We arrived at the dining room, servants were already on standby in case we needed anything. On the long table already placed the covered dishes, waiting to be unveiled. As we approached the seats, servants stepped in to pull back the chairs.

Mine was the exception however, as I was unexpectedly placed at the head of the table.

Estevan pulled out my chair like a gentleman. “Sister.”

I positioned myself on the table and he gently pushed the chair as I sat down along with the others.

“Now then,” Estevan clapped his hands. “Remove the lids!”

The servants altogether removed the lids that covered the dishes. In an instant, the pleasant smell of freshly cooked delicious food permeated the air, filling the lungs of all present. The moment the smell touched my nose, I felt my stomach screaming to eat. Hey, calm down.

There was one large plate on the table that wasn’t opened. That must be Estevan’s new recipe.

“Ladies, allow me to present to you. My new dish: White Flower Vegetable Sauced Steak!” He removed the lid.

Wow, that’s a long name!

Setting the name aside, the dish actually had a presentable appearance. It had an assorted fill of sliced vegetables, all cooked nicely. Mixed with them were slices of meat cut thinly, but the meat was well cooked that calls out to you to eat it. Made it more so with the delicious-looking maroon colored sauce spread all over. Presentation was revamped with the white flowers that decorated the edges of the plate.

“Ingredients include a variety of best vegetables, and slices from a healthy pig’s legs. Of course, dipped in a top secret sauce I experimented myself.” He smirked proudly.

Seeing how happy he was to get to show his work, I clapped my hands loudly with a wide and proud smile. About the white flowers though, it’s included in the name but they’re not even in the recipe. Oh well, guess it adds to the appearance.

Awesome job, brother!

“It’s beautifully done, dear brother! I love it.”

As I clapped, only then did the others follow my example.

“Thank you. Now then, let’s not wait any longer and eat. I’m excited about what you all think.”

And thus my brother sat down on the chair next to me, and right beside Mizia.

***

“Can you all please go ahead? I’ll immediately catch up,” I said to the guests as we were leaving the room.

Fortunately, no one hesitated and they all went ahead, back to the training room. Disregarding the servants cleaning up the table, only I and my brother remained. I turned towards him with a smile. The flower he gave me in my hand.

“Truly, the dishes were delicious, brother. As always.”

He smiled, proudly. “And my new recipe? Tell me personally what you really think.”

“It was perfect!”

“Cool!” He suddenly patted my head. “You have been looking brighter lately.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were looking so stressed and troubled. But now, way better.”

“Really?”

“Guess being removed from your job relieved you of some weight off your chest. I’ll say this is a good result.”

I meekly nodded, his hand still on top of my head. He’s really messing up my hair — but that’s alright…

“How is father holding up? Eleden is helping him, right?”

“They’re doing fine.”

“Nothing has gone wrong?”

“None that I know of. It will be fine. Last I heard, Eleden has been allowed to help with the jobs you used to do.”

“He didn’t use to?”

“Apparently not.”

Huh, he must have been tasked with doing the chores and menial stuff. As one would expect.

“Last I heard, he’s working with some merchants. I don’t know the specifics.”

“Wait, what?” I raised my head with wide eyes. “Eleden is?”

“Yeah.”

Hold up, if he’s working with the merchants, then does that mean he’s been made aware of what they were doing? Why didn’t they tell me? Come on!

But… let’s set that aside for now. It’s Estevan’s day.

“I see. How about you, did they have you help?”

“Nothing really. What they do is mostly paperwork, so…” he awkwardly smiled.

I giggled. “Oh dear brother~.” I spread out my arms and quickly wrapped them around him.

“Estelia…?”

“Thank you, my lovely brother.” I closed my eyes as I said those words, my head on his chest.

I felt his arms on my back, his hand gently patting the back of my head. “Anytime. In fact, if you’re hungry, you can request food from me anytime you want.”

“Really?”

“I’ll prepare you the best food in the world.”

I chuckled. “That’s a relief then...”

We let go of each other and I glanced at my flowers. “You have to excuse me now brother, I still need to vase the flowers like the last bundle you gave me.”

“Last bundle…? You mean those? You still have them?”

“Yes, I have them in my room.”

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He looked dumbfounded. “You didn’t throw them away?”

I tilted my head, puzzled. “Why would I do that?”

That’s just stupid. I wouldn’t throw something that special away. I mean, who even does that? Throw away something that someone special gave to you because the day ended? It’s absurd. And the flowers still lived! Somehow. Don’t know how, but that’s good.

Estevan’s smile widened and trembled. The corners of his eyes were suddenly damp. He quickly rubbed them off.

“Brother?”

“It’s nothing, just the onions.”

But there’s no onion around.

I could only smile and give him a kiss on the cheek. “Later, brother.”

“Yeah, yeah, l-later.” He rubbed his eyes again.

And thus I left the room to meet my servants.

I showed the flower to my personal maid. “Mera, would you please help me put these in a vase? I want to put them in my room.”

“Of course, milady.”

***

It was late in the morning, the fading sun losing in the cold winter shone gloriously at the ever so lustrous empire. In the grand castle, there lies a large war room crowded by all kinds of people. But no normal people like the fools and stupid you see everyday on the street.

These were the great minds of the empire. Leaders, politicians, engineers, generals, captains, inventors, and scholars. People under the direct command and service of the Emperor, and he himself acknowledged. People he himself made to serve in the grand castle to quickly aid the empire and himself.

For he believed in an important thing: Strength does not lie on the body alone, but on the sharpness of the mind.

Such is how the largest empire of the continent became and remained as it was. The greatest nation in all of the land. Gifted with mind and raw power. Such is the blessing of the God of Valor.

The war room was both luxurious and unruly, walls embedded with gold and red tapestries. Tables, long and short, placed all over, papers scattered and piling. The people were noisy as they went into the documents and discussed with their workmates.

The emperor, Gawn Ancelin Celum Tornridge, was at the head of the room. He merely sits looking through a page. Despite the discord in his presence, there was no consequence. This room was where to make decisions, not for formalities and flatteries. It was to be expected for everything to be like this. A room for words and voices.

Beside the emperor was his adviser, Alred. “Your imperial majesty, we have a report of a small group showing signs of rebellious behavior in the state of Fetreus. What should be done?”

The emperor lowered the page and turned his sharp and powerful eyes at Alred. “The quickest path, purge them.”

“But your majesty, that might feed the flame. The people there will see this negatively.”

“Is that so? Is it not best to remove the decaying root before it spreads?”

“Ah yes, but in this one, we need a more apparent justification. And it would be best if we settle this peacefully for now. Especially that it’s winter. It is difficult to move things around.”

“I see. Then I say we let their rebel spirit grow for a little. Once we have proper justification, then we can erase them completely.”

“Wise choice, your imperial majesty.”

“But, ensure it looks good. Perhaps we can send my daughter to help with this in time.”

“Understood.”

The emperor slowly returned the page to the pile and organized everything on his table. Once that was done, he rose from his seat and raised a hand. At that instant, the entire crowd in the entire room fell silent and turned towards their ruler with straight postures and firm feet.

After lowering his hand, he spoke. “I trust that you have collected your thoughts in the matter of Wisteria. Therefore, I want us to discuss it now.”

He looked around at everyone and continued. “Our attempts to cripple Wisteria, years of work, have been undone. Our bandits dismantled, our merchants cut off from our line of communications. Why is that? How were we exposed?”

The emperor waited for someone to answer, but a long moment passed, no one did. “No one is going to answer? Any answer will do. Discuss.”

“... Could it be that they realized their declining supplies?” one finally found the courage to answer.

Another one, however, refuted it. “Impossible. Wisteria has yet to reach a critical level. The decline is so subtle they shouldn’t even feel it.”

“But what if they indeed discovered it?”

“How would they even do that? They shouldn’t even begin to imagine something like it.”

“I agree. How do they even get evidence? Records are not centralized. Not like they actually counted all the records all over their capital.”

“Indeed, such a thing is just absurd.”

“But what if they actually did?”

“You’re not being helpful!”

Another chimed in. “What if the merchants blabbed?”

“They wouldn’t, they love themselves and their family too much to do that. Especially not with the reward we offered as well.”

“Besides, our men there could have realized it if the merchants ever did.”

“Then just how…? Could there actually be someone smart enough to see through our schemes?”

“Now that is just absurd. This method has worked for decades, and to different nations, with their own bright minds. And yet we won.”

“We also have no information of anyone too exceptional in Wisteria.”

“Then…”

“What if it was just all a coincidence that the palace decided to clean out the bandits, roughly sometime after we lost our communication with the merchants? Besides, as far as we’re aware, Wisteria has yet to replenish the supplies they lost. They might not have even realized what we did to their overall food supply.”

“Indeed. That could be the case. And with winter here, I doubt they could work to restore their supplies soon. They might even eat through it more.”

“Likely.”

“Yes.”

The emperor raised his hand again, and everyone fell silent. “I asked how they could have realized our actions. You say it may be all a coincidence?”

“Not exactly, your imperial majesty. We just have no exact idea.”

The emperor frowned for the first time. It was rare for these bright men to have no precise and more solid conjecture.

“Could it be the driving force for it was the attack on the capital?” another asked.

“It was not even ours. But that could be the driving force.”

“We even have no idea who they belong to. Wisteria never announced their opponents’ identities. I can’t think of how exactly that can be a driving force without knowing who they are.”

Everyone fell silent, nothing to speak of anymore.

The emperor spoke. “If they did not realize our schemes, and our connection to the bandits and merchants, then what of the Marquis that was suddenly killed?”

One marquis of Wisteria under their control was suddenly found dead. Likely assassinated.

“Definitely not done by Wisteria.”

“Such a waste, he failed to at least take the Wisterian king with him.”

“Indeed, what a waste of time and resources.”

“Could it be that his attempts to kill the monarchs were discovered? Perhaps the monarchs had him assassinated.”

“I doubt it. I don’t take Wisteria to be that kind.”

“We’ve hit another impasse.”

“Have we considered a third-party?”

“Such as? Wisteria has no enemy country.”

“Could be the demons.”

“Highly unlikely.”

“Aside from the unlikely demons, Wisteria has put agents in the homes of their nobles, rendering all our efforts pointless again. Could that not be a sign that they know something is going on?”

“Do you think they know it is us, or they think it can be anyone?”

“What a severe yet clever decision, now we can’t make a new tool.”

“Chances are they just know someone is tampering with their nation.”

“Who else could they suspect? Most of their surrounding countries are their allies.”

“They see us as enemies.”

“How can we even salvage our Wisterian noble connections? It took a lot of work to accomplish those.”

“Not until they remove those agents.”

“And when would that be?”

There was no answer to that question.

“Really made things difficult for us.”

“Everyone, we still have not answered the question, could they have realized our schemes? If so, how?”

They need to know how, for it is a hole in their plans. A problem. They have to first know of the problem before they could fix it and improve on top of it.

However, everyone was silent. There could not be a definitive answer. Not with the limited information they have. But there was just nothing more to learn, not at the moment, anyway.

The emperor, frustrated, sat back down on his seat. “So we know nothing.” He looked at his subjects for a moment. “Wisteria has countered our moves, undoing our progress. It is time we make a more effective move. Our next move shall start everything.”

“What do you have in mind?” asked Alred.

“Your special contact is ready, yes?”

“Yes, he is. Merely waiting for our word.”

“Then we shall do one thing first to make Wisteria shake in their cores. I will send my sons. Time to make use of them.”

“Your sons? You will send them to assault first?”

“Assault? No. I’m not wasting our clean chance for that. We need to find a way to let them in at the center without a fight.” He glanced at his subjects as they began to think.

One man stepped forward and spoke. “You imperial majesty, what about we just send them in for diplomatic reasons to Wisteria? Even Wisteria could not refuse if it was the two princes. An opportunity to talk about peace and cooperation.”

“And they’ll think we are serious, considering it will be royals that are envoys. We can do what we want once we’re inside,” another added.

The emperor smiled slightly. “Perfect, that will indeed be good.”

“Emperor, your sons will be in danger at the belly of our enemy.”

“They are useless and rotting here. They can take this chance to prove their worth and prove who is my worthy successor.”

“Very well.”

“Once winter ends, we can all begin what must be done.”