Kadia storms off with a dark expression, ready to send ssages to Silver Peak City. This matter is no longer his call to make.
Henwell lounges back, waiting for the duchy’s response. He won’t be the one to ask for terms—that’s not how a loyal subject behaves. The duchy has to make the first move.
Whatever the Vorska line is worth, that’s what Henwell expects in return.
And the more the duchy offers, the harder Henwell will work.
They’re no longer in a simple subordinate relationship. Afterall Henwell has done his part for this war.
Supporting the Vorska line? That’s overti.
Pay him overti, and Henwell will complete additional work.
As long as the rewards is enough, Henwell can pull all-nighters!
Five days later, an urgent ssage arrives, carried by swift ssenger birds.
It’s a handwritten letter from Grand Duke Amir himself. As long as Henwell can solve the Vorska line crisis, he’s free to propose whatever rewards he deems fair.
Henwell wastes no ti. He imdiately assembles a temporary mixed legion and sends it north.
At the sa ti, he mobilizes a battle group’s worth of troops to push beyond Peace Haven’s borders, carving out a 3,000-square-kiloter stretch of land from the Vorry duchy.
Just as everyone gasps at Henwell’s audacious demands, the newly dispatched temporary mixed legion ets up with the previously deployed mixed legion.
The first, led by Augusta, is nad Mixed Legion One; the second, led by Kivel, is Mixed Legion Two.
The two legions split into four routes by battle group units, each soldier carrying five days’ worth of supplies in tactical backpacks, maneuvering stealthily near the Ika Kingdom’s two regular legions.
At midnight, they launch a surprise attack.
Each legion’s two battle groups strike from both flanks, ambushing the two kingdom armies.
The fight is swift and decisive.
By morning, all enemy forces are shattered.
They capture a large number of mid- and high-ranking officers, completely breaking the enemy’s chain of command.
Before other Ika Kingdom legions can react, the two legions escort their prisoners and retreat to safety.
Soon after, more bad news reaches the kingdom commanders at the Vorska front.
The two reinforcents the kingdom sent here were ambushed by Count Jansen’s troops.
After lying in wait for a week, over 20,000 elite soldiers from the Phoenix family inflicted massive casualties on the kingdom’s reinforcents.
Those two legions suffered a crushing defeat and retreated back to Wilderness City, the kingdom’s eastern stronghold.
Rallying the broken troops, tallying losses, replenishing personnel, and reorganizing the units all take ti.
So, in the short term, these two legions won’t be able to support the front lines again.
With the kingdom’s reinforcents at the Vorska line crippled and two legions wrecked, only four full-strength legions remain in this region for the Ika Kingdom.
On the Vorry duchy’s side, the 7th and 13th legions are elite forces, and the two mixed legions Henwell dispatched have also proven their combat effectiveness.
The main forces on both sides have reached a new balance.
South of Vorska, Count Jansen commands another 20,000 elite troops.
They can launch attacks from behind the Ika Kingdom lines when the Vorska defense is in danger.
They can also intercept any reinforcents the kingdom tries to send.
Even better, if Peace Haven cos under pressure, Jansen’s troops can move south to threaten the southeastern kingdom army’s flank.
Only now does the kingdom realize just how significant Jansen’s seemingly low-profile force really is.
Since the war began, Count Jansen has kept a low profile.
Henwell’s fierce reputation overshadowed Jansen’s troops so much that everyone overlooked them.
Besides, most people thought it was just a noble private army—not strong enough to make a real difference.
But after the last battle defending Peace Haven, Jansen realized he needed to strengthen his forces.
He sent a large number of officers to Henwell’s new training camps to learn.
At the sa ti, he promoted promising recruits from commoner backgrounds whenever possible.
While the officers gained experience, the training intensity for the soldiers also increased.
Though still not on par with Henwell’s elite troops, their training far exceeds that of the duchy’s regular legions.
On paper, it’s a noble private army, but their combat power and equipnt rival the duchy’s elite regular legions.
Now it’s the Ika Kingdom’s overall commander for this war who’s scratching his head.
To keep Count Jansen’s forces in check, a conservative estimate says they need at least three legions.
That’s a real headache for the Ika Kingdom.
If they want to turn the tide around Peace Haven, it would cost a fortune—and clearly, it’s not worth it.
To shift the situation at the Vorska line, they’d need to add at least three more legions.
Those three legions just to hold back Jansen an mobilizing six legions in this area alone.
That’s a no-go.
anwhile, with the Iron Wall front constantly escalating, sixteen Ika legions are already gathered there.
Adding it all up, the Ika Kingdom has thrown nearly fifty legions into this conflict.
That’s almost half of their entire military strength—way too damn much.
This was supposed to be a routine, and Ika was hoping to squeeze so benefits out of it.
And now it’s ti to wrap things up.
If they keep fighting, it’ll seriously go against the kingdom’s own interests.
Fortunately, the Ika Kingdom notices that neither Henwell nor Jansen shows any signs of expanding the war.
So the stalemate holds.
The duchy is more than satisfied with how stable the Vorska front has beco.
At the sa ti, the duchy can’t help but feel utterly speechless about Henwell’s moves.
Henwell doesn’t actually shrink the front lines—instead, he just pulls together one mixed legion, adds it to the original mixed legion stationed at Vorska, and with these two legions, plus Count Jansen’s 20,000 elite troops, he flips the entire Vorska battle.
If you call Henwell a sly bastard, fine—but when he moves, he gets the job done, even exceeding the duchy’s expectations.
But if you want to talk about being reasonable, Henwell’s a rogue—he snags nearly 3,000 square kiloters of territory from the duchy using just two mixed legions.
But what can you do? Henwell delivers on his promises.
No matter what tricks he pulls, even if he went alone and smashed the kingdom’s legions, he still fulfills the duchy’s demands.
With spring planting around the corner, both the kingdom and the duchy are gearing up for negotiations.
On the Iron Wall front, both sides basically stick to the original border.
At Vorska, the Ika Kingdom grabs two territories totaling over 3,000 square kiloters.
But Henwell’s moves around Peace Haven are on a whole different level—he bites off more than 20,000 square kiloters from the Ika Kingdom.
If they call a ceasefire based on the current control lines, it’s undoubtedly the best outco for Henwell.
But obviously, that’s not realistic.
Henwell has no real intention of swallowing it all—that would piss off the Ika Kingdom big ti.
It’d also leave the Ika Kingdom with no face to save, and they definitely won’t let it slide.
So, the old playbook applies: give back most of it, keep a chunk for myself, and call it a day.
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