Another war meeting was conducted in Shaela Inn.

6 usual faces attended the meeting which was chaired by me. We discussed the number of enemies killed,  past and future ration of food for soldiers and villagers, the number of horses transported from Redcliffe and Hyuutia to here, the number of soldiers fit to fight, number of enemy's weapons given to volunteer soldiers, and cooperation from former Castall nobles. 

After a long discussion on logistics, ration and politics, we reached the topic of battle progress.

"Within 4 days, we have obliterated 4 forts and 15 redoubts surrounding them. As promised, I shall reveal how we achieve that."

Then, I turned my eyes to Cass as a cue for her to explain. This was her idea after all.

The female strategist nodded, closed her eyes for a minute as if to collect her thoughts and exhale breath. 

"The key to that success was Lady Elora."

"How is that?" Leonhardt Strauch questioned.

"War is all about information. That comes from reconnaissance."

"Care to explain." Leonhardt Strauch interrogated her.

While still being calm, she replied, "Some of ken from Hyuutia and Redcliffe are skilled in reconnaissance but their capabilities are limited. But as you know, we have 5 individuals who are far better than them. Lady Kurotsuchi could be invisible and walk past walls. Lady Mirai could teleport, Lady Hanabi could telepathy. Lady Reina is very good at stealth and even better at unlocking doors. Lady Tina is an assassin."

Leonhardt seemed dissatisfied when Cass paused for a while,

"So, where is the dalish Elora's role?"

He probably had some grudge as his men died when accompanying Elora during one reconnaissance mission.

"However, none of the five ladies could maintain surveillance for weeks at the fortresses. Elora could observe what enemies' routine on a daily basis. We need to observe long enough so that we know their routine."

Brian Haddock asked, "So, Elora did that?"

Cass smiled and answered, "Yes, with birds controlled by her. While she was in the sickbed, the birds transferred their memory to her."

Noir Virginia muttered, "What a convenient ability!"

Cass added, "Why did Elora lead your team too deep into the enemy's territory? It was my command. She must go near enough the fortresses to place her birds."

Leonhardt Strauch hit the table in fury,

"So woman, it was you!"

Brian Haddock interrupted, "Shut up, Leon. It was a necessary sacrifice. If we fought head on, we could lose a lot more men!"

Albert Hyuutia added, "Yes. And the result had spoken."

I backed up Cass, "And I gave consent to her strategy."

Noir Virginia also spoke, "I don't this something to dwell about. It is not your first time in war."

Leonhardt Strauch became speechless. 

"Forgive me." The head of archery finally sat down and sighed.

***

Margrave's office in central Castall.

Margrave Sigismund Jagiellon was sitting at his desk dumbfounded.

He had never expected that enemies would dare to barge into his fortresses and furthermore annihilated the entire men in it. 

They were late in discovering that because no one expected such thing could happen.

Who has plotted that attacks? Most probably the mysterious Hezri Kingdom. But the question was how they did it?

He slammed the desk in growing agitation.

Footsteps sounded from outside the door.

A middle aged man swung the door open and entered. 

"Milord. Another fortress had fallen last night!"

"Damn it! How did that happen again?"

"Two of our ten men squad went to check the Zerox's fortress this morning. The first one was probably ambushed and killed..We found their bodies and the squad after them."

"..."

"We sent the larger third squad. They were ambushed by a group of archers on horses. Some of the third squad were killed. Before we could surround them, the enemies fled. Then, they checked the fortress."

"..."

They looked at each other face in confusion. 

The man added,

"If the two sides well marched in strength, the scene would not be so neat and clean. There would be corpses of the invaders and broken boxes. But there was not a single broken item. In the huge boxes where we store meat, there is not even a trace of sword cut. This means the person or persons who did the assassination attempt was able to move swiftly in a limited space without using coverage. There was no sign of climbing on the walls and no sign on breaking the door from outside. It was as if the intruders just appear in the fortress out if nowhere. In my humble opinion, milord, this is incredulous!"

The margrave was about ro scream in fury but upon hearing that peculiar story, he held his breath.

As the lord's anger seemed to be gone, the man asked,

"Milord. Do we need to replenish men into the five empty fortresses?"

Margrave slumped to the chair and stared helplessly to the ceiling.

The subordinate didn't dare to say anything.

"Don't. We wait further. As long we don't know how they intruded into the fortresses, it is futile to do anything. Just put more people surrounding the remaining fortresses. We have another twenty five remaining."

"Understood, milord!" After bowing, the man exited.

Margrave slammed the desk again.

"What the hell is happening?"