Blessed Land

I sat down while she did the same. She placed her bandage arm on the table. It was on top of a large map of the empire and the surrounding nations. The map was extremely detailed with information on terrain, forts, troop placements, and other strategic data. 

It was clearly a military map. 

"Do you know where this is?" she asked while pointing to a certain place on the map. 

It was a large plain located on the western border. It was a place where the empire often had small conflicts with the bordering nation of Languis. 

"Lavzan Plains." I said. Even though the place wasn't named on the map, I knew what it was. 

The general smiled as she nodded. "You probably know that we often have small skirmishes there with the Languis Kingdom." 

"Hmm." I confirmed. 

"Then..do you know why we fight there?" she asked with a smirk. 

"Uhh...no!" I replied after thinking about it. I had no idea why they would choose to fight on such open fields. 

Flat plains were only used for full-scale wars. Small skirmishes often happened on more complicated terrain so you could have a way to escape or avoid your enemies. I never thought about why they would use the overly flat Lavzan Plains when it would be harder to retreat or escape. 

"Hehehe.." she chuckled while making a face of amusement. But that didn't last long as she donned a serious expression. 

"What I'm about to tell you is a military secret, only known to those who need to know. I was planning on telling you when you officially joined the SSB but things happen." 

The general looked at her body with a sour gaze when saying the latter part. Things indeed did happen as she was far from an optimal state. 

"Alright. I swear not to tell those who don't need to know." I said solemnly. I wasn't going to keep this swear though. 

But the general had no choice but to believe that I would keep. She believed that I would at least not tell it to people who could harm the empire. The Vornix clan's interests were heavily tied to the stability of the empire. We wouldn't do anything to harm it. 

"Hmm." She acknowledged my swear and then moved her finger past the plains. It landed on a small forest that was marked as 'Grindel's Forest'. 

"What the Linguis empire wants is control over the Grindel's Forest." she revealed.

The forest was located on the eastern end of the plains, completely part of our territory and a decent distance from the border. 

I was confused as to why they would want a forest that was this small. According to the map, it was so small that a single person could run through it in a day. 

"Don't be fooled by the size of the forest. It is a Blessed Land." the general said with a heavy tone. 

"A blessed land? Arent they much bigger than that!?" I raised my voice in shock.

A blessed land was supposed to be an incredibly large piece of land where rare herbs and resources could be found in spades. Even the existence of the smallest Blessed lands was enough to foster a ridiculous amount of powerful people. 

They are often considered the most valuable to raising a nation's military strength without the excessive use of pills. While pills increase the speed of cultivation and can improve the strength of one's physique, they also can't be used recklessly. 

Overuse of pills often leads to severe illnesses and damage to one's organs. Pills were meant to be used once in a while. 

On the other hand, herbs from a blessed land could be used in whatever amount you wanted. These herbs were also more potent than pills while having no side effects. 

The miracle of these herbs is why the lands are called blessed as if they were gifts from the gods. These gifts are kept as secret as possible by the rulers of countries as they could be used to nurture and strengthen their families for generations. 

The ruling families can stay the strongest as long as they have abundant resources from these lands. 

"That's why I said to not be fooled by the size. The forest is bigger on the inside." She proceeded to explain what was actually going on. 

Apparently, space worked a bit strangely when one entered the forest. Though it looked small from the outside, those who entered would be sent to a much larger space. 

The forest on the inside was so big that the imperial family had been unable to figure out its actual size even though they had been mapping it for over 80 years. 

This was extremely strange as none of the recorded blessed lands in history or the currently existing ones had such an aspect. None of them had such a strange spatial aspect to them as they were the size you could see from flying high enough. 

"How did the Languis kingdom find out?" I asked with worry. 

"We don't know. The only ones who knew it existed and have explored it are family members or our most trusted aids. They are all people who could never leak the information." she said with confidence. 

I believed her too. The only people who knew about this place were the royal family and their closest aides. The aides wouldn't betray the royals as they were raised by them from birth and had been instilled with so much loyalty that it would be impossible to revolt. 

The royals themselves wouldn't leak it. Why would you let your enemies know of your greatest weakness/strength? 

"Wait, how do you guys know that Languis knows? They could have some other reason for fighting near the plains." I questioned. 

"They said it themselves." replied the general. "Ten years ago, before the fighting in the plains began. Envoys from Languis met with the emperor and revealed to him that they knew. The fight over the plains began soon after." 

I went silent at this revelation. None of this made any sense. A secret known to a handful of people who would never share it had been found by the enemies. 

The enemies then decided to openly reveal that they knew and started to fight for it without any actual effort. If they wanted the blessed land, they could have started a legitimate war then. 

The Languis kingdom had enough strength then to at least carve away and hold control over the forest if they did a surprise attack. They could have harvested it for a couple of years before Zlatan retaliated and took it back. 

By then, they would have made a hefty profit. 

Why wait over a decade? What is it that the Languis kingdom wants? 

There are even more questions than this but the only one I could get an answer to now was...

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked with wariness. 

I thought she would be sharing with me some sort of military secret and needed some strategic input. I wasn't expecting one of the deepest secrets of the imperial family to be shared. 

Even though the Vornix clan has been loyal to the Zlatan imperial family for centuries doesn't mean they could share such a secret with its heir. 

As close as we are, the Vornix clan is just as greedy as any other noble. 

"Haaa..." the powerful woman sighed. "We wouldn't have chosen to tell you unless we had a choice." 

She stood up from her chair and started walking towards her cabinet displaying armor and sword. 

"All our generals and strategic minds are occupied with preparing for the upcoming war." 

She softly placed her palm on the glass that sprayed her from her precious armor. She turned and looked at me with a turned look. 

"As much as I hate to admit it, we just don't have enough capable minds to deal with the flurry of issues that have popped up in the past couple of weeks and months.

I had a talk with the principal of the Supreme Sword School. As I am one of his best-performing alumni, he was more than happy to give me a more detailed explanation of your capabilities." 

She came walked back to her chair and sat down. 

"He told me how you were able to effectively control multiple fronts while also being able to decipher the enemy's hidden intentions with 95% accuracy." 

She took a bottle of wine from her spatial storage along with 2 wine glasses. 

She placed one wine glass in front of me and one in front of her. She then handed the wine bottle to me. 

"I would like you to focus on handling the Languis Kingdom. Your tasks will be to find out everything that they are planning while also thwarting any military actions they take." 

I grabbed the bottle while listening to everything silently. The gesture of handing the wine bottle to me was symbolic of giving me the assignment. 

If I choose to pour us wine at this moment, it would mean that I agree. If I don't pour it, it means I refuse. I don't really have much of a choice. 

She had already tied me down by sharing a secret so deep that refusal meant making an enemy out of the royal family. Not only was this woman strong, but she also hid her cunning nature well. 

"Haaah..." I sighed. I wouldn't have taken the job at the SSB if I knew that Elina had the whereabouts of a core healing technique. 

I don't really regret it though as such a piece of information was worth it. I had some plans in mind about what I could do with it. 

I popped the cork off the bottle with minimal effort and poured her some wine. I then put the cork back on the bottle. 

General Karina looked at me with intrigue. 

"You don't like wine?" she asked. 

"No. I've had some bad experiences with it." I say while looking at my empty glass. 

"Can you tell me what they were?" She had gotten curious but this curiosity wasn't meant to be fed. 

"No." I said outright. Some things were better if kept to myself. 

"Hmph." she scoffed. "Whatever. Since you said nothing, I guess you accept the task. Further details will be given when you reach the capitol. You may take your leave." 

"Alright. Take care, your grace." I said my farewell and left the tent. 

I made my way out of the soldier's camp. I passed the Duke's camp where I could see the family had already started their dinner. 

I didn't spare them more than a glance. I was hungry and craving my mother's food after such a mental drain.

I joined my family at the table where food had just been served. As always, my mother had a good grasp on timing.

No one asked me what the general had summoned me for. The elders were definitely curious but they wouldn't ask. They knew that sometimes being ignorant was better. 

There were certain things they were better off not knowing. This was definitely one of them. 

After all, no one would like to know the imperial family's secrets as that would make them tied to them in a dangerous way. 

Once you knew, you couldn't deny any request made in relation to the secret. It was one of the sharpest tactics used by the royals to their retainers in control. 

Of course, I was going to share this burden with Elina and Celes. As much as I didn't want to put them in harm's way, the royals wouldn't be able to know if I had shared it with someone or who I had shared it with. 

The girls needed to know in order for what I had planned. 

So the next morning, I told them what happened. Elina seemed to already know as she donned a scary smile.