“Someone explain to me how this situation even came to be,” said Sir DelVillar with a cold, even tone to the gathered officers in the meeting room of the former mayor’s mansion in Arh-Getlam. The forces deployed on defense had returned to Arh-Getlam shortly after they received the report of Fort Gurzil’s fall, as the demons had withdrawn around the same time.

Despite the old knight’s calm sounding voice, those who knew him understood that such a calm voice in a stressful situation was a sign of the old man’s simmering anger and frustration, and while he was not the sort to lash out unjustly against his own people, a verbal lashing could be expected if someone made a silly remark at such a time.

“Based on the reports we received prior to Fort Gurzil’s fall, all signs indicated that they faced an attack that did not look out of the norm around the time we struck at Arh-Getlam. Nothing serious enough to make them call for reinforcements, at least,” said Deena as she summarized the stack of reports in her hands. “Their situation took a drastic and sudden change around a couple days after we were occupied with defending against the demons that suddenly appeared near here.”

“Continue,” said the old knight with a nod at his granddaughter’s report. Deena was one of Fort Abernal’s staff officers, but she was by no means high-ranked enough to have been present in the sort of meeting they were having normally. He guessed that one of the others must have called her over to give the report knowing that it would be less likely to ignite the old knight’s simmering anger if his granddaughter was the one that gave the bad news.

Knowing Deena, the girl likely played along out of concern for his well-being. That girl was always too nice for her own good, at times.

“We had not received much reports about what happened next, but what we received indicated a sudden tripling of the demon forces that were assaulting the fort overnight, which led to a severe disadvantage on the defenders’ side. Apparently Fort Gurzil asked for reinforcements on the same day as when the demons increased their forces,” Deena said before she paused for a moment. “We received an emergency report warning us of the fort’s fall dated that same night.”

“And given the delivery times, we would only receive those reports several days later, which is how we’re only made aware of these issues after the fact, right?” stated the old knight even if he phrased it as a question, to Deena’s nod. “For that matter, even if we were informed of their plight, we wouldn’t have been able to react in time, since we were occupied by the unexpected demon incursion we were having as well.”

“That… would likely be the case, Sir,” said Deena after a momentary pause where she was uncertain whether she should answer or let someone else do so. After a moment of silence had passed she realized that she would have to step up to answer the question, though. “The demons had been acting rather unexpectedly this war.”

“We just got too used to having muscleheads for opponents,” interjected Sir Inolet with a shake of his head. “The demons pulled off one of the oldest strategies in the book, to make a ruckus out in the east while they struck at the west, and we fell for it because we got too used to having dumb opponents. It’s something we will have to change unless we want to keep falling for such tricks.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, then, Henri?” asked Sir DelVillar to Sir Inolet, the two old knights seemingly having an understanding with each other even before the words were exchanged.

“Aye, Leon, it looks like we got dealt a bad hand in this war,” said Sir Inolet with a sigh. “Just as we were expecting the demons to remain their old dumb selves as they had been for the past half century, they had to get themselves a [Grand Champion] that understands tactics and strategy. I bet we aren’t the only ones to have guessed this, but you might want to send a report about it anyway, just in case.”

“I will pen the report myself later,” said Sir DelVillar with a serious look on his face as he nodded at Sir Inolet’s suggestion. The two old knights looked somewhat bothered by the development, but they didn’t show it to most, although Alissa noticed the change in Sir Inolet’s expression after having spent months in the old knight’s company. “For now, tell the sentries to redouble their vigilance. If the demons started to strategize like this, we don’t know what else they might have on their sleeves. Increase the people on guard duty by half again the current number as well.”

The meeting was dismissed soon after, though Alissa caught up with Sir Inolet when they left to ask the old knight what they meant in further detail. She had only ever dealt with the demons as they were presently after all, so she didn’t quite catch on to the change that the old knights seemed to have noticed and lamented.

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“Right, you wouldn’t have known since you’re new to our world,” noted Sir Inolet thoughtfully. “Well, let me put it this way, Miss O’Connor. You should be aware that the demons have natural physical advantages over us humans, are you not? The advantage might be meager at lower levels, but it is a noticeable one nonetheless, and as our levels increase it tends to get more exaggerated, assuming classes of the same quality.”

“Yeah, I’m aware of that. I also know that Ethan and I, as well as the others, mostly managed to keep up with the demons since we have classes of better quality than what the vast majority have,” noted Alissa with an understanding nod. “I don’t get what that has to do with strategy though? The demons seemed to be fighting relatively normally… though I’m probably not one to speak about such things, given my inexperience.”

“Well, I can see how that might appear from your point of view, but usually, the demons had been fighting their war in more of a brute force manner, at least since they won the previous war. They are at an advantage in terms of both numbers and personal capabilities, and when given such an advantage, people tend to get lazy,” explained Sir Inolet. “Demons are no exceptions to this. Many of their leaders have been content with trying to overwhelm us with numbers and strength rather than attempt clever strategies, which to be fair, would have probably worked fine given their advantages.”

“This tendency to rely on numbers and personal capabilities is probably part of the reason why the wars keep swinging back and forth, to be honest. From what I myself learned from history, when we humans were at an advantage we tended to have an even greater numerical advantage, even if our personal capabilities still lagged behind the demons,” added the old knight. “As a result, people got lazy after their side gained the advantage, which wasn’t too surprising since each war was separated by decades at the very least.”

“I see, and you believe that one of the demon [Champions] is well-versed in tactics and strategy and thus compensated for that tendency towards laziness because the demons would listen to them, then?” queried Alissa as she caught on to the bigger picture Sir Inolet mentioned. “So in effect the demons now have greater numbers, better overall personal strength, and a strategic mind to direct their course of actions all at the same time?”

“At least where the [Champion] is present and in command. We have yet to receive news about similar cases happening in the regions further west, so we can assume that the demons still lacked leaders who thought strategically,” assured Sir Inolet. “I assume that we hadn’t seen any such cases earlier because even for a [Champion], they would need to grow in power first in order to command the respect of the other demons, so they might have just earned their respect relatively recently.”

“So they were in a position not unlike us with the Kingdom, then? Still growing in power but with little authority to call their own, at least before now?” asked Alissa, to which the old Knight nodded. It was practically common knowledge that the Kingdom’s higher-ups would have preferred the [Heroes] to remain under their control, though such a prospect grew more and more unlikely the stronger Alissa and her party grew.

Most people refrained from touching upon such a sensitive topic, but during the time he trained them, Sir Inolet had warned Alissa and Ethan that they would need power of their own before they could comfortably call the shots for themselves, instead of just following directions given from above. While Alissa and Ethan – and the others – had cooperated so far, Sir Inolet’s warning was one that they kept in mind all the while.

“Similar, yet also different. They would have an easier time gaining authority amongst the demons since many of them subscribed to a might makes right mentality. On the other hand, in your case you would need to grow your power far enough that those who prefer to wield politics as their weapons would not dare to even try to touch you out of fear of getting burned,” stated the old knight bluntly and openly. “In some ways, the demons are a lot more straightforward as a people than we are, something I felt was rather regrettable, at times.”

“Then I guess we should get to work a bit more, huh?” suggested Alissa. While she had her questions and doubts, and most definitely no longer trusted a good part of the human Kingdom’s upper hierarchy, Sir Inolet also drove home a point that made complete sense to her, that without power she could call her own, she would not be able to change things at all.

Given how Alissa – as well as most of her party – were in their late third tiers by that point, though still several levels away from the fourth tier as their leveling speed started to taper off, she imagined that it would take the sort of power she would have as a fourth tier to take the first steps towards being able to do things her way. In the meantime, she did not mind helping out on the frontlines, since it was also the fastest way to grow in power for the time being.

It helped that a lot of the frontlines were managed by people from or affiliated to the old knights and their semi-independent faction, rather than the royal family or the temple. Alissa had seen the temple send some reinforcements, people in the late third tiers led by some fourth tiers from their hidden monasteries, who were supposedly there to help out on the frontlines.

Instead of making things easier, though, there were conflicts and disagreements aplenty between the temple guard reinforcements – or rather, mostly the priests that led them – with the current leadership. Those from the temple had a rather holier than thou attitude to them, and seemed to look down upon others, though that was something mostly prevalent amongst the priests rather than the temple guards.

The temple guards were just obedient zealots instead.

In a rather bothersome – and annoying way – the priests reminded Alissa a little too much of religious zealots from her previous world, the sort of people who seemed to take mortal offense at the thought that others might not be as deeply devoted and fanatical as they were. Much like those sorts, the priests were also ones who tried to “convert” such people to the “embrace” of their gods, even when the other side had made it abundantly clear that they had no interest whatsoever in the matter.

Which made it rather amusing when one of the mouthier priests annoyed Sir DelVillar enough for the old knight to punch him hard enough to knock several teeth loose.