Lawrence turned around, thinking that his eye deceived him, but no, he was right. It had been a few months since he saw Halafina but…

Lawrence caught up with the small platoon of men and women in blue, holding small shields and a long stick made of metal. Upon seeing Lawrence, the platoon commander shouted, “Attention!”

The platoon fell in rank and saluted. Lawrence had to suppress a snigger seeing Halafina saluting him so seriously.

“At ease. Anything out of the ordinary, platoon sergeant?” Lawrence asked and the sergeant gulped, shaking his head as the rest of the platoon relaxed, standing at ease.

“No, Sir Carstein!”

“How do you find serving in the Civil Defense to be?” Lawrence asked the first man in blue who seemed nervous to talk to one of the founders of Tears.

“A-An honour, Sir!”

Moving onto the next man, he was stout in stature and seemed to be perspiring a little even in the cold weather.

“How is it then, how is the Civil Defense force?”

“F-Fulfilling, Sir!”

Then, as Lawrence purposely went down the row getting these answers, he stopped at Halafina, whom Lawrence could tell was doing her best to not break into a smile.

“So? How is the Civil Defense force? Fulfilling? An honour?” Lawrence asked, looking at her from head to toe, as if inspecting her attire. Lawrence noticed from his Passive Perception skill that in her boots, there was a small bulge that looked like a dagger. The Civil Defense force has three steps of engagement.

First of all, they would attempt to dissolve a potentially combative situation through dialogue and failure would result in the use of the metal batons to bring them in for arrest. However, should any of the parties attempt the use of deadly force, all the Civil Defense soldiers have a short sword.

In the event of a fight that is beyond the capabilities of the Civil Defense force, they can call upon the Owls to reinforce them and impose martial law in a specific sector. However, obviously Halafina was concealing an additional weapon.

“Well… It has been… Interesting…” Halafina said, as if choosing her words extremely carefully.

“I see. Sergeant?” Lawrence said loudly, and the sergeant immediately snapped to attention, prompting the others to do the same with the exception of Halafina.

“Give her extra duties tonight.”

Halafina’s jaw fell open as a look of betrayal, fury and anguish flooded her face, the anger in her eyes was apparent. Lawrence leaned in and whisper, “Same tavern.”

It was only at that time did Halafina relax a little, giving a small nod and wink. The sergeant however, was flabbergasted.

“Of course, Sir Carstein! At once! Extra duty tonight! But… Why?” the Sergeant asked, as if daring himself to ask Lawrence on why she was punished without reason.

“We know each other, so it is fine.”

As Lawrence left a thoroughly confused sergeant and his platoon, Lawrence turned into the craftsmen alley where all sorts of goods were being peddled and made, the shops giving off the distinct smell of wood shavings and clay, an oddly comforting smell to Lawrence.

The sight of craftsmen and their apprentices hard at work and merchants hard at work gave Lawrence a form of comfort. At least he had dinner to look forward to after his daily walkabout.

Night.

The moon shining at its highest. The chatting of men making the otherwise boring frontier outpost life bearable. General Kaffe looks at the latest imperial order, asking him to pull his soldiers back from their current position.

He even held the letter up against candlelight to make sure that King Carmine’s seal was not forged. When Colonel Vava informed him that the General Staff wanted him to pull out, he disregarded the upstart and sycophant military officer’s words, thinking it another way to screw him over.

He even sent a few men to Colonel Haussen and Count Boulevard to confirm that such a thing has happened.

Yet, just a few days later, an Imperial missive arrives, along with confirmation from Colonel Haussen and Count Boulevard that such a discussion had taken place.

In fact both Colonel Haussen and Count Boulevard offered additional information from their own point of view. A military man, Colonel Haussen has stated that General Kaffe should delay obeying the order for as long as he can, at least until he and Count Boulevard is able to convince the king that doing such a thing leaves the border wide open. He also states that General Kaffe’s position in the border is as such that he is able to reinforce any other position that is in trouble, while being able to defend his own position with relatively few men.

The plateau that General Kaffe has stationed his troops on were the few defensible points on the border and through the general’s work reinforcing the position, it was almost unassailable.

Count Boulevard on the other hand, lamented that within the general staff, himself, Colonel Haussen and General Tarn were the only ones who objected to the withdrawal of General Kaffe’s army. All the other members which had joined or replaced the past members of the general staff had agreed with Colonel Vava that General Kaffe’s expenses on the border have been way too high to justify the defense, which was utter rubbish.

Count Boulevard as well, asked that General Kaffe delay the orders of withdrawal as much as possible.

Sighing, General Kaffe rubbed his forehead. He had fought six wars, large and minor and his fellow generals and officers who saw the writing on the wall early retired soon after the young King Carmine ascended the throne. However, General Kaffe stubbornly held onto his position and after several clashes with Colonel Vava and many other sycophants, he has been relegated to the frontiers.

Frontier guard duty, in a time of peace, no matter how uneasy, was considered a punishment to many officers but General Kaffe accepted, under the condition that he was able to choose the men he brought with him, along with the position in which he would set up.

Therefore, the defensive position was simply called the Kaffe Plateau.

It consisted of elites from other campaigns and were part of Kaffe’s Army Group Central and they were devoted to General Kaffe who disobeyed an order by King Carmine to launch suicidal attacks against the troops of Gerheist. Of course, this in part, caused his value in the eyes of King Carmine to plummet.

To King Carmine, a military officer simply should obey.

Of course, the old blooded military officers could not accept that, so many of them resigned or retired, opting to live out their lives with their grandchildren without risking themselves being so angered as to slap the king.

Naturally, General Kaffe missed home, but an order was an order.

“A missive, General.”

General Kaffe quickly rolled up the Imperial order and turned to face the soldier who was bowed, clutching a letter. General Kaffe reached out to take the letter and the soldier left. Alone in his tent, General Kaffe looked at the seal on the letter.

“… Who is this?”

General Kaffe opened the seal that bore that of an owl and opened the contents of the letter.

General Kaffe spent minutes reading the contents before the colour drained from his face and he set the letter down, clutching his head.

“Guards! Bring me the merchant we caught earlier! Also, is the messenger who sent this still here!?” General Kaffe barked loudly.

With a stroke of luck, General Kaffe may still be able to do something.