Day 20 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016, evening

Military Base, Dustor City, Grizzle Province

WHEN she arrived in Dustor, the sun had gone down already and was already being replaced by the stars. Victoria and her group went directly to the city’s military compound. They had been riding hard with barely any breaks in between, so her countenance was a bit pale in exhaustion, but she wanted to review the condition.

So, she called in for an emergency meeting, despite the time. Most of the higher-ups in the military were already in the meeting room, though, so no one complained about it.

She sat down next to General Adefine, with only Luz by her side, leaving her other guards outside. Next to Luz, Ethan sat down, occupying the position of the royal strategist. Sitting across them in the round tables were the Lieutenant General of Grizzle, General Krish, along with his direct subordinate, the Mayor General of Dustor. Other than that, there were also a few other mayor generals from the surrounding cities. One of them, the Mayor General of Tamworth, looked absolutely horrible. It was confirmed when General Adefine murmured beside her, “Tamworth had fallen. The enemies are camping on the field outside the city as we speak.” He gave her a sheet of parchment listing the casualties.

Victoria swept a glance across the paper. Tamworth troops were originally consisting of five hundred people, two hundred of them went crazy and died, a hundred died in battle, fifty were heavily injured, and only fifty people left were in somewhat decent condition. Decent, as in still in one piece. They were still injured.

While Dustor had a thousand people, divided into companies, each consisted of a hundred men, which came from Dustor’s original military, other towns in Grizzle, and a part of them were the troops brought by the Great General from Edgefort, the main stationary of Forewood military. Of that thousand, two hundred were left behind for Dustor’s defense. The eight hundred soldiers that were sent to aid Tamworth were decreasing one by one because off the monsters and the soldiers that went aggressively crazy. As a result, many died in battle or heavily injured, and only a hundred left were fit enough to fight.

This was worse than she expected. Victoria looked at each and every one of the military officials inside, then turned her gaze towards the big map on the table before sighing heavily. “So, what happened to Tamworth?”

The generals looked at each other, and at last, the highest-ranking one, General Adefine, answered. “We had defended the walls according to our strategy, but it seemed as if they already knew our position,” he answered. “They had over a thousand men, and also they brought three monsters. I heard they were called Mudeorp, monsters from another continent. We quickly sent backup army, and successfully killed one monster, but something went chaotic there and somehow half of the Tamworth troops went crazy and started attacking everyone.”

Victoria’s frown deepened. “Went crazy?” She read that on the report, but she wasn’t quite sure what it meant.

“We still don’t know what happened,” General Krish said. “There are suspicions that they were poisoned or something, maybe when coming into contact with the Lirsk troops.”

The princess was doubtful, but she ignored that for now. “What about the city now?”

“The citizens had been evacuated,” Tamworth’s General answered her. “They are currently staying in nearby towns and cities, some are in Dustor as well.”

“That’s good,” Victoria nodded. “About the enemy troops, what is their movement right now? They’re camping outside Dustor City?”

“Yes. I believe they are waiting for reinforcement as well. Despite the chaos, our army still managed to deal a significant damage towards them, and also the two monsters that survived procured quite the injury.”

“But still, they successfully occupied Tamworth,” she murmured, sighing in regret.

“Your Highness, I’ve sent for aide troops from Goldburg and Edgefort,” General Krish reported. “We should be able to handle them.”

“You are being overly confident,” she glared at these generals across her. “I heard something happened yesterday. Numerous trainees fell ill?”

One of the men across her opened his mouth in surprise. “How did you hear of that…?”

Victoria’s glare sharpened at the man who spoke. “What? I cannot know what happen to the army?”

“No, Your Highness, it’s nothing like that,” the Mayor General of Dustor, called Palmer or something, stammered when he was at the end of her glare. “We’ve punished the one responsible for the matter.”

“Who did you punish?” Victoria felt like if she didn’t get out of here sooner, her forehead would have permanent wrinkle.

“One of the majors, the majority of his trainees fell ill, so we suspect he was the traitor that poisoned them,” Dustor’s General, this middle-aged man, answered fearfully.

Victoria didn’t think she was that scary, but she felt gratified that her glares worked. In any case, she had a bad feeling when she heard about ‘one of the majors’. It shouldn’t be that every-wary young major, right? “A major?”

“Y-yes, it’s Major Andres…”

She frowned. Wasn’t that his last name? But they were in the middle of an official meeting, so she felt like it wasn’t suitable to bring it up. Rather, seeing the surprised expression of both General Adefine and Lieutenant General Krish Gale… “And you didn’t think to report this incident to your superior?”

“I… It was just a small matter, no need to trouble the General…”

Victoria opened her mouth, then shook her head in exasperation. This Major General of Dustor seemed like an incompetent fool. She would talk about it later with Krish. Now wasn’t the time as she had another issue she had to bring up. “The matter about soldiers going crazy, I feel like it isn’t so simple, and I don’t think it was from the contact with Lirsk troops. Investigate it carefully.” She observed everyone in the room carefully before saying, “Is it possible for us to attack them? Conduct a raid to their camp?”

“Attack them?” The generals exchanged glances with each other.

“It’s not possible, Your Highness,” Ethan, who had been silent all this time, spoke up. He pointed towards two spots between Tamworth and Dustor City. “They divided their campsites into two, to the southeast and southwest of Dustor. We estimated that they had around five hundred soldiers left, so there are two hundred fifty men in each camp and a monster each that could easily kill ten men in one swoop, while we barely have three hundred fifty. We need at least two hundred men for full defense of the city.”

Ah, right. “Our hundred fifty wouldn’t be a match for them,” Victoria nodded. “If we send more men to attack one campsite, the enemy from the other campsite could use the chance to attack the city and would probably succeed. I understand.” She sighed heavily.

“We can only be on defense until the aide armies arrive,” General Adefine announced. “Northern Goldburg said they could arrive tomorrow morning with three hundred men, while Edgefort would be a little late, but they would bring five hundred men.”

They spoke more about the strategy for the upcoming battle while Victoria kept her silence. After watching these old men and women clashing their verbal swords and arrived at a conclusion, Victoria smiled at them. “Thank you for your hard work, everyone. We have to work harder tomorrow.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

While all the generals were leaving, General Adefine and Lieutenant General Krish Gale stayed behind per Victoria’s request. Luz and Ethan, her two aides, also stayed with her. Her frown was almost permanent by this point while she observed the battle plan for tomorrow.

“Do you have anything to say, Your Highness?” Krish Gale asked unsurely when she didn’t speak up after a few minutes.

Victoria heaved a sigh. “Generals, I’ve sent a command for the Crimson Corps’ reassembly.”

General Adefine didn’t look too surprised at that, while Krish frowned. “Is it necessary, Your Highness? Surely we’re not at the point of needing them?”

“Of course, if they weren’t needed, I’ll have them retreat,” Victoria answered. “But I have a bad feeling about what Lirsk is doing this time. The corps’ existence is for the worst-case scenario, after all.”

“If that’s what Your Highness think,” Krish nodded.

“I’d like for Generals to arrange a place for them,” Victoria said. “But please keep their existence a secret.”

The two generals nodded. After speaking a few more words, Adefine looked at her. “Your Highness, you better rest. You must be tired after a long trip here.”

Victoria nodded. “Yes, of course. Then, Generals, excuse me.”

“Good night, Your Highness.”

Victoria was staying in the mansion next to the military compound. It was owned by the royal family to be their residence in the city whenever they visited. Her two friends and five guards followed behind her outside the compound and into the mansion.

She had intended to check the infirmary about those who fell ill, but she felt exhausted. She had, after all, spent the whole day riding here. Her guards must be tired as well. And this time she didn’t want to run off alone in case of kidnapping danger she faced last week, so she decided to rest first.

The mansion wasn’t big. There were only three bedrooms in total, including the guest bedroom. Victoria intended for her guards to rest, but it didn’t seem possible for all of them, as two already stood guard in front of the master bedroom that she would sleep in. It seemed that they would take turns watching her.

Victoria couldn’t obstruct them from doing their job, so after bidding Luz and Ethan good night, she entered her bedroom. But she couldn’t sleep, and so, she started scribbling on some parchments.

She had heard of that mud monster called Mudeorp, back when she was still studying in the Academy. It was a type of golem monster that came from Reestra Continent, to the southeast of her continent. She heard its appearance was hideous. It was made out of mud, without nose and only one big eye and one big mouth that can swallow two grown adults. It dripped mud and threw thorns wherever it went. How did Lirsk get them?

What was its weakness?

She never saw any monsters before. The whole continent hadn’t seen any monsters for hundreds of years already, making the information that she could learn limited to legends. Well, almost legend. Back in school, she learnt about those monsters in history class, but only the names and their appearances. There was no mention of its weaknesses. She only knew that when it died, it would turn right back into mud.

It made Victoria anxious.

She did discuss it with the generals, but none of them had ever faced monsters before, and they had no solution. Even the way they killed one of the monsters earlier, back in Tamworth, was by stabbing and shooting randomly into it. There had to be a more effective way, Victoria thought.

Maybe… She could burn it down.

Victoria laughed to herself. She felt like she had gone insane the more she went into the night. Burning mud… yeah, it didn’t seem quite possible. What could she do, then?

Her laugh slowly dwindled down into an empty smile.

Victoria tried her hardest to come up with ideas, but she ended up falling asleep on her desk. []