After the matter of the Abyss demonfolk was settled, Lorne had barely had time to rest before he led the elites of the Abyss front, together with the Imperial forces drawn from the western armies, through the Abyss on a thousand-mile forced march.

To ensure secrecy and prevent any possible leak along the way—and because the distance itself was so great—his contact with the Empire had been all but severed during this period. That meant the entire foundation of this plan rested on one thing alone: Duke Campbell’s own judgment of the situation, and his ability to command an army.

Not to mention the Kingdom—even within the Empire, only a tiny handful of people had known of this in advance.

And yet even in such total isolation, Lorne had still, through what he saw and the details he observed on the march, keenly sensed that something was wrong with the Kingdom.

It had been too easy.

Whether it was the way his army had smashed through the western front like a hot knife through butter, or the way the young Empress before him had led twenty thousand cavalry deep into enemy territory and casually taken the western gateway guarding the royal capital, all of it had been abnormal in how easy it was.

Of course, for Her Majesty the Empress to lead twenty thousand men and punch through an enemy formation of two hundred thousand was a feat worthy of the history books—a miracle forged jointly by Her Majesty’s brilliance and the courage of those soldiers. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the word easy.

But after that?

Odense City had already fallen some time ago. The army he led had successfully arrived outside the Kingdom’s royal capital and joined up with Her Majesty. Standing here in this camp, they could even see the outline of that great city in the distance...

And in contrast to that...

"Where is the Kingdom’s army?"

Lorne stared at the sand table, frowning unconsciously.

"Why is it that even now, we still haven’t seen any response at all from the Kingdom’s forces?"

With the royal capital under siege, no matter what, the frontline offensive should have come to a halt. Even if the Kingdom really had taken the Empire’s northern plains, how could that possibly matter more than its own capital?

If your home is gone, what the hell are you still fighting for?

Lorne was a man who had moved through all kinds of political circles. He understood that old bastard who had sat on the Kingdom’s throne for decades. The man was stubborn and arbitrary, but underneath it all, deeply timid. Most likely, he did not have the nerve to stay behind and defend the city with the garrison currently inside it. The moment he learned that Odense City had fallen and that the Imperial army had used the Abyss as a route of advance, he would definitely order armies from every direction to rush back in relief.

The million-strong armies that had invaded Imperial territory were one thing. There was no way they could turn around and return in time on such short notice. But what about forces from other directions?

The Kingdom had assembled its million-man army only by mobilizing the strength of the entire nation, but that did not mean a nation of its size could truly field only one million troops. The strength a country could use when launching a war abroad and the strength it could wring out of itself in a life-or-death crisis by overdrawing its own reserves were two completely different things.

Squeeze the common people harder, overdraw the nation’s manpower a little more, and more troops could absolutely be found.

The problem was time.

By Lorne’s calculations, it would be impossible to produce another major army in the short term, but patching together tens of thousands of miscellaneous troops to delay their advance was something the Kingdom could absolutely have done.

So where were those men?

At present, his army had already advanced to within a few dozen li of the Kingdom’s royal capital, and yet they had not encountered a single Kingdom force. It was as if the whole Kingdom now had nothing left but that one solitary city.

"Could it be..."

A sharp light flashed in Lorne’s eyes.

"Was I wrong about that old bastard? Does he actually intend to hold the city alone and fight us to the death?"

The instant that thought struck him, Lorne felt his blood begin to boil. That old tension from his fiercest clashes with the demonfolk came flooding back, and even his lion’s-mane beard trembled with it.

He snatched up the Kingdom’s banner and began arranging troops across the sand table.

"If the Kingdom’s royal capital holds firmly and can withstand our assault for two months... no, not even two. Just one month. Then the million-man army on the Kingdom’s front line can turn back, and at the same time, the troops drawn in advance from every other direction don’t launch attacks on us, but instead rely on the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) surrounding passes to completely seal off our retreat. At that point..."

Lorne sucked in a cold breath.

"We’d be trapped turtles in a jar! Could it be that the Kingdom laid out a game this big?"

"..."

At Lorne’s words, Celicia and Anna both turned grave as well. This arrangement, a little too all-in to be quite in character for the old bastard now sitting in the Kingdom’s royal capital, might not sound entirely plausible from the standpoint of personality... but from the standpoint of logic, it made perfect sense.

One could only say that the Lion King was worthy of his name. His instinct for war was indeed frighteningly sharp. While the others were still thinking about how to take the Kingdom’s royal capital with the smallest possible sacrifice, he had already stepped fully into the enemy’s perspective and identified the Kingdom’s one possible path to victory.

Only by understanding how the enemy could win could one know how to avoid losing. That was an essential skill for any truly excellent commander.

"As expected of Duke Campbell. This line of reasoning truly makes me—"

"Your Majesty!"

Celicia had just been about to praise him and then smoothly ask what countermeasure he would recommend, when a soldier’s voice suddenly rang out from outside the tent, cutting her off.

"What is it?"

Celicia frowned in displeasure.

"Didn’t I say I was receiving Duke Campbell? Unless it’s something major, I’m not to be disturbed."

"Well... there’s a letter for you."

"A letter?"

Wasn’t that the sort of thing that should be handled by the secretaries? What was Veil doing? Reading novels again in secret? Whose letter could possibly be delivered directly to her, the Empress of the Empire—

Celicia’s slightly furrowed brows lifted. She seemed to realize something.

"Bring it in."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

A female Royal Knight entered the tent, respectfully presented two letters, and withdrew in silence.

Celicia opened the first and read rapidly through it. Halfway through, her gaze suddenly shifted to the side.

Anna, noticing that glance, also seemed to understand something. The two breathtakingly beautiful women leaned together just like that and began reading the contents of the letter side by side.

"?"

The sight of two beautiful young women pressed close together was certainly lovely, but Lorne could only stare at it in bafflement, even rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

What in the world? Just a moment ago, the two of them had been all lightning and thunder, dark clouds rolling overhead, as if they could never exist under the same sky for the rest of their lives. And now they were leaning together with effortless intimacy, reading a single letter like close sisters?

What could possibly be written in it that was so compelling that it could make them temporarily set aside their hostility and shake hands?

Lorne, who had never in his life encountered a situation like this, felt as though he had stepped into a complete blind spot in his knowledge. He simply could not understand it. But by the time he came back to himself, he realized that the two gazes that had only moments ago looked at his analysis with agreement and even a hint of admiration had suddenly turned strange.

"W-what is it? Your Majesty... and Miss Anna, why are you both looking at me like that?"

Lorne swallowed.

"Is there something wrong with my analysis?"

"No. Duke Campbell’s analysis is extremely sound. Our decision to risk attacking the Kingdom’s royal capital in the first place was always a race against time. It’s just that..."

Celicia paused, and when she spoke again, her tone held a peculiar complexity.

"I don’t think our situation could possibly be that bad anymore."

"Why not? Does Your Majesty have some other move in reserve?"

Lorne thought he had guessed the contents of the letter.

"Duke Campbell jests. Leading these twenty thousand men all the way here was a spur-of-the-moment decision to begin with. What reserve move could I possibly have?"

Celicia shook her head.

"It’s just that certain matters on the Kingdom’s side have gone rather beyond even my expectations."

"?"

Lorne was still completely lost.

And Celicia knew this was not the sort of thing that could be explained clearly with words alone, so she simply tossed the first letter in front of him.

"Take a look. The Empire is no longer facing a million-man army. Right now... the Kingdom can probably field only five hundred thousand troops worth speaking of."

"What?" Lorne froze for a moment, thinking he had heard wrong. "Only five hundred thousand left? What is that supposed to mean?"

The Kingdom lost five hundred thousand soldiers in a matter of days?

What kind of joke was that? Those were five hundred thousand troops, not five hundred thousand pigs!

And even if they were five hundred thousand pigs... it would still take quite a while to slaughter them all.

"You’ll understand once you read it."

"..."

Still full of suspicion, Lorne silently unfolded the intelligence report.

"The Kingdom is suspected of colluding with the Salvation Society, using some form of Ancient Magic to turn half of the hundreds of thousands of troops under Prince Aurier on the front line into monsters, and the half of the Kingdom army turned into monsters then killed the other half who remained normal. The Church is currently handling the cleanup..."

"...What?"

Lorne felt as though his brain had suddenly shrunk.

"The Kingdom? Colluding with the Salvation Society? Fine, let’s say they colluded—but then they wiped out several hundred thousand of their own troops? And these several hundred thousand were the Kingdom’s direct elite forces under Prince Aurier’s command?"

What was this, some kind of serialized pulp story?

Or a prank?

No. Even for a prank, this was far too... wildly imaginative.

"...Absurd as it sounds... when I first received this information, I thought it was some kind of prank too."

Celicia nodded with perfect seriousness.

"But take a look at who sent it."

"The sender?"

Only then did Lorne realize that, in terms of format, this so-called intelligence report did not look like any proper official dispatch at all. Its phrasing, and the tone laced through it, resembled gossip in a private family letter much more than state intelligence.

He turned it to the last page and saw, at the bottom, a flamboyant signature in flowing script:

"Love, Muen..."

"..."

So that brat had sent it. No wonder Celicia and Anna had crowded together to read it.

"That fool spends all day getting led around by the nose by whatever wild woman happens to appear out of nowhere, but I don’t think he’d lie about something like this. Especially given his relationship with a certain wild woman in the Church, this information cannot be false."

Celicia handed over the second letter. This one was far more formal in its documentation. It was an official notice issued by the Church to the Empire and to the powers of other nations alike—

A disturbance had occurred on the Empire’s northern plains in the form of a magical beast surge, suspected to be due to recent changes in celestial phenomena causing the beasts’ mating season to arrive half a year early. Thanks to the Church’s prompt response, no major harm had resulted for the time being, and all parties were asked not to become overly alarmed...

"The mating season came half a year early? They actually had the nerve to use that excuse?"

Lorne’s face twitched.

"That just proves they couldn’t come up with any explanation at all. But it’s an official statement from the Church. They’ve probably already cleaned up every relevant trace. If outsiders try to investigate, this absurd explanation is probably all they’ll ever manage to find."

Celicia shook her head.

"That doesn’t matter. Since the Church stepped in and was able to issue a notice like this, it means the matter really has been handled perfectly. So for us right now..." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Duke Campbell."

Celicia looked straight into Lorne’s eyes.

"Do you think the Kingdom is still capable of any of the things you just predicted?"

"Capable? Don’t be ridiculous."

Lorne’s mouth twitched.

"Several hundred thousand elite troops directly controlled by the King of the Kingdom have been completely wiped out. What remains are private armies already infiltrated and influenced by the great nobles within the country. With whole armies slaughtered for no reason—or rather, from their point of view, simply vanishing into thin air—it’s not even clear whether they’ll obey the king’s orders anymore.

"They can no longer pose any fundamental threat to us. They can’t block our retreat. And our own forces inside the Empire are also being mobilized with all speed. In a situation like this, I could come up with eighteen different ways to break the Kingdom’s royal capital just using my toes!

"And more than that..."

Lorne paused.

"...to destroy the entire Kingdom."

"Is that so... destroy the entire Kingdom..."

The tent suddenly fell silent. The only sound left was the tapping of Celicia’s fingertip against the table.

"As expected of Duke Campbell. How very domineering."

"Your Majesty, this is hardly the moment to praise me. The situation before us has nothing to do with me at all."

Lorne gave a bitter laugh.

"At present, the picture is already very clear. Whatever the Salvation Society’s purpose may have been, at the level of war, the Kingdom has unquestionably already lost completely. However..."

"However what?"

"No... nothing."

Lorne scratched his head, sounding a little uncertain.

"It’s just that I’m thinking... at a moment like this, the Kingdom isn’t going to pull some outrageous stunt again, is it?"