Chapter 44: The Grand Duchess

After my bath, I got dressed in my usual clothes with the maids’ help, and when I returned to my room, I found the files neatly organised and arranged on my desk, whilst Vilen greeted me.

"I hope you enjoyed your bath, young master,"

I nodded to him, sat down in my chair and began leafing through the files whilst Vilen placed a cup of soothing tea and a plate of pastries on my desk.

I began to eat, resting my chin on my hands as I perused the papers in front of me. I hate anything to do with official business, especially military reports, because most of those who write them have a remarkable talent for turning even the most thrilling battles into tedious pages about ’supply movements’, ’the effectiveness of transport lines’ and ’casualty figures’.

Can’t they write it like a novel? I’m sure I sent them one of the best action novelists I know! Why can’t they make proper use of their human resources?? That man’s domain was literally called world of storytelling!

Huh... but as you can see, there’s nothing I can do about it. Since I’ve got myself into this mess by going off to battle, I might as well read this stuff if I want to prove to that man that I’m competent and reliable!

So I took a quick look at the file titles in front of me

📑 - ||Organisation of the resumption of the expedition beyond the Frozen Sea.||

📑 - || Reports on the Lands of the Black Winter ||

📑 - || CLASS 0 - CLASSIFIED — NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION

SUBJECT: THE HIGH KINGDOM ||

📑- || CLASS 4 - CLASSIFIED— MILITARY INFORMATION

Subject:

1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 4th Corps, 1st Army

Unit:

1st Regiment

└── 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion

Strength:

1,000 Soldiers ||

📑- || CLASS 2 - CLASSIFIED — KNIGHT ORDER INFORMATION

Subject:

Chernovlak Knight Order

Unit:

2nd Banner

Strength:

100 Knights ||

📑 - || CLASS 1 - CLASSIFIED — KNIGHT ORDER INFORMATION

Subject: 7492701483938392010 — Requiem Knight Order

Unit:

81-SE

Strength:

10 Knights ||

My eyes lingered on the last file, slightly taken aback.

Well...

That’s a surprise... A whole knight band - ten Knights – and ten of the Requiem Knights is certainly no small number.

The Requiem Knights, as I mentioned earlier, are not merely an elite force... rather, they can confidently be called the true strength within the Korvekar Army. This alone illustrates to me just how much the Grand Duke cares about this exploratory campaign... Hmm... I really shouldn’t mess things up now that I’ve spoken up and caused all this chaos by going...

No, actually, if it’s that important, why did this man, who suffers from a split personality, agree to let me lead this campaign in the first place?! I, who have absolutely no experience of real battles, let alone leading a terrifying battle like this!

Is it perhaps because the success rate of this campaign doesn’t even exceed 1 per cent? But if the Grand Duke really wants to send me to my death, why is he sending ten of the Grand Duchy’s elite with me?

The Grand Duke is certainly good at making one feel confused, even by his own decisions.

Huh...

I put the rest aside and opened the least important one—though, at the same time, it could be considered the most important for some reason, according to my teacher in the theoretical military lessons.

Soldiers’ details

1000 soldier from 1st and 2nd Battalion of 1st Regiment - 1st Brigade - 2nd Division -4th Corps - 1st Army...

The file contained their names and backgrounds, even their ages, a brief profile of their families, the weapons they use, and their specialities

Although some of them possessed abilities from their domains, you cannot consider them anything special, because if they had been truly exceptional, they would have become Knights or been assigned to more elite forces

Take Sasha Gregory, for example: he has the ability to turn himself into a statue

He might have been the perfect spy, but the problem is that he has to breathe to stay alive – which means he’s a breathing statue. So there’s no point in using him as a spy. Or perhaps the Grand Duke sent him a long time ago as a gift to the Emperor, or to the Second Prince, or even to Grand Duke of Dravarius himself!

But according to what’s said here, this ability of his has saved him about 27 times in battles, where he’d pretend to be a statue and hold his breath, and no one would notice him...

Well, you could say he’s a bit of a lucky chap, because none of the enemy ever wondered why there was a statue on the battlefield or felt like taking their anger out on him...

Well, perhaps it’s because most of the battles he took part in were against monsters, and since he didn’t give off the smell of flesh, didn’t run away, didn’t strike out or look around, monsters weren’t exactly the sort of creatures to take much interest in statues and works of art.

Just forget about him...

I sat there memorising the information whilst eating whatever Vilen placed on my desk from time to time...

I shut myself away in my room, going through the files and saving them; I’ve already saved everything about the 1,110 soldiers and knights in my future army

Lying on my bed with my head hanging down, I stared blankly at the penultimate file

– || Reports on the Lands of the Black Winter ||

I skimmed through it with a touch of boredom, simply because I no longer had the desire to read or memorise anything. ℴ

I found nothing of interest—just a description of the nature of the region, the monsters inhabiting it and those one might encounter, a description of the what called slave race, and methods and advice for fighting them or escaping them when confronted, and even several notable ruins—some of which were warned against due to their danger, whilst others were marked with a note: ’Looted’, and so on and so forth

So I threw the file aside and grabbed the one closest to me on my bed

|| CLASS 0 - CLASSIFIED — NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION - THE HIGH KINGDOM ||

But I paused for a moment, frowned, then sat up straight and looked intently when I found several folded pages containing hand-drawn, complete maps of what lay beyond the Frozen Sea... not general or incomplete maps

The first contained a complete map of what the intelligence services call the Fallen High Kingdom

and the second map showed the secret passageways and safe havens throughout that kingdom

and the third map was a detailed plan of the royal capital

and strangest of all was the fourth map, which contained a blueprint of the royal palace itself, along with the routes to the royal vaults, the secret passageways and rooms within the palace, and how to reach them safely

.

Now... it turns out I was right in all my conjectures, which even the Grand Duke partially admitted: that his wife was not merely a lost peasant girl who happened to be sleeping on the frozen sea, waiting to catch herself a Prince Charming who would turn her into a princess.

although he only vaguely mentioned that her family was responsible for the so-called Crown of Calamity edifice; but perhaps it was the royal family

Hmm. Well, what can I say? The Grand Duchess of Korvekar was a woman whom the mind can only imagine to be of noble lineage. There was even a time when the former Empress ordered that she be barred from attending any of the balls at which she herself would be present, due to her overwhelming beauty and elegance

— although some claimed she was mad and caused a great deal of trouble, it is clear that these were merely unfounded rumours intended to tarnish her reputation. The proof of this is that she had such a tremendous influence in the world of ladies that, whenever the fashion and elegance of those days are mentioned, the era is named after her -the Zinoviyan era, Women and girls became obsessed with her, with what she wore and the way she cared for her body, skin and hair.

Commoner Girls took her as a role model because, to them, she was a commoner woman who had risen to the position of Grand Duchess, and she was strong and beautiful enough to silence the arrogance of all the noblewomen.

On the other hand, as for the noble ladies who were fed up with intrigues, games, dramatic stories and strange secrets, they were never taken in by her claim to be a commoner, especially as they knew how difficult it was to learn manners, etiquette and everything else; As for the commoner girls, they could not even imagine that there were rules simply for breathing, walking, sitting, and even how and in what position to sleep!

Therefore, they never regarded her as a peasant or a man-hunter; rather, they were far more interested in her skincare and haircare routines – to the extent that even the former empress was forced to concede to her in this regard.

and they didn’t mind a bit of backbiting and gossip to speculate about her true origins and spread rumours about her, just to satisfy themselves and ease the jealousy in their hearts!