After Margaret left with her people, Benita emerged from her hiding place and sat down beside Celitia.

"Incredible," Benita murmured. "Margaret just left like that?"

"Yes," a sly smile bloomed at the corners of Celitia's lips. "I acted quite convincingly, didn't I?"

Benita wanted to speak but hesitated, looking at Celitia with eyes that had become numb from shock and admiration.

This flag was indeed the real thing—if the red team could seize it, victory would be declared.

But contrary to Margaret's guess, the blue team had set no traps here at all.

Besides Celitia, only Benita was here, and no one else.

If Margaret had chosen to charge in and seize the flag, she could have successfully captured it and caught both of them.

But Margaret had just left, without looking back.

"Why?" Benita couldn't help but ask.

"It's about calculating human nature," Celitia said with a smile. "However, this was an adventure and a big gamble—normally you shouldn't try to learn from it."

Celitia had deliberately leaked the location to Alsen, deliberately let him go to Margaret's side, and deliberately put on an appearance of being heavily trapped.

Margaret had already suffered once, so such a feint would only make her increasingly paranoid and afraid to attack.

Having Sophia lead people to attack from behind, then deliberately letting someone escape to report back, Margaret would suspect nothing and hurriedly retreat to defend.

And then... Shanie was leading a group of people, waiting for them on the road.

Benita looked at Celitia in disbelief.

"If we had miscalculated even one step, we would have definitely lost. Were you that confident?"

"Well, I wasn't really completely confident..."

Celitia tilted her head, hugging her chest as she lazily leaned against the flagpole beside her.

"On the battlefield, there's never a one hundred percent victory. All we can do is tip the scales in our direction. For that, we put all the chips we can on the table and gamble.

"And this time, I won the bet."

Benita stared at Celitia in a daze, unable to speak for a long time.

Unexpectedly, Benita thought of someone.

Sercis, who had emerged from nowhere ten years ago, ended the civil war in the Kingdom of York, and was revered as the "Scourge of God."

The Kingdom of Lansca had originally taken advantage of York's internal strife to annex much territory.

As a result, Sercis reclaimed it all one by one, even turning around to seize Lansca's legitimate territories.

King Gorman had also fallen ill during this process, and if not for the "Nation-Saving Saintess" Ariel, Lansca might have already belonged entirely to the Kingdom of York.

Fortunately, more than three months ago, Sercis had died.

When news of his death arrived, everyone in Lansca breathed a sigh of relief.

Benita didn't know why she would make such an association.

Perhaps it was because in that moment, she suddenly felt an inexplicable fear.

"What are you thinking about?"

The girl's voice rang out, as usual, gentle and clear.

"Nothing." Benita quickly shook her head.

"Then I'll go first, to find Sophia for the next part of the plan."

Celitia stood up lightly from the stone, elegantly brushing the dust off her coat and tidying her skirt.

"I'll leave the flag-guarding task to you. Will you be afraid alone, Benita?"

Margaret's entire team was trapped near the red stronghold, so no one had time to come seize the flag.

Leaving Benita to guard here was mainly to prevent accidents, like wild animals chewing on the flag.

Benita had earth attribute magic and was the most skilled defensive mage on the entire team.

"Leave it to me." Benita didn't hesitate for a moment.

"Good, then I'll go first."

Celitia waved at Benita and leisurely headed toward the red stronghold.

At this time, Margaret was trapped in Shanie's circle of traps, extremely agitated.

The moment she saw the team led by Shanie, Margaret knew she had fallen into another trap.

Alsen's information was real, the blue flag was real, and Celitia being alone there was also real!

She had simply thought it was fake!

Never had there been a day like today when she was played for a fool again and again!

Margaret was so angry she was about to ascend to heaven on the spot.

This time was even more unexpected than the last, and the quality of the ambush was obviously higher than before.

Her own flag was swaying in front of her eyes, and Margaret was burning with anxiety, afraid that the elite team led by Sophia would cut down the red flag right before her eyes.

"Break through! Break through at all costs! Save as many as you can!!"

When she first fell into the trap, Margaret still had the presence of mind to contract her formation and proceed steadily, but this time she was truly panicked.

"In your dreams! All of you stay here!"

Shanie organized all personnel into one team, firmly blocking Margaret's path forward, trapping them so they couldn't move.

The girl wielded a great sword with tremendous force, like a war god descending, leaving Margaret breathless.

This seemingly thin and petite girl's close combat ability was probably even a level higher than Sophia's.

But Shanie's team was still considerably smaller than Margaret's, and the strongest members had gone with Sophia.

Even though Shanie used all her strength, she still couldn't completely stop Margaret, who was determined to escape.

Margaret had Charlotte and others protect her, abandoned those trapped in bitter fighting, and fled in panic with less than half her people.

Sophia had been just a step away from capturing the flag, but seeing Margaret hurrying back with a bunch of people, she had no choice but to retreat.

"Damn Sophia! Damn Celitia!!"

Margaret was so angry she spoke without thinking.

The dozen or so people left in the trap circle definitely couldn't return, and the remaining people merged with the flag-guarding group but still couldn't catch Sophia.

"That girl runs so fast! If this young lady catches her, I'll definitely break her legs!!"

"Margaret..."

Charlotte was running and sweating profusely, with no mood to remind Margaret not to say such extreme things.

"It's no good... all this back and forth, repeatedly falling into traps, it's too exhausting."

Charlotte was panting heavily, shaking the water bottle in her hand.

"The water we brought is almost finished. We must rest near a water source."

Margaret knew there was a stream flowing down from the lake at the mountain top. When she chose the stronghold location, she had deliberately positioned it near the stream.

It seemed the conservative plan she had made initially was now being put to use...

They would defend by the water source and drag things out for now!

"Take the flag, move positions, and rest for a while!" Margaret decisively ordered.

Following Margaret's instructions, the remaining twenty-plus team members carried the flag and slowly headed toward the water source.

At this time, Celitia was standing at a high vantage point, gazing from afar at Margaret's movements.

Calculating the red team's route, after a moment, a faint smile curved at the corners of her lips.