Magdal watched Kandebel City from afar. This major trading hub connecting Silver Bay and the Wilds of the Four Borders looked somewhat desolate in the morning mist.
This was not how it usually looked.
The people whose livelihoods depended on the daily operation of this massive city—the farmers living around it, the artisans, and the merchants traveling along its various trade routes—should have begun bustling about at dawn, before the night had fully receded, rousing the city from its slumber and giving this ancient city vivid color before the first rays of sunlight arrived.
But today, the city lay silent and motionless across the fertile plains beyond Olo Forest, like a sleeping beast.
The morning wind brushed through Magdal's hair. The unusually heavy presence in the air made the Princess of the Church standing there even more uneasy. Behind her, inside the enormous military tent, the sounds of argument meant that the various lords of the allied forces from the Silver Bay region had yet to reach an agreement—
After the White Mountain Calamity, the Wind Spirits had sealed their borders and forbidden any outsiders from passing through their territory. The allied army's route north had consequently been cut off, so what everyone had to discuss was whether they should change course and pass through the Wilds of the Four Borders—through the territory controlled by the empire's Crimson Legion.
Everyone had their own concerns.
But the foremost consideration was the army's safety.
Ever since Black Moon's fall, there had been no news from the direction of the Wilds of the Four Borders. After humans and the Wind Spirits withdrew from their confrontation, the last news of the Crimson Legion had been that it was attempting to approach the First Prince's forces in the north. But afterward, the entire legion had