The three senior warlocks who each led a warlock unit were all shocked when they heard this.

The sorcerers in the north were praised too highly, and they were a group of political idiots. But the sorcerers in the southern empire were different. They were not academic or wild sorcerers. They served in the army and the court and had a strong political sense.

There is so much information revealed in the emperor's words.

The three young warlocks could only say yes, but they didn't dare to say anything more about tactics.

Only the oldest Shaxus could barely give advice to the emperor.

"Your Majesty." Shaxus's speech was very unclear, so he tried his best to get close to the emperor who was as motionless as a mountain, but was careful to maintain a distance that would not offend, in the hope that his words could reach the emperor's ears.

"If the intelligence is correct, then the Lannister tactics are too dangerous for Duke White. The Western Army Group is not as strong as the Eastern Army Group, and there may be a risk of being defeated by the same tactics. If the warlock troops gather in the Central Army Group, there will be no chance to fight the Lannisters..."

Sasius could be said to be the emperor's direct descendant. Although he seldom gave advice due to his health, every time he did, his advice was meaningful.

But at this moment, the emperor seemed to have not caught any words from the old sorcerer's vague words. He did not move or respond.

Even Shashixius didn't dare to say anything more. The three young warlocks received the order and quickly retreated to assemble their own warlock troops. At this moment, two more people came in from the door, letting Shashixius know that he should leave too.

"Peter." The two people who entered the room lowered their heads together. It was not until the emperor summoned them that one of them dared to look at the emperor's back.

"My executive officer, I want you to summon my order to our marshal." Executive Officer Peter nodded and heard the emperor continue, "I am aware of the great changes in the Eastern Army Group, and I also know that he lost half of Ade Fein's division in Livia."

"Tell him that I am not angry, I just feel ashamed. So I want him to send all the remaining Ade Fein Division and Alba Division to Rivia, and take the warlocks I sent to him. I want him to wash away the shame of the Empire, rebuild the right wing of the army group, and allow our strategy to continue."

"Sun above, your will is my direction." The executive officer engraved every word of the emperor's order into his mind.

After making sure that the emperor had no other instructions to give him, the executive officer loudly expressed his loyalty to the emperor again and then took his leave.

…

Finally, only the emperor and the last person were left in the room.

This man's name is Stephen Skellington. He is a coroner and intelligence agent of the Imperial Intelligence Agency. Different from those glamorous sorcerers and officers just now, he is a person who has always been active in the shadows.

That is why, facing the emperor's back, he felt particularly terrified. He didn't know why the emperor wanted to keep him alone to talk.

"Skellen." In the suffocating silence, the agent heard the emperor calling his name.

"Your Majesty!" he immediately shouted in response.

"You disappoint me." The emperor's next words almost made Stephen suffer a cardiac arrest.

He knew what the emperor was referring to.

"I assigned you a mission, a secret mission. And you didn't do it yourself, but contacted different people to try to complete it - although I did give you the right."

"You contacted Kelsier, but he died on the way from Cintra to Brokilon. You contacted Riens, but the warlock died in Novigrad. You also asked Abelich for help, but he died in Rivia before he even started the mission."

Stephen began to tremble as he heard the Emperor continue, "So you failed me. The first time, then the second, and the third time. How long has it been since I assigned you this task?"

"Since before the Cintra Massacre, Your Majesty." Beads of sweat began to drip from Stephen's forehead. "Until now, it has already been..."

He was speechless because the emperor in front of him turned around.

He no longer had the courage to look up, but even with the back of his head, he could feel two flaming eyes burning his body.

"I rarely give someone so much patience, Stephen. So this time you don't have your own plan. I will personally assign your actions."

This was the last chance. The agent knew that if the operation assigned by the Emperor himself did not achieve its goal, then he would not have to come back.

"You are my direction, Your Majesty!" Stephen shouted loudly.

Emhyr remained silent about his subordinate's compliments.

"I know that you have made many friends in the north in order to complete my mission. One of them was once my 'friend'." This sentence made the spy tremble again. He knew that the emperor knew him well.

"I want you to go find our mutual friend. Tell him that Lannister has gained the power and has grown up. The young lion is in Brochelon. I will use my troops to lure Lannister and his soldiers away. I want him to seize this opportunity to take action."

"Tell him that this is his last chance. If he succeeds, I will give him the governorship I promised him. If he fails, you and he both know how I will treat the loser."

The emperor spoke slowly and steadily, and Stephen imprinted every word of the emperor in his heart with more sincerity than he remembered his mother's name.

Then he bowed his head and left.

Walking out of the emperor's study, he found that his hands were still shaking.

He knew that his troubles were not over yet, or rather, they were just beginning. He was going to go north as an imperial spy to contact the emperor's former "friend", the famous warlock in the north - Vigfortz of Logevin.

Before that, he needs to find himself some other helpers as much as possible.

…

After the ace agent of the Imperial Intelligence Agency left his study, Emperor Emhyr turned back to the window.

He stared at the rain outside the window as usual, not knowing what he was thinking.

After a long time, he raised the battle report in his hand, which he had read countless times, and read it word by word.

The guards all thought that the emperor was furious about the collapse of the Eastern Army Group. In the orders he had just given to the sorcerers, executives, and spies, His Majesty did not even give any instructions about the Duke of Darcy, an old nobleman with a high position of power.

But only the emperor knew what he was focusing on.

"Lannister..." He muttered the name, his thoughts turning back.

Those were the days when he was in Cintra under the alias "Prince Doni". He knew that Queen Calanthe had a brother of the same clan with this name, and that the other party also had a son who was a few years older than his daughter Cirilla.

The blond kid had received some enlightenment education in the palace, and even went with him when he took his daughter to Skellige for vacation. Calanthe liked the kid very much.

Just as no one could have imagined what Prince Donny would be like now, Enhyr did not expect that the little brat would cause such an obstacle to his career now.

"Ancient Blood..." When the emperor said this word, his voice became a little softer, and none of the guards in the room could hear it. They could only see that the emperor's eyes became sharp, and turned into the familiar majesty that was as aggressive as the sun and could not be looked at directly.

After all the guards bowed their heads, the emperor was silent for a while.

Then his lips moved a few times, as if he was going to utter a third word, but in the end only an inaudible sound came out.

The guards who lowered their heads did not see that when the emperor made this sound, his eyes suddenly became calm, even gentle. It was as if fire turned into water, as if it turned into a rain curtain that could not be stopped.

If someone had been bold enough to put their ear close to the emperor's lips, they might have been able to barely make out the pronunciation of those words.

The three words were: "Pavetta".

The emotion of that moment was fleeting. When the guards looked up, they still saw the emperor who was always determined, always ambitious, and comparable to the sun in the eyes of the Nilfgaardian soldiers, the "White Flame" feared by all enemies.

He stared at the rain in front of him, the Yaruga River behind it, and Sintra, which could be reached by following the Yaruga River.

…

The soldier in black armor stopped cautiously at the outskirts of the forest, accompanied by his patrol team members. In front of them was a dark and deep forest. Under the moonlight, every shadow looked like the huge mouth of a beast.

There was no sound of birds singing around, and strangely, there was not even the chirping of insects.

The patrolman felt as if fear had seized his internal organs, as if there were a few slimy eels in his intestines, stubbornly pursuing freedom.

An hour ago, the patrol received the order to move. They hoped that the cold night and the arduous and strict routine repeated hundreds of times would suppress the fear in their hearts. But they were wrong.

An hour later, they had walked perhaps five miles, deep into dangerous enemy territory, but the fear still gnawed at his heart.

They were afraid of the guerrillas in Sintra.

It is rumored that the Lion of Cintra has the ability to command the beasts of the forest. He controls the poisonous snakes and leopards in the deep jungle and transforms them into human form to ambush the Black Army. Therefore, the guerrillas of Cintra are as ferocious as beasts.

In response to this rumor, knowledgeable senior officers reprimanded them, saying that the guerrilla captains with beast eyes were just demon hunters, a kind of mutated monsters from alchemical experiments, who could be killed by only five or even three people with swords.

But this did not in the least reduce the patrol's fear of the Sintra guerrillas.

These elusive killers have caused too much damage to the Black Army stationed in Cintra.

"Have you heard?" Under the influence of fear, the strictly disciplined black army could not help but speak out, trying to relieve the tension by chatting.

"What do you want to say, corporal?" The patrol leader was a lieutenant. He looked at the corporal who was talking, but did not stop him. I think he also needed words to ease his uneasy heart.

"I heard the Eastern Army Group was defeated."

"Do you want to be sacrificed? How dare you say such things?" The lieutenant's tone became serious.

"That's a trick of the Cintra people! It's a rumor! They don't dare to face us on the front battlefield, and can only form guerrillas to launch sneak attacks. Now they can only use such despicable means to interfere with us!"

"But I heard that Duke Darcy was also captured."

"Aren't you going to stop, Corporal?"

The corporal who had contributed to the spread of information about Cintra paused and said, "That's not what I want to say. I also heard that the people of Cintra wanted to exchange prisoners with Your Majesty and send Duke Darcy back, but Your Majesty refused."

The entire patrol stopped in its tracks.

"That's Duke Darcy," the corporal muttered. "After this news came out, our Duke Witte is not right, don't you think?"

The lieutenant stared at the corporal who was still talking and said, "You really want to be sacrificed."

The corporal was still mumbling: "The scope of our patrols is getting smaller and smaller, and the time for training is getting shorter and shorter. We are almost becoming the marshal's logistics army..."

All patrol members were silent; they could clearly sense the changes in the Western Army Group.

As the commander, Duke Witte had been slack for a long time, and his laziness had become even worse since the news of Duke Darcy's murder.

This sentiment was passed on to the entire Western Army Group, just like the lieutenant of the patrol team at this moment, who, although shouting "sacrifice the flag", had not even swung his fist at the corporal who was talking nonsense for such a long time.

"If you're so worried about the things above, why don't you summon up the courage to remove some of the danger for us?"

The lieutenant pointed to the deep forest in front of him and said, "Let's play our role and stop those guerrillas from Cintra."

The corporal muttered something again, and then said vaguely: "There's nothing to be afraid of in the woods, but——"

“What if there really are guerrillas in there?”

The patrol team that was about to take action stopped again. In a short moment, their compatriots who fought against the Sintra guerrillas and were defeated emerged in their minds.

"Well, sir?" the corporal asked hoarsely, "Do you still want to go into this forest?"

"…The order we received was to scout the situation within a five-mile radius of the camp."

"Mission accomplished, don't waste time."

"withdraw."

In the dark night, the Japanese patrol team wearing black armor hurried away.

Without the sounds of their conversation, the forest seemed even more dead silent without the chirping of insects and birds.

Suddenly, just twenty steps away from where the patrol team had just stood, the trunk of a huge tree suddenly began to ripple like water.

With a long breath, the sorceress with long black hair calmed the chaotic energy in her hands. She flicked her long hair, filling the forest with the scent of lilac and gooseberry.

Then, two men appeared behind the sorceress.

A man with arms thicker than the sorceress's waist, tall stature, a head covered in fat and no hair, and eyes like a venomous snake.

The other one had long gray hair like an octogenarian, a well-proportioned body, and an expressionless face.

Geralt stood behind Yennefer and took a deep breath when the sorceress raised her eyebrows.

When he made this move, his face remained expressionless, and his eyes were cold, staring at the Nilfgaard patrol team that was going away.

"How is it, Reso? Can you see those people's faces clearly from such a close distance?" White Wolf turned to look at Reso, "Is it possible tonight?"

In the darkness, Reso's amber snake eyes sparkled.

He showed an expression as if he had met his prey: "Kolgrim's poison has taken effect. Go gather our team members and take action tonight."