2 Surrender

Prince Mars woke up in the morning to the news that the rebels are surrendering after three days of the war. The thought he had was to order a meeting with all his lieutenants to get their views on that matter, so he sent them all a summon to his tent. The main reason behind his summon was his inexperience and Since almost all of them are twice of his age he wanted to know the thought of people who are much more experience than him and to draw a basic course of action in case of a worst-case scenario.

He sat at the conference table contemplating the future and what action should he take to get the best outcome for nearly a half an hour when his first lieutenant came and it's the one he wanted in this discussion the least, Priscilla.

Priscilla is the person whom he finds most difficult to deal with because of her free-spirited nature and a back of ignoring the orders. Priscilla is the head of the mages unit of the army as well as ask to be his fiancée alongside her maybe despite all that Mars couldn't help but always put up his guard against her, he always felt she is oddly manipulative and calculating when alone with him and wearing a cheery and bubbly persona only for show.

"Were you gonna discuss the surrender of rebels?", Priscilla asked with a slight frown on her face.

"Yes, but if I remember correctly, I told you to be here with Ceres, right?" Mars answered her with another question.

"oh! I forgot, I'd be right back okay!", she cried while dashing outside.

As expected, she knows about the surrender, if there were any other person in the shoes of Mars right now they would have questioned how she knew it, but after getting years of vague answered he just accepted the fact that she knows everything. Many nobles believe Mars included that she got a whole flock of spies scattered throughout the continent but how she recruited and controls that many spies no one knows.

While Priscilla went to fetch Ceres, rest of crew arrived they are a total of seven veterans, two newly promoted general and his two fiancées in his council.

When Priscilla later arrived with Ceres in tow everyone was waiting for them for at least twenty minutes and they were rightfully pissed off her irresponsible behaviour. But after their commander had urged them to move on with the conference they reluctantly do so and Priscilla and Ceres took their seats.

The first question of the conference is that the rebels do truly want to surrender or it was a ploy to lure and ambush them.

"No, they are seriously coming to surrender.", Priscilla said with a carefree tone.

This enraged the rest of the council including Mars and Ceres who wanted to punish her severely for this sort of behaviour in such a serious and complicated matter.

"And how can you be so sure?" asked with a slight tone of annoyance.

"I just know" replied Priscilla shortly.

What followed this exchange is absolute silence, as Mars threw daggers at Priscilla while she stared in open space with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Anyway, we should use mana dispersion spells when they come just to be sure." , Sensing the exception in the tension between the two Ceres threw her suggestion.

"Alright then, I'll notify my squadron.", Priscilla nodded in the direction of Ceres and left the conference.

Sighing to himself Mars let the proceeding to move forward and at the end of which it was decided that rebel would have to surrender at a location called dry valley near their camp at around dusk and they have to come there unarmed and if there were any suspicious activity they would all be slaughtered without any exception.

After the conference which lasted over an hour, Mars sent a messenger to rebel to tell their conditions and to know if they have any conditions of their own. Shortly after which their reply came statin that they accepted all of their conditions and have no which of their own but one that their soldiers should not be harassed or accused of treason as their commander would take all the responsibility for their actions.

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Later that an army of thousand men and woman following their commander donning an armour made up of chainmail while metal sheets providing extra protection to her chest and lower waist as they reach the dry valley.

Mars stood at the foot of a small canyon with Ceres and Priscilla at his side and around ten mages ready to cast mana dispersion which is an area-based spell which requires at least three people to cast. While another five hundred soldiers are there to act in a crisis.

When mages saw the approaching army they started to chant the spell due to which a feeling of dizziness wrapped Mars, Ceres and Priscilla, as well as the approaching army as the mana in their body, is forcefully dispersed.

As Mars moves forward, to secure rebels' commander, Priscilla stopped him with her hand and told him to leave it them while Ceres nodded her head several times. They secured the commander and move their carriage which especially came from capital a few hours beforehand.

As Mars had nothing to do except wait for them he started the inspection of the rest of preparation to deport the rebels to capital which going to be overseen by the caption of the royal army over the course of a week as he and other three are leaving for the capital immediately.

After some time sun finally set, while all three women are still inside as he finished his survey and concluded that all preparations are sufficient. Finally, Ceres comes out and invited him inside the carriage. Inside the carriage, Pricilla and another woman with blue eyes and blonde hair sat opposite to each other, who was undoubtedly the rebels' leader.