Chapter 634 — The Plan
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
Victoria's expression scarcely changed. She simply asked quietly, "...If Saint Sunil truly cannot hold, you have a follow-up plan, do you not?"
"...Nothing more than abandoning the entire northern region and the Plains of the Holy Spirit, preserving the southern and eastern regions, and building a western defense line before the contamination reaches the west," Gaoyang said, making no secret of the fallback to his fallback plans. "The pressure to survive will make those regions submit to a new order of rule, and I am confident that once the new defense line is built, I can stabilize the situation and gradually retake the contaminated areas."
Victoria was silent for a moment, then finally could not help saying, "It sounds as though you place very little hope in the nobles of the kingdom."
Gaorong laughed and asked in return, "And it sounds as though your hopes are rather high?"
"...I admit my expectations of them are not as high as they were a few years ago," Victoria said slowly. "But I believe Saint Frost Perch can be held—as long as word of reinforcements can reach the Silver Fortress in time."
Gaoyang looked intrigued. "May I hear where your confidence comes from?"
"Grand Duke Baiyu Franklin, and Welsh Moen," Victoria said, watching Gaosong's eyes with particular earnestness. "They will hold that city—for as long as the reinforcements need, they will hold."
"...Your assessment of Welsh Moen is higher than I imagined."
"My task was once to watch him, so I know him. Prince Welsh has never lacked ability—he simply chose to step back of his own accord. But if the kingdom needs him, he will still step forward," Victoria said. "And besides him, besides Grand Duke Baiyu, the royal capital still has many reliable people. We have Count Cromwell Baishan, the loyal Royal Knights, Commander Cohen Loren—perhaps half the nobles in the capital are thinking of abandoning the city and fleeing, but at least the other half will choose to hold to the very end."
Gaoyang looked at Victoria quietly, and she looked quietly back at him. After two seconds of eye contact, the "Ice and Snow Duchess" let out a soft breath.
"I know our generation has disappointed you, Duke Cecil. Perhaps the nobles of Ansu today really have rotted—but please believe that not everyone has rotted. There are still many who hope this kingdom can rise again, and who work for it."
"Including Edmund Moen and Silas Loren?"
"...Including them."
"But they still failed. You failed too. The many progressives in the capital, those you say have not rotted, the nobles who worked to revive this kingdom—they all failed. Why do you think they failed?" Gaoyang stared into Victoria's eyes. "Merely because the Order of the End of All Things suddenly came in and stirred up trouble?"
The gaze of the founding duke carried an indescribable pressure. Those deep brown eyes were profound and sharp, sharper by far than the snowstorms and mountains of the north. Victoria could not help holding her breath—for many years it had been she who overawed others with her authority, and she had almost forgotten what it felt like to face such intimidation. In a daze she seemed to be carried back many years, back to her childhood, back to facing the stern eyes of the previous duke.
Her father, as she remembered him, pointed at the sickly plants in the courtyard and asked her a question: "If pruning, fertilizing, watering, and applying medicine all fail, what should you do?"
The fleeting fragment of memory came and went in a flash. Victoria came back to herself, and before her eyes were still Gaoyang's deep, sharp eyes.
"Actually, you know the answer," Gaidai said. "You simply have no choice."
Victoria answered with silence.