Blood Moon Season Had Arrived!

Shien's military exercise orders went out overnight. The next day, the Seven Fiefs' defenses went straight into a stress test.

The inspection tested individual soldiers as well as the Seven Fiefs' entire system.

Fatal flaws in coordination between the various positions had to be forced into the open on the training ground before the real Blood Moon arrived.

At the Grasshawk Fief training ground, every unit worked in concert.

The exercise had specific targets: the response time of the outer warning network, the operation of the cross-fief supply network, and how efficiently specialized armaments could root out threats.

The Blackpine Mobile Cavalry was breaking through the Gray Fog and galloping into a remount station.

Before the horses had even stopped, Auxiliary Soldiers rushed in. Within seconds, they had taken charge of the exhausted horses, swapped out the Repeating Crossbows, and attached the Flying Anchors.

The warning signal for "engagement at West Gorge Pass" suddenly lit up.

Grasshawk's defenders held their line and launched dazzling flares. Two light Alchemy Cannons roared, sending Armor-Shattering Shrapnel Shells into the middle stretch and sealing off the passage.

Ryan stood on a platform atop the low wall, looking past the remount station and artillery positions below.

Just over half a year ago, the roads outside Grasshawk Fief had been choked with mud. Its defenses had amounted to a handful of crumbling walls, while craftsmen and quartermasters—

Shirked responsibility in a muddle of accounts, pocketing the last scraps of funding along the way.

If Shien had not helped them then, the Ghouls would have gnawed Grasshawk Fief clean long before Blood Moon Season.

Ryan, its lord, would not have escaped either. He would have been first on the list of the dead.

The dull thunder of hooves pulled him back to the present. Below, the Blackpine