Gunmage-Chapter 38: Operation Charon’s Toll

With all the windows closed, the room was dimly lit despite the blinding sun outside.

A single lantern flickered, casting long shadows over the faces gathered around a wooden table, where maps and reports lay in disarray. The air smelled of damp fabric, gunpowder, and the distant scent of the sea.

Lugh sat at the edge, hands resting lightly on his lap, his expression unreadable. Across from him, Prince Lovainne studied him with veiled interest, his single gloved hand drumming a slow rhythm against the table.

"Aren't I?"

Xhi's voice was light, almost casual, yet it cut through the silence like a blade.

Lyra flinched.

"O-of course you're human, what else would you be?"

She stammered, her fingers tightening around the hilt of her sheathed longsword.

A heavy silence followed. Some exchanged glances, others shifted uncomfortably. An unspoken question lingered in the air, but no one dared give it form.

Lovainne didn't dwell on it.

"So why are you here?"

He asked, his tone shifting to something more pragmatic.

"My father died in the war"

Lugh answered simply. The statement was a calculated half-truth—one designed to let the Prince reach his own, incorrect conclusions.

The Prince exhaled through his nose, nodding slightly.

"I see. Then welcome to the 14th division."

Vaelith the elf, scoffed.

"You're just gonna trust them? Just like that?"

Lovainne didn't even glance her way.

"It doesn't matter if I trust them or not"

He said sharply.

"They're useful, and they're offering their services for free. I'd be a fool not to accept."

Vaelith frowned but said nothing more.

Lugh watched them, his mind drifting briefly to the shattered fleet, then to the blackened shoreline marred with the scars of battle. Now that he stood before the man responsible for orchestrating this madness, there was no better time to ask.

"Why?"

Lugh's voice was quieter now, but it carried weight. Lovainne turned his gaze back to him.

"Why what?"

"Why all this?"

Lugh gestured vaguely.

"You sent thousands of men to their deaths trying to cross the Devil Sea. Is the situation really that desperate? What if the fleet had been completely wiped out? What then?"

A tense beat of silence. The others exchanged uneasy glances. Lyra shifted uncomfortably beside him, while Xhi, the priestess, merely tilted her head, watching with an amused glint in her eyes.

Lovainne regarded Lugh for a long moment before asking,

"How old are you?"

Lugh hesitated.

"Fourteen—I mean fifteen,"

He corrected himself.

The Prince chuckled dryly.

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"That explains it."

Lugh narrowed his eyes.

"Explains what?"

"You asked if the situation is that desperate,"

Lovainne said, resting his elbows on the table.

"It was, still is"

Lugh wasn't convinced, and he didn't bother hiding it.

"Well, yeah"

Lovainne continued, now leaning back in his chair.

"We could've used those resources to reinforce the front lines, but it wouldn't have changed anything. Five years into this war, and we've already lost forty percent of our territory. The official drafting age keeps dropping. The Ophris Kingdom is barely hanging on."

Lugh stilled. He hadn't known things had deteriorated this badly. The newspapers told a different story—one filled with strategic victories and unwavering resilience.

Either those reports were blatant lies, or the truth had been buried beneath layers of controlled information.

"It would take a miracle for us not to be completely annihilated"

Lovainne continued, his voice carrying a grim certainty.

"Operation Charon's Toll is the first step toward that miracle."

"Charon's Toll?"

Someone echoed.

"Yes"

The Prince confirmed.

"What a distasteful name"

Xhi interjected, her lips curling in disdain.

Lovainne ignored her, but his fingers drummed against the table again—slower this time.

"When we reached these shores"

He continued,

"We were ambushed by a battalion of Heieg soldiers who were expecting us. Do you know what that means?"

"That there are spies in the army?"

Lyra offered hesitantly.

Lovainne scoffed.

"Of course there are spies. There will always be spies"

He said.

"In fact, we wanted them to find out about the operation."

Lugh paused.

"Wait. What?"

The pieces in his head started shifting. Captain Veyland and his companion on the ship, they hadn't been there by coincidence.

"Command HQ made it so the operation was top secret"

Lovainne said.

"But not too secret. We left just enough holes for them to think they uncovered it themselves."

"Why the hell would you do that?!"

Lyra snapped, finally losing her patience.

"Because we needed them to react in a specific way,"

Lovainne shot back, his voice tense.

"And they did."

Lugh felt the weight of realization settle over him.

"So they think they know everything"

He murmured.

"Bingo"

The Prince said, a small smirk forming on his lips.

Lugh was starting to understand. They had let the enemy believe they were getting valuable intelligence when, in reality, they had only been fed precisely what the Ophris command wanted them to know.

"But here's the kicker"

Lovainne continued, leaning forward now.

"Heieg knew we were sending a division of ten thousand troops, yet their ambush force barely numbered a thousand. Why do you think that is?"

Lyra frowned.

"They underestimated you?"

Lovainne shook his head.

"Underestimation is one thing. This? This was something else."

Lugh stared at him.

"They expected you to die at sea."

A slow, satisfied nod.

Xhi let out a soft chuckle.

"Ah, I see. Their ambush was merely a precaution. They assumed the sea itself would do the real work for them."

Lovainne studied her, his expression unreadable.

"Close,"

He admitted.

"But you're thinking like a mage. A human general wouldn't take that kind of gamble. If you were an officer, would you assume the enemy spent this much resources just to march their men into death?"

Silence.

"They didn't just underestimate us"

Lovainne said.

"They believed there was no way we could survive."

A chill crept into the room. Lugh sat back, eyes flicking to the others. Lyra still seemed uncertain. Vaelith was listening intently.

Lovainne exhaled, his fingers still against the table.

"Underestimating your enemy is the first step to defeat. This is a lesson taught in every military academy, not just ours. And yet, they disregarded it."

Lyra shifted again, her brow furrowing.

"No human nation would do that..."

"Bingo"

Lovainne murmured.

A beat of silence. The implications of that single word settled over the room like a suffocating weight.

Lugh's mind spun. If the enemy wasn't acting like a human nation, then who, or what, was truly orchestrating this war?

And more importantly—why?