Unlike the top floor of the Guardian Barracks, which was collectively shared by the Five Lands, the headquarters of the Heaven-cleaving Fortress, where the rulers of the Five Lands were supposed to reside in as they presided over the war together, were split according to floors.

The third floor was for the North, the fourth for the East, the fifth for the South, and so on. The second floor, however, was jointly guarded by a multi-national team, since it housed many secretive artefacts that the North had loaned out to the other nations.

Aziz had been here for quite a few times, in order to send and receive orders when the State Council was still in Interregnum, the capital of the Republic. Back then, the headquarters of the Heaven-cleaving Fortress wasn’t this glitzy, nor were there over-qualified guards standing around at the first floor to look imposing. It was purely functional, an aspect that was now muted.

Climbing up the stairs, the two soon arrived at the third floor, which was reserved for the Southern Continent. Since there were two nations occupying the Southern landmass, the area allocated had been split into two…which was, in Aziz’s opinion, a really bad way of handling things.

Splitting a continent into two didn’t mean that the two nations on it would need half the resources and effort to effectively function. It just didn’t work that way, but from what he had heard, the State Council and the Assembly had failed in their appeals. Furthermore, with the uncertain status of Ark City hanging around, the possibility that a third power edging their way into the politics of the Southern Continent was very much on the cards.

…It was still better than Ark City launching another invasion, though. The flying city-fortress-locomotive was, according to Marie, the stuff of nightmares for the Southern Assembly. From what she had let out, the Southern Assembly had vigorously petitioned the War Council to days ago, to let “technological developments of great value against the demons” be released to the other nations.

The North, the East and the Republic had put an end to this petition, shutting such a request down. Considering that only elites of the Republic were wearing an Exo-Skeleton, and the sheer power of the North’s Locomotives, it was clear the opponents of such a petition had their own valued secrets to protect to. Acceding to this request, especially against an ally who wasn’t part of the War Council but still volunteered anyway, was probably going to start a nasty precedent.

Surprisingly enough, this suggestion had found a supporter in the form of the Western Holdings.

“Is that a member of the royal family?” Marie muttered. Her eyes were fixed on the blue-haired girl pacing back-and-forth in front a room that had a sign labelled “Minister of State’s office” hanging off it.

“Royal family?” Aziz asked.

“Of the Western Holdings. It is said that only members of the royal family have blue hair,” Marie clarified. “Naturally, there are other identifying features, since one can actually dye their hair, but dyeing hair blue is somewhat a taboo, so…”

“Oh.” Aziz decided not to ask about the technicalities of this issue and said, “Well, princess or not, she does look like she’s in distress. Should we help her?”

“She’s not a damsel in distress…but considering that we do indeed need to debrief Pauline, I suppose helping her is better than jumping the queue,” Marie replied. “If she’s really a princess, an official reprimand might just come down to me a few days later.”

“Huh. I thought you’d just simply ignore her, though,” Aziz replied. “After all, wasn’t there a certain marshal who had beaten a bunch of brainwashed scions when she was in the East?”

“I was younger back then, so get off my back.” Marie rapped his head lightly. Rubbing his poor head, which had been abused by his boss lots of times, he followed the marshal as she approached the blue-haired woman.

“Do you need anything?” Marie asked.

“Me?” the blue-haired woman asked. “Sorry. You two can go on ahead. I’m just thinking about how to phrase something. Don’t mind me.”

“Well, if you put it that way…”

Exchanging amused looks with Aziz, Marie knocked on the door. “Minister Pauline, Aziz and I have arrived, as requested.”

“Come in, then!”

Miss Back-and-forth scooted a few metres before Marie opened the door, clearly unwilling to be seen by the Minister of State. It was an odd reaction, given that she was clearly here to talk to Pauline in the first place, but that was an issue that almost certainly didn’t fall inside Aziz’s job scope.

“Minister Pauline.”

The two greeted the Republic’s Minister of State, who had a smile on her face. There was no hint of stress or worry whatsoever; all that he could see was a mix of both relief and anticipation.

“Thank you for your hard work out there,” said Pauline. “It must have been hard to move out when what everyone wants to do is to party and dance around, but…”

“Orders are orders, ma’am.” The marshal shrugged. “That’s pretty much our job scope.”

“I know it’s pretty much written there, but the way you two phrase it makes me sound like an overbearing noble or something,” Pauline replied. “But you’re not wrong either…”

The Republic’s Minister of State visibly struggled with her thoughts for a moment, which was a good thing in Aziz’s book. For the past few years, he hadn’t seen Pauline struggle with any frivolous thoughts. Whatever meetings and interactions he had with her had been purely about work or the future.

That didn’t mean that he approved of her aggression, though. However, Aziz could still admire and worry for someone who held a position that opposed his own thoughts — he wasn’t a stubborn person in any sense of the word.

Marie, who was probably thinking similar thoughts, allowed the inner turmoil within the Minister of State to play out. The only reason why he wasn’t certain that his boss was thinking the same thoughts as him was due to the slightly-amused smile on her lips…but maybe he was using his own breadth of mind to measure that of others.

“Putting that bit aside for now,” Pauline eventually said, “let’s get down to the briefing.”

Aziz’s lips twitched. “Yes, ma’am.”