At this point, rather than second guessing the translation all the time or waiting for Reaper, I'll just read the novel. This chapter is chapter 451 in the novel.
Did the art seem pretty poor to anyone else? There's bad consistency for characters especially in perspective, and there was very little sense of motion or movement even in big moments with spells.
Yeah I think the entrapping troops being an hour away and not located in the immediate area by scouts was a factor in their confidence that it wasn't a trap. But I still mostly agree with the sentiment that they took the easy route to make Ashton seem big brained.
But it doesn't matter because...