Dior and I were on our way to the garden because I intended to see how Fischer and a certain princess was described as oil and fire.
It was a rar period of time alone between Dior Merlin and I recently. But Dior cannot stop herself from laughing.
I protested, “Dior my love, that is lots of laughter.”
“Apologies.” She laughed even harder, her shoulder twitched, “It never occurred to me, to anyone, my husband’s nose getting pinched… hahaha.”
“You… never mind.” I sighed and sped up, “I told you, you have to marry me to call me a husband.”
“I like it.” Dior caught up, her arm in mine, “And nobody can gossip about it.”
“It’s not about gossiping. Our wedding is still on schedule.” I helplessly shook my head, “If someone who didn’t know about our relationship saw us.”
“I don’t care how they see us.” Dior humph-ed, “This lady simply doesn’t care.”
“Dior, I forgot to tell you…” I didn’t wanna ruin the air so I took her hands.
She looked back at me, “Yes?”
“You’re extremely beautiful today.”
Her face instantly blushed and replied with the lowest voice possible, “Thank you.”
“What funny things took place while I was away?”
“A lot.”
Then Dior told me about everything that happened after she had arrived at Darkmoon. How did she come to Dark City with my mother. How she met Fischer and pretended they didn’t know each other. How did she cope with my 3 wives. Among all, I didn’t recall she said she was treated differently.
And there were funny things like if it was not on a public occasion, she would address Fischer as Raven, very loudly.
“And Cohen, when did you offend that lady general?” Dior asked, “Every time I mentioned you, she got all furious.”
“The lady general?”
“Yes.” Dior Merlin tapped my forehead, “Don’t you forget her? Winterhard Lennie.”
I didn’t recall I have offended her anyhow.
“What’s on your mind?” Dior wiggled her finger in front of my eyes, “She’s pretty isn’t she? You want her?”
“You call her pretty?” I said, “How would I know? I’ve only seen her wrapped in armors from top to bottom. As for her figure, that’s a big no-no with that much metal covering her body. Am I such womanizing to you?”
“I see! There she is.” Dior hinted ahead, “She’s still not keeping her distance from His Majesty and the princess.”
“Ah?” I was astonished, “Then isn’t she the ultimate third wheel?”
“Exactly.” Dior sighed, “When you see Fischer and Bernie, you could even see the fire in the couple’s eyes. I’m not exaggerating, their visions could melt ice. Nobody can withstand that. But Winterhard sees nothing. She wouldn’t even give them some time alone. How nasty!”
“Dior, you wanna see something funny?” I laughed, “Let’s do the couple a favor, go send Winterhard away.”
“Can we do that?”
Therefore Dior and I went off-road, took a detour in the bushes. I went ahead of my fiancée to keep the guards quiet. She followed me with great interest, keeping my cape from tangling.
If anyone besides saw the guards, they would find them seriously carrying out a duty. But in fact, the guards were working for me signaling the exact direction of the king couple.
Finally, we made it to higher ground to observe the 3 targets from a distance.
It’s been a while, Fischer was still the good looking prince. Two ladies were beside him.
The younger one must be the princess. I might’ve kidnapped her but I haven’t seen her in person.
The other lady, who was older, had a well-kept figure too. Though a cold face, vigilant eyes made sure she must be Winterhard. I remembered her standing-up eyebrow.
Why couldn’t she smile? Frankly, the all-time cold expression ruined her delicate face.
“What do we do now?” Dior was beyond exciting.
“Let me see… okay, Dior.” I explained, “Help me, go tell the king I’m waiting for him here. Tell him to come alone. Then ask for the princess, anxiously. Tell her that your boyfriend fell and passed out.”
“That’s a mischievous plan!” Dior said joyfully, “What then?”
“The next thing, you have to keep Winterhard there. Keep her 10 arm’s length from the princess.” I bumped my chest, “And I shall tend the rest.”
“Roger that.” Dior darted towards the king, “Don’t mess this up.”
I found a tough ivy and tied one end to the trunk on one side of the road.
Not long after, Dior led Fischer tome.
“Where’s Cohen? Ms. Merlin, you can’t lie.” Fischer was looking for me, “I was told he won’t be here in another day.”
“Greetings, Your Highness!” I showed myself out of the bush.
“Cohen, you’re back! Why were you hiding in the bush!” Fischer dusted a few leaves from my shoulders, “Very well, Cohen, why do you need me here?”
“For something good.” I stood Fischer still in the middle of the pathway, said, “You see that U-turn?”
Fischer was utterly confused, “Yes.”
“Therefore if a delicate lady shows up at that corner, you’ll be able to see her?”
Fischer nodded.
“Then, by all means, stay here. We have something for you.” I told Dior, “Go now.”
“On my way!” Dior’s fists in the air made her look like a soldier who received his order, “Everything under control!”
“Cohen, what’s going on here?” Fischer blinked.
“Trust me and stand there.” I hid in the bush, “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
“Okay.”
“Pay attention now. We’ll talk about the rest later.” Having said that, I stopped making a sound because my target was coming.
Through the kisses between the leaves, I saw a girl at her 15s with light makeup. She came trotting with both hands lifting the edge of her dress. Her face was anxious, worried. I’ve never seen Princess Bernie Ebbinghaus at a close distance, she was indeed pretty cute.
However, the one who followed her was far from cute. The good thing was my smart fiancée managed to keep WInterhard behind by pretending to fall and cry.
Dior’s arm tugged Winterhard, then she gave me a victorious gesture. Therefore I straightened the ivy in my hand.
“Ah!” Princess Bernie naturally dashed forward and fell.
Luckily Fischer was not too stupid. He took a quick step forward to the spot where Bernie was supposed to fall to and cushioned himself there.
Therefore, Princess Bernie easily fell into Fischer’s arms.
Mission accomplished!
As Bernie supported herself up and saw the man who caught her, she exclaimed.
“My Lady, are you alright?” Dumb Fischer asked.
“I am… I am just fine.” Bernie blushed, stammered, “You… she told me you…”
“I…” Fischer also blushed.
Everything was going smoothly as foreseen, I cheered deep inside for Fischer before a certain female general who was an emotion-non-conductor.
“Your Highness!” Winterhard arrived at the U-turn, “Is everything alright?”
“I’m fine.” Bernie took the trouble to stand up before both Fischer and her burst out, then the two of them froze like they were hit by a paralyzingly magic.
“Princess?” A female voice yelled.
I couldn’t let the condition I created be ruined so I kept myself out of my hideout.
“Ohahaha…” Jumped out of the bush, I clapped and whooped, “Congrats! Congrats!”
“Cohen Kheda, it’s you again!” Winterhard’s eyes began glowing with fire, her eyebrows almost went upwards, she yelled, “Only you can pull this off!”
“And I!” Dior protested loudly behind Winterhard. But she was ignored by the latter.
“I haven’t got you the last time!” Winterhard has forgotten where she was so she reached for her hypothetical sword. Therefore, she utilized her fist, “What did you congratulate for?”
“Well…” I glimpsed the 2 all-blushed people down on the ground, “I was congratulating that diplomatic affairs between Swabia and Rivalz have rested peacefully.”
“What are you talking about!” Winterhard couldn’t take my nonsense any longer, her fist flew towards me.
I didn’t dodge because I was protected by my armor.
“THUMP!” Fists were certainly softer than a hilt. Winterhard resulted in such pain that her lips twitched.
“You’ve got to have what it takes to fight my husband.” Dior took Winterhard’s arm, “Let’s go talk somewhere else. Don’t be the third wheel.”
Till we left, the two on the ground were still in the same position: the girl with tightly closed eyes, the man who lost himself. However, both of them were extremely blushed.
All the above were the empire’s top secret and not for children.
We escorted Winterhard out of the garden, to the door of the rear hall.
“Okay! Let me go.” The female general who has been on furious all the way here suddenly turned normal state, “Or I’ll be angry for real this time.”
“I knew you were just acting.” Dior loosened her arm, “Told you, how could an emotion-non-conductor be a general!”
“I am not a non-conductor!” Winterhard raised her fist.
I quickly flashed between the two and told Winterhard, “General, this is my fiancée.”
Dior poked her head from my back, “I’m not afraid of her.”
“Humph, I’m leaving.” Winterhard ignored me and entered the rear hall.
I shared a look with Dior and also entered the hall, hand in hand in order to meet the rest of my relatives.
All were there: my mother, father, and my wives. This was the crowd that’s been bullying me in the family.
A long time after, when Fischer and Bernie showed themselves at the door, joyfulness took me, because they entered with Fischer’s hand in her arms.
“Congratulations!” I bounced, “Diplomacy rested… ouch!”
My head got knocked again.
The executioner retrieved her ‘weapon’, then gathered everybody and showed courtesy to Fischer, “My King, Princess!”
“Madame Katherine… I…” Fischer took a look at bashful Bernie, “I want to…”
“Your Majesty, I might not be useful on empire affairs, but you can trust me. As a friend of the past king, I shall arrange your marriage.” My mother replied gently.
“Thank you, Katherine!” Fischer revealed his rare excitement. Even Bernie showed her gratefulness by slightly lowering her body.
This was not right! I planned her abduction! I matchmade them! No one was thanking me! And I received multiple head-knocks! That was not fair!
“Bernie, this is Cohen Kheda. You can address him as Viceroy, General, or if you can’t remember his name, just ‘Hey’…”
(So this is the king I’ve been working so hard to serve. He introduced me as careless as that! Who can tell me the name of this hoes-before-bros guy!)
“General Cohen Kheda, pleasure.” Bernie gazed at me, “Are you the leader of the people who ‘invited’ me here?”
“Precisely. I ‘invited’ you.” I replied with a straight face, “Are you satisfied with my arrangement, Your Highness?”
“Your action was reckless, your arrangement dangerous and hateful.” Bernie reached out a hand, smiled, “However, thank you.”
“Ugh?” Bernie caught me off-guard. I was so confused that I forgot to shake her hand.
“Haha!” Sensing the awkwardness, Fischer’s laughter blurted, “We got you, Cohen! We finally got you!”
I have made up my mind to not take any missions like this in the future.
That night, my father, Fischer and I began planning our future in the rear meeting room.
I unscrolled a map before telling them the negotiation result with neighborhood provinces. Then I listened to their opinions.
“Even if you planned to march all the way to DC and attack its back, you still need to spare enough of your army to contain the rebels in the front.” My father gazed at the map, “You mentioned your frontline base locations might be compromised, how do you make sure the rebels do not have a plan ready to counter yours. If they were alerted, your assault plan could fail.”
“Your father is right, Cohen.” Fischer frowned, “The rebels indeed sustained a few defeats, they are still powerful. Don’t underestimate your enemy.
“Quite the opposite. In fact, compromising the location of my 12 frontline bases is part of the plan.” I looked at the map, “Look, it seems that my bases’ location is known to the enemies, that is to say, we basically give them my 6 marching routes.”
“You mean if they know our marching routes, it’s gonna add difficulty for them?” Fischer tapped his head, “I see you now!”
“Precisely. Therefore the choices they have are: A, reinforce from other areas; or B, utilizing the forces at hand, concentrate all men and try to defend DC’s front and back.”
“Keep talking.”
“If they were to reinforce DC with soldiers from other provinces, DC’s back is going to be even more so lack of manpower. Therefore my assault from the face can slow down, or even postponed; as the army to attack DC’s back can go wild. By that time, if I command a perfect cooperation of both armies, the rebels are presumably to sink into a crisis.” said I, “If things go otherwise, say the rebels do not reinforce, then my army hiding behind DC can wait, and my army facing DC can take time to search for the enemy’s weak points and burst in.”
My father and Fischer descended into pondering. Finally, my old man asked.
“Are you absolutely sure you can breakthrough DC’s front?” He suspected, “According to our intel, Luhrmann has received more troops. Elite forces from every other empire have joined his army as mercenaries.”
“Don’t worry. We’ve annihilated 150, 000 rebels. They’re still pouring in soldiers to the front battle line. But judging from our current intel,” I put 2 fingers in the air, “the rebels’ forces are roughly twice our men.”
My father was a bit irritated, “You can never underestimate 2 times as many forces! Cohen, get over your one victory. Look at the whole picture.”
“Quite the opposite. Careful calculations have been made.” I attentively answered my father’s doubt, “Due to we’ve taken the city of Lissandra, the rebels now have a food shortage. Therefore they can’t have too many riders. As for us, our army specializes in long-distance marching and assaulting. As long as I take advantage of its superb mobility to create enough opportunity, we can win, we can destroy our enemy!”
My father was still not convinced, “What about geography? And intel accuracy?”
“I have not only sent recons to do field research but also been helped by 3 artists of the royal academy draw detailed maps of the battlefield. The final draft of the maps coincides with my field research, very accurate. Besides, I’ve had a sculptor draw huge sand table according to the map.” said I, “As for intels, we always do triple cross checks.”
“I see you now.” His tone relaxed, “When do you plan to attack?”
I smiled, “New Year.”
“Em, new year, seconded.” He finally approved.
“Seconded.” Fischer also nodded.
“Still, Cohen, my son,” My father again shook his head, “you’ve got to change that personality! Luhrmann is not going to sleep well during this holiday season.”
“New year is a good day.” A gleam of hatred passed over Fischer’s eyes, he clenched fists, “I was told that Luhrmann has been having a rough time recently.”
“Why?”
“Because of you.” said my father, “Rumor has that Rivalz’s rose general escorted the empire’s princess to join our king’s selection of queen. Because of this, Luhrmann had a huge dispute with the cardinals.
“I see. That is why Winterhard Lennie hates you.” Fischer added, “Besides, Luhrmann also had multiple disputes with many houses because they too, sent their daughters to Dark City. You’re hated by a lot of people!”
“Why, why would that be? Dad, you came up with that idea, I merely carried it out.” I sighed, “And now I have to take the hate.”
My father laughed, he wrapped one of his arms around Fischer’s shoulders.
“Simple.” Like they were the father and the son, they answered at the same time, “Because our reputations are pure, honest and rightful!”
“Darn it. Save it, you two!”
At the same time, laughter came from the back of the mansion. This rare happiness overwhelmed this place.
(I love everyone here and everyone here loves me.)
Despite that, this viceroy had to work through the night because officials of every department queued from the door of my study to the entrance of the garden, waiting to be audienced. And all of them had stacks of paper in hand.
Dior and I were on our way to the garden because I intended to see how Fischer and a certain princess was described as oil and fire.
It was a rar period of time alone between Dior Merlin and I recently. But Dior cannot stop herself from laughing.
I protested, “Dior my love, that is lots of laughter.”
“Apologies.” She laughed even harder, her shoulder twitched, “It never occurred to me, to anyone, my husband’s nose getting pinched… hahaha.”
“You… never mind.” I sighed and sped up, “I told you, you have to marry me to call me a husband.”
“I like it.” Dior caught up, her arm in mine, “And nobody can gossip about it.”
“It’s not about gossiping. Our wedding is still on schedule.” I helplessly shook my head, “If someone who didn’t know about our relationship saw us.”
“I don’t care how they see us.” Dior humph-ed, “This lady simply doesn’t care.”
“Dior, I forgot to tell you…” I didn’t wanna ruin the air so I took her hands.
She looked back at me, “Yes?”
“You’re extremely beautiful today.”
Her face instantly blushed and replied with the lowest voice possible, “Thank you.”
“What funny things took place while I was away?”
“A lot.”
Then Dior told me about everything that happened after she had arrived at Darkmoon. How did she come to Dark City with my mother. How she met Fischer and pretended they didn’t know each other. How did she cope with my 3 wives. Among all, I didn’t recall she said she was treated differently.
And there were funny things like if it was not on a public occasion, she would address Fischer as Raven, very loudly.
“And Cohen, when did you offend that lady general?” Dior asked, “Every time I mentioned you, she got all furious.”
“The lady general?”
“Yes.” Dior Merlin tapped my forehead, “Don’t you forget her? Winterhard Lennie.”
I didn’t recall I have offended her anyhow.
“What’s on your mind?” Dior wiggled her finger in front of my eyes, “She’s pretty isn’t she? You want her?”
“You call her pretty?” I said, “How would I know? I’ve only seen her wrapped in armors from top to bottom. As for her figure, that’s a big no-no with that much metal covering her body. Am I such womanizing to you?”
“I see! There she is.” Dior hinted ahead, “She’s still not keeping her distance from His Majesty and the princess.”
“Ah?” I was astonished, “Then isn’t she the ultimate third wheel?”
“Exactly.” Dior sighed, “When you see Fischer and Bernie, you could even see the fire in the couple’s eyes. I’m not exaggerating, their visions could melt ice. Nobody can withstand that. But Winterhard sees nothing. She wouldn’t even give them some time alone. How nasty!”
“Dior, you wanna see something funny?” I laughed, “Let’s do the couple a favor, go send Winterhard away.”
“Can we do that?”
Therefore Dior and I went off-road, took a detour in the bushes. I went ahead of my fiancée to keep the guards quiet. She followed me with great interest, keeping my cape from tangling.
If anyone besides saw the guards, they would find them seriously carrying out a duty. But in fact, the guards were working for me signaling the exact direction of the king couple.
Finally, we made it to higher ground to observe the 3 targets from a distance.
It’s been a while, Fischer was still the good looking prince. Two ladies were beside him.
The younger one must be the princess. I might’ve kidnapped her but I haven’t seen her in person.
The other lady, who was older, had a well-kept figure too. Though a cold face, vigilant eyes made sure she must be Winterhard. I remembered her standing-up eyebrow.
Why couldn’t she smile? Frankly, the all-time cold expression ruined her delicate face.
“What do we do now?” Dior was beyond exciting.
“Let me see… okay, Dior.” I explained, “Help me, go tell the king I’m waiting for him here. Tell him to come alone. Then ask for the princess, anxiously. Tell her that your boyfriend fell and passed out.”
“That’s a mischievous plan!” Dior said joyfully, “What then?”
“The next thing, you have to keep Winterhard there. Keep her 10 arm’s length from the princess.” I bumped my chest, “And I shall tend the rest.”
“Roger that.” Dior darted towards the king, “Don’t mess this up.”
I found a tough ivy and tied one end to the trunk on one side of the road.
Not long after, Dior led Fischer tome.
“Where’s Cohen? Ms. Merlin, you can’t lie.” Fischer was looking for me, “I was told he won’t be here in another day.”
“Greetings, Your Highness!” I showed myself out of the bush.
“Cohen, you’re back! Why were you hiding in the bush!” Fischer dusted a few leaves from my shoulders, “Very well, Cohen, why do you need me here?”
“For something good.” I stood Fischer still in the middle of the pathway, said, “You see that U-turn?”
Fischer was utterly confused, “Yes.”
“Therefore if a delicate lady shows up at that corner, you’ll be able to see her?”
Fischer nodded.
“Then, by all means, stay here. We have something for you.” I told Dior, “Go now.”
“On my way!” Dior’s fists in the air made her look like a soldier who received his order, “Everything under control!”
“Cohen, what’s going on here?” Fischer blinked.
“Trust me and stand there.” I hid in the bush, “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
“Okay.”
“Pay attention now. We’ll talk about the rest later.” Having said that, I stopped making a sound because my target was coming.
Through the kisses between the leaves, I saw a girl at her 15s with light makeup. She came trotting with both hands lifting the edge of her dress. Her face was anxious, worried. I’ve never seen Princess Bernie Ebbinghaus at a close distance, she was indeed pretty cute.
However, the one who followed her was far from cute. The good thing was my smart fiancée managed to keep WInterhard behind by pretending to fall and cry.
Dior’s arm tugged Winterhard, then she gave me a victorious gesture. Therefore I straightened the ivy in my hand.
“Ah!” Princess Bernie naturally dashed forward and fell.
Luckily Fischer was not too stupid. He took a quick step forward to the spot where Bernie was supposed to fall to and cushioned himself there.
Therefore, Princess Bernie easily fell into Fischer’s arms.
Mission accomplished!
As Bernie supported herself up and saw the man who caught her, she exclaimed.
“My Lady, are you alright?” Dumb Fischer asked.
“I am… I am just fine.” Bernie blushed, stammered, “You… she told me you…”
“I…” Fischer also blushed.
Everything was going smoothly as foreseen, I cheered deep inside for Fischer before a certain female general who was an emotion-non-conductor.
“Your Highness!” Winterhard arrived at the U-turn, “Is everything alright?”
“I’m fine.” Bernie took the trouble to stand up before both Fischer and her burst out, then the two of them froze like they were hit by a paralyzingly magic.
“Princess?” A female voice yelled.
I couldn’t let the condition I created be ruined so I kept myself out of my hideout.
“Ohahaha…” Jumped out of the bush, I clapped and whooped, “Congrats! Congrats!”
“Cohen Kheda, it’s you again!” Winterhard’s eyes began glowing with fire, her eyebrows almost went upwards, she yelled, “Only you can pull this off!”
“And I!” Dior protested loudly behind Winterhard. But she was ignored by the latter.
“I haven’t got you the last time!” Winterhard has forgotten where she was so she reached for her hypothetical sword. Therefore, she utilized her fist, “What did you congratulate for?”
“Well…” I glimpsed the 2 all-blushed people down on the ground, “I was congratulating that diplomatic affairs between Swabia and Rivalz have rested peacefully.”
“What are you talking about!” Winterhard couldn’t take my nonsense any longer, her fist flew towards me.
I didn’t dodge because I was protected by my armor.
“THUMP!” Fists were certainly softer than a hilt. Winterhard resulted in such pain that her lips twitched.
“You’ve got to have what it takes to fight my husband.” Dior took Winterhard’s arm, “Let’s go talk somewhere else. Don’t be the third wheel.”
Till we left, the two on the ground were still in the same position: the girl with tightly closed eyes, the man who lost himself. However, both of them were extremely blushed.
All the above were the empire’s top secret and not for children.
We escorted Winterhard out of the garden, to the door of the rear hall.
“Okay! Let me go.” The female general who has been on furious all the way here suddenly turned normal state, “Or I’ll be angry for real this time.”
“I knew you were just acting.” Dior loosened her arm, “Told you, how could an emotion-non-conductor be a general!”
“I am not a non-conductor!” Winterhard raised her fist.
I quickly flashed between the two and told Winterhard, “General, this is my fiancée.”
Dior poked her head from my back, “I’m not afraid of her.”
“Humph, I’m leaving.” Winterhard ignored me and entered the rear hall.
I shared a look with Dior and also entered the hall, hand in hand in order to meet the rest of my relatives.
All were there: my mother, father, and my wives. This was the crowd that’s been bullying me in the family.
A long time after, when Fischer and Bernie showed themselves at the door, joyfulness took me, because they entered with Fischer’s hand in her arms.
“Congratulations!” I bounced, “Diplomacy rested… ouch!”
My head got knocked again.
The executioner retrieved her ‘weapon’, then gathered everybody and showed courtesy to Fischer, “My King, Princess!”
“Madame Katherine… I…” Fischer took a look at bashful Bernie, “I want to…”
“Your Majesty, I might not be useful on empire affairs, but you can trust me. As a friend of the past king, I shall arrange your marriage.” My mother replied gently.
“Thank you, Katherine!” Fischer revealed his rare excitement. Even Bernie showed her gratefulness by slightly lowering her body.
This was not right! I planned her abduction! I matchmade them! No one was thanking me! And I received multiple head-knocks! That was not fair!
“Bernie, this is Cohen Kheda. You can address him as Viceroy, General, or if you can’t remember his name, just ‘Hey’…”
(So this is the king I’ve been working so hard to serve. He introduced me as careless as that! Who can tell me the name of this hoes-before-bros guy!)
“General Cohen Kheda, pleasure.” Bernie gazed at me, “Are you the leader of the people who ‘invited’ me here?”
“Precisely. I ‘invited’ you.” I replied with a straight face, “Are you satisfied with my arrangement, Your Highness?”
“Your action was reckless, your arrangement dangerous and hateful.” Bernie reached out a hand, smiled, “However, thank you.”
“Ugh?” Bernie caught me off-guard. I was so confused that I forgot to shake her hand.
“Haha!” Sensing the awkwardness, Fischer’s laughter blurted, “We got you, Cohen! We finally got you!”
I have made up my mind to not take any missions like this in the future.
That night, my father, Fischer and I began planning our future in the rear meeting room.
I unscrolled a map before telling them the negotiation result with neighborhood provinces. Then I listened to their opinions.
“Even if you planned to march all the way to DC and attack its back, you still need to spare enough of your army to contain the rebels in the front.” My father gazed at the map, “You mentioned your frontline base locations might be compromised, how do you make sure the rebels do not have a plan ready to counter yours. If they were alerted, your assault plan could fail.”
“Your father is right, Cohen.” Fischer frowned, “The rebels indeed sustained a few defeats, they are still powerful. Don’t underestimate your enemy.
“Quite the opposite. In fact, compromising the location of my 12 frontline bases is part of the plan.” I looked at the map, “Look, it seems that my bases’ location is known to the enemies, that is to say, we basically give them my 6 marching routes.”
“You mean if they know our marching routes, it’s gonna add difficulty for them?” Fischer tapped his head, “I see you now!”
“Precisely. Therefore the choices they have are: A, reinforce from other areas; or B, utilizing the forces at hand, concentrate all men and try to defend DC’s front and back.”
“Keep talking.”
“If they were to reinforce DC with soldiers from other provinces, DC’s back is going to be even more so lack of manpower. Therefore my assault from the face can slow down, or even postponed; as the army to attack DC’s back can go wild. By that time, if I command a perfect cooperation of both armies, the rebels are presumably to sink into a crisis.” said I, “If things go otherwise, say the rebels do not reinforce, then my army hiding behind DC can wait, and my army facing DC can take time to search for the enemy’s weak points and burst in.”
My father and Fischer descended into pondering. Finally, my old man asked.
“Are you absolutely sure you can breakthrough DC’s front?” He suspected, “According to our intel, Luhrmann has received more troops. Elite forces from every other empire have joined his army as mercenaries.”
“Don’t worry. We’ve annihilated 150, 000 rebels. They’re still pouring in soldiers to the front battle line. But judging from our current intel,” I put 2 fingers in the air, “the rebels’ forces are roughly twice our men.”
My father was a bit irritated, “You can never underestimate 2 times as many forces! Cohen, get over your one victory. Look at the whole picture.”
“Quite the opposite. Careful calculations have been made.” I attentively answered my father’s doubt, “Due to we’ve taken the city of Lissandra, the rebels now have a food shortage. Therefore they can’t have too many riders. As for us, our army specializes in long-distance marching and assaulting. As long as I take advantage of its superb mobility to create enough opportunity, we can win, we can destroy our enemy!”
My father was still not convinced, “What about geography? And intel accuracy?”
“I have not only sent recons to do field research but also been helped by 3 artists of the royal academy draw detailed maps of the battlefield. The final draft of the maps coincides with my field research, very accurate. Besides, I’ve had a sculptor draw huge sand table according to the map.” said I, “As for intels, we always do triple cross checks.”
“I see you now.” His tone relaxed, “When do you plan to attack?”
I smiled, “New Year.”
“Em, new year, seconded.” He finally approved.
“Seconded.” Fischer also nodded.
“Still, Cohen, my son,” My father again shook his head, “you’ve got to change that personality! Luhrmann is not going to sleep well during this holiday season.”
“New year is a good day.” A gleam of hatred passed over Fischer’s eyes, he clenched fists, “I was told that Luhrmann has been having a rough time recently.”
“Why?”
“Because of you.” said my father, “Rumor has that Rivalz’s rose general escorted the empire’s princess to join our king’s selection of queen. Because of this, Luhrmann had a huge dispute with the cardinals.
“I see. That is why Winterhard Lennie hates you.” Fischer added, “Besides, Luhrmann also had multiple disputes with many houses because they too, sent their daughters to Dark City. You’re hated by a lot of people!”
“Why, why would that be? Dad, you came up with that idea, I merely carried it out.” I sighed, “And now I have to take the hate.”
My father laughed, he wrapped one of his arms around Fischer’s shoulders.
“Simple.” Like they were the father and the son, they answered at the same time, “Because our reputations are pure, honest and rightful!”
“Darn it. Save it, you two!”
At the same time, laughter came from the back of the mansion. This rare happiness overwhelmed this place.
(I love everyone here and everyone here loves me.)
Despite that, this viceroy had to work through the night because officials of every department queued from the door of my study to the entrance of the garden, waiting to be audienced. And all of them had stacks of paper in hand.
