"We've been on the back foot this whole time."
That was what Miquella had told Zhao Si back at the Haligtree.
"Yeah, because they're the ones plotting it. Even if I know bits and pieces, it's not enough to strike first." Zhao Si spread his hands helplessly.
Miquella pressed his fingers to his forehead and thought for a long while before saying, "Not quite. The conspiracy is already in place, so it's certainly hard for us to turn things around. But before they put it into motion, we can still seize some of the initiative."
"The initiative?" Zhao Si didn't understand.
Conspiracies, strategy, tactics, and even politics had all been worlds away from him before this.
It was hard to imagine someone who used to edit videos getting involved in this field.
There were far too many gaps in his knowledge.
"Exactly. We can turn the tables and pressure them," Miquella said, looking at Zhao Si. "Force them to rush into a plan that isn't ready yet."
"Well, perhaps it's ready already. But every plan has a scheduled time for execution, and we need to bring that forward," Miquella explained to Zhao Si. "That way, we'll be the ones holding the initiative."
Zhao Si had genuinely never heard this line of reasoning before.
Take Ranni's plan to steal Destined Death and then imbue the Black Knives with it, for instance.
It took only a sentence to describe, but actually doing it was nowhere near that simple.
Only after taking care of that could Ranni move on to the next step-killing herself.
And only then could Rykard carry out the plan to assassinate Godwyn.
Obtaining Destined Death and creating weapons capable of killing Demigods was the crucial juncture in this plan.
How the subsequent plans unfolded depended entirely on Ranni's actions.