Omashu.
[Bao POV]
Hmm, the Earth King has sent another message, and it had just arrived today. Based on the messenger, the Earth King wanted to see the Omashu King, which won't ever be happening.
Not because I don't want them to meet for many reasons, but because the Earth King shouldn't see the Omashu King, since he is dead. I killed him and his whole family without anyone outside my control knowing anything about it.
The whole Omashu is still functioning very well, and it even functions much better now, since the King was no longer giving useless and bad orders that will always accidentally slow down the progression of the city.
No one in the whole council really questions it, since most of them, even without seeing it, had already known that I've made a move, and they already probably have an idea of what happened to the former king, should I say. They're under me and Kizer, so they had surface-level ideas of our goals and plans.
Though some ministers have probably been questioning the disappearance of the king for a while now, they just couldn't question it out loud, after all, they hold a small authority within the council, and since the higher-ranking ministers are not questioning it, they wouldn't just ask about it either—from political pressure or because they're sensing that something wrong is going on and they don't want to reveal their thoughts to others right now.
And those thoughts are probably aimed at me, since I hold the most powerful authority not just politically but militarily as well, even when the king is here, no one thought that he had more authority than me. Every sector of the military, particularly, only responds to me and my orders, with some instances when we have to make the king feel that he still holds the highest authority. And within the council, most ministers and advisors are under me, so they know that I have the power to remove even the king if I decide to do so.
Now, as for the Earth King's request to meet the Omashu King, I'll just say to ignore it. They hold no cards against us, the whole Earth Kingdom right now is not stronger than the current Omashu, even including all the new cities around it. They don't have the power to isolate us, since we don't rely on them for trading. We kept most of our stuff here and will only trade with cities still under the Earth Kingdom when they just ask for it, but if they don't, we will just keep it and make the people's life easier here so they think this soon-to-be independent nation is their safe haven instead of the war-torn Earth Kingdom.
We have to still keep sending them support on the frontlines for now, so they still think that we're on their side and wouldn't focus on whatever we do here, since if they knew what we were building and creating here, they would likely think that we're preparing to declare independence, which we are going to do, but they can't have that idea for now, since it will reveal us to the whole world and the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom might start attacking us at the same time.
We had a very high chance of victory, but there's a very high cost for it, and that cost will damage Kizer's plans for this world, and it wouldn't end well for many of us. After all, Kizer could easily create another me and place him in my position, it takes years to train, but knowing that I'm replaceable isn't a great feeling. Though that's what happened to many people under Kizer many times now over the years.
The only three people that Kizer won't replace were Bumi, since he was the strongest Earthbender if we're removing Kizer from the picture. As for Hiro, he's the third strongest person, but what made him unreplaceable was the fact that he's the older brother of Lady Kaya.
Kizer may not have shown love to Lady Kaya too much, but she's the only woman that he's close with, and they're usually together whenever I visit Kizer's estate. Kizer might not admit it, but it's obvious that the most valuable person for him right now was Lady Kaya.
"My lord?" the Earth King messenger asked with confusion.
My smile was probably wider than normal right now as my train of thought stopped.
I almost forgot about this guy in front of me. I looked at him while instantly changing my smile to a simpler one and said, "You can leave now."
"Yes, thank you, my—" Before he could finish his sentence, I metal-bent the metal on my wrist to make it longer, at the same time turning it into a very sharp blade, and slashed diagonally. I didn't feel any resistance from the messenger's neck as my blade cut it off in one precise motion.
"Take him down," I commanded as two of my secret fighters came out underground and took the messenger's body and head down with them as they came back underground.
I swung the blood off the blade, splashing the blood around the hall, then quickly retracted it back to its normal appearance using metal bending.
Metal Bending is probably the most powerful skill that Kizer has given me and others, not only can we fight with more toughness and lethality, but we can also use this in secret to slowly build a unique piece of equipment, like a bigger and more powerful tank that the Fire Nation mainly uses for their invasions. That colossal tank is still hidden, but it will be common war equipment that our army will use once we declare Omashu's independence.
There are many more powerful pieces of equipment and war machines than that tank, but they are still under careful planning and designing to make sure they function properly, since they're very complex types of war machines, they also had to make sure that only metal benders were the only ones to control it and that the Fire Nation or any other nation can't reverse engineer it.
It's a long wait, but it will be worth waiting after knowing what it can do.