The door was lightly tapped with a soft echo of sound.

  –May I come in?

  “Enter.”

  “Capital guard captain, Adrian reporting!”

  “No need for stiffness.”

  The man calling himself Adrian laughed quietly.

  “Regarding the events of the night five days ago on Tridi, we have concluded it has to do with criminals.”

  Nodding lightly, Adrian continued.

  “Their purpose, we don’t know.” Adrian's eyes drifted off to the side. “...I asked him, and all he said about the woman and the deceased were ‘someone he met by chance’ and ‘vagrants and Akelia’.”

  Adrian's face became troubled.

  “People are calling what they saw God's power. And the red… ice. It seems what he has is no ordinary artifact… but like before, he denies even having done such a thing.”

  Once done speaking, a silence perturbed in the office.

  “You may go.”

  “Yes your majesty.” Adrian bowed and left.

  Was it the wrong or correct choice?

  Doubt should appear.

  But the time for such has gone once they inflicted a blow on the Empire.

  The light of the moon entered through the window.

  Dead eyes grasped at nothing.

  Futility is perhaps the last thing in the heart.

  In more than a month, close to a hundred thousand, gone.

  A severe blow to the prestige of the Empire and it’s military might. If a nation several times smaller caused them to lose that much manpower, the fear recedes and shows not it’s dominance.

  But a weakness.

  That weakness was caused by legion commander Enright Klaus.

  Surely by now, removal was all but certain.

  Yesterday, on the day of awakening, the sky split in two.

  Ever since the Barlindos kingdom’s refusal, everything has started to degrade.

  At least to Klaus, it was a series of misfortunes.

  To the view of night dwellers, it was not.

  A light unbound, stretching across the sky with ease.

  1st legion commander Enright Klaus could care less. If anything, the only wonder was when they would visit him.

  Next to him was one of the ‘lucky’ few to not entirely be in the radius of a mage's unknown attack.

  A hardened face gazing at his mauled hand.

  Jean ‘Cap’line fiddled with his hand. Touching the bandaged parts as if it irked him.

  A seed of anger unfurled with each day.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  It was futility in the face of impossibility.

  But the control of heaven was in someone's hands. Why can’t it be put in another?

  A fierce resolve to right the wrong grew.

  In the shrewd light of the moon, it garnered no praise or contempt.

  But silence.

  Some call for advancing while others are for defending.

  A tricky pickle for sure.

  I mean I’m half listening next to this fudger who ratted me out.

  Thanks A-dri-an.

  Well I’m joking; due to the friendly veritable me.

  I can never lie!

  For the record, have you ever seen me deceive?

  I’m not quite good at it.

  Rather I’m more charitable in self glazing.

  Sadly, I hate me.

  Happily, I love me.

  “Have you seen the amount of men lost to these weapons?!”

  “It doesn’t matter if we end up overwhelmed by sheer numbers.”

  “The boys are green. They went against command and charged of their own volition!”

  I kinda forgot but there's also like. The twenty sumthin dudes constantly watched.

  So reasonably, that halves something.

  Someone made that point earlier..? I think.

  I wasn’t paying attention.

  “What about the republic?”

  “...They haven’t responded.”

  Well…

  I mean what do you want me to say?

  I give my time and I don’t.

  “The longer we dilly dally, the more the Empire will come back stronger! With no proper defense we can push in quickly!”

  “Our force will be spread thin. Not to mention the logistical hassle.”

  The avid offense speaker frowned.

  Right now there are essentially two sides countering each other.

  More like one, but for the sake of equality…! Two.

  Mr offense speaker with black and grey hairs with killer sideburns stubbornly insists on seeing the great outskirts.

  Pencil moostache with white hair prefers the good ol 'defense.

  Considering that both look different in body weight, it’s no surprise that they consist of being in different camps.

  In my head it doesn’t really matter though.

  I DON’T CARE.

  This has been going on for nearly an hour at this point.

  The calendar's funky breh.

  Not the calendar I know!??!?!

  It’s called the Gregorian calendar by the way.

  Uh. Not this worlds.

  “Whoo…”

  I stood up.

  “I humbly ask permission to share my perspective and a lackluster suggestion.”

  Oh so many eyes.

  My hearts pounding.

  Daiski daiski or something.

  The king surmised without saying anything.

  Geez. Someone keep talkin. You have mouths, use em.

  His majesty rhythmically tapped the armrest.

  “Granted.”

  Oh sweet virtue.

  “Then I shall speak.”

  I lifted my head.

  “From this servant’s perspective, neither are ideal.”

  In kind of a bind due to various reasons.

  “Advancing into enemy territory has merits, yet nearly strains every conceivable aspect.” except maybe money? Wait no they get paid.

  Avid offenser had a displeased face while avid defender had a more relieved face.

  “While defending is a more… sensible choice. Our opponent has every means to crush us if we stay still.”

  Like I said, I'm not a genius.

  I could be making a mistake. For all I care, it’ll just be how it is.

  Skin and bones narrowed their eyes.

  “Therefore, I suggest this idea. Incite and arm rebellions to destabilize territories to weaken the power of our opponent.”

  Hm…

  “We can also join in to create several fronts. Perhaps if accepted, jointly propose an alliance with them.”

  It’s not the greatest greatest idea.

  But I mean.

  Tis the fate of the small.

  Gotta use every tactic in the brain that seems good.

  “Thank you for listening to this servant’s lackluster idea.”

  It’ll be fun too.

  Totally didn't play video games for like two days straight.