[First Squad, first check-in. We have entered through the city gate. Everything is normal.]

...

[First Squad, second check-in. Light rain with fog. Temperature: eleven degrees. Wind from the northwest. Everything is normal.]

...

[First Squad, third check-in. We discovered Kingdom gate guards, but they showed no vigilance whatsoever. Their attitude was extremely lazy. They were hiding in corners around the gate area slacking off, and seemed to have no awareness at all that they were in a state of war. We disguised ourselves as ordinary civilians and did not arouse suspicion. Everything is normal.]

...

[First Squad, seventh check-in. We passed through Herakvit Avenue in the Kingdom’s royal capital and arrived in the western district. Along the way, pedestrians appeared completely normal, merchants on both sides were doing business as usual, roadside shops were open as normal, and security patrols were moving through the area at irregular intervals. By visual inspection, nothing appears unusual. Everything is normal.]

...

[First Squad, eleventh check-in. Prices inside the Kingdom’s royal capital have risen to a certain extent, but are still far from the point of collapse. Black bread is currently fifteen Aimier per pound, or thirteen Aimier per pound on the black market. Everything is normal.]

...

[First Squad, fifteenth check-in. We purchased a newspaper. It recorded the Kingdom’s king’s achievements in dealing with greedy nobles within the country. In a tavern by the road, there were drunkards loudly cursing the Empire and declaring that the Kingdom would definitely win... They still seem very confident of victory. Everything is normal.]

...

[First Squad, nineteenth check-in, and the final check-in before nightfall. Everything is normal...]

...

[Third Squad, first check-in. Everything is normal...]

...

[Third Squad, fifth check-in. Everything is normal...]

...

[Ninth Squad, thirteenth check-in. Everything is normal...]

...

[Twenty-Third Squad, eighteenth check-in. Everything is normal...]

...

[Everything is normal...]

...

Normal normal normal normal normal normal normal normal normal...

Celicia abruptly shut her eyes, forcibly driving those two words from her vision after seeing them so many times that even she was beginning to feel a headache coming on.

Normal...

No, that was wrong. By ordinary logic, the words everything is normal ought to have been good news, the sort of thing that let people breathe easier—especially at a moment like this.

But here, the opposite was true. Every time Celicia saw those words, her mood grew heavier. By now, it felt as if a mountain-sized boulder were pressing down on her heart.

“They all came back like this?”

Celicia set down the intelligence report in her hand. She no longer wanted to keep reading. It felt as though continuing would be nothing but a waste of time.

“It seems... yes.”

Anna, seated to Celicia’s left, also put down what she had been reading and sighed.

“An entire day of investigation from the first half of the teams, and not one of them found any problem at all with that royal capital. It’s... unbelievable.”

Arguments always ended eventually.

Even small, messy standoffs eventually ran their course.

So no matter how grim the earlier atmosphere had been, no matter how sharp the tension, after enough time had passed for everyone to cool down, they still wound up sitting together to deal with the important matter in front of them.

And for everyone sitting here, the most urgent issue was figuring out just what exactly that city with its gates thrown wide open was playing at.

So after only a brief discussion, the Empire and the Church settled on their first plan: both sides would send people together to form advance scouting teams, which would enter the royal capital and report back intelligence to guide the next stage of decisions.

At first, only four five-man teams were sent in. Each was made up of the most elite and experienced soldiers, Church clergy, and mages or warriors with enough ability to protect themselves. With utmost caution, they entered separately through the Kingdom capital’s four city gates.

Those four teams—who had gone in mentally prepared to die and were little different from suicide squads—soon sent back the following intelligence.

The entire royal capital of the Kingdom looked as though it were still a peaceful rear area untouched by war, as though the hundreds of thousands of Imperial troops outside the walls had no effect on it at all.

Everything is normal.

But neither Celicia nor anyone else believed that result. They felt the teams might have only seen an illusion deliberately constructed by the Kingdom.

A long line cast to catch a big fish. A fake surface designed to lull them into relaxing.

Feigning weakness was one of the most common tactics on a battlefield. They had to guard against it.

So more scouting teams were sent in.

From morning until night, the number of hastily assembled scouting teams eventually surpassed one hundred. Disguised as ordinary civilians, some entered through the gaping gates, while others climbed the walls directly under magical cover and infiltrated the streets and alleys of the Kingdom’s royal capital, trying to find the truth hidden behind that peaceful façade.

But so far... they had found nothing.

One “everything is normal” after another kept arriving, to the point where it almost made people feel that maybe the inside of that royal capital... really was perfectly normal.

But how could that be?

Anyone with a brain could tell that under the current reality of the Imperial army pressing down at its gates, “normal” itself was the greatest abnormality that city could possibly have.

“With how openly we’re investigating, we still haven’t met any resistance at all?”

Lorne, seated at the far end of the long table, furthest away from everyone else, also frowned.

“Has the Kingdom really given up on resisting entirely?”

“We don’t know whether they’ve given up resisting or not, but our people really haven’t run into any obstruction.”

Liya had also been going through the thicker, more detailed reports. She had been about to rest her tired little face on the tabletop for a moment, but the instant she remembered Muen’s father was right beside her, she straightened her back at once, tightened her expression, and displayed a degree of composure and professionalism absolutely not inferior to the Imperial Empress sitting opposite her.

“It’s not just the scouting itself. Information from inside the city has also been transmitted back with remarkable ease. Whether through voice stones or ordinary carrier pigeons, communication has been completely unobstructed. Some people have even run back in person to report.”

“That means the grand barrier over the Kingdom’s royal capital is completely inactive.”

Celicia’s brows drew together slightly as she opened her eyes and exchanged a look with Anna.

Not long ago, the two of them had gone to scout a place extremely close to the city walls, and at that time the capital’s grand barrier had been Celicia’s primary concern. And then, the grand barrier had definitely been active.

But in the blink of an eye, that tightly guarded city had suddenly changed styles completely. Not only were its gates wide open and undefended, there was no sign of vigilance or danger at all, as though it had turned into some tourist attraction anyone could stroll into for fun.

No. Tourist attractions at least charged admission. Right now, entering the Kingdom’s royal capital did not even cost a toll.

“At present, security within the city appears complete and operational. The reports that have come back repeatedly mention regular patrols by security teams.”

Stroking his beard, Lorne began analyzing things from the angle he understood best.

“But the city’s defensive strength is basically nonexistent. It’s as if... the people inside the city have not sensed danger approaching at all, and have no idea whatsoever that my Empire’s army is already at their gates. They’re simply continuing to live their lives as usual, completely unaware of the danger.”

“The inside and outside of the city feel like two entirely separate worlds.”

“Exactly. The split is too complete. The contrast is enough to make your skin crawl.”

“It feels more and more wrong, but we still can’t identify the source of the abnormality, which means we can’t move rashly.”

Celicia rubbed at her brow.

“No disguise can ever be perfect, let alone one covering a city this enormous. There has to be something we failed to notice. There has to be...”

“...”

The temporary meeting hall suddenly fell silent. Everyone was thinking, wondering what kind of force or method could, in so short a time, transform a city of more than a million people into something so utterly opposed to all logic.

While everyone sat lost in thought, the previously unobtrusive Judgment Archbishop turned and spoke to a nun who had just hurried in behind her, then took a document from the nun’s hands.

The Judgment Archbishop opened the file, and one of her fine brows suddenly arched.

“Heh. It seems the flaw we wanted has finally appeared.”

“What?”

“Fresh intelligence. One of our scouting teams has disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

Everyone jolted, and Celicia immediately asked, “Details.”

“It was Team One Hundred Seven.”

With a flick of the Judgment Archbishop’s finger, the report—which had been copied and distributed fairly, with no one daring to omit even a single copy—floated automatically into everyone’s hands.

“They lost contact during their final voice-stone transmission at night. After that, they could no longer be reached. They have currently been classified as missing.”

“They disappeared while reporting in?”

Anna asked, “Then they must have left something behind. What was the last sentence from that team before the signal cut out?”

“It was...”

Even as the question was asked, everyone had already opened the reports in their hands, and almost at once their eyes locked onto the final words that squad had left behind:

[The rain stopped.]

...

...

Night still stretched on. Muen stood on a rooftop, bathed in the endless drizzle, watching the bright firelight, the flashing blades, the roaring and killing, and the spilling blood. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

A gang war in the City of Art did not seem all that different from a gang war in Belrand.

If anything, this side was even more brutal. In a dark underworld left to savage growth, if you were not vicious enough, then you would never be able to claw your way out of that stinking sewer and claim a patch of ground to live on.

And clashes this vicious often came fast, and ended fast.

After all, with no leader left at the top, once Tyron casually displayed Raskin’s corpse, aside from a portion of Raskin’s die-hard men still resisting stubbornly and fighting to the bitter /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ end, most of the others quickly chose to switch sides.

Opposite viciousness was cowardice, but in a place like this, the two were not contradictory.

So it was not long before Tyron, still splattered with blood, came to stand respectfully before Muen with a force that had nearly doubled in size.

“Honored Dark Emperor of the Empire.”

Tyron performed the noble salute he had just learned on the spot. There was none of the ferocity from the slaughter just now left on his face, only a fawning smile.

“Welcome to your loyal western district of the royal capital...”