Ikta suffers a serious setback at the hands of the unsleeping, shining officer from the Kioka republic. His lines have been broken and the retreat is in disarray.
The war against the mountain people continues, and the imperial forces are about to make one last march to their final staging ground. The incompetent imperial commanders pick a route that leaves their flanks exposed to an attack..
Ikta and his comrades are forced further forward into the treacherous mountains. The front-lines of the Imperial Army suffers significant casualties in the battle. Ikta is forced to make a hard decision.
Ikta and crew are assigned to a garrison in the far northern region of the empire. The staff are petty and don't like it when Ikta defies orders. But when they try to put him in the garrison prison, he comes across a secret that they want to keep hidden.
The Sinack have been subdued, but the Imperial Army finds that it's been caught in a trap! A huge army from the Aldera nation has crossed the supposedly-impassable northern mountains, and threatens to overwhelm the exhausted Imperial forces.
The Imperial Army is pushed back, and Ikta is forced to use every trick at his disposal to keep his numerically inferior force from being overwhelmed. The Alderamin army has 12,000 troops, and his unit has only a little over 600.
Ikta skilfully outmaneuvers the elder Remeon brothers in the Mock Battle. As they inch closer to victory, Ikta and his crew uncover a heinous plot against the Princess.
Ikta succeeds in a daring plan to cross the Kioka border and return the princess home. Now he finds himself dragged into a war he hates, serving a government that doesn't want to win, and despising the princess he rescued.