A manor in south east of Dioral.

"The former leader of Ijaniya absconded after two failed assassination attempts. An assassin was captured in the first attempt and two were killed in the second attempt...huh?"

Looking at the report, Cass was seated on her work desk, she placed her hand on her chin and let out a sigh. And after “processing” the report, she threw it away on to her mountain of papers nonchalantly. Whether it be her “Processed pile” or her “Unfinished Pile” everything around her was like a mountain of work that she needed to take care of.

This was all in relation to “Hezri Kingdom" - the mysterious genesis of many bizarre happenings for the past year in the southern Thedas continent. 

Orlais and templars had failed twice in their invasion of Hyuutia. The defeat of the Cardinal Mozgus and the templars at Saint Albion. Redcliffe's prosperity. The sudden appearance of great walls separating Dioral into two.

Letters from all noble families in northern Dioral that they are united in building the great walls to defend against bandits and Orlais. 

Defection of noble families in northern Castall. Invasion by unknown forces that successfully subjugated west, east and some part of central Castall. 

The reemergence of dark elves as part of the mysterious force. 

Failures of the famous assassins guild. 

The invasion of Castall by an unknown force, Red Army of the Hezri Kingdom.

"King Hiro Hezri..He’s really troublesome isn’t he?"

She had gathered various information via her network of intelligence throughout Thedas continent. 

The events unfolded in Castall behind the Korcari Wilds were only known from the Ijaniya assassin guild that she hired. 

"That is nonsense."

"If that Hiro Hezri guy does really exist, he must be mad. The new kingdom is just a mad man rambling!"

"He doesn’t even understand his own standing in the world, what an impudent fool, we can just ignore such a mad guy."

"Castall Kingdom is defended by the great Carolingian and their vassals. If that mad man dared to challenge the town, he would no doubt destroy himself”

Back then the opinion of the governing bodies in the Dioral Kingdom was pretty much like so.

Cass was the only one who advised that they should send the King Imperial forces to subjugate the threat immediately, but this suggestion was not accepted by the high nobles. Not only that, her standing as a genius strategist was mocked, her gender as a woman was used against her and they sneered at her saying that she was feeble and was being a coward for suggesting such a thing.

Now, the Red Army's invasion has been a remarkable success. 

Moreover, villages and towns were occupied but there were barely any civilians that got hurt and it was akin to a flawless capture. It didn’t matter who he went up against, the result hardly changed.

In the twinkling of an eye, Hiro Hezri managed to occupy towns and villages. The one thing that was very unique was that the places were left intact, and he made them his own territory. 

Normally, all the resources would be plundered and then they would leave the city. Of course there was also the outliers where the evildoers would stay in the town and treat the civilians like slaves, but in this scenario, they wouldn’t think about invading other nearby towns.

His methods were completely different from the norm. 

Territories became more lively and prosperous as a result of Red Army’s occupancy.

This is almost like an invasion just occurred from a foreign country. In fact, many people in the town also felt the same way, “the only thing that’s changed is the king who is governing this town”, that’s what they mostly believed.

In Dioral, Imperial Council ignores her report in favour of subjugation of former Tevinter territories.

The Council was made up of the most influential nobles, and you can say that they are the group of people that govern the Dioral Kingdom.

Although the real power rested with the King in making any final decisions, the people who actually thought about the policies to implement in the country were the members of the Council and the King only needed to give his permission. Naturally, there were countless things that the Council could enact even if the King doesn’t give his permission first, therefore, in Cass’s perspective, these noblemen were people that she couldn’t go against, even if she had the title of being a genius tactician within the imperial army.

The sight of these noblemen scorned and laughed at Cass made her feel extremely irritated.

She continues to investigate by herself.

Meanwhile, the subjugation of former Tevinter territories was not smooth and beneficial. As she had annoyed them with the Hezri Kingdom's issue, all the fault was being shifted to Cass, she couldn’t really just say that it was somebody else’s problem. As a result, Cass was now surrounded by the mountain of reports.

And, all the criticisms of such failures were all being blamed upon Cass. In the previous great war, she was showered with endless words of praise; that she was their heroine and that she was a brilliant strategist, but nowadays, she was being called a good-for-nothing human being who has no talent and who is an inhuman person that lets all her subordinates die for naught, they were hurling whatever abuse they wanted.

Finally, she paid Ijaniya to assassinate the King of Hezri Kingdom. The attempts failed greatly.

Cass breathed out a sigh, and was in deep thought.

Cass collected all the reports on her desk and flung them to the floor, she then rang the bell in her hand to call in her subordinate to the room.