With Yumi spreading the rumors about Don Enrico's real intentions, those people who initially criticizing the four generals for rebelling had begun to have a swayed faith over the new Government.
The generals didn't take it easy though. They had captured some of the puppets of Don Enrico before he was able to retract them back to the capital and they displayed them to the plaza to let people know the difference of real humans and puppets.
Xun Anyue had taken care of the demo. He sent people to fight some of the puppets.
Because these puppets were designed to fight the government's enemies, they naturally could detect those defectors. They would fight without any feelings or mercy at all.
When people of these four main cities realized that their generals were rebelling for a reason and that their new Governor General was an evil man, they started to take an action on their own. They began by cleaning up the hospitals and other medical institutions of their cities.
Soon, the purging of Don Enrico's people from these main cities had been completed. It took them months but it still happened.
Now the next mission of the generals and their people was to impeach that evil Governor General.
This happening definitely caused a headache for Don Enrico from the capital. Losing those four main cities had crippled a part of his plan.
But then again, those were just four cities. He still had the rest of the country.
Yumi's rumors also reached the other places of the country not just the four main cities. However, they did not have leaders to show them the real situation and demo about the puppets.
And so they didn't really believe that rumors at all.
Anyway, the marching of the Generals and their people had begun.
It took them a month to reach the M Capital. They didn't attack right away though. Instead, they camped out outside walls of the capital and exchanged missives with the officials and militaries within it.
They believed that not all of them wanted to side to Don Enrico. So if they wanted to take the opportunity to recruit more people from the capital under their cause.
At the same time, they began pressuring Don Enrico's sides to step down and stop their plan to mass produce Human Puppets by using the medical institutions from the rest of the country.
Now that the truth was out in the open, although not everyone believed it right away, Don Enrico's side should still be hesitating to take an action now especially within those hospitals where lots of intelligent people could easily confirm those rumors once they began to act.
The thing that they should be wary of the most right now was enlightening more people and taking the Generals' side in this war. After all, if they lost the people within the hospitals, how else would they used the Puppet Pills to them?
So the Generals' gave Don Enrico time to step down on his own at the same time, gathering more people for their cause.
On the other hand, Mateo had also began to prepare their people from Novano Town and also his own set of army from L City and M Capital. He sent out missives everyday to make sure that they would be supporting the Generals' attack when it happen.
After all, they knew that Don Enrico wouldn't be changing his mind at this point of time. He had already reached the point of no return. This war would definitely happening sooner or later. They needed to prepare for the worst.
A month later though, the Generals finally decided that since Don Enrico seemed to have no plans of backing down, they couldn't stop this war anymore. Most especially that more people had come to support their cause and they were adamant to remove the newly elected Governor General from his position.
Soon, the war trumpet had been blown signalling for the fight to begin.
Don Enrico's side had been prepared for this war too.
Some days ago, they sealed the whole capital's gate. The generals thought it was Don Enrico's way to stop more people from taking their sides. But what they didn't know, the lockdown meant worser than that. By this time, everyone inside the capital, except for those who had been on Don Enrico's side since the beginning, had all been transformed into puppets.
When the generals realized this later, they could only cough up blood because of how inhumane this move from Don Enrico. At the same time, they would be pressed between fighting these innocent citizens turned to puppets.
***
Meanwhile in Noveno Town, Yumi and Mateo were still cuddling each other.
The preparation for the war was almost done. At this moment, Mateo's army from L City had already reached the capital and joined the army from the capital branch. Days later, those from Noveno Town would begin to march towards the capital too.
But right now, Mateo would naturally like to spend this pre-war time with his beloved wife.
"...When you reach the capital, puntahan mo agad ang Papa ko. You have to be on his side during this war."
"Un... Don't worry."
Yumi sighed.
Mateo somehow understood her deep breath.
Yumi had been reminding him a lot of things. He knew, of course, that those were the things she wanted to do if she was actually joining the war.
He smiled and tapped her head.
"Be good. You'll have a war to fight some other time. But now, stay put for our children."
"How dissatisfying it is to not be able to collect the debt myself? I really want to make those people pay for all the things they owe me. But I guess, it is going to be impossible now."
"How about I let you deal one of them yourself? Who do you want to get rid the most?"
"Bring me that Don Luis. Everything wouldn't escalate into this if he died with his family that year."
"Hmmn... I thought you would choose Don Enrico."
"After he turned everyone in the capital into puppets, a lot of people would surely want to deal with him. Hindi na ako makikiagaw pa sa kanila. He would surely get what he deserve even if I do not make a move against him."
Mateo nodded as he agreed with her.
After that, a long silence befell to the two of them. It wasn't an awkward silence though. It was the comfortable kind suited for the two of them as they hugged each other.
"You also be careful, Mateo. Don't die and leave me with these three kids. I cannot take care of them all together."
"Don't worry. I will only die after you."
Yumi slapped his arms. He just chuckled.
"I am serious. Although I ask you to protect my father but don't go and take a bullet or sword on his behalf. I will take it as betrayal if you die or even hurt badly during this war."
Mateo didn't respond. He didn't have to.
Since that last time he made this little lady thoroughly angry with him, he swore to himself then that if he happened to gain her good side again, he would never disappoint her again.
He knew trust and loyalty were very important to her. And since she said she would take endangering his life as betrayal to her, naturally, he would steer away from harming himself.
After all, it took him a long time before he finally was able to make her open up to him. So why would he make himself suffer by betraying her again?
He actually never needed anyone in his both life before. But Yumi...
Her existence in his life was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him. Most especially that he was also important to her now too.
Just the fact that she was in his arms right now was enough to fill his inside with happiness.
***
Unexpectedly, the next day, they received a missive that the Generals' side were having difficulty in fighting those in the capital.
Mateo's army couldn't help either since a huge number of Human Puppets came from the other cities and they were now fighting them.
And so he decided that it was time for them to join the fight now.
He would bring Antoine, Ivan, Rui, Daichi, and Koshi with him, leaving only Kami and Xun Bao's team with his wife.
The rest of Assassin Guild and those citizens who had been trained would come with them to the main city then.
"We are leaving." Mateo told Yumi.
"Un..." She just nodded before letting him to give her a kiss, which made the ladies around her looked away and blush.
She didn't mind them anyhow. Although she had already reminded him of all those things last night, she still couldn't help but to worry. This was after all the downside when one was being left and not fighting the war themselves.
She actually hated this kind of situation. But then again, Rui would pester her to death since she had promised not to do anything dangerous while she was pregnant. Also, she was in her eighth month now. It was all the more reason why she needed to hold back doing dangerous things. She may love fighting but she would not sacrifice these little bundles inside her.
She could only sigh as she watched the backs Mateo and the others while they were leaving the security of Noveno Town's walls.
"Poor Yumi... You must be itching to fight eh?" Kami teased her. She just glared at him.
"I can still punch and beat you to pulp."
Kami just chuckled at her. "Wag mo akong pagbuntunan."
"Tch... Let's go, Kami. Since I cannot fight physically, I still want to make sure that I have a hand in defeating those enemies. We should go and continue our research about that antidote."
"Fine, fine... You're the boss anyway."
***