Lampari the Thirteenth sat quietly in the small garden behind the Royal Palace, a blanket over his legs. Facing the rare warmth of the early winter sun, he slowly leafed through a report in his hands.
The Kingdom Military Department had submitted this report two days earlier. This was already his third time reading it that day, yet he still studied it with utmost care.
The report summarized the events surrounding the Battle of the Murto Mountain Ranges. Having ascended the throne during the upheaval more than ten years earlier, then quelled the unrest under the most difficult circumstances and secured his reign, Lampari the Thirteenth understood military affairs better than the previous kings and attached greater importance to them.
After more than a decade on the throne, he knew all too well how deeply the longstanding conflict with the Sark Kingdom to the north affected the entire Lampari Kingdom.
Under pressure from the Sark Kingdom, the Lampari Kingdom was forced to spend enormous sums of gold on the Northern Garrison every year. The Military Department devoted more than half its annual military budget to the Northern Garrison, and even then, they could barely hold off the Sark Kingdom's offensives.
Yet the Lampari Kingdom had also become trapped in this mire, forced to spend vast amounts on its military every year with no way to extricate itself.
In fact, Lampari the Thirteenth understood the Sark Kingdom's strategy perfectly. The reason it refrained from launching a true all-out war to settle the conflict was that it wanted to use its vastly superior national strength to wear the Lampari Kingdom down, then seize it without bloodshed.
If it instead staked everything on an all-out war, it might provoke resistance throughout the Lampari Kingdom. Even if the Sark Kingdom ultimately won, it would