Duke August was able to raise a 9.000 strong army within 2 months. He left a thousand soldiers back in the city to protect it. The army of the Aristocratic Faction was around 25.000 soldiers and they sent 10.000 soldiers to Aruburn after they heard the Marques Loit’s defeat at the siege. It would take Duke August’s army around 2 weeks to arrive in the capital, the road infrastructure was not the best, most of the road was just dirt roads.

Duke August originally wanted to wait for the Aristocratic army and fight them when they besieged the city again. However, Lucas learned the capital had been under siege for 5 months and he insisted the Duke immediately sallied out and brought the fight to them. Lucas had found a favourable position to do a pitched battle with the Aristocratic army and he wanted to use it to their advantage. The Duke gave in to Lucas’ idea.

A few days later, they arrived at the location, they set up their camp near the area. Lucas knew that they had to be the ones to attack and it would be a foolish idea for the enemy army to attack them. However, he had a number disadvantage, 9.000 against 10.000 was not that big difference, but it was only less than half of the enemy's actual army, he did not want to waste most of the army fighting the enemy's detachment.

His only choice was to disperse his army in uneven numbers and hope the enemy would disperse theirs in an even number.

“Will they fall for the deception?” said Lucas. He was concerned whether the nobles would bite the bait.

“They probably will, the noble will disperse their army in even numbers if they don’t know the number of the enemy,” said Duke August.

“That’s foolish.”

The Duke nodded. “Of course.”

The meeting was held between the Duke and Lucas to discuss the plan of the battle.

“Alright, I will gamble on this chance,” said Lucas. If his gamble did not work, he would use the ship’s drone support to defeat the enemy.

However, he did not like the idea of using the ship to help them win a battle. He was afraid of the consequences if he had used the ship. He had a feeling there was a strange force, hidden and unknown to the people, that existed on this planet. He suspected the Unknown Area was the centre of the force and until he learnt of this hidden force or that area, he would try not to use the ship and brought attention to himself.

The Duke was tapping on the table. “Are you sure of this plan.?”

“Yes. If they spread their numbers evenly, we will have an advantage on one side and exploit the advantage to defeat them one by one.”

“Hmm, then we are depending on our smaller side to hold out until we are done with our side and then help them.”

“Yes”–Lucas pointed at a location on the map–“and that is why I chose this place for our weaker detachment to defend.”

The Duke looked at the place he pointed. It was a path, an opening, within the forest near the place where they camped. The path was large enough for a small army to traverse through, but if they had to fight in there they would not be able to deploy their army at once. The Duke understood what Lucas meant, it was a chokepoint, Aristocratic army of 5.000 would not be able to fight with all their forces at once against the Duke's detachment of 2.000. Giving them an equal number of forces fighting against each other.

“I see, you planned to use the terrain to our advantage,” said the Duke.

“Yes, this place is not too far or too near for the enemy to forget about. They will have to worry about our flanking force if they decide to leave that place uncontested. And, when they arrive there with superior numbers, there is a great chance they will attack our position and try to flank our main army.”

“So you have a plan to deal with them?”

“Yes, at least until we can send reinforcement and flank the enemy with our main army.”

“Great. I trust your plan” Duke August smirked.

Ariana walked through the camp, she was supervising the conditions of the crossbows and archers force she was given to command. She was responsible for the training of crossbows to the army and because of that, she was given command of a force of 1.000 soldiers, consisting of crossbowmen and archers–a regiment. When she was given the task to train the crossbow force, she told Lucas about the tactic she would like to use. It was a tactic used by an old well-known mercenary group, the Genoese Crossbowmen.

The Genoese Crossbowmen used a team of 3 people to operate together. One would be a shooter, one would hold a shield–pavise–and the other would reload the second crossbow, essentially doubling the rate of fire of the crossbowmen.

Lucas approved the idea and she started training the crossbowmen with the tactic. She was satisfied with the result of the training and was sure the crossbow would play a key role in the battle.

Ariana kept walking and observing the activity of her people. Then suddenly a voice was calling her. “Captain Ariana!”

“Hello Sally,” said Ariana. It was Sally, one of the people she trained. Sally sat with others at a campfire.

“Captain, come, join us,” said Sally. Ariana decided to join them and took a rest from walking around the camp.

“Here, Captain, a soup,” said Olmund. He offered her a cup of soup.

“Thank you, Olmund.” Ariana took the soup and ate it.

“Have you heard of any plans?” asked Roni.

Sally, Olmund and Roni were in a team together as crossbowmen. They have known each other since the training.

Ariana stopped eating the soup. “We will fight them here, I do have not any detailed plan yet.”

“I see.”

“Captain, do you know the knight named Robert?” asked Olmund.

“I don’t, why?” asked Ariana.

“Well, you see”–Olmund pointed his finger at Sally–” Sally fell in love with that guy.”

“Olmund!” said Sally. Her face was red.

“Ahh, I see. How do you meet?”

“Well, it was at the training field, I was taking care of the crossbows then he came to help.” Sally smiled “Then he asked to go to the market, ehehe”

“What a lovely story.”

“Don’t trust her Captain, she probably exaggerated the story,” said Olmund. Sally punched Olmund on the arm.

“Oh, and Roni also has someone, right Roni?”

Roni looked at Sally. “It is not your concern.”

“Ehh, it is. Come one, who was it?”

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“I don’t have one.”

“Liar, who made that tassel on your sword?” said Sally. She pointed at his sword.

“Oh, right,” said Olmund, “Roni is not the kind of guy who would put a decoration on his sword.”

Roni gave in to Olmund and Sally's nagging. “It was given by someone from my village, she was sent by mother to deliver a letter to me and she was the one who made the tassel.”

“I see, your lover then,” said Sally.

“Well, my mother wished for me to marry her in the letter.”

“What. Did you tell her?”

“Yes, and she was happy.”

“Don’t forget to invite us!” said Olmund.

“Sure.”

Sally was jealous. “Uggh, to think I would be beaten by Robert.”

“You don’t follow up his move, what should he do then?” said Olmund. He mocked her.

“I was busy alright, the training and others.”

Ariana listened to their conversation while eating the soup she was given. She chuckled at the silliness of her men, she felt grateful to have them in her army. She looked around her and thought about what would happen to these people, would they survive or not? She knew Lucas saw them as only pieces on the board, but she saw them as human beings, people who had family and friends.

When she was at the Imperial Guard Academy, she was chosen to continue to the officer training. All of the officer cadets would join the Imperial Guard, however, enlisted cadets–other rank cadets–would sometimes be assigned to the Imperial Navy after their graduation to directly support the war effort against the Roktarian.

She was taught, as an officer, to disregard feelings and attachment to her subordinate and prioritise the plan given by her superior. Throwing her humanity to achieve a victory of a greater plan, she was disgusted by the doctrine and could not bring herself to do that. And now her resolve would be tested, would she follow Lucas’s outrageous order–if any–to achieve victory, or would she disregard the order to save herself and her men?

A revelation came to her. “Could this be the reason why Grandpa abandoned his order?” she muttered with a soft voice. Ariana was shaken by this, she promised to become a person different from her grandfather, but now she had the same thinking and feeling as his.

Ariana was in deep thought when suddenly she was woken up by their conversation. “Did you see the tassel on Lord Lucas’ sword?” said Sally. Ariana was startled.

“A tassel?” she asked her. She guessed the tassel might be from Bianca.

“Yes, a blue tassel,” said Sally, “ah, could it be from the little lady?”

Ariana was confused. "Yep, I can confirm the tassel was from the little lady. The maids were talking about it, " said Olmund.

"Hey, you guys were talking about tassel this tassel that, what does it mean?" asked Ariana with an annoyed face.

"Ahh, you don't know about it, Captain?" said Sally, "It is a good luck charm given to a lover or someone a girl has an interest in when they go into war or adventure."

"A lover? Lucas could not see her romantically!" said Ariana, irritated.

Olmund was startled when he saw her annoyed and he said, "Well, probably the lady look at him that way."

"Why are you so sure it was from her?" said Ariana, raising her voice, "you know, the tassel could be from Bianca!"

"W-well Captain, it could but why would she give it to him when she is going with him?" said Sally.

Ariana fumed and pouted. "Why would he do that!? He is busy right, if he is busy why would he have the time to meet with her?"

"C-Captai–"

"If he had the time to be with her, why would he not meet with me!? I'm not that busy, right? If he wants to meet me when I am busy I w–"

"How about you go to him instead of waiting for him to come to you like a fool?" Someone cut her off.

She was fuming and now she snapped because someone cut her off. She turned to the voice and said, "Who th–” She stopped after realising who it was. “Eh, Bi-bianca?"

Bianca was standing behind her. "Hello Ariana," she said with a smile.

"Bianca, since when did you stand there?" asked Ariana. She was nervous and her face was red.

"hmm~ long enough to tell you to meet him instead of waiting for him," answered Bianca.

Ariana hid her face with her hand. "Y-you hear everything then."

"Yes."

"Ughh, please don't tell him."

"Hah, whatever you say. Anyway, I'm here to give you an order from Lucas," said Bianca. She pulled out a piece of paper with a drawing of a map and she

"Why did he send you? Can't he come here by himself?" said Ariana. She pouted.

"He is busy"–Bianca pointed toward the general direction of his tent–" and if you want to meet him, go, he would be grateful."

Ariana turned her face away from Bianca and said, "Why should I? If he is serious with me, he should be the one to approach me.”

“I see. With your logic that would mean he is not serious with you,” said Bianca, mocking her.

“You are mean.” Ariana lightly punched Bianca. “I can’t bring myself to meet him.”

“Hah, since both of you went to the festival. You have not met him at all, how is your relationship with him supposed to advance?”

“I’m... embarrassed. Who knows what he will say to me? I-i mean, he likes to tease me. ”

Bianca gave up convincing her and decided to explain the order. “Anyway, this is your order, you are to lead your ranged regiment and a melee regiment to this place.” Bianca pointed at the map.

“Hmm, why?”

“You are tasked to defend this place, at all costs.” Bianca moved away from the map. “Lucas wanted to split their army and this place is ideal for it.”

“I don’t understand, why would he want to split the army?” asked Sally.

“To gain an advantage.”

“Huh?”

“Let me ask you a question, what would you do if an enemy split their army and threatened your army with a flanking manoeuvre?”

Sally answered, “I would split mine to ensure they did not flank my army.”

“Exactly, Lucas assumed the enemy would split theirs evenly.”

“So, he wants to split the enemy and defeat them one by one,” said Ariana.

“Yes.”

Ariana looked at the map and thought of the position of the area she should defend. “This place is a chokepoint, I understand what he wanted from me.”

“Amazing, as expected of the future Lady of Lorien!” cheered Bianca.

Ariana flustered. “Stop teasing me!”

“I’ll leave it to you then.” Bianca stood up and walked away, but before she took a couple of steps, she turned away. “Oh, and I heard a certain lady of Aruburn is fancying Lucas. It appears the candidate for Lady of Lorien is growing.”

Ariana looked agitated after she said that. “Just leave. I will call you if I have questions, ok?” said Ariana with a deadly glare.

“Okay, oh and take off your camp by tomorrow morning and set up camp near that place by tomorrow.”

“Sure,” said Ariana. Bianca left the place and shortly after Ariana, fuming, left Sally and the other and she went back into her tent.

That night, she could not sleep well, her mind was filled with worry about Mary Aruburn's interest in Lucas. Mary was a noble of the kingdom, it would be sensible for Lucas to take her as his partner when she comes of age. She might not be as knowledgeable as her, however, knowledge could be taught. If she did not take the initiative, then he could be taken away from her.

She looked at the hairpin Lucas gave her. She had always worn the hairpin ever since it was given to her. The beautiful lily-shaped jewel decorated the hairpin. The Lily flower symbolises love, fertility, purity and rebirth. The House of Lorien had stood as long as the Imperial Family–House of Zormenia– and the history of both houses was long and unbreakable. Lily was the favourite flower of the first Duchess of Lorien, a princess of the Galactic Imperium. In her honour, the first Duke made lily the symbol of the House of Lorien and he vowed to her, that as long as the blood of Lorien flows within the Galactic Imperium, Lorien shall defend Zormenia until their last blood.

The Galactic Imperium overcame many trials since its founding and each time they were in trouble, the House of Lorien always answered the call from Zormenia. After the destruction from a civil war, Lorien would help rebuild the Empire and they were the ones to explore most of the great unknown of space, giving birth to a new era and generation. The history book pictured the loyalty of Lorien as the eternal love of the first Duke to his wife, the princess of the Galactic Imperium, and if Lorien decided to rebel against the Imperial Family, it would mean the destruction of the Empire.

Ariana always thought the loyalty of Lorien to the Imperial Family was twisted, she heard Lorien would sacrifice themselves if asked by the Imperial Family. It was a rumour she heard and had doubted the rumour. She also heard Lorien was blessed with fertility, often someone from Lorien would have twins–this was true.

Before she fell asleep, Ariana steeled herself to be much more aggressive towards Lucas and make her feelings for him known clearly to him. She would prove to him that she befitted the title Lady of Lorien.