The speaker was the only woman among the senior officers present. Her name was Lieutenant General Veshania Tiventon, and she held the important post of chief of staff of the expeditionary fleet. She looked to be in her early forties, an elegant and poised woman. Though she wore a crisp general's uniform, she didn't quite seem like a soldier; she seemed more like a senior executive at a major corporation.
Of course, women like her were skilled at maintaining their appearance—and had the means to do so—so her actual age might have been somewhat greater than she looked.
Seeing all the officers turn toward her, Lieutenant General Tiventon patiently explained, "Judging from the reports sent by the Thirteenth Fleet on the front lines, we've already gained a considerable advantage in terms of losses. In this situation, we can largely rule out the possibility that the Marauders have set a trap. So what considerations led Major General Markov on the front lines to refrain from pursuing them?"
Yang Xiyi thought that she spoke very coherently, without a hint of aggression in her tone. She had clearly received specialized training in managing her expressions and in physical fitness. This was more than the shallow image of a top corporate executive; she had to be either a celebrity, a lawyer, or a politician.
"I'm not criticizing them," she added. "But in the past three months, we haven't had a single encounter with the Marauders, and now this battle has been so large in scale. Could this indicate that, with the collapse of the Demon Palace Labyrinth, the Marauders' main force is in a state of disarray?"
Though she looked like a corporate executive and spoke with the polished, graceful manners of a politician, Yang Xiyi had heard of her before. She was also