Marley, Tessi Province.
Inside the newly established Ministry of Defense office, the newly appointed General and Minister of Defense, Commander Magath, looked wearily at the piles of intelligence reports spread across the desk before him.
On the day the Marleyan capital was captured by the Eldian Revival Army, Commander Magath, leader of the Marley Warrior Cadet unit, and Willy Tybur, head of the Tybur family that secretly controlled Marley from behind the scenes, fought desperately to break out. By the narrowest of margins, they escaped the capital through the train station before the Eldian Revival Army could catch them.
Magath and the others truly owed their survival to Lara Tybur, the War Hammer Titan. At the most critical moment, the War Hammer Titan resolutely drew away all the pursuers, while the Eldian soldiers from the Island of Devils mercilessly fired dozens of Thunder Spears at her.
Watching his younger sister be swallowed by countless bursts of flame, Willy Tybur instantly seemed to age ten years aboard the train. No one knew whether it was because the War Hammer Titan, passed down through the Tybur family for generations, had disappeared, or because of the guilt he felt toward his sister.
In the battle for the capital, the Marley Warrior unit was utterly annihilated. Even several Warrior Candidates had been captured. The power of the Titans, upon which Marley had always relied, had also become nothing more than a shattered dream.
Disheartened, Willy Tybur practically vanished from the sight of Marley's High Command after helping Commander Magath become the new General, only reappearing recently.
Not long ago, the War Hammer Titan, whom everyone believed had surely perished, unexpectedly returned safely to Tessi Province!
Dressed in rags, Lara Tybur staggered back to Tessi Province in a miserable state. Looking at her pitiful appearance, anyone unaware of her identity might have mistaken the Titan Warrior for a beggar off the streets.
And when Willy saw his sister again, he no longer cared how filthy she looked. The siblings embraced tightly, crying uncontrollably as they reunited. It was an extremely touching scene.
Unfortunately, Commander Magath, now Marley's General, had no mood to care about such things. After hurriedly meeting Lara once, he immediately returned to handling matters far more important.
The return of the War Hammer Titan was certainly good news, but for the current Marley, it was merely "good news," nothing more. A single Titan Warrior was now practically insignificant.
Back when Commander Magath still served with the Marley Warrior unit, he had always hoped to implement a Marleyan conscription system and reform the military. In his view, continuously oppressing Eldians and forcing them to fight for Marley would inevitably lead to disaster sooner or later.
The battle for Marley's capital had perfectly proven his point.
But only after truly becoming Marley's General did he realize just how difficult reform would be.
Only after ascending to the position of General did Marley's countless problems fully reveal themselves before him.
The local nobles' superficial obedience and secret resistance, the corruption and decay within the Marleyan military, the numb mentality of the Marleyan people—all of it became stumbling blocks obstructing Magath's reforms.
In fact, if the previous Marleyan General hadn't been smashed into minced meat, along with a huge number of old aristocrats inside the capital, Magath would have faced enormous difficulty even taking over the position.
Even with the support of the Tybur family, most of the provincial nobles simply didn't care.
Marley's former dominance over the world had caused Marleyans to look down on every other nation, while also nurturing their arrogance and conceit.
Under such a social environment, whether ordinary Marleyans or the provincial nobles, all of them had developed unbearably spoiled and prideful attitudes.
This, in turn, caused many local nobles to treat the newly appointed General Magath with perfunctory resistance and hostility.
Back when Marley prospered, the nobles had still been willing to cooperate with the General.
But now?
"You people actually lost even the great Marleyan capital, and you still have the nerve to order us around?"
Although the Tybur family was still shouldering most of the blame, many nobles still refused to give Magath respect. This severely impacted the stability of Marley as a whole.
This was also the reason Marley had yet to launch a counterattack against the capital occupied by the Eldians.
Conscription reform?
If they couldn't even recruit soldiers, then what reform was there to talk about?
Fortunately, Magath's willpower far exceeded that of ordinary men.
Through his own abilities and ruthless decisiveness, he forcibly stabilized the crumbling Marleyan Empire.
After mercilessly eliminating every noble within Tessi Province who obstructed military reform, opposition from the provinces diminished considerably.
There was no other reason.
Magath had truly ordered a massacre.
Since the major nobles of Marley's capital had already been smashed into meat paste, there was even less need to show mercy toward the smaller provincial nobles.
He directly raised the blade.
Anyone daring to cause trouble was executed on the spot.
Through these iron-blooded methods, Magath barely managed to stabilize Marley.
Relying on his authority, Magath swiftly pushed forward military conscription reforms. Though implementing them elsewhere still faced difficulties, at least the first step had finally been taken.
Very quickly, Magath recruited tens of thousands of soldiers.
According to Magath's plans, the very first thing Marley should do after stabilizing itself was reclaim the Marleyan capital.
No matter what, having one's own capital occupied by outsiders—especially by Eldians they had always regarded as slaves—was the greatest humiliation imaginable for every Marleyan.
For every day the capital remained unrecovered, Marley lost another portion of its dignity.
Combined with the vast resources and wealth within the capital, whether for public or private reasons, reclaiming the capital should have been the goal of every Marleyan.
Yet despite this, Magath had continued to endure in silence these past days.
The reason was simple.
At the very moment Marley was exhausting all its strength, behind them stood a "starving predator" eyeing them greedily.
The Middle Easterners had long sought revenge after their previous defeat against Marley.
This was hardly surprising.
After all, the Middle Easterners had only lost half the war.
Marley may have won, but the price they paid was far greater.
When the upheaval in Marley's capital occurred, the first to receive the news and respond were the Middle Easterners.
Their greed was utterly undisguised.
Along the border between Marley and the Middle East, the Middle Easterners rapidly assembled nearly one hundred thousand troops.
Faced with the menacing Middle East, no matter how desperately Magath wanted to immediately recover the capital, he still had no choice but to divert massive numbers of troops to guard against those bearded Middle Easterners.
Strangely enough, although the Middle Easterners had mobilized their army, they did not immediately begin the war. Instead, they simply stationed themselves along the border, glaring covetously at Marley.
Though the Marleyan forces opposite them had no idea what the Middle Easterners were planning, they dared not relax either.
And so, Marley's Middle Eastern border gradually descended into a bizarre stalemate.
For Magath, these past days had nearly drained him completely.
Countless times, he had wanted to simply abandon everything and quit.
But whenever he thought about his nation and Marley's people, he gritted his teeth and persevered.
Thankfully, today, Magath finally received a piece of good news.
The Middle Easterners had withdrawn.
All one hundred thousand troops had retreated from the border between the two nations.
At first, Magath didn't believe the news at all, suspecting it to be a trick by the Middle Easterners.
But soon enough, the war erupting between the Far East and the Middle East proved that the information was genuine.
While Magath was shocked by the madness of the Far Easterners, he was also ecstatic.
The threat from the Middle East was gone.
Which meant—he finally had the time and opportunity to retake Marley's capital!
Bang!
Magath slammed his fist onto the desk and loudly shouted to the guards:
"Pass down the order! Gather every General above the rank of Major General at the Ministry of Defense! Prepare for a military conference!"
"Yes, General!"