The Celestina Empire, 100km from Duro
Hundreds of Aircraft are heading towards the Industrial town of Duro. Their objective is to capture the Magic Processing Technology's blueprint and use it as a reparation fee for the Verlaine Kingdom. Since the blueprint obtained by the Zealot are not reliable due to details that are lacking, it becomes a part of the reason why Celestina wants to capture it. Another reason is that the Celestina Empire wants to destroy the military installations and the industrial city to break the Papaldia Empire's will to fight.
“Everyone, mount up! We will be dropping in ten minutes!”
All personnel is entering their APC, Mech, and Tanks inside the Troop Carrier. The aircraft will seek and destroy defenses, including docked warships. Lieutenant Faira aboard Prowler, the Arcus, arrives at the destination to gives the update.
Feena is watching the town from the pilot room, and she found several warships has just departed to the east and a squadron of Wyvern Lord at the Industrial Town base.
“Don’t let them get away. Start the assault! Clear the Landing Zone for us to land!”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
Some of the combat aircraft redirect themselves into sinking the Papaldia Empire’s warship that has just departed from the port.
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The Papaldia Empire, Invasion Fleet
Captain Endecius is looking at the horizon. He heard the news that the Imperial Capital of Esthirant was attacked several hours ago by the Celestina Empire. Now, Endecius, along with the fleet of forty ships-of-the-line, set sails to the Celestina Empire to invade the capital of Childre, Navea.
“I heard the Celestina Empire attacked the capital.”
“Is there any news more than that?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
A magical communicator technician gives a report.
“Reporting! The Celestina Fleet has destroyed our main fleet in the capital! The Naval Headquarters, Barracks, and other military installations are destroyed! Our main fleet is also annihilated. Only three dragon carriers survive the slaughter!”
“My god… How is that possible!?”
“It can’t be…”
The crew becomes discouraged once they heard that news.
“W-we should turn back, Captain!”
“Nay! They won’t be able to reach here. Besides, The Grace wants us to invade while those barbarian is attacking our main fleet!”
Considering the distances between Duro and the capital is around 500 kilometers, they expect that the Celestina Empire will not be attacking here shortly, but later, they were wrong.
“What’s that?”
They saw several dots in the sky.
“Is that our patrol?”
But, the dots in the sky turns into an object that approaches them faster than the wyverns.
“W-we’ve been spotted!! We’re under attack!!”
BOOM!! BOOM!!
Six of forty ships are immediately sunk once the BSF-27 launches Missile Bomb into the fleet. Their despair is not done as they saw Celestina’s fighters attack a squadron of wyvern lords patrolling around the town.
“No! It can’t be!”
“Turn back!! Turn back!!”
Endecius quickly order the helmsman to turn around, knowing that escape is impossible. But, more ships are being destroyed once the BSF-27 makes another strafing run.
“This is impossible!!”
Captain Endecius and his entire fleet are later annihilated with just four BSF-27 Starfighter. The other aircraft is in control of the skies of Duro, ready to clear the Landing Zone.
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The Papaldia Empire, Wyvern Patrol 2nd Squadron
“What was that?”
They saw several dots are heading their way, and all of sudden, several Wyvern Lords are shot down by CAG-2.
“Damn it! How did they…!”
The Wyvern Patrol Squadron is scrambling around, panicking, due to the sudden attack. Earlier, when they heard the capital was attacked, they thought it would take weeks for the attack to reach here, but they were wrong.
“We need to inform the capital!!”
“But the Headquarters has been destroyed!”
“Then inform it to the Supreme Commander’s office!!”
The bickering between dragon riders and the communications officer continues as the Celestina Empire did not give them room to break or to spare. In just two minutes, Celestina gains total control of the Duro Airspace, ready to move into the Duro Imperial base for the next phase of the Operation: Bag Snatcher.
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The Town of Duro
“What was that?”
The sound emitted from CAG-2 brings surprise to the citizens who live in the industrial town of Duro. There is no Mu citizen here, as Faira already confirms that no Mu Citizens are staying inside the town of Duro before evacuation.
“KYAAA!!!”
The people scream in despair as the wyverns' remains, and its rider fell to the ground. They start to run around panicking while some open the doors and windows, searching the source of the problem. Never in their life did the Papaldia Empire be attacked by a barbarian country, let alone a superpower. This was unexpected since the ones who invade it was the Celestina Empire.
“W-what was that!?”
“No!! Stay away from us!!”
They haven’t heard the news that the Celestina Empire is attacking the Imperial Capital Esthirant. Some of them worry about their own safety as they are preparing to abandon the city until it was safe.
“Send news to the capital! We need reinforcements!”
“They’re heading to the Industrial area and the military base!!”
Looking at where the Celestina Aircraft are heading, they did not seem interested in demolishing the city.
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The Papaldia Empire, Industrial Area
UUUUUUUUUUUUU~~~!!!
The alarm makes the Papaldia Empire factory workers scrambles and prepares to evacuate from the building. The industrial area, located to the north of the city, is mass-producing the arsenals for the campaign against the Celestina Empire.
“Everyone! Evacuate!! I said again, evacuate!!”
However, before they got a chance to escape the industrial district, several Mechs are dropped from the Aircraft, aiming at them. Some infantries are also dropped from the ID-22 TC, aiming their guns at them.
“On your knees!! Hands behind your head, now!”
“Do it, or we will shoot you!”
“Stand back!! Leave them to us!!”
The Papaldia Empire’s military personnel, who is stationed at the Industrial District, aim their guns at them. However, before they can even line themselves up, they are quickly shot by the Celestina Empire’s infantry and the mechs.
“GYAA!!”
“Who’s next!?”
Another Papaldia Empire’s soldier charges in but were quickly dispatched by a single shot to the head from one of Celestina’s infantry. This plummets the morale of the factory workers as they are quickly complying with their demands.
“S-spare us!!”
The infantries quickly detain and takes them into a plaza near the entrance for the detainment. The mechs go forward to clear out the resistances, followed by infantries who later disembark from the ID-22 TC that lands at the Landing Zone south of the gate. Some of the light-armored units are also disembarking from several VTCL-18 to support the infantries.
“Central gate secured! We’re detaining the workers now!”
“Continue to push and secure another LZ ahead for reinforcements!”
“Yes, sir!”
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The Papaldia Empire, Inner Production Factory
PAPAPAPAPAH… DODODODODONNN…
The Papaldia Empire immediately deploy the newly constructed weapons from the factories. Celestina deployed several A-4 Walker Strider, with a height of 3 meters, and was equipped with Vulcan Cannon and Vulser Cannon as the advance force escorted by infantries.
RATATATATAT!! BOOM!!
“Yeeaahh!! We hit it!!”
The Papaldia Imperial Soldiers are cheering once they saw one of the A-4 Walker Strider sway around when hit by six magical cannons. But, the walker quickly stood firm as it starts to unleash the barrages of Vulcan and Vulser Cannons, ripping their bodies apart.
“GYAAA!!!”
“W-What the hell!? How is it possible!?”
Celestina didn’t give them time to breathe as they quickly dispatched every Papaldia soldier to take arms and restrain those who were surrendering. The factory workers are immediately restrained and taken away from the factory, giving room for the Celestina personnel to move in.
“Use that weapon!! The weapon from Holy Milishial!”
Some of the Papaldia Empire soldiers are operating Ixion Anti-Aircraft batteries, originated from the Holy Milishial Empire. One of the Celestina Interceptors notices this and informs Feena that they have spotted two of it.
“Ma’am! We found two AA guns in the factory!”
“Capture that guns! I want it extracted!”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
“Go! Go!”
The Celestina Infantries, supported by several Mechs, Walkers, and Light-Armored Vehicle, are punching through the Papaldia Empire’s defenses at the factory district. The 9th Mechanized Battalion, serving under the 17th Mechanized Regiment “Doctor Mechanic,” is pushing through the battle lines to capture the Ixion Anti-Aircraft batteries.
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The Papaldia Empire, Imperial Base
“Sir! They’re coming to our base!! The industrial district is also under attack!!”
“What!?”
The Imperial Base's commanding officer at the Industrial City of Duro, Randa, is surprised to hear that the Celestina Empire is attacking them. They are supposed to be attacking the Imperial Capital rather than the industrial city.
“Could it be they have more personnel than we can expect?”
“We don’t know, sir. The last report indicates that the Imperial Capital was attacked by a single dragon and a fleet of nine ships.”
“W-what!? That can’t be! There’s no way that one dragon and a fleet of nine ships can destroy all of the capital's military installations! Quickly fortify the defenses and launch all the wyverns!”
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“Y-yes, sir!!”
BOOOM!! BOOOM!! BOOOM!!
“W-what was that!?”
An Imperial Officer rushes into the office, delivering urgent news.
“G-General! Our runway has been destroyed!! Our wyverns are sitting ducks! We got no way to regain the airspace now!”
“No! That can’t be!”
The Imperial Soldiers stationed at the base tries to resist, but some are being dragged into a slaughter parade by several Vulcan Tank and Light Armored APC that possesses .50 caliber when the armor is pushing forward. Liberator Tank S Variant quickly dispatched the land dragon before it can be deployed for attack. The Stinger Tank launches missiles to destroy the remaining Wyverns in the air.
Lieutenant General Randa continues to coordinates the base defenses. Any available troops are immediately going to fight the Celestina Empire’s Mechanized Regiment. The 5th Mechanized Regiment “Refractor Digger,” led by Yuuna Caskett, is dropping Mechs, Tanks, and Infantries from all sides to trap them.
“Get out from here!! Run!!”
“GYAAAHH!!”
The Papaldia soldiers are being squashed one after another by A-4 Strider and the Mechs. Those who did not run in time are being crushed to death when the walker stomps on them. They can’t bring the walker down, let alone the Mech that can move faster than they can imagine.
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The Celestina Empire, The Papaldia Empire’s Industrial District
“Area secure!!”
“Call the “Blue Chip” Company to start extracting the blueprints!”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
“Izumi. Take your units to the Imperial Base and assist Yuuna. The 10th Mech Regiment will take over all the defenses around here.”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
Izumi quickly takes her Regiment to assist Yuuna in destroying the Papaldia Empire’s Military Base.
The Mech Regiments are dropping the Mechs for various sizes. There are some heavy mechs with a bulky build, a medium mech loaded with standard weapons, such as autocannon, and a light mech with a blade equipped on its arms, while the Vulcan gun was installed at the forefront of the arm components.
The Papaldia Empire factory workers, witnessing this, realize that they are fighting with the superpower. They are being detained in a plaza while Mechs and Infantries are setting up a perimeter around the entrance to the Industrial area. The citizen of the Papaldia Empire, who saw the workers at the plaza, start to gather. Feena and the Mech Regiment stopped their movements at the entrance to the factory.
“No one goes beyond this line, or we will kill you. If you want the workers back, identify them, and we will release them. We will not accept any deceit as the penalty will be death on sight.”
The 1st and 2nd Company “Blue Chip” lands inside the factory once the factory is clear from hostiles and the Ixion batteries are also clear from the enemies.
“All right, men. Time to work and extract the blueprints.”
“Yes, sir!”
The personnel is quickly entering the factory to start scanning the magic gem processing refinery. They scan every inch of the refinery materials, from the raw magic gems, into a fine Tears of the Wind God. They also seize the Ixion Anti-air Batteries and waiting for the extraction.
“Ma’am! We start scanning! Estimated time to complete, three hours.”
“That long?”
“Uh… Yes, Ma’am. The process is quite… complicated.”
“That’s fine. We can build one once we scan this.”
Feena wants to steal it, but it requires several Troop Carriers to transport it. She can extract it if the refinery is disassembled into pieces, but it will take more time than she can expect. She won’t rely on Primordials either, so she has to use this method to extract the equipment without taking it away.
The factory workers gather at the plaza, fearing their lives, and it includes the Papaldia Imperial Soldier that surrenders to the Celestina Empire. They saw how powerful the Celestina Empire is, let alone their strength that was impossible to defeat with their technology.
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The Imperial Base
“We lost the supply depot and stables!”
“They’re coming to the headquarters!”
“More enemies are coming from behind! They’re coming from the Industrial District!”
The reports make Randa grit his teeth and clench his fist. The Celestina Empire almost destroyed their base in just twenty minutes, and from a hundred and fifty thousand stationed at the base, only ten thousand remaining.
“Fall back!! Fall back!!”
CRAASSHH!!
The glass break as Randa and the Officers are taking covers behind the table.
“They made it here!”
“Sir! We need to surrender!”
“That’s absurd! We will never surrender!”
“But, sir! Look at our base!”
When Randa stood up, the officer saw some red dot on Randa’s head. A second later, a bullet pierces through his head, as the last moment Randa saw was a sniper is aiming right at his head.
“The general is down!”
“Surrender!! Raise the flag of surrender!!”
But the Celestina Empire did not give any mercy. The Stinger Tank, Liberator Tank, and Vulcan Tank are gathered in front of the Headquarters. Yuuna and Izumi give the command to obliterate it.
“Demolish it!”
Before the Papaldia Empire have a chance to raise a white flag, the Headquarters was destroyed by the tanks. The communications room was captured, and Celestina infantries took the equipment before the demolition team arrives to destroy it.
Once there was nothing left at the base, Yuuna, Izumi, and their units are withdrawing into the Industrial District to rendezvous.
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The Celestina Empire, Industrial District
“We’ve confirmed that the Imperial base has been destroyed, and both Izumi and Yuuna’s unit are marching here as planned.”
“Good. How long until the scan is complete?”
“It takes more time, Ma’am. The structure is more complex than we thought.”
“It can’t be helped, then…”
The citizens of Duro slowly gather around the entrance to the factory. They are watching the Celestina Imperial Soldiers while Feena orders the soldiers to remain on alert.
“Don’t do anything stupid, soldiers. All fighters and bombers, return to the Verlaine Kingdom.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The fighters, interceptors, and bombers are withdrawing from the sky. The locals, witnessing the aircraft started to fly away, slowly go out of their house once they no longer heard any aircraft in the air.
The black smoke and the mighty red continue to run rampage around the Imperial Base. While in the Industrial Area, the damage was kept to a minimum in the civilian area. Celestina already marks the target to demolish, such as weapons production, Magic Gem Refinery, and materials for the military.
“Once Yuuna and Izumi are here, order them to plant charges on the military factory.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
The civilians are still scared of what Celestina will do once they gather themselves. Are they going to kill them, or maybe doing some atrocities that usually the Papaldia Empire does? It becomes a common secret that the Papaldia Empire enjoys rape and killing the barbarians. But, in front of the Celestina soldiers, they knew that their heads would fly away if they do the same thing.
The country they wage war right now is a country that has surpassed them in any aspect, and the officials of the Papaldia Empire haven’t realized they pick the wrong country to wage war.
When people gather in a gloomy mood, a child breaks through the line as the ball falls in front of him, rolling to where Feena is. She stops it with her feet, picking up the ball, and looks at the kid while she waves her hands down, so her personnel won’t aim at the citizens. In fear of her son’s life, the mother of the kid attempts to rush when she realizes that her son was caught by Feena, but the surrounding citizens stopped her.
“Ma’am! Stop! Stop!”
“N-no!! Please!! Spare my children!”
Feena takes the ball and approaches the kid who is looking at her innocently.
“Is this ball yours?”
“Yes…”
“Come here.”
Feena lifts the kid, holding him at her left arm while she holds the ball.
“Before I can give you the ball, is your father works here?”
“I don’t know…”
Feena only chuckles as she took the kid into the plaza.
“Now tell me, where is your father?”
“Mmm… Daddy is there…”
“Where?”
“There…”
Looking at the middle line, Feena looks at them.
“Who is the father of this child? I want him to stand up!”
The father of the kid stood up, and his legs were shaking in fear.
“Daddy!”
“Ssshh… Sshh… Don’t.” Gazing at the man that has just stood up, Feena gives him the order. “You, come here.”
The workers fear of their life and their body shivers, thinking of the public execution. When the man stops in front of her, Feena hands the kid back to him.
“Here, hold him.”
“Y-yes…”
“And here’s the ball.”
It seems the kid is happy when the ball is back to him. Feena looking at the kid, “Now, you be nice to your mommy and daddy, okay?”
“Okay…”
“Good. As for you…”
The man gulps when Feena stares at him. “Follow me.” Surprisingly, she guides him to the exit once he hears her commands to follow her. The kid's mother looks surprised when Feena brings her husband and her son into the entrance.
“Let that woman go.”
The people who restain her release her as Feena’s instruction. She rushes into her husband and her kid, crying in joy as Feena didn’t kill them.
“Now, you three go back to your house. I don’t want any more bloodshed than this.”
“Y-yes, Ma’am… Thank you.”
The people who witnessed that got their mood to brighten a bit. Feena also finds keeping the workers captive is quite a hassle for her, so she decides to release all workers and soldiers.
“Bring those guys here and make sure they won’t come back here again!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The Celestina soldiers are approaching the workers and the soldiers, ordering them to get up and march into the entrance.
“Get out of here!”
In a frenzy, the civilians quickly disperse themselves as they are grateful that Celestina releases them. Before they leave, Feena gives them a warning.
“Tell your Emperor that if they want to continue fighting! We’re more than welcome to smash them to pieces!”
With that, Feena and her unit continue to guard the industrial district.
Two hours later, the scan was complete, and the Blue Chip Companies were able to obtain the full blueprints of the Ixion Anti-Air Batteries and Magic Processing Refinery.
“We’ve finished scanning the technology, Ma’am!”
“Good. Set it up with explosives, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
The people of Duro look at the aircraft start coming again, but there are no explosions heard after that. It seems it was a transport aircraft to load all of the personnel.
“Is this everyone?”
“Yes, Ma’am! The demolition team has just made it back into the Troop Carrier!”
“Excellent. Let’s get out of here. Let’s go!”
When the last Troop Carrier is lifting off, the demolition team detonates the charges, destroying the entire military factory. Magic Refinery, weapons production, and equipment are destroyed into pieces while sparing civilian production.
The Operation: Bag Snatcher ends with a huge success. The entire Papaldia Soldiers at the Imperial base are killed in action. Additionally, the Celestina Empire does not take twenty thousand Papaldia workers and soldiers that surrender at the Industrial District as prisoners of War. Celestina gives the Papaldia Empire compassion and mercy while also showing the Empire that Celestina can be ruthless and merciless.
Faira looks at the destruction as she confirms that the factory was completely destroyed.
“Job’s done. Let’s get out from here.”
Faira later brings the photographs to the media company to be published on a military magazine's monthly release. The Main Council wants to utilize this as propaganda to deter the enemy’s strength.
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The Papaldia Empire, 5th August 1524 / 225, 3rd Foreign Affairs Department
Two days after Operation: Terror Snatcher, Remille made up her mind and visited Kyeos. Since Kyeos holds the highest authority to negotiate with the Celestina Empire and not summon him, she comes to visit his office.
Elto and Hans are also coming with her, wanting to find the truth why Celestina selected Kyeos as the chief negotiator from the Papaldia Empire. Once they arrived at the receptionist, they were guided by Head Clerk Rita into Kyeos’s office, and she knocked on the door.
Knock Knock
“I brought Miss Remille and the Officials!”
“Enter!”
The heavy door opens, revealing Kyeos and Silvano. Kyeos was sitting on his chair, and so was Silvano.
“Have a seat.”
Once Remille, Elto, and Hans are sitting down, Kyeos looks at them before asking them questions.
“Did you open the scroll?”
“Yes…”
“Have you realize your mistake?”
“Yes…”
Remille can only be ashamed at this moment. Never in her life was she humiliated this bad. The questions from Kyeos hurt her further, and she notices a girl around her early 20’s looking at them.
“W-who is that girl?”
“She’s from the Celestina Empire, Regal.”
“W-what!?”
“Kill her!”
When Elto and Hans are about to draw their flintlock, Silvano swiftly moves to the back, and she places both of her daggers right in front of their neck, ready to kill them.
“Don’t move, or I will kill you both.”
“W-wha…”
Dropping their weapons, Silvano only makes a small ‘Humph’ before putting her dagger back into her sheath.
“How are you feeling? Is it painful to have your Capital base and Industrial district destroyed on the same day by our hands? Still want to fight us?”
“Kh…!!”
Sweats start to gathers on their forehead, and Kyeos only watches them in silence as Silvano taunts them further.
“If you send your diplomats in the first place, you won’t be suffering like this. Even after we kick your army out from both Verlaine and Selarong, you still want to fight us.”
Returning to her seat, Silvano looks at them.
“Barbarian country this, barbarian country that. You should have realized why Mu admits Celestina as a Superpower in the first place. For us, we view you as a pure uncivilized country that wants nothing but conquest. We’re not like other countries that wages war one after another for dominance and enslaving them, nor will we use technology to coerce them. How pathetic.”
Remille, still sweating, swallowing every word that Silvano gave to her. She looks at Silvano in regret, wanting to save her Empire from destruction.
“I… I admit it was our mistake to do so… and we… we want to surrender.”
“What?”
“We want to surrender, Lady Regal.”
Looking at how Remille begs for her mercy, Silvano only sighs.
“Convince your Emperor and all officials on the emergency meeting. If you can’t convince him, we will convince him in our way.”
“Y-yes, Ma’am.”
Silvano only stares at them while she gives them the paper they need for the emergency meeting.
“Here’s all the paper needed for the emergency meeting. By that time you can’t convince the Emperor, we will do it in our way.”
Remille knows that if she ruins things up here, then there’s no doubt that the Celestina Empire will come and crush them. The destruction of both capital Esthirant and industrial city Duro in a single day proves that the Celestina Empire can conduct multiple attacks simultaneously.
“Now, we won’t accept any surrender other than from Emperor Ludius himself. Since he authorizes the extermination of the citizens of the Celestina Empire, he will be the one that will apologize to us and declare the surrender.”
“Understood…”
Silvano leaves the room, leaving Kyeos with Remille, Elto, and Hans.
“Who is that girl, Kyeos?”
“She’s an agent from the Celestina Empire, a member of the Zealot Strike Force. You see how powerful she is, right? Even I won’t dare to lay my hand on her.”
“How are we going to hunt her down, then?”
“There’s no point in hunting her down, Elto. She got eyes and ears everywhere. She even helps us by sedating the spies from other kingdoms to keep their presence to a minimum. She’s an assassin, but she also has talent as a diplomat.”
“That’s impossible…”
“I exchange a lot of information with her. When Miss Remille waged war on the Celestina Empire, it was according to their plan.”
“W-what!?”
“Does that mean we fall into their hands from the beginning!?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
Kyeos can’t deny Remille’s question when the Papaldia Empire has fallen into Celestina’s hands upon declaring war on the Celestina Empire. None of them believes this, even Kyeos himself.
“What happens if we send a diplomat?”
“If we send a diplomat, we won’t even suffer these losses in the first place, let alone touching the Celestina Empire and any country that was allied with Celestina.”
“No… It can’t be…”
Remille weeps with regret. She has never faced such humiliation that she has to bear. It’s the first time for Kyeos, Elto, and Hans to see Remille crying in regret. Both Elto and Hans are also regretting this since they are not capable of stopping this war. Now, their only best chance is to convince Emperor Ludius, where the meeting will be held in three days from now on.
“Kyeos… The meeting will be held three days later at the palace.”
“Understood. I will be there along with my officials.”
The meeting ends with Remille and the 1st Foreign Affairs official preparing for the emergency meeting.
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The Papaldia Empire, the Pardina Café
“The meeting will be held in three days.”
Jill sips a drink with Silvano once they have finished their errands.
“Good. I will inform the Main Council to make preparations.”
“I will also be quitting my job as a maid on the palace.”
“So you want to make your body doubles to deceive them?”
“Yep.”
Placing the cup, Silvano shakes her head.
“No. I don’t want you to quit your job, Jill.”
“Why’s that? My job is complete once they surrender, isn’t it?”
“No. I think we will be staying here for a while, perhaps until the situation where the Papaldia Empire’s situation was stable after the war.”
“I see… Is it perhaps Commander Lyrallei wants us to keep an eye on the Papaldia Empire?”
“Yes. Probably from the Commander-in-Chief as well, since he wants to marry Rosaria.”
“Understood.”
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Three days later, 8th August 1524 / 225, The Imperial Palace of the Papaldia Empire
“We shall now begin the morning emergency meeting.”
This meeting regarding the nation’s crisis had no formal structure, and it was simply a venue to exchange basic information. Everyone had a grim expression; there wasn’t even a hint of a smile on any face. Attending the meeting were the country’s top management officials, from Emperor Ludius on down. This included Remille, 1st Department Head Elto, 2nd Department Head Rius, and 3rd Department Head Kyeos.
The meeting to decide the empire's future and deciding their action against the Celestina Empire was starting.