Chapter 85
“Tch, so she took them to the Fey Forest, huh? No wonder our people couldn’t find them no matter how hard they searched. That woman is really something. She acts fast.”
Corbin gave a wry smile after receiving a message from Zephyr, the baby spirit sent by Solinor.
Just how much trouble had his intelligence agents gone through, scouring the capital and surrounding regions to find Katrina and Brandon?
When word came that they had disappeared from the protected zone, Corbin had considered every possibility.
Foreign spies were involved. Or maybe a rogue provincial lord. Or perhaps yet another secret faction was moving in the shadows.
But if Aiorin had taken them, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
For Corbin, this meant one major concern had been taken off his shoulders.
“That said, the unrest among the lords in the Livia region is growing more intense… It really feels like the day they make their move isn’t far off. I need to think about how to handle this.”
Corbin sat at his desk in the Intelligence Office, legs crossed, deep in thought.
His intelligence network drastically weakened the moment he stepped outside the capital.
It couldn’t be helped—Silbrenoa was a young nation with strong regional identities.
Most of its regions had never belonged to a unified government before, so they still essentially operated autonomously.
Just stepping outside the capital meant encountering entirely different cultures—and a much weaker sense of national unity.
In fact, many lords had ruled their lands far longer than Silbrenoa had even existed.
This made it incredibly difficult to gather detailed intelligence from the provinces unless something truly major happened.
So for such news to reach Corbin this quickly could only mean one thing: it was a very big deal.
“Maybe I could use the chaos to seize power using that bald geezer’s troops… but…”
It still felt too rushed. There was no way they were fully prepared to raise an army just yet.
Sure, their forces were probably well-trained, and they likely had capable officers.
But since the plan had only recently begun, they were still too unsteady as an organization.
As for the other lords—well, they weren’t exactly loyal to the kingdom either. They were just tolerating it.
Most of Hadwin’s soldiers were graduates of the capital’s academy.
Could they all truly be expected to support a rebellion? Corbin, ever the cautious type, had his doubts.
“If I roughly estimate the military power the Livia lords can mobilize right now… hmm… the capital’s defense force…”
The harsh truth was that the enemy forces likely outnumbered Hadwin’s by far.
And when compared directly, the difference between the capital’s defense force and the provincial armies became even more stark.
There was a time when the capital’s troops had been respected—but now, they were the laughingstock of the realm.
Their numbers had dropped dramatically, and their training and discipline were at rock bottom.
If the budget cuts had at least been put to good use elsewhere, that would’ve been one thing—but they hadn’t.
In fact, they hadn’t even saved all that much. Military spending continued more or less as before.
It was just leaking everywhere—lost to corruption and inefficiency like every other sector.
“With that crazy old man as one of our cards, we’ll definitely have an advantage. But what else can we pull off in the time we have left?”
One ray of hope was the return of the great magician Sylvius from the land of the dead.
Just a few days ago, Sylvius had brought back materials from his home and the guild headquarters—resources that proved incredibly useful.
Thanks to that, Corbin now held leverage over various factions that had engaged in shady dealings with the guild.
Especially the groups based in Solineum—he had already sent people to confirm their stance.
In the event of a sudden crisis, most had promised to either remain silent or cooperate, offering at least minimal support.
Of course, in Silbrenoa, promises were often meaningless—so he couldn’t fully trust them.
But still, it was better than nothing. At the very least, it sent a clear message: “We’re watching you.”
Corbin fiddled with a device that Sylvius had given him before finally making up his mind and pressing a button.
It was a signal transmitter crafted with great care by the archmage himself. A large mana stone embedded in the center lit up.
Each of them held one, and they had agreed Corbin would activate it whenever he wished to summon him.
“Alright, that should bring him here soon.”
Naturally, Corbin intended to send Sylvius to Livia.
Of course, the archmage would probably throw a fit about being sent somewhere so far away—but it was a necessary task.
Corbin was confident Sylvius could obtain critical intelligence without putting himself in danger.
After all, crisis breeds opportunity. If they played their cards right, this might even help their overall plan.
Especially considering they had recently captured a number of foreign spies.
They were operatives dispatched from Valterre, the nation that shared a border with Silbrenoa.
After several days of interrogation, they had extracted some usable intel.
If a major upheaval occurred in Silbrenoa, Valterre planned to immediately launch an invasion.
Well… Corbin had already expected that.
Honestly, anyone—even someone who wasn’t a spymaster—could have guessed it.
A young kingdom with weak military power, staggering from internal strife?
There was no way a neighboring country wouldn’t pounce on that chance.
The problem was the size and strength of the forces they had prepared.
With Silbrenoa’s lacking intelligence capabilities, it was difficult to obtain accurate information.
However, thanks to Princess Muriela capturing the spies from Valterre, that burden was somewhat eased.
Since the enemy also had to leave some troops on the southern border, they were planning to mobilize at least thirty thousand soldiers.
Their main forces were stationed in forts far from the border to avoid suspicion.
Once it was confirmed that a major incident had occurred in the north, they planned to issue a mobilization order and push up from the northern region.
“Good. Just as poison must be suppressed with poison, enemies must be suppressed with other enemies. Hehehe.”
Corbin placed a map in his mind and began painting over it with imaginary ink.
What he was drawing was the positions and movement routes of the military forces within and outside Silbrenoa.
If things went well, he dreamed of repelling the foreign enemy with minimal losses and changing the regime at the same time.
—
Regardless of Corbin’s internal sketch of Silbrenoa’s fate, Solinor remained at ease.
As it was time for evening swordsmanship training, he was energetically crossing wooden swords with Hamilton.
Of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t concerned about the future of the nation.
Rather, it was because the plan’s most crucial piece—Princess Muriela—needed to be prepared more perfectly.
Sure, it wasn’t like the princess would actually end up using a sword,
But still, wasn’t it better to know how than not?
“Hyap!”
“Haa!”
With a cute shout, the sword she thrust grazed past Hamilton’s guard.
Though she lost her balance as always, this time she managed to recover on her own.
It wasn’t a grand feat, but Hamilton, who had seen her nearly fall dozens of times, was truly surprised.
“Your Highness! That was amazing. To recover your balance from such an unstable stance…”
“Hehehe, it’s all thanks to Sir Hamilton’s good teaching.”
“Not at all, Your Highness. It is I who am honored to have such a noble student.”
Of course, he sprinkled in some white lies, but the surprise was genuine.
Considering the princess’s notoriously poor motor skills, there was no way she should’ve been able to stabilize herself.
Especially in the moment just now, where her footing had completely twisted.
Even students with natural talent for physical movement would’ve had trouble recovering their stance.
And yet, Princess Muriela—who had seemed hopeless just days ago—was changing?
“Well then, thank you for your hard work today! Let’s do our best again tomorrow!”
“Yes, Your Highness. You worked very hard.”
After finishing training and parting ways with Hamilton, Princess Muriela.
A smile bloomed on her face as she headed for the shower room.
But to be precise, what just happened earlier was a cheat.
After all, it’s not like someone’s athletic ability can improve in just a few days.
So how did she manage to regain her balance back then?
‘Zephyr, well done.’
There was a brilliant idea Solinor had come up with, despite never having learned formal swordsmanship.
It was to incorporate a spirit into swordsmanship.
An idea impossible for someone like Hamilton, who had dedicated his life solely to the sword.
But Solinor had journeyed with the spirit mage Aiorin for over ten years.
He hadn’t thought of it before since he didn’t have spirit power himself, but now things were different.
He instructed Zephyr to push or pull when he moved—naturally, this made the motions much faster.
Hamilton, expecting the slow and weak swings of before and letting his guard down, had even broken into a cold sweat.
He had believed the princess had suddenly awakened talent and even reflected on his hasty judgment.
When the wind spirit pushed in sync with the sword’s direction, the movement became lightning-fast.
And even when she lost her balance, it was the same—
Zephyr had caught her body as she was about to fall.
Of course, Aiorin also knew how to wield a sword, but she never used it in this way.
She had proper—no, exceptional—athletic ability, so she didn’t need such methods.
In that sense, could it be said that Muriela had become the continent’s first pioneer of Spirit Swordsmanship?
—
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