Alas, it was the day where they would have an official meeting in the tent and the grand revelation of whatever plans the Strategist had in store for them. It was difficult for Seulgi to avert her gaze from Joohyun especially when their relationship had already blossomed into that of a romantic one. Yet, each time the Captain’s eyes met that of the Strategist’s stoic ones, she would be reminded of their agreement to keep their nightly rendezvous as secretive as possible.  

In attendance of the meeting were militants who held the ranks of the Lieutenant, Captain, and Lieutenant Colonel, as well as the Fourth Prince Sehun and Princess Seungwan who had just arrived at the training camp at dawn.

The Princess, much to Seulgi’s surprise, was much more beautiful that Seulgi had imagined her to be. As a female, who had considerable amount of political influence in this country, Seulgi had expected the Princess to look more stern-faced and intimidating. Yet, Princess Seungwan had neither. In fact, Princess Seungwan’s dispositions fitted exactly that of the descriptions of a damsel in distress in that of novels and that made Seulgi wonder if that had caused her political life to be riddled with much more difficulty. Countless of times, Seulgi had heard about Princess Seungwan’s initiatives and how outstanding this female was from her family members. However, for some rhyme or reason, Seulgi had never gotten to meet this impressive female not even when the Princess had been the co-organiser of the competition that took place six months ago.  

Seulgi watched how the pair of Royal siblings interacted and saw how the Prince was behaving slightly differently with his elder sister by his side. There was a sort of protective aura surrounding him, as if he were ready to shield his sister from whatever mishap that would befall upon her.

Further surveying her surroundings, Seulgi also noticed how the male militants in the room seemed especially uneasy with the presence of not one, but two females in the tent. The Lieutenant Colonel, the son of the Duke, shuffled on his feet restlessly as they waited for the meeting to officially begin. All of these reactions added to and affirmed Seulgi’s knowledge that the military was not a place for women and only the toughest of the females could endure such unfairness thrown at them.

The meeting finally began with the Strategist leading by giving a brief outline of plans to take down Wei’Ya. Joohyun was spectacular in leading the discussion, much to the astonishment of the party. She could the command utmost attention from anyone with a single change in her intonation and strike fear in men’s heart with a simple gaze from her eyes. The climatic part came when the Strategist delved into the specific details of the first stage of the plans: Siege.

Seulgi thought she was hearing things but when the Strategist had repeated the plans to all of them; the Lieutenant Colonel, three Captains, and six Lieutenants, she knew she was not. The Strategist’s plans were the exact same as what Seulgi had conjured up in her own mind.

The Captain wondered if she might have accidentally divulged her own strategy to take down the country of Wei’Ya the last night when they were with each other but after searching her memory and into the Strategist’s eyes, the Captain knew she had not revealed anything. The only reason why their strategy was so similar was only because the two had thought so much like each other. However, their moral compasses were definitely pointing in the opposite direction of one another’s.

It turned out that the plans that the Strategist had planned for them was to finally utilise the Elite Troop to launch their assaults on Wei’Ya's borders. A move that was claimed to have received fervent support from Crown since Wei’Ya had encroached upon their territory multiple times in the last few years and captured several of their towns bordering the country.

However, instead of capturing the City Walls of Wei’Ya, the Strategist’s plans instead, were to lay siege to all the peripheral towns to the East of Wei’Ya, towns which were used to grow Wei’Ya’s rations and store them, some of these were towns which once belonged to Qi’An. This would have been an unanticipated move by Qi’An because most of Qi’An’s main troops were stationed outside the City Walls of Wei’Ya and their enemy country thought it was only a matter of time that Qi’An would try to penetrate the country via the City Walls again.

This was coupled with the fact that Qi’An’s military manoeuvres had been always straightforward and righteous all these time. To suddenly attack the helpless towns which was home to tens of thousands of innocent civilians was unconventional for them, and not to mention, an unethical one. This was the exact idea that Seulgi had come up with as well but the atrocity of such a move had made Seulgi throw the idea to the back of her mind and into the gallows. Yet, she did not think that Joohyun would be the one to let such an atrocious idea surface once more.  

Seulgi was not the only one who was uncomfortable with such an idea as a fellow Captain, Captain Suho, voiced his concerns. “The towns, Xi’Le, Xiong’Wei, and Da’Min, used to be our land, and they are homes to people who were once our civilians. Are we really going to destroy them?”

The Captain prayed really hard that the Strategist would reconsider but much to her astonishment, the Strategist had not even taken a second to ponder over Captain Suho’s concern before she gave her answer. “Yes, we will have to destroy them. Destroying those towns will greatly cripple their military rationing capabilities. Sacrifices are painful but this is precisely why it is termed as a sacrifice.”

“But…” Captain Suho tried to reason again but found no words.

“Captain Suho… this is for the greater good. Believe in that and you will find strength to carry out these plans.” These words were spoken from the Strategist so fluidly that it would even convince the hardest of hearts to do as she bided. Seulgi might have been easily smitten by anything that Joohyun had said, anytime but now as the Strategist, the Captain could not bring herself to execute such plans without voicing her own thoughts.   

“How will the people place their trust in us again if we were to truly carry out such a plan.” Seulgi questioned coolly, much to the surprise of everybody.

The pair of Royal siblings, who had been silent the entire time, both