June 30, 2022 – 3 minutes read – 499 words

They are deployed to stop the invasion of the various tribes living in the mountainous areas of the North. For the past few years, they fend off several attacks by small groups of tribespeople. But there have been no attacks for two months now…

Have the tribes finally given up?

A watchman at a Northern fort notices an enormous group of people approaching. He panics and rings the nearby bell.

“Enemy Attack! Enemy Attack!” Watchmen screams

The soldiers of the fort jump to their positions at the sound of the bell. Archers position themselves on the walls, the cavalry dons their armor, and infantrymen grab spears and gather in front of the gate. Major General Fischer climbs to the top of the wall and is shocked at the amount of enemies surrounding the fort.

There are far more enemies here than on any previous attack…

“Lieutenant Colonel Snake, His Majesty has summoned you.” Lieutenant General Simon

I was summoned to meet with the King, along with the head General, the Generals from the First, Second, and Third armies, the Prime Minister, and several bureaucrats from the Foreign Affairs ministry

“Now we’re all here, I’m starting the meeting. Our goal it to plan a response to the coordinated invation of the Northern tribes.” King

“What is the situation of the Northern front?” Lieutenant General Simon

“According to the messenger, the enemies number around 10,000. We have 2,000 soldiers of the Northern Army as well as 2,000 militia members from the nearby territories. It seem we have a total of 4,000 fighting men defending our forts.” General Andretti

“We need reinforcements. Which army should we send?” King

“What about sending the Third and Eighth armies?” General Andretti

“The Third Army stands ready to go!” Lieutenant General Ganache

“The Eighth Army is ready as well!” Pat

“Ok, Prime Minister. Arrange for any supplies they need!” King

“Understood!” Prime Minister Bendrick

“Foreign Affairs Minster! What are the trends in the surrounding countries?” King

“Well, we have no issue with the Plum Kingdom due to our existing friendship treaty. Since the Empire is currently tied down with a non-aggression treaty, they shouldn’t attack, but we can’t trust them. The Western Army must stay at attention because of that. Also, our spies in the Empire have reported a large amount of food being exported, it’s likely this Northern aggression was instigated by the Empire.” Foreign Affairs Minister

“They may be importing iron from the Northern tribes in exchange.” King

“Probably” Foreign Affairs Minister

“Ok, we must be wary of the West, so we should move 500 soldiers from the South to the West and move another 500 Southern soldiers to guard the capital. That way the capital troops won’t be stretched too thin and we can let the full Third and Eighth armies march to reinforce the Northern Army! That’s all. Get moving!” General Andretti

“At your will!” Meeting Participants

The next day, the Third and Eighth armies left the Royal Capital.

Editor Note: Right now, I’m heads down on wrapping up the last chapters for Volume 1 (translation and images). Then I’ve got to tweak the combined chapters to make them cohesive and so on. I’ve never tried to edit a book-length text before, it’s… interesting.