At Iroh's words, the four soldiers stopped despite themselves and looked toward Azula, awaiting her instructions.
Although they obeyed only Her Majesty Azula's orders, Iroh was a former Fire Nation Crown Prince, the previous Fire Nation emperor's elder brother, and the current Fire Nation emperor's uncle. Even though they now stood on opposing sides, they still dared not act rashly.
Azula did not seem to mind. She tilted her head slightly and watched Iroh quietly, listening to what he wanted to say.
Iroh glanced discreetly at Aang's group and the four soldiers, then drew a deep breath and slowly said:
"I decided on the spur of the moment to launch this operation early, well ahead of our original schedule."
"Even if someone supplied you with intelligence, it would have taken time to reach you, not to mention the considerable time needed to travel here from the Fire Nation. By all rights, you couldn't have appeared there like that."
"My question is, how did you know about this operation?"
"So that's it."
After hearing Iroh out, a hint of amusement suddenly appeared in Azula's eyes. Behind her, Mai and Ty Lee also looked enlightened.
Their expressions left everyone somewhat puzzled, unsure what they meant.
An inexplicable trace of pity entered Azula's gaze as she looked at them. She told Iroh:
"First, I should thank you for clearing up my confusion and letting me hear a rather good joke."
"As you said, I didn't know about your operation. In fact, this attack was entirely a coincidence."
Iroh froze for a moment.
"A coincidence?"
"That's right."
Azula finally could not help curling her lips into a smile.
"The only intelligence I received was that you planned to raid Omashu in a few days. I didn't know you would act early."
"My original plan