Day 24 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016

Dustor City, Grizzle Province

The trial was held that weekend with the evidences found.

It was a messy affair that Victoria didn’t want to recount. She had asked for help from Adefine to conceal the transport of Colonel Grant to the military prison as to not alert the true traitor. The trial was closed down from the public for the same reason, with the minimum number of higher-ups. Unfortunately, both Palmer men just had to be there. Victoria had observed them, though, but both of them showed puzzled look when they saw Trina. Her feelings said they didn’t know about Trina being the traitor.

She wasn’t sure she should believe her feelings any longer.

She did feel a bit off when she met Trina again before. But she thought… Trina was a good classmate and friend back in the academy, and since she heard about what happened to her father the Marquis, she amounted the weirdness to that matter. But clearly Colonel Grant was quite a greedy one who weren’t above killing people to achieve her purpose.

So, what happened to her old classmate? What changed? Perhaps she should believe in her feelings more and shouldn’t let hope interfered.

Because of that, Luz almost got killed. Another one of her friends almost fell dead just to protect her… Victoria gritted her teeth. She was careless. She shouldn’t have sent Luz alone without backup. She knew Luz was older than her and clearly capable, but Victoria didn’t want anyone dying for her. Not again.

They didn’t manage to get anything out of Trina. Instead, the Colonel died, committed suicide in her cell when no one was watching. They still didn’t know if there was any other traitor within, or who paid her to do so…

Everything frustrated her, but, on the bright side, she managed to free Dev. More good news was that Doctor Wentworth had finally finished the antidote for those unconscious trainees, although they still didn’t know who put poison on their weapons. Needless to say, they gave the whole weaponry a thorough wash-down.

It was quite grand, all in all. Although now that they had resolved that, she had another problem.

The Crimson Corps’ news had yet to come through. She was worried something might’ve happened, but Alize had reported that some of the Corps’ member in the capital were still around. She wasn’t sure what happened either. Anyway, Alize had started helping gathering everyone. She hoped that it was nothing big. Maybe she should go back to take care of it herself, she thought, but before she could consider that thought even further, a young soldier walked rather hurriedly towards her.

“Your Highness!” He said, with a bit of panic. “General Adefine invites you to join the emergency meeting.”

Emergency meeting? She walked forward with the soldier boy. “What happened?”

“There’s news from the South Watchtower,” the boy replied with a low voice. “Lirsk are coming… with a huge army.”

Her expression sank. That was bad news. “How big?”

The boy swallowed. “More than three thousand soldiers,” he whispered. “Although, there would still be some time until they arrived.”

Victoria narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t push the soldier boy any further. The questions she had would have to be asked to the generals, along with the strategy to handle the situation. Still, how soon?

When she entered the conference room, the meeting had already started. All the higher officials in the room greeted her politely, with the exception of General Palmer who likely held a grudge against her. Victoria nodded towards them all and sat down next to General Adefine. “I heard about the situation. How far are they?”

“They would arrive after sundown, and most likely won’t attack right away,” Krish Gale responded. “There’s still some time.”

The Dustor troops had taken care of the Lirsk camp outside the city with the help of Northern Goldburg’s and Cacao’s aide armies. It was a moderate battle, with the minimum number of casualties. The total of armies that were in Dustor right now added up to a little above a thousand. The situation was not impossible, but it was certainly bad. They might not be able to hold Dustor. “How the hell did they manage to gather that many soldiers?” She muttered under her breath.

The meeting continued with the strategy they should use to handle this. Unexpectedly, Krish, the Lieutenant General of Grizzle, suggested to sacrifice Dustor and retreated to the next city.

“Absolutely unacceptable,” Palmer said, and Victoria found that she was agreeing with him. She didn’t want to give Dustor up. Dustor was the capital of the Grizzle province, a big city with many citizens in it. It was also an important hub for trade routes with many merchants walked its road. The impact of giving it up would be tremendous.

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“It would save us a lot of casualties,” Krish replied seriously. “The City of Liath was also strong in terms of defense. As it was located in the valley of the mountain range, Lirsk couldn’t circle around. If we did so, we can get more time to wait for the Villace army.”

Victoria didn’t comment. Of course, she knew that Krish wanted to avoid the casualties. But giving up Dustor like that…

She wasn’t sure she agreed.

The princess turned to her old mentor. “What do you think, General?”

Adefine frowned, considering things. “We might be able to hold for a day and rush an aide army from the capital.”

Victoria sighed. Originally, that was exactly her plan with the Crimson Corps. “Half the Naveland Army is already here and defeated,” she heard Krish said. “I’m not sure it was a good idea for us to take even the other half and left the capital defenseless.” Of course, there was also the Archduke’s army in the capital, but no one mentioned that. They knew the Archduke’s private army wouldn’t help—not unless he got something in return.

Those private armies wouldn’t act unless their territory was attacked.

“Of course, we shall leave the minimum number to defend Naveland,” Adefine replied. And then he threw the question back to her. “What do you think, Your Highness?”

She wasn’t sure what to say. Krish was worried than holding on would cause more casualties than necessary, but… “We evacuate the citizens,” she said, “and then we fight back.”

Krish wanted to argue, she could see it, but as he knew he wouldn’t win, he fell silent instead. The discussion continued with the military strategy they had to use to defend when their number was so low compared to the enemy. Victoria couldn’t help but sigh, but she still didn’t want to give up Dustor.

Mayhap she should have done so…

***

It was noon when they stood on the city walls, overlooking the hills and river to the south. The sun hung high in the sky and it felt like everything was burning hot. Victoria looked towards the Major of the Fourth Company and smiled. “Are you ready?”

They returned his rank and his recovered soldiers that very day, as they were facing war. “As ready as I could be, Your Highness,” Dev replied.

They were planning to raid the enemy camp on the other side of the river before the other three thousand soldiers arrived. It was an effort that could just be a futile one, and the Palmers were too eager to shove it to the newly reinstated Major. “Be careful.”

Before he could reply though, she was soon called by her aides to some things she needed to attend to. Dev bowed as she smiled at him and walked away.

“Oh, look who is here.”

Dev sighed and turned to Torin Palmer, who had been downright hostile since his release from prison. “Colonel,” he saluted politely yet reluctantly.

Torin scoffed. “You still dared to stand here so shamelessly!”

Dev looked at him. “I did nothing wrong.”

“Ha! Look at you now, being the princess’ dog! Woof, bark after her!”

He was being quite childish, Dev thought. On another thought, imagining himself barking after the princess was quite a funny image. He was about to reply when another voice suddenly answered. “Dog? Is it an insult to me, Lieutenant Colonel?”

They both snapped their eyes to the newcomer. It was another of the Princess’ aide, the royal strategist, Ethan Paulo. His father was the famed knight and military general, Sir John Paulo, who was back in the day, along with General Adefine and King Gilbert, quelled the Lirsk rebellion.

Torin paled quite visibly. “Sir Paulo,” he said, smiling forcefully. “No, of course not. Please excuse me.” He ran away quite quickly.

“What a coward,” Ethan said, which echoed Dev’s sentiment. “How are you feeling?”

Dev bowed. “Thank you, Sir Paulo.”

“Oh! No, no need to address me so formally,” he laughed. “Is the preparation ready?”

“Yes, sir,” Dev answered readily. He then took in all the Strategist’s armored attire. “Are you…?”

“Ah, yes, I’m coming along,” Ethan replied. “I want to look through the camp myself. Maybe can find some clues.” He sighed. “I’m really not sure with the battle this coming evening.”

Dev was startled that he started discussing the upcoming battle with that tone. All the other soldiers were already skeptical and thought they were marching to their deaths. To know that the strategist even thought to was not reassuring. “Sir…”

“I’m sorry, probably shouldn’t say that while we’re getting ready to head to enemy’s camp,” Ethan shook his head. “Well, I’ll leave you to your preparation.”

Dev nodded, and inclined his head as Ethan left.

He looked down, far to the hills and river, to which they were heading.

***

That evening, they went to the enemy camp. The air was silent when they arrived and other than a few human soldiers, they didn’t meet much opposition.

Well, at least that was what they thought at first.

After Dev saw Ethan slipped into the leader’s tent, presumably to confront the captain, suddenly tens or perhaps hundreds of wild dogs were released to them. No, not wild dogs. Maybe it’s wolfhounds. Or… maybe they were hellhounds.

“Fourth Company, come with me!” He yelled and they charged.

The situation was quite chaotic. The hellhounds came from everywhere and started attacking them. They were huge, and many, too—it was the struggle for his company to take care of them. When they finally did, they didn’t get out of it unscathed. Many of them laid bloodied with broken bones on the ground, dead.

Dev heaved out a sigh and made a beeline to the biggest tent there. He flapped open the tent and was startled to find the enemy captain was dead on the corner, while the royal strategist bowed down, looking quite heavily wounded. Ethan was still trying to find something on the desk, though, despite his condition.

“Ah, Major, would you help?”

Dev nodded and helped Ethan reorganize the papers on the desk. Somehow, he found something that startled him. “Sir, look at this!”

Ethan looked towards the paper on his hands. “When the eagles were making chaos, use the chance to grab the gem…” The more they read, the uglier their face became. It alluded to the princess, and their plan to attack the side of the city while letting some hired mercenaries kidnap the princess. No, no, Dev knew better. It wasn’t just any mercenary. They mentioned the spider, and chills went up his spine.

Arachnids.

“Go,” said Ethan. “I’m injured. You need to ride hard back to the city and warned Her Highness.”

Dev took a look at the injured strategist, and after calling some of his soldiers to help the man, he rode his horse back to Dustor as fast as he could.

He was just hoping he would arrive on time. []