King of Sulucas Brunhild surveyed the profusion of flowers around her and concluded that, with its exquisite landscaping alone, the ecological garden aboard the flagship Vulcan Ajan was already in no way inferior to her own Sacred Tree Palace.
If it were up to me, I'd rather add two more cafeterias aboard the Dawn Angel. At the thought, Brunhild gave a couple of sarcastic clicks of her tongue, then sat down in the white jade pavilion at the heart of the garden lake.
"By my reckoning, it should be starting soon, shouldn't it, Great-Uncle Twenty-Four?"
Miss Brunhild's distant cousin-granduncle, King Soren, commander of the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet and supreme commander of the "Allied Forces," said, "Based on the intelligence seized when Duke Saduran's people cracked the Devil's Maze, we can be sure that the Snake Organization has joined forces with the marauders. The Thirteen-Headed Snake should be in that fortress, and perhaps even the Lord of Time is hiding nearby, watching from the shadows. We know the marauders' true strength. Even with the Enlighteners' legacy in their hands, their occult knowledge is limited. But those Snakes are different. The powerful psychic beacon we installed aboard our ship isn't something mere Ero ants could detect, but that doesn't mean it can fool the Snakes. Even if they can detect it, they may not be able to decipher it—but that won't stop them from taking other measures."
"So you think the bait we set may end up being used against us?"
"I'm eighty percent sure they'll play along and turn our plan against us." King Soren smiled. "But, Brunhild, now that this war has reached such a scale, the cards are mostly on the table. In the end, what matters is how you play yours. Heh, I'm looking forward to seeing what