This is the first trap Pale set. The overwhelming power of the Goblin King’s cavalry has been deeply ingrained into Blanche. It’s true that the goblins lost in the previous battle. They were trampled over by Blanche’s cavalry, Felduk was left half-destroyed, and their one saving grace was the Goblin King’s cavalry.
But that’s precisely why the Goblin King’s cavalry left such a deep impression on Blanche.
So deep in fact that it left her thinking that unless she could defeat the Goblin King’s cavalry, victory would be impossible.
This brings us to the second trap.
The reason Pale only moved the frontlines when the War Princess wasn’t around was to set a trap in her mind.
Blanche the War Princess was a genius at political and military warfare. Perhaps the little information she had would be enough for her to see through Pale’s thoughts. But that’s precisely why Pale moved the frontlines for no reason.
It was all to make it seem as if there was a plan behind her actions.
She didn’t take the towns she could take in the southern frontlines and then she fought with her aide, Mehran Le Coude, to make it seem as though the trench camps had value.
By doing that, the War Princess would start thinking to herself and believe that the trench camps and her aide were useful at the western frontlines. With that, all that was left was the south. What was the point of all the suspicious movements? Any movement made by the army should have a reason behind it. But taking advantage of that kind of thinking was exactly what Pale intended.
Blanche attacked the south because she believed there must’ve been reason behind the suspicious movements at the south, and when the goblins retreated without putting up much of a fight, she came to believe that Pale’s real objective was the imperial capital, Rishu.
This brings us to the third trap.
The frontlines that swayed without any reason and Vine who slithered behind Shushunu.
The third trap worked with the second trap to bind Blanche’s thoughts. Although the goblins could still keep fighting, Blanche held a degree of hubris within her because the goblins refused to clash with her directly.
Hence, Pale ordered the attacks against the slave merchants to make Blanche think that she was going for the imperial capital, and gradually make it look like she was gradually gathering her forces.
This is where Vine the Mad Blade comes to play. By striking so much fear into the imperial capital, Blanche will have no choice but to request the mobilization of the national army.
The fourth and last trap.
This trap plays on the fact that she was a genius with no equal.
The people around her were essentially just dead weight. To Blanche, whether it was the inner palace or the other two great nobles, everyone was just a piece meant to move according to her will. There was no one around her who she could work with to achieve something.
Because of that she never believed in anyone else.
The subsequent victories solidified her position in the Holy Shushunu Kingdom, and now, all affairs – be they military, politics, or domestic – moved according to her wishes.
In other words, the battlefield was purely a reflection of her opinion, and no other opinions could enter the fray.
This was the last trap that Pale set to destroy Blanche.
Because Blanche was doing everything by herself, her exhaustion would increase and her plans would lack the precision that they normally held.
And because she believes so strongly in her victory, she would never think that she was being led along by her enemy.
Step by step, she was being led. The traps Pale set had craftily seen through Blanche’s thoughts.
That was how deeply Pale had read the War Princess to kill her. In order to kill the War Princess, she had to cut off the source of her strength.
As for what the source of her strength was…
“The War Princess is a genius. That’s why we need to seal her strength.”
Cavalry tactics that could repel even the Goblin King, made even stronger by the support of the sorcerer cavalry. But as long as they fought by the trench camps, she will never ride a horse. After all, the trench camps existed precisely to allow her soldiers to hide in the holes.
“A sorcerer cavalry that has dismounted from their horses is no different from any other mage unit.”
In that regard, the anti-mage soldier elves were beyond their reach. The different kind of elves, the Gnomes, the Undines, and the Salamanders, have already arrived at Garm Su to support them.
All that’s left now was to wait for the War Princess to leave the frontlines.
But the trigger for that was also in Pale’s hands, a trigger she pulled.
‘The Kushunora will pay!’ The furious Gi Za had received Pale’s orders and was just waiting for Blanche to leave the front lines. Given his personality, it was only natural that he would be harsh in his vengeance.
Pale’s lips twisted into a smile.
The way she smiled as she looked down at the map was just like that of the Goddess of Vengeance or the Goddess that fiddled with destiny.
—Now then, Blanche Ririnoie the War Princess, the time has come for you to know defeat.
The four traps Pale had set became poison and entangled the War Princess. The movements of the goblins were kept hidden thanks to the effort of Gi Ji Arsil’s assassin unit. In these four months, he intentionally stopped his activities, but the moment he received the message that Blanche had left the frontlines, he dove into the fray.
As a result, the scouts that were stationed in the different front lines to keep an eye on the goblins were slain by them, and even the legacy of the Red King suffered great losses.
But such achievements were nothing to speak of in front of their main objective to keep their plans under wraps. Thanks to Gi Ji Arsil and his unit’s efforts, the goblins were able to move without being detected, and to the humans, it seemed as if the goblin armies suddenly appeared out of nowhere at the west and the south.
Just four months after the defeat of the goblins, the western frontline and the southern frontline collapsed. The Goblin King and the Aransain that attacked from the direction of the Kushain Believers defeated the Short Sword Battle MaidenValkyria, and the latter were forced to flee.
Because of the above events, the goblins were able to enter the Holy Shushunu Kingdom.
