Carine Forest — Outer Camp — Main Command Tent
The command tent had become the heart of the entire operation.
Maps covered nearly every table.
Wooden markers represented army formations, artillery positions, supply routes, and projected advance paths into Carine Forest.
Colored strings stretched between pins and markers like veins across a body.
Red for Angelus.
White for the Church.
Gold for the Crown.
Black for Laos.
The laughter from the previous notes had finally begun fading.
Mostly.
Darian was still occasionally making strange choking noises every few seconds.
Mirelle looked like she was actively reconsidering her friendship with him.
Bal simply turned another page.
Adrean rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Please continue."
Bal nodded.
Then looked down.
His expression remained perfectly neutral.
"…Lord Logos's direct strategic input states: Laos will handle dragging them out and keeping them there. Decide the rest among yourselves."
Darian blinked.
"…That is it?"
Bal looked down again.
Then flipped another page.
Then another.
"…No."
Everyone leaned slightly forward.
Bal continued.
"Step One: place bait around the outer sectors."
A general frowned.
"Bait?"
Bal continued.
"Step Two: use repeated artillery strikes to create controlled migration pressure."
Another officer blinked.
"…Migration pressure?"
Bal kept reading.
"Step Three: guide hostile movement toward predetermined kill zones."
Adrean narrowed his eyes.
"…Continue."
Bal looked down.
Then froze.
Actually froze.
"…No."
Sous frowned.
"What?"
Bal stared at the notebook.
"…No."
Darian slammed a hand onto the table.
"Stop saying no!"
Bal slowly looked up.
"…The bait is us."
Silence.
"…Excuse me?" Mirelle asked.
Bal checked the page again.
As if reality had perhaps corrected itself.
It had not.
"These creatures identify movement, mana concentrations, hostility, and large-scale activity."
He pointed around the tent.
"If one hundred and twenty thousand armored soldiers suddenly appear and begin beating the forest with artillery…"
A pause.
"…they will come."
Absolute silence.
The Arch-Prelate closed his eyes.
Adrean stared at nothing.
Sous looked toward the forest outside.
Then toward the notebook.
Then back.
"…He wants to weaponize our existence."
Bal nodded.
"Yes."
Darian folded his arms tightly.
"That is insane."
"No," Mirelle replied quietly.
Her eyes remained fixed on the map.
"It is efficient."
Bal nodded.
"The creatures are highly aggressive."
"Once they engage, guiding them becomes easy."
That somehow made the room worse.
Adrean looked toward Bal.
"You are proposing we intentionally provoke an unknown enemy into a concentrated engagement."
"Yes."
"That could produce catastrophic casualties."
Bal glanced downward.
Then read:
"Counterpoint: the creatures are already hostile."
A pause.
"Leaving them alive would be strategically irresponsible."
Another pause.
"In war, casualties are inevitable."
One of the younger commanders scoffed openly.
"Says the man who never saw a battlefield."
The room shifted.
Bal looked toward him.
No anger.
No outrage.
Stillness.
The commander continued.
"You survived the Red Tide hiding behind walls built by a gifted child while the rest of us bled."
His jaw tightened.
"And now you lecture us about sacrifice?"
Several Laosian soldiers near the walls slowly turned.
Facing him.
Silent.
Bal looked at him.
Long enough for discomfort to settle into the room.
"In twenty-three years of service…"
A pause.
"I buried over three thousand bodies with my own hands."
The room stayed silent.
"Soldiers."
"Workers."
"Children."
"Men screaming because there wasn't enough medicine."
Another pause.
"Men begging not to be abandoned."
His eyes hardened.
"I watched villages disappear because nobody important believed they were worth defending."
Silence.
"The Red Tide was the first conflict in Laos history to end without casualties."
The commander lowered his eyes.
Bal remained still.
"So if you call survival cowardice again…"
A pause.
"…I will remove your heart and personally show it to you."
The young commander turned pale.
Adrean raised a hand.
"That is enough."
Bal leaned back again.
The First Prince looked around the room.
"Personal grievances are irrelevant."
His eyes swept across the officers.
"The things inside that forest will not care about titles."
Another pause.
"They will not care about pride."
His hand pressed against the map.
"So…"
His eyes narrowed.
"…we proceed."
Sous looked toward the map again.
"Where are the kill zones?"
Bal flipped pages.
Everyone watched carefully now.
As if the notebook itself had become dangerous.
He pointed.
"Here."
"Here."
"And here."
Three overlapping sectors.
Wide open terrain.
Elevated artillery ridges.
Fortified positions.
Pre-sighted firing lanes.
Darian frowned.
"I am not doubting you…"
A pause.
"But building all this would take at least a week."
Bal looked at him.
"No."
"No?"
"Laos will finish the frontline fortifications in two days."
Several heads turned immediately.
A Church officer frowned.
"How?"
Bal folded his arms.
"I am bound by confidentiality."
Sous narrowed his eyes.
"This is a trusted command room."
Bal nodded.
"I am still bound by confidentiality."
Silence.
Darian stared.
"…You cannot just say that."
"I absolutely can."
The Church officer leaned forward.
"You are constructing fortifications for one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers."
"How?"
Bal looked away.
"…Confidentiality."
Adrean narrowed his eyes.
"…Bal."
Bal looked increasingly uncomfortable.
"…Confidentiality."
Mirelle raised an eyebrow.
"How much to make you talk?"
Bal looked offended.
"If I was that cheap, I would not be sitting here."
Then—
A grin slowly spread across his face.
A really mischievous grin.
Like an adult finally getting revenge on children.
"Besides…"
He leaned back.
"Do you really think I don't know how valuable this information is?"
Sous stared.
"…Are you enjoying this?"
Bal immediately coughed.
"Hahaha... my apologies, Lord Sous."
A pause.
"These opportunities are rare."
"With Lord Logos around, I never get moments like this."
Darian pointed immediately.
"So you are not telling us?"
Bal shook his head.
"No."
"The confidentiality was not a joke."
"If you want answers, ask Lord Logos."
Adrean narrowed his eyes.
"What if I order you?"
Bal nodded respectfully.
"You certainly can, Your Highness."
Adrean smirked slightly.
"Too easy."
He folded his arms.
"Where is the catch, General?"
Bal's smile widened.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
"…Lord Logos anticipated that possibility."
He opened the notebook again.
Flipped another page.
Then read aloud:
"If anyone attempts to force Bal into explaining…"
A pause.
"Tell them Bal is far too dumb to explain it properly."
Silence.
Bal stared at the page.
Darian stared at Bal.
Bal stared back.
Then—
Darian collapsed against the table laughing.
Again.