<<Welp, things are starting to not look nice to us.>>
<<The empire army was not only able to break through one of our lines of defenses, BUT they also brough a somewhat large army of elites that we did not noticed moving around until it was too late and the city was already conquered by them.>>
<<At first we had thought somebody had betrayed us, but by the looks of things it wasn't the case.>>
<<The empire attacks are just getting that strong.>>
<<This probably due the desperation as the winter season had finally came.>>
<<This will make their lives now living hell.>>
<<But that also made them even more desperate…. And this isn't the only problem.>>
<<The power of their attacks are now even stronger than before.>>
<<Cracks in our defenses started forming…. This is abnormal.>>
<<As the time would go by, our defenses would end up being fortified more and more.>>
<<While on the other hand, these guys would need to send new ships or go back to the empire, pick up more soldiers and equipment, and then come back.>>
<<Right now? We should have big advantage.>>
"So how in the bloody hell they are breaking in?" – asked "Kid" while using communication orb in order to hold a meeting with the vampire general.
"By all logical points, the empire should not be able to break through our defenses at all."
"Are you sure we really don't have any traitors?"
["Yes sir…. We confirmed that nobody had betrayed us."] – replied the vampire general.
"…"
*Sigh*
"Then how in the bloody hell did they started getting inside more often?"
["W-we don't know…. Sir…. We tried investigate, but so far nothing."]
["The only answer that did come up was that the fact that the attacks were far stronger and more coordinated."]
["Not only that, but for some reason all attacks happened so suddenly without us noticing as well."]
"?"
"What the hell do you mean "suddenly without noticing"? We are observing the entire sea. There is no way we would had missed any ships."
["But it is like I said, your majesty."]
["The attacks were so suddenly that they had caught the defenders off guard and they also made sure to not leave any survivors."]
["At first thought that we were also betrayed, but this isn't it."]
["They are doing something that hides some of their ships without being noticed at all."]
"…"
"Are you sure about this?"
["Yes sir… This is the only explanation on how nobody noticed their attacks and how they were able to destroy defenses without getting spotted in time."]
"…"
(Hiding a person or two isn't something hard. Even some powerful spell casters can deploy some invisible barrier that can hide people around and the holy empire do have quiet high specialty when it comes to barriers and stuff…. But it wouldn't work.)
(Hiding a ship that is able to transport a small army isn't an easy feat.)
(It WOULD make sense if the Daughter Of Mercy was the one making those barriers, but she if forced to be at the front to keep the Great Barrier active.)
"…"
"Tch."
(And I had lost contact with all my spies.)
(I guess holy emperor hunted them all down.)
(But seriously. How are they able to hide their ships?)
"…"
(Is this also why they are not leaving any survivors? To make sure nobody would babble the secret? Even the high ranking members of the empire would go as far as to kill themselves to hide the secret.)
(But what we could be missing in the first place?)
(Are they ships special made or modified? Just like the 3 ships that form the great barrier?)
(So then how-)
"!?"
"Wait, what happened to their ships anyway? Did you got any?"
["Actually…. No."]
["None of the ships that belonged to the empire has been recovered after each of those sneak attacks."]
["If anything, we had never spotted any ships at all when they broke through our defenses."]
["This is why I'm saying that they are maybe using something to keep their ships invisible."]
"…"
"Ships…. Invisible…. Sea... Sea?"
"?!"
"OH! WE ARE SO FUCKING STUPID!"
"?"
["Sir?"]
"It was never fucking ships!"
"If anything, there is chance they may had never used anything like invisible ships!"
"We are overlooking something crucial."
"Something so plain and simple that we never considered."
"The empire lied."
"They are not the only ones at war with us."
["?!"]
["You mean, there is another enemy?!"]
"Yes!"
"And I know exactly who."
"The nation that recently became allies of the holy empire."
"The kingdom that lies beneath the sea."
"Kingdom of merfolk."
"Wiu."
"If these bastard had provided the support to the empire, it is no wonder we could had never found any of their soldiers."
"These bastards were not using ships."
"They were inside the sea, traveling in it and hiding inside of it all this time."
[Meanwhile: empire great ship.]
"Huh. So, their line of the defenses are already at point of being completely destroyed?" – asked Godfrey.
"Yes sir." – said the paladin.
"Their defenses on the land is steady crumbling and at this rate, an opening big enough may end up opening, allowing us to finally break their entire fortification."
"Huh… This is going way better than I had thought." – said Godfrey.
"All thanks to you, princess Azr'rao."
[Azr'rao O'k'a – Princess Of Wiu Kingdom]
"I'm only here to fulfil the deal the holy emperor and my father had made, so there is really no need to thank me." – said beautiful merfolk woman.
"There is no need to be so humble." – said Godfrey.
"If it wasn't for your blessing and your people, then we would had never succeeded in breaking enemy defenses."
"…"
"…"
"I'm just doing my job…. Then if you excuse me." – said the princess before bowing her head and then leaving the cabin alongside her two body guards.
"…"
"Tch."
"You want us to work together with the holy empire?!" – Azr'rao started remember her conversation with her father.
"Yes…. I know…. I know that the holy empire is- "
"No! We cannot do that! We all know what sort of fanatics these bastards are?!" – shouted the princess in fury.
"THEN DO YOU WISH FOR OUR KINGDOM TO DIE?! JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER!?" – shouted the furious king.
"…."
"That traitor…. Magnus."
"He and those demons, they almost destroyed our kingdom."
"Our lands had been ravaged…. And your two siblings as well as the crown prince…. And even your mother…. They all had died…. If it wasn't for the holy empire, then we would had been no more…. But even after the war, our lands are still desolated."
"We cannot recover… We need allies."
"THEN WHAT?! YOU DECIDED TO BECOME DOGS OF THE EMPIRE?!" – shouted the princess.
"BETTER BE A DOG THAT MEANS THAT OUR PEOPLE WOULD SURVIVE INSTEAD OF GETTING COMPLETELY ERADICATED!" – shouted the king.
"…"
"Think of this as betrayal….. I don't really care…. All I did was to protect our own people."
(He fucking said that, but now are really just a dogs for the empire.) – thought the princess as she leaped into the sea alongside her fallowers.
(Our proud race was reduced to be nothing more than "convenient transport" to the empire.)
(And the father? He just agreed to all of their demands without even talking back or even backing.)
(He already turned himself into willing slave of the empire.)
(And the most annoying part of it all that I can't do anything right now about this!)
"…"
<<With "Kid" detection skills, we were able to discover how the empire was able to attack the continent.>>
<<Merfolk joined the war, offering the support to the empire.>>
<<However, even though we had found out how they were disappearing and appearing.>>
<<We were not able to track any of these bastards movements at all, we simple didn't had any means of observing the merfolk movement.>>
<<…. And so, the "Kid" asked the water dragon tribe to repay their favor.>>
<<But there was few problems.>>
<<First was the fact that the merfolk tribe are on the friendly terms with the water dragon tribe.>>
<<And second problem was that their own war is still going….>>
<<" Kid" say that he will try and convince the water dragons to make the merfolk stop supporting the empire, but that will take time…. And that said time? We don't have.>>
<<The empire attacks had been getting worse and worse with each passing moment…. And then it finally started.>>
<<Our "wall" was failing apart.>>
<<And even though the winter had started and snow started already falling, the empire did not cared as they used every single resource they had….. And then it had stared.>>
<<The large scale invasion.>>
<<Left and right the alliance line of the defense was crumbling, allowing large forces of the empire to now just role in with ease and start causing chaos…. This obviously forced our forces to split apart way too much…. And that is what the empire wanted.>>
<<The empire main army was finally on the move…. And the results were honestly to be expected.>>
<<They finally broke through.>>
<<…. WELP!>>
<<I guess now we are in trouble.>>