All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 248: Letters Under the Floor

Lana finished copying the northern patrol time before a royal courier reached the registry with two guards behind him.

"Lord Hajin," the courier said, removing a sealed packet from beneath his coat, "the princess ordered this placed in your hands before tomorrow."

Hajin signed the delivery page beside Marrick’s grain figures, finding Didi’s personal seal beneath the royal archive mark.

{Crown neutrality prevents royal troops, treasury arms, or a royal command from entering your territory during the legal review, and Father cannot suspend a territory claim without giving every House the same power against another.}

{Neutrality does not stop you from hiring licensed guild parties, accepting private trade guards, moving civilians across Crown roads, or submitting witnessed crimes to the royal archive, and any Flint force crossing before formal notice arrives loses the protection of a territory campaign.}

{Dreth’s contract grants him command in exchange for eastern land, so Flint officers may advise him but cannot restrain his field orders, preserve every report with names and times because the court can judge acts later even when it refuses to prevent them now.}

{I cannot send knights without turning your war into the Crown’s war, but I can keep your sealed reports from disappearing inside review, write when you can even if the message only says you are alive.}

Marrick took the legal pages after Hajin finished, copying the exceptions before anyone folded them into a useless archive box.

"Licensed guild contracts remain open," he said, running one finger beneath the sentence, "the Flints may have told the southern halls that helping us would violate neutrality."

"Send corrected terms with Seliza’s next convoy," Hajin said, returning the archive page, "pay anyone who can protect evacuation roads without joining the war."

The courier remained beside the table, holding a second folded page without a royal seal around it.

"A dismissed Flint maid brought this to the western palace gate," the courier said, offering the page by its unmarked corner, "she claimed it came from Lady Uriel’s floor."

She found several letters beneath a loose floorboard while packing linens, burning the others when a Flint guard entered the corridor.

{Father’s steward read three marriage offers after the western estate valuations, my name was written beside the largest payment, and they mean to move me before the army crosses.}

{The servants from Mother’s rooms are being dismissed or reassigned, household children have appeared on transport lists beside furniture, and nobody tells us which estate receives them.}

{This page stayed under my floor because I had no safe courier, Kenny rides with the commander, and I heard the vanguard leaves before the household wagons.}

"The maid gave a name?" he asked, looking toward the courier without passing him the letter.

"Meris Vale," the courier said, checking his delivery sheet, "the princess placed her under palace protection until someone verifies the household list."

"Tell Didi to keep her there," Hajin said, folding Uriel’s page inside the royal packet, "my reply will include a wage for the information."

"If the household wagons move first, they may use them to empty the western estates before the campaign costs rise," Marrick said, checking Seliza’s road schedules, "or hide people inside ordinary property transfers."

"Send copies to Didi’s archive," Hajin said, watching him seal the witness page, "Uriel’s original stays here until she reaches somewhere safe."

A single bell rang from the northern post before Marrick finished the wax, followed by a red flag above the eastern wall.

The market cleared its central road without anyone abandoning the stalls, giving four militia runners space to reach the registry.

Shelter leads counted children near the clinic while the forge crews covered their furnace without putting out the working fire.

Hans entered behind the runners with ridge grass caught around his wrapped leg, carrying Juna’s patrol sheet beneath one arm.

"Twelve riders crossed the old salt marker," he said, placing the report over Didi’s letter, "they stopped before every rise to measure sightlines."

Juna came through the window after him, setting a broken survey peg beside the route map.

"They carried food from their own packs," she said, pointing toward the northern ridge, "nobody touched the farms, even when the workers left carts beside them."

"Their saddlebags hold several days of food," Hans said, moving three markers along the salt road, "they planned to keep watching."

Elise’s lower patrol had found another four riders near the eastern pass, all watching bridges instead of approaching houses.

"No attack yet?" Hajin asked, studying the spacing between both groups and the closest outer village.

"They pulled back whenever our patrol saw them," Juna said, resting one claw beside the broken peg, "they wanted me to chase beyond the marker."

"She stayed on our side," Hans said, placing the final marker, "so they learned where the patrol ends without learning what waits past it."

Vella entered from the clinic with Toma’s treatment page, followed by Ferra carrying the forge inventory she had refused to leave with Marrick.

Lana took her place beside the map with the shelter counts, keeping the Witness Brand statement separate from the vanguard reports.

"Dreth has legal cover after formal notice reaches us," Hajin said, tapping Didi’s underlined page, "before that, every rider crossing is recorded as a raider."

"Then he waits for the paper," Hans said, looking toward the eastern road, "the twelve men are checking what can move before it arrives."

Ferra unfolded her inventory across the southern route, covering two rider markers with a list of spearheads plus carrying frames.

"The forge can finish another thirty heads by tomorrow," she said, pressing one finger against the damaged grain count, "the clinic frames take the same iron."

"Frames first," Vella said, placing Toma’s page beside them, "I can keep people alive if someone brings them through my door."

"Make twenty frames," Hajin said, looking toward Ferra, "use the remaining iron on spearheads after every shelter gets two."

"Juna keeps the northern patrol," Hajin said, following the salt road toward the pass, "choose your distance, but nobody follows those riders beyond our markers."

"They will try another false trail," she said, taking the broken peg from the table, "I want Elise on the lower route where she can see who turns back."

"Vella keeps the clinic routes," Hajin said, moving her page beside the outer villages, "Marrick puts three days of grain beside each shelter."

Lana raised her slate before he reached her name, showing the outer families still missing from the morning count.

"I need runners for these houses," she said, placing four names near the northern road, "they will hide when armed patrols pass the farms."

"Take Cassie’s party," Hajin said, returning the slate, "let Cassie speak while Jonas keeps armed patrols away from the families."

Marrick wrote each assignment beneath Didi’s legal exceptions, leaving space for the formal notice expected from the east.

Hans sent the militia runners back to their posts while Ferra claimed six mine workers before Marrick reassigned them.

Juna left through the window with Elise’s route sheet, reaching the northern wall before the red flag came down.

Hajin folded Uriel’s letter into his coat, then carried Didi’s archive instructions toward Marrick’s seal box.