Chapter 112: One Year Later

Chapter 112: One Year Later

Only one day had passed for Noah in the God Civilization, but when his attention returned fully to Edras, an entire year had already passed for everyone living there.

The difference between the two worlds had become familiar to him, yet it still created an unsettling sense of distance.

Battles that felt recent in his memory had already become events from the previous year to the humans and goblins living inside Caldris, while the conquest of Eastwatch, Northwatch, Valemar, Redhaven, and Stoneford had long since stopped feeling temporary to those who lived beneath Viridian occupation.

The five eastern provinces had changed considerably during that year. Viridian garrisons occupied every provincial capital, military patrols traveled along the roads connecting the major cities, and the isolated fortresses that had refused surrender during the original campaign had disappeared one after another.

Some had surrendered after realizing that no provincial army remained to relieve them, while others had been reduced gradually by the siege detachments left behind during Viridian’s advance.

The occupation itself had also become increasingly organized. Farmers returned to fields abandoned during the invasion, merchants resumed moving between major settlements, and local administrators willing to cooperate continued performing routine duties beneath Viridian supervision.

Taxes, grain storage, road maintenance, local disputes, and commercial activity were increasingly handled through a mixture of existing Caldris institutions and goblin military authority, allowing the eastern provinces to remain productive instead of becoming an enormous burden on the occupying army.

Rakhar Veyr had spent the year transforming the conquered sector into a military base capable of supporting another campaign whenever Noah received permission to move.

Garrisons protected the capitals and major settlements, supply troops guarded important roads, and engineers repaired bridges damaged during the fighting.

Warehouses established in Eastwatch now connected through Northwatch and Valemar toward Redhaven and Stoneford, creating a continuous logistical network from the Gate Beyond Heaven to the western edge of the occupied region.

The Gate itself had remained active throughout the planetary year, allowing the Viridian throne to complete the original million-man deployment ordered after Eastwatch’s conquest.

Those soldiers were distributed across occupation duties, supply security, engineering formations, city garrisons, and military reserves rather than concentrated in one enormous army.

Rakhar had followed Noah’s previous instructions carefully and refused to allow every available formation to disappear into permanent occupation duties.

A large strategic reserve therefore remained organized behind the western approaches of Redhaven and Stoneford. Its units rotated through training, patrol duty, temporary garrison assignments, and road security while maintaining enough cohesion to move quickly if new orders arrived.

Quartermasters preserved separate stockpiles for the reserve, engineers repeatedly inspected the major marching routes, and commanders continued planning deployments even though Noah had spent the entire planetary year obeying Garran’s decision not to interfere with the other sectors.

The situation changed when Garran summoned the five participating planetary gods into another shared consciousness meeting. Noah’s perception of eastern Caldris faded and was replaced by the familiar empty space surrounding a large projection of the kingdom.

Garran stood beside the map while four other awakened gods appeared around it, each representing one of the remaining major sectors of the campaign.

One planetary god commanded the northern front, another controlled the southern invasion, a third had been assigned the western sector, and the final participant was responsible for the central advance.

Noah alone represented the east, and the map already showed how differently the five campaigns had developed during the year.

Garran waited until all of them were present before beginning his report. He reminded them that one planetary year had passed since their previous strategic meeting, equivalent to only one real-world day outside Edras, and then shifted the map toward the northern sector.

Several provinces existed within that region, yet only one had been completely marked under the northern god’s control.

The northern armies had captured towns, roads, fortresses, and portions of neighboring provinces, but those gains remained incomplete. Caldris provincial governments still operated farther inside the region, fortified cities continued resisting, and repeated counterattacks had forced the invading army to spend increasing numbers of troops protecting territory it had already taken.

The southern sector showed nearly the same result. Its planetary god had successfully conquered one complete province during the year and controlled portions of several others, but important cities and defensive positions remained under Caldris authority.

Every new advance required more soldiers to remain behind for occupation, road protection, and siege duties, steadily reducing the manpower available for the main offensive.

The western campaign had followed the same general pattern. One province had fallen completely, while the remaining provinces were still contested through a mixture of sieges, field battles, and attacks on supply routes.

The western god had continued advancing throughout the year, but his civilization lacked the manpower to maintain the same pace once occupation requirements accumulated behind the front.

Garran then shifted the projection toward the center, where the situation was considerably worse. Caldris military markers remained dense throughout every central province, while the invading god’s territory appeared as scattered pockets of captured towns, forts, and countryside rather than a continuous conquered region.

After an entire planetary year, the central god had not completely occupied a single province.

The reason became visible as Garran enlarged the theater. Caldris had concentrated royal professional infantry, experienced commanders, cavalry, provincial armies, and large reserve formations throughout the central sector because those provinces protected the roads leading toward the kingdom’s political and military heart.

Whenever the central invasion gained ground, reinforcements could arrive from several neighboring regions before the attackers established permanent control.

Garran summarized the results without turning the briefing into a competition. Noah had conquered all five provinces assigned to the eastern sector, while the northern, southern, and western gods had each secured only one complete province.

The central god had captured significant territory but remained unable to eliminate even one provincial government completely.

The comparison created a noticeable silence around the consciousness map. The planetary god who had previously reprimanded Noah for offering reinforcements was among those whose campaign had advanced far more slowly than expected, and his expression no longer carried the same certainty he had shown one planetary year earlier.

Noah noticed the change but gave him no reason to reopen their old disagreement, since the state of the map already explained everything that needed to be said.

Garran instead focused on the military reason behind the uneven progress. The other civilizations were capable of defeating Caldris armies, yet every victory created new set of problems.

Captured towns needed garrisons, hostile fortresses required siege troops, supply routes needed protection, and casualties had to be replaced before another major offensive could begin. As those requirements accumulated, the armies available for continued conquest steadily became smaller.

Viridian had been able to avoid that cycle because its military depth allowed occupation and expansion to occur simultaneously.

During the eastern campaign, goblin forces could leave thousands of troops behind fortified towns, assign tens of thousands to conquered cities, secure roads with separate formations, and still send large armies toward the next provincial capital.

The completed million-man deployment had widened that difference during the following year.

Garran then changed the projection and revealed a development that immediately drew Noah’s attention.

Large Caldris formations had appeared along the western approaches of Redhaven and Stoneford, forming a defensive belt between Viridian-controlled territory and the deeper regions of the kingdom.

The concentration was larger and more organized than anything previously stationed there. Royal professional troops stood alongside provincial formations, cavalry reserves waited behind major roads, engineers reinforced river crossings and fortified settlements, and new supply depots supported a growing chain of defensive positions.

Garran explained that the royal government had changed its strategic assessment during the year.

Caldris had originally expected the goblins to overextend after conquering five provinces, believing the enormous occupied region would eventually drain Viridian’s manpower and create an opportunity for counterattack.

Instead, the goblins eliminated the remaining strongholds, stabilized the local economy, maintained their roads, continued receiving reinforcements, and preserved a large mobile reserve without launching another offensive.

Caldris had therefore abandoned the idea of immediately reconquering all five eastern provinces. The cost of such an operation was considered too high, so the kingdom had adopted a containment strategy intended to prevent Viridian from expanding beyond the territory it already possessed.

The decision affected the entire war. Soldiers that might otherwise have reinforced the northern, southern, western, or central sectors were now being redirected toward the eastern boundary because the royal command considered another Viridian expansion a greater immediate danger than slow territorial losses elsewhere.

The kingdom’s reasoning was visible in the campaign results. North, south, and west had each required an entire year to conquer one province, while the central god had failed to completely control any. Viridian had conquered five provinces, stabilized all of them, and still possessed enough military strength to threaten another major campaign.

Noah studied the new defensive line without speaking. For an entire planetary year, he had followed Garran’s restrictions and kept Viridian inside the eastern provinces while the other gods fought their own wars.

During the same period, Rakhar had expanded the logistical network, completed the million-man deployment, strengthened the occupation, and maintained the strategic reserve Garran had specifically ordered Noah to keep ready.

Caldris had spent that year preparing for the possibility that those soldiers might eventually move.

Garran addressed Noah directly only once during the remainder of the briefing. His previous restriction remained unchanged: Viridian was not authorized to cross beyond the eastern sector, but Noah could reposition troops anywhere inside his conquered territory, strengthen the frontier, expand supply depots, improve reconnaissance, and prepare for a possible Caldris incursion.

A major enemy advance into the occupied provinces would be sufficient reason for Garran to reconsider the current limitations.

Noah accepted the order without further discussion. There was no need to repeat the argument from the previous meeting, because Garran had already given him everything necessary to prepare without violating the operational boundaries.

The briefing eventually ended, and Noah’s perception returned to eastern Caldris. Viridian banners flew above the five provincial capitals while military traffic continued along the roads connecting them, giving the conquered region the appearance of territory that had been under goblin control for far longer than a single year.

Noah immediately passed new instructions to Rakhar. The western boundary would be treated as an active military frontier, reserve formations would move closer to Redhaven and Stoneford, and supply depots behind the border would be expanded without sending troops across the established operational line.

Rakhar reorganized the strategic reserve into several mobile concentrations rather than placing the entire force in one location.

Engineers prepared staging grounds and inspected marching roads, scouts increased observation of Caldris positions, and quartermasters moved food, ammunition, replacement equipment, and medical supplies into forward warehouses capable of supporting a rapid deployment.

Across the boundary, Caldris continued making similar preparations. Royal banners appeared among provincial standards, fortifications around bridges and important roads expanded, and supply traffic from the kingdom’s interior increased as more soldiers arrived to reinforce the containment line.

The kingdom was no longer preparing to recover the east immediately. Its commanders had watched the northern, southern, and western gods struggle for one province each, watched the central god fail to completely conquer even one, and compared those results with the five provinces already controlled by Viridian.

Their conclusion had shaped the new defensive strategy. Caldris could tolerate slow losses on several distant fronts while it searched for ways to stop them, but it could not allow the goblin armies in the east to begin another advance with the same freedom they had enjoyed during their first campaign.

For one planetary year, Noah had stayed put, and Viridian had used that temporary silence to become stronger.

Now two growing military systems faced one another across the eastern boundary, with Caldris building a line intended to contain the goblins while Rakhar kept an enormous reserve supplied and ready behind the conquered provinces.

Neither side had crossed the frontier yet, but both were preparing for the possibility that the year-long silence was approaching its end.