Postwar Arrangements

Amid howling wind and snow, an army left Beste Fortress and set out on an unknown journey.

When Catherine had arrived, she had five hundred people. When she left, more than a hundred men who could be considered soldiers had joined her, along with a long train of merchant wagons to provide logistical supplies.

Power was a fatal temptation to many, especially the gentry, who were already fairly wealthy and had long suffered under oppression. They treasured the power they had just acquired as if it were priceless.

They handed over the younger sons of their families, their guards, their bodyguards, their strong serfs, and the food and weapons in their warehouses to Catherine in exchange for the power now in their hands.

On the city wall, Bellberk tightened her collar and turned to Frederick. "I thought you'd be going with them."

Frederick watched the group gradually vanish into the wind and snow. "In this war, she can only call it her victory if she wins it with her own hands."

"I've done all I can: created a window of opportunity in which the Kingdom of Piaster can't interfere."

The latest news came from the Red Waterwheel Village fortress: the three-nation coalition had been routed.

Kaustov and Snellman had broken through, with fewer than one in ten of their troops surviving.

Seeing the tide turn against him, Casimir had immediately led his forces east in a scattered breakout. But most of them had been intercepted by the 3rd Division, which had secretly turned west. Of the fifty thousand Winged Hussars who had set out, fewer than ten thousand escaped.

If the Rhine Alliance hadn't also suffered heavy losses, they might have seized Florensburg while they were at it, achieving their original strategic objective.

However, seeing the pressure ease in the