It was three o'clock sharp.
Klein used his spirituality to draw the other members into Sefirah Castle. As Miss Justice's greeting of "Good afternoon, Mr. Fool" rang out, this Tarot Club gathering officially began.
As with the previous few gatherings, they concluded only one transaction before immediately moving on to the discussion.
Judgment Xio first gave a general account of the current state of the war. Since George III's death and the Republic of Intis's entry into the war, the Loen Kingdom had been forced to face attacks from both the north and the west, leaving its manpower stretched thin.
The royal family had just assigned MI9 a task: recruit as many unaffiliated Beyonders as possible to participate in the war to defend Loen.
They had also hinted that the terms could be made more attractive. After all, quite a few positions in the military had indeed become vacant, and these recruits could fill them.
The Hanged Man, Alger, said, "It looks like Loen will suffer a major rout within the next two or three months."
Everyone looked at Mr. Hanged Man. They, too, knew that Loen's current defensive lines might be breached, but most still believed Loen could hold out until the second half of the year.
Alger smiled. "Loen's front is too long, and it has too few troops. They must already be planning to pull back.
"But withdrawing to a shorter front is bound to entail considerable losses.
"The royal family is recruiting unaffiliated Beyonders to serve as cannon fodder. They want those Beyonders to bear the losses of the withdrawal, preserving the royal family's elite forces so they can quickly establish new defensive lines."
He paused before continuing, "At this stage of the war, the Loen Royal Family's Beyonder forces can't have suffered devastating losses yet.