Under The Emperor's Eye

The bright sun shined above the many soldiers under the three commanders. The weather lifts everyone's spirits as they prepare to raid the final stronghold of the southern tribe. The three armies separate to match the three commanders and they all head towards the direction of the final stronghold. 

After a couple of hours of traveling, they see the stronghold of the southern tribe. The walls were made out of stone and there were southern tribe soldiers on top of the walls. The walls were so high that you couldn't see what was behind it.

Duke Zenat moved the army close and then prepared to siege the stronghold. Some soldiers with heavy shields ran to the front and prepared to guard against arrows. Enemy arrows began to rain down on the army but their appropriate defenses kept the casualties to a minimum. The army's archers returned fire but due to the size of the wall and the shields of the southern tribe's soldiers, they couldn't do much damage. Duke Zenat knew the situation was at a statement so he signaled Marquis Flamor and they both headed towards the front. 

The Duke and the Marquis both charged up powerful fire magic attacks and then shot at the enemy southern tribe soldiers. The magic attacks were doing far more damage compared to the arrows. Right when the situation was about to turn around, another wave of southern tribe soldiers came to the wall and then brought out a shield riddled with shiny green gems. When a large fireball was about to land on the shield, the Fireball shrank to almost a 1/10th of its original size before attacking the shield.

K-KORTZ???? Both the Duke and the Marquis exclaimed in shock.

"When did the southern tribe acquire Kortz?" Marquis Flamor said impatiently

"Let's calm down Flamor, Kortz was never that rare to begin with. It still makes sense even if they happen to find it by chance. Let's combine our magic and only focus on a single target. Even with Kortz, they should still be affected somewhat. We just have to rely on our archers to bring us victory" Duke Zenat said while trying to stay calm.

The two commanders then focused and started implementing the new plan.

Due to the appearance of Kortz, the defense of the stronghold increased exponentially. A siege that could've ended within an hour has now been going on for over half a day.

Lance stood in the back, watching Commander Zenat and Commander Flamor in the front pushing their offense forward.

"It's situations like these that I can't do much huh?" Lance thinks to himself with a bit of solemnity in his voice.

A crown-like symbol then appears on his eyes and his eyes start to glow. He quickly grabs his eye as some pain fills his system. Images start to flow and he sees a familiar lake. He then sees a group of southern tribe warriors kill the very few soldiers they left behind at camp and proceed to dump a massive load of a mysterious substance into the lake.

Lance then springs his head forward as the Emperor's eye's vision ends.

"We've been tricked!". Lance says in shock.

He then marches quickly towards the front until he reaches the two commanders.

"Commander Zenat, Commander Flamor, We have been tricked! It is all a trap! They were aiming for the lake! We won't be able to restock our supplies and will be forced to retreat immediately if they damage the lake!" Lance said in a panic.

Duke Zenat froze.

 "Is this true?" He asked solemnly.

Lance nodded silently.

Duke Zenat gritted his teeth and clenched his hands while trying to hold back his rage. "Retreat!" He said in a bellowing voice.

The soldiers looked at him in confusion but slowly followed his orders. The Army rode back to their camp after failing to bring down the final stronghold.

After a long while, they arrived where the camp used to be, and everything was burned to the ground. The lake also lost its bright color and was covered in sludge.

The Lake provided them with a constant supply of water so they could last far longer than originally planned. They already achieved far more than they set out for but if the lake was not compromised, they could've conquered everything with just this campaign. It would've been a historical level achievement!

Duke Zenat sighs loudly. He turns over to Lance. "You did good, at least we were able to stop in time, and that saved many of our lives. If we had continued pushing the war without knowing the Lake could not be used, we would've run out of supplies before we reached the capital" Duke Zenat said in a praising voice.

He then turns to the remaining soldiers, "We still have enough supplies to make it back to the imperial capital. Take a good rest and prepare to set off tomorrow. We will be back for our final campaign after requesting some military assistance. We will NOT let the southern tribe go for this shame they have caused us today. We will avenge our fallen brothers and sisters!" Duke Zenat said in a powerful and majestic voice.

"We listen to the Commander!" the soldiers responded with a strong salute.

The Imperial Palace

A young and handsome man, sitting on the window ledge of a beautiful room fit only for a prince, stares at the window while immersed in his thoughts.

"I can't wait to meet you, my dear princess" he whispers to himself in a lovingly voice.

"She should be graduating soon. It won't be long until I can officially meet her" he says with a soft smile.

He raises his finger and a small translucent bird made out of mana lands on his finger. He then absorbed the mana bird and saw the bird's memory flash through his mind. 

"The Lake got poisoned?" He says with a frown on his face. But there isn't much I can do without knowing what type of poison it is" He says in an annoyed tone.

"Return!" He says out loud as his room gets filled with translucent butterflies. The voices of the people in the palace were transmitted through the butterflies and the young man listened through all of them until he finally stopped at one particular voice.

"The military faction cannot be allowed to gain any more power. There should be enough poison to at least force them to retreat. As long as they do not achieve a historical accomplishment, the current balance will be maintained"

"Ah, So it's you, Count Grenden. I knew you were always a greedy man but to think you'll even support the Southern Tribe just for your selfish ambitions" The young man says as his eyes flash cold.

"Knowing that he used so much poison to cover the lake, it shouldn't have been a rare poison. It's more cost-efficient to poison the lake with an easy-to-procure cheap poison, it will also disguise who the culprit is if the poison is available to many people." The young man says as he continues to think.

"I should look into the popular poisons in Count Grenden's Territory. He probably didn't care about hiding his tracks well enough not to take the easiest option. The poison is too common to blame him without more convincing evidence anyway" He says with a sigh

"It looks like I must research this poison before I can handle the lake." He says as he opens up the window.

"Once again, I am forced to clean up after you and you're the one with the Emperor's eye. Isn't this a bit too disgraceful?" The young man says under his breath with a bit of annoyance in his voice. He then jumps out the window and disappears into the night.