A Rising Star of the Tear Knight Defense Line

The Recorder nodded and opened another file.

His hand paused at the edge of the page before he began. "The Graymist Defense Zone suffered more than three thousand casualties this season. Not a single Sacred Flame Altar was extinguished—"

Heads rose on both sides of the long table. The atmosphere in the Assembly Hall shifted subtly.

The losses in the North Marsh, Rift Valley, Water Spirit, and other battle zones were heavy, but they had been expected.

The Graymist Defense Zone, however, shared their difficult terrain and outlying position. It had always borne the brunt of demonic beast tides and was one of the areas most likely to suffer devastating losses.

In recent years, only three or four territories had usually managed to survive each Blood Moon Season. In the last one, the Graymist Defense Zone had been nearly wiped out. Only the three territories under Shien had barely held on.

The commanders and Clerics on both sides of the table opened the copies before them. Even the layout and formatting caught their attention.

As they read more closely, they realized just how valuable the document was.

It detailed how the Graymist Defense Zone had achieved its results, with clear figures and timelines for every measure and the forces involved. It even listed each failure and shortcoming, along with proposed corrections.

The thick file read like a fully tested plan for running a Defense Zone in an entirely new way.

With the meeting still in progress, they could only skim a few pages, but that was enough to see its value.

Nearly everyone made the same decision: they would take their copies back and study them page by page.

Legion Commander Raymond gently closed the file, astonished.

If the cases it described were genuine, then the entire Defense Zone could