A few hours later, everyone was assembled in the throne room again. However, most of the students were not called up to that meeting.

Instead, only Cylia, Lereon, Hunters and the white class with Lily and the others were assembled in the room. And because Olivia told them to, they did not kneel in front of her but stood with a straight back and a puffed-out chest.

"I’ve summoned you all here because I’m going to announce the next step." Olivia declared sternly.

She glanced at Mika for a short moment.

This time, she acted as the queen of Rostanta as her and Cylia’s nation were involved in the matter.

"As we’re currently speaking, Lucio must be already preparing, too."

Olivia cut right to the chase.

"He wants to get his hands on Grat and Rostanta, going so far as to wage war on us. Grat and Rostanta may be strong nations individually and as an alliance no nation would want to go up against us, however, we mustn’t forget that Lucio rules over the other three nations and has a large demon army backing him up."

The number of resources Lucio possessed was high. If he were to gather all his troops to attack one of the two allied nations, then it would be quite easy to overthrow said nation.

But there was still a risk for him if he were to do that.

"We can’t predict with certainty how he will move next, however, we can prepare for the worst-case scenario if he chooses to go all out against one of us." Olivia said, referring to Cylia.

"That’s why we came to the conclusion to split our troops."

After their eyes met, Cylia stepped forward.

"I want to send some of you over to Grat with Cylia, in case Grat would fall under attack."

Then, Mika stepped forward.

"Another troop will stay here." she said.

"Our first priority should be to defend our nations from Lucio. I may have just said that we can’t really predict his movements, however, there’s a great possibility of him choosing to attack both nations at the same time."

Surprising some of the white class, Sara also came forward.

"But of course, we won’t just focus on defense. Lucio knows fully well that it won’t be that easy to take down either Grat or Rostanta if he were to deploy an army half-heartedly. If he really wants to take us down, then he needs to make use of most of his people."

Olivia grinned.

"In other words, his three nations will be weakened for the time being as his armies will be focused on our nations. During that time period, a small elite group of ours will strike Lucio who will most likely sit back in Loogam, letting his men do the dirty work."

There was also the option to capture either Malnor or Stakew.

The chance of success was very high but that would not improve their situation as it would mean that they had to split their current army even further in order to defend either Malnor or Stakew from Lucio’s attacks.

"In the end, we have three armies. One will join the army of Grat and defend the nation. The other one will stay here and defend as well. Meanwhile, the third and smallest group will infiltrate Loogam, while Lucio is expecting us to use all our resources to defend, and take him down." Olivia summed it up.

"Still, I want to give the rest of you the chance to choose which group you want to join."

Olivia glanced at Cylia, Sara and Mika.

"If you want to head over to Grat, please gather around Cylia. If you want to stay here, go to Mika. And last but not least, if you want to attack Loogam, join Sara."

Then, Lily raised her hand.

"If I may ask... Why isn’t Mika part of the offense group?"

She did not need to explain the reason why she asked that as everyone in the room knew that Mika was the strongest among them all.

"Because he serves as our safety net." Olivia replied.

"?"

"We can’t say for certain yet if putting Mika into the offense group would guarantee success but if Grat were to fall and if the offense group were to fail their ambush, then there should be at least a place where we can all retreat to. And that would be the place which Mika defends."

As long as Mika was put as a defender for Rostanta, then everyone could be sure that Rostanta would not fall, no matter what.

"Out of all three battles, if we can defend at least Grat or Rostanta, then we won’t lose the war."

"Even if it means that one of our nations falls or the offense group gets killed." Olivia added sharply.

Mika, Cylia and Sara did not flinch nor did they show an expression.

"But now, enough of the talk. Let’s quickly decide already."

After she said that, Olivia stood up from her throne and headed to one of the three.

She came to a halt once she stood beside Sara.

At first, many were shocked by that since joining that group would be the riskiest one as it involved fighting Lucio, someone whom Mika could not beat yet.

However, Lily soon took her steps, too. And after her, the others.

Quickly, everyone found a group.

Harik, Lereon and Lisa joined Cylia.

Belian and Rachel went over to Mika.

Ophelia and Lily gathered around Olivia and Sara.

"Will that be enough though...?" Lisa muttered slightly anxiously.

"Don’t worry. I will send a part of my nation’s army with you, including volunteering students."

The rest of that army and students stayed behind to defend Rostanta.

"Furthermore, another person will accompany you." Olivia said with a faint smile.

Then, someone knocked on the door.

"Speaking of the devil." Olivia remarked.

The doors opened, revealing a bandaged Elsa.

"Took you long enough." Olivia chuckled.

"Shut up. Compared to you, I had to find a way out of Loogam on my own..." Elsa responded grumpily.

"So you won’t even mention how we picked you up on our way to Fuera when you were injured?" a man remarked.

Behind her were two other individuals.

"...?"

This time, Lily raised her eyebrows.

After all, these two were Zhen and Ren Bugars, the former member and candidate of the Grand Order before Belian and Lily took their seats.

"It’s been a while, your Highness." Zhen greeted politely, while Ren was just bowing.

"Glad to see that you made it." Olivia said.

She turned to the others again.

"Elsa will join the Grat group whereas the Bugars will help in defending our base here!" she announced clearly.

Most of them nodded their heads firmly.

"So it will be only us four...?" Lily asked.

"Yes. Are you already regretting joining this group?" Ophelia joked with a smirk on her face.

"N-no, I was just confirming our formation."

She knew that their group was already stacked.

They had two out of three Hunters.

Olivia, the former captain of the Grand Order and strongest human.

Sara, another former Grand Order member and current ’Sword God’.

Ophelia, the former headmaster of Loogam and former Grand Order member.

And Lily, also a former Grand Order member and ’Empress’ who apparently had the strength to take down a whole nation.

If it was them, then they did not need another addition to their four-person team.

"Ophelia, could you go and relay the things we talked about to the other students?"

"Huh, why me?" Ophelia responded annoyedly.

"Why not? Aren’t you their headmaster?"

"Former headmaster you mean. But-" 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Alright then, everyone, dismiss!" Olivia ignored Ophelia bluntly.

"H-hey, wait!"

In the meantime, Lucio assembled the rest of the student body in front of the academy.

"...we will focus on attacking Rostanta!" Lucio declared sternly and loudly.

"Now, dismiss!"

He turned his back on them and headed inside the academy with Ralph walking alongside him.

"If I may... Is it really fine not to explain the army about the army we have stationed in Grat..." Ralph asked nervously.

According to Lucio’s speech, the army stationed here would mostly be sent to Rostanta while a small part remained in Loogam. And instead of using human resources, Lucio relied on demons who did not hesitate or complain about their predicament.

"There’s no need for them to know. Even though I threatened those who were still hostile toward me, I cannot exclude the possibility of them betraying me and secretly relaying information to the other party." Lucio replied sharply.

"Anyways, is everything prepared?" Lucio asked.

"Yes, Sir. Every student and demon was given the magic knife. They should all now be able to steal magic energy from their opponents, too." Ralph answered.

"And what about the relics? Any new wielders?"

"Yes. We’ve managed to find wielders for every relic we possessed."

"Good."

Then, he grinned slightly.

"If everything goes according to plan, then it won’t be long until he can appear."