Faint light fell across the thick maps, scrolls, and drafts, and a trace of ink scented the air.
Outside the window, the Red Tide Main Road was undergoing repairs. Inside stood three people who would soon decide Red Tide's future.
Bradley stood by the window, silently leafing through pages of briefing notes, his face bearing its familiar, old-fashioned gravity.
Near the bookshelves, Lanna stood quietly in a plain navy robe. Her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the leather book folder in her hands, and a hint of nervousness showed between her brows.
Lanna Verdi had once been the daughter of the prominent Verdi Family on the Empire's northwestern frontier, renowned throughout the borderlands from childhood for her talent in literature and history.
Had everything proceeded as expected, she would have spent her days among poetry and books, eventually married into another noble family, and lived out a leisurely life.
But the gears of fate suddenly shattered after her father, Viscount Verdi, openly opposed a land annexation proposal put forward by the powerful nobles of the Imperial Capital.
The Verdi Family became expendable overnight. Their fief was revoked, their private troops purged, her elder brother disappeared, and her mother died of illness.
Dressed in commoners' cloth and escorted by several family knights, Lanna eventually arrived in Red Tide alongside a group of Northern Frontier refugees displaced by the war with Snow Oath.
Because she could read and write, she was assigned to teach children literacy at a school. She had thought that would be the extent of her life.
Until Louis sought her out and handed her nothing but a draft bill. "Write me an Education Pilot Plan."
From then on, Lanna concealed the Verdi name and called herself simply "Lanna," gradually taking charge of the learning centers throughout Red Tide.
Two years