Karl froze at the sight, then burst into hearty laughter and strode forward to greet him. "Roland! What are you doing here?! How is Clift Fortress?"
The man following behind Franz was none other than General Roland, who guarded Clift Fortress! Why was he here? Shouldn't he have been holding the southern fortress against the Empress Dowager's possible counterattack?
Roland bowed to Karl, a rare smile on his face. "Rest assured, my lord, Clift Fortress is as impregnable as gold and stone. I temporarily handed its defenses over to my deputy and followed Brother Franz into the Royal Capital in secret, to personally learn the truth of the city's defenses. And while I was at it... I brought you a grand gift."
As he spoke, he drew a roll of parchment from his robes and presented it to Karl with both hands. "This is a detailed defense map of the Royal Capital. It marks every city gate, sentry post, granary, and arsenal, as well as the passages and hidden tunnels throughout the palace. With this map, our army's siege will achieve twice the result with half the effort."
Karl took the parchment and spread it open. The drawing was meticulous, the annotations exhaustive; clearly, it had taken tremendous effort. The number and locations of the gates, the size of the garrisons, the height and thickness of the walls, their weak points, the palace layout, its corridors and secret passages—everything was marked in precise detail. There were even several hidden waterways leading from outside the city into it, capable of transporting small detachments of troops. He could not help but praise, "Excellent! Simply excellent! With this map, Prye City may as well have no defenses at all! Roland, you've worked hard!"
Roland shook his head and said solemnly, "This is not