The Lord of Gal gleefully accepted a list from the Nor envoy, detailing a vast array of spoils—all plundered from the private treasuries of the Forest Lords. Despite the warnings voiced by some of his advisors, when Nor launched a fresh offensive against Trewell, the Lord of Gal once again tacitly allowed their armies to march across his own domain.

　　The Nor army swiftly overran towns that were caught off-guard, advancing until they reached Subilis, the capital of Trewell. It was only when other lords dispatched mediators to intervene that the two sides finally ceased hostilities and sat down together at the negotiating table in Dicoli.

　　While the Nor army eventually withdrew from Trewell, the region stretching from Felgari to Gefetis was left utterly defenseless due to the destruction Nor had wrought. In the period that followed, the avaricious Lord of Gal, easily goaded by manipulation, attempted to seize this fertile land—teeming with manors and livestock—for himself, leading to frequent and bitter clashes with Trewell.

　　Nor, meanwhile, seized this distraction to finalize preparations for the total conquest of the Forest lands. Before the first blow was struck, the Viscount of Nor issued a formal manifesto against the Forest Lords from his capital, Blicos.

　　The manifesto charged that the Forest tribes had once encroached upon Limidian soil, plundering the citizenry and extorting the lords. It accused them of using deception to secure their noble titles at the court of King Willem and, more recently, of sowing discord and inciting hostility against Nor among the neighboring powers.

　　Nor, the manifesto claimed, had seen through their treachery. They had defeated their armies and thwarted their conspiracies, forcing them to sue for peace and pledge an indemnity in gold. Yet now, the gold remained unpaid, and no envoys had been sent. Such defiance, the Viscount declared, demanded punishment.

　　Immediately, the forces stationed at Sismais surged across the border, launching the final campaign against the Forest Lords. The previous conflicts had already bled the Forest lands dry and broken the spirit of its people. The Nor army maintained strict discipline; they moved like a professional machine, harming no one and touching nothing that did not belong to them, ensuring the locals along their path were spared from suffering.

　　In Smolis, the Lord of Nor—dressed in simple, unadorned robes—entered the sacred temple to visit the priests and the "Elders," offering sacrifices to the gods. Afterward, he walked carefully into the garden to pay his respects to the bust of an "Elder." He confessed to his subordinates that it was the wisdom of these sages that had conquered the minds of the people long before Nor’s blades arrived, ultimately delivering the final victory.

　　During this same interval, the Worksmile army overran the last remaining territories of Binehes. This vast expanse of open land, once dotted with the estates, vineyards, and hunting grounds of the nobility, was now the property of the Worksmiles, soon to be distributed as rewards to their loyal subjects. After a brief period of consolidation, Worksmile intended to return to Susaslair to eliminate the final obstacle to his rule in the West.

　　Prior to this, the Worksmile forces had fought a grueling campaign to drive the commoners of Wimolaitis into the northwestern reaches of Susaslair. The Baron provided refuge for these subjects within his capital, bracing for a long and arduous siege. The Worksmile army had expected a swift and easy victory, but under the tenacious resistance of the Baron and his people, the battle stretched on far longer than anyone had anticipated.

　　To avoid hindering the advance of his main host, Worksmile halted the siege and left behind a small force to maintain a watchful eye. During this lull in the fighting, the Baron opened the city gates, allowing the besieged citizens to flee and seek out whatever livelihood they could find.

　　However, Worksmile soon returned, bringing with him a formidable array of heavy siege engines to breach the walls of Susaslair once and for all. The Baron and his brothers, in a final gesture of defiance, strapped the ancestral tablets of their family to their backs, vowing to live or die with the land of their forefathers. A group of loyal subjects remained at the side of their benevolent lord, choosing to fight alongside their families to the bitter end. After a desperate struggle against overwhelming odds, the Worksmile army stormed the city. In a cold act of retribution, they forcibly relocated every surviving inhabitant and leveled the city to the ground.

　　With the total conquest of Susaslair, every territory once held by the "Royal Members" now flew the Worksmile banner; any lingering trace of the Willem era was utterly erased. The army finally drew rein at Melicamos, under strict orders not to advance further. A short distance to the east lay a forest crisscrossed by streams—the natural border between Binehes and Willard.

　　Willard had been fractured by fratricidal strife since the late days of Lord Grisi. By the time of his son, Dahbim, though both sides still theoretically served under the banner of Wedra, they lived in a state of constant, mutual suspicion. The vassal Bodrico had usurped the etiquette and pomp of a true lord; the towering ramparts of Kerli rivaled even the walls of the capital. He provided sanctuary to fugitive criminals, who in turn repaid their patron with their blades and their dark conspiracies.

　　Even more tragic was that Dahbim’s power had been carved up by three powerful ministers, who donned different ornamental robes in the halls of state to distinguish their rival factions. Powerless, Dahbim sought to save what remained of Willard with one last effort: he secretly dispatched his second son, Fede, to Kailas. Dahbim’s sister, Fede’s aunt, was the consort of the Lord of Kailas and could offer some measure of aid.

　　Upon their parting, the Lord, with a heavy and conflicted heart, gave his son a grim warning: unless he could secure the support of the Kailas army, he must not return to Willard while his father lived—nor should he return for the funeral once his father had passed.

　　At this time, Bikos, one of the three ministers, was plotting a secret alliance with another minister, Lirdis. They intended to defeat Nerqi in the name of the Lord and then divide his lands between them. However, when news reached them that the Kailas army had encamped at Gasmand in a posture of total war, they hastily aborted their meeting of spoils.

　　The usurper Bodrico, perhaps driven by some final superstition on his deathbed, forced his three sons to leave Willard and bequeathed his power to his cunning and ruthless brother, Cosino. This Cosino secretly reached out to the two rebel ministers, feigning a desire to help them against the Kailas army appearing at the border.

　　In reality, he was merely setting a trap. Trusting Cosino’s seductive promises, the two ministers led their respective retinues to his camp for a supposed conference. Cosino greeted them personally with a display of eager hospitality. Yet, the moment the three men walked hand-in-hand into a spacious tent, several powerful warriors pinned the two ministers to the ground and executed them in total silence.

　　Their heads were immediately dispatched to the Kailas camp, along with a claim that Cosino, acting as a loyal vassal, had mobilized his forces to purge the remnants of the rebels and was pursuing them toward the capital. Using the Lord’s name and a wealth of gold, he co-opted the two disorganized rebel bands and advanced unopposed to the capital, Tril. He drove out the reigning lord, Legas, and through a grand ceremony, installed his other nephew, Bernbi, upon the throne.

　　Legas eventually succumbed to a mysterious illness, while the self-indulgent Bernbi was consumed by a sudden, violent lust for a common woman—one who was already married. Using this as a pretext, Cosino banished his nephew to the forests along the banks of Lake Kara, a place where winters are bone-chilling and summers are plagued by swarms of insects. With his nephew gone, Cosino finally donned the robes of the Lord, just as he had always desired.

　　Despite having been deceived, the Lord of Kailas initially believed that since Bernbi had been installed through a formal rite before the gods, military action was inappropriate, and he withdrew his troops. However, when word reached him that Cosino himself had seized the title of Lord of Willard, his restraint turned to fury and he issued a scathing condemnation. Colibia, too, viewed Cosino’s actions as an act of rebellion, and subsequently united several lords to march upon Willard.

　　The Kailas army once again struck camp at Gasmand. There, Lord Corens received the envoys from Colibia, who proposed a joint military operation to force the usurper to abdicate and install Fede, the direct heir, as the legitimate Lord. Corens’s subordinates urged their master to make a swift decision—to march across the Willard border immediately, by day or by night, establishing their presence before any unforeseen complications could arise.

　　A desperate Cosino turned to his advisors for counsel. They reasoned that while Colibia claimed to support Fede, their true motive was to check the eastward expansion of Worksmile. Consequently, they advised their master to offer a tract of western land to Worksmile in exchange for military support. The goal was to repel Kailas and ensure the far-flung Colibian expedition returned home empty-handed.

　　Though some within his ranks questioned the morality of backing a usurper, Worksmile gleefully accepted the territory. Yet, as the Colibian and Kailas armies drew up before the walls of the capital, Worksmile offered nothing but excuses and delays. He waited until the two sides had bled each other beneath the ramparts for some time before his forces finally deigned to appear.

　　The tide of the campaign forced the Kailas army into a retreat. With a heavy heart, Lord Corens told Fede that while his swords could not reclaim the stolen capital, Fede would always have a sanctuary in Kailas, where he could live a life of safety and affluence.

　　Colibia, too, beat a hasty retreat. Fearing that Willard might fall entirely into Worksmile’s orbit, they pivoted toward diplomacy, sending friendly envoys to establish ties. To appease the usurper, they even withdrew their support for Nerqi and handed him over to Cosino’s mercy. The resentful Nerqi, having barely escaped Willard with his life, had previously sought refuge in Colibia. Though the Colibians found his character distasteful, they had granted him temporary asylum only because of his intimate knowledge of Willard's internal affairs.

　　The people of Willard initially believed they had been spared the ravages of war, only to realize that the usurper brought them no blessings. Consumed by paranoia, Cosino made every decision based solely on personal whim and petty grievance. Many of his subordinates were former henchmen of Bikos and Lirdis; eager to curry favor with their new master, they executed his decrees with even greater cruelty.

　　The interests and outcries of the people were utterly disregarded. Meanwhile, these officials, driven by mutual enmity and a thirst for power, engaged in brazen armed brawls in the very streets of the capital, Tril. The citizenry lived in constant terror, and the traveling merchants who once frequented the city were left paralyzed by fear.

　　Panic-stricken citizens, fueled by a collective rage, erupted into an open revolt, swarming the streets to besiege the Lord’s manor. When Cosino jolted awake, he found his retainers had already vanished into thin air. Shaking with terror, the usurper barked orders at his few remaining henchmen to summon the army. But they told him the bitter truth: the rioting citizens were the soldiers; they had taken up arms at the sound of the bells not to protect their master, but to see him dead.

　　Cosino then sought to dispatch an envoy to Worksmile, only to find his residence so tightly encircled by the mob that not even a shadow could slip through. Besides, Worksmile was content to watch Willard consume itself from within, waiting for the perfect moment to exploit the chaos.

　　At this critical juncture, a silver-haired man appeared in the midst of the crowd. Though dressed as a commoner, his speech was so refined and eloquent that it was clear he was no ordinary man. Someone recognized the scar on his right cheek and shouted the name of Fede. The man’s respectful greeting to the people softened the tense atmosphere and began to cool the white-hot tempers of the mob.

　　As all eyes were drawn to this figure, another voice rang out, urging the crowd to heed the counsel of their legitimate Lord and not let blind impulse override law and reason.

　　This man, Hulus, had secretly returned to the capital from his place of exile, hiding among the common folk in the guise of a butcher. Years ago, the noble reputation of the Nerd family had been dragged through the mud by Bilco, and Hulus’s kin and followers had been persecuted under trumped-up charges. His estates were forfeited; the only items of value he still possessed were a few books tucked away in his tunic. Now, he stood before the clamorous citizens in the posture of a victor.

　　The crowd’s mood shifted toward a uneasy calm, yet they refused to disperse, fuming with the desire to storm the manor and drag the usurper out. Hulus appealed to them, asking that for the sake of their late Lord and his father, they grant Cosino one final shred of dignity. Thus, accompanied by a few armed citizens and representatives, Hulus entered the estate to confront Cosino.

　　Trying to maintain a facade of composure, Cosino inquired after the elder’s identity. Upon learning of his lineage, he feigned nonchalance, remarking that the Nerd family had always been faithful partners to the Sovereign, possessed of the virtue and talent befitting the privileges granted them.

　　But once the purpose of the visit became clear, Cosino was forced to sign a document, humiliatingly announcing his abdication and passing the heavy mantle of leadership to his younger, more capable nephew. Fede stood before the manor gates and accepted the homage of the people. He declared that, having been entrusted with the trust of the masses, he would hold the power and justice of Willard firmly in his hands and fulfill his sacred duty.

　　Subsequently, Fede enumerated the crimes of certain individuals and ordered their immediate arrest. The crowd, their passions reignited by a well-prepared Hulus, followed the new Lord and his mentor through the streets to the homes of the accused.

　　Some attempted a futile resistance, but seeing the sea of angry, armed citizens, their guards could only stand by helplessly as their dejected masters were hauled onto prisoner wagons. They were met with the jeers and spit of the onlookers, destined for the judgment that awaited them.

　　However, even the blameless Tres was stripped of his dignity and forced onto a wagon amidst the roar of the mob. Cosino had once visited Tres during his reign, hoping he would accept an appointment to codify the laws of Willard.

　　Tres, holding the usurper in utter contempt, had politely declined on the pretext of ill health. Although an investigation eventually proved his innocence, Hulus’s actions drew sharp criticism from some. They suspected Hulus harbored a petty jealousy toward Tres of the Meinbit family, fearing the man might one day stand as his equal, and thus fabricated charges to sideline him—an act that threatened to tarnish the honor of the Nerd name.

　　In the years that followed, Hulus served his Lord, Fede, with a style marked by prudence and justice. He brought a season of peace and harmony to the people of Willard, earned the friendship and recognition of the Eastern lords, and ensured that even Worksmile dared not make a move. Hulus eventually died in office. Tres, in a display of true grace, penned a poignant eulogy for his late colleague, and both the Lord and the citizens wept for the loss of this noble man.