Surviving the Magic Academy With Just Intelligence Stats-Chapter 71: The Four Generals

In the vast expanse of the Xia Empire, military power flowed differently than in the Kingdom of Avaloria. While the kingdom dispersed its might among the ten great families, each guarding their appointed borders, the empire concentrated its strength in just four extraordinary individuals - the legendary generals who commanded entire armies by themselves.

These four pillars of imperial might were more than mere military leaders; they were forces of nature given human form, each as mighty as an entire noble house. Their names and titles spoke of their dominion over the seasons themselves: General Summer, the "Blazing Sun General," whose fierce presence protected the southern reaches; General Winter, the "Frost Empress," whose cold calculation secured the northern frontier; General Spring, the "Verdant Dawn," whose vigilance watched over the eastern lands; and General Autumn, the "Harvest Lord," who stood guard over the treacherous western border.1

Of all their posts, none was more precarious than General Autumn’s position. His territory faced directly against the domain of Friedrich Rothschild, the "Golden-Eyed Tyrant," and more crucially, his wife Victoria, the infamous "Mad Star." She was like a natural disaster given human form - unpredictable, uncontrollable, and utterly devastating. The mere possibility of her deciding to launch an invasion had kept General Autumn in a state of constant vigilance for years.

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But now, everything had changed. The Mad Star had vanished, sacrificing herself to the Spirit King. Even more remarkably, she’d left a parting gift - grievously wounding the other family heads during her departure. It was as if fate itself had delivered this opportunity into General Autumn’s eager hands.

Standing in his command center, General Autumn couldn’t suppress his growing excitement. His fellow generals had warned him about Friedrich, cautioning that the Golden-Eyed Tyrant wasn’t as simple as he appeared. But Autumn had dismissed their concerns with contempt. In his mind, Friedrich was nothing but a man who had hidden behind his wife’s overwhelming presence. How formidable could he truly be without her?

Looking down from his elevated position, he surveyed his assembled forces with savage satisfaction. A million troops stood ready for his command, their armor gleaming in the fading light, their weapons hungry for blood. The sight filled him with absolute confidence. This was his moment - he would capture the western border, claim Friedrich’s head, and elevate his standing among the other generals to unprecedented heights.1

The thought of Victoria returning to find her husband’s corpse sent him into paroxysms of dark glee. Rising from his chair, he approached the balcony overlooking his massive army. Their attention fixed upon him instantly, drawn by his sudden burst of laughter.

"We attack at dawn!" he proclaimed, his voice carrying across the assembled host. The response was immediate - a thunderous roar of approval that shook the very earth. As their cheers echoed into the darkening sky, General Autumn’s laughter grew even more maniacal. All those sleepless nights he’d spent worrying about Victoria’s next move - now it would be his turn to give others nightmares.

"Hahaha!" his laughter continued to ring out, harmonizing with the growing chants of his army below. In his mind’s eye, he already saw Friedrich kneeling before him, begging for mercy. The image only fueled his mirth as darkness settled over the empire’s western frontier, promising a dawn of blood and conquest.

…

In a chamber where perpetual winter held dominion, General Winter reclined upon her throne of pristine ice. Her ethereal beauty seemed carved from the very frost she commanded - skin pale as fresh-fallen snow, hair a cascade of silver-white that shimmered like icicles in moonlight. Her eyes, a piercing arctic blue, held the depth and mystery of frozen lakes. Every gesture carried an otherworldly grace, as if she were winter itself given human form.

A servant stood attentively beside her, carefully pouring steaming tea into her delicate cup. The moment General Winter’s fingers brushed the porcelain, frost began its inexorable spread across the surface. She lifted the cup to her lips with elegant haste, managing only a brief sip before the liquid crystallized completely. The frozen cup slipped from her grasp, shattering against the floor in a shower of glittering shards. The servant flinched at the sound, but General Winter’s attention had already drifted elsewhere.

Her gaze turned westward, her supernatural senses detecting what others could not - the rhythmic chanting of General Autumn’s vast army as they prepared their march against the kingdom. A soft sigh escaped her frost-touched lips as she shook her head. She had tried to warn him, to make him understand the folly of challenging Friedrich, especially now when grief and rage burned hot in the Golden-Eyed Tyrant’s heart. But Autumn’s ambition had rendered him deaf to reason. Now, all she could do was wait and witness the consequences of his hubris.

Leaning back into her frozen throne, she slowly removed the glove from one hand. Ice immediately began to form around her exposed skin, creating intricate crystalline patterns that danced and grew before her eyes. "Friedrich," she whispered, her voice carrying an unexpected warmth despite her frigid nature. "I wonder how much you’ve changed since then." Her fingers closed into a fist, crushing the delicate ice formations. "I wonder, if you could have made a different choice back then..."

…

In the Spirit World, Victoria paced relentlessly across her chamber, her physical form a stark contrast to the ethereal beings that typically inhabited this realm. She had abandoned her spirit form in favor of her human appearance, though right now that appearance was far from its usual composed state. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she moved back and forth with such intensity one might think the world itself was ending.

A spirit drifted into the room, carrying a plate laden with food and fruits. She couldn’t help but smile at Victoria’s obvious distress, misinterpreting the source of her anxiety.

"Are you worried that someone will attack your husband while you’re gone?" the spirit teased, her voice light and playful. "Don’t worry, the descendants of Rothschild aren’t that weak."

Victoria dismissed the suggestion with a sharp "Hmph!" Her response carried none of its usual fondness when discussing her husband. "Who would worry about him?"

"Huh!" The spirit’s surprise was evident, her earlier playfulness giving way to genuine curiosity. "Then why do you look so worried?"

The question opened the floodgates of Victoria’s maternal anxiety, setting off an avalanche of increasingly specific concerns… The spirit found herself regretting her well-intentioned inquiry about Victoria Rothschild’s apparent distress. What started as a simple question unleashed an avalanche of maternal anxiety.

"Oh, where do I even begin?" Victoria paced frantically, her elegant robes swishing with each turn. "It’s been so long since I’ve seen my precious Ambrose! Do you know how dangerous the human world is? What if he trips on a rock? His constitution is so delicate – a simple stumble could leave him bedridden for weeks!"

The spirit raised her hands placatingly. "Surely the heir to House Rothschild has adequate protection—"

"Protection?" Victoria’s eyes widened with fresh horror. "That’s even worse! What if some scheming vixen tries to seduce him? He’s so innocent, so pure! And these noble girls are like wolves in silk dresses!"

"I’m certain your son has better judgment than—"

"But that’s not even the worst part!" Victoria clutched her head in despair. "The distance between realms is interfering with my Mother’s All-Seeing Eye 1.0!"

The spirit blinked in confusion. "Your... what now?"

Victoria barreled on as if she hadn’t heard, her voice rising with each word. "Out of the 14,322 vital parameters I usually monitor, I can only track 14,299! That’s twenty-three blind spots! Twenty-three ways something could go wrong without me knowing!" She grabbed the spirit’s shoulders, eyes wild. "Do you understand? I can’t even monitor his exact body temperature in real-time anymore! What if he catches a cold and I don’t know about it within 0.3 seconds?"

The spirit carefully extracted herself from Victoria’s grip, backing away toward the door with slow, deliberate steps. "I just remembered I have some... very important spirit duties to attend to..."

"And his mana fluctuations! I can only track them to the third decimal place now! The third decimal place! It’s like I’m practically blind!"

The spirit reached the door, quickly slipping through and pulling it shut behind her. She leaned against it, releasing a heavy sigh. "Note to self: never ask a mother about her children... especially not this one."

Through the door, Victoria’s voice could still be heard spiraling into increasingly specific concerns about proper sock alignment and the precise angle of morning sunlight reaching her son’s bedroom.

A/N - Okay so their names are originally (General Summer (Yang Huo), General Winter (Lin Xue), General Spring (Zhao Chun), General Autumn (Qiu Wei)) but I decided to just use the english version. Which one do you like? Or we can use both, one as a title and one as a name.

A/N - "western" border relative to the empire. In the kingdom, that’s the easter border. (the empire borders the kingdom in the north and east - I’ll try drawing a map)