Unlike Belrand’s bright spring weather, the Notasia Line in the Empire’s northern territories was now buried under dark clouds.

A flock of huge crows swept across the wasteland. Beneath the dim sky, their black wings looked like blurred shadows, covering the cruelty and bloodshed spread across the earth.

The great stretches of forest had long since been chopped bare, turned into materials for building camps and making tools. The entire ground looked as though it had been plowed over countless times. Whenever the wind blew, it sent up endless yellow sand stained with the color of gunpowder smoke.

Within that yellow sand, the pounding of hooves and the sounds of shouting never ceased.

The crows had circled in the sky for a long while. Only after the two armies locked in battle had both withdrawn one after the other did they finally spread their wings and settle atop the upright spears, their scarlet eyes sweeping over the graveyard-like silence around them as they waited for the feast to come.

"Well?"

"They’re still just making contact and pulling away immediately. They have no intention of launching a full offensive."

Celicia stood at the highest point of the fortress like a snow lotus blooming atop a mountain peak. With her extraordinary eyesight, she surveyed what remained of the battlefield.

"They keep sending small units to harass our cavalry and scouts. On the surface they look extremely eager for battle, but they have absolutely no intention of attacking the fortress."

"So it really looks like they’ve been scared by you, Your Majesty?"

Anna stepped out of the shadows, still dressed in black, her air so ethereal she looked like some spirit of the night from old legends. Smiling, she «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» said, "Why don’t you show yourself and release some of your imperial aura? Maybe the Kingdom soldiers will get scared and run off on the spot, and the war can just end right there."

"Then why don’t you do it?"

Celicia flicked her eyes sideways at her without expression.

"Your status as an inheritor of an Evil God sounds a lot scarier than an emperor."

"Oh my, don’t put it like that. I only have a tiny fragment, and besides, the moon’s been dead so long it’s practically been forgotten."

Anna stepped forward, paying no mind at all to the difference between subject and sovereign, and came to stand shoulder to shoulder with Celicia.

She also looked out over the battlefield. With a casual wave of her hand, shadows writhed hideously now and then, startling away every crow coveting the soldiers’ corpses.

"But since you won’t show yourself, and I can’t scare anyone either, what exactly is the Kingdom waiting for if they still won’t launch a real attack?" Anna asked softly.

Though she looked like she was merely bickering with Celicia as usual, she actually cared a great deal about that question too.

Ten days.

From the moment the Empire’s army had fallen back to this pass, to being besieged by the Kingdom’s forces, to the Kingdom beginning those strange small-unit attacks... it had only been ten days.

Ten days was not long. For behemoths like the Empire and the Kingdom, ten days might not even be enough for one complete troop redeployment, or for one shipment of supplies to fully arrive...

But ten days was not short either, especially at a moment this critical. Any delay in military intelligence, no matter how slight, could create a result a thousand miles apart.

The Kingdom was not truly stupid. They certainly understood that too, especially when time was not on their side.

"No matter what they’re waiting for, one thing can at least be confirmed..."

Celicia withdrew her gaze and said coldly, "When something is this abnormal, there must be something wrong beneath it. They are definitely plotting something."

"Saying the obvious again won’t help. Anyone with a functioning knee could tell their intentions aren’t pure."

Anna sighed.

"The question now is, are we really supposed to just sit here and wait?"

"Meeting change with stillness is the safest choice, but... yes, it’s deeply unsettling."

A faint chill flowed around Celicia’s fingertips, as cold as her thoroughly displeased mood.

Since arriving at the front, she had done everything well. The Empire, which had previously been forced to split off an enormous amount of energy to deal with the demonfolk, was at a disadvantage in every respect, and yet up to now had still not suffered any truly crippling losses.

Territory, passes, whatever—if they were lost, then they were lost. As long as the most important living forces were preserved, then when the Empire’s fist clenched again, it would be the Kingdom’s turn to savor these days of suffocation tenfold, a hundredfold.

But...

The side at a disadvantage was still the Empire. Under conditions of total defensive contraction across the line, the initiative on the battlefield still rested entirely in the Kingdom’s hands.

In other words, even knowing the Kingdom’s army was probably up to some trick in secret, she could do nothing about it.

"We can’t exactly launch the offensive ourselves."

Feeling a wave of exhaustion rise in her, Celicia could not help sighing.

"For all we know, showing weakness to the enemy and luring us into rushing out to attack may be their real objective."

"So the current situation is deadlocked?" Anna asked, stroking her smooth chin.

"Yes. Completely deadlocked. Unless the Empire’s troop movements can speed up tenfold, or a heavenly army suddenly drops from the sky to break the stalemate, all we can do is remain this passive—"

"Your Majesty!"

Celicia’s words were suddenly cut off. She turned her head and saw an officer hurrying over.

This was one of the dispatch officers stationed at her side. The moment she saw him, she understood that important intelligence had arrived.

"What is it?"

"There’s... there’s a letter from Belrand."

"Belrand?"

Celicia looked at the officer’s panting state in puzzlement.

"I already know about the Campbell ducal estate getting half blown up. What important intelligence could possibly still be coming from there now?"

"You... you’ll know once you read it."

Not daring to delay, the dispatch officer respectfully presented the letter to Celicia with both hands.

Celicia was still suspicious, but the instant she saw the name on the envelope, every trace of doubt vanished.

Along with it, the chill that had gathered around her from her bad mood disappeared without a trace as well.

"You may go."

Celicia still wore the same expressionless face, revealing neither joy nor anger.

But the moment the dispatch officer disappeared from sight, she had already lost patience and quickly opened the envelope.

Her eyes raced over the contents.

In an instant, even Anna beside her could clearly feel the change in Celicia.

It was like melting snow, like spring sunlight breaking free.

"Oh my, oh my. One letter and Your Majesty’s mood suddenly becomes this good. This must be quite a letter..."

Seeing Celicia like this, Anna immediately guessed who it was from and crowded in as hard as she could.

"What’s written there? Did that junior finally come to his senses and decide to kick all the other seductive little sluts away?"

"Not one seductive little slut is missing. There’s even one more now. It’s just that..."

Having finished reading the letter, Celicia lifted her head and looked out over the vast wilderness stretching behind the Empire.

"Our 'heavenly army' really is about to arrive."

...

...

"Well?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, everything went smoothly."

The man dressed as a knight stood ramrod straight before Aurier, one hand over his chest.

"Although it was only a probing attack, I kept the balance well enough to make the Empire believe we were beaten back because we couldn’t overcome them." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Haha, excellent, Kaepel, excellent!"

Though it had clearly been a defeat, Aurier’s eyes blazed with delight. He slapped the knight on the shoulder, laughing with unrestrained satisfaction.

"Most people are too stupid to understand what I’m doing. Only you can carry all of it out perfectly—perfectly enough not to leave the slightest trace!"

"It is only because Your Highness commands so well."

Kaepel looked extremely modest.

"I merely acted according to Your Highness’s orders."

"Mm, true enough. My plan is so perfect that the woman on the Imperial throne who doesn’t know the height of heaven must still be racking her brains trying to figure out what I’m really doing."

Aurier tugged on the reins and rode up to higher ground, gazing into the distance at the pass ahead.

Though the light was dim and smoke and yellow sand lay between them, it was as if he could already see the Empire’s people now thoroughly deceived by their string of victories, sunk into the illusion he had so carefully prepared for them.

As for that emperor of the Empire, she might be somewhat clever and already suspicious, but with nothing more than groundless speculation, there was naturally no way she could guess his purpose.

"Everything is advancing step by step exactly according to my plan. While time overall may be on the Empire’s side, until that moment arrives, the larger situation is still in my hands."

Aurier clenched his hand, murmuring in utter intoxication.

As the Kingdom’s vanguard commander in this campaign, he was naturally not one of those fools who only knew how to shout about the Kingdom’s great victory. He knew the Empire’s strength better than anyone.

But sometimes the stronger something was, the harder it was to hide. Those vast Imperial armies had long since fallen under the surveillance of the agents he had sent out and the Empire’s internal collaborators. Troop movements numbering in the tens of thousands, supply transfers stretching like long dragons—none of it could escape his notice.

So he knew where that turning point lay.

And before that point arrived, the Imperial soldiers in the pass before him, along with that emperor, had long since become fish on a chopping block without even realizing it, merely waiting for him to slaughter them.

"But no rush. At a time like this, the more important it is to prepare thoroughly. The plan still hasn’t reached the moment when conditions are ripest. These feint attacks must continue. The Empire’s first wave of reinforcements still needs at least another ten-odd days before—"

"Your Highness! Your Highness! Urgent news!"

Aurier’s train of thought was interrupted. Turning his head in irritation, he glared at the scout rushing toward him and barked,

"How many times have I said it? Stop panicking over every little thing! Composure. Do you understand composure?"

"B-but this is urgent military intelligence from the direction of Imperial Belrand."

The scout wiped sweat from his forehead.

"It is extremely urgent!"

"So what if it’s military intelligence? Composure is an essential quality for achieving great things. Have you ever seen this prince panic?"

Aurier made a steadying gesture with one hand.

"Speak. What military intelligence?"

"According to reliable intelligence, the reinforcements sent from Belrand to support this side are already on the road. They are expected to arrive within five days."

"Reinforcements?"

Aurier raised a brow in surprise, then quickly calmed down again.

"I see. So they’ve pulled together the local garrison forces from various places, or perhaps rounded up some street trash and criminals as well? That emperor really does have some methods."

Aurier had already considered this possibility long ago. In his estimate, before the Empire’s proper reinforcements arrived, three to five days should have been enough to assemble a disorderly rabble of perhaps five thousand men.

But what could a bunch of rabble who likely had never even seen a battlefield before really affect?

"How many men are in this reinforcement force? Five thousand? Seven thousand? Or is that empress of the Empire even more capable than I imagined—nine thousand?"

"Reporting to Your Highness... it is one hundred thousand."

"Oh, one hundred thousand. That is indeed a bit more than I imagined, but still..."

Aurier was just about to continue mocking the Empire’s futile struggle when he suddenly froze.

Then he slowly lowered his head again and stared at the scout. He used so much force that the scout could practically hear the crackling grind of his vertebrae.

Eyes wide, he looked like a fish flopping on a chopping block.

"Say that again. How many reinforcements?"