Filed To Story: Queen of the Battlefield Her Return to Glory Novel Online Free
“My lady, your senior has sent a reply via carrier pigeon
Sophie set down her cup and book, immediately taking the note and unfolding it. Her expression changed drastically after reading it.
“What’s wrong, my lady?” Lulu asked anxiously, noticing her mistress’ reaction.
Sophie sat back in her chair, looking stunned for a long moment. “Lulu, bring me a bottle of fire liquor.”
Lulu was frightened. “My lady, has something terrible happened?”
Lulu had been with Sophie for many years. She had followed her from the estate to the guild and then back to the capital. She was also there when Sophie learned the required etiquette and married into the Jaffe family.
In their entire time together, Lulu had only seen Sophie drink fire liquor twice.
The first time was when they returned from Pathfinders Guild and learned that Sophie’s father and brothers had all perished at the Southern Frontier. And the second time was when everyone in Northwatch Estate was annihilated.
For Sophie to ask for fire liquor now, something very serious must have happened.
“Go get it!” Sophie’s breath was unsteady, and she was clearly anxious.
“Understood, my lady!”
Lulu quickly left to send someone to buy the fire liquor. There wasn’t any in the estate as the two senior maids didn’t allow such strong liquor to be kept in the house.
Once Lulu was gone, Sophie turned to the side and took a few deep breaths to steady herself. She needed to stay calm and rational. Getting up, she held the note she had received over a candle flame, watching as the fire consumed it.
The note read: [Freya massacred surrendering villagers.]
Sophie’s suspicion had been correct-there was indeed a problem with that battle.
The conflict between Westhaven and Starhaven wasn’t about one kingdom wanting to invade the other. It was a long-standing dispute over border issues. However, both sides had an understanding-even if war broke out, they wouldn’t kill civilians or prisoners.
Freya’s massacre of the villagers had broken this agreement, which was why Westhaven’s spies had gone to such lengths to slaughter the people of Northwatch Estate in retaliation.
Sophie’s maternal grandfather, Dominic, was in charge of the troops stationed at Victory Pass. Her father, Hector, had also defended the area, repelling Westhaven’s forces multiple times, So, Westhaven had taken out all their past and present grudges on Hector’s entire family. Their grudge was also likely worse because Sophie was Blake’s wife.
But what puzzled Sophie was that if Freya had massacred the villagers, Westhaven should have been even more furious and gathered their forces to attack Victory Pass to avenge their innocent civilians who died unjustly.
Instead, they chose to surrender and sign a peace treaty with Freya, settling the border dispute and promising not to fight again. Since Freya had been the one to get the treaty signed, the Ministry of Defense credited her with the greatest merit, with Blake a close second.
Why had Freya been in charge? Where was Dominic?
Sophie couldn’t understand it. It seemed she would have to wait for her eldest senior to return from Victory Pass to learn the truth about the battle. The only thing she could be sure of now was that Westhaven’s spies had slaughtered her entire family because Freya had massacred the surrendering xvillagers.
What she didn’t understand was why Freya wasn’t punished for her actions. Instead, the king had credited her with the greatest merit.
Sophie knew the king was not a ruthless, bloodthirsty man. After ascending the throne, he had repeatedly issued edicts that civilians should not be harmed during conflicts between the two kingdoms. Could it be that the king was unaware of this?
And what about her grandfather? What was his stance on Freya’s massacre of the surrendering villagers? He had defended Victory Pass for many years without ever killing a single Westhaven civilian. How could he have approved of Freya’s actions?.
Sophie needed to get her hands on the battlefield report Dominic sent back.
The reports first went to the Ministry of Defense, where a copy was made before the original was presented to the king. So, the Ministry of Defense should have copies of the battle report from Dominic as well as the victory report.
She would have to sneak into the Ministry of Defense.
There weren’t many people at the ministry at night, but all the ministry offices were located on either side of Thousand Street, which was adjacent to the royal palace. The royal guards didn’t patrol Thousand Street, but the guards from the garrison unit did.
But no matter what, Sophie had to see the battlefield report and the post-war memorial Dominic submitted.
One thing was certain-Dominic must have affirmed Freya’s contributions, otherwise the Ministry of Defense wouldn’t have credited her.
The people of Westhaven were known for seeking revenge at all costs. If Freya had massacred the villagers who surrendered, Westhaven wouldn’t easily let the matter go, regardless of the villagers’ reasons for surrender.
The most likely outcome was that they would ally with Sandoria and join the fight at the Southern Frontier.
Sophie checked the map. If Westhaven wanted to reach the Southern Frontier without going through Starhaven, they would first need to go to Sandoria. From there, the journey to the Southern Frontier would take almost three months.
Sandoria was determined to win the Southern Frontier. But with the Hell Monarch leading the charge for Starhaven, Sandoria hadn’t succeeded and the battle was at a stalemate,
If Westhaven joined the battle, the Hell Monarch would surely lose. He wouldn’t be able to foresee that outcome or prepare for it in advance. Even if he did somehow know beforehand, without reinforcements, he would still lose.
Westhaven would spare no effort for revenge, as shown by their spies slaughtering Sophie’s entire family in the capital.
The battle for the Southern Frontier had dragged on for too long. Soldiers and horses were tired, and supplies were running out. The Hell Monarch must be in a difficult situation.
If Sophie’s guess was correct, the court couldn’t afford to delay and had to send reinforcements to the Southern Frontier immediately. If they gathered troops from the capital or Riverhold Garrison, they would take at least a month to reach the Southern Frontier.
But she had no evidence to prove Westhaven was sending troops to Sandoria, so she had to wait for news from her eldest senior.
Her priority now was to get the report on the battle at Victory Pass from the Ministry of Defense.
When Lulu brought in the fire liquor, Sophie was nowhere to be seen. Lulu searched everywhere-the martial arts hall, study, and garden-but found no trace of her mistress.
An anxious Lulu immediately summoned the four other personal attendants to search for her, as well as reported her disappearance to Holly and Lily. Soon, everyone in the mansion was mobilized to search, but there was no sign of Sophie anywhere.
It was Lulu who finally noticed that Sophie’s red whip was missing, confirming that she had gone out. The fact that she had taken the red whip out so late at night meant she likely was going to take action. Holly and Lily exchanged glances with furrowed brows. They had known today was Blake and Freya’s wedding day, but hadn’t told Sophie.
Had Sophie also found out? Was she going to cause trouble for the Jaffe family?
But they immediately dismissed that guess. Sophie wouldn’t do that, she always acted decisively. Since she had even gone as far as to get the king to grant her a divorce, she wouldn’t get involved with the Jaffe family again.
“No need to search anymore. Everyone, go back to sleep. Lulu, you go back to Exquisite Pavilion and wait. Lady Devin will be back soon. She’s just out for a walk to sober up after drinking, Holly ordered. “Yes, ma’am!”
Everyone dispersed and returned to their rooms.
Lulu returned to Exquisite Pavilion to wait. She was certain that her mistress hadn’t gone to Valor Estate. Though she didn’t know the contents of the note-since Sophie had instructed her to never open any of her messages-she knew Sophie’s disappearance must be related to it.
All Lulu could do was wait patiently for her mistress to return.
In the middle of the night, she heard a fluttering sound outside. She immediately got up and ran out to find that another pigeon had landed on the railing. She recognized the pigeon-it belonged to Sophie’s second senior. She carefully untied the note attached to its leg and hurried back inside.
On the same night, Sophie had received messages from both her eldest senior and second senior. Lulu guessed something big must have happened.