Five days later—

"Are you Her Royal Highness the First Princess?"

"Yes, this is the message just received by the command. The exact number is still being verified, but it should be at least six hundred people or more."

"The garrison of Windhowl Keep has already implemented containment. They should be transferred to Neverwinter City by land after a period of rest."

"No, this is what we should do."

"Thank you for your hard work, please get some rest."

After finishing the report, Edith steadily hung up the phone.

As the highest-level means of communication currently available, the hand-cranked telephone has become an indispensable piece of equipment for the General Staff. However, due to limitations on transmission distance, only the air knight camp outside Thorn Town is currently directly connected to Cage Mountain Highland.

As soon as she turned around, she saw her third brother, Lance Kant, looking surprised.

"Is there anything wrong?"

Unlike her second brother, Cole, Edith used her connections to directly transfer Lance, who had passed the elementary education assessment, to the General Staff—considering that her third brother was more lively, she thought it would be more appropriate to keep an eye on him herself.

Of course, this also made it easier for her to appreciate his pain when he encountered setbacks.

"Ah... no, it's nothing. I'm just a little surprised that you, Eldest Sister, can be so respectful to people." Lance walked forward with a stack of documents. "You've never been so polite, even when talking to Father."

"I thought your brain capacity would improve a little after you became an adult." Edith didn't care. "I can talk to Father like that because he won't do anything to me. But Tilly Wimbledon is His Majesty Roland's sister. If she mentions my rudeness to her brother, what do you think will happen to the Kant family's future?"

"But I always feel that you... aren't this serious even with His Majesty himself..."

"Because His Majesty is male, occasionally taking the initiative can produce unexpected results."

"Uh... I don't quite understand..."

"People's hearts are the highest realm of strategy. It's normal if you don't understand," Edith shrugged. "Even if you have a thousand skills, you still can't become the ultimate victor if you don't understand people's hearts."

"Sister, can you teach me?" Lance asked expectantly.

"Of course," Edith glanced at him with interest. "However, compared to simple lectures, personal experience is the most effective in everything. For example, Cole is doing very well in this regard. How about it, would you like to try?"

Lance suddenly felt a chill run up his spine. Thinking of how his brother was at home, he swallowed. "That... I'll wait a little longer."

The Pearl of the North withdrew her gaze. "It's up to you."

Relieved, Lance quickly changed the subject. "By the way, did you call Her Highness to report the safe arrival of the refugees?"

Edith nodded. "After all, Her Highness Tilly instructed the General Staff about this matter as soon as she returned, so of course, we must inform her as soon as possible."

The entire rescue operation exceeded everyone's expectations. The air knights not only rushed to the battlefield 200 kilometers away in just over an hour and rescued a large number of refugees, but also thwarted the devil's scheme in one fell swoop.

That's right, this was not an ordinary hunt. Judging from the clues obtained after the fact, the refugees were probably just bait thrown out by the enemy, and the real fatal blow was hidden behind the pursuing team.

What if the First Army really sent a rescue team to respond?

Due to the bad weather and long distance, they would have to travel light and travel day and night to arrive quickly. And the devils, in order to prolong the pursuit time as much as possible, were completely taking it easy. When the two sides collided, the rescue team would find that they were facing not only an enemy force with at least as many people as themselves, but also had to resist attacks from terror beasts.

Even if they retreated immediately, they would have to trudge nearly a hundred kilometers in the wind and snow. How many people would be able to escape back in the end? Probably none.

This was the devil's first attempt to probe the First Army's full contraction.

Even if the latter didn't care about the refugees at all, or didn't even notice the pursuit north of Windhowl Keep, the devils would not suffer any losses.

They had probably realized that there was a fundamental difference between the Graycastle people and the Wolfheart and Everwinter people. Even if they killed more locals, it would not have any impact on the outcome of the Divine Will Battle. And every time they eliminated a rescue team, they would weaken the power of mankind by one point.

But the appearance of the air knights caught the ambush off guard.

Everything was somewhat similar to the Battle of Looking North Slope a year ago. The enemy and the First Army each made judgments that were beneficial to themselves, but the results were completely different.

Even if Tilly hadn't discovered another enemy force lurking behind, the battle situation would not have changed in any way.

In the end, the flight team returned safely, and the fleeing refugees luckily escaped from danger. It could be completely described as a great victory.

"The air knights are really amazing..." Lance exclaimed. "They not only killed dozens of Mad Demons, but also retreated safely from the ambush, even the former Association's Holy Guard would find it difficult to do that, right?"

"Yes, they are indeed remarkable."

Letting out a long breath, Edith propped her legs on the table and leaned back slowly in her chair, feeling a little listless for a moment.

Lance was stunned. "You seem... a little unhappy?"

"It's not that I'm unhappy, I just feel that... the General Staff will soon become a decoration."

"Eh?" Her third brother's eyes widened.

"Four Skyfire aircraft can repel more than two hundred devils. What if the First Army had a hundred, or even a thousand Skyfire aircraft?" Edith smiled. "Then, with just one sentence, we can send the air knights wherever there is enemy activity. Strategy and calculations will become meaningless, and anyone can say the former sentence. If it comes to this point, what else is the General Staff but a decoration?"

In fact, when she first saw this kind of machine that could fly freely, she had already realized its huge military potential. Afterwards, she talked the most with Roland about the use of air knights. She even set up a team in the General Staff specifically to study air force tactics, in order to maximize the use of these new weapons.

But when it really shined in the first battle, the Pearl of the North felt a hint of regret.

Because the advantage of the air knights was too obvious, the importance of strategy decreased instead. In the age of knights, there was a lot of attention to troop deployment and tactical formulation, but now it has undoubtedly been simplified a lot—due to the air force's visual advantage, it can make battlefield intelligence transparent, and coupled with its extremely strong mobility, it is enough to cut off the entire combat area.

In other words, as long as you can occupy the sky, you can completely grasp the enemy's every move, while the enemy's situation is completely opposite. Facing the situation, they are almost completely in the dark, and it is difficult to make effective responses other than passively being beaten.

Not to mention that His Majesty also revealed that the Skyfire aircraft were only just starting, just like the flintlock gun compared to the current Mark I.

"In that case... let's go back to Evernight City," Lance whispered.

"I'm afraid it's too late," Edith chuckled. "I'm afraid I've offended a lot of people to get to this position. Do you think those people will let me enjoy my remaining years?"

Of course, she knew that if the person in power was Roland, naturally nothing would happen, but she never hesitated to calculate her fate with the worst possible outcome, because those malicious words could always hurt others.

"I will... protect you." Lance bit his lip.

"Rely on what? Your current position and ability? If you don't climb to a high position, you should say less of such empty words." She felt a sense of pleasure arise spontaneously. "Otherwise, the result will only be worse, such as those enemies in front of you, putting me—"

Edith suddenly closed her mouth.

Footsteps sounded outside the room, and soon Phyllis Xilkte pushed the door open and walked in.

"Your Excellency, so you're here..."

"What is it? Has new intelligence arrived?"

"If only that were the case," Phyllis Dawnlight showed a headache expression. "I just checked the air knight training camp's material needs list, and I'm afraid the recent logistics plans will have to be redone."

"Oh?"

"You may not know, but they have used nearly ten thousand bullets in the past few days, and that doesn't include the consumption during formal attacks." Phyllis said distressedly, "And those trainees only have twenty or thirty people in total. This demand is already equivalent to the consumption of ten squads of the musket battalion! Not to mention the reserves of fuel, aircraft parts, etc. I think if their numbers double again, how can logistics keep up... Uh, Your Excellency?"

Lance suddenly discovered that the laziness on his sister had disappeared without a trace.

Edith stood up from her seat and replied casually, "This task will be led by you. You must ensure the supply of the air knights no matter what." Then she looked at Lance, "What are you still standing there for?"

"Yes?" The latter was unable to come back to his senses for a moment.

"Come with me to the intelligence room. It's far from time to rest yet." Edith neatly brushed back her hair and turned to walk out of the room.