"That girl received help."
Sodow Red got straight to the point:
"When she disappeared on the battlefield, her life or death unknown."
The Imperial Council's confusion partly disappeared, only for more questions to follow.
"Help?"
Viscount Connie, the Minister of Commerce, laughed with a hint of mockery:
"Could it have been a dragon?"
Tales's thoughts shifted. He remembered Little Rascal, disheveled and foolish, sitting amid the ruins and silently staring into the enormous, elegant head of a dragon.
But Viscount Connie soon realized that no one was playing along with his joke.
Instead, the normally smiling Duke Cullen's face had frozen, while Qiu Ke Man, the Treasurer, looked grim.
Clapton, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, jolted awake from his drowsiness again, his gaze suspicious. Stilianiades, who had remained silent all this time, lowered his head in thought.
Tales sat beside Gilbert, forcibly suppressing his curiosity and eagerness as he focused on Former Foreign Minister Gilbert frantically flipping through the documents in his hands.
At the end of the long table, the King remained motionless, as though carved from stone.
The entire Imperial Council fell unusually silent.
Viscount Connie's smile gradually faded.
"No."
Amid the silence, Military Advisor Sodow settled the matter with one decisive word, ending Viscount Connie's awkwardness:
"They were the Suffering People."
The Military Advisor braced both hands on the table and looked at everyone present.
Tales could feel that after Sodow said "no," most of the senior ministers in the room secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"The local Xitao Suffering People."
Sodow frowned deeply. His palm swept over the roads and towns on the map before lightly tapping an empty space without any pieces.
"They helped the Archduchess, allowing her to survive the battlefield."
"And ultimately regroup and recover some of Dragoncloud City's elite