"I want to save her."
Annan spoke to Idelia and Olmedo in the living room of the City Lord's Mansion.
Olmedo rose from the sofa. "Have you read the newspaper?" Idelia asked Annan.
"Voice of Freedom? What's in this issue?"
Olmedo fetched a copy of the Empire Times and handed it to Annan.
The Empire Times was the Tartun Empire's official newspaper. After announcing on Montreal Mountain that he would release the method they needed, Annan had sent Olin and the Old Ancestor a free guide.
Unlike Voice of Freedom, which focused on news from the Allen Continent, the Empire Times covered affairs within the Tartun Empire. Its weekly issues carried decrees, political changes, troop deployments, and war reports. "Arrogantly," it appeared as an ordinary newspaper rather than a Magic Newspaper, and Montreal Mountain had ordered its distribution throughout the Empire.
Voice of Freedom had pioneered the Magic Newspaper, but the Empire Times had become the best-selling one thanks to the Tartun Empire's sheer size. It sold dozens of times as many copies.
"Joint Expeditionary Army Retreats to Middle Earth in Face of Mixed Rat-Demon Tide." The headline caught Annan's eye at once.
"They lost?"
Come to think of it, the Expeditionary Army had set out at the start of the year. Nearly six months had passed...
The newspaper gave a detailed account of the fighting. The joint Expeditionary Army, made up of troops from various kingdoms and lords, had marched north through the Veiled Long Corridor, skirted Elf Mountain Pass, and struck straight toward the Black Iron Mountains from the east. There, it met its first Ratfolk resistance.
The Ratfolk underground were endless. For every mile the Expeditionary Army advanced, it had to clear out tens of thousands of rats. It could have taken a steady approach to rooting