Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

In regards to the actual question Lucas had asked, Celestina turned to a certain non-descript man who was leaning against a nearby bookshelf.

"We don’t know," the man replied flatly, without the slightest hint of emotion in his voice.

Hearing this rather blunt answer, many eyebrows were raised, and some who were less familiar of this man’s identity and his... personality quirks, even sported displeased expressions.

Pauline, on the other hand, simply nodded, "Alright. If Spymaster Morris says he doesn’t know, then he doesn’t know."

As the Great Elder and the one who actually ran much of the Balfour Family’s affairs, Pauline was well aware of how the man only known as Morris never, ever spoke 3 words when 2 would do, and how he would only answer the specific questions asked of him without any kind of additional speculation or explanation.

Morris was, quite frankly, an unlikable man; someone who it was difficult to hold any kind of conversation with or pry information from, but that was also what made him such an effective gatherer of intelligence.

People who constantly dealt with secrets needed to know how to keep them, and no one in the Balfour Family’s employ was better at that than Morris.

Hell, no one even knew if Morris was his real name or just an alias he picked for himself as the man always refused to say one way or the other.

Still, just because she had learned to trust the information Morris provided her, didn’t mean Pauline wasn’t also disgruntled. Not with the man mind you, but with his answer. As such, she re-phrased the question, "What is your best estimate of how long we have?"

"3 years," Morris replied.

Most people in the room breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this, Pauline included. While it was true that 3 years wasn’t exactly ages away, it also wasn’t ’tomorrow’.

If the Rockwell Kingdom had 3 years to prepare, Pauline and many of the other leaders in the room were confident that they would be ready.

"What about if they abandoned all pretext and started preparing for war openly?" Lucas suddenly asked, having already figured out how Spymaster Morris thought and operated.

Without any delay, the taciturn man stated, "6 months."

Needless to say, that got everyone’s attention and the murmured whispers quickly began again.

The Rockwell Kingdom had 10 standing armies, 3 of which were stationed permanently in the South-East Province, so it wasn’t like the border with the Darr Kingdom was undefended or unprepared, but in the face of a full-scale invasion, 6 months wasn’t nearly enough time to get ready.

On top of that, the disaster in the South-West Province had strained both the financial and logistical capabilities of the kingdom.

The Second Queen’s Economic Cultivation Initiative had only just become law and was still mostly in the planning phase, so they couldn’t expect a boost in economic growth or activity from it anytime soon.

That left the kingdom vulnerable, a fact that the Darr Kingdom certainly hadn’t missed.

If the enemy smelled weakness, they might accelerate their invasion plans.

Everyone understood this, but what exactly were they supposed to do about it?

Right now, the Rockwell Kingdom and Darr Kingdoms were engaged in a delicate balancing act, a game where neither side could afford to make any obvious aggressive moves as that would trigger an unwanted response from the other side, likely disadvantaging themselves in the long run.

Discussions sprung up all around Celestina’s office, with the gathered leaders all looking for a way to gain a bigger advantage for their side.

There was still a possibility that all this was nothing more than a misunderstanding and that the Darr Kingdom wasn’t actually preparing for war, but no one here was willing to take that kind of chance.

It was always better to be prepared for war, rather than unprepared.

Some suggested that training be increased for the armies as well as the local garrisons.

Others thought that recruitments for new soldiers should be held in all the cities and towns of the province.

Even the extreme step of drafting civilians into military service was brought up, though very few people actually supported this idea as the situation hadn’t grown that dire just yet.

There was also talk of ramping up arms production, storing extra grain, increasing patrols along the Lorren and in the cities, etc etc...

These measures were all logical and reasonable, actions that any nation looking to bolster its defences and prepare for war would take, which was precisely why most were immediately rejected.

The only advantage the Rockwell Kingdom had at the moment was that the enemy wasn’t aware that their secret operations had been exposed.

According to the intelligence Celestina had shared with them tonight, the Darr Kingdom had been going to great lengths to conceal its military buildup, most likely in hopes of staging some kind of decisive sneak attack at the opening of the conflict.

If the Rockwell Kingdom suddenly began an intense military buildup of their own, the Darr Kingdom would obviously notice.

The best-case scenario would be that the Darr Kingdom backed down and rethought their plans now that they had lost the element of surprise, but the much more likely scenario was that they accelerated their efforts, hoping to capitalize on the fact that they were further along in their preparations.

Worst-case, the Darr Kingdom immediately attacked, setting off a war that neither side was truly prepared for, likely resulting in far greater damage on both sides.

Since that was the case, the Rockwell Kingdom’s best option right now was to act like nothing was wrong while quietly finding ways to fortify itself.

That was the conclusion that a brief round of brainstorming among all these leaders had arrived at.

One person, however, disagreed.

"Acting passively now will only shrink our disadvantage," Lucas spoke up, proposing a rather unconventional alternative, "Instead of just trying to play catchup with the enemy, we should seize the initiative instead and go on the offensive."

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