I spread out a map of the royal capital on the table in the room.
Sofia and I.
Lena and Erin leaned over it as well.
Meanwhile, Aisha and Snow were downstairs in the dining hall eating sweets.
I was a little worried about Licorice being the one supervising them, but…
I promised her donuts if she behaved properly, so it would probably be fine.
“Alright then, could you tell us everything you know, Lena?”
“Mm, okay.”
Lena casually nodded, picked up a pen, and began marking the map.
“Here, here, and here. Also here and here… um… ah, right. This warehouse is being used as a hideout too.”
We were having her mark the hideouts and safe houses of the Dawn Alliance on the map, but…
The number of marks kept increasing.
There were far more than we had imagined, and before long, the map was practically covered in markings.
“Mmm… I think that’s about all I know?”
“This is… how should I put it…”
“There are an overwhelming number of them…”
Nearly thirty.
I never imagined there would be this many…
“Ah, but I don’t think this is all of them.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know everything myself. And I haven’t checked in with them since then, so it wouldn’t be strange if there are even more now.”
“So this is just the bare minimum… is that what you mean?”
“An estimate is fine. At most, how many hideouts and safe houses do you think they have prepared?”
“Mmm… if we’re talking maximum, maybe fifty? I doubt there are more than that, though.”
That was an absurd number.
To think they had hidden that much power within the royal capital…
The Dawn Alliance might be far more powerful than we had expected.
“What should we do about this…?”
“Indeed…”
When I asked Erin, she fell silent in thought for a while.
After a moment, she finally spoke.
“With this many, honestly speaking, we’re at a loss… The Special Knight Order alone cannot handle this.”
“No way…”
“If we were to act, we would need to mobilize all of the kingdom’s forces… However, whether such a decision can even be made…”
Erin wore a troubled expression as she pondered.
Mobilizing the entire nation’s military strength was unrealistic.
If they failed after doing something like that, it would all be over.
The kingdom would lose its power to defend itself and likely fall as a result.
And even if it succeeded, there would still be problems.
Such a large-scale movement could provoke neighboring countries.
There were many other issues and obstacles as well…
I had no idea how we were supposed to break through this situation.
“To be honest, I never expected them to possess this much power… I underestimated them as mere terrorists.”
“They must… hold incredibly strong feelings.”
Sofia spoke with a somewhat sorrowful expression.
“They devoted everything to revenge and lived for that purpose… Not just their own generation, but the generation before them, and the one before that… They’ve continued preparing for this from far, far in the past. That’s why they’re capable of something on this scale.”
Dedicating everything to revenge.
Dragging not only themselves, but also their ancestors and descendants into that hatred.
It was something terribly sad.
If possible, I wanted to stop it here.
Not only for our sake, but for theirs as well.
“Hmm…”
I thought.
I searched for a way to break through this situation.
And then, suddenly, inspiration struck me.
“Come to think of it, we don’t actually need to fight all of them, do we?”
“What do you mean, Fate?”
“We were so shocked by the enemy’s strength that it clouded our judgment. There’s no need to fight every single one of them. No matter how large their forces are, without a head, they can’t function properly. So…”
“We focus on taking down the executives and leaders… is that what you mean?”
“Yeah. At the very least, we take down everyone above the executive level and make it impossible for the organization to operate. After that, they probably won’t completely collapse on their own… but dealing with them should become much easier.”
It was the same as with bees.
There was no end to fighting worker bees.
It was faster and more effective to strike down the queen and destroy the problem at its root.
“Lena, do you have information on the executives or the leader?”
“There were three executives, but since I left, there are only two remaining. I can narrow down their whereabouts to some extent. As for the leader, they’re called the Elder, but I’ve barely met them. Still, I think they’re at the headquarters.”
Good, then this might work somehow.
It had seemed like a hopeless battle, but now…
I could finally see a small glimmer of hope.
And to make sure that hope wouldn’t disappear, we had to keep fighting.
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