Dominic repeated the process in the afternoon, finishing the day with his usual quota of twenty completed rifles.

That brought him back to the house just after the Princes had finished with their daily meetings, and from the looks on their faces, the answers weren’t ones that Dominic was going to want to hear.

"Anything that I should know before I start eating?" He asked curiously.

"You’ve got both blood and what looks like gear oil under your fingernails." Prince Fahad joked.

"Soot from the forge, too." Dominic agreed.

The other two men smiled while the less serious pair joked about current events, but Prince Claudius wasn’t going to wait while they got distracted.

"We got an official communication from the King earlier today. Wistover is not the only region that has seen a proliferation of monsters recently.

The majority of Dagos is under siege, the same way that Cygnia City was at the start of the war, and King Gustav has requested assistance from his allies.

Assuming that he actually has any left.

Skiple is in a similar situation, with their academy shut down and the Capital under siege by monsters, who we have confirmed are being led by rebel mages.

However, we learned today that it is not just the Skiple Royal Academy that is involved. You found evidence of them here earlier, and one of the dead mages yesterday was as well.

But we have reason to believe that at least one of the others was actually from Shersdonia, to the west of Axbridge.

Whether he was a mercenary or a migrant is not something we have confirmed yet, as there were no survivors from the monster invasion side of the battle. However, that does lead us to believe that the reports of Prince Kaizon offering portions of Dagos and hereditary titles to those willing to assist him are most likely true."

Dominic sighed. "You know, if I’d just killed him from the start, this would have been so much easier."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty. However, the Royal Mages have confirmed that the version of him who was in Cygnia for the ceremony was a body double.

The timeline overlaps with events in Dagos, where he was confirmed to be in attendance and planning attacks.

It no longer seems plausible that he was actually in Cygnia, and that his lack of real danger was the reason that he dared to make such provocative comments." Claudius explained.

"If we killed his double, he could claim that Cygnia intended to kill an emissary. If we didn’t, he could claim that we were too cowardly to act when he provoked us." Dominic realized.

"Exactly, it is a win either way for his propaganda efforts, and his attempts to prove to potential allies that he has a real chance.

Now, Dagos is in rough shape all around, but he controls the most prosperous region, and a large portion of the population. Not the majority, or anything close to it. But there are over a million people in the region that is currently controlled by the rebels.

They also have a significant portion of the coastline, and Cygnia sunk most of the Dagos Navy during the war, so the King doesn’t have the fleet to invade them by sea." Claudius continued.

Dominic sighed. "So, half the reason that things are such a mess in Dagos is that we started the invasion from the closest side, instead of the side controlled by the largest pain in our collective backside?"

Prince Claudius looked unimpressed, but Prince Russel simply shrugged.

"He’s not wrong. If we had focused on going after Kaizon, instead of taking out the strategic points that would cause the country to collapse, we wouldn’t be in this situation now.

The only issue with that is, we would have lost many more soldiers trying to do it that way, and we would probably have a very different situation at home."

Prince Fahad nodded. "Cygnia’s assault was considered a brilliant tactical strategy when it was executed, the current situation is down to Dagos and to some extent Skiple.

How much of this is due to the interference of Skiple and its mages is what we’re currently investigating.

But it appears to be significant."

"Is there anything that we can do, other than keeping soldiers on standby, and sending out teams to cull the monster population, so it can’t be used to besiege the village?" Dominic asked.

"Not at this time. But your vision is too small. The monsters hidden in the wilderness of Stansia Province, and the rural areas of Axbridge, won’t just be used against Wistover. They are being spread all over Dagos and Skiple right now." Prince Claudius added.

"Well, I don’t know what anyone will do about Axbridge, that’s too much territory with too few civilized residents. But we can certainly start sending men out all over the Duchy.

Are the Cygnia soldiers still stationed in the three cities of Stansia Province?" Dominic asked.

"Yes, and they’re being reinforced now, for the same purpose. Monster hunting.

A new force has been sent to Albroles as well. Cygnia might be reluctant to assist, but they’re not going to let Prince Kaizon and his allies take control of Dagos."

Prince Fahad nodded in agreement with the Cygnia Crown Prince’s assessment. "It’s not official yet, but we do consider the armistice to have been violated. However, the King of Cygnia doesn’t consider the government of Dagos to be the enemy anymore, only the rebel forces.

Princess Alexis and Prince George of Mitfield are currently in the office, sending messages to Mitfield so that they are prepared, in case the troubles spread in their direction.

I don’t believe that they would be a priority target for attack, but the monsters might migrate into their territory."

Dominic sighed. "And so, the entire region has been pulled into the mess, but none of us know where to look, and we won’t until we manage to catch one of the mages alive."

Prince Fahad nodded. "And taking them alive is nearly impossible because they will simply self-destruct nine times out of ten. Dead men tell no tales, and whether they know it or not, they are dead men the moment that they are captured."