Shattered Sanity

Back at House Argent, Cedric was still overseeing the constant movement of students between the castle and their newly established territorial chain when the first messenger came sprinting through the courtyard.

”House Lord!” the student shouted, as he hurried towards Cedric and stopped several feet away. ”I’ve been sent by Team Leader Michael from Silverstone Bridge. It’s our observation that the other Houses are cooperating with one another. Sable students have been allowed to cross Viridian-controlled territory without being attacked, while Viridian students are openly passing through the River Post controlled by Aureate.

They’re not fighting amongst one another like they should, and they’re allowing members of other Houses to move freely through their territories. Team Leader Michael believes they might be working together to corner us out.”

”What?” Cedric muttered, as his eyebrows immediately furrowed. ”Why the fuck would they do that?”

For several seconds, Cedric simply stared at the messenger while trying to understand the reasoning behind such an arrangement.

It made little strategic sense.

Black Week rewarded territorial control continuously, which meant every House needed to capture valuable territory while possessing enough manpower to actually defend whatever they took.

If three Houses concentrated their assault forces against Argent, they could undoubtedly overwhelm several of Argent’s positions through sheer numbers.

However, every student sent against Argent was also one less student protecting their own territory.

More importantly, once Argent was forced away from a contested region, somebody still needed to own it.

Sable couldn’t earn Merit Points from territory controlled by Aureate.

Viridian gained nothing from helping Sable expand its holdings.

And if they divided Argent’s former territories amongst themselves, whichever House received the most valuable locations immediately became stronger than the other two, giving its supposed allies every incentive to turn against it.

Even worse, by refusing to fight one another now, all three Houses were allowing their competitors to accumulate Merit Points uncontested.

Black Week lasted seven days.

An agreement that appeared useful during the first few hours could become disastrous by tomorrow morning when one House discovered that another had quietly gained several hundred more Merit Points while everyone had been busy attacking Argent.

There was also the matter of manpower.

Driving Argent backwards meant expanding the amount of territory the other three Houses collectively needed to defend, while Argent’s own defensive line became progressively smaller and easier to reinforce.

The farther they pushed, the thinner they spread.

The farther Argent retreated, the more concentrated Argent became.

Cedric folded his arms.

’It doesn’t make sense..... in the end the goal is for all houses to win the house championship, it doesn’t matter if Argent loses and Aureate wins.

That’s still bad for both Viridian and Sable.....’

Temporary alliances were nothing unusual during Black Week. Two Houses sometimes cooperated to dislodge a third from a particularly valuable territory before immediately fighting each other for ownership afterward.

But allowing unrestricted movement through controlled territory was different.

That required trust.

And trusting another House during Black Week was fucking stupid.

”What can they possibly gain by working together like this? Even if House Argent loses territory today and we’re forced to retreat, spreading themselves thinner than what they can reasonably control will most definitely come back to bite them later.

If cooperating against one House was the ideal strategy, everyone would do it every year.

But historically, it hasn’t been, because the moment the common enemy retreats, the alliance has to decide who gets the territory, who gets the Merit Points and who gets to weaken their defenses while everyone else benefits.

Meanwhile, every bastard involved has to constantly worry about being stabbed in the back by the people they’re voluntarily allowing through their own territory.

Strategically, unless they have some objective beyond maximizing Merit Points, this is one of the stupidest decisions they could make.”

Cedric muttered, as his confusion only deepened.

’Why Argent though?’

More importantly, why were three rival Houses apparently willing to damage their own positions simply to hurt his?

”House Lord!”

Another voice interrupted his thoughts.

Cedric turned as a second messenger came sprinting into the courtyard, breathing heavily enough that he needed several moments before speaking.

”House Lord, I’m a scout from the Spell Training Hall.

Three enemy assault groups are gathering around our perimeter at the same time.

Sable approached from the east, Aureate from the south and Viridian from the west, and none of them are attacking one another.

Secretary Gwen has already ordered preparations for a full retreat. She doesn’t believe we can hold the hall against all three Houses without risking most of our people being captured.”

The scout reported, as Cedric’s expression immediately changed.

The first report had been suspicious, however this one confirmed it. There was most definitely a three house alliance against them.

”Good. That’s the right strategic call....”

Cedric replied without hesitation, as he turned towards the students surrounding him.

”Send word back to Gwen. Abandon the Spell Training Hall and pull everyone towards the Western Training Grounds.

I don’t want her sacrificing thirty students defending territory we can retake another day.

Have the Western Training Grounds cover her retreat, and once everyone from the hall is safely through, begin withdrawing from there as well.

Everyone falls back towards Silverstone Bridge.”

Several Argent students immediately began moving.

Cedric walked towards the large territorial map they had prepared before Black Week and looked across the line they had spent the entire morning constructing.

Back Woods—> Argent Castle—> Silverstone Bridge—>Western Training Grounds—>Spell Training Grounds.

The last two were definitely valuable... However, neither was worth losing dozens of students over.

The bridge though was different.

”If we’re going to make a stand anywhere, it’s going to be Silverstone Bridge. Pull our men back from the forward territories and reinforce Michael’s position. For now, we control only what we can realistically defend.

The bastards can bring three Houses if they want, but Silverstone Bridge limits how many of them can actually fight us at once. Their numerical advantage means considerably less when they have to approach through the same narrow crossing.

Twenty students standing behind twenty more students don’t help nearly as much when only the front line can reach us.

Let them waste their manpower staring at us from the opposite bank while we concentrate ours behind Michael,” Cedric ordered, as several messengers immediately departed.

The Merit Points generated by the territorial chain were supposed to form the foundation of Argent’s Black Week strategy, and within hours of completing it, Cedric was voluntarily surrendering nearly half of what they had fought to capture.

However, territories could be retaken.

Captured students could remain imprisoned for weeks.

Cedric wasn’t going to exchange manpower for land when the enemy possessed three times as many bodies to spend.

That thought suddenly made him freeze.

Their occupation teams weren’t the only Argent students outside the castle.

Their assault divisions were scattered across enemy territory.

If Aureate, Sable and Viridian were genuinely cooperating, those students were now operating under assumptions that were no longer true.

An Argent assault team could enter Sable territory believing Aureate-controlled land offered a possible escape route, only to discover that Aureate simply allowed Sable pursuers straight through.

Every route that should have forced an enemy to stop at another House’s border had effectively disappeared.

Cedric immediately looked around the courtyard.

Then he spotted Mary.

”You! First year!” Cedric called, as he pointed directly towards her. ”You’ve learned a detection spell, right?”

Mary looked momentarily surprised before hurrying towards him.

”Yes, House Lord. [Aether Pulse]. My reliable range is around fifty meters now,” Mary answered.

”Good enough. I need you to carry an order to our forward assault divisions, and you’re going to have to travel through contested territory to reach them, so keep that spell active whenever you enter somewhere you can’t properly scout with your eyes.

Find as many of our forward teams as you can and tell them to return to House Argent immediately, or you can help guide them back if it’s possible.

I want no more deep assaults for today.

If the other three Houses are ganging up against us, then every Argent team currently operating on enemy soil is in danger of being surrounded and captured before they even realize the rules of the battlefield have changed.

Tell them the territorial strategy has been abandoned for today and we’re consolidating around Silverstone Bridge and the castle.

We protect our people first, figure out exactly what the fuck these three Houses are doing, and then form a new plan for tomorrow.”

Cedric instructed, as Mary listened carefully before nodding.

”I understand, House Lord,” Mary replied, as she immediately turned towards the castle gates.

Cedric watched her leave before returning his attention towards the territorial map.

Things had gotten real ugly real fast for House Argent, however, it wasn’t a full blown crisis just yet.

As long as the bulk of House Argent forces could make it back to safety, he felt confident that they could turn this around in the days still left to come.