Night fell.
On the surface, the entire city had already sunk into deep slumber. Yet beneath this dark curtain of night, a silent contest was unfolding.
"Hey———!!"
Kanami leaped into the air, the ninja blade in her hand slicing straight through an assassin's throat. At the same time, she twisted her body, narrowly dodging another assassin's attack, then flicked her wrist and hurled a shuriken, which pierced straight into the opponent's throat, killing them on the spot.
This series of movements was clean and decisive. However, even more assassins were surrounding her. Soon, several black shadows leapt down from the rooftops, pouncing toward Kanami.
Yet the moment they landed, those shadows slammed headfirst into the ground and went completely still.
"...…"
Seeing this scene, Kanami's expression stiffened slightly.
"Rinjo?"
"Hehe,Shinobu~ It's Rinjo indeed~￣ω￣="
Along with the voice, Rinjo emerged from the shadows on the other side. At this moment, she was no longer dressed as a maid like before, but instead wore an off-the-shoulder, extremely provocative short kimono. Even so, Kanami did not underestimate the female ninja in front of her—Rinjo's title as O.J's number-one genius kunoichi was no exaggeration. In front of her, Kanami was practically like a child, with absolutely no power to fight back.
Just like earlier—despite pushing her perception to the limit, Kanami still failed to detect Rinjo, who had been hidden right beside her.
For ninjas who fought in darkness, this was simply fatal.
"...…"
Looking at Rinjo in front of her, Kanami's feelings were somewhat complicated.
She knew herself that she was not a qualified ninja—after all, she was a rogue ninja, while Rinjo was a legitimate kunoichi. Although there was a distinction between ninjas and kunoichi, at Rinjo's level, whether she used her body to kill or not was no longer important.
But for Kanami, Rinjo brought her not only pressure, but also a sense of crisis.
Yes—a sense of crisis.
Kanami could see it clearly: Duanmu Huai treated Rinjo extremely well. Not only did he teach her the infiltration techniques of the Dark Crow Guards, he even, after learning that kunoichi like Rinjo tended to die young due to lifelong poison use, specially brought her to another world to have angels and priests there perform a purification on her.
Of course, Kanami also knew that although Duanmu Huai looked very fierce, he was actually kind-hearted. However… the problem was that Rinjo overlapped with her own role!
Normally, Kanami was responsible for infiltration, intelligence gathering, and counterintelligence work. But at the end of the day, she was only half-baked. Losing to O.J's number-one genius kunoichi Rinjo in this field might be understandable—but even in bed, she was no match for Rinjo. After all, Rinjo was a kunoichi, proficient in all kinds of techniques of male-female intimacy, while Kanami was merely a simple half-baked ninja. Once the two exchanged moves, it only took a short while before Kanami was completely limp, armor discarded, utterly defeated.
And precisely because of this, Kanami had been desperately carrying out vigilance duties lately to stabilize her own position—just like in an office: if you can't compete with a genius colleague, then at least you make sure that even if you have no achievements, you have hard work to show…
"Still, there really have been a lot of troublemakers lately, meow..."
Rinjo rolled her eyes and looked around, and Kanami nodded as well.
"Probably because of the Council's actions. I really don't know what Lord is thinking..."
As a ninja, collecting intelligence was naturally Kanami's job. However, this intelligence did not even need to be collected, because the Council had already openly declared that they would mobilize the First Legion, Second Legion, and Fifth Legion to jointly encircle and suppress this rebel force that called itself the Royalist Army!!
Mm… to be honest, it was indeed pretty intimidating.
And so during this period, all kinds of spies and assassins appeared in greater or lesser numbers. The two of them were not worried about Duanmu Huai being assassinated, but they did have to pay attention to the others. Thus, for the past two days, the nights had basically turned into a game of sneak attacks and counter–sneak attacks between two ninjas and a bunch of assassins and spies—and honestly, they were having quite a lot of fun.
"I don't know what he's thinking either, but Rinjo feels it must be something interesting."
Rinjo turned her head, smiling as she looked toward the steel fortress outside the city—this was also the only place in the entire city that was brilliantly lit. Even deep into the night, the radiance from the Titan could still illuminate the surroundings as bright as day. Any assassin who dared to cause trouble there would basically be killed long before they could even reach the Titan's gate.
And at this very moment, inside the meeting room of the steel fortress, everyone had gathered to hold a military conference.
"From the looks of it, the Council is getting desperate."
Duanmu Huai sat in the main seat, appearing quite relaxed. Beside him, however, Krim looked somewhat uneasy. Not only Krim—even Urzze was frowning at this moment.
"They're planning to use human-wave tactics. I think we should break through directly. Speed is paramount in war. As long as we can reach the royal capital in the shortest time possible, with the overwhelming power of this steel giant, we can definitely take it with ease."
Krim decisively gave her opinion. Just as Kriolyov had thought, in her view, the best approach was also to head north directly, break through the encirclement, and attack the royal capital.
But Urzze and Kilty did not speak. One was deep in thought, while the other curiously observed Duanmu Huai.
"Mm, a good idea."
Duanmu Huai looked at the map in front of him and nodded.
"Unfortunately, it's useless."
"…Useless???"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's words, Krim could not help but freeze.
"But..."
"Indeed, the Titan has the ability to destroy the entire royal capital. But if the goal were truly just to destroy the royal capital, why would I need to cooperate with you at all? I could simply lead my troops straight through, then blow the royal capital to rubble. As for Herman's legions—count them one by one—could they really stop me when all added together?"
"Uh...…"
Although Duanmu Huai's words were unpleasant, Krim had to admit that this was indeed the truth.
"But if we are not aiming to destroy the royal capital, then the Titan is left with nothing but deterrence. At that point, the other side can use the city and its civilians as human shields, stuff their troops inside. If we don't want to destroy the royal capital, then we'll be forced into street fighting. Do you think the Fourth Legion alone is enough for that?"
"...…"
Hearing this, Krim's face stiffened even further. She had already understood Duanmu Huai's meaning. To put it bluntly, if they really marched up to the city gates, the Council would very likely go mad and use innocent civilians as shields, then mix their troops among them. Once the Titan could not act freely, the Fourth Legion's mere twenty thousand men would be completely useless.
After all, in terms of troop quality, the Fourth Legion was basically at the bottom among Herman's five great legions. Although the Fifth Legion only had ten thousand men, they were a guerrilla force, emphasizing speed and efficiency. The First Legion guarded the royal capital and was certainly composed of elite troops. The Second Legion had long been stationed on the Demon Realm border and was rich in real combat experience.
And the Fourth Legion?
Well, to put it bluntly, their value lay in acting as cannon fodder when the other two countries attacked, buying a bit of time—that was all.
"Then what should we do?"
"It's actually very simple."
Duanmu Huai waved his hand.
"Do you remember the slogan of 'serving the king'?"
"We are to eliminate Chancellor Stisser and his faction, who have seized control of the government."
"Exactly."
Duanmu Huai tapped the table.
"What use is it to eliminate Stisser alone? You should also know that for Stisser to have grown this powerful, covering the sky with one hand, it couldn't possibly be just his own problem, right? That makes it simple—if we uproot all of Stisser's lackeys, then this featherless chicken won't be able to jump around for much longer."
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai raised his finger and pointed at the sand table in front of him.
"So, my proposal is this—we first attack Fortress Boen. After taking it, we hold it firmly. Then we turn around and liberate all the other cities behind us! That way, two-thirds of Herman's territory and people will be on our side, all supporting us. When that happens, I'd like to see how many people are still willing to die for Stisser!"
"This… can actually work?"
Hearing this, Krim was stunned, while Urzze and Kilty's eyes lit up!
The position of Fortress Boen was actually somewhat similar to Hulao Pass before Luoyang—one man guarding the pass, ten thousand unable to get through. Of course, it was not easy for an ordinary army to capture this fortress. But for a Titan, it would be much simpler. Moreover, once they captured Hulao Pass and nailed the Titan there, then whether you had a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand troops, they would all be firmly sealed inside!
It was like a bottle, and Fortress Boen was the bottle's mouth. Once you plugged the mouth, not only could what was inside not get out, but what was outside couldn't get in either!
At that point, they could first free their hands to deal with the outside, then turn back to clean up the inside.
Just as Duanmu Huai said, when two-thirds of Herman's territory and people were on their side, what could Stisser possibly use to fight them?
The only drawback was that it would take more time… but for the Inquisition, that was clearly not a problem.
Once the overall direction was set, everyone immediately began discussing the next march routes and related matters. At this moment, however, Kilty did not join the discussion, but instead stared at Duanmu Huai with shining eyes.
I really didn't expect him to have such wisdom!
When Kilty had initially volunteered to lead Lisias's royal guard here, her original intention was simply to use this opportunity to build up her own merits so she could advance further. At that time, her impression of Duanmu Huai was more that of a brute who could fight. In fact, after meeting him, Duanmu Huai's appearance only reinforced that idea in her mind. But what she had not expected was that this man, who looked fierce and rough on the outside, actually possessed considerable intelligence and political-military talent as well!
This immediately gave Kilty new ideas.
If I can develop a deeper relationship with this gentleman, it would be extremely beneficial for my future development!
As for whether Duanmu Huai liked women, Kilty had no doubts. After all, she had seen more than once Kanami and Rinjo heading to Duanmu Huai's room late at night—when women go to a man's room at night, they are definitely not going there just to chat.
The only problem now was…
What should I do to attract this gentleman's attention?
After thinking for a moment, a thought suddenly flashed through Kilty's mind.
Got it!
(End of Chapter)