Although the negotiations over ownership of the Kafuhoka region had made absolutely no substantive progress—not even reaching the point of completing the talks themselves—the Wolf Girl's secret audience with the God of the North Wind had still proved productive.
At the very least, her personal arrival had given the Winter Wolf Legion and the Great Wilderness Legion, both now in an awkward position, a respectable excuse to withdraw from the front lines.
The fortress of Krim, where the northerners had originally been stationed, was gone. And the Transians' Cadman City stood right in their way, certainly not about to let them move in. So ever since the fighting on the central front had ended, General Baldwin's legions had remained stationed at the easternmost position on the Maginot Line.
Never mind that their presence lacked any proper justification. The most pressing problem was that, thanks to Murphy's maneuvering, Cadman City had fallen from the sky and landed right in the path of their retreat, leaving them geographically isolated.
The only other way back to Nordtov was to circle around Transia's central region and return to Kafuhoka through the city of Batasin.
But that route, which passed through Scarlet Fortress, was even less viable. Unless Murphy or the Scarlet Magistrate had lost his mind, allowing a foreign army with an ongoing territorial dispute to march through his land would be tantamount to cutting off his own nose to spite his face.
General Baldwin had been planning to discuss the problem with General Kudel, commander of the Maginot Line, over the past few days. Then the Queen's quiet visit solved it perfectly.
The soldiers of both legions would pass through Cadman City openly, under the pretext of escorting the Queen. Mirian, out of respect for the queen of a sovereign nation, did not