It was nighttime, deep in a forest a long distance away from the Wisterian capital city. Thick clouds loomed on the night sky, as if to reflect the current gloom of the nation of flowers and romance. For it had just faced a great tragedy that resulted in tremendous damage, and tragic losses. Burned houses littered its streets, heartbreaks shown in the countless tears of its people.

It was a dark mark in the nation’s history.

And within this forest lay the culprits behind its terrible event. Or at least a few of what remained of their forces. Among them was the man from the Empire named Delray, the leader of intelligence gathering in Wisteria. And he was currently the leader of this small group.

It was a small camp, not for soldiers, but for the men that would be required for different needs. They were not soldiers, but that didn’t mean they lacked the capability to fight. In fact, a few of them belonged to the Empire’s shadow order, assassins for the emperor. They were fitting for tasks that would require stealth.

Delray sat by the small campfire, gazing at it with a distant gaze. He didn’t join in and enter the assault on the Wisterian royal capital, for it was not his role. He only watched from outside the city at a safe distance.

At first, everything was going well. However, suddenly, he realized something went wrong. And in the end, he noticed that the fighting had stopped. The Wisterians had begun to fill the spots on the walls. And the empire’s side had not yet returned to him to report that they had succeeded. That could only mean one thing.

They lost… somehow.

With that realization, he returned to this camp. But even after all that, he still couldn’t believe that they lost. How could they even lose? Did they even succeed in at least taking out the nation’s head? He wanted to confirm it, thus he planned on sending a few men again to the city once everything had settled down a little to get more information.

It was not sure how far the empire had reached in their mission. The most important mission was to kill the king. He sent a couple of men earlier, but the city prevented entry. Furthermore, the Wisterians didn’t seem to be in too much turmoil. If the king had died, Delray imagined that their enemies would have been in a mess. However, from his men’s report, that didn’t seem to be the case.

He sighed.

“Hey boss, want to eat?” one of his men asked.

He shook his head. “No. I don’t have the appetite.”

He was not in the mood to do some leisure activities like eating, for he worried how to continue from here on out if they indeed failed. How should he even report this to the Emperor? A lot was at stake in this operation.

The plan was to destabilize Wisteria by laying waste to their royal capital, kill their king, and best if the whole royal family. Without a king to lead their nation, the Empire will be free to enter Wisteria’s territory and take over the country gradually. Even the Holy Kingdom wouldn’t be able to respond in time to help their allies with no head.

He scratched his head in frustration. Every time he was in Wisteria, he always lost his appetite when everything didn't go his way. Most of it stemmed from how the Emperor would react to his failure. Although technically it wasn’t his fault this time, still, he was not exactly uninvolved in this operation. This was a crucial point in the empire’s overall ambition. And failure was not an option.

He heaved a long, exasperated sigh.

Suddenly, the couple of men in front of him jerked up and glared towards the dark trees, their daggers at the ready. Seeing how alert they were, Delray stood up and warily asked.

“What is it?”

“Something is coming.”

As expected of these people, they could sense something was coming. Delray couldn’t hope to reach how sharp their senses were. He grabbed the nearby sword and glared at the direction of where his allies were looking at.

And then Delray heard footsteps coming. There was a chance that it could be a monster. But judging from the sound, it sounded human. He doubted that it would be the Wisterians. This place was far away from the city, and they were mostly focused on that region. Plus, this was in the middle of the forest, even if they lit up a fire, you couldn’t easily see the light from the road.

Therefore, he hoped it was their ally coming. Only an ally would know this place. Delray took a deep breath, anticipating the person that was about to come out of the shadows.

“Lower your weapons, it’s only me.”

It was a muscular and familiar man. Upon seeing him, Delray lowered his weapon and sighed in relief.

“Finally, you’re back, Orven. What took you so long?” Delray said.

The knight, although he was not in his armor but in simple clothing, grinned. In his hand was what Delray assumed to be his lance covered in cloth.

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“Oh? Didn’t think I died, huh?”

“Like anything can easily kill you.”

“Heh. Of course. But forget that for now, I’m starving. Got any food?”

“Yeah.”

“Great.” With a wide smile, Orven approached the campfire.

Delray was truthfully relieved to see his friend alive. And it was true that he doubted anything could kill him in that place. He trusted the strength of his ally. In fact, he had been waiting for him to arrive. He could confirm what had happened in the city from him.

Orven grabbed a roasted meat and sat down on the log before beginning eating. Delray sat down and asked a question.

“What happened to your armor?”

“I had to remove them. Catches too much attention.”

“I see…” Delray also grabbed a roasted meat and took a bite. “So, what happened there, Orven?”

Orven paused and lowered his food. He had a serious look on his face.

“We were winning… However, monsters suddenly appeared.”

“Monsters?” Delray was puzzled about what that could mean.

“Monsters I have never seen before suddenly appeared all over the palace.” He looked Delray in the eyes. “They were so strong, and so many. They swarmed the men, ravaged them like the beasts that they are.”

Even Delray was shocked to hear him acknowledge they were strong. Orven was always confident about hunting monsters. With his strength, he could quickly deal with one. He even enjoyed monster hunting back in the Empire.

“Where did they even come from?”

“I have no idea… But I guess Wisteria summoned them.”

“Can anyone even do that? I never heard something like that before. And even so, that’s an absurd ability to have.”

“Yeah. Been seeing new things lately. Even that teleportation thing.”

Delray heaved a long sigh. “How did you escape?”

“I ran like hell.” He bit on his food with a frown on his face. “I ran for whatever treeline I could see. I realized the moment the monsters overwhelmed our men that we’ve lost.”

Delray grew silent for a moment, imagining what could have happened. “… What happened to the commander?”

“Don’t know about the guy.”

“You left him, huh?”

He turned a strong gaze at Delray. “You expect me to find him in that mess?”

Delray formed a wry smile and shrugged. “You could have tried, you know.”

“Yeah, right.” He scoffed. “I’m loyal to the Empire, but I ain’t risking my life for one commander.”

“Of course…”

“We have plenty of them back home to replace him.”

“What if he was captured?”

“Then he’s captured.”

“You really need to show some compassion for your higher-ups.”

“My higher-up is the Emperor.”

Delray bit on his food. “... So, did we accomplish the main mission?”

“... You mean killing the king?”

“Yes.”

“... I don’t know. Likely not. I couldn’t even find him.”

“Then we failed…”

“Can’t say for certain. Best to gather more information.”

“I suppose… I guess with you confirming that we have definitely failed in our mission of decimating the city, we can inform the Emperor. But…” Delray aggressively scratched the back of his head. “We’ve screwed up more than once.” It was frustrating and scary.

“So you have yet to notify them?”

“I wanted confirmation.”

“Just say you’re scared of reporting we failed and you’ll incur the Emperor’s wrath.”

“Damn, yes, that too. Even his patience has limits. Failing here would harden the situation for those attacking the border.”

“Now that you have mentioned it, they should have begun attacking Wisteria’s border, right?”

Delray sighed. “Yes.”

The plan was the moment Wisteria’s capital city was engaged, the army prepared at the border would begin their march. Gradually take over the territory. With this sudden assault, Wisteria would defend, and at the same time send a report to the king. Now imagine if there was no response from the capital.

Without a proper entity to coordinate with, Wisteria’s army would be disorganized. There were generals, indeed, but how far could they reach once they realized that their king was dead? Even the entire royal family. And the capital was destroyed. There would be chaos. Wisteria would gradually fall apart from the inside.

With those conditions, the empire’s victory would be assured. Their invasion would be swift, and they would take over the territory in no time.

However, now it was a different situation, an undesirable one. At this time, the empire’s forces should have begun their attack. But not in an ideal condition, making the invasion more challenging.

“Command will be furious once they hear our assault failed.” Orven groaned. “Best to report it so they’ll know.”

It was always best to inform your peers of the situation, dire or not. Ignorance can be a crime and a bane.

“Guess I just have to say we still have yet to confirm whether any of the royal family was eliminated.”

“Yeah.”

“... Two of our imperial princes died. Hundreds of our elites are gone. This sucks. Where did we go wrong?” Delray cradled his head in frustration.

It took a heavy toll. An incredibly heavy cost just to bring the ideal condition for the Empire to achieve victory. Delray didn’t even want to face the Emperor considering that both his sons died, even worse now that all efforts have been rendered useless.

Orven remained silent and ate his food.

“By the way…” Delray continued. “What happened to those long eared guys?”

“Well, I saw one get killed. The rest, well, I don’t know. Oh yeah, can you believe it, Delray? Some Wisterian knight survived my killing blow.”

“Survive?”

“Oh, not survive, I mean he didn’t instantly die.”

“Woah, really? How’s that possible?”

“Dunno. But, hey, he died in the end. A bit annoying, but impressive.”

“Was the knight among the best in their ranks?”

“Maybe. But good thing I got to kill him. Less thing to worry about.”

“Huh.”

“That aside, tell me the plan going forward.”

“... Hm, you think there could be survivors on our side?”

“Not sure. But we shouldn’t think about them at the moment. If they survived and escaped, great. We can’t exactly have the time to go search for them.”

“Mm. Then for now we’ll gather information. Make confirmations. After that, we’ll go back, maybe. Depends on their order.”

“It’s getting too dangerous here for us. Getting permission to retreat would take some time.”

“Indeed. But, at least we have a little window to do our job. Well, until the Wisterian capital gets news of the attack at the border.”

“That little window is only like, I don’t know, a few days? That’s too short.”

“Yeah. But if we act, you stay here.”

Orven frowned. “What? Why?”

“We can’t risk anyone recognizing you.”

“... Very well. Honestly, I would prefer we get called back. I want to fight in the frontlines.”

“Of course you do. And you’ll be an effective asset, I’m sure they’ll consider it.”

“Hm. Guess the war really starts now, huh?”

“Yeah.” Delray looked up at the dark, cloudy sky. “I hope all the preparation we’ve done all these years is effective.”

“Let’s hope so, to make things easier. And then, once it is all over, the Empire will finally reign supreme on the continent.”

“And all will be good.”

“Yeah.”

Both of them smiled.

Delray stood up. “I’ll send a bird.”