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Chapter 595.2: Nora’s Desire (2)

Meanwhile, inside the tent, the two renowned women were having a heated argument with each other over their military prowess.

Shortly after they reached Origin Level 2, Charlotte Sorofya and Nora Xeclyde inherited the highest commanding right over their respective countries’ armies one after another. Yet, the troops they could deploy in this desperate situation still fell short of what they needed.

The Saint Mesit Theocracy had shouldered the bulk of the burden in protecting humankind from a catastrophic invasion led by all four of the deviants’ Race Sovereigns. The wretched battle had inflicted heavy losses on the Theocracy’s armies, and Holy Eminence John even suffered severe injuries as a result.

In return, they did manage to take down one of the deviants’ Race Sovereigns, so the sacrifices hadn’t been in vain.

Rosa, on the other hand, specialized in defensive warfare. Its populace was nowhere close to being on par with major countries like the Theocracy, and it was the one taking charge of the united army’s logistics operations. After having been put through several battles, it was also suffering from a lack of military manpower.

“I already told you that it doesn’t matter at this point whether the Austine Empire learns about our plans! How do you plan to breach an encirclement of 300,000 deviants without their help?”

“That’s why I wrote a letter to request their help…”

“Who, for the love of Sia, would understand that kind of cryptic letter?! That woman would have done everything to help us if you had told her the truth!” The infuriated Charlotte grabbed Nora by her shirt and roared at her, as her body trembled ever so slightly.

“…”

Nora fell silent after hearing her words.

The Arbiter was a powerful ability Charlotte inherited from her Primordial High Elf Bloodline, boasting the power to allow one to see through the intricate weavings of fate. The only caveat was that the accuracy of the reading was compromised by a multitude of factors.

Due to the increasing number of stakeholders, the imminent arrival of the execution date, as well as her own attempts at interfering with fate, Charlotte’s reading on the operation had become so inaccurate that it was almost as good as useless.

This meant that her most accurate reading from the Arbiter was still the one she had made right after receiving news about Roel’s current plight.

And that reading had informed her that they would face a lack of manpower and would require Lilian’s help.

Charlotte couldn’t have imagined that Nora would undermine the divination she had paid a heavy price to uncover, such that they eventually still landed themselves in a position where they suffered a lack of manpower. This greatly compromised their chances of success.

The thought that she could lose her lover a second time over this filled her with so much fear and rage that she could hardly keep her emotions in check. She grabbed Nora’s collars and glared at her with blazing emerald eyes, but the latter wasn’t reacting at all.

“You should know better than anyone else how important this operation is! What are you thinking?! If this operation fails, I-I…”

“…Calm down, Charlotte.”

“How do you expect me to calm down?! Why did you ignore my divination?!”

Even Nora, despite her best attempt at remaining composed, was shaken up by Charlotte’s tearful eyes and her intense outburst of emotions. She took a moment to properly compose her words before offering an explanation on her side.

“The Austine Empire is untrustworthy.”

“Untrustworthy? Are you joking with me now? The enemy we’re dealing with right now is the deviants! Humankind is already on the brink of destruction; which human country will sabotage us? Is your Theocracy thinking about engaging in internal conflict even at this point?”

“Of course not! The crisis we’re facing has forced all human countries to stand together and trust one another, and that’s what I thought at the very start too… But don’t you think that there’s something weird about Emperor Lukas’ attitude toward Roel?”

“Are you talking about Emperor Lukas’ hostility toward the Ascarts? Does that matter now? Regardless of his feelings toward the Ascart House, with humankind’s survival at stake here, he has no choice but to…”

“…What if Emperor Lukas is an evil cultist?”

“!”

.

Charlotte was momentarily dumbstruck by those words, but she quickly snapped out of it and shook her head.

“I-impossible! What are you saying? How could Emperor Lukas be an evil cultist? There’s no reason for him to join them!”

“Yes, it doesn’t seem to make sense. I’ll concede that we don’t have concrete evidence either… but don’t you think it’s weird?”

“What’s weird?”

“In the previous all-out battle, the Austine troops directly under Lukas’ command suffered practically no losses at all. He, despite being an Origin Level 1 Race Sovereign, wasn’t attacked by the deviants’ Race Sovereigns at all.”

“…”

Charlotte fell silent.

She wanted to refute Nora’s conjecture—the implications were simply too frightening—but her logical mind prevented her from doing so. It wasn’t just Nora who harbored doubts about that. There were many sharp-eyed people, including Charlotte, who found the matter weird too.

The Battle of Stanlos was a crucial fight where the two races fought desperately to determine their fates. The Race Sovereigns from both sides had joined the battle one after another, but for some reason, Lukas and his troops were hardly attacked by the deviants at all.

All of humankind’s Race Sovereigns were priority targets for the deviants, to the point that they were forced to move around discreetly to avoid being ambushed. Yet, Emperor Lukas was able to walk the frontlines with hardly any impediment.

Admittedly, humankind had one more Race Sovereign than the deviants, so it was theoretically possible that Lukas was overlooked because the deviants didn’t have the means to deal with him yet.

But everyone who joined the battle knew that the deviants couldn’t be so dumb as to leave an Origin Level 1 transcendent to his own devices… unless he wasn’t an enemy at all.

“Ever since Roel’s disappearance, both the Genesis Goddess Church and Brolne have been keeping a close eye on Lukas.”

“What? You have been suspecting him even from back then?”

“It’s apparent to us now that the Savior’s worshipers were causing a diversion to lure Principal Antonio and the others away, but if you think deeper into it, there’s a necessary condition for that to happen: the Austine Empire would have to turn a blind eye to their activities in their territory,” Nora said grimly.

“!”

Charlotte widened her eyes.

“…You’re right. If the Austine Empire had intervened ahead of time, Principal Antonio and his investigation team wouldn’t have had the chance to step in at all.”

“Indeed. We already knew that the Collector was a dangerous figure by then. Do you think Emperor Lukas, with his obsessive desire to control everything, would turn a blind eye to the Fallens establishing a base of operations on his lands? That’s too out of character.”

Nora solemnly looked at Charlotte before continuing on, “Charlotte, I trust the accuracy of your divination, but there are simply too many things that are off about Emperor Lukas. I’m certain that he has ties with the evil cults even if he isn’t an evil cultist himself. That’s also my rationale for not informing the Austine Empire about this operation in advance.”

“…Fine. I understand where you’re coming from, but how do you intend to bridge the gap in our military prowess?” Charlotte relented with a nod, releasing Nora’s shirt. “I’ll concede that you’re justified in not informing the Austine Empire about our operation, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re facing a critical problem. Your considerations are for naught if our operation fails because of them.”

Nora glanced at the letter sitting on the table behind her, as her sapphire eyes slowly hardened in determination.

“The Ascart Fiefdom’s heretic army is on its way. As for the Austine Empire, I’ll have them distract the deviants from the sidelines after the battle starts. All that’s left is to trust her… We just need another 100,000 people from her…” Nora said with tightly clenched fists.

Charlotte fell silent as well.

Little did they know that their expectations were going to be wildly shattered, but in a good way. From the west of Hawe Desert, a huge army was swiftly marching through Tark Prairie with their flags held high.