Night.
Xia Ya, South Capital of the Soma Alliance. Inside an inconspicuous courtyard room within the city.
Bright lamplight illuminated the room. A Black-Faced Old Man sat behind a desk, squinting at a map spread across it—a map of military deployments along the border between the Sika Kingdom and the Soma Alliance.
The map was densely covered with large and small red and blue dots. The strongholds of both sides interlocked like canine teeth, creating an intricate and complicated situation.
One location had been marked with a large black cross. Around that cross, numerous red and blue dots were gradually converging, like a powder keg that had already been lit.
The Black-Faced Old Man looked at it for a long while before slowly raising his head. As if he had heard something, he turned to look toward the door.
A series of tapping footsteps sounded. With a creak, the door was pushed open, and a blue-eyed middle-aged man in a green robe walked in.
The middle-aged man first cast a respectful glance at the Black-Faced Old Man, then said, "Lord Oscar, the situation has been clarified."
"Clarified?" The Black-Faced Old Man's brows twitched. "What happened? Tell me."
"Yes." The middle-aged man's expression turned solemn, and he began speaking quickly.
"According to the information gathered by our people, the Sika Kingdom was indeed the one that acted first today. They attempted to eliminate one of our border garrisons near Newburg. We discovered them in the process, and a battle broke out.
"At the start of the battle, we were caught unprepared and fell into a disadvantage. One Army Wizard was killed, while the soldiers and Magic-armored Knights at the garrison and surrounding sentry posts suffered heavy casualties. However, our rear forces responded quickly and soon dispatched a large force to reinforce