The flight from the Royal Palace to the rendezvous point Celestina had set for the hunting party she was leading was both long and silent, giving the red-haired General plenty of time to think.

And there was a lot of things she needed to think about.

The summit had been a partial success, with Celestina being able to relay most of the critical information she had about the situation in the South-West Province to the Royal Council and upper nobility of the Rockwell Kingdom.

Friction and pushback were also less than Celestina had anticipated, which alleviated one of her immediate concerns.

After the Royalists, Duke Roth’s faction was the most powerful, although there was a considerable amount of overlap between the two.

Still, the majority of the nobility aligning itself more with Gregory and his traditionalist ideology rather than Celestina’s more liberal tendencies, so the fact that the Duke himself had kept his criticism to a bare minimum was a welcome surprise.

Unfortunately, the primary reason for Duke Roth’s relative silence on this matter was undoubtedly the presence of Imperial Envoy Alexandros Ateo.

The Balfour and Roth Families had always been at odds, with the relationship between Celestina and Gregory being the worst in several generations; however, if there was one thing the two families agreed upon, it was that they despised foreigners interfering in their affairs, and by extension, the Rockwell Kingdom’s affairs.

An Imperial Envoy staying in the Royal Palace, monitoring all high-level movements and decisions, was the worst possible kind of foreign influence, made all the more troublesome by the fact that there was nothing that could be done about it.

Deny an Imperial Envoy’s demands?

Sure, if you were looking for a quick way to commit suicide.

If she had been given a choice between the summit devolving into a shouting match between her and Duke Roth, each side accusing the other of failing to act in the best interests of the kingdom, or having to tip-toe around an Imperial, Celestina would have chosen the first option in a heartbeat.

The Imperial Envoy’s presence had also made it impossible for Celestina to meet in private with the King and Queens to inform them of the more sensitive issues, like the existence of the Spatial Storms and Yuki and her mother.

Both of these topics were best known to as few people as possible, especially the latter. If the Imperial Envoy were to somehow hear that Lucas was in possession of a Spirit Beast with the potential to reach the fabled Tenth Order, Yuki would surely be snatched away by him.

"Haa... speaking of Lucas, I really haven’t been a good Master to him, or to any of my new Disciples for that matter," Celestina muttered to herself as she soared through the night skies.

Sure, Celestina had come to the Lucas’ hometown’s rescue, taken him as a Disciple, and given him a degree of operational and financial freedom that probably crossed way over the line of insanity, but in terms of actually teaching and training him, the things a Master was supposed to do, she had so far failed miserably.

Now, this wasn’t exactly Celestina’s fault; after all, she was dealing with a massive crisis and had little time to spare, but it still didn’t sit well with her.

"When this is all over, I need to spend more time with Lucas, Eris, and Christina," Celestina decided as she started thinking about what kind of special training regimen she could arrange for her new Disciples.

As she was lost in thought, Celestina crossed the Ariana Canal, moving from the Royal Province to the Southern Province.

A few hours later, she spotted her destination up ahead, the city of Delore; however, it only took a moment for Celestina to realize something was wrong.

It was currently sometime around 4 am, so logically, Delore should be relatively still and silent, but even from a dozen kilometres away, Celestina could tell that the city was awash in light and there was a flurry of activity going on.

Another odd point was that despite Delore being where Celestina was supposed to meet the rest of her team, even as she drew closer, she could only sense the aura of a single Adept level master.

Knitting her brow, Celestina urged her mount to speed up.

.....

"General Balfour, it’s good that you’re back," One of the Spirit Initiates from Celestina’s hunting party greeted her immediately upon her arrival.

Under normal circumstances, Celestina would have offered a casual greeting to her subordinate, but this was clearly not a normal situation, so the moment her feet touched the ground, she promptly demanded, "Give me a report."

Saluting formally, the Spirit Initiate explained, "A rider from a settlement south-east of Delore called Blossom Town arrived at around midnight last night. 3 of the town’s villages were decimated with no survivors to be found. Sir Stone and Lady Frey suspected this might be the work of the Saberclaw Raptors, so they mobilized most of the strike force and headed out immediately to investigate, leaving Sir Cross behind to defend the city."

Nodding in understanding, Celestina kicked the ground and dashed off, heading towards where she sensed Lucian Cross was standing by.

10 minutes later, in a temporary military camp set up at the base of Delore’s southern wall, Celestina was greeted by the sight of over 1,000 soldiers hurriedly scrambling about.

On the ground, these soldiers moved with purpose, sharpening their weapons or preparing their armour.

Hundreds more soldiers stood atop the walls themselves, manning siege weapons or holding bows and spears at the ready.

From nearby, Celestina also heard the familiar sound of blacksmith hammers, as well as the shouts of Captains getting their units organized.

Ignoring all the hustle and bustle, Celestina raced through the camp and bounded up the nearly 9 metres high city wall, landing beside the Vice-General of the Steel Shield Legion.

After quickly exchanging salutes, Celestina asked, "What’s the situation?"

Glancing back over his shoulder at the somewhat disorderly scene, Lucian Cross held back a sigh, "Corey and I felt the chances of the city being attacked directly were quite low, but we didn’t want to take any chances, so I volunteered to stay behind and shore up the defences"

"A cautious strategy, but given the situation, I would have to agree," Celestina gave her analysis.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Vice-General Cross continued with a slight frown, "I realize that the kingdom hasn’t seen a major war in decades, but the level of readiness and discipline among the city garrisons has really fallen."

"Indeed," Celestina agreed, her expression indifferent despite her tone also carrying irritation, "We’ll have to address this in the near future, but for now, we can only work with what we have."

"Understood, General," Lucian mumbled quietly.

"What do you think the chances are that those villages were destroyed by our targets?" Celestina asked.

"Not very high," Lucian shook his head, "Suddenly causing mayhem runs completely counter to how they’ve been acting so far."

"En," Celestina nodded, "Nevertheless, we can’t afford to lose vigilance here."

"Agreed," Lucian nodded, "There’s no telling what those damn beasts might be thinking, or what kind of trouble they may try to stir up."

Even if the chances of something happening were low, that didn’t mean they were zero, so as the ones on the defensive side, the humans of the Rockwell Kingdom couldn’t afford to let their guard down.

Situations changed, accidents happened, and if one slacked-off for even a second, mistakes may be made that resulted in unnecessary damage or deaths.

"Has a mobile force been deployed?" Celestina inquired next.

Shaking his head, Lucian groaned in frustration, "Delore doesn’t have any kind of organized cavalry, so Corey and I decided it would be better to just send our elite team on what mounts we had to assess the situation and provide immediate aid to the southern towns and villages."

Celestina agreed with this assessment, but she still followed up, "Since that’s the case, we can only use a slower infantry force to sweep the surroundings. I want a Regiment put together, along with relief supplies, just in case. Have it ready to depart as soon as it’s confirmed there is no threat to Delore."

Celestina may not have been his direct superior, but Lucian Cross still saluted her and accepted the order, "I’ll see to it, General."

Pausing for a moment, Lucian followed up, "Does that mean you’re heading out to the front lines as well?"

"En," Celestina acknowledged, "Although the chances are slim, if this really is related to the Saberclaw Raptors, I need to handle it personally."

Meeting eyes with the younger Spirit Adept, Celestina said solemnly, "I’m counting on you to defend the city, and as much of the surrounding territory as possible."

Flashing a grin, Lucian nodded, "Holding the line is what the Steel Shields are best at."

"Heh, I’ll hold you to that," Celestina allowed a small smile to form on her lips before she jumped back down and raced back to where she had left her Golden Hawk.