People in Terra, governing a bizarre little country

Under his gaze, Theresis, holding onto the armrest of the throne, slowly sat down.

His dark circles were heavy, and his expression betrayed his exhaustion, but he remained unmoved. At least, he showed no sign of wavering.

But in the minds of the Shapeshifters, this was the first time he had sat on that throne.

"Even if Ernst's plan succeeds?" the Shapeshifter swarm asked.

Therese nodded: "Even if Ernst's plan succeeds."

“In that case, we also respect your choice, Theresis.”

The shapeshifter swarm nodded slightly to Theresis.

“Every Sarkaz has the right to choose, and so do you.”

Therese did not answer; her expression was slightly dazed.

In a daze, he seemed to return to that afternoon, to the conference hall of Kazdel, the mobile city he had painstakingly pieced together, where he and Theresia persuaded the Carrion King Nezire, the Blood Lord Ducarre, and the Banshee Queen Ramaren.

After the meeting ended and they left, Theresa sat in the chair that belonged to the Demon King, looked up at him, and her pale pink eyes shone with a gentle and expectant light.

She asked Theresis, and her sword and shield:

What are our goals?

[I mean, I'm the Demon King now, Theresis, and you're the Grand General of the Military Council, but ultimately, what should our goal be?]

"As for me, I don't think defending Kazdel, developing this city, or even protecting all the Sarkaz is my dream."

If peace cannot be extended to others, then peace cannot be granted to me alone. If a neighbor's house is on fire, the child upstairs is crying, and the couple next door is arguing loudly, even if I build the thickest walls in my room, can we really sleep soundly?

I want this land to sleep peacefully.

After that, Theresa pursued her dream, establishing a borderless charity called Babel Tower. She recruited volunteers from all over Terra and set up a branch in Kazdel, the Sarkaz city.

Theresis did not understand Theresa's ideas. As the evil spirits of Babel commented, such ideas were probably incomprehensible to anyone in the entire Sarkaz race.

Therese had forgotten her answer for a time.

But now, he remembered.

I don't want revenge. But if revenge is so that future generations won't have to seek revenge again, then I will seek revenge.

I don't want war. But if war is so that no one will wage war against the Sarkaz again in the future, then I will go to war.

I practice swordsmanship to protect, but if the best protection is to kill everyone who stands in our way, then I will kill.

I simply hope that future Sarkaz won't be forced to do things out of necessity. I want the blood to run dry in our generation, so that every Sarkaz after us will have the right to choose.

"Theresia, if you were in this situation and heard this news, what choice would you make?"

Therese gazed up at the exquisitely carved murals and reliefs adorning the dome of the Londinium Palace, and murmured to herself.

As soon as he finished speaking, as if in response to this exclamation, the pardoner's somewhat excited voice rang out.

"Your Majesty, the plan to resurrect the Demon King has reached its final stage."

"The theory is complete, the plan is ready, and I need you to make the choice."

"Do you want a Demon King who is intimately connected with all souls and will never rebel against you? Or a complete, real Theresa, but who might oppose you?"

Theresis lowered her head and looked down at the white-horned Sarkaz below the steps. The silence was fleeting, followed by a sneer.

you still need to ask?

He and Theresa had made a pact—regardless of the outcome of the civil war, the losing side would unconditionally support the winning side. Because the Sarkaz only need one voice.

There is no such thing as a demon king who will never rebel, nor is there such a thing as a real Theresa who would oppose him.

The brother and sister never had a real disagreement.

There is only one Theresa.

"Option Two".

P.S.: I really didn't expect the previous issue about dealing with Letanian spies to cause such a stir.

Given that the Leitanian spy clearly stated that as long as things escalated to the public stage, with the three Electors standing by, even the Empress would have to acknowledge his identity, Ernst would have absolutely no way to do anything to him and could only watch as the other side took Viviana away, wouldn't it be stupid to bring this matter to the forefront?

The best way to deal with spies is to make them disappear without a trace. This isn't uncommon. A few years ago, the Russians did exactly that with that British spy—they poisoned him on a park bench.

Ernst wasn't against following the proper channels; he repeatedly emphasized, "Why don't you respect me?", "What is your purpose?", "Can the people behind you prove it now?", but the messenger's arrogance ignored him. He insisted on portraying himself as an X-identity spy. How would Ernst try him?

If the process is made public and foreign countries are informed, and three electors come to demand Viviana, should Ernst give her up or not? If he doesn't, it would be tantamount to offending three electors for Viviana's sake; if he does, it would be tantamount to condoning foreign envoys' unbridled behavior in Sherag.

The only way is to go through underground procedures to make him disappear. Then, send the items to Russell, who will then hand them over to the Queen. With the remnants of the Witch King's faction in the Queen's hands, the Elector will be intimidated by the evidence and unable to use it as a pretext.

To avoid giving the impression that "the Prime Minister's orders are above the law," Ernst didn't even let Rhode Island take action; instead, he had his own people from Sherrag carry it out.

You say this violates the rules, that there's a problem with executing someone without trial, but that's clearly applying the same rules applied to ordinary criminals to spies. During the Cold War, Russia and the US even exchanged spies they arrested; does that mean "they can go back without being punished for their crimes, thus undermining the rule of law in Russia and the US"?

Chapter 520 Dai Feien: Your name appears more often than mine!

[Your Grace, the situation around Londinium is not optimistic. We have frequent skirmishes with the Sarkaz advance forces, and in these skirmishes, our casualty rate is far higher than theirs.]

Meanwhile, the Grey Hats' infiltration of Lentinium suffered a major blow. The Sarkaz imposed a curfew and conducted extremely rigorous searches of any Lentinium resident not on their list, forcing our personnel to go into inactivity. Even so, we still frequently lost colleagues to Victoria. This stemmed from the enemy's near-terrifying intelligence capabilities.

Yes, though it's hard to admit, the Grey Hats have indeed been completely outmatched by the Sarkaz in the intelligence field. According to our latest intelligence, their intelligence system originates from one of the Sarkaz royal courts recorded in history—the Shapeshifter Cluster. The records about the Shapeshifter Cluster royal court are scarce, and we currently lack specific information about their abilities and corresponding countermeasures. Casualties and the rate of exposure are rapidly increasing, and many colleagues have reported having very bad premonitions.

The other person doesn't seem to be taking it seriously at all; he's just playing hide-and-seek with us...

In short, the Grey Hats will remain stationed at their frontline headquarters in Londinium, attempting to infiltrate the city. Your Grace, please rest assured!

For Victoria!

"This is a report from my subordinate, Grey Hat, on the covert operations on the Londinium front. The intelligence update was dated one day ago."

The temporary command post of the Duke of Victoria's allied forces, the flagship of the Duke of Caesar's army—the "Glory," meeting room.

The Duke of Caesar put down the report in his hand. Several copies of the corresponding paper documents had already been printed and distributed to everyone present.

The Duke of Wellington, the Duke of Normandy, the Duke of Godotington, and even the Duke of Windermere.

Even though he was reluctant to share a room with the Duke of Caesar, the war against Lentinium... a special military operation, concerned the entire Victoria, so the Duke of Windermere had no choice but to come here and sit in his own chair in this meeting room.

The Duke of Caesar clearly understood this as well. Just as the Duke of Windermere did not overlook the Duke of Caesar when he first summoned the Dukes' coalition to march on Londinium, this time the Duke of Caesar's invitation did not overlook the Duke of Windermere either. Because, whether you admit it or not, the Duke of Caesar and the Duke of Windermere are forces that cannot be ignored in Victoria.

Seeing that the dukes had put down the documents in their hands, the Duke of Caesar continued his presentation:

"Currently, the lack of intelligence is indeed serious. The other side's shapeshifters are said to have the ability to perfectly mimic anyone. Even the most elite Grey Hats are not confident that they can identify each other. We have tried to agree on codes and carry tokens, but the other side can crack them. But what is troubling us is not just the overall backwardness in intelligence."

Intelligence is extremely important. Generally speaking, if you have the fog of war while the enemy has the entire map open, then the battle is obviously impossible to win.

However, this inability to fight is based on the premise that the two sides are not overwhelmingly different in terms of troop strength. No matter how much your intelligence personnel consider, it is common sense that a peasant with a pitchfork cannot defeat the Victorian regular army sailing in high-speed warships.

This is where the confidence of the Grand Dukes of Victoria came from.

High-speed warships could deliver a devastating blow to the Sarkaz army, which was still armed with swords, spears, clubs, and crossbows. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't penetrate the armor of high-speed warships—at least that's what they always believed.

But the Duke of Caesar was about to shatter the illusions of those present:

"As you have all noticed, the intelligence provided by Grey Hat indicates that our chances of winning in open-field skirmishes with the Sarkaz army are very low."

"Perhaps some dukes have also received similar reports from their subordinates. I don't know if you all know the true situation of these frictions, but I must remind you that these frictions are not encounters between a small team of three or five people and the Sarkaz forces, but rather encounters between our regular troops, frigates, and gunboats, and the army under the command of the individual codenamed 'King of Carrion'."

The Duke of Caesar paused, then repeated the conclusion that had made the atmosphere heavy.

"The win rate is very low."

Admittedly, the main applications of high-speed warships on the battlefield are large-scale fleet advances, battlefield division, and powerful naval gun salvos, all of which revolve around the concept of "scale".

A lone, high-speed warship is practically a sitting duck, a fact already proven during the Four Kingdoms Wars. A sufficiently powerful Originium Mage, with enough support, can cripple a high-speed warship with a single Originium spell. Warlock kings like the Witch King, with the aid of several towers, can unleash natural disasters to tear apart the elite Gallic vanguard.

As a nation that dared to directly use Gaul as Esperanto at that time, they had already captured several military fortresses and the vanguard of the Electoral District, and their fleet included a considerable number of high-speed warships.

Duke Caesar certainly wouldn't directly compare the King of Carrion to the Witch King, but at least this achievement shows that a single high-speed warship is not invincible against the Carrion Legion.

The myth that it is invulnerable to swords and spears and impervious to water and fire has long been shattered.

"So, what are the Duke of Caesar's thoughts on this?"

The Duke of Wellington tapped the table lightly, speaking before the atmosphere turned from heavy to stagnant, casting a meaningful glance at the Duke of Castle.

"Of the information you've mentioned, aside from the matter of the [Shapeshifter Cluster] which I don't fully understand and therefore cannot answer, I know just as much as you do."

"If you invited me here specifically to say something that would boost the morale of others and diminish our own, then I must take my leave, for I have other matters to attend to."

The Duke of Wellington made a move to get up.

If it were anyone else, his words would sound somewhat like he'd been hit where it hurt, and he'd be furious. But these words came from the Duke of Wellington, who had personally destroyed Gaul and dismantled the death knell of the Lingons Empire.

No one would laugh at him for being "anxious"; they would simply assume that he probably did indeed have his own intelligence channels.

Seeing that the atmosphere was becoming somewhat tense, Duke Godottin immediately stepped in to smooth things over:

"The Duke of Wellington is right, Castle. You've come all this way to summon us, so you should have already prepared a plan to deal with that... King of the Carrion, right?"

The Duke of Caster nodded slightly, glanced at the Duke of Wellington who had sat down again, and slowly uttered a single word:

"Encircle and attack reinforcements."

The relative strengths and weaknesses of the Duke of Victoria's allies and the Sarkaz are now quite clear.

The Duke's Alliance possesses advanced technology, ample funds, a legitimate moral justification, and a force far exceeding that of the Sarkaz, which is constantly being recruited.

The Sarkaz possess simple advantages: superior individual combat capabilities, stronger fighting power in small-scale skirmishes, spells capable of threatening a single high-speed warship, and Londinium, a city known as "a mobile city that has never been breached since its construction."

With its fortified city and powerful cannons, there is no doubt that the Londinium, once the greatest asset of King Aslan, possessed main guns capable of inflicting massive damage on the largest high-speed warship on the land, the Duke of Wellington's Gastrill, with a single shot.

Faced with a city like this, unless the dukes have lost their minds, they won't choose a direct assault. Encirclement, cutting off supply lines, constantly harassing the city, and attacking any Sarkaz that come to its aid are the normal war strategy and the means to minimize damage.

"They concentrated their superior forces to besiege Londinium, while simultaneously dispatching a large-scale army to encircle and annihilate the army of the Carrion King..."

Before the Duke of Caster could finish speaking, the Duke of Wellington, who had just failed to get up, stood up again and walked straight toward the exit.

The Duke of Windermere, sitting opposite him, raised an eyebrow and glanced at the old man with some surprise.

Leaving his seat midway through the speech was tantamount to rejecting or even disregarding the Duke of Caesar's battle plan, showing absolutely no respect for the Duke.

Old Deng, I didn't realize he was such a sentimental person.

The Duke of Caster also stopped his explanation, looked at the Duke of Wellington who had walked to the door, and without even frowning, calmly asked:

"The Duke of Wellington remains silent. If you have a better plan, you can tell me here. If you leave, can I assume that you have withdrawn from the Duke's coalition and abandoned our obligations to each other?"

The Duke's Alliance is a defensive and offensive alliance. During the war, if one side is in danger, the other side must go to its aid; if one side's front line is breached, the other side must also go to fill the gap.

There are no cowards on the battlefield, and of all the contracts the dukes made with each other, this one is probably the most credible.

The Duke of Wellington finally stopped, turned his head to look at the Duke of Castle, and replied:

"My solution is very simple."

"Concentrate all forces under my command, and they shall only obey my orders. We shall march straight in and directly attack the King of Carrion."

Simple and crude.

He could actually point out many flaws in the Duke of Castells' plan—for example, the super-mobile city of Londinium itself is quite self-sufficient; if you besiege it without attacking, how long would that be? Another example is, if you besiege a point and then attack reinforcements, aren't you afraid that the Sarkaz will massacre civilians within the city? Who will bear the pressure of public opinion then? And yet another example is, if the battle lines remain deadlocked, which duke's strength will be most depleted?

Grand Duke of Caster, you are King Aslan's sister. Your fiefdom, your sphere of influence, and your supply lines are closest to Londinium. For one thing, the Duke of Wellington's fleet would have to traverse the Duke of Caster's territory to reach Londinium from Wellington (as mentioned in my Fire storyline). If the front lines are deadlocked, and you cause any trouble in the rear, who will suffer the most?

You can hear the beads on your abacus all the way back in Kjerag!

But the Duke of Wellington disdained to explain; what he could see, the other dukes could see too, and making it clear would only embarrass Caesar.

Besides, given the Duke of Caesar's thick skin, it's hard to say whether she would feel embarrassed or shamelessly retort with, "Why does the Duke of Wellington see me this way?"

Moreover, the Duke of Wellington also had his own plans.

Having explained the Duke of Caesar's plan, he would then have to explain his own, and explaining his plan would likely cause problems.

Because he wasn't lying. He knew about the information about the Grey Hat that the Duke of Caster had revealed, and he also knew a little about the information that the Duke of Caster hadn't made public.

For example, the King of Carrion, the title of "Sarkaz God of War," and his bizarre attack methods and Sarkaz sorcery.

With everyone on board, the Duke of Wellington was confident of victory, a confidence born of his status as the "Death Knell of the Empire," the greatest commander of Terra in the 11th century.

He was well aware of the consequences of going up in the car, and this was the "price" he had planned long ago.

Weakening the armed forces of the Dukes of Victoria was necessary for Tara's independence.

The Duke of Caesar's eyes flickered, but he did not answer.

The meeting inevitably reached a stalemate and ended on a sour note.

Duke Windermere returned to his flagship, the Galawa Iron Shield.