That long stretch of quiet did not last.
Three months later the Emperor of Arcadia issued a war call and it caught nearly everyone off guard. Not because war had been unexpected but because of the direction of it.
This was not a call to defend Arcadian territory. The Emperor was planning to raise troops and march on the Demon lands directly, framing it as a punishment for everything the demons had done.
It landed suddenly and the weight of it shook people when it settled in. The call had already gone out for forces to gather and Ethan felt the foreboding settle into his chest the moment he heard about it and it sat there and did not move.
And as he had expected, it was not long before it became his problem directly.
A group of envoys from the imperial court of the Arcadia Empire arrived at Blank Manor and came with the formal bearing that imperial representatives always carried, composed and deliberate in the way they moved and presented themselves.
