“Attacking the Wildlands…” Gaius felt a sharp, throbbing pain do a tap dance on his brain. On one hand, he fully understood the need to attack the demons while the Five Lands enjoyed such a crushing advantage in this enormous war. Paragon Ying Xin had also added her own analysis, as well as that of the Pinnacle’s; the only true way to win was to devote every bit of their resources into this war.

Attacking the Wildlands, taking over the resources there…that was the logical way to go. However, that was before he heard the analysis from the two in front of him, who were on what looked like their fourth glass of chilled jasmine tea.

Leaning towards Isabelle, Gaius murmured, “What do you think?”

“I think they have a very good point too,” Isabelle replied. “Most of us came here to defend the Five Lands. Our understanding was that we were needed to defend our home, that was all.”

Rubbing his head, she said, “But the crux of this lies in the issue of protecting. What exactly does it mean to protect? Haven’t we done that already? Or does that mean annihilating the aggressors? The latter…is very similar to the Second Extermination, no? The Southern Assembly used claims of been attacked by the beastfolk to justify their thorough extermination. I don’t like it.”

“It’s the way they phrased things to make the idea of an invasion more…palatable,” Gaius mused.

“Is that how it is?” Aziz asked quietly. The tall colonel looked like a drenched chicken right now…or rather, he was currently in the middle of giving off such a feeling. Recounting his thoughts, and that of the marshal’s, had taken quite the emotional toll on the colonel, but Gaius couldn’t blame him for that. After all, if what he said came to pass, the two of them would be resigned to a fate where they could only watch and nothing else.

The inability to stop others and even themselves from walking into the mouth of danger was a very frustrating one.

“It’s not really anything you two should concern yourself with, though.” The marshal finished her own glass of jasmine tea. “It’s a problem for the weak soldiers, who are unable to resist both orders from semi-divinities and hordes of immortal enemies.”

Gaius thought through her words for a moment, and something seemed to fall in place. Before he could grab that thought, however, it had fallen out of reach, and it was with a gaping hollowness that he returned back to reality.

“Something wrong?” Isabelle asked, her eyes on his expression.

Gaius touched his own face. “I had an idea that slipped right out of my grasp. I don’t like that feeling. I suppose you can liken it to catching a fish, only to have that thing unhook itself right before you reeled it in…”

“That’s a very odd analogy, but I do get where you’re coming from. There, there.”

Gaius scrunched up his eyes as Isabelle rubbed his cheeks. He could feel the marshal and her subordinate stare at the two of them, but he had long grown a thick skin.

After a while, the marshal cleared her throat. “Anyway, that’s not really important to you now. To be honest, though, I’m not sure what to think of the whole thing. Even if we, the Five Lands, come into a peace treaty with the Wildlands, what’s going to happen next? There’s such an open imbalance of power between individual nations.”

“The East is quite weak now, isn’t it?” Isabelle muttered. “As well as the Southern Assembly. Ark City has a vendetta against pretty much the entire world, save for the North.”

“Many unstable elements, yes.”

The four let out a sigh together, and then turned to their drinks. The colonel had recommended the iced jasmine tea, which was actually quite the refreshing beverage, great for a hot day. After a minute filled with slurping sounds, the two military officers finished their drink and got up from their table.

“You’re leaving?” Gaius asked.

“The North’s Locomotives are arriving soon,” the marshal replied. Sweeping back her hair, she looked out at the sky. “When that happens, this war will take a huge turn. After all, those Locomotives probably have weapons designed to kill gods on them.”

Leaving those words behind, the two officers turned and left, leaving Gaius and Isabelle to ponder on those parting words. Given the subject matter and the phrasing, Marshal Marie had almost certainly intended for those parting words to be very ominous in nature, but what was she hinting at exactly?

He made a little frustrated noise, prompting another round of cheek-squishing from Isabelle. As her fingers tenderised his cheeks even more, Gaius leaned back on his chair and tried his best to calm his whirling mind.

“Don’t think too hard about it, okay?” Isabelle rubbed his nose, and then retreated. “Just focus on what’s ahead of you. We aren’t trained professionals at planning, so there’s really no point in second-guessing what everyone might do. It’s a complex environment, there’s lots of actors moving, and there are unpredictable pawns on the field.”

Isabelle, who was in her element, looked around and lowered her head, a sight that Gaius found amusing. She could carry out little affectionate acts, but when it came to showing off her expertise, Isabelle was still very easily embarrassed. It was a rarely-seen sight for him now, since there weren’t any sources of second-hand embarrassment around.

Leaning forward to rub her nose this time, Gaius thought about her words. They made sense; the two of them weren’t familiar with the decision-making process that happened at the top levels of government. While Isabelle had a better understanding of such processes, she didn’t have the kind of information governments had either.

And, if Gaius had to be very honest…he would very much prefer to enjoy their time together, instead of using it to think about solutions for problems the world was facing.

Could he really do that, however? Especially when he knew that he and Isabelle would soon depart from Orb, leaving behind Nakama, La-Ti and Xanadu?

“I’m an idiot, aren’t I?” Gaius muttered.

Isabelle gazed at his face, and then smiled. “That’s what makes you so lovable, though. We’ll keep thinking, okay?”