The Slovak people were gone, and the military generals of Vavasika did not have time to linger on mourning the dead soldiers.

On the morning after the funeral, everyone gathered in the meeting room of the Lord's Mansion in Vawasika for the first time in a season—Henry and Mira were also present this time, but there was a precedent for the last time, and no one dared to underestimate the dark-haired man this time.

The results of the attack were tragic, and Yavenella had to react to it.

The first response was quickly discussed, and everyone agreed that letters must be sent to inform the nearby city-states, and small groups of scouts were organized to search for the traces of the strange army.

After all, they are outsiders, and they are not as familiar with the environment of the Acasta Plains as the locals, and if they search carefully, they will definitely be able to find them over time.

The problem is only time - there is a considerable amount of primeval forest in Avenella, and if the attackers had taken refuge in this area and marched elsewhere under the cover of trees, it was likely that another city would have been attacked before they could be tracked.

Dozens of ravens were sent out with urgent letters, and a troop of cavalry hurried towards Ashinir, who was most likely to be the next target.

The smooth road made the news far faster than before, and the first problem was solved, but then there was a great disagreement about the face of the kingdom and the question of giving an account to the dead soldiers.

The close camaraderie between the Vavasika garrison had the opposite effect in this case, and many of the knights who had just buried their companions with their own hands were very emotional, shouting that this was an attack by the West Valiers, and fiercely demanding the order of Prince Edward to attack Inznir.

They could not listen to any explanation in this case, although Charles, as the lord of the city, repeatedly insisted that the assailant had been determined to be from Paderossi after interrogation, but the officers also had their own explanations for the situation.

"Mercenaries!" they shouted.

"All of them are dressed in Sivalier uniforms and armor! In the Sivalier style of fighting, even if they have a Ramanian accent, they are just mercenaries!" the emotional officers roared loudly, drooling and splattering.

They can't be blamed for this, in fact, the idea is more plausible and acceptable than the fact that the troops attacking were sent by the Padrosi Empire. After all, Padrossi is far away on the other side of the Mobigas, and has basically no contact with Avenella except for a few individual merchants and mercenaries, let alone conflicts of interest.

Sivalier, on the other hand, had more than 10,000 proud hoplites in the desert of Acasta in the autumn of that year, and it was the defenders of Vavasika who had killed them, so it was only natural that they would come for revenge.

Even given the fact that Sivaliers were in the midst of a recuperation period, they had never waged war in the winter in the past - but this is again a perfect explanation for the fact that the attackers came from Padrossi.

-- The Sivaliers were humiliated and defeated, so they did not hesitate to hire foreign mercenaries to win the game.

The logical and plausible set was repeatedly emphasized by the emotional officers, but then some details from the scouts who went out to inquire made Henry and Edward even more convinced that behind all this was the high-ranking of the Padrossi Empire.

"Passing merchants confirmed that the ships they were carrying were warships and had landed directly on the beach of Acasta. Edward opened his mouth to say this, which at first glance may not sound like much, but if you have enough knowledge to judge, it actually has a lot of meaning.

The fact that Padrosi's national law prohibits merchants from owning armed ships is the first proof of the fact that these attackers were not mercenaries but regular soldiers.

And the second sentence, landing directly on the beach, further confirms this judgment.

Anyone with a little knowledge of ships and navigation will understand that large ships often cannot get too close to the shore due to their draft, otherwise they will be crushed by the reefs and rocks on the shore, causing the bottom of the ship to leak or simply run aground.

Therefore, it is especially important to have a port made of wood and stone in a place with a natural water depth, otherwise people would have to take a small boat to get from the big ship to the land.

And under this premise, the fact that the other side directly landed with armed ships cannot but remind people of the history of the conquest of the Laman Empire.

Facing the sea to the west and the great river to the east, the Lamanite Empire was born like Avenella surrounded by other nations.

Countries defended each other, built countless fortresses on the borders between countries, and stationed thousands of troops. The conquerors of Laman, on the other hand, chose to attack the unsuspecting coastal city-states by sea through their unrivaled shipbuilding skills, and then outflank them and appear behind the border fortresses.

After cutting off the supply line, no matter how strong the defenders are, it is only a matter of time before they surrender.

Considering that Padrosi is in the same vein as the Laman Empire, it is obvious that they will have this excellent warship that can land directly in the entire Rigal world.

In fact, if you talk about ships that can land directly on the beach, they are not very difficult to build. The reason why merchant ships carrying people and cargo have wider hulls and deeper drafts is that they can not be overturned by the wind and waves when they are driving on the sea, and at the same time, they can carry more goods at once and make more profits.

To be able to land directly on the beach, you'll have to make your boat small, like the small wooden boat used by the average fisherman. Either way, you make the whole ship slender so that the weight is evenly spread out in a straight line, rather than in a small area.

So it's not too difficult to just land, but it's another thing to sail from the other side of the mobile gas full of warriors and land.

The damage caused by the lapping of the waves on slender ships is far greater than that of heavy merchant ships, and it is not uncommon for the entire ship to break and drown if the keel is not strong enough. So no one else was going to build them except for the Padrossi Empire, which was experienced in shipbuilding and had countless excellent navigators.

Transporting thousands of soldiers at once, which would require dozens of ships, is a relatively calm affair in the Moby Gas Inland Sea, but given the risks, it is clear that only a large empire would dare to do such a big deal.

The facts were laid out, but the emotional officers still refused to believe it.

They were still shouting for an attack on Inznir, and Charles seemed to have a headache, and Edward, who had been so distraught with everything, finally couldn't help but shout with anger on his face:

"That's enough!" The angry appearance of His Royal Highness the Prince, who had always been a humble gentleman, made many people restrain themselves, but they only flinched for a moment, and the hatred on their faces still existed.

"Fighting, it's impossible to fight. Edward was speechless with rage, and he felt that he really hated iron and steel because the officers insisted on going their own way in this crisis situation, so Henry stepped forward on his behalf and spoke.

Only a small fraction of those present were officers who had rotated, and most of them knew the role the dark-haired man had played in the previous battle—or more importantly, the aristocratic officers, who had privately heard that he was a sage, were silent to see what he would say.

The sage then spoke in his usual unhurried tone: "An attack on Sivalier would inevitably require the mobilization of forces by Vavasika, but in the previous battle, Vavasika's army had suffered a great blow. He paused for a moment, then continued: "Even more serious is the damage to the gates and part of the city walls, and in such a situation where the city defenses are destroyed, the strength of the defenders of the city needs to be greatly doubled. ”

"Now that Vavasika's soldiers have been brought in from Ashenir, they are strong for the time being, but in the long run they will leave the entire economic center of Avenila unprepared, and it would not be wise to send a large army to attack Inznir while the attackers are still wandering outside. Henry shook his head and said.

"The best defense is to attack! just take the initiative to attack the West Valiers so that they don't have time to attack. The sage's words had most people pondering, but an officer whom he had never met before, who had been transferred from Ashinir, retorted in such a loud voice.

Henry glanced over at the man, who was young, about 20 years old, with a noble crest, a knight, and perhaps had only recently acquired a fief.

Among the people who died in Vavasika, there might have been someone he knew, which was why he was so indignant?--A moment of observation made the sage reject the idea, and the eager expression on the face of the young noble officer was familiar to him, it was just another naïve young man who wanted to prove his prowess by fighting.

"......" Henry was silent for a while, most of these young people who were eager to win honors were only newly involved in the world, but he didn't intend to leave some affection for the other party because of this. The sage's eyes narrowed half-widely, and then he slowly spoke, "Then you, is there any way to prove that the attacker must be a Sivalyer?" ”

The unexpected rhetorical question stunned the young knight, and he said, "Ugh. Before he could reply, Henry continued: "If this guess is wrong, the whole army will advance to attack Inznir, and the other side will seize this gap to attack. Do you have the qualifications to take responsibility for the destruction of two city-states and the devastating devastation of the country? ”

"......" The nobleman lowered his head, then took a few steps back.

The impasse in the conference room had once again calmed the restless mood of the officers, but they had still not been able to resolve the most critical issues.

As Henry had said earlier, Padrossi had a plan to attack Avenella and disguise himself as a Sivalier. If they could figure out this motive, they wouldn't be as headless flies speculating as they do now.

The dreary air echoed through the conference room, and Minna, who had come in with Mira, looked at his back from afar. Obviously, in this situation of extreme lack of information, even Henry, who has the name of a sage, has a hard time judging the reason.

"Knock knock!" the silence was broken by a knock on the door, and the room turned their heads to reveal a young soldier standing in the doorway, looking a little bewildered.

"Didn't you say don't let people disturb us, there's something urgent here. Charles frowned and shouted, while the hapless soldier shuddered.

"Your Excellency...... That, mainly...... The soldiers who sealed and blocked the border intercepted a group of merchants who came out of the Grigory rift, they seemed to be Ottoro, because of the language barrier, we couldn't explain to them that there was danger nearby, so we had already blocked the matter, and now I don't know what to do......" The soldier said, Charles frowned, and Henry, who was behind him, was stunned.

"Stomp, stomp. He strode to the front of the wooden table, smoothed out the large map of parchment, and let out a long sigh.

"Sir?" Henry asked, apparently discovering something.

"The most confusing thing about this whole thing, you all know what it is. The sage asked first in his usual fashion, and Edward nodded, "Why did Padrosi attack Avenella?" ”

This is indeed a question that cannot be explained in terms of interests or conflicts, said the prince.

"Yes, because Arvenella is not a worthy opponent for Padrossi by any angle, so there is no reason for them to bother so much......" Henry raised a finger and pressed it somewhere on the map, and combined with his words, many people reacted immediately.

"Padrossi's target was not Avenella from the beginning, and the only reason why he attacked Vawasika was because ......" Edward stared at the map as the map marked the great empire in the west, which was no less large than Padrossi.

"Just because, on the other side of the Grigley rift is the Ottoro Empire. The prince took the sage's words, his eyes sharpened, and Henry continued, "The Grigley rift in the hands of Vavasika is the shortcut to the west coast of the Ottolo Empire. Although it is said that the land on the other side is not very peaceful because of the conquest of the Luoan people just 20 years ago, it will definitely become a shortcut for the Ottolo Empire to export or conquer in a few years. ”

Once stabilized, Otolo, who began to expand in this direction, inevitably had a conflict of interest with Padrosi. ”

"The Padrosi wanted to strike first, but they didn't want to warn Otolo. Edward followed his words, nodding as he spoke, and the officers next to him listened quietly to the analysis of the two: "Yes, it must have been the recent battle between Avenella and Sivalier that caught their attention. The sage said: "The Padrossi, who have been playing with power for thousands of years, want to kill with the sword, so that Avenella and Sivalier will be at war again, and they will sit back and enjoy their success when both nations are exhausted and the situation is decided." ”

"At that time, it will be too late for the Ottolo people to react, as long as Vavasika is captured by Padrosi, Ottolo's shortcut to the west coast will be strangled to death. ”

"Hurry up and send a messenger to send a warning. Henry turned his head to look at Charles, and the city lord was stunned for a moment: "To whom?" he subconsciously asked, while the sage frowned with a serious face.

"To the West Valiers, Padrosi wants to stir up this troubled waters, and in order to be on the safe side, they will definitely work on both sides, and the vanished army must have gone towards Inznir without mistake. ”

The crisis was imminent, and the Avenella nobles of Vavasika, who had sorted everything out, rushed into action.