Siegfried unfolded the map and earnestly mulled over it. His commanders found this rather odd, unused to seeing this side of Siegfried.

“Mr. Secretary, what is it that you are so concerned about?”

Siegfried answered the commander’s query without taking his eyes off the map.

“I am searching for an opening in the enemy.”

This only served to make the commanders all the more bewildered. Searching for an opening? Wasn’t the current Lester Kingdom so full of openings, they might as well be swiss cheese?

Princess Leila was accompanying her people on an evacuation, while the other nobles – including the king of the country – had scattered like sand, leaving the Capital as empty as could be.

It was the picture of a nation on the brink of collapse. So what did he mean by ‘looking for an opening’?

Right then, a messenger came frantically running into the makeshift barracks.

“Secretary Siegfried, I have an urgent report to make.”

“What is it?”

“Sir, the army of the South that we were tightly reconnoitering has…”

“I assume they’ve managed to conceal their whereabouts.”

“Ye-…Yes. They’ve disappeared as if they were never here.”

The messenger meekly confirmed as Siegfried took the words right out of his mouth. Siegfried sighed and murmured to himself.

“The enemy’s got someone with a very good head on their shoulders. To think they would get me like this…”

While Siegfried lamented, the other commanders remained perplexed.

“Mr. Secretary,...