I almost furrowed my brows. “Lucas,” I said, keeping my tone dangerously even. “I need you to do something important. Identify my clothes. And while you’re at it, expin why everyone in this fort is terrified of me.”

  His jaw dropped, his panic briefly repced by sheer fusion. “Your… clothes?!” he blurted, his voice shooting up an octave. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  I crossed my arms and arched an eyebrow, staring him down like a disappointed parent. “Yes, Lucas. My clothes. I ’t wait to know what they are. And… Expin. Because apparently, every guard, courier, and assistant thinks I’m some kind e-fueled dungeon overlord. And since you were vely here before me, I’m guessing that’s your handiwork.”

  Lucas blinked rapidly, his mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air. Meanwhile, Mi loomed over him, radiating a barely restrained fury that could reduce even the cockiest of brats to a pile ret.

  “Well?” I prompted, tapping my foot against the floor. “Expin, Lucas. I’m all ears.”

  For once, Lucas didn’t have a quieback. Instead, he wilted under both our stares, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else.

  Holy, it was a kind of satisfying.

  “You threw the Keeper's title at me and told me to take care of it,” Lucas finally said, his head rising defiantly, his tone brimming with frustration. “What was I supposed to do? I did not know what I was doing. I tried my best, and… well, the misuanding about you kind of… grew.” His voice softeoward the end, guilt creeping into his expression.

  I watched him for a moment, my emotions a tangled mess of irritation and fondness. Before he could spiral into a full self-defense, I stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. “I miss you, Lucas,” I whispered, the words slipping out before I could stop them. But I left it at that—there were bigger things to deal with right now than my Charlie predecessor love life.

  I’ll cross that bridge another day.

  Clearing my throat, I added aloud, “Obviously, you ’t identify clothes on me, and I’m not about to… strip here.” I ughed awkwardly, hoping to diffuse the tension, but it . No one joined in.

  Rough crowd.

  I let Lucas go, giving his shoulder a light pat, and turned my attention back to the room. “I’m happy to see you, my keeper,” I said, with as much warmth as I could muster.

  ander Mi let out a sigh that was half irritation, half exhaustion. “ we start with the brief?”

  “Uh, well…” I g the time, grimag slightly. “We’re waiting for the imperial attaché. I invited him…” My voice trailed off as I checked the clock again. He was te. Of course he was te. “A few more minutes, I guess.”

  Mi’s jaw tightened, a fsh of irritation crossing his face before he schooled his expression bato its usual stoic calm. “Why the pause?” he asked, his tone clipped.

  “So you could yell at me about how bad I was,” I admitted with a nervous grin, moving toward the map and leaning casually against its edge. “I figured you’d want to do it without the imperial attaché present, so I pushed it.”

  “That…” Mi closed his eyes, clearly wrestling with himself, before exhaling deeply. “Is appreciated.”

  Best pliment I’m getting from him today, I bet, I thought, stifling a grin.

  Right ohe door opened with a leisurely creak, and the imperial attaché strolled into the room as if he had all the time in the world.

  His stupidly expensive clothes were perfectly pressed, his steps unhurried, and his expression carried that maddening blend of politeness and dession that only imperial bureaucrats seemed to master.

  I want to smack him just because of the ptsd.

  “Well, wele,” I said, straightening up from the map. The imperial attaché opened his mouth, no doubt ready to dey us with some overly ceremonial greeting.

  I wasn’t in the mood.

  I smiled brightly and tinued before he even could get a word in. “I invited you all here because I wao apologize. I wasn’t here before to oversee the preparations, building, and, of course, meet you all properly.”

  “Splendid idea, my Lady,” the attaché said with practiced politeness. He adjusted the cuffs of his fwless coat, as though the idea of being here at all was slightly beh him. “My role here, as you know, is to pass messages between your court and the imperial court. I look forward to our cooperation until the evacuation is plete.”

  ander Mi let out a low grunt, clearly unimpressed.

  Lo remained a quiet presen the shadows, her sharp eyes dartiween the rest of us as if noting every word aure. Meanwhile, Lucas grinned broadly. “Hi, people! We made a great fort, right? She ’t win!”

  “We’ll lose,” Mi stated bluntly, his to and devoid of emotion.

  The room went momentarily silent as the weight of his words settled in the air.

  “That’s why we evacuate the refugees via teleport tomorrow and the day after,” the attaché interjected, his voice full of smug fidence. He smiled like a man holding all the cards. “We’ll be gone before she arrives.”

  Mi’s head soward him, his gre sharp as a broken gss. “We stay until she es. That was the deal,” he said, his voice low but firm.

  The attaché shrugged, entirely unfazed. “Deals ge.”

  “No.” Mi’s tone hardened, his voice having the weight of and. “Refugees e every day. We stay.”

  The tensioween them alpable, like the air before a lightning strike. The attaché’s smug indifference was like a polished shield, while Mi’s sheer willpower radiated like a sharpened sword.

  “Let’s start with the opposing force, shall we?” I said, motioning toward the map like some grand strategist. “What are we up against?”

  Mi nodded and stepped forward.

  With practiced ease, he began pg small pieces on the map—symbols of some sort, though I did not know what they represented. “By the test reports, her army is sweeping through the nd,” he said and pced red markers on nearly every vilge dotting the map. “With every vilge, they’re growing stronger. Currently, they’re moving toward the regional capital.”

  Before I could process that, Lucas piped up, his face lighting up like a kid on Christmas m. “So… they’ll miss us? Cool!” His grin was so iious I couldn’t help but smile back at him for a moment.

  Oh, Lucas. Sweet, na?ve Lucas.

  Mi, oher hand, looked like he wao punch Lucas right through the wall. He inhaled deeply, the kind of breath someoakes when they’re debating whether to start a bar fight or simply walk away forever. “No, Keeper,” he said finally, his patience visibly thinning. “There is a sed army.”

  The room went still as Mi pced another marker on the map—this one on our side of the river. Not far from the fort, naturally.

  She ’t ignore me.

  “Right now, it’s only a token force,” he tinued, his voice dropping into something darker. “But our spies have lear’s just a ruse.” He straightened, his gaze flig around the room before nding ba the map. “They pn to summon a demon army.”

  I stared at the marker, resisting the urge to rub my temples. “A demon army,” I repeated, my voice ft. “I thought they were undead.”

  Lucas blinked, his earlier enthusiasm dimming slightly. “Uh… how big are we talking?”

  Mi shot him a sharp look. “Big enough,” he said grimly. “And yes, Lady. Undead demons.”

  My memory flickered back to that moment—when I was in her prison, and she asked me for a name. I delivered.

  Duwin Ianlee.

  Somehow, she’d vinced him to summon his army. Why? Is she mad? Yeah, about as stable as me without whiskey. Summoning those things was reckless at best and catastrophic at worst. Ohey were here, they wouldn’t just vanish into thin air.

  And all the people talking about her destabilizing something.

  I snapped back to the present, my voice sharper than I intended. “Do we know how many red-mana stohey have?” I ched my fists uhe table, willing myself to focus.

  Mi hesitated, clearly surprised by my knowledge, but then his expression shifted into something b on pride. He even gave a genuine smile. “Eight, Lady,” he said, his voice steady as he pced hollow red figures onto the map with deliberate care.

  I bit my lip. “So… four doan worth,” I murmured, my stomaotting at the realization.

  Even with pyers…

  Lucas, oblivious as ever to the tension in the room, ambled over to the map. He grabbed one of our blue figures and plopped it onto the fort o another blue one. “t pyers! What’s a doan? Hoeople is that?” he asked casually.

  Mi’s face darkened faster than a storm rolling in.

  He grabbed the blue figure with a force that made the map quiver, his fiightening around it like he wao snap it in two. Then, with deliberate precision, he smmed it back outside the map’s boundary, his gre b into Lucas like a drill. “Keeper. An imperial doan,” he said through gritted teeth, “is three to six thousand batants.”

  My gaze flickered back to the map, where our lone blue marker now sat woefully outnumbered, surrounded by the blood-red swarm.

  “Well, it’s good we have the option of evacuating, right?” I said as I g the attaché. He puffed up his chest, nodding with an air of self-importance so thick.

  “But,” I tinued, leaning forward and tapping a spot on the map, “I also recruited, uh, adveo our cause. At least one or two doan worth. Maybe more.” My voice faltered slightly at the end, and I g Mi for some sembnce of reassurance.

  He didn’t give me any.

  Instead, his shoulders sagged uhe weight of what I’d just said. “I was afraid of hearing that, Lady,” he said, his tone heavy with resignation. His gaze flicked to Lucas, then bae, as if searg for an expnation that might make this less disastrous. “Especially after you sent that pany and grahem a quest of importance.”

  The bandits? On no. “With the reputation Lucas built,” I admitted, wing, “it must’ve sounded… bad.”

  Mi nodded grimly, rubbing the bridge of his nose like he was trying to stave off an ining headache. “That’s putting it lightly.”

  “Oh, those guys?” Lucas perked up, his face lighting up with excitement. “I heard about them! They’re all over the forums! Super active, and happy they met you!” He sounded like someone reminisg about a viral meme, pletely oblivious.

  How cute. And he doesn’t know Rimelion is real.

  Maybe.

  Mi, clearly doh Lucas’s enthusiasm, turned his attention bae, ign the interruptioirely. “We sent them to iigate one dungeon,” he said, his tone lifeless. “They’re still not baot reliable. Ued force.”

  I leaned over the map, my fingers brushing the edges of the figures representing the demon army. Their pt recise, like a growing shadow on the ndscape. “Sorry, but we hem,” I said, my voice firm as I poi the enemy. “Look at this. Without reinforts, we don’t stand a ce.”

  Mi stared at the map, his jaw tightening as he processed it. Finally, he let out a slow, measured breath. “I know,” he said simply, his voice a mix of relut acceptand steely resolve.

  “So, what’s gest weakness?” I asked, crossing my arms and leaning on the edge of the map table again.

  Look casual, Charlie. Casual.

  Mi cleared his throat. “Lady, that would be the low ford,” he began. “And our ck of any aerial batants. The river protects us, but there’s a spot—a shallow crossing—they could exploit. I’d bet my sword they know about it. As for the air…” He trailed off, giving me a look that screamed do the math.

  I gnced around at everyone in the room, hoping someone had a brilliant solution tucked away. Instead, I got silence as if Patrick asked how to split the bill.

  “Right,” I said, dragging out the word and f a wry smile. “Air isly easy to solve on short notice, so let’s hope es are up to the task.” I shifted my focus back to the map, pg adventurer markers randomly across the pin. “We’ll leave the defense of the ford to the adventurers.”

  Mi’s face turned a shade paler, like I’d just suggested throwing a party fermans.

  “I know,” I said, holding up a hand to stop the iniure. “Not reliable. But hear me out—they’re built for this. Flexible pt, versatile force. They thrive on chaos, and if there’s ohing this battle is going to be, it’s chaotic. Maybe we even vineone like Luminaria to join us—”

  “Cute princess!” a familiar voiterrupted, cutting my voice.

  Before I could even think, Lisa barrelled into the room at full speed, her footsteps eg off the stone walls like a charge of cavalry. She collided with me before I had a ce to dodge, her arms ing around me in a hug that could only be described as aggressively affeate.

  As usual, my head ended up squished against her chest, and I stumbled back a step, barely keeping my bance.

  “ we go now?!” she asked, her voi excited squeal that would’ve been adorable if it weren’t for the fact that I was suffog.