Her Graceful War Song novel Chapter 1269

This operation was labeled as a bandit suppression mission.

The night before, they gathered to discuss the details. The mission wasn't particularly dangerous or difficult, but there was one certainty—the people from Stone Village in Lunvale were not the same private soldiers from Stonebrook County.

So where had Yuvan's forces gone?

Randall had mentioned before that several counties and states had similar strongholds. Rafael guessed they were likely similar in scale to Stone Village—several thousand people, not too many, but certainly not a small number either.

Without military posts, relying only on local authorities would be insufficient to wipe out 5,000 men. It would be too easy for the enemy forces to turn the tables and take control.

If the same amount of private soldiers in several areas rose up at once, it would wreak havoc on the common people. By the time the main army arrived, it would be impossible to know how many places would have already been taken over.

Suppressing the private soldiers in Lunvale was not the problem. The real threat lay further ahead.

Over the years, Yuvan steadily built his power, especially during the war on the Southern Frontier. The court had no clear defense against him, and even after the Southern Frontier victory, his expansion had not been fully curtailed.

Now, someone was working behind the scenes, and no one even knew who it was.

Rafael felt somewhat passive in this situation. Ever since arriving in Lunvale, he had been preoccupied with trying to uncover the identity of this unseen force.

When he and Jacob had analyzed the situation before, they had ruled out many suspects. But there was one man they had initially excluded who had slowly crept back into their thoughts—an idea that refused to leave Rafael's mind.

On paper, this man wasn't the most likely suspect. Investigations had shown that his territory was neither especially rich nor troubled. It was peaceful, and he didn't maintain a large private army.

There were no irregularities in his domain. Under normal circumstances, he would have been ruled out entirely. Yet Rafael had done just that—excluded him—only to later add his name back to the list, because something about him didn't sit right.

This man—the true mastermind—was clearly behind Yuvan, operating from the shadows. He didn't need to raise an army. Instead, he could secretly operate behind the scenes. He could target those around Yuvan and take control of everything Yuvan had in the end.

If this man had planned this from the very beginning, then he wouldn't have waited so quietly over the years. He would have developed his own underground network.