After the parchment for the signing of the alliance was collected by the civil officials, Kasper's shoulders suddenly slumped, as if all strength had been drained from him. He raised a hand to press his brow, his knuckles against his throbbing temples, and his voice carried an undisguised weariness: "Your Excellency Chen Yan, I am a bit tired. May I rest for a moment?"
Chen Yan looked at the redness in his eyes and remembered the sharpness the other had forced himself to maintain during the negotiations. He nodded understandingly. "Of course. Argo, take Lord Kasper to the guest room." He deliberately did not get up, only letting Argo lead the way—he knew that after the oppressive negotiation just now, his accompaniment would only make Kasper more tense.
"I still have business to attend to, so I won't see you off." Chen Yan deliberately avoided doing so, giving Kasper a little more room to breathe.
"Thank you for your understanding." Kasper's voice softened, and even his bow seemed stiff.
Posses was about to say something, but Kasper tugged at her sleeve. "Let's go. Don't disturb Your Excellency Chen Yan with official business." His tone was unquestionable, but his eyes held a certain depth.
Posses looked back at the command center—Chen Yan had already brought up the holographic panel again, his fingertips sliding rapidly across it, his profile appearing particularly focused in the blue light. She felt a twinge of curiosity, wanting to stay and see what he was so busy with, but she couldn't bear to leave her older brother looking so exhausted. In the end, she was half-pulled and half-persuaded away by Kasper.
The lights in the corridor were soft, a stark contrast to the cold light of the command center. Posses followed the drone around a corner and suddenly stopped—she had only been away for two hours, but the previously monotonous dormitory area seemed to have been enchanted: the walls were painted in high-class colors, and the rooms, which had originally lacked any sense of life, were adorned as luxurious guest rooms. There was even a low cabinet by the window, holding a celadon vase with two freshly picked wild roses.
"This..." She reached out and touched the carving on the bedside table, its texture smooth and warm, clearly not a hastily made semi-finished product.
"At Chen Yan's request, a portion of the dormitories have been converted into guest rooms." Argo's drone hovered at the doorway, its electronic voice devoid of emotion. "He believes you will frequently send people for exchanges, hence this arrangement." Kasper had to admire Chen Yan's foresight, even thinking of this and making adjustments so quickly. If it were him, it would probably take over a week. "Thank you all for your trouble."
Argo turned to the civil official, "Your room is next door. Please follow me."
The civil official, who had been dumbfounded, quickly bowed and thanked them. Holding his luggage, he followed the drone into the guest room, which was three rooms away. The distance was due to the difference in status. If a noble were present, someone of lower status had to stay far from the noble's room to avoid offending them.
Before the drone left, it spoke, "The remaining rooms can be allocated by the Yellow Rose Knight." The drone's lens swept over Posses. "If there are not enough beds, the temporary prefabricated houses in the refugee camp should still be empty." With that, it drifted away like a feather, leaving no trace of a sound.
Kasper had his sister help him remove his armor. Once the burden was lifted, he let out a long sigh and sank onto the bed, causing the mattress to make a slight creaking sound.
"Brother, you're not acting like a noble at all," Posses quickly closed the door, afraid of being seen.
"I apologize, I am truly exhausted." Kasper pointed to the chair opposite him. "You sit too."
Since there were no outsiders, the siblings no longer observed strict etiquette. Posses also took off her armor and sat opposite Kasper, as if relieved of a great burden.
After his sister sat down, he spoke in a low voice, "Do you know why I asked you to come?"
"I don't know. Wasn't it for a rest?"
"Resting is correct," Kasper's face was full of helplessness. "As you saw just now, I was completely suppressed without any ability to fight back."
Posses nodded. "No wonder he always found excuses to delay when I forced him to sign the contract before. Now I finally understand his true purpose in specifically asking Father and you to come."
"You don't need to go easy on men, do you? It seems he's quite considerate of women." Kasper seemed to have discovered something and looked at his sister, then at the door.
"So, it's fortunate it was you who came. If it were me, the result would have been even worse." Posses' voice was a little shaky.
"Perhaps the opposite is true." Kasper's lips curved slightly, and he tapped his knee with his fingertip. "He seems to have no way with you, right?"
"How could that be?" Posses shook her head. "Didn't you see the look of disgust on his face when he saw me?"
"I certainly saw it, and I also know that only when a man has no way with a woman will he show that kind of expression," Kasper's tone grew more excited, as if he and his sister were discussing someone they liked when they were children. "He didn't say he disliked you, did he?"
Posses' heart skipped a beat, and she quickly turned her face away. "He didn't say that. He agreed to everything I said, except for matters related to the Empire or refugees, of course."
"Those are matters of principle and stance, unrelated to personal topics. It shows that he is a person who clearly distinguishes between public and private matters." Kasper stared at his sister. "Tell me, who would be suitable for this observer position?"
"Didn't we agree to keep it a secret?"
"Not from you." Kasper's gaze softened. "Someone who makes him feel annoyed, yet helpless."
"You couldn't possibly mean me, could you?" Posses was stunned.
"What? You're unwilling?" Kasper's lips curled into a calculating smile. "Then I'll have to find someone else."
"Brother! You..." Posses suddenly understood. Her brother wanted to use his own younger sister to disrupt Chen Yan's life as a small act of revenge for being forced to accept the conditions.
"But..."
The sound of the Yellow Rose Knights' laughter came from the corridor. Posses had to swallow the words that were about to come out.
Kasper turned around and patted his sister's shoulder. "Rest for now. I won't be having lunch, and you'll arrange my personal guards."
Posses nodded, but a heavy stone seemed to press down on her heart.
On the holographic screen in the command center, the resource list for the material warehouse was flashing in a jarring red—carbon remaining at 37%, iron at only 19%, and other material reserves had dropped below 10%. Each number was followed by a blinking warning symbol, like a silent countdown.
These figures all stung Chen Yan's sensitive nerves, his brow furrowed into a knot. The indicator lights for the fully automated mining stations had long since gone out. On another screen, the mine distribution map showed that the resource points around the base had turned gray, and larger areas were indicated as unknown.
"You're anxious about the 'empty fuel tank' problem." Argo's drone floated to his shoulder, its optical lens scanning the red numbers. "At the current consumption rate, the resources will be depleted within three days."
Chen Yan sighed and turned off the holographic projection. "Although we signed an alliance, it only allows the mining of rare metals." Argo turned to Chen Yan, a hint of blue flashing in its lens. "Can you tell me why?"
"It's simple. There are people there." Chen Yan pointed his fingertip towards Italica. "If we don't even let ordinary metals pass, do you think they'll have a way to survive?"
"So, you made a choice."
Chen Yan nodded and then pointed to Karelia. "Count Aldridge is already dead, and his family line is broken. It can be said that this place is already ownerless. The kingdom can bestow it upon whomever it wishes after the war, but for now, it is ownerless."
Chen Yan walked to the window and looked out at the vast land. Endless grasslands and dense forests alternated, stretching to the ends of the earth. On the other side, the trends of mountains and rivers were clearly visible. Chen Yan's gaze swept over the location of Karelia, which used to be a prosperous town but was now only scorched earth. "We annihilated the Imperial Vanguard, and have thus honored their spirits. Now... we will borrow their land for the time being."
"I understand what you mean."
"Use the remaining materials to manufacture high-altitude drones equipped with remote sensing equipment." Chen Yan's tone was decisive. "Scan the entire Aldridge territory and mark all metal veins. Also, check on the Empire's situation—we can't be blindly groping in the dark forever."
"Command received." Argo's electronic voice paused, then suddenly brought up another set of images. "However, there is something that needs to be handled with priority."
The screen switched to a real-time monitoring feed: three Imperial Army soldiers had left their horses behind and were advancing on foot towards the bastion.
Chen Yan raised an eyebrow. "They've come quite quickly."
"This is only a small part." Argo scaled down the image, revealing a large area with numerous red dots scattered throughout, and creatures like dragons approaching in the sky. "Do you need me to clear them?"
"Argo, please invite Lord Kasper here." Chen Yan smiled. "Tell him there is urgent military intelligence."
Not long after, Kasper and Posses, who had been notified, entered the command center. They still looked a bit tired, but much better than when they had just signed the alliance.
"What is so urgent?" Kasper approached Chen Yan, while Posses stood on the other side.
"The main force of the Imperial Army is getting impatient." Chen Yan enlarged all the scout projections and suspended them in the air, allowing Kasper and Posses to see them clearly.
When Kasper saw the scouts on the screen, he immediately tensed up. "Scouts! So many?"
"At least fifty people," Posses was very shocked. Their family could only send at most thirty scouts, and they had to be dispatched in many directions.
"No, there are 82 people, and one dragon rider is preparing to conduct reconnaissance from the air." Chen Yan enlarged the image of the dragon rider again. From the perspective of the image, it was captured from a higher altitude than the dragon, so the dragon rider did not detect it. "It seems they are preparing to fight in earnest, but I hope they are still lost in the fog."
"Fog..." Kasper repeated Chen Yan's words.
"What do you plan to do?" Chen Yan gestured for him to wait and ordered Argo, "Combat reconnaissance drones, starting from the rear, conduct pinpoint elimination."
"Received. What about the dragon?"
Chen Yan stroked his chin. "Don't we have the Sharp Sword? When the dragon gets close to the fortress, shoot it down. As the saying goes, know yourself and your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles. We need to study this dragon and find its weaknesses to prepare for future battles."
***
The Imperial Army scouts tethered their horses in an oak forest ten miles away. The old soldier at the front carved a third mark on the tree trunk with his dagger. The brass insignia rubbed against his collar, creating faint glints of light—this was the rule for entering unknown territory; leave a marker every three steps to mark the way back.
A gust of wind swept through the grass at their boots, carrying a faint, fishy smell. The scout at the front suddenly raised his hand to signal a halt. He squatted down and picked up a pinch of dark red soil with his fingertips. "It's blood. At least two days old."
The atmosphere in the team instantly tightened. They were the "eyes" of the Imperial main vanguard, ordered to ascertain the truth behind the annihilation of the vanguard. But the further they went towards Mount Olympus, the more this wilderness resembled a silent giant with its mouth open, even the chirping of insects seemed to lower by an octave.
"Maintain spacing, stay alert." The old soldier lowered his voice and drew the short sword at his waist. The sunlight reflected off the blade, and in the distance, the white bastion looked like a bone embedded in the hill, eerily silent.
Just then, a muffled thunderclap suddenly erupted from behind.
It was not natural thunder—the sound carried a force that threatened to split heads and rupture eardrums, accompanied by a wave of scorching heat that spread in all directions. The scout at the rear had no time to turn around before his entire body was like he was caught by an invisible giant hand, instantly turning into a blur of bloody mist.
"Enemy attack!" The old soldier roared and lunged towards a gully on his left, but the explosions had already spread from back to front like a string of firecrackers. He watched helplessly as his companions beside him were blown away by an unseen force, severed limbs mixed with grass falling onto his shoulders. And where was the enemy? Arrows? Magic? Or... some weapon never seen before?
"It's a trap! Retreat!" Someone screamed and turned to run back, only to be engulfed by a fireball that suddenly erupted from the ground on their third step.
The remaining scouts finally realized they had fallen into an invisible net. Turning back meant death; staying put also meant death. The youngest one suddenly went mad and charged towards Mount Olympus. "Charge! At least someone needs to get back to report!"
This became their final unspoken agreement. The surviving seven or eight men threw down their shields, drew their daggers, and desperately charged towards the bastion. They could even see the white fortress wall reflecting in the sunlight, unaware that death was watching them from higher ground.
In the sky, the knight riding the dragon circled anxiously. His scaled armor rustled in the wind, and the dragon beneath him flicked its tail uneasily. The explosions on the ground looked like blooming blood flowers, but he strained his eyes and couldn't see a single enemy shadow.
"A bunch of wastes!" The knight cursed and yanked the reins. The dragon let out a screech, tucked its wings, and plunged towards the battlefield. He refused to believe that anything could be hidden so deeply. As long as he could see the enemy, even devils would be torn to shreds by the dragon's claws!
Just as the dragon's shadow was about to cover the ground, an orange-red light suddenly shot out from the direction of the bastion.
It was as fast as a shooting star, trailing white smoke, and it locked directly onto the target in the air. The knight's pupils contracted sharply, and he instinctively roared a command: "Roll!"
The dragon suddenly veered to the side, its massive wings barely brushing the treetops. But the light seemed to have eyes. Just as they brushed past, it suddenly exploded—not a fireball, but countless shards glinting with cold light!
The knight felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down and saw that his scaled armor was like punctured paper, with dense fragments sticking out from his flesh, like a bizarre metal flower. He tried to call for help, but could only spit out a mouthful of blood foam.
The dragon beneath him let out a mournful cry. Its wing membranes were riddled with holes by the fragments, and it could no longer support its heavy body. It fell into the forest like a falling stone, breaking more than a dozen trees as thick as a waist, and finally convulsed a few times in the mess before falling silent completely.
On the holographic screen in the command center, the last red dot extinguished three miles from the bastion. Eighty-two scouts, along with that arrogant dragon, left no survivors.
Kasper dug his fingers deep into his palm, his nails almost embedding themselves in his flesh. He had seen the most brutal siege battles, seen knights smash enemies' heads with flails, but he had never witnessed such a slaughter—silent, precise, as if harvesting crops, leaving no room for resistance.
"This is... your power." His voice trembled, not from fear, nor from awe, but from a complex emotion mixed with relief and coldness. He was relieved that Chen Yan was on Italica's side, yet afraid that this power might one day turn against him. Recalling last night, his father's words still echoed in his ears. Kasper picked up the idea of a political marriage he had set aside during the day, pondering Posses' future—perhaps only by establishing the strongest blood ties could this "beast" be prevented from turning its fangs against him forever.
"Amazing!" Posses's voice broke the silence, her eyes shining astonishingly bright as she stared intently at the image of the dragon falling on the screen. "Chen Yan, do you have something that can save these images?"
Chen Yan raised an eyebrow. "What do you want these for?"
"To show my Father!" She grabbed Chen Yan's sleeve, her voice urgent. "The first time we repelled the vanguard, the second time we annihilated the scouts... With these, the people of Italica will no longer fear the Imperial Army!"
Chen Yan looked at her flushed cheeks and suddenly remembered how she had pretended to be calm in the refugee camp yesterday. It turned out that even the strongest knight needed something to hold onto for courage.
"Argo." He glanced at the drone. "Can you handle this? Try to make it simple, I'm afraid they won't know how to use it."
"No problem, I will kindly teach them how to use it."
"That's good. Multi-legged walking robots can be dispatched to clean up the aftermath." Chen Yan added, "We also need to study the dragon's weaknesses and develop countermeasures."
Outside the command center's porthole, the sun was setting below the horizon. The bastion's shadow stretched long across the wilderness, like a protective arm. Chen Yan gazed at the darkening sky, knowing that the prelude to diplomacy had ended, and the real war was just beginning.