The Chancellor knew who held the real power in the Mushroom Kingdom, all his life. It wasn't the Mushroom King who held dominion over the lands and made all final decisions. The Royal Family was for show, for publicity and morale. It most certainly wasn't the seven kings of the main territorial Lands that made up most of the Mushroom Kingdom's claims. Those men and women were fickle and had no business ruling besides the menial governor-like powers they were granted by the Mushroom Kingdom itself. If the Mushroom Kingdom were to collapse, so too would their "autonomous" rules.

No, it was the Chancellor himself. The one who dealt with all the day-to-day governmental works, the one who deliberated with the councils and generals, the one who analyzed the daily reports and made the decisions for the rulers to sign off on.

He thought that, after her parents had passed away, Princess Peach would have been an easy target to bend to his will. Her father had initially resisted his touch in many ways, opting for a more expansionist agenda that unified the many territories around the Mushroom Kingdom. That gave the kingdom more area, more resources, more wealth, but it turned the kingdom into a conglomeration of diversity. Too many races, too many competing interests, too much possibility for failure. If they had just stuck with the humans, and the Toads, and whatever other creatures may have wandered in by accident, they would have been able to survive the recent struggles just fine. But they grew too far. The King began to phase out of this, especially once the new, more ambitious King Koopa assumed power, but soon he was gone... and Peach was far too independent in her own life.

She had gone too far past publicity and goodwill. She was generating bad publicity by keeping that Bowsette menace alongside her, giving the Mushroom Kingdom the bad name it had gotten in its expansionist days. The seven Kings had been growing weary of a woman ruler so young she still went by the self-imposed title Princess, deciding everything that the Mushroom Kingdom, the entire Mushroom World had in this world.

Absolute rule under House Toadstool had been the reason that Bowsette was so easily able to radically change the Mushroom Kingdom so quickly. She simply set her armies to attack the peaceful neighbors around them, enraging everyone and finally cementing that jingoistic, negative attitude everyone had been forming for so long now. Bowsette was the catalyst, and had set fire to the string that would ignite the bomb soon enough.

The fuse had still not been triggered. But it was close. And when it did, the Chancellor wanted to be the fire hydrant to put it out. He was the Ice Flower.

Toadsworth, that petty, groveling little man, served dutifully but moaned and groaned the whole way, as if his morals were constantly getting in the way. How he was able to stand working so directly with the Princess was beyond him. But it had clearly rotted his ability to be an effective leader to the core, so the Chancellor had no choice but to treat him like a subordinate, rather than a partner.

So at this moment, he stood in the back of the room, while the Chancellor stood in front, proudly watching as his new militia was being officially formed.

It consisted of many abhorrent types. Renzors and Rexes, Chain Chomps and Wigglers. A few Pianta gangsters and three Pink Yoshis with scars covering their faces. And one Dry Bones, withered and decayed. This was not something that the Mushroom Kingdom would ever employ in any official capacity. Which was good, because any ability to trace this back to him would be ruinous.

"Listen, my friends," the Chancellor said. "You are part of a Secret Army. You were rescued by me, cast free by the future ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. I have been supplied with the finances necessary to sustain any operations you wish to undertake, as long as you do so covertly. I will approve any missions you request that require higher capacity of monetary investment, but you are otherwise given free reign to do as you wish. All I ask is this: I want you to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom."

"And what's stopping us from killing you?" a Rex asked.

"When you were imprisoned, you each had a microchip inserted into your bodies. Micro-Bob-ombs that will detonate on my command if you defy me. Do not defy me, and I will not only have them removed when I take full power, but I will also give you your own official military command. You will be considered heroes. But for now.. you will be the Koopa Troop."

It was all lies. There were no microchips, and these soldiers would be disavowed the moment they were deemed useless. But they bought into it, and they were going to attack. Jailbroken prisoners running loose, affiliated with the Mushroom Kingdom's greatest enemy, collaborating with Koopa Resistance members in order to discredit their own organizations... it was the perfect plan to cause the utter collapse of social order in the kingdom.

It was the perfect plan.