"CRASH!" The sound of glass shattering after falling reverberated through the living room of a normal-looking house. However, even after that, the person who had dropped the glass didn't even try to pick up broken fragments or even register what had happened. His entire focus remained affixed on trying to comprehend whether what he had heard moments ago was true or he had just misheard it due to being preoccupied.

Nevertheless, he wasn't the only one who couldn't believe what they had heard just now. Practically everyone watching the press conference found themselves dumbfounded by what they had heard.

Emanuel briefly paused, giving the watchers enough time to react and process his announcement of unconditional surrender.

...

"As for why my government and I have come to this decision, it's because we have been misleading all of you about the root cause of war and secondly, because we stand no chance of having a victory any longer," Emanuel revealed, once again dropping another surprise banger to the citizens and cause the international watchers to get excited, even the ones who had been watching it unwillingly as nearly all the news channels were broadcasting this press conference.

"Last night, the remaining interceptor fighter jets in our possession were shot down, leaving our air force equipped with nothing but bombers. These bombers had only survived thanks to the fast reaction of our commanders, who redirected them to the Pacific Ocean, in the opposite direction of Eden, managing to avoid having them bombed while parked. However, this resulted in our air force losing any semblance of the ability to protect our skies. Eden has now gained aerial supremacy, and as many of you experienced last night, they immediately used this to their advantage by launching airstrikes on nearly all of our weapon warehouses and many of our military infrastructures, including the communication facilities and as a result of that, we have lost nearly half of our war abilities." Emanuel explained, pausing once again to take a deep breath before continuing.

"A few minutes before we lost air supremacy, our navy fleets had been deployed on a mission to capture several of Edenian naval ports, a strategic action intended to establish a landing point for our forces so that we could deliver a war to them and fight them on their land. Tragically, we ended up losing the majority of our naval vessels, with those that survived being seized by Eden's navy. Our soldiers involved in this operation were also caught and arrested as prisoners of war," he added, concluding his reason for surrendering unconditionally to Eden, citing that they didn't have any chance of winning against them and thus were incapable of sustaining this ongoing conflict.

While it made sense for the president of the country to conclude the war, it didn't seem logical for them to unconditionally surrender just for those reasons; they could still continue fighting for a little longer and use that time to negotiate and end the war with something much lesser than complete unconditional surrender, such as negotiating a conditional surrender or even a ceasefire for a few years which they could use to prepare themselves for the third round.

Among the multitude of spectators watching the news, the smart ones among them could feel that there were two potential explanations as to why Esparia went through with this decision. One theory is that the President and other higher-ranking military officials might have overreacted while succumbing to the fear of their lives, driving them to this surrender.

Alternatively, the other reason might be more ominous, a reason powerful enough to make them opt for an unconditional surrender a choice that was considered as the most undesirable among the many other available options.

They soon received their answer as the subsequent statement from Emanuel provided clarity and addressed this very concern, "As for what I meant when I mentioned that we were lying to you, I meant that the reasons for attacking them first and pushing the blame to Eden followed by the captured in which we responded by re-initiation of this war once again were not just because we wanted to respond in concern of our captured soldiers. Instead, it was because we were paid extensively and incentivized to launch this war once against Eden, enticed by promises of substantial payments in return."

Boom, that revelation came out as a strong explosion, sending the people who initially thought they wouldn't be too surprised after recovering from the first punch they had received regarding the information about Esparia's unconditional surrender. However, they found themselves proved to be completely wrong as what they heard now was something that none of them thought they would hear from the President of a country that was still partially at war especially since Eden hadn't yet expressed their decision on whether they were going to accept the surrender or if they would just continue dishing it out with them.

"Among the bribes receivers, I personally received an upfront payment of fifty million, delivered a few weeks before the initial confrontation between Eden and us took place"

Emanuel confessed, delivering a blow that left those who believed they had regained some hold on their feet only to stumble even further.

As he continued addressing the audience, the live news feed that was being provided to anyone who wished to broadcast started changing significantly. The video of President Emmanuel speaking was relocated to the right side of the screen while the left side was used to make room for displaying the evidence backing up his words.

This visual presentation was carefully orchestrated to provide an undeniable substantiation to his assertions, leaving his supporters with little to no room for denying this in the future.

"And when we faced defeat in our first confrontation, our sponsors increased the amount of investment, supporting us in acquiring new pieces of equipment, including the advanced fighter jets for the airforce and a plethora of other latest technology which we wouldn't have normally been able to buy due to our lack of funds and limited diplomatic influence to be able to make someone agree to sell their weapons to us. Still, we had managed to buy them at a relatively lower price and even received them in such a short time, which was unprecedented. However, our efforts didn't just stop at that, we also hired a mercenary group to come and aid us in retraining our soldiers and devising strategic plans for the second round of war, which I personally stood before you to announce our declaration of it yesterday. Unfortunately, things didn't go as we had planned at all," when he finished saying that, Emanuel paused for a moment and took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, showing that he was speaking the truth and after hearing his own words, he was having a very difficult time.

A silence of fifteen seconds followed, during which the second half of the split screen, which showcased a barrage of evidence for the viewers, started playing video evidence of a meeting involving Emanuel and someone else.

This person, who nearly no one in the world knew who he was, except for a few influential people who could be seen smiling in amusement as they watched the man being let known to the public. In contrast, the remaining others frowned because they knew this situation was not good.

As for the man in the video, he could be seen getting paler and paler as he watched the press conference along with Aubrey, the head of the Morgan family, and his son, George, who was currently giving him a bombastic side-eye. However, what made him lose all the color of his face was not because of the bombastic side eye he was receiving; rather, it was the existence of the video footage of his meeting, something he was sure of not happening as he had ensured that they were inside a room that had no camera at all, especially on the said angle the video footage seemed to have been recorded from and was now broadcasted to the rest of the world.