The empire had dozens of lords. Without an emperor to give orders, these lords didn't always get along. Most had complicated issues with each other. A few even secretly fought sometimes.
Because of this, after the war, soldiers from different lords didn't join together. They formed small groups based on who their masters were friends with. They were scared to go back to the main army in case they got punished for running away in battle. But they didn't have enough supplies to get all the way home either.
So these small groups started fighting each other in the forest, stealing food to survive. As time passed, some died and others joined up. When they ran out of things to steal, they became a big group of bandits in Sylvanvale Wood. Finally, they decided to attack Sifur city.
"Now you understand? The enemy is much stronger than us. Our spies say they'll attack tonight! If they break into the city, all the people here will die!" Elder Gwendolyn explained.
I finally realized how serious things were. Everyone in Sifur had to help defend the city. But then I thought - they were also lucky. This city was chosen for peace talks between the empire and Earth. The empire should send soldiers soon to stop any trouble.
"Oh, you mean Katarina's group? They arrived a few days ago! But they didn't expect bandits to attack, so I haven't seen any soldiers from the capital. If you mean the guards who came with them, there's only about ten. They're helping defend the city now too," Gwendolyn said, surprising me.
"The imperial princess is already here? Oh yeah..." I remembered that nobes can travel fast by air ship or teleportation.
But I still didn't understand. This was such an important meeting about the empire's future. Why was security so bad? What was Reider thinking?
"About other imperial soldiers..." Gwendolyn's tone changed. She sent away the other maids, closed the door, and used magic so no one could hear us. Then she told me a secret.
"You don't know this, but Katarina's group told me - the emperor disappeared after the big battle! They checked, and no one kidnapped him. They think Reider left by himself! The capital is trying to hide this, but soon everyone will know!"
"What? Reider ran away?!" I was so shocked. I'd never heard of an emperor running away before! Reider didn't have any wives or kids, so no one knew where he went.
"If he's not in the capital, then why are they having peace talks..."
Katarina came as the emperor's ambassador. If Gwendolyn was right, we needed to think about this again.
"Katarina is from the old royal family, so she has a lot of power now. She wants these peace talks. If she can stop the humans from Earth, it will help her become the new ruler! So she sent most soldiers to guard the capital, in case Reider's supporters rebel. Even if there's big trouble here, soldiers can't come from so far away quickly. The nobes from the capital are very scared of the bandits now!"
Wow! Gwendolyn knew all the gossip! The Sebastian family usually supported the old royal family, so Katarina's group didn't hide these things from them.
"But without help, if the bandits take over Sifur, won't Katarina be in danger too?"
I didn't care where Reider went right now. Katarina was taking a big risk to become ruler! If something happened to her, the peace talks would be delayed. That wasn't good for the empire.
I didn't think Katarina would just let things get worse. But the city guards weren't strong enough to fight so many bandits. Unless...
"You told me all this because you want the angels to help fight, right?" I asked suspiciously. What happened to keeping secrets? She told me all the empire's top secrets so easily!
Elder Gwendolyn was a powerful ten-winged angel. She might fight to protect the Sebastian family! But light magic isn't very good against big human armies, even for strong angels.
But if there were more angels, it would be different! The First Legion was staying with the light elves, and Gwendolyn definitely knew that. But she was too late.
"Serena and the others already left for the Republic. It's too late to ask them now!"
"You're thinking too much! I did think about that before, but things changed. We don't need to do that anymore. Plus, those people specially mentioned you guys!"
I didn't understand who she meant. Gwendolyn just pointed at a room across the hall. "They're talking in there. If you're curious, go look yourself!"
Now I was really curious. I walked over and slowly opened the door...
"Don't worry, we already told our base to send help! It takes half a day by car, but only 2-3 hours by air. If things go well, they should arrive by evening!"
"That fast? Your world is really amazing. Our empire's last ruler was stupid to start this war. I apologize for the dumb things he did!"
It was a big meeting room full of people!
A woman about 30 years old sat in the main seat. She wore fancy noble clothes but looked very smart. She was saying nice things and trying to bow to two people next to her.
"No need for that now! We just came here to trade. We happened to find this trouble. The real talks start in a few days. We're stuck in the city now too, so of course we'll help solve this problem. Let's save those words for the official meeting later!"
I could tell from their clothes that the two people were from Earth. The man speaking was Wayne Peng! He seriously refused the woman's politeness. Then he heard the door open and turned to look at me.
"It's you!"
Wayne Peng recognized me. After our fight last time, I didn't expect to meet him again like this. I hoped he wouldn't try to fight me again!
He looked very surprised too. He stood there for a moment, then said nervously:
"You're here too? They just asked me how I know this world's language. I told them about you bird... I mean angels with wings! I only just found out there are angels in this world. So it looks like... we were wrong about you guys last time!"