In front of Valeria's pavilion, Elena, who just came back from the battlefield, opened the curtain doors at the entrance and entered the room with a tired look, more than ready to report her enormous usage of supplies and be nagged by her friend for doing so.
"I'll authorize it... but promise me that you won't go too far with it." Victor, her superior, was speaking with such a difficult tone, like his heart was bearing a heavy decision.
On the opposite side of him lay a throne where her friend, Valeria, was sitting upon it, smiling and nodding. "I swear to the Divine, I won't do anything reckless with the authority you've given to me." she responded to Victor.
As she approached them, the clinking noise of her armor drew their attention, as the three of them, including Serafino, who was standing right behind Valeria, suddenly turned their heads toward her, prompting her to salute them in response.
"Oh! Elena! How was the battle?" Valeria joyously asked, gesturing for her to get closer.
"Going well, encountered some weird stuff this time." she answered as she stepped closer toward them.
"How much did we lose?" Victor solemnly asked.
"No more than a hundred." she answered, passing him a hastily written folder of battle reports.
He quickly browsed through the details inside as his face went pale, absorbing all the information before sighing heavily, placing his hand upon his forehead as his veins filled with stress.
"Secure all the evidence that shows that the nobles of this city are a bunch of demon-worshiping heretics. We'll use this information to bring more people to our side." he said, clearly half-expecting the result beforehand.
"So that's the real objective? Why didn't you tell me what to expect beforehand?" she asked, crossing her arms and frowning.
"I knew that they're a bunch of tyrannical nobles dabbling in a demon-worshiping cult. My plan was to conquer the town and expose them to the people. I didn't expect that they could actually summon a demon to fight us off, so I didn't think it was going to be much different than a normal battle. How foolish of me." Victor answered, his face showing clear guilt.
"Then promise me this: next time, you will tell me everything beforehand. Could you do it, mio caro amico?" she continued, pressing her armor-clad hand on his shoulder as she mustered a confident smile to cheer him up, then attempted a childish pinky promise.
"Sì, I promise," he responded, pinky-promising her with a warm smile.
Then the curtain doors opened once again, and from them Arina dashed in, her glasses all steamy, her cheeks full of dripping tears and falling snot. She ran straight into Victor's chest like a squishingly soft battering ram, her short arms wrapped around him as she senselessly, quietly and cutely screamed at him like a small girl seeking forgiveness for her mistake.
Everyone in the tent stared at her in both shock and confusion, except Valeria, who was laughing her ass off in amusement.
It took some time for Victor to calm her down, while Elena glanced at her begrudgingly, as she could clearly remember that what happened the night before had partially gone off the rails because Arina had taken time off to bathe and change clothes while people were fighting for their lives and dying, refusing to send her reinforcement and causing delays, wasting such a precious resource called 'Time'.
And as she calmed down, madly promising with all her heart to not disappoint her darling ever again, Victor decided to use this opportunity, where all his close confidants were present, to discuss his plan for the future, as he also called for John to assemble here.
-----
As everyone in the tent poured out information, it turned into one clear big picture.
The city was theirs, but the city folk still looked at their conquerors with contempt, which was understandable.
They would have to convince them with evidence, exposing that their rulers were clearly a bunch of devil-worshiping evildoers who saw them as nothing but sacrificial lambs. Arina would be handling that, using her usual charismatic rhetoric and appearance. Serafino would also be supporting her (to keep an eye on her, as per Valeria's commands).
The enemy's reinforcements were coming, not knowing that the city had already been conquered.
They would have to either convince them to surrender or crush them. Elena would be handling that, as she had proven herself to be well-versed in violence, with John also supporting her (to keep an eye on her, as per Victor's command).
Their camp needed to be quickly packed up and moved to the rendezvous point with the Princess's forces and converge into one big army to contend with the Prince's supporters for the throne before the news of the King's demise could be fully announced.
Valeria and Victor would be the ones to handle both the problems of supply lines and the great march of their full 'Grand Army' to meet up with the Princess, as well as using every piece of evidence such as grimoires and tomes confiscated from Blackstone Castle as the casus belli for the attack in retrospect, as they were simply cleansing the devil-worshiping cancer from the land in such a righteous cause.
Yet, there was still one final trivial problem to handle, a girl with clearly noble origins, found in some kind of now desolated grove deep under the castle. The girl was now residing with Jane Hawkwood, who was acting as her temporary guardian.
Everyone agreed to keep it as such for the moment; they would find a suitable place for the girl after everything was in the right place and the war was over.
And so, as time marched on, everyone got to work, and thus the 'Grand Army' was on the march once again.
While all of this was happening, Princess Gloria, who had been witnessing the past night's battle with her 'Farsight' slammed both her hands onto the table with a thundering *thud*, as her secret plan was just got unknowingly thrown out the window.