155 Heijo
The Next Day
As noon approached, Lilinette and Luis headed to the Turelina Residence to discuss the continuation of business between the two regions, Edenia and Arcadia.
They also intended to talk about emergency evacuation plans for the residents.
Kirana entrusted all of these discussions to her cousin. She had faith in Lilinette's diplomatic, negotiation, and tactical planning skills more than her own.
While Kirana was also a tactical expert, her expertise lay more in warfare tactics than in situations where two opposing sides played on a chessboard.
Lilinette and Cien were much more proficient in handling such matters.
Cien had already been briefed on the current situation in Edenia and Westa as a whole.
He always contacted Kirana precisely at ten in the evening to report his findings.
After that report, Kirana noticed Cien seemed to immediately contact Lilinette. It seemed they were beginning to plan something.
In the morning, Cien contacted Kirana again, instructing her to send people to monitor the neighboring city of Edenia and gather information about the amassed military forces.
Instead of delegating the task to her subordinates, Kirana decided to go alone to the neighboring city, known as Heijo City.
The size of this city was only half that of Edenia, and its population was not as large, but it was a bustling place for visitors as it was one of the routes to the Garden of Kastia—Edenia.
Entering Heijo City, Kirana, who had concealed herself with a cloak and mask, walked through the tense streets.
The residents and visitors alike wore stiff expressions, lacking smiles on their faces.
Even the voices of street vendors, who usually enthusiastically promoted their wares by the roadside, were completely silent.
Most of the vendors sat in their seats with downcast and weary faces. Despite the significant number of people walking through the city, be they vendors or visitors, Kirana didn't see any interest in their faces to engage in anything.
Instead, she sensed an atmosphere of anxiety, as if they wished the day would end sooner.
'The residents are not foolish. There has been no announcement of war here, but judging from the number of soldiers entering, they must have already suspected what was about to happen.'
Kirana thought as she crouched down in front of a fruit vendor.
"One bag of Redberries," Kirana said.
"Oh, alright, Miss...!"
The vendor was taken aback when he saw the customer approaching him.
She was wearing a cloak that covered her from head to toe and a clean white mask with holes for her eyes.
No matter how the fruit vendor looked at Kirana, he couldn't shake the feeling of suspicion towards his buyer.
"Don't worry, I'm just a tourist from Almarin who just arrived. I'm not a suspicious person."
The vendor nodded and then filled a woven bag with Redberries.
In Kastia, most small-scale vendors like fruit sellers didn't use weight measurements to sell their goods. Usually, they sold items individually or by the bag.
"Here, ten Tia," the fruit vendor said, handing over the bag filled with Redberries with trembling hands.
Kirana handed twenty Tia to the seller, leaving him momentarily stunned.
"Can you tell me what's happening here? Why does Heijo seem darker than I remember?" she inquired.
The vendor began to sweat profusely, glancing around nervously as if he feared someone might be watching.
Cling!
The sound of coins in a small pouch echoed on the table. The vendor turned towards the source of the sound.
"Fifty Tia," Kirana said.
Gulp.
The vendor quickly swept the pouch of coins off the table and motioned for his buyer to lean closer. He proceeded to explain the current situation in Heijo.
After hearing everything, Kirana left with a bag of Redberries in her arms.
'Almost all the information from the fruit vendor matches what Isabelle told me yesterday.'
Kirana thought as she entered a dark alley, piecing together the information she had gathered so far.
According to the fruit vendor's account, the soldiers from Rostgard were the first to arrive in Heijo. Their arrival had a specific purpose: to find the missing First Prince.
A week later, the next wave of troops arrived, also hailing from Rostgard.
Initially, the residents and C-Owl believed that their arrival was related to the search for the First Prince.
However, the day after the arrival of these second troops, a clash erupted between the two Rostgard forces, resulting in several casualties.
According to intelligence from C-Owl, the clash was caused by the second Rostgard troops interfering with the efforts of the first troops in their search for the First Prince.
This led to a furious confrontation between the two forces.
Following the fight, both the first and second Rostgard forces restricted their search areas, with the first force in the north and the second force in the south.
After a few days, another wave of troops arrived, this time numbering in the thousands and coming from Ethyria.
They immediately occupied the military headquarters in the south, which had been taken over by the second Rostgard force.
From that moment on, the residents and visitors began to sense a foreboding presence.
They could now think that the arrival of these troops was not solely for the purpose of finding the First Prince, but for some other agenda.
Indeed, about three days later, the commander of the first Rostgard force was found dead in a brothel in the city center, a shocking piece of news for the residents.
Soon after, while this news was still fresh, the second Rostgard force took over the troops left leaderless by their commander and occupied the northern military headquarters.
Meanwhile, the southern part was now inhabited by the Ethyrian forces.
One question that lingered in Kirana's mind was, "Where are the leaders of Heijo?"
As for the ruler of Heijo himself, Baron Juno, he was currently fulfilling Duke Grenhall's request to join the invasion of the Farnodt territory.
This meant that it was likely Baron Juno was currently in Lumiere. However, the city's leaders and Baron Juno's children should have been overseeing the city left behind by their leader.
But, whether it was from Isabelle or the recent fruit vendor, Kirana had not heard any information about the movements of the rulers of Heijo.
Based on what she learned from Isabelle, it appeared that the city's elites and Baron's family members had not been seen leaving their residences at all.
C-Owl agents could not enter their territories and had to flee Heijo due to increased surveillance.
Additionally, Isabelle mentioned that before the C-Owl agents left Heijo, the members of the first Rostgard force in the northern part of the city had not been seen leaving since the takeover by the second force.
There were three possibilities: they were guarding the headquarters, confined in an underground chamber, or the last and darkest possibility, they had been killed. No one knew their fate.
Regarding the additional information Kirana obtained from the fruit vendor, there had been a disturbance in the southern military headquarters, where the Ethyrian forces were stationed.
Apparently, the disturbance was significant enough to damage several buildings there. However, the situation had returned to normal the following day.
Furthermore, over the past two weeks, soldiers from Rostgard and Ethyria were increasingly seen on the streets.
It was not uncommon for them to suddenly seize people forcefully, adding to the eerie atmosphere of the city.
Kirana, walking in an alley, then leaped onto a rooftop.
From there, she watched as soldiers seemed to be searching for something throughout the city of Heijo.
Kirana leaped from rooftop to rooftop, observing the movements of the soldiers in the city.
Besides searching, she could also see that Ethria's troops were gathering at the northern headquarters.
"Is this war?" she wondered. "But... what are they looking for?"
Kirana was at least seventy percent sure that these troops were preparing to attack Edenia.
But there was a portion of the troops that seemed to be focused on finding something.
The arrests of people on the streets could be interpreted as a means to gather intelligence through interrogation.
"Could it really be the First Prince?"
Isabelle believed that the first Rostgard force was sent by Queen Westya.
Their goal was indeed to find the First Prince, but their efforts were hindered by the subsequent forces.
Kirana stopped on the rooftop of a building near the southern military headquarters.
She then jumped down, entered an alley, and waited for nightfall.
'If Isabelle's assumption is correct, it means the First Prince is in Heijo. But his exact whereabouts remain a question. Did he disappear because he fled, or was he kidnapped and held captive?'
Based on the arrival of the second force and the murder of the commander of the first force, Kirana leaned towards the second possibility.
Someone had captured the First Prince and was holding him in Heijo.
The second force had come to stop Queen Westya's forces from finding him.
With their business here finished, both the second Rostgard force and Ethyria were now shifting their attention to Edenia, a region that had never cooperated and remained defiant under the rule of the current Prime Minister.
'Sigh... I've only just returned to Westya, and this is the situation I find... it's worse than I expected.'
Thought Kirana as she continued to wait until late at night.
She reported additional information to Cien, who had been contacting her. Only then did she start moving again.
One thing was on Kirana's mind at the moment. If the Ethyrian troops had indeed been sent here, there should be members of their regiment from her time as a Commander.
Since she had been observing the southern military headquarters from within the alley, Kirana had not seen any sign of them at all.
She initially thought they might not be involved, but when she saw other soldiers, she became confident that the soldiers were indeed from Ethyria.
Kirana then recalled the fruit vendor's mention of the disturbance at the southern military headquarters. There had been some friction there.
"Let's find out!"
