"I was positioned on the high ridge near the southern crossroads, Lord Bjorn," Eadric explained, "We waited for three days in the rain to get a good look at the marching column. But... it wasn’t just Franks. The banners, my Lord... I have never seen so many different colors."

"Explain." Bjorn narrowed his eyes.

"It is a massive coalition," Eadric said, "I saw the golden lions of the Frankish Empire, yes. But right beside them... they were flying the twin birds of the Magyars."

"...what else did you see?" Bjorn muttered.

"Small counties... minor kingdoms from the deep south and the east," Eadric continued, counting on his fingers. "Dozens of different mercenary flags... with the Magyars and the sellswords, their numbers are easily swelling past eighty thousand."

Thus, a heavy silence fell over the immediate group.

Even the loud noise of the dockworkers unloading the heavy cannons seemed to fade away into the background.

Eighty thousand men? It was a veritable sea of flesh and steel that could easily drown entire nations.

Bjorn tightened his grip. "Fine... If they want to bleed on the hard stones of Calais, we will happily oblige them."

"But that is the problem," Eadric gasped, shaking his head. "They are not staying together. When they reached the major crossroads at the river, the entire coalition halted. And then... they split."

"They split?" Hakon frowned deeply, exchanging a highly confused look with Torstein. "How many pieces?"

"Three," Eadric stated firmly. "They broke into three distinct armies."

Splitting a massive force was incredibly risky, but it meant Emperor Louis had a deeply layered strategy...

"Where are they going?" Bjorn demanded, his voice low and dangerous.

"The first army broke off and turned toward the northern coastal roads," Eadric explained, tracing a rough line in the dirt with his boot. "I overheard some of the outriders talking when they passed my hiding spot. They are coming for Calais. But... I don’t think it is their main force, my Lord. It looked like mostly heavy infantry and a few thousand knights. Maybe twenty thousand men in total."

Even so, twenty thousand men marching on a city defended by a few thousand was a massive threat... but with three hundred heavy steel cannons and repeating rifles, Bjorn knew he could easily hold Calais against that specific number.

It was a holding force... Emperor Louis was sending them just to keep Bjorn pinned behind his own walls.

"...what about the second army?"

Eadric swallowed hard again, "The second army, roughly thirty thousand men, bypassed the inland roads. They secured a fleet of hired merchant cogs and Mediterranean galleys waiting at the southern ports."

"Ships?" Hakon interrupted, his eyes widening. "I fucking knew it. Are they sailing for England? Are they trying to cut off our food supplies?"

"No, Lord Hakon," Eadric shook his head, "They turned their sails north. They are heading straight for Denmark."

Upon hearing these words, Bjorn knitted his brows.

Denmark? He had heard from the spies that they had attacked Erik in Iceland.

"Why would the Emperor send thirty thousand heavily armed men to the Danes?"

"Are they going to attack them?" Odo asked quietly, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Maybe the Emperor wants to conquer the Danish ports to establish a northern foothold?"

"Don’t be stupid, boy," Hakon snapped, though his tone was fueled by anxiety rather than real anger. "King Horik commands thousands of longships. He will slaughter the Franks while picking his teeth with his dagger."

"Unless they’re not going there to fight," Bjorn said calmly. "It’s possible..."

"...If he can persuade the Hungarians to march across the world, what’s to stop him from paying King Horik to join the alliance? If the Danes formally ally with the Franks, we’ll be surrounded, and his fleet’s campaign against Erik proves it." Bjorn continued.

"Wait," Hakon raised a hand, "Even if Horik refuses to ally with them... what if the Franks just asked for safe passage? What if they are using the Danish ports to refuel their ships?"

"To go where?" Torstein frowned.

"To Norway." Bjorn answered, "Ragnar pulled thousands of our best warriors south to fight this war. Our northern borders are practically empty. If thirty thousand Franks land on the shores of Norway while we are stuck down here in the mud, they would burn the Iron Kingdom from the inside out."

Bjorn slowly turned his attention back to the exhausted scout. "You said the army was roughly eighty thousand strong with the Magyars. Twenty thousand are marching here to pin us down. Thirty thousand are sailing for Denmark."

Eadric nodded slowly.

"That leaves another thirty thousand men," Bjorn stated.

"..they set up a massive camp in Flanders." Eadric whispered.

"Flanders?" Hakon roared, "Are you kidding me? We signed a strict non-aggression pact with them."

"Treaties are just dry ink on dead animal skin, Hakon." Bjorn muttered darkly, releasing his grip on the scout.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "When a southern Emperor shows up at your border with thirty thousand angry men, you don’t wave a piece of parchment in his face. You open your gates and offer him your best wine."

"Eadric, look at me," Bjorn commanded softly. "An army of thirty thousand men doesn’t just stop to rest in a vassal state for no reason. Not when the war has started. What are they doing in those camps?"

The scout accepted another drink from Odo’s wooden flask, wiping his beard with his sleeve.

"They are chopping down the forests, my Lord,"

"I crept as close to the border as I dared. Thousands of men swinging axes, day and night. They are harvesting every single piece of strong timber they can find in the territory of Flanders."

Bjorn frowned, "Timber? Why would they need that much raw wood?"

"Siege equipment." Odo suddenly spoke up, pushing his round spectacles up his nose.

"Speak, boy," Bjorn ordered, "You know the southern military structure better than we do. Why build wooden towers when they have the new gunpowder?"

"...they don’t have enough cannons, Lord Bjorn." Odo explained quickly, "It is my best guess, but... I believe they only have a few dozen working cannons in their entire army."