Judgment

The attempt to fuse illusionary arts with the secret technique of Rain Woman's Heart had borne fruit, finally granting young Soji a measure of confidence regarding the impending confrontation.

However, compared to the four-person decision-making group privy to the inside information, the personnel belonging to the Frontline Support Battalion—including the other members of Team Five—remained in a state of constant, hair-trigger tension!

...To satisfy the requirements of tactical secrecy, most details regarding the ambush plan had never been disclosed to the outside.

The passengers aboard the two transport ships were not only oblivious to the auxiliary scouts probing the banks of the Amber River, but they were also unaware that the Frontline Support Battalion's operation had been coordinated with the deployments of the border defense troops!

The anxiety brought on by this lack of information was exacerbated by the sense of aimlessness that came with being in the middle of a great river.

Symptoms like insomnia, palpitations, and endocrine disorders spread among the crew like a plague.

Coupled with increasingly strict defensive measures and the dizzying motion of the wind and waves, the grim and oppressive atmosphere made it almost difficult to breathe...

After several days, the symptoms of seasickness and vomiting in little Todo grew increasingly severe, and even Erina, usually the most active and lively of them, had developed dark circles under her eyes!

The two youngsters often looked at the boy with words caught in their throats, desperately suppressing their curiosity to avoid mentioning topics that violated the confidentiality protocols.

Little did they know that Soji himself was enduring a different kind of mental pressure.

—Facts proved that while ignorance was indeed agonizing, pulling the strings from behind the scenes was no easy task either!

For decision-makers and managers, in the midst of life-and-death conflicts, they often received an excessive and redundant amount of information from various channels every single day.

Filtering out the truly valuable content from this motley collection of intelligence inevitably required a massive expenditure of energy.

...The reconnaissance units responsible for surveillance and enemy detection were not gods, either.

The many reports summarized from them were not only mixed with a great deal of subjective judgment, but could even lead to self-contradictory conclusions due to limitations in perspective.

If one did not distinguish between specific contents, the reports from the intelligence department would not only fail to assist in combat, but could instead cause chaos within their own command system.

To avoid such a situation, the decision-making group—composed of Nara Motonari, Usami Hanbei, Chosokabe Masayuki, and Soji himself—took on the inescapable responsibility of this discernment and selection.

And every person involved knew very well that any single misjudgment on their part could lead the entire Frontline Support Battalion down a path to destruction...

This heavy pressure, which transcended their own survival, was enough to crush any participant lacking a firm will.

Especially for the commander-in-chief, Nara Motonari, who bore the weight of the survival of over a hundred team members at every moment!

Fortunately, Teacher Motonari seemed long accustomed to this heavy pressure—all these days, he had been processing the dizzying array of information in an orderly manner, showing not the slightest impatience despite the calm before the storm.

"There is still no movement in the waterway toward Eagle Sorrow Ravine today... The scouts have expanded their search range to 100 kilometers upstream and downstream, yet they have still found no traces of Sand Ninja activity."

Soji delivered the intelligence summarized by Group A to Teacher Motonari's desk; the latter did not look up, merely nodding slightly to indicate he was aware.

"The fleet will enter Eagle Sorrow Ravine from the wide waters tomorrow. Based on the current situation, the possibility of the enemy setting an ambush in this area is now only a theoretical, infinitesimal chance."

"...It is truly surprising. The narrow, slow-moving river channel should be the most suitable place for setting traps, and the special high-ground terrain would also be very convenient for the enemy to deploy firepower. I never expected the Sand Ninja to abandon such a geographical advantage." Soji pursed his lips, his tone faintly tinged with worry: "Could the Sand Ninja have seen through our plan?"

"It is too early to say." Nara Motonari waved his hand casually: "Starting from Eagle Sorrow Ravine, the Amber River has at least three more locations with similar natural conditions before it flows into the tributaries of the Land of Rain that the enemy could choose. The reason the Sand Ninja are not ambushing at Eagle Sorrow Ravine might be precisely because the geographical environment here is too dangerous, and they fear the Frontline Support Battalion would be on high alert because of it."

"So you mean the enemy will choose one of the relatively later dangerous shoals to make their move?"

Soji frowned.

He hesitated over whether to advise Teacher Motonari to adjust the current reconnaissance unit assignments and strengthen patrols for the latter part of the journey.

Unexpectedly, the commander-in-chief caught his thoughts a step ahead and proactively cut him off.

"This is just a speculation, or perhaps the enemy will deliberately use this mindset to perform a reverse maneuver, choosing one of the earlier ambush zones instead."

"...You have said both the forward and the reverse of the argument."

The boy was left speechless...

And Nara Motonari wore a smile on the corners of his mouth~

He did not answer directly to clear Soji's confusion, but instead pulled another report from the materials at hand and handed it to the boy: "This is intelligence sent by Group D through the Communications Squad earlier. They discovered traces of intruder activity near Ranunculus Mountain. Based on the on-site investigation and analysis, it should be the remnants of a campsite from two or three days ago."

"So you mean the enemy set the ambush site at Ranunculus Mountain? Hmm... no, that's not it..."

As soon as Soji spoke, he quickly negated his own point: "Calculating by time, our unit had just arrived at the Amber River basin at that time. Before confirming the route our unit had chosen for the water march, it would have been impossible for the enemy to arrange ambush work in advance."

"Not bad, you are improving quickly~"

Nara Motonari nodded with satisfaction, then quickly buried his head back into the various documents: "The most important tenet of intelligence work is to speculate boldly and verify carefully; the worst habit is to judge blindly and deceive oneself!

No matter how miraculous the intelligence agencies under your command may be, once a commander develops a fixed opinion, all subsequent investigative work becomes a futile effort of shooting the arrow and then drawing the target.

So, never be pressured by external forces into reaching a conclusion too early—until truly decisive evidence appears, all you need to use are your eyes and ears."

"..."

Soji remained silent and made a gesture of zipping his mouth shut.

Just at this moment, Miss Inoue Reina, who brought important information every time she appeared, broke the equilibrium once again!

The short-haired kunoichi requested permission, then walked quickly into the cabin and handed a piece of intelligence paper written in secret code to Teacher Motonari.

"Report to the commander-in-chief, we have just received an urgent report from the front line."

"Which department?" Nara Motonari took it quickly and immediately took out a codebook to cross-reference.

The specific decoding books were not at his side; this codebook only contained the periodically changed secondary ciphers used for transit.

The sequence of page numbers and characters cracked from this still had to be matched with the original text of the corresponding books stored in Motonari's own mind to obtain meaningful content.

"Group F—they just received orders to change their reconnaissance area earlier."

"Hmm, hmm... To think it would appear there."

Nara Motonari responded to his subordinate's report while rapidly deciphering the code.

Although he said "to think," Soji could not detect even a hint of surprise on his face.

The orders that followed from Master Motonari only confirmed the boy's suspicions.

"Soji, is the special ninja gear I had Erina prepare ready?"

"Of course, everything is prepared."

"Excellent!"

Nara Motonari nodded in satisfaction, then turned toward Ms. Inoue: "Notify all departments to change their reconnaissance strategy according to the predetermined plan—remember, conduct close-range surveillance, but do not alert the enemy."

"Understood, I will relay the message exactly as instructed."