After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

The blond boy lost his composure instantly, gnashing his teeth and blushing.

"Call me Prince, Prince! After all, you're the daughter of a marquis, don't you have this little courtesy?!"

Chris probably realized her gaffe and quickly covered her mouth:

"Sorry, sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it. I'm used to hearing you call me that. It's because you had to hide your identity when you were in the academy..."

"How dare you say that! That's the only shame in my life, Adrian Saxon!"

The first prince of the empire, Adrian Saxon.

Unlike Heidi who debuted halfway and suffered misfortune, the super young master in front of him was trained as the heir to the country from the moment he was born.

And his ability is indeed worthy of this honor.

Whether in domestic affairs, military affairs or diplomacy, his tactics are ruthless to a degree that is inconsistent with his age. In the past two years, he has actually replaced his father and become the de facto supreme commander of the empire's military forces. Some even believe that his influence and prestige have in fact surpassed that of the contemporary emperor.

Moreover, he and Chris are classmates.

Because he was confident in his abilities, he strictly concealed his identity when he entered school, hoping to achieve results through pure ability in order to prove himself.

Judging from the results, he is indeed excellent. His various achievements are ranked among the top in the history of the entire academy and even the empire, and he is unmatched in the royal family.

Unfortunately, however, he met Chris.

The absolute data is very good, but she is always in second place and is always overshadowed by Chris.

So until now, whenever I see Chris in person, I still subconsciously get PTSD.

Aize had heard of this before, but didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

I didn't expect that...

"Besides, you—"

"Cough cough."

Aize coughed twice and interrupted the other party.

"Is His Royal Highness here for something related to the expedition? It seems this expedition isn't as simple as the previous letter said, right?"

Chapter 31 "Backhand"

Aize's words instantly shifted the prince's attention back to Aize. He crossed his arms and looked at Aize with a meaningful look.

Then he snorted in displeasure:

"Your judgment is still as accurate as ever, almost sickening. Tsk, but that's true. With the number and distribution of your spies, it's not surprising that you noticed this."

The intelligence network owned by Aize can obtain intelligence from both humans and demons at an extremely astonishing speed. After sharing, the human alliance can take the absolute initiative whether it is to guard against demon attacks or suppress human civil unrest.

But at the same time, the existence of this intelligence network will naturally make other humans extremely wary.

After all, no normal person likes the feeling of having his or her every move controlled by others.

The prince in front of me is just like that.

In response to this, Aize's attitude of pretending to be stupid was also consistent:

"No, no, I just felt there were too many unreasonable things, so I made some speculations. Informant? How can a foreigner like me have more informants than a local noble like you?"

Even in human territory, even in places such as the former holy city and the current Tafia that can be considered his own territory, Aize is extremely cautious about the exchange and circulation of information.

This is because he knew very well that in terms of intelligence, other human forces were just as dangerous as the demons.

Thanks to his cautious style of doing things, although other human forces are very suspicious, they have never really caught him even once.

So Prince Adrian really had no way to deal with his pretending to be stupid.

He could only move the corners of his mouth in dissatisfaction.

It is obvious that Aize's relationship with the prince is not very good.

In addition to the widespread intelligence system that made him, as the future ruler, instinctively feel wary, the more important reason was that Aize was simply too dazzling.

As an outsider, Aize's influence and prestige in various human forces are too high, not to mention his military achievements - the heads of two leaders alone are more than His Royal Highness the Prince can catch up in his lifetime.

The two are of similar age, both belong to a relatively young generation, and both have outstanding abilities.

Call it dissatisfaction or jealousy, this dissatisfaction is unavoidable.

Aize himself was quite wronged.

At the moment, Aize didn't have the time to care about his personal feelings and continued to ask:

"So, what exactly is going on with the expedition? After all, a letter summoned me from such a faraway place, so I wouldn't leave such a small matter unsaid, right?"

"Marquis Karside, you are doing unnecessary things..."

Adrian put his hands on his hips, looked away slightly, and complained softly.

But Aize is now both a hero and the regent of the kingdom. His status is too powerful. Even if he is the prince of the empire, he cannot be too disrespectful to Aize.

I could only explain reluctantly.

The first half of the incident was consistent with Aize's previous judgment.

Due to the successive deaths of witches and orc armies, a major defensive loophole appeared in the demon's defense line, so Marquis Karseide planned to lead an expedition himself to recapture Lilbas occupied by the demons.

To this end, he used his connections to contact the surrounding nobles, the Church of the Supreme God, and Aize, the so-called "son-in-law."

Of course, the imperial family was also contacted.

Adrian, the actual military leader of the empire, made his own calculations after seeing this plan and modified it.

"In the Marquis's original plan, this was merely a limited counterattack with a small number of legions aimed at retaking a major city. However, under my leadership, it has now escalated into a full-scale, total war."

"From south to north, the armies of the royal family and the nobility will be fully prepared for battle within the next few days. If Lilbas is attacked and the demonic forces mobilize to reinforce, causing the defenses to weaken, the powerful imperial army will launch an all-out attack, reclaiming all occupied land west of the Central Mountain Range in one fell swoop and driving the demons back to their homeland!"

"The above are only basic objectives. During this process, if the demon army suffers heavy losses and is defeated in the battle on this side of the mountain, the imperial army will pursue them while crossing the central mountain range, taking advantage of the situation to enter the demon territory, establish a bridgehead, and prepare for subsequent larger-scale operations. What do you think of this plan?"

"Um……"

Aize didn't rush to answer, but held up his chin and began to think seriously.

At first glance, it didn't seem much different from the counterattack Leah had planned two months ago.

But in fact, the feasibility is more than an order of magnitude higher.

Unlike the kingdom that lost half of its country, the empire did not lose too much territory. After several years of operation, it had accumulated a very powerful army that was capable of launching a full-scale counterattack.

On the other hand, the demon army occupying the imperial territory is mostly backed by the central mountain range and has no strategic depth at all. Once the front line collapses, it will easily fall into the dilemma of being divided, surrounded and annihilated.

Moreover, both the supply and reinforcement acquisition were delayed by the Central Mountain Range, which was a natural disadvantage compared to the Imperial Army fighting on its homeland.

In addition, the premise of the Imperial Army's full-scale counterattack was that the attack on Lierbas would cause chaos in the defense line, rather than a direct attack.

It can be said to be very reasonable.

The only problem seemed to be intelligence work—such a large-scale deployment and mobilization was impossible to carry out without being discovered by the demons...

wrong

Even if I get discovered, it doesn’t matter.

Actions on all fronts would make it impossible for the demon army to determine the empire's attack targets. Even the previously leaked information about the attack on Lierbas might be mistaken by them as false news and no longer be believed.

Even after the attack officially began, the demons would be afraid of the pressure from the massive imperial army in front of them and would not dare to go all out to rescue Lilbas.

In this way, even if the Empire's full-scale counterattack is not actually launched in the end, at least it can ensure that Lilbas will be recaptured smoothly.

Very good plan.

This kind of strategy can only be implemented by an empire that is relatively united internally, has a large number of people, abundant money, and absolute authority.

It is unimaginable that a kingdom is as fragmented as this one.

His Royal Highness the Prince was also obsessed with his own great talent and strategy, and raised his head with a proud look on his face:

"How is it? The plan is perfect, right? Originally, there was no room for you to participate, but I intervened too late. The Marquis wrote to you long ago, and I couldn't stop him. By the way, aren't you taking your wife back to her parents' home this time? Why not..."

"I said, second place."

While Aize was still thinking, Chris next to him was already very angry because of the other party's arrogant attitude.

He took the initiative to step forward and stood in front of Aize.

This sudden address made the prince, who was so proud that he almost laughed out loud, almost bite his tongue and sprain his waist.

Suddenly became exasperated:

"So, you who are married to someone from the Kingdom or even another world, don't call me by that name! Be careful or I will really punish you for insulting the royal family!"

The fact that she would marry someone from the Kingdom or even another world made Chris blush slightly, but the main threat had no effect at all.

The blue-haired girl said very seriously:

"If this plan is carried out, the Imperial Army will have to engage the Demonic Army at every point along the long front. If they fail to break through in the short term, and the enemy concentrates their forces in certain areas to defeat them one by one, what will you do then?"

I can only say that he is worthy of being a top student in college and my most reliable deputy.

What Chris said was exactly what Aize was worried about.

Although the empire's military strength is enough to break through the demons' defenses, it still takes time.

During this period, if the attack is thwarted, the demons will have enough time to respond and deploy reinforcements, or even attack the empire by surprise.

This is very dangerous.

On the other hand, the biggest weakness of the demon clan is disunity.

The premise of disunity is that they think human power is not a big enough threat.

If the Empire's counterattack is truly effective, it will inevitably become a huge threat to the demons, and it is not impossible for them to unite because of this.

By then, the demonic military force that the empire faces may be far greater than what we see now.

To put it bluntly, the formulation of this plan is still mixed with too many personal emotional factors.

The prince in front of him, Adrian, is eager to use a decisive victory to further consolidate his influence in the empire and even the entire human territory.

Facing Chris's questioning, Adrian just smiled disdainfully:

"What? Is that all? Don't worry at all, because I have a backup plan."

"Backhand?"

Aize and Chris looked at each other.

To achieve the above strategy, the Imperial Army must attack with all its might and without reservation, which is the only way to have a theoretical possibility of success.

In other words, he couldn't have any backup plan.

The prince was proud of this again:

"Yeah, backhand, what? Master Aize, the all-knowing hero, actually reacted like this? I see you don't understand at all."

"Uh, understand? Understand what? You can't expect the Kingdom or the Crusade Knights to give you much help, right?"

The several holy war knights and two teams of brave warriors stationed on the imperial front will of course provide assistance, but this is a variable that has long been taken into consideration and cannot be a backup.

"The Holy War Knights? No, it's even more exciting than the Knights!"

As he spoke, the prince took out a beautifully wrapped letter from his breast pocket.

The handwriting on the envelope was unusually beautiful, yet strangely familiar.

And it's eye-catching.

There's even a sense of foreboding.

"I just received news that the church is very interested in my plan. They have sent the chosen hero, Lady Rosalin, to lead a large crusade army. They are on their way here. Is this enough of a backup plan?"

Up until now, this plan actually had about a 30% success rate.

But the moment he took out this thing, Aize knew it was over.

Chapter 32 Know, but not completely

Aize covered his face deeply.

"In order to convince the church, I used a lot of connections and put in a lot of effort, but I really didn't expect to send so many people at once."

Adrian, who was completely clueless, was completely unaware of the problem. Seeing Aize's attitude, he even thought he was intimidated, and thus became even more complacent: