When the revived Sora was feeling anxious and strangely content in the little forest cabin, Toristine was sliding toward another crisis.
A week earlier, the Academy magicians had returned with news that Albion's civil war was essentially decided. Three days after that, Verus sent a letter to Henrietta stating that he had reclaimed all the kingdom's lands and was now focused on restoration and reconstruction. The Megan and other great families had fled to Gallia with massive wealth and resources; Megan still had ten thousand soldiers who had not appeared. The Albion royal palace was under orderly repair, and both the coronation and wedding ceremonies were tentatively set for next February. The bride named in the letter was Asiya, eldest daughter of the Grunt family. Verus poured out his past feelings, then declared he had set aside personal love in order to devote himself to the revival of the realm.
At the same time, Albion's new foreign minister arrived with an armistice.
The Republic of Albion had fallen; its war with Toristine was over. For the disasters the Republic's aggression had brought upon Toristine, Albion would compensate with a share of its tax revenues for the next twenty years, while requesting Toristine's support in food and timber for reconstruction. Henrietta signed the armistice and announced to her people that the Republic had been overthrown, the Kingdom of Albion restored, and that Toristine had won the war.
The tidings spread from the capital through every city and village. Wherever they went, people celebrated, drinking, singing, and dancing in the streets. Driving the enemy from their borders bound Toristine's people more tightly together, strengthened their faith in the country's future, and filled them with praise for Queen Henrietta's rule and the blessings of the Founder.
But before the joy of victory had properly faded, Gallia, one of the continent's strongest nations, formally declared war on Toristine.
The old Republic of Albion had once signed a secret pact with Gallia to advance and retreat together. Now, because the Republic had been destroyed by Toristine, Gallia demanded Toristine fulfill obligations under that pact. Albion no longer existed; any such agreements should have been void. That was Toristine's position — but it changed nothing. Gallia had found its excuse.
Toristine's protests changed no minds in Gallia. Even far-off Romalia, the papal state, sent a special envoy to advise King Joseph to abandon the war. Joseph, derided as the "Incompetent King," refused even to grant an audience and had the envoy expelled from his palace.
So the Romalian envoy went on to Toristine instead.
Henrietta received him alone in the great hall.
He was a striking man: straight blond hair, one red eye on the left, one clear blue eye on the right.
"Romalian priest and Papal envoy, Giulio Cesare, pays his respects to Queen Henrietta. May the Founder guard Your Majesty."
Giulio stepped forward, half-kneeling as he took Henrietta's outstretched hand and kissed the back of it.
"Please rise, envoy. Has Your Excellency brought the Holy Emperor's will?"
Henrietta withdrew her hand and asked in a steady voice.
Giulio recounted Gallia's rejection of every appeal.
"His Holiness has always upheld the Founder's teaching and the balance of the continent. In the war between Toristine and Albion we did not intervene, because the two nations were of similar strength — it was impossible for either to utterly destroy the other."
Henrietta nodded slightly, tacitly acknowledging the logic.
"Gallia and Kelmania are the two strongest kingdoms on the continent. Either one alone has the strength of two or three lesser nations. If they commit to a full-scale war, I fear Toristine will not be able to hold for long."
"Even so, Toristine will fight to the very end to shield its lands and its people," Henrietta answered.
"Your Majesty, please allow me to finish."
"For centuries, Toristine and Albion have stood together. Over the past six thousand years, whenever either was threatened by Gallia or Romalia, the other would offer aid. That is how you have both survived under the pressure of the great powers to this day. Now Albion has been overthrown and only just restored. Two civil wars have sapped its strength; it no longer has the power to help Toristine."
"If Gallia is allowed to defeat Toristine and then devour the weakened Kingdom of Albion, then after ten or twenty years of consolidation, Gallia's strength will swell to the point that it can crush Kelmania outright. Little Romalia will not escape that fate either."
"You paint things too darkly, priest," Henrietta said with a frown.
"It is not pessimism, but fact. Romalia has churches in every kingdom and carefully gathers information from those in power. King Joseph, so-called 'Incompetent King,' is a ruthless man who poisoned his brother to take the throne and persecutes his own niece. Outwardly he has no great political achievements, but in secret he has been building up his armies and researching weapons. Even Romalia no longer knows the true extent of Gallia's military power."
"Are you saying Toristine has no way to repel Gallia's invasion?" Henrietta asked.
"This brings us to the point. His Holiness is willing to help Toristine repel Gallia. In return, however, Toristine must hand over supreme command, so that His Holiness may unify the two armies under a single banner."
Henrietta's expression hardened. "I am sorry, priest. I cannot accept such terms."
"Your Majesty, those are the Holy Crown's conditions. I beg you to consider carefully."
"I have heard enough. You may withdraw, envoy."
"Then I take my leave." Giulio bowed and departed.
Henrietta was left alone in the echoing hall.
She slid down against the cold throne and began to weep.
"Father… Mother… Sora… what am I supposed to do?"
She thought of how she had raised up ministers and faced war with Albion, and now the larger storm of Gallia. Could she truly defend Toristine? Why had he left her like this — Sora, who had always been there before?
With his help, she had unseated scheming ministers and seized the reins of power. With his help, they had withstood the Republic of Albion at the lowest possible cost. Now Gallia was on the march. What path should she take? Tell me, Sora…
Her quiet sobs filled the empty chamber. Only when she was alone did she allow herself to be this weak.
After about ten minutes, Henrietta wiped away her tears with a handkerchief and drew a deep breath.
"Anyos. Anyos!!"
The captain of the Musketeers heard her and rushed in.
Henrietta straightened herself.
"Call all the ministers to court."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
I will not give up, she vowed silently. I swore to shield Toristine. Even Gallia cannot make me abandon it.
Please watch over me, Sora.
She still believed Sora dead.
Within two hours Duke Vallière, Marshal Gramont, Headmaster Osman, the Lord Chief Justice, the Secretary of State, the Foreign Minister, and the Finance Minister had all assembled. According to Toristine's laws, with the queen and seven ministers in accord, powers normally reserved to the monarch alone — full war mobilization, declarations of war, special wartime decrees — could be exercised.
Faced with Gallia, small Toristine became like a frightened hedgehog bristling every spine.
After a full afternoon of deliberation, orders streamed from the palace. Toristine entered a near-total war footing.
All key military supplies — food, metals, ore, and the like — were placed under strict control. When the realm required them, they had to be sold to the state at base price. Trade in clothing and small everyday goods remained legal, but every man under forty-five (in this world of shorter lives, fifty counted as old) had to either join the army or supply a set amount of military materiel in exchange for exemption. Under a full war regime, all goods would become state-owned, all commerce halted, and everyone — old, young, male, female — would be expected to bear arms.
At the same time, clinging to a thin strand of hope, Headmaster Osman was sent to Kelmania as a special envoy, to plead for aid under the terms of their old alliance or at least to secure support at some price.
The decrees rippled outward. Farmers, merchants, and service workers in their middle years flocked to nearby recruiting stations to receive weapons and uniforms.
Toristine's total population was about one hundred million. Roughly twenty-five million were men in their prime. After subtracting those already serving in the army or peacekeeping forces, nine million middle‑aged men were left, working instead on production and transport to avoid conscription. These men had no formal training, and would suffer terribly in a real war, but at least on paper they raised Toristine's manpower to fifteen million militia, fifty thousand local garrison troops, and thirty thousand regular soldiers. Of the local forces, ten thousand guarded the west coast, ten thousand the Toristine–Kelmania border, and five thousand had been left on and reinforced along the Toristine–Gallia border after the last war.
The main battle army consisted of the remnants of Gramont's legion plus five thousand new recruits, and Duke Vallière's own five-thousand-strong legion facing Kelmania.
Magicians were not counted in those totals. Properly used, fifty mages could unleash the combat strength of five thousand ordinary soldiers; a single Square‑class mage could match ten thousand. Toristine had three Square‑class magicians. On the surface, Gallia had none.
Gallia, however, had a territory more than four times Toristine's size and nearly three hundred million citizens. Seventy million of them were prime‑aged men. If it fully mobilized militia, it could raise between twenty and thirty million. Its local garrisons totaled sixty thousand: ten thousand for internal order, ten thousand on the Kelmania–Gallia border, ten thousand on the Gallia–Romalia border, and thirty thousand on the frontier with Toristine. Beyond that, it had four elite field legions: the Iron Bear with thirteen thousand five hundred men, the Blue Eagle with three thousand, the Scarlet Flame Tiger with three thousand, and the Water Demon, one of only two proper fleets on the continent, with two thousand.
This time Gallia dispatched ten thousand Scarlet Flame Tigers, plus ten thousand from the Gallia–Toristine border force, another ten thousand drawn from nearby garrisons, and the Megan family's ten thousand. In all, fifty thousand troops crossed the border from Gallia the day after the declaration of war, advancing toward Toth, the central of the three fortified cities guarding Toristine's frontier.
Toristine shifted part of Duke Vallière's army south to meet them. Vallière's own force of twenty thousand, plus five thousand local border troops, made twenty-five thousand in all. With them marched three hundred male Academy magicians alongside the army's own mages (many students were Gallian by birth and would not fight against Gallia), and the Square‑class Duchess Karina Désirée de la Vallière, under Duke Vallière's overall command. Their numbers were still outmatched roughly two to one — and this time they faced no riven, internally feuding expedition like Albion's, but the disciplined steel of Gallia's might.
Once again, the shadow of war and the specter of defeat loomed dark over Toristine's borders.