Chapter 595: Female Rulers
After unifying the Castall under Hezri Kingdom, the King, Hiro Hezri left the country and went east. His destination was Orlais.
After reorganizing the army at the southern Thedas continent again, they originally planned to swarm Orlais state. Cass Brankovic, the Military Minister advised the king that the best time to attack was after the harvest. One reason behind this was the logistics of the now bigger Red army. Orlais had little forest, thus there were not many wild animals to feed on. If they ignored this issue and just attacked like this, they would have to pillage food from villagers.
The King did not wish for that.
The Prime Minister, Ivanna Reskina started toward the east for the battle that would take place 2 months later, but just because the battle was still 2 months away did not mean that the Prime Minister was free. Cass didn’t even have to point it out. Ivanna moved the Red army to the Korcari Wilds, where the wild animals were rampant, to secure food that could be preserved. Another reason they came to the large forest was to reorganize their offensive forces.
There was no village in Korcari Wilds after all. They didn't want to disturb the life of normal plebeians.
Just as Cass had planned, the Red army was going to be attacking in a series of reinforcements , but the question of who would attack where still needed to be answered.
Count Brian Haddock, a veteran who had individual achievements in the Castall conquest was eager to lead his army. But Cass believed that Brian Haddock was better suited for a battlefield that was not tight-fisted with time.
“If we want to engage skirmishes with small reinforcements, we need individuals that excel in fighting alone,” Cass advised.
There were three women sitting around the table in the luxurious room - Ivanna the Prime Minister, Cass Brankovic the Military Minister and Scarlet Carolingian. Clementine the king's bodyguard was sitting and drinking liquor further away from them, not involved in the meeting.
Cass and Ivanna were the two highest ranked positions in military affairs beside the King. Meanwhile, King had declared Scarlet Carolingian as the Princess of the Kingdom. Although she appeared to be on a higher rank than Prime Minister, Scarlet actually had no authority. Her so-called Princess position was a mere figurehead position.
Scarlet was involved in this meeting as Cass understood Scarlet was not only a very capable fighter, but also had experience on the most top of military affairs of her former kingdom. She needed her input.
Originally, the King went there with a handful of companions for an intelligence gathering mission before attacking from inside.
However, no one predicted a civil war to break out in that stable country. Thus, Cass had to wait and see.
The King made sure to tell them in his letters to avoid a one on one confrontation and sent a series of small reinforcements.
"And next I shall personally.." Before Ivanna could finish her sentence, Cass interrupted.
“In regards to that, please wait for a while.”
Cass usually always gave a clear answer, so when she said that, the Prime Minister raised her red coloured brows.
"There’s one problem presently facing us. That is how to deal with the enemy’s large army should they decide to attack the neighbouring countries.”
“They’ve only been annexing Orlais until now. Are you saying they’re planning to attack now?”
“From the intelligence network I’ve established, the crown prince of Fanoss himself is planning to appear and lead an attack.”
“The crown prince.. Sullivan… The successor, huh.”
Ivanna groaned as she folded her thin arms.
"Blanche Ririnoie is also on the move." Cass spoke which made Scarlet feel perplexed.
Ivanna added, "And Selena Saxon seems to have a lot of warriors imported from the former Olga Federation."
Silence enveloped the luxurious room in Redcliffe castle as both Scarlet and Cass knew Ivanna Reskina was the daughter of one of the former kings in that empire in the northern Thedas continent.
Everyone also knew Ivanna was the King's first ever lover and they fled together from Olga with Sekrit and Clementine. The four of them went through life and death situations by themselves. The other two women, Sekrit and Clementine, although not having any authority, were the King's only personal bodyguards.
Sekrit was accompanying the King in his undercover mission in Orlais while Clementine was forced to remain in Redcliffe.
Actually Ivanna had forced Clementine to stay in the room to be in their discussion but the wild Clementine had just been drinking wine alone behind them, being indifferent to the trio's discussion.
Cass knew Ivanna, Clementine and Scarlet were excellent fighters who were eager to personally fight in the battlefield but the King asked her to make the two girls busy with ruling the country on behalf of him.
Furthermore, as civil war was happening in Orlais, the King thought of relying more on local soldiers. Cass had to think on how small reinforcements could give effective supporting roles.
Personally, Cass preferred her current lifestyle compared her days in Dioral kingdom. There, although she came from respectable noble families and had proven her ability, she was discriminated due to her gender.
Here in the the newly established country, she was free to decide anything on military matters. The King and Prime Minister followed her advice.