Twenty days after the order for nationwide war mobilization had been issued and put into effect, Chris, who was still on Treasure Island, received some good news and some bad news.
The good news was that, prompted by the Kingdom of Bagnia's mobilization, the Retalia Empire and the Bohemian Empire had reacted swiftly and begun mobilizing their armies as well.
In particular, just as the Retalia Empire was mobilizing, a large gathering of fishmen tribes, numbering over ten thousand, attacked one of its port cities.
A force of feudal knights assembled under the mobilization order happened to be nearby. And so the fishmen, who had taken the city's docks and were laying siege to the city itself, learned what a massed charge of feudal knights could do.
Even though the knights and their squires numbered only around two hundred, once those fearless knights charged, the fishmen were routed in a single afternoon.
Leaving more than five thousand corpses ashore, they fled back into the sea in disarray.
That was the only blemish on this battle: Raitelia's knights were too formidable. They routed the fishmen before the following infantry could even arrive, leaving half the menace alive to plague the fishermen at sea.
Although Raitelia's navy would surely hunt these fishmen down afterward, exterminating aquatic creatures across the vast sea was easier said than done.
If demons invaded the Greek Continent and landed within the Retalia Empire, they certainly would not fare well either.
That was the good news. The bad news was that both empires believed the Kingdom of Bagnia's mobilization was aimed at them, and their newly mobilized troops were currently heading toward the border.
Before mobilization began, Chris had already instructed his people to inform the ambassadors of both empires that Bagnia was not mobilizing for war against