As we rode to our destination in silence, I couldn't help but feel tenser than I had ever felt before. I came from a peaceful world; I wasn't used to all this war stuff. What made it all worse was the fact that we had already been assigned to a unit. I don't even know what we're supposed to do, I thought with a hefty sigh, but a raven flew inside at that moment and dropped what appeared to be a letter on Kimmel's p. Once Kimmel opened the letter, the raven flew away as if it had just completed its mission. Interesting...

  "What does it say?" I asked Kimmel, and he read it out loud for all of us to hear,

  "Unit 317C, Squad E is to provide support to the Company defending Fort Turion near the border."

  "Ah, shit," I cursed my bad fortune. Of all things, a battle of attrition. Great! I thought to myself. This is exactly what I needed! Sensing this shift in my mood, Phildina, who was sitting to my left, started rubbing my head softly.

  "Difficult battle or not, it'll be a walk in the park for our invincible tactician!" She said with a reassuring smile. Invincible? I almost lost to Skeleton Lancer!

  "I hope I can live up to your expectations," I admitted quite honestly.

  "Daphne, this isn't like you. Cheer up!" She replied, but I couldn't be dumbly optimistic about this. For one, battles with humans were drastically different. With monsters, you could find their weaknesses and take advantage of them, but with pyers or NPCs, as the case may be, they could cover up their weaknesses by adopting different strategies or even poke at our weak points if competent enough. There really was a lot to fear and not enough information, so I turned to Hertz, who was sitting at my right, and asked,

  "What do you know about the Empire?"

  Staring out the window of the carriage, he began, "The Empire is a militaristic state that believes it is their divine right to rule the world." Divine... right? Turning to me, he continued in a louder voice this time, "It is one of the oldest states in the world and has been embroiled in countless wars ever since its founding. Over time, it expanded its territory and influence to what it is today."

  "So, expansion is their state religion?" I asked, finding that point especially intriguing.

  "You're close but not quite there yet," he answered with a soft smile.

  "What do you mean?"

  "It is the will of their Goddess," He stated pinly.

  "That's ridiculous," Lucia muttered, and I agreed with her.

  "Sounds like a political excuse to me," I said with a brow raised, but Hertz could only cover his face with his hands and shake his head at our statements.

  "I wish it were a political excuse."

  ""Wait, so they actually believe it?!"" we all seemed to ask at the same time.

  "Yes," he answered exasperatedly, "The empire has a long history of emperors obsessed with the neverending expansion of their Empire."

  "That part of its history never made sense to me," Lucia added.

  "Even if the Empire were peaceful and prosperous, the emperors would still wage war on other nations ciming that it was all to 'receive favors from the Goddess.'"

  "That's insane..." Kimmel summarized our collective sentiments about that statement. So, this is who we're up against, I thought to myself apprehensively.

  "If it's always waging wars, why hasn't it fallen apart yet?" Batti, who had been furrowing his brows, asked a question I hadn't even considered! I really wanted to hear the answer to this, and so did everyone else, as we all perked up to hear what Hertz had to say next.

  "Um, I didn't really look that far into their history, so I don't know." He said with a shrug.

  "Even I never thought of that," Lucia added. She mentioned something else about reading some long-name history books, but I couldn't remember what she said.

  "Who do we watch out for?" Sarde spoke up for the first time in ages, surprising even me. I guess he's starting to regain his confidence, but that thought came a bit too soon, as a mere gnce from Kathryn had him noticeably wincing right after that. It must be tough living with a constant reminder of that... euphoria, I thought with a suspicious smile.

  "You generally want to avoid mages, as imperial mages are said to be the best in the world," Hertz began. "You also don't want to run into any Corps Commanders. All 20 of them are said to be handpicked from the Empire's very best soldiers."

  "All 20 of them?! How many divisions does the Empire have?" I asked with a panicked expression, sweat dripping down my face as I hoped I had misheard him.

  "100 divisions. They are quite proud of it, too," Hertz said with a grave look on his face.

  "How many does the Kingdom have?" It took him a while to respond, almost as if he was hesitating to tell us, but when he did, it blew us all away.

  "45."

  The rest of the trip, from that point onwards, had an unexpinable feel to it. It was like we were all fighting against the despair that was encroaching upon us. I really hope we all come out of this in one piece, I prayed to whatever god or Developer who'd listen that day as we rode to our destination.