I'd Give Up The World For You

Silas didn't know if Blaze managed to get any sleep or not but his usual composure was back. He looked every bit the regal king sitting on the throne the following morning as everyone gathered in the throne room to receive their instructions for the day. 

"Team Alpha will remain here and guard the castle," he ordered. "Everyone else will go in and depose the current military senior staff as peacefully as possible. They need to be thrown in the dungeons with everyone else. 

"The Black Dragon and Golden Eagle Squadrons are already inside headquarters prepared to assist you. We can't weed out everyone in the military so try to sway the lower-ranked soldiers as best you can. Silver Wolves, I'll be primarily counting on you to do that and pass the message onto our other allies within headquarters." 

"Yes, sir!" 

"Members of Gray Skull and the wind mages should focus on the senior staff first," Blaze added. 

They nodded their understanding. Barry, the leader of the mercenaries who seemed to be very familiar with him, raised an eyebrow at him. "What about you?"

"I'm going to try and convince as many soldiers as possible to join us. They all respect me considering my former position. They might not believe I'm the one behind all of this without seeing it for themselves." 

That was smart. He had been very well respected in the royal army. It was how they had managed to gather as many coconspirators as they had up until now. Being personally involved wouldn't hurt even if it wasn't the sort of thing a king would normally dirty his hands with. 

Blaze wasn't any old king though. He had lived as a commoner for the past eight years and knew what they wanted out of life. 

"Harland," he called suddenly. 

Harland sprang to attention, startled at being called out personally in front of everyone. "Yes, sir?"

"When we send up the signal that headquarters has been successfully overtaken I want you to go fetch all of the servants you led away from the fighting. This place can't run without them. Stay with Team Alpha guarding the castle until then."

"Understood, sir!" 

And so everyone set out. Blaze's first day as king involved going to where he normally worked like he would any other day except this time he would be taking everyone down. It was kind of funny if you really thought about it. 

The plan was relatively simple. Those who were in the military but had the day off would loan their uniforms to the ones who weren't in order to help them blend in better. They would be able to find all of the higher-ranked officers easily since Blaze was intimately familiar with that part of headquarters as a lieutenant colonel.

They weren't going to start fighting until absolutely necessary. Everyone needed to be in place first. 

Casually guarding the exits was vital so that no one could send messengers to get help from border outposts. They were so disconnected from everything that they wouldn't know what had happened for quite some time provided nobody told them. 

There wasn't much contact between the other outposts and headquarters because of the distance. Primarily it was only when they needed help with extreme border skirmishes involving mages. 

Mirea was a large country. News didn't travel very fast. 

They would figure out there had been a change of power eventually but Blaze had a plan for when that happened too. He was an incredibly thorough person, which was what had gotten him this far. Not just anyone could overthrow a kingdom!

Silas was understandably nervous but he believed in his friend. They were going to be able to pull this off…the question was how long it would take. 

They had a lot of powerful people on their side—Blaze was like an army all by himself—but they would be terribly outnumbered going against almost every soldier and officer in headquarters. At least they had the top three squadrons on their side. 

Even the members of the Black Dragons and Golden Eagles that weren't a part of their group would still follow the orders of their captains. That helped boost their numbers somewhat. Unfortunately, the remainder of the Silver Wolves would likely be wandering about town on their day off. 

They were sure to enter headquarters from multiple entrances in smaller groups staggered over the course of about half an hour so things would be less suspicious. No one could know what was about to hit them. 

Blaze had put his hat and eyepatch back on to look like he had as Lieutenant Colonel Leo May. A little of his red hair was poking out but it wasn't terribly noticeable since aside from that he looked as he always had. He walked a small group of wind mages and mercenaries into the main offices without anyone being the slightest bit suspicious. 

Why would they be? He was supposed to be here. 

He told everyone he was with where they needed to go before instructing Silas to herd non-combatant staff such as the postmaster, the mess hall cook, and the front desk clerk somewhere safe. After that he strode off, no doubt going to convince as many soldiers as possible to accept the change of leadership so they wouldn't have to be thrown in jail too. With any luck, he would managed to persuade a decent number of them. 

The people Silas was in charge of moving were confused but did as he said, recognizing him as the captain of the Silver Wolf Squadron. That wouldn't be his title for much longer. 

Blaze was going to make him a general since royal advisors had to be prominent scholars, come from the nobility, or be the highest rank in the military. He wasn't the only one getting promoted either. 

Brant and Cartwright would become a generals as well, Boon would be a colonel, Randall and Hillis would be lieutenant colonels, and Pole and Dudley would be majors. Everyone else from the royal army who had been involved would make up the new royal guard. 

What was left of the top three squadrons after that would likely be consolidated into one with the most senior first-rank soldier as captain. It was the most logical solution and Blaze was nothing if not logical. 

Silas could hear quite a bit of commotion coming from the main building and sighed. It seemed the fighting had begun. 

His job wasn't to get involved in that. It was to help handle the regular soldiers and lower-ranked officers such as captains and try to convince them to switch their allegiance. He had never been the most persuasive person in the world but he had to try since it was what Blaze asked of him. 

He found the Brown Fox Squadron out on the training field and decided to start there. "Hey! Captain Knott!" 

"Captain Conrad," the Brown Fox captain said in surprise. "What can I do for you?"

The Brown Foxes were one of the most basic squadrons. Their highest ranking soldier was a third-rank so it was extremely unusual that someone from a top squadron would want anything to do with them. 

"I have news to report," Silas told him seriously. "We have a new king. All soldiers must swear their loyalty to him if they don't want to go to prison." 

Knott's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What?! I heard a rumor the king was losing his touch but what happened? Prince Darius is far too young to be king! Wouldn't he need a proxy?"

"Prince Darius is dead. The king killed him and the queen in a fit of madness. Our new king executed him for that crime and the crimes committed against the country of Katalya. It's a bit complicated but Lieutenant Colonel May was actually a prince from that country. 

"He refused to let the former king's crimes go unpunished and dealt out justice for the sake of his fallen countrymen and for us as well. He's lived as a commoner the past eight years and actually cares about what happens to us. He's promised to lower the taxes and make living conditions better for everyone." 

"Lieutenant Colonel May was a prince?!"

Silas nodded. "Yes, so it's only natural that he takes charge as the only remaining royal from either country." 

"This is unbelievable! I've seen him around but never had a reason to talk to him…the big war hero…now he's the king?" Knott mumbled to himself in disbelief. 

"I know it sounds crazy but the majority of the Silver Wolf, Black Dragon, and Golden Eagle Squadrons have been working with him. We all want peace and the former king would have continued exploiting all of our loved ones while sending us off to die in unending pointless wars. 

"King Rukelion wants us all to live peacefully and mind our own business. You didn't fight in either of the wars but I did. It was awful. I never want to experience anything like it again and just about everyone who fought in them feels the same way."

"Captain Conrad, sir," one of the soldiers spoke up hesitantly. "What does this change in leadership mean for us?"

"Aside from lower taxes for your families, not much. You'll carry on as you always have," Silas said with a shrug. "The only thing that will be different around here is who the higher-ranked officers are."

"Good enough for me," another said. "I honestly don't care who's in charge and I need the money."

Murmurs of agreement went around the group. Silas had expected them to be onboard since things really hadn't been all that great under the former king's rule.. That was easy enough. One squadron down, who knows how many to go!