"What a move! What a brilliant move!" Sergei paced back and forth in his command tent, his brow tightly furrowed. "This rehabilitation and reward struck me right at my serpent's vulnerable seventh inch!"
The central banner under which he had raised his rebellion was "clear the emperor's side and redress my father's injustice."
Now, the first thing the New Emperor had done after ascending the throne was clear his father's name, effectively pulling out the strongest moral foundation of his rebellion.
What reason did the generals and soldiers who had followed him out of sympathy for Andrei's plight now have to continue attacking this "wise and enlightened" New Emperor?
Coupled with such generous rewards, it practically left him roasting over a fire.
If he accepted, the nature of his rebellion would change. He would go from leading a "righteous army" to being a warlord "angling for a title," and his followers would inevitably drift away.
If he refused, he would seem aggressive and utterly insincere about peace negotiations, which would likewise cost him some support.
"This must be that old fox Romanov's scheme! It's an open stratagem, forcing me either to disband my army and accept amnesty or lose every shred of moral legitimacy!" Sergei found himself in a thorny predicament.
His once thunderous campaign of rebellion was about to be trapped between advance and retreat by a single edict.
"No, I can't sit here and wait to die!" Sergei abruptly stopped, a glint of resolve flashing in his eyes. "Only Master can break this deadlock now!"
He dared not delay. Regardless of the late hour, he immediately assembled a small squad of trusted guards, left camp that very night, and spurred his horse onward, racing toward the Witch Ancestor Sacred Land in the Northern Lands.
He had to see