Arestia Empire'S World Domination
Chapter 25: Immaturity of Plan

...—Main Path of Arestia— Empire...

...—24 August 1238—...

The crescent moonlight once again rained down on the ground in a very quiet atmosphere, only the sound of a few owl chirps as well as wolf howls from the depths of the forest.

Several red dots of campfires can be seen from the edge of the forest which is the side of the main road that connects the Capital of Excelia with the City of Windsor.

Being right in front of one of the bonfires, Leticia sat pensively, awake while some of her subordinate nobles were sound asleep.

Seven days had passed since Leticia left for the border of the Arestian Empire with the Kingdom of Gardom.

Recollected her meeting with Excel. There was a strange feeling in Leticia's mind towards the Emperor's wife right after she read the letter sent to her.

Whether upset, angry, or even sad, Leticia did not understand it. If based on the words of Queen Gardom and her Master, Florentia, Excel should be able to give at least a positive response to him, although stalling until the day Ares returns.

Excel did not do that. In fact, only Prime Minister Warren met him at a follow-up meeting, feeling like Excel no longer intended to reunite with Leticia.

For reasons of "unhealthy physical condition" Leticia was required to accept Excel's absence three days after the meeting.

Even so, Leticia's state visit was not in vain. The gaze of her two eyes was once again directed towards the parchment scroll within her grasp, which was a letter addressed to the Queen on behalf of the Empress Excel.

Leticia certainly does not know the answer given by Excel. As the intermediary for the message, Leticia was not allowed to open the letter even though she was the Queen's right hand.

Srk.

Srk.

The sound of a tree branch where Leticia was leaning against him faintly sounded. Not suspecting the slightest bit of the origin of the sound, Leticia took the warm cup of milk that had been brewed right before her and calmly gulped it down.

"This area is safe." The masculine tone pierced both of Leticia's eardrums.

A wry smile soon formed on Leticia's face. Slashing back down her back on the tree trunk, Leticia's gaze lifted and found a black-robed figure sitting on top of the tree branch.

"Queen's Eye" and Gardom's Chief Intelligence Officer, Olfrey. Although working on different fields, Leticia often interacts with him because of the position of the two who really need coordination.

"What do you think of this region?" Grasping a warm cup of milk to warm her body, Leticia looked at the highway before her with a hint of admiration.

"The land of dreams." Briefly, Olfrey expressed her personal opinion.

"What do you mean?" asked Leticia, sounding curious.

"Security is guaranteed, there is no hunger in the summer, employment seems to be in various places." Olfrey answered densely.

"If you look from the glasses." Leticia chimed in cynically, blaming Olfrey for his universal answer.

"I've sneaked into some noble houses, their finances are in good shape. Some of them are in a state of high surplus even after annual taxes." Olfrey's tone sounded greatly amazed.

Before Leticia gave a response, Olfrey intended to immediately close her lips, "The main cause of this is all the Emperor, he has funded all the fiscal needs of the regional priorities with his personal money."

"Huh?! Impossible!" Unknowingly, Leticia raised her voice.

Leticia's two hands immediately closed her lips tightly and glanced around, finding not a single noble coming out of her tent as well as the knights who remained standing in her position, some of the knights were asleep.

"How much money does he have?!" Said softly, the tone that Leticia cast gave the impression of impossibility.

"You asked the wrong person, Miss," said Olfrey indifferently.

"Tch." Leticia hit back. Several possibilities swirled in her mind, Leticia revealed something that was very likely to be Ares' goal in the future, "Does he intend to make the nobles of the region independent without relying on the Aubert Family in the next year?"

"I think there's no way Ares would do that unless the money is very abundant" Leticia said.

"Are you envious?" Despite not facing each other, Leticia feels Olfrey is smiling mockingly, insulting her being unable to do so for Gardom.

"Tch." Once again, Leticia clicked her tongue, "In three years, the Plain of Normadia will be ours."

"Why are you so sure?" Olfrey revealed her astonishment, "There is a non-aggression pact and emergency cooperation that binds the three countries of the alliance, you know?"

The Kingdom of Normadia, a country under three kingdoms that had long fought over the land.

Unlike the Land of Vietra which was contested by the Kingdom of Rowling and the Kingdom of Natrehn for hundreds of years, on the Normadia Plain was established a puppet kingdom whose role was to supply food to the three surrounding countries.

Cooperation does not stop developing just there, to strengthen the alliance relationship, educational development cooperation was rolled out.

On the land, a neutral university was established that plays a role in research in order to be used by the three countries, namely, although often the research is not carried out because of differences of opinion between stakeholders and funding problems.

"Then from that, I'll make Valmes or Roland break the pact. Then, if we already have cooperation with Arestia, we will make their military fight against both nega—"

Duk!

"Ouch!" The fruit that Olfrey had just picked hit Leticia's head, Leticia's hands pointed upwards to wipe the crown.

Leticia complained, painting some annoyance over the look on her face, "What are you doing, Damn it?!"

"Why are you so confident?" Although her face was invisible to Leticia, Olfrey frowned, feeling Leticia not thinking of anything that could happen outside of her control.

"Huh? I have carefully devised this plan with His Majesty. It will not fail." Leticia was very confident in the strategy she had devised, which was co-authored with Florentia as well as several other high-ranking Gardom nobles.

"I see, I must warn him" said Olfrey.

"Why?" asked Leticia, looking confused.

"Our enemy this time is the one who has conquered four countries under his feet" Olfrey replied.

"Then? I've taken that into account, we just have to stop the Ares— movement" Leticia's words interjected.

"Impossible." Olfrey interrupted Leticia firmly.

"Why can you say that?" timpal Leticia, pitting with a wrinkled forehead.

"I actually want to give His Majesty a recent report first." In his mind, Olfrey did not want to spread any further information to anyone before reaching Florentia. Even so, he also did not want Leticia to be too haughty to forget the land.

"But, I will say this to you, the 'black' group of Emperors is one of the 'Seven.'" Olfrey's words made Leticia momentarily speechless, so shocked that she was speechless.

"How... can he take care of them? And also.. who?" asked Leticia, her tone sounded very scared.

"If you ask me, I can't find that information... Still, since four are state organizations and one is a misguided group, it is possible... 'Cornwall' or 'Heart, '" replied Olfrey.

"Isn't 'Cornwall' reported to have been destroyed?" Leticia slightly did not trust the information. Still, in the underworld, even organizations that have been buried for more than 1,000 years can be resurrected.

"I only get information if only a few high-ranking people have been killed." Olfrey's words made Leticia speechless.

Now, the truth has been revealed. Leticia soon came to the conclusion that one of the two organizations was under the palm of Ares's hand if he saw the achievements he had made, regardless of his military and financial strength.

With just a sentence, the plan of the Gardom higher-ups that had been made over the span of a year, had to change completely, "I'll follow up on this before Ares moves."

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