many can we expect to defect from General Castillo?" I joined the conversation by asking Alice.

"That only comprises one-fourth of the total troops in Nova Ascia. Good thing that we are able to secure help from King Joshua. If we didn't, except that the people themselves will revolt, we will be defeated easily."

Alice continued her orientation on the situation. "I even heard from them that there have been called and instructed by the General Castillo to absolutely do whatever he wants to do...that's a sudden change from what Empress Angelica's style of leadership...so before I was discovered and thrown out...they were able to know me and earned their trust. Tomorrow, through their help, we could directly invade Morato City...and then inside out..."

"Well then, I heard enough." Lily then turned to Danica and Danielle. "Guys, how's the preparation of our own troops?"

"The training is now complete, Princess Lily!" Danica replied. "After weeks of intense preparation, the thousands -strong Liberation Army is now ready to roll by tomorrow."

"Okay, here's the plan!" Regine joined the discussion. "Once we are finally settled for an offensive: Somebody will be paired up to accelerate our advance: I will personally lead the Army, while Danica and Danielle will deal with the Generals in the East side of the city, while Alice, Napoleon and Darwin in the West side. Princess Lily, Akihiko, you can immediately proceed to the castle and defeat the General."

"Understood!!!" Lily and I quickly agreed with the terms

"Alright! Now all is prepared, we can now assured by tomorrow morning, we will begin our offensive." Lily gives us her final word. "Everybody...let's hope for the best tomorrow. It will be expected to be difficult, but if we work together...we will liberate Nova Ascia in no time!"

Claps and cheers has heard across the throne room. All has been finally settled. We are ready...to help Princess Lily...in liberating her home...

On the eve of our rebellion...Lily invited me to accompany her in the balcony of the castle. I saw her doing usual stuff...looking at the sky for stars...

"Umm...Akihiko-kun...are you uneasy on what will come to us starting tomorrow?" She began to ask me.

"Umm...maybe a little." I quickly replied."But...just as you said, if we work together, we can win, right?"

"Yeah...I know that. Thanks." She smiled faintly at me. "But...did you think that something wrong will happen to us? I mean...my parents and I believe that for every successful campaign, it needs to have somebody to make a heroic sacrifice..."

"Well...I guess it should for the soldiers..." I simply replied.

"But...do you think that one of us will sacrifice?"

"Wait, what?! What are you saying?!" I'm startled by what she had just said. "Nobody is sacrificing for both of us...Princess Lily...I mean... Azusa-chan...we will fight together! And I will protect you, okay?"

"O-okay...thank you." Azusa replies while I noticed that tears formed around her eyes. "You know...sniff...I want to do this but...sniff...I don't want to die...sniff...I don't want to lose you...sniff...and my friends...sniff...Huhuhu!!!"

Azusa burst into tears...even she already passed almost everything...she still has a weakness...there is still something that she is fearing about...so I decided to hug her very tightly...

"Azusa...I just told you...I will protect you no matter what...don't worry...we will win this together..."

Azusa continued to cry out all of her worries to me...while I continued to hugged her very tightly...it took some moments before she finally calmed down.

"Are you feeling well now, Azusa-chan?" I asked her calmly with a smile.

"Yeah...I'm feeling a little better now. Thank you, Akihiko-kun! Hehehe!" Azusa hold my hand and giggled. "Shall we go to rest now? It will gonna be a long and rough day tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah! That the Princess Lily and Azusa Otosaka that I want to see! Hehehe!" I answered back and laughed. "We should we took a rest now. So that tomorrow we will beat more guys together! Hehehe!"

We laughed together as we go to bed to call it a day. We will do our best tomorrow, I promise!

Imperial Castle,

Morato City, Empire of Nova Ascia.

November 16, A.N.A. 1315

Third person's POV:

"I'm calling this meeting because of some reports of defection among our military ranks." General Ronald Castillo called upon the highest generals in command of the Imperial Army. "Gentlemen, do you have any assessments to confirm such reports?"

"Yes, General." One of the attendees answered. "Some intelligence reports have stated that some generals have established contacts with the Empress's daughter. I already heard that the generals is plotting a rebellion against you with the help of the Government - in - Exile and Princess Lily."

"What?!" The General startled with the attendant's revelation. "Do you have anything else that you might want to tell me so that we could prepare so?"

"Yes...we are also gathered information that the rebellion will be made in a day or two."

"Those idiots!!!" General Castillo slammed the table in anger. "We need to act fast! Mobilize all the troops! Arrest those Generals and other traitors of this empire! Defend all essential and critical points! Prevent anybody from taking and using it against us."

"But how about Princess Lily and her team?"

"Don't worry, I will take care of this." General Castillo grins at his aide. "I can assure you that they will never set foot on this castle. I will their own lives if they do!"

As the night gets deeper, the Imperial Army loyalists stormed the camps that have been allegedly controlled by the defected generals. But the camps itself has been full of many other defectors that have been sworn allegiance to the generals...and to the fugitive Princess Lily. Battles have been ensued throughout the night...as the rebel camps has successfully repelled every attack of the loyalists. They are waiting for the signal...that the liberation forces from Alaniab will invade the country.