Back in Fort Whitebridge, Vaan began preparing to receive the empire's infiltrators.
There were more ways to make use of them than simple capture and extraction of information. They could also feed them false intel to mislead the empire into making disastrous decisions.
That said, a single mistake would also give the empire an advantage over them.
As such, it was crucial to reduce some of their numbers and ensure the infiltrators could only act within his area of control, where he could keep track of their movements.
"What are we doing out here, my Lord?" Artemis asked after Vaan led her and Aeliana to a secluded and bushy location eight hundred yards away from Fort Whitebridge.
"If you are asking that question, then I suppose it is safe to assume you have no idea about this secret underground passage?" Vaan casually asked after exposing a trapdoor underneath a tile of grass.
Thanks to his Omni-Sense, he was able to detect the hollow passage during his tour around Fort Whitebridge.
The secret passage didn't exactly run right underneath Fort Whitebridge. More accurately, it ran in parallel two hundred yards left of Fort Whitebridge.
Nevertheless, looking at Artemis's surprised and clueless reaction, Vaan understood she had no prior knowledge of its existence.
"Not at all, my Lord!" Artemis denied, shaking her vehemently before saying, "Up until Lord Arderlard's offer today, I have never smuggled the empire's people into the kingdom before, I swear!"
"And yet, Baron Arderlard didn't mention any part of this in the empire's plan to sneak people into the kingdom?" Vaan raised an eyebrow.
"Did they only intend to rely on the night's cover and night watchers' reduction to get past Fort Whitebridge secretly? Unlikely. But if the empire had never sent people to infiltrate the kingdom before either, then this secret passage must have been made by the Assembly of Silent Night."
"I doubt it's the only secret passage either," Vaan guessed with a thoughtful look.
Evidently, he needed to expand his search in order to discover the rest of the secret passages outside his range. The same applied to Dragontail Region and Ironhaven Region.
Nevertheless, considering dark organizations like the Assembly of Silent Night thrived by accepting assassination commissions and selling information, there was a chance that the empire would eventually learn about the secret passages.
If they knew, they wouldn't have made a deal with Artemis, Agatha, and Mesulina. At the same time, they could send more than a mere three hundred to infiltrate the kingdom.
"There's a chance the empire will make use of a secret passage like this during the war once they learn about it. For now, it's best that we don't reveal that we know about this to the empire," Vaan stated.
"Then what have we come here for, my Lord?" Aeliana asked.
"Of course, we can't let the empire and the Assembly of Silent Night know that we know about their secret passages. But that doesn't mean we'll just let their rats slip through without any traps," Vaan stated.
Shortly after he spoke, he searched through Emerald's Plant Compendium and recreated the seed of a Thousand-Mile Scent Flower.
Afterward, he used Wood Manipulation to accelerate its germination and growth.
Once the Thousand-Mile Scent Flower was fully grown, Vaan crushed, dried, and ground it into fine powders, creating the Thousand-Mile Scent-Tracking Powder.
Although the Thousand-Mile Scent-Tracking Powder wasn't common, it wasn't rare either. Thus, there was a chance the empire or Assembly of Silent Night would discover it being used on them.
As such, Vaan instructed Aeliana to scatter her antimagic spores and had them devour the Thousand-Mile Scent-Tracking Power, masking their unique scent and presence.
"Release it into the secret passage."
"Yes, my Lord."
Shortly after receiving Vaan's instruction, Aeliana released her antimagic spores filled with the Thousand-Mile Scent-Tracking Powder into the secret tunnel.
pαпdα-ňᴏνêι·сóМ Then, they left for their next target after covering the trapdoor and traces of ever being in the area.
In total, Vaan discovered seven secret passages through the three border regions; two in Dragontail, one in Ironhaven, and surprisingly four in Whitebridge.
Nevertheless, each secret underground passage was filled with Aeliana's antimagic spores and Thousand-Mile Scent-Tracking Powder all the same.
When Vaan's group returned to Fort Whitebridge, the skies had already started darkening.
They were gone for hours, but the grunts and roars of the battle witches continued to resound within the fort's stone walls as they persevered through their training regime.
Despite the battle witches' bodies soaking in sweat and crying with exhaustion and pain, they still managed to endure the grueling training regime with determined looks.
They had been mentally and physically unfit, but after a quarter of a day's training, they were already showing signs of shedding off their weakness. Their improvement rate was commendable.
It wouldn't have been possible if they didn't have the motivation to endure the training and the magic to speed up their physical recovery.
Evidently, the prospect of becoming High Witches was a deadly temptation to witches stuck at the Peak-stage Senior Witches for many years.
"The battle witches' training regime seems to be going well," Vaan commented as he returned.
"Mm, several battle witches are ready to learn the mana utilization method after some rest. Also, I finished recording the method in all the memory crystals you gave me," Astoria replied.
During the absence of Vaan's group, Astoria had been the one to watch over the fort.
"Thank you, Astoria."
"It was nothing, Vaan."
After their short exchange, there was a brief silence before Vaan asked Astoria to meet him after he rewarded some of the battle witches.
When the battle witches witnessed another five Peak-stage Senior Witches advance to High Witches under Vaan's assistance, they received another boost to their motivation.
"Ooh—! I'll definitely complete this training exercise and become a High Witch!" a blonde battle witch roared with excitement and determination.
"Yeah—!" the rest of the battle witches shouted even louder.
…
Nevertheless, Vaan didn't stick around after motivating the battle witches.
Instead, he met up with Astoria by the stone wall, where she stood and peered into the distant land of the Holy Knight Empire that lay across Stormwind Lake.
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