Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 289: Volume 4 Chapter 47 Hunter Corps_2

A decrease in the numbers means the disappearance of a soldier’s life, but Stephen doesn’t care about this unless all the numbers hit zero, which might just make him lift his eyelids.

In his hand, he held the intelligence just received. The report indicated that James had already died in an explosion while trying to rescue a Royal Spaceship.

He died, just like a number on a cursor, decreasing and vanishing.

When this moment finally arrived, Stephen felt somewhat at a loss. That man was his father, the supreme ruler of this Empire.

He had indeed died!

Winning James’ favor, guessing James’ thoughts, dreaming of James’ abdication, hating James’ heartlessness, and eventually betraying and killing James had entirely consumed Stephen’s life.

But now, he suddenly realized that these days had irreversibly come to an end with James’ death!

Stephen stood up, gazing at the sunlight through the dense foliage outside the window, feeling somewhat dazed.

His whole ideal was to inherit James’ position and become a greater emperor than him. Stephen had once been unwavering in this goal; in his eyes, James hardly deserved the title ’great’.

Among the past emperors of Gazalin, apart from iron-fist rule, James seemed to have no other talents or accomplishments that could stand out. He only waged war after war aimlessly; it seemed being an emperor was his entire purpose.

Stephen had imagined what the Empire would be like if James died suddenly. He could foresee chaos like now, but in his imagination, it was a hundred times worse than now! At that time, he did not take such chaos seriously. He believed he had the ability and confidence to quickly pacify the Gazalin Empire amidst such chaos, refocusing power on the new emperor, himself!

He had been very certain that he would lead his army, with the roar of Mecha engines and Energy Cannons, to become the greatest emperor, starting his own legend. He would make all enemies, overt or covert, kneel in fear along the path to his advance, making the Empire flag with the Angry Bear emblem flutter high wherever he wished to conquer!

But until now, Stephen realized compared to his father, he was just an overgrown child. All those once blood-boiling dreams turned into a quagmire on the day James truly disappeared!

One night’s attack had yielded almost no progress!

Besides completing the predetermined invasion plans for Tanville East District and Southern District as agreed with his mentor Liebgoet, Stephen felt he was encountering resistance everywhere.

First was the Imperial Palace!

The Royal Guard at the Imperial Palace was incredibly tenacious. Stephen never expected that the ceremonial unit controlled by the waste George, who performed daily in red uniforms and feather hats at the palace, could be so powerful!

The continuous ten-hour assault by two Elite Armored Groups and an entire fully mechanized infantry division failed to advance even a step, constantly blocked at the 4th District, two kilometers from the Imperial Palace. Without occupying the palace, obtaining the imperial scepter, and all the seals, passwords, and army command authorizations in the safe, he couldn’t issue orders as an emperor.

Without the emperor’s troop dispatch orders, how long could the battle in Lucerne hold?

In modern warfare, without reinforcements and supply lines, even the Western Alliance Military God Sobel couldn’t win this war!

James’ long-term centralized rule left each peripheral army with no possibility of participating in changes to central power. Especially in uncertain circumstances, anyone daring to participate must prepare for their deputy replacing them or junior officers disobeying and revolting.

This had once been Stephen’s greatest reliance in launching a coup. As long as he could achieve a quick victory, the frontline war wouldn’t be heavily affected. But what he feared not only happened but happened so abruptly.

Tanville West District had been occupied by the Mythical Army! Reinhardt suddenly appeared in the most chaotic moment, controlling the 17th Armored Division and the 5th fully mechanized infantry division in the West District, and issued a proclamation against him. He had no interest in the items in the Imperial Palace, only wanting to kill Stephen to end the Morton family and pave the way for himself to ascend the throne!

”....Stephen disregarded the grace of upbringing, overlooked fraternal bonds, brutally launched a coup, patricide and fratricide attempting to usurp the throne. Heartless and ungrateful, it’s outrageous... If Gazalin’s future is entrusted to such a cold-blooded person, there’d be heavenly wrath and people’s distress... I, Reinhardt, vow to eliminate this evil for the Empire, facing ten deaths without hesitation...”

Recalling the rhetoric in that proclamation, Stephen involuntarily clenched his hand, almost crushing the intelligence: ”That damned bastard! Could it be that the Mythical Army appeared in prison to rescue James? Does George’s disappearance have any connection with you?”

Besides the greatest enemy Reinhardt, there was also the Northern District!

Tanville North District had been occupied by the former Empire’s First Admiral Gordon and his old partner Hailig! These two cunning old foxes escaped his control range at the start of Stephen’s coup, quietly summoning the remaining forces in the Military Department, forming their own faction based on the Northern District’s 6th Ace Armored Division and the Army’s 32nd Armored Division. Their banner is the missing Crown Prince George!