"What?! The Duke is not here?!"
The words burst out of me before I could stop them.
Across the table, Alice didn't react in the slightest.
She simply lifted her teacup and took a slow, graceful sip, as if my outburst had been nothing more than background noise.
"Father has recently gone to the Barant Fortress," she said calmly. "The offensive there has intensified."
My shoulders slumped.
"That's… unfortunate."
I hadn't expected that.
No—more accurately, I hadn't considered the possibility at all.
Short-sighted.
The moment Dreck's minions appeared inside the territory, I should have realized something was wrong.
The Draken domain wasn't just strong—it was practically impregnable. The mountain ranges, the fortified passes, the layered defenses… every piece of the land itself had been shaped into a weapon over generations.
The Draken stronghold had never fallen.
For demons of that level to slip through unnoticed, there had to be a gap somewhere.
