Chapter 123 - The Crown Prince’s Victory

"Rose! Oh, my god! Do you know what I heard?"

Rose narrowed her eyes at the person who came in. "Nate! How could you come in here without even knocking?"

At Rose's scolding, Nate opened his mouth with a flustered expression. "Ah, excuse me, ladies. I apologize for my sudden interruption." The combination of his ginger hair and reddened face made his whole head bright red. The tea party members giggled at the funny sight.

"What made you rush in here like this?" Mary Ann asked.

Nate, Rose's brother, answered, "Oh, I was just here to inform everyone that Lagon has declared war on us."

The shocking words caused a great commotion among the members.

"Lagon? It couldn't be!"

"Will we be okay?"

Unlike the others who were startled by the news, I sighed as I already knew this would happen from the original novel. Marquis Lennox, who had been expressing his opinion about expanding his army, will go into war and fail. The ones who were going to save the empire from crisis will be the emperor and my father, who will go into war to aid him.

Nevertheless, the next words that came out of Nate's mouth were different from what I remembered. "Yes, of course. Marquis Lennox has been successful in defending the southern border since he started preparing two months ago. And in the midst of confusion, the crown prince beheaded Lagon's commander."

'What? The crown prince?' I became confused by this strange turn of events that differed from the original novel.

Nate, who had no clue what was going through my head, continued. "In a month, the palace will be holding a victory banquet." He glanced around at all of us after sharing this surprising news, then announced, "It will be a banquet that all nobles will be obliged to attend."

I frowned at his words. 'Ugh, I didn't know the crown prince was going to play an active part in the war like this. And an unexpected banquet at that…' The ominous premonition I had seemed to be due to this. I gulped down the remainder of my black tea that had gone cold during this disturbance. 'It's so… bitter.'

Unlike me, the others were making a great fuss.

"Tell us the details of what happened."

Veronica stated with shining eyes.

Nate nodded with a blush. "Yes, of course." He ended up taking a seat at the table. "Do you know how Marquis Lennox has been speaking up about expanding his army?" he began.

"Yes, I've heard of this."

"And you know that his opinion was ignored, right?"

"Of course."

"Because of that, he was secretly expanding his army, but it only amounted to about 60,000 men. At that time, the crown prince had noticed unusual movements from Lagon and sent reinforcements to aid him."

"Unusual movements?"

"It is said that they were strangely storing large amounts of grain, as well as drying any food that could be stored for an extensive amount of time. The crown prince found out about this and instantly knew they were provisions."

The ladies who were listening intently to Nate began to murmur among themselves.

"Oh, my goodness. I didn't know he held such wisdom. He sounds like a completely different person now!"

"I agree with you."

Listening to their whispers, Nate's voice went up a pitch as if he were excited. "Marquis Lennox had originally requested 20,000 men. But the crown prince generously sent 50,000 men instead, which was about half of the men in the northern garrison, saying that any less would become a useless sacrifice at best."

"Oh, wow!"

At their small exclamations, Nate continued in a high-pitched voice. "He also ordered the soldiers to not attack the weak who couldn't fight, which is boosting his public opinion in Lagon as well."

Why would the crown prince be so generous? I tried to guess what his motives could have possibly been, but became lazy and gave up. 'No matter what he does, he has the essence of a sadist, a terrible man who sheds no blood nor tears.'

Despite that, it seemed that the other members held different opinions. "Wow, during a time where even the knights don't adhere to chivalry. How amazing!"

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Hope you enjoyed it,

Love,

Biji ^^,

Oct.22.2023