While the Northern Garrison threw itself into preparing for war, the Sark Kingdom's army north of the Murto Mountain Ranges was hardly sitting idle.
Prince Eric had made no attempt to conceal his intention to lead the Northern Garrison in a counterattack against the Sark Kingdom, so it naturally could not escape the Sark Kingdom's notice.
Although the Sark Kingdom had always held an overwhelming advantage over the Lampari Kingdom, it still dared not underestimate this exceedingly rare counteroffensive.
Prince Eric had secured the support of many powerful nobles in the Lampari Kingdom this time, giving him far greater strength than the Northern Garrison that had previously faced the Sark Kingdom's Greedy Wolf Legion. Moreover, at this time last year, the Northern Garrison had displayed unexpectedly formidable combat power in its counterattack on the Murto Mountain Ranges, even forcing the Sark Kingdom to abandon them.
If this year's Northern Garrison retained that formidable fighting strength, combined with the powerful logistical support Prince Eric enjoyed thanks to those nobles' full backing, the Sark Kingdom would find it no easy task to hold them off.
But Shalong Li Nuer, commander of the Greedy Wolf Legion, had received one decisive piece of good news.
Intelligence indicated that because Xu Yi, President of the Xinfei Merchant Guild, had openly declared his support for Princess Servini over a month earlier, Prince Eric had taken the initiative to refuse to purchase any military magic machinery from the Xinfei Merchant Guild to demonstrate his opposing stance.
Aside from the batch of military magic machinery purchased last year, the Northern Garrison now had only a few additional pieces that the Lampari Kingdom's Military Department had purchased from the Xinfei Merchant Guild and then forced upon them.
The Lampari Kingdom's Military Department had always been poor. Moreover, King Lampari