Konrad's temporary office was only half the size of the Inquisitor's old suite.
Well, it belonged to Stella now, but she couldn't force herself to call it her own.
Too bad, she ruined the actual administrative center of this town—along with half the city. Not that comfort was the only reason she'd regret doing that.
Now, she had to make do with this, whether she liked it or not.
And no, she didn't like it at all. Not even a little.
It was way too small to do any serious work in it. If there were more than two people with her, the place would already feel cramped. And Welf and Eyna never left her side.
She was actually grateful for them, but there was no space left for guards or documents.
So once the main door flew open, Bor was in her face before she could even blink.
The tribesman wasn't the type to pretend he liked her, but at least he was an ally.
Had an enemy barged in like that, Stella would have already been dead.
And on the note of enemies—
"We have a problem," the lieutenant grunted, his nervous eyes scanning the room.
They looked anywhere but at her.
"Only one?" Welf asked with a grimace, crossing his arms as he leaned against her desk. "I thought we had a lot—but if we're down to one, I can finally go home."
Stella wasn't an expert at reading the room, but the blacksmith seemed to be in a bad mood.
And now Bor was, too.
"What is it?" Eyna asked before they could get into a fight. She'd haul a stack of parchments from the side room. "Are the Demon Lord's men finally mobilising?"
The lieutenant's eyes widened, but only for a fraction of a second.
"They are. How did you know?"
The towering redhead laughed, though it could have been a scoff, too.
"We've been up all night cooking up emergency plans," Welf groaned. "What do you think was on the top of our list? I've no idea how Konrad was able to manage all this alone."
Yeah. Stella, for one, was not up for the task.
"He didn't," Eyna noted, unloading her haul onto the desk. "Most of this was my job."
But by that, she must meant she presented options for the Prodigy. Konrad still had to read through everything and call the shots. Stella was already struggling with the first part.
Did the Inquisitor have to deal with the same issues? Was he any good at it?
She didn't even have the authority to read these parchments, let alone to sign off on them.
But with Konrad gone and his second wife locking herself away, she was in charge.
As per Lady Liliana's order, no less. Insanity.
'You are of noble blood,' a helpful voice encouraged her. 'The highest rank in this room.'
Not that she had the chance to live her life as one.
Ever since she could remember, she served the Church by doing horrible things. All her childhood memories were hazy. But this wasn't the time to rediscover them anyway.
"What I envy the most is that he always knew what happened where," Welf said with a sigh.
"That was in no small part Maple's doing," Eyna noted. "It's easier to see the full picture from above. And Master didn't have to wait for these slow messengers, either.
"Ahem," Bor cleared his throat, puffing his chest. "Can I actually report?"
Right. He was one of those slow messengers, too.
As if trying to stretch the final moments before the disaster, nobody questioned him.
But the disaster was already here.
"Make it quick," Welf grunted, his feet tapping a nervous rhythm on the stone floor.
"Scouts or the main force?" Eyna asked before the lieutenant could start.
"We counted over a thousand," Bor finally said. "So if they're only scouts—"
His words trailed off, but there was no need to finish that.
The blacksmith's feet stopped, and the purple-eyed girl held her breath.
It took Stella a few seconds to realise—they were both waiting for her reaction.
"A-a thousand men?" she repeated, the voices going wild in her head.
Some were confident, others panicked, but they each talked over the rest.
Not helpful at all. Stella couldn't think. They expected her to make a decision, but she was hesitating. Konrad beat four times as many soldiers before, but the king's men were gone.
He had eyes in the sky while she had a cacophony inside her head.
They weren't the same. Konrad was a prodigy. The Prodigy.
And Stella only knew how to follow orders—but kept failing her master in doing so.
Eyna took a breath so deep that its sound reached even her.
"What else?" she asked. "Are they approaching the Halaima Pass? Did they find alternatives yet? Who's leading them, Bor? What are we supposed to do with such a vague report?"
The scolding felt unwarranted—but she did it to buy her time.
And also to kick the voices out of her mind. The cacophony died when Stella finally focused.
"Who's defending the pass right now?" She asked her first real question. "Who's scouting and who's in charge of our messengers? We don't have the same tools Konrad had."
Her voice must have surprised the other three, their eyes wide as they looked at her.
For a moment, even Bor could do nothing but mumble under his nose.
"The Rogue Rejects, who else? I'm in charge of them, and all the rest you said."
"What?" The answer surprised Stella, but not more than her own initiative. "That won't do. You think you're the Prodigy of Haiten or something? You can't handle all that by yourself."
"Huh?" Bor looked too dumbfounded to protest.
She gave him no time for it, either.
"Welf?" Stella turned towards the redhead next. "What are you doing here?!"
The blacksmith jumped at the question, no longer leaning against her desk.
"I, uh, thought Eyna might need some help, and—"
"She doesn't. You're the one who led the Prodigy out of the sewers back in the day, right?"
They were enemies back then, but now they had to work together.
"Konrad could've found his own way, but—why do you ask?" He could only scratch his head.
"You're a dungeon-dweller, too; a survival expert. You'll be in charge of the scouts now," she decided. "Don't wait until the nomads show up. Scan the mountains, warn us ahead of time."
Welf blinked, but didn't refute her. Eyna's lips stretched into a small smile.
"Bor," Stella barked again, far from done. "You'll coordinate the scouts with the messengers."
"I'm already doing that," the tribesman complained. "But I have to lead the defense, too."
"You'll do as I say," she said, her voice firm. Almost as if she had found her old determination.
There was a time when she took orders from the Inquisitor, then forced his men to obey them, too.
"Who's gonna stop those thousand men, then?" Bor scoffed, still some fight in him.
It was Stella's turn to smirk, reaching for the artifact she had stolen from Maou Midori.
"Well, me, of course. That's why I'm here, aren't I?"