"It was about her sister’s condition, and the treatment. Everything that should have been said—and everything that shouldn’t—she told us all of it."Mason Alvarez said this carelessly as she munched on a pastry."Joseph, she’s your most capable right hand now. If she could become one of us, it would be of immense benefit to you.""You have so many businesses, and all this time they’ve been under the control of someone who is, technically, still an outsider. If one day she were to marry someone else, would you truly be at ease?""And besides, Joseph, you did once have a strong prejudice against her. But after working together and spending time together these days, surely both of you have realized that neither of you is as bad as the other once imagined.""I think the so-called illness of the heart she’s suffering from is precisely this. Without the proper remedy, I’m afraid this condition of hers will never truly heal.""And don’t doubt what I’m saying. No one understands a woman bette

"A little sleepy, yes—but even more than that, I want to talk to you.""It feels as though we’ve hardly ever been alone like this."Fiona spoke slowly, her voice quiet and unhurried."We were never truly husband and wife. If not for these special circumstances, how could we possibly be alone together like this?"Joseph replied."That’s true."At his words, Fiona seemed to fall briefly into disappointment."Get some rest. It’s late."With that, Joseph closed his eyes."Mm."Fiona answered softly and closed her eyes as well.After that, Joseph said nothing more, and Fiona fell silent too.Joseph assumed Fiona had finally drifted off.After taking his medicine, drowsiness was only natural. The fact that Fiona had managed to stay awake this long was already no small thing.Thinking that, Joseph closed his eyes again and prepared to sleep.But after a while, he caught the faint drift of her fragrance in the dark, and then felt her arms gently wrap around him. At once, his whole body turned

"Don’t be anxious yet. I promise you this—Elysia will not lose so much as an inch of its land.""But in the battle before us, win or lose, Nolan Bennett must fight it.""And Southern Frontier cannot move rashly at this stage. If you deploy without cause, the Central Council will brand you rebels.""If we are going to do something great, then we must do it cleanly and decisively. We cannot allow ourselves to be swayed by the tides of the moment.""General Gray, from this point on, I want you to drill and reorganize your troops and keep them ready to move at any time.""At the same time, secretly dispatch small units in scattered formations, traveling light, and have them converge toward the eastern coast.""The assembly points will be the garrison bases in those seven cities.""Within half a month, the total number of troops gathered across those seven garrison bases must be no fewer than one hundred thousand.""At the same time, covertly transport military supplies to those three base

“A ceasefire negotiation? Of course it can be called a ceasefire negotiation.”“That depends on what terms they reach. We won this campaign—we drove Dreadmoor off the East Coast.”“And since we won, then we negotiate as victors, and we demand the outcome due to victors.”Joseph’s expression remained calm, but his gaze was razor-sharp.“Then let us wait and see how they intend to conduct these talks.”Neil Foster said, his eyes lighting up.“Have our intelligence operatives—the entire intelligence network—monitor the negotiations closely.”“And inform Dale Jimenez to make ready.”Joseph addressed the room.“Yes, sir!”At his words, everyone answered in unison.East Coast, front line, inside a forward command post.Outside the command post, artillery thundered without pause. Corpses lay strewn everywhere—some their own, some the enemy’s. The fighting had been unspeakably brutal.From time to time, fighter aircraft streaked across the sky, followed by the distant roar of bombardment.“Re