There were advantages to being royalty.

The best teachers around practically threw themselves at my feet to have me as a student, the food I ate was normally of the highest quality, and I wanted for almost nothing anywhere I went.

There were downsides, naturally.

I had to present a proper image of strength and confidence as a member of the Royal Family near constantly, I was expected to excel in anything I was instructed in, and I had Ozai for a father.

That last one was a major reason why I felt entitled to claim that being a princess of the Fire Nation was not nearly as fantastic as others seemed to claim.

But those reasons weren’t why I currently wished that I had been born into almost any other family. No, what was reserved for the slimeball currently droning on infront of me.

“...and due to the delay, the produce is falling well below the standards we have come to guarantee from our shops. Surely there will be compensations to the owners of these goods to make up for the lost sales they will be expecting once the roads have been cleared, yes?” the merchant’s oily voice rang out through the air.

I took a mental note of how not once did he say that the workers would be receiving any of that compensation.

Ugh, merchant lords.

Leeches that tried to suck more out of people at every given opportunity. To make things worse, they usually had enough connections to various nobles that even I couldn’t just toss them off a cliff without causing myself some serious issues.

“That seems like something you should discuss with the local leadership, mister Chen.” I emphasised the man’s lack of any title to hopefully get him to remember who he was talking to. Unfortunately, this particular slime ignored my tone.

“Of course you are right, your highness.” the man said with a condescending tone that would’ve been right at home in the capital. “But a gesture from the visiting nobility would go a long way in making sure that the proper people get what they deserve.”

“People like you I suppose?” I idly checked over my nails.

“Well of course! Without my business, trade would slow down all over the colonies!”

Doubtful. I was already aware of the major caravan companies moving city to city and this man didn’t own one. It’s possible he could have had something to do with some of the larger towns in the area but I didn’t particularly care about that.

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Suddenly the door to the meeting hall burst open as Sha Wujing made his way inside. Thank Agni, a distraction!

“Princess, apologies for the interruption but I have news from our interrogators.” He said seriously.

“I see… Mister Chen, you’re dismissed. We can revisit this conversation at another time.” Never, if I had my way about it.

The complaining merchant was immediately dragged out by two of my guards and the room was sealed.

“Is there actually some news or did you just do that to get him out of my hall?” I sighed and looked at the Troop Leader.

“I wish it was simply to get him to leave. The information we received… it isn’t good.”

I sighed. “Of course not, that would be far too easy.” I sat up and gave Sha Wujing my full attention. “Very well, what did they have to say?”

“A force of five hundred elite Earthbenders are on their way to take this city. They will arrive in three days if there were no delays.”

“...” I was speechless.

“Are- are you sure?”

“Three separate prisoners all confirmed it. Unless they managed to collaborate before they were captured, we are reasonably sure they are telling the truth.”

“Spirits…” I had no idea how to react to this. Not only were the routes to the neighboring cities still being excavated by my own Earthbender forces, even if they were clear, three days wasn’t enough to get reinforcements in time.

“...Princess, it might be best if you took a small group and escaped before this force arrives.” Sha Wujing said hesitantly.

I immediately shook my head. “No, the loss of such an important city would be the perfect excuse for Father to recall me to the Capital. Besides, running from a force like this would ruin my reputation in the colonies. That is unacceptable.”

Sha Wujing did not look happy at my decision, but it was his job to keep me safe and I was certainly not making it easy for him. “What shall we do then?”

I thought furiously for a moment. Five hundred Earthbenders was far too many for the garrison to last long against even with my forces added to them. In a straight up fight, we lose, simple as that.

Which meant I needed to draw them into fighting me on my terms instead.

“Alright, first we need scouts. Find out exactly where this force is and what they have with them. Second, send someone to recall all the soldiers we have working on clearing the paths. No good will come of that for now. Finally, get the squad captains together and work out a schedule for patrolling the city. Once we tell the citizens I’m sure a few are going to panic, we don’t have time to deal with distractions though so I want any troublemakers arrested before they can rile everyone up too much.”

“Of course, what about our own Earthbenders?”

“See if any of them can talk to the locals about where the Earth Kingdom would want to attack from. I’m sure they can get more useful details than our Firebenders would.”

Sha Wujing saluted and rushed out of the hall. As soon as he left I collapsed back and ran a hand through my hair. Well this was a mess. Public unrest and rebels I could deal with no worries. An invading army was far beyond my abilities. And as much as I could bluster about fighting them on my terms...I didn’t really know what my terms were.

Hopefully the scouts would give me something useful to work with.

-o-

A day and a half later, the scouts had returned and confirmed the presence of a large number of Earthbenders approaching the city. They were moving slowly but they also didn’t seem to be concerned about being discovered or sneaking around which meant they probably expected the group we captured earlier to be distracting the city guards still.

How unfortunate they were enjoying their time in jail cells instead of causing whatever chaos they were planning on.

That thought made me smile, but not nearly as much as the information I got from my Earthbender corps. Not only was there a perfect place to stall the advancing army for a bit, there was also a good opportunity to potentially force them back to the Earth Kingdom if I was lucky enough.

It would be a pretty underhanded move, but as Father had proved to me time and time again…

Nothing was too underhanded if you got what you wanted.