Bolonik accepted Claude's suggestion and left Lanu with the royal guard to take over Port Vebator.
That could be considered a way to save themselves. General Skri was right. In their current predicament, it would be better to contribute to the war effort than to sit around and wait for death. At the very least, it would offset each other and it would be much better than being discharged.
Claude's analysis further cemented Bolonik's decision. From a certain point of view, the generals in the war theatre were all disciples of Marshal Michelic and were loyal to Prince Hansbach.
But the problem was that Hansbach only cared about Marshal Michelic. He didn't care about the generals in the colonies far away on Nubissia.
That was evident from the fact that the prince didn't care about the affairs of the war theatre after Michelic left the royal capital to recuperate after the assassination attempt.
Otherwise, the ministry of the army wouldn't have sent General Aljes to take over the war theatre to claim the credit of taking Port Vebator.
If Michelic was still in the ministry of the army, he would've ordered his troops to take over Port Vebator the moment he received news of Shiks' internal strife and wouldn't have waited half a year for the royal guard to arrive.
To put it bluntly, Claude, Skri and the other generals of the war theatre said they were loyal to Prince Hansbach, but in reality, they were acting on their own accord.
The prince didn't really care about the small fries at the back of his camp. Perhaps in the prince's eyes, Michelic's disciples were far away on Nubissia and wouldn't be of any help to him in his bid for the throne. They weren't worth his attention at all.
Another thing Claude suspected was that General Aljes going to Nubissia to take over Port Vebator for the credit of being promoted was a compromise the prince made with the old noble houses.
The prince's foundation was in the royal army and the old noble houses were also in the royal army. The two sides were in a competitive relationship to begin with, just like how the prince promoted commoner officers to the exclusion of noble officers when he established Ranger.
But now, General Alsace had successfully led the Royal Guards to the overseas colonies, and the eldest prince did not show any signs of objection.
Claude led Thundercrash to wipe out three of Shiks' main corps and won the third colonial war.
He had made a great contribution to the kingdom, yet he was stripped of his position as the highest commander of the war zone and was only promoted by one rank and an honorary title of nobility. However, the first prince did not say a word about such injustice.
Obviously, he had given up on these generals who were of no help to him in his fight for the position of crown prince. Of course, it could also be assumed that the eldest prince regarded these generals as his own trusted subordinates and thought that it was okay to suffer a little …
That was also the main reason he decided to cooperate with General Aljess after getting the intel from Weyblon.
Even though Aljess was the leader of one of the oldest noble families in the kingdom, Claude was a commoner and they weren't of the same class.
However, that didn't mean that Claude had to fight General Aljess to the bitter end. Claude was now a lieutenant-general of the kingdom and had the right to be roped in. While the eldest prince didn't think much of Claude and the other generals, that didn't mean that others didn't have the same foresight.
That was why Aljess was interested in Claude's invention and wanted to obtain the exclusive production rights for the kingdom. Claude immediately agreed without any hesitation.
Aljess found him quite pleasing to the eye and the two of them chatted for more than two hours after the banquet.
General Aljess also revealed more inside information about the royal capital to Claude, giving him a better understanding of the situation the two princes were facing in their fight for the throne.
Claude still remembered General Aljess's comments about Prince Hansbach. He felt that while Hansbach had the reputation of being a man of talent, his ability to judge people was limited to the middle and lower ranks of the royal army.
The fact that he was able to promote those outstanding soldiers to the lowest ranks was indeed one of the prince's strengths. No one in the kingdom could compare to him.
Unfortunately, those outstanding soldiers were promoted to the lowest ranks thanks to the prince's ability to recognize talent and were promoted on their own merits.
By the time they were promoted to the rank of colonel, the prince wouldn't be able to use them well, or rather, he didn't care about them at all.
That was because the prince still treated them like the soldiers he had promoted back then, scolding and punishing them when he needed to. He wouldn't give them any face at all.
Humans were a very complex and advanced animal with unique psychological activities.
Being promoted to the lowest ranks by the prince was the main reason the soldiers were grateful to the prince for their loyalty.
However, their promotions took more than a decade of hard work and time. Some of them received the prince's attention while others didn't.
When they became high-ranking officers of the kingdom, they had their own demands. Be it political power or family wealth, they had to be given something that matched their status.
The prince, on the other hand, didn't care about that and continued to treat those officers like the soldiers they had been before, ordering them around and joking around.
Perhaps the prince thought that it was a sign of closeness, but many officers felt that it was a form of humiliation because the prince didn't give them any face in front of their subordinates.
Furthermore, those who could become high-ranking officers of the kingdom weren't simple people. In fact, they could be said to be smart people.
Even if they were born as commoners, they wouldn't be so extreme in their thinking when they became high-ranking officers. They would sometimes be willing to get along well with nobles.
However, in the eyes of the Crown Prince, all of this was a betrayal. He did not consider the difficulties of these high-ranking military officers. Instead, he blindly blamed and scolded them. In the end, most of these high-ranking military officers and the Crown Prince were at odds.
That was why Aljess said that the prince was able to win the hearts of the army because of his prestige among the lower ranks of the royal army. However, very few high-ranking officers were loyal to him.
Prince Hansbach was a commander who could lead soldiers, but not generals.
While Claude was rather shocked by Aljess's words at the time, he found them to be rather reasonable after thinking about it.
Back when Ranger was stationed near the royal capital, the first prince would go there every other day and would even joke around with Claude and the others.
Now, there were five folks stationed in the war theatre, yet the prince didn't seem to care about them at all, as if he didn't know that they were the backbone of Ranger.
Claude didn't care about the agreement between the prince and the old nobles. All he wanted to do was settle the matter peacefully and let the big shots in the royal capital have their way.
When General Alsace led his division to capture Port Vebator, he was promoted to the Kingdom's Marshal rank and ended the colonial war.
When that happened, Claude would send the nobles from the royal capital back and wait for the higher-ups to give him and the other officers in the war theatre an answer.
The way Claude saw it, the ministry of the army would only give him and the other officers an order to stay there to prevent Shiks from making a comeback.
That was a simple mission. All they had to do was guard the ports along the coastline and prevent the Shiksan navy from attacking.
After that, they would have to develop the people's livelihood and make more capital for themselves and their families. They would stay in Nubissia and watch the kingdom rise to power. It wouldn't matter which of the two princes ascended to the throne.
That was Claude's plan. The problem was that Aljess's death messed up all his plans.
After Claude regained his senses, he encouraged Bolonik to lead folk to attack Port Vebator as a way to save himself.
Now that he knew Hansbach's personality, he didn't expect the prince to speak up for them on account of Marshal Michelic.
It was more likely that the prince would punish Claude, Bolonik, Skri and the other officers in charge of the war theatre several times over to appease the anger of the older noble families over the loss of their leader, Aljess.
If General Bolonik were to wait for the royal capital to deal with the assassination, the lightest consequence would be the demotion of all the generals in the war zone.
Claude was a lieutenant-general. Even if he was demoted, he would still be a major-general.
Bolonik, Skri, the heavily injured Birkin and Eiblont in Wickhamsburg, on the other hand, would be in trouble.
They were major-generals to begin with. If they were demoted, they would be colonels. It would be extremely difficult for them to be promoted again.
As for Saljorak, being demoted was the least of his worries. What he feared the most was being convicted of malfeasance and sentenced to ten years of labor.
That was why taking Port Vebator became the last straw for the surviving generals. Claude made it clear that not only did Bolonik's royal guard have to take Port Vebator as soon as possible, they also had to ensure that the royal guard suffered as few casualties as possible. At the very least, they had to ensure that the noble officers of the royal guard wouldn't fall on the battlefield.
That way, not only would they gain some merit, they would also be able to get their families to put in a good word for the generals in the war theatre. It was a win-win situation.
Even though they had the grenades and were confident in taking Port Vebator, Claude still sent Myjack to accompany them on the expedition.
Letting him lead the two light cavalry platoons of Thunder 131 to follow General Bolonik was to ensure the general's safety. It was to prevent him from being assassinated by the few escaped Magi.
Weyblon Manor was heavily guarded. The two clans from Thunderbolt 131 guarded the entire manor so tightly that not even a fly could enter. That made life a lot more inconvenient for his mother, Kefnie and the children.
In the end, Claude decided to send a clan to Anna's Farm to guard it and leave the other to guard Weyblon Manor. At least it didn't look like a military location anymore.
Claude couldn't move his body even after he woke up and needed to rest in bed for a long time.
Perunt said that both of his legs were fractured and he would have to stay in bed for half a year just to heal them.
There was also the severe burns on his back and the shock to his internal organs. It would probably take him three months to fully recover.
The knife wound on his left arm and the penetrating wound on his right abdomen were the easiest to treat and could be healed in half a month.
Saljorak returned to Weyblon Manor once more. He was the one who had it the hardest in the past half a month. He didn't know how many nights he had stayed up. His eyes were bloodshot and he was exhausted.
Even though he knew things wouldn't end well for him because of the assassination attempt, Saljorak still braced himself and prepared to come to a conclusion. Based on Claude's conjecture, he would find evidence that Majid III ordered Greytower to assassinate him.
There were only two pieces of evidence that were reliable. The first was that Saljorak had ordered Monolith 3rd Folk to turn Lanu upside down and capture two Shiksan spies.
According to the neighbors of the two spies, a few days before the assassination, the two spies had a few more relatives in their family. Then, among the corpses of the dead mages, one of the spies' neighbors recognized two of them as the so-called spies' relatives.
That was one of the pieces of evidence that the gray-robed magi assassins were gathered at the home of the Shiksan spies.
The second piece of evidence was that the two assassinations didn't happen at the same time. Claude's assassination caused too much of a commotion, forcing the grey-robed magus assassins in the square to carry out the assassination on General Aljess and the others.
That meant that the main target wasn't just Aljes, but both Claude and Aljes. It also proved that the assassination wasn't due to Aljes' personal grudge.
Compared to Aljes, Claude's military career and personal history were much simpler. He didn't have any personal grudges that required seven magi to assassinate him.
The only one he offended was Shiks. Claude led Thundercrash to victory in the third colonial war and wiped out three of Shiks' main corps.
He almost single-handedly changed the strategic situation of the two kingdoms and indirectly caused Shiks to fall into internal strife.
It could be said that the person who hated Claude the most was the king of Shiks, Majid III.
Saljorak's goal in coming was to give Claude a statement. After all, the fact that seven magi tried to assassinate Claude and ended up being killed by him was even more shocking than the assassination itself.
Even though Claude was heavily injured, that didn't mean he could stay out of it. He had to explain how he managed to kill the seven magi.
Claude was thankful that he didn't use any other spells apart from an energy barrier. Energy barriers could be replaced by magic scrolls and talismans.
So, he recounted the entire process and had Bloweyk hand over two items. One was a broken silver necklace and the other was a revolver.
"This silver necklace was bought on the black market in Effenasburg on my way home to visit my family after the war in the eastern territories. It cost me twelve gold crowns.
The seller told me that this silver necklace was made by a mage close to Grand Duke Siddings, and it was given to his lover's younger brother. There is a magic shield on it, and when an offensive spell hits the wearer, the magic shield will be activated so that the wearer of this silver necklace won't be harmed by offensive spells. "
Claude got a little emotional at that point. "Only now do I realise that I was tricked. The silver necklace does have a magic barrier, but it only lasted three spells before disappearing.
If I didn't have this revolver with me, I would've died in the hands of those magi long ago. "
Saljorak took out some other documents from his folder. They were the testimonies of the people who saw Claude kill the magi from afar. After making sure both sides matched up, he breathed a sigh of relief and played with the revolver in his hand. "Claude, I believe you'll have quite a headache after this. Many nobles will want to get at least one of these revolvers from you to protect themselves."