The morning hours of the battlefield were thick with human suffering. In the distance, as the rumbles of shütze artillery continued to bear down on soldiers from both sides, the sound of spells and crossbows being fired by both loyalists and revolutionary troops also criss-crossed the now smoky and fiery battlefield.

  General Stefan and Wilhelm both permitted the use of incendiary spells with their shützes last night after the ‘probing’ assaults by General Nicholas’s VII Corps and General Clemens’s XI Corps at the enemy’s eastern flank.

  In response, the enemy’s commander, General Horatio Dupont, utilized the same thing against the assaulting troops of the Army of the Leine. Both sides were now firing artillery spells that didn’t just detonate upon impact with their shützes, but spells that would ignite the fields in a fiery blaze for many minutes.

  And it fell on Phoebe's shoulders to deal with it. She barely even had breakfast this morning when she was called in by Wilhelm and Alexa straight into the rear tents, where healers and doctors dealt with combat casualties.

  Hundreds of soldiers, many with gnarly burns and other impact injuries, some with their limbs already cut, were sent to Phoebe’s tent. She was supported by five clerics, and each minute, they tried their best to heal at least eight soldiers after the other healers from outside gave them first-aid treatment.

  One of the soldiers from the last batch in front of her was so particularly gruesome that she couldn’t help but tear up a bit as she watched the young man’s burned face stitch itself together using her holy magic.

  This is too much! This is so cruel!

  And Alexa seemed to agree. Behind her, Alexa and Wilhelm seemed to be having another spat as she pointed at the injured soldiers inside the tent.

  “Are you blind or what? I said last night that permitting the use of incendiaries is going to be reckless.” Alexa stomped her feet. “Now my soldiers are dealing with the worst that the enemy has to offer!”

  “Right now, Phoebe is successfully healing an average of five hundred soldiers every hour back into full combat condition,” Wilhelm coldly and analytically said, his tone seemingly devoid of humanity. “This is an advantage that we have to utilize. We have the opportunity to use these tactics against them to soften them up for the next phase of our plan, while suffering relatively little in return.”

  Wilhelm crossed his arms and sighed.

  “I understand that you both probably think this is way too much, but since our troops are advancing at a steady pace, we’re able to recover the injured and get them here quickly,” Wilhelm explained. “In addition to Phoebe, we also have the Holy Church’s clerics supporting us, so we’re essentially saving most combat casualties we have at the moment. We’re not even close to a thousand fatalities yet. I say, that’s a damn good situation.”

  “Grr…Wilhelm, you’re really starting to annoy me now.” Alexa looked up at him angrily before she shook her head and leaned close to Phoebe.

  Phoebe was about to finish the young man in front of her, her miraculous healing ability practically restoring the man to his full healthy condition. The soldier didn’t seem to fully believe it, but, when she was done, he was fine.

  “Phoebe,” Alexa gently patted Phoebe’s back. “Are you holding up well? Is your mana starting to drain?”

  “No,” Phoebe shook her head lightly. “But, I’ve never seen…injuries this bad…”

  It’s just that they’re throwing every injured soldier at me to restore them.

  I feel like I’ve seen every type of injury out there under the sun.

  “No way,” the young soldier woke up from his temporary bed, touching his face wildly. “I…I didn’t die!”

  “You there! Get out now!” A noncommissioned officer assigned to Phoebe’s tent barked at the young man. “Go back and report to your unit. Don’t dilly-dally around when you’re all stitched up for combat again!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  The young man stood up before profusely thanking Phoebe and Alexa, seemingly having no idea that Alexa was the crown princess, before he darted out of the tent with his crossbow.

  It made Phoebe feel a little bit better. While so many soldiers went to her care, practically all burnt up, burned, stabbed, or worse, they all came out of her care alive and well. Enough that the officers would bark at them to get back into battle immediately.

  It made her feel proud of her work. But at the same time, it left a deep scar in her heart. Was she just sending these men back into combat because she was helping them?

  She looked down.

  “No need to be so demoralized, Phoebe,” Wilhelm spoke up from behind, his azure eye that wasn’t hidden by his eyepatch glowing slightly. “You two have nothing to do with this. All of the blood is in my hands. You’ve got nothing to worry about. Just keep saving lives and prepare yourselves for what’s coming next. All will be well.”

  Wilhelm stepped away, out of the tent, as the next batch of injured soldiers were carted inside by a group of soldiers on stretchers straight into the beds inside Phoebe’s tent. Both Alexa and Phoebe stared at Wilhelm in slight awe, his ability to keep himself controlled and steady even at the sight of gruesome warfare so surprising.

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  And he took responsibility for everything. As always.

  “Sir Wilhelm!” Phoebe called out, causing Wilhelm to look back at them, the glow on his eye dying out.

  Wilhelm frowned, but he spoke back to Phoebe. “What is it? I need to direct a few brigades to exploit a new opportunity. I can’t stay here for long.”

  “Is this going to end soon?” Phoebe asked. “All this blood. Can you assure us that it will all end soon?”

  “Yeah, right, Wilhelm.” Alexa stood up, crossing her arms. “You better cough up what plans you have. I’m getting tired of this nonsense. You told me it’ll be an easy battle, but now, we have casualties!”

  “I never said we’re going to break the Second Continental Army without casualties. I’m not God. I’ve got my limits, and this is war,” Wilhelm smiled. “But, right now, things are progressing well for us because of you two. I’m sure that this will all end soon.”

  And soon, Wilhelm stepped out of the tent. Alexa closed her eyes before patting Phoebe’s head.

  “Don’t mind him too much, okay?” Alexa reassured Phoebe. “He’s always just like that. Soldiers, hmph. He can’t help it.”

  “...I’m just…worried that Sir Wilhelm is still so cold,” Phoebe said. “That, and he’s gambling with lives again.”

  A pout appeared on the saintess’s soft face.

  “I told him back then that he should refrain from doing that, or else.”

  But Wilhelm has already saved Lady Alexa and me many times.

  Should we just trust his plan all the time then?

  Phoebe wasn’t sure, but none of this sat right with her. She wished she could be strong enough right now that she could just snap her fingers and end this conflict.

  So she looked up at Alexa, the only one in this room who could wield her powers enough to change the fate of the nation.

  “What about you?” Phoebe asked. “Are you going to just go along with his plans?”

  +++

  In the end, everything was going to be in Alexa’s hands, as it should be. She walked calmly in front of the gathered soldiers of the 33rd Infantry Battalion, assigned to guard Phoebe and Alexa in their planned decoy mission at the enemy’s center.

  She had given Wilhelm permission so far to use whatever bloodthirsty strategy he had in mind. So far, Alexa was less than satisfied. She was a greedy girl who wanted to eat her cake and have it too. She wanted a battlefield victory without the blood.

  Unfortunately, so far, Wilhelm has been incapable of delivering that. While his current strategy minimized casualties while ensuring that they kept pressure on the Second Continental Army, Alexa wasn’t blind. His tactics were cold and cruel.

  If Phoebe wasn’t here, there would have been thousands of dead on their side already. Quite frankly, Wilhelm was abusing the fact that the saintess was on his side too much. Not that Alexa could deny his moves.

  After all, if you had a useful chess piece on the board, what use was having it if you didn’t maximize its use? Still, that line of thinking bothered Alexa.

  So we need to end this now.

  “Gentlemen of the 33rd!” Alexa shouted, her voice booming through the gathered lines of soldiers, all of them stiffening up as she faced them. “You must have heard of your mission already.”

  In the background, the explosions from the continuous bombardment punctuated each word that came out of Alexa’s lips. As a result, the soldiers in front of her had to strain their ears just to listen to her words.

  She continued. “We’ll be the decoy force. Under the pretense of attempting to parley, we’ll boldly charge alone against the enemy’s center once General von Bismarck gives the signal.”

  Alexa curled her fist.

  “In other words, somehow, you and I will become sacrificial pawns for a strategy concocted by this army’s officers!”

  Murmurs came from the line of soldiers. Even the junior officers managing their men seemed a tad bit worried until Alexa suddenly smiled.

  “But I,” she emphasized herself greatly by placing her hand on her chest. “Approved it. Personally. Why? Because quite frankly, the next Empress and the Saintess are the most distracting things on the battlefield.”

  A smug smile appeared on her face. The soldiers in front of her remained silent, but they seemed to be nodding in agreement to Alexa’s words. Not only were the two of them quite the pretty flowers that most men would gawk at for way too long—they were major personalities in the war now.

  First, Alexa was the crown princess. The enemy would be salivating at the thought of potentially capturing or eliminating her.

  Second, Phoebe was the saintess, someone who already caused an entire revolutionary army corps to mutiny just because of her ability.

  Quite frankly, Wilhelm’s plan had its teeth. He sure was going to form and offer the most delectable bait to his enemy in the guise of parleying. But that was where Wilhelm’s and Alexa’s plans ended in their commonality.

  “I refuse to just be bait,” Alexa declared, her tone turning cold immediately. “Yes, I want the enemy to attack me and overcommit to me so this army’s generals can make a move on the enemy’s weak points, but we’ll do more than that.”

  She pointed at each soldier.

  “Right now, I and the saintess are preparing spells and glyphs to protect each of you. We’re not going in there stupidly, just to get pounced back. No, we’re going there to talk to the enemy leaders.” Alexa then grinned. “And capture them. Then, we’ll all come back home, unscathed.”

  “B-but Your Highness,” one of the soldiers spoke up, holding his crossbow tightly. “Isn’t that plan…a bit far-fetched?”

  “Do you dare doubt your next Empress, soldier?” Alexa hissed. She crossed her arms, acknowledging the dissent from the soldier in front of her, but she questioned him back.

  The soldier didn’t answer.

  “That’s right,” Alexa snapped, raising her chin up to make herself look more in charge. “Just believe in me and the saintess. We’re going to make this work, then we’ll win. Decisively. With fewer people dead because the enemy will be forced to surrender in disarray once we remove their leadership.”

  That’s right. All I have to do is amputate the head of the rebel snake.

  Then Wilhelm wouldn’t need to slaughter the enemy and spend my soldiers’s lives to win.

  It was going to be Alexa’s boldest and most ambitious plan, and she can’t wait to see how it will pan out.