You are Noel Tiberius di Hazaran, and you have to admit that your duties as a queen and as a warrior have become inextricably linked – to the point where it may well be impossible to even tell where one role ends and the other begins. All that is more abstract of course, but in a way it’s related to the problem facing you and your nation at this moment. The problem is that the country to your immediate north, Sakia, has been invaded by forces hailing from the far-off main continent of your world. Those forces are loyal to the exact same faction which was responsible for turning you and the others of your cohort into living weapons, which means that your desire to fight them as a half-blooded warrior and your responsibility to fight them as Hazari royalty exist in perfect unison.

As disorganized as your enemy has become after having been repulsed several times from your northern border and having been repeatedly demoralized by small-scale raids which have firmly established that you and your cohort of half-blooded warriors can act with near-impunity throughout Sakia, there are still pockets of resistance. Some enemy units still have the weapons and equipment to fight against your Hazari military, and some of those units just happen to be located in positions where even along the less-traveled roads they can launch surprise attacks.

So that’s the problem that you’re trying to deal with now.

“I think we should continue scouting out any potential problems,” you declare calmly. “Head out overland as far as we can before turning about.”

“Alright, let’s see what we can ferret out!” Aurora grins manically in the moonlight.

“Same general plan, lady Noel?” Valentina asks.

“Same general plan,” you confirm. “We’ll take the eastern fork of the road and search out enemy positions.”

[Will they be more alert after the last engagement?] Serana wonders.

It’s not a bad thing to keep in mind, but honestly you have a hard time imagining that small units scattered across the countryside like this have much in the way of coordination working to their advantage.

“I doubt it,” you admit. “Unless there was a unit within earshot of that last raid.”

…

Not far up the road, scarcely a half-hour’s ride from where you raided the first small unit that had been positioned for an ambush, you find that there was in fact a small unit that may well have heard what you did to their comrades. Unlike that encampment, the soldiers here seem to mostly be awake despite the ungodly hour, and are already at arms.
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