“So how is your foot?” Annette asks as we ride back to the Capital.

“Oh that, it’s fine… not. Just how could this be fine, my foot was cut off. But, it doesn’t really hurt as much anymore.”

“Hmm… you should take a look for yourself, it has already started to grow back. I think your regenerative ability is getting stronger. At this rate you foot will fully grow back… it just won’t be a humans foot.”

After a short while, the transport comes to a stop and Annette runs off, only to come back a moment later with a wheelchair for me. Waking Irina up, the three of us are instructed to head to the operations room for a meeting. Upon entering we find that everyone else is already here with our group being the last to arrive.

“Since everyone is here we can start now.” King Octave says.

“*snore*”

“… Yes, of course, your Majesty.” One of the Generals say.

“*snore*”

“The estimations for our loses in the previous conflict just now ar—”

“*snore*”

“Alight, will someone please kick that damned sleeping old fool out of this room! His snoring is far too loud and distracting!” Grand General Geoffroy yells.

Many people in the room nod their heads in agreement that removing Sir Zexis from the room is for the best since he won’t contribute anything while sleeping and is just being a nuisance. With most of the room in agreement, some guards come in and drag Sir Zexis out of the room as we resume our discussions. The Grand General goes on to say that while we did have an overall victory, a large portion of the army was lost in the process, to the point where the army can only withstand one more assault before collapsing. He went on to say that the situation gets worse as Sir Zexis is now sleeping again, but the expert that the eastern side has employed, while injured, is still alive.

“And this concludes my post battle report. Moving on to planning ahead, we can still hold out within the city walls for a couple of months with our defence system and food stockpile if we are brought to a siege. This is, however, a worst case scenario in the event our army becomes incapable. However we need not always be on the defencive side here, the eastern army has also taken a hit, while not as large as ours it is enough to halt any offensive move from them for a short time. And to top it off their expert has been injured. I suggest we launch a counter-offensive move and strike while we can before we lose this opportunity.” Grand General Geoffroy says.

“Is there not a lot of risk involved with doing so? While I agree that the eastern side suffered a blow from losing this exchange in percentiles, they still have more total available troops, do they not? Our weapon technology is superior to the east, why do we not wait it out and use the technological gap to beat them into submission?” one of the councilman propose.

*ring… ring…ring*

“Sorry I need to take this call, it’s important. Continue your discussion, I will be back as soon as I’m finished.” Says King Octave as he steps out of the room to answer his call.

“Putting his Majesty’s call aside for now, once a long time ago, in a conversation with Elder Zexis he had mentioned a saying he had heard and I think I suit this situation quite nicely. ‘You must enter the tiger’s den to catch his cubs.’ If we chose to wait, it would take far too long to build enough of a technological gap that can beat out the raw number of troops the eastern army can deploy. Moreover, they are most likely fully aware of the situation our military is in after this last battle. The moment they recover from this exchange is the day we draw our last breath. I propose sending a large military expedition to serve as a distraction while we send in a smaller more elite force to infiltrate the eastern Capital and sever the chain of command. From there we can come out and pincer the remaining enemy forces, crushing them from two sides. This is where our current technology advantage can come into play. While it isn’t enough to win a war on its own, it will be enough to hold out until the infiltration operation is complete.

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As the room gets louder and louder gong back and forth between the two plans of waiting it out or striking while the iron is hot, King Octave returns causing the room to quiet down. After explaining the situation and the idea behind the two plans to King Octave, he comes to a decision.

“Just do whatever you want… would be too irresponsible of me to say, wouldn’t it? While we can just hold up here in the city the plan takes too long and the people would suffer greatly. I think Grand General Geoffroy has the best idea so far, so my decision as King is that we will proceed with the Grand General’s plan. So now there is the issue of deciding the infiltration team. For starters, I will nominate our two guests, Miss Eillim and Miss Irina. I would also like to have Annette to go as well. By now we have a good grasp of their strength, while they may not be as strong as the Elder they are far stronger than any of our other soldiers. And of course, having a field medic like Annette around will help out a lot.”

“While I do not disagree with your choice, your Majesty, but isn’t Miss Eillim severely injured. I do not think it best to put someone like that into such an important position.” Grand General Geoffroy says.

“If I may interrupt, Eillim is currently, by my estimations, expected to fully recover by tomorrow afternoon at the latest and in the morning at the earliest. As such I do not think there will be any problem with her on the infiltration team.” Annette says.

“And just how accurate are those estimations? I’ve seen the injury that Miss Eillim has sustained and it would normally take several months to a year to fully heal even with our technology. Of course, I am also including the time it would take to get used to having a prosthetic limb.” The Grand General refutes.

“Yes, I would agree with you in most cases. However in regard to Eillim, just throw all common medical knowledge out the window. Her regenerative ability is something, unlike anything I have ever seen before, being capable of regenerating her entire arm in a matter of days. And from my observations, her regenerative ability is only getting stronger. The only downside is that the more injuries she sustains the closer she comes to fully transforming into a dragon. Right now I can only hope that a solution is found before we have another dragon problem on our hands.” Annette says.

“Worry not, I believe there will be an answer to the dragonisation before long.” King Octave says.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“I mean exactly what I said. Anyways we should decide the rest of the members.” King Octave says.

Before long we have the entire infiltration team sorted out. Me, Irina, Annette, Lord Pulk, General Alfred, and some of their subordinates. The army is planned to set out in the morning and to arrive at the battlefield by noon. At the same time, we in the infiltration force are to follow before splitting off to infiltrate the Capital.

“With this the meeting is adjourned. Everyone is to meet up and discuss anything that needs to be discussed with your subordinates and rest well for our final stand.” King Octave says before leaving the room.

With everyone trickling out, only us of the infiltration team remain to discuss how we plan to actually enter the Eastern Capital.

“I think we should dig a tunnel and enter from underground!” Irina yells out.

Remembering how she tried to enter this city the first time both me and Annette give cold stares until Irina settles down.

“Come on it was just a joke, I wasn’t being serious…” Irina says turning her head away.

“How about we use Eillim’s breath attack to cause a commotion at the north gate to draw the guards up there. Afterwards, we would run down to the south gate and take out any remaining guards and enter from there.” Annette proposes.

“Well, it seems good enough.” General Alfred says.

“Then shall we go with that? But there is one thing I am worried about. After I use a large scale breath attack, like I did in the testing room from before, I am left in a weakened state for a while.” I say.

“That will be a problem… what should we do then?” Annette asks.

“I’ve actually got a much better plan, and it has far less of a chance of us getting discovered until we make it deep into the city.” Lord Pulk says.

“Then lets hear it.” Irina says.

“Very well. According to the information I’ve gathered there exist an underground sewer system that can be accessed from outside the city walls. We can infiltrate from there and using the inherent darkness of the sewers, we can easily avoid detection from any patrol groups. After that, all we need to do is find a manhole and we are in.” Lord Pulk explains.

“Haha, I knew it. Going underground was clearly the best choice.” Irina yells out.

Ignoring Irina’s little happy moment, both me and Annette have some apprehensions of having to enter the sewer system as it is kind of disgusting. But we ultimately agree as it is most likely the best way to enter the city without being detected. With our plans finalised, the group splits up as Irina pushes my wheelchair back to our room and helps me to bed. As the night goes on and worry fills the mind of the palace inhabitants only King Octave went to sleep with a sound mind, full of confidence as the rest of us await the operation that will decide that fate of this war.