As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Victory

“My men─today, we have achieved an overwhelming victory over our foes! Some of us have fallen, but their sacrifices have won us Castle Staatz and brought us a pivotal step toward our ultimate goal! Your valiant deeds this day shall never be forgotten!”

Following our victory, Couran gathered his entire army to deliver a congratulatory speech. Our previous battles had been relatively bloodless for our troops, but this time, we’d suffered considerable losses. The force that Couran had sent to assault the castle’s main gate had done so under heavy fire, physical and magical alike. A few thousand men had died in total, but considering the scale of Couran’s army, that was within their expectations.

“That being said, we must not let ourselves rest easy just yet!” Couran continued. “This castle’s fortifications were damaged, so Staatz is all but defenseless! I would like nothing more than to allow all of us to indulge in celebration, but for the time being, we must prioritize makeshift repairs to bring the castle back up to a defensible state. The time to make merry will come, I assure you, but until it does, I ask that all of you devote yourselves to protecting that which we have won!”

A celebratory banquet seemed to be a tradition after a successful battle, but apparently, it was a tradition we’d be postponing this time around. I couldn’t fault Couran’s judgment on the matter. With the walls in their current state, a raiding party could’ve waltzed in and caught us off guard with ease. Since our pursuit of the enemy army had been unsuccessful, they still had plenty of troops available who would be watching like hawks for their chance to strike back and reclaim the castle by any means necessary.

As long as we stayed vigilant, though, I didn’t think we had to worry about being driven out of the castle. I didn’t expect our foes to launch an all or nothing attack on us unless we made ourselves into a target too inviting to pass up. As Couran said, it seemed our best bet was to tighten our defenses and work on bringing the walls back up to a defensible state. We’d really done a number on them this time, however, so it wouldn’t be as easy as it sounded.

We had to get the walls patched together before we marched on Velshdt, but the coldest point of winter was also almost upon us, and the odds of heavy snowfall were high. We’d have to wait around for winter to pass before moving on one way or another, so in a sense, this was the perfect timing to have a project like the walls holding us up.

Soon after his speech, Couran sent for me.

“Once again, I find that I owe you a great deal for your efforts in this battle,” he said when I arrived. “We would never have breached the city walls if it weren’t for the surprise attack you orchestrated, and I may not have lived to see this day had your Shadows not delivered me from mortal peril. You have my gratitude, now and always.”

“I’m honored, Your Lordship,” I replied with a bow.

“I intend to reward you and the others whose contributions to this victory stand out, of course, but that is not why I’ve called you here. No, you see, I would like to make use of your appraisal ability.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

“We have a rather large number of prisoners this time, so I expect it will be a tiresome process, but know that your efforts are appreciated.”

There are more prisoners than usual? Interesting.

I had to assume that larger, fiercer fights meant more captives at the end of the day. He was right about it being tiresome, as well. Using my skill too much always exhausted me, and while it had been some time since I’d abused it in that manner, I got the feeling I’d be put through the wringer today.

I was led to the prison where we were keeping our captives, and quickly began appraising them one by one. The more important prisoners were kept in single cells, while the rank and file foot soldiers were penned up in shared chambers, but the one trait that their living conditions shared was that they were all, well, awful. Maybe that was a given, considering it was a prison.

I soon came to realize that Couran hadn’t been kidding about the number of captives. It seemed there were a few hundred people locked up in the castle’s prison. The scale of the battle and the sheer number of soldiers taken captive was one factor, but there was also the fact that many of the soldiers who’d fought in this battle were loyal to the Count of Velshdt or the Baron of Staatz, and would never so much as consider betraying them to side with Couran.

As expected, appraising everyone gave me a killer case of eyestrain. Eventually, I decided that handling all of them in one day was a lost cause, so I resolved to finish the task over the next day or two. I handled seventy people on the first day, among whom I found a surprising number of talented individuals. Considering the scale of the battle, it made sense that they’d fielded their most capable soldiers, and it made sense in turn that some of them had ended up as our prisoners.

On the second day, I upped my game and appraised ninety more prisoners. Among them, I found someone quite remarkable whose stats averaged out to eighty, a warrior with a Valor of ninety, and a middle-aged man with a current Intelligence of fifty-seven, but an Intelligence cap of ninety-four. A real late bloomer, that last one.

I was very much in the market for a new retainer, and hoped that one of the people I’d found would want to join me, but so far none of them had been interested in serving a new lord. Considering their former positions, I had a feeling I’d have to prepare a pretty juicy offer to coax them into serving me, and being the petty noble I was, I didn’t have the resources to make that kind of commitment.

I still had around eighty people to appraise at the end of day two, and decided to handle them the next day. Day three rolled around, and I’d just appraised my fiftieth man without finding anyone special. As I moved on to the fifty-first, though, a shout rang out.

“Hey, you! Shrimp! Lemme outta here!”

I glanced in the direction the voice had come from…and saw a man─or rather, a boy, given his small stature. Small enough that I had to wonder where he got off calling me a shrimp, even. He was barely taller than I was, and he had the face of a rambunctious little punk. I could only assume he was still a teenager, and I wondered for a moment why we had a child locked up in prison, but then I noticed his muscles and understood. He was very well-built, and looked like he could hold his own in a fight. I decided to appraise him.

Calling his stats unbalanced would’ve been putting it very lightly. His Valor was incredible, and his Leadership score had the potential to be better. Thinking back, I was pretty sure I’d never seen anyone with a Leadership cap that high before. His current Intelligence, however, was 9. That was appallingly low. Low enough to make me wonder if he could function on a basic level. Could you even live a proper day-to-day life with an Intelligence that low?

An Intelligence of nine meant that even with his outstanding Valor, I could imagine him losing a duel on account of his stupidity alone. His maximum Intelligence wasn’t that bad, though. If I could just get him to study up, I knew he could at least be as smart as an average person. In fact, while his current stats reflected some serious, deal-breaking weak points, his maximum stats made it clear that he had the potential to be an exceptional commander slumbering within him.

I decided to take a closer look at the description beneath his stat block, which read: Born on the third day of the third month, 194 Imperial Era, in Staatz, County of Velshdt, Duchy of Missian, Summerforth Empire. Parents have passed away. A simple-minded man with a taste for meat. Enjoys fighting, and has an interest in women who are young and tough. Harbors a grudge against his lord, Stefan.

His parents were dead, and he had no siblings, meaning he was all alone in spite of his youth. The part about him harboring a grudge against his lord caught my attention as well, considering that only the soldiers who had refused to betray said lord were locked up in this prison. If he didn’t feel any loyalty to Stefan, then why hadn’t he jumped ship and agreed to fight for Couran instead? His Ambition was high, so for a moment I thought he just wasn’t the sort of person who’d be willing to serve a lord at all…but if that were the case, he wouldn’t have agreed to serve Stefan either. My curiosity was piqued.

“Hey! What’re you staring at me like that for? Trying to pick a fight? ’Cause if you are, I’m game!” said Braham, casting a glare my way.

He couldn’t have sounded more like a small-time hooligan if he’d tried. I’d seen my fair share of battlefields, though, and toughened up as a result, so his attitude wasn’t enough to shake me. I was still very curious as to why someone with an axe to grind against their lord would’ve turned Couran down, so I decided to see if I could coax an explanation out of him.

“Why did you refuse to enter Lord Couran’s service?” I asked. “You knew that would get you locked up down here, so what was the point?”

“Huh? I turned it down ’cause I didn’t want to,” said Braham.

“Yes, but why?”

“I didn’t want to ’cause I didn’t want to! You won’t catch me serving some shriveled-up old fogey.”

So it’s an issue of age? He has some sort of bias against middle-aged men, and doesn’t want to serve one?

“Most old folks like him are as thickheaded as the day is long,” Braham continued. “Stefan was an old guy, and he was the same way. You can show people like them how tough you are, and they’ll still treat you like useless dirt!”

He was certainly tough, yes, but Braham’s current Intelligence was low enough that I had my doubts about whether he’d be of any use. I had to give his former lord credit for making the right call. It seemed, then, that he’d refused to work for Couran because he assumed he’d be treated as poorly working under him as he’d been treated by Stefan. I had to admit that he was right─I couldn’t imagine Couran assigning someone like him to a position of any importance. With the right education, however, he had the potential to be a general known far and wide. His high Ambition meant that he’d be a tough one to control…but at the very least, it seemed worth making an attempt.

“Lord Couran isn’t the sort of person who’d treat a capable warrior poorly,” I explained. “Why not at least give working for him a try?”

“Nope, I’m not buying it. Look, I don’t think I’m cut out for all this serving someone garbage in the first place, okay? I’d rather gather up my own band, take out a castle somewhere, and declare independence, thanks.”

Now that was a reckless ambition if I’d ever heard one.

“That won’t happen,” I said, “because you’ll be dead before you can even try. You know they’re going to execute everyone who refuses to serve Lord Couran, don’t you?”

“They can try. I’ll slip outta this jail before they get the chance.”

Braham had the eyes of a man with absolute faith in his own immortality. I couldn’t judge whether there was any basis to his confidence, but I could tell that he, at least, believed everything he said from the bottom of his heart.

“Who’re you supposed to be, anyway?” Braham asked. “What’s a little squirt like you doing in a prison?”

“My name is Ars Louvent. I’m the baron of a small territory that you probably haven’t heard of.”

“Hmm. A lord, at your age? Lemme guess─you’re here ’cause Couran needed someone to come convince me to sign on as one of his men, right?”

“No, not at all. I came here to judge whether any of our prisoners had talents worth making use of. It’s a skill of mine.”

“Oh, so that’s how you figured out how tough I am? You’re not kidding about that skill of yours!” exclaimed Braham, his irate scowl shifting into an elated grin. He certainly was a straightforward person. “I’ll be honest with you, pal. There’s one more reason why I couldn’t sign on under the guy,” he continued. It seemed putting him in a good mood had done a lot to loosen his lips. “It’s the duel I fought that got me locked up in here, see. The coward cheated his way to a win! A loss is a loss, so I went along with his demands, but I’ll never serve somebody who’d fight dirty like that rat bastard!”

Somebody cheated to beat him in a duel?

It sounded absurd, but then again, there weren’t all that many people out there who could beat a man of Braham’s skill in a fair fight. Considering what a blockhead he was, it was easy to imagine that he’d gotten caught up in somebody’s scheme.

“Damn that Malkan,” Braham muttered. “I’ll repay him one of these days…”

Wait, did he say “Malkan”? Is he talking about Rietz?

I’d never noticed any other Malkan in our army, so I couldn’t imagine he was referring to anyone else. Would Rietz fight dirty in a duel, though? I…couldn’t deny that it was a possibility. He would’ve been in a hurry at the time, and if he thought that catching his foe in a trap would get him through the duel quicker than fighting fair, I could see him resorting to trickery.

“That son of a whore! I used my ultimate technique, and, uh…got my spear stuck in the ground…and then he dared to put his blade to my neck while I tried to pull it out! A real warrior would’ve waited! Why would someone as tough as him resort to dirty tricks, anyway?”

I reassessed my opinion: Braham had brought every bit of his loss upon himself. Of course putting yourself in that vulnerable position would result in your defeat. In any case, it seemed that Braham was under the impression that he hadn’t really lost to Rietz, and didn’t deserve to get locked up. I was starting to form a plan: what if I had him fight Rietz again, under the condition that Braham would enter our service if Rietz beat him? I could have them duel with wooden weapons to make sure nobody got hurt. It seemed worth a shot, so I decided to bring up the possibility.

“I’m acquainted with the Malkan you’re talking about,” I said.

“Seriously? He called himself Rietz Muses─you’re sure that’s the guy?”

“Well, now I’m positive.”

It seemed Rietz had introduced himself, which cleared up what little ambiguity that remained.

“He happens to be one of my retainers.”

“What? He’s one of your people?!” yelped Braham. “I-In that case, you’ve gotta help me out here! I have to get a rematch with him! Last time didn’t prove anything, and I’ve gotta settle the score!”

Well, that makes this easier.

I hadn’t expected him to ask me to put together a fight, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“I can do that, but I have one condition,” I said.

“What?” asked Braham.

“If you lose to Rietz, I want you to stop being stubborn and fight on our side.”

“Lose the duel, lose my freedom, huh…? Sure, fine by me. If I win, though, I want you to let me go.”

He wants to stake his release on the duel?

I wasn’t sure if that was a promise I could make. On the other hand, he might’ve asked for the fight, but I was the one who’d turned it into a gamble. It was only fair for him to have something to gain from victory.

Then again, I definitely don’t have the authority to just release him… I’ll have to ask Couran for permission.

“One more thing. If I lose, I’ll serve you, not Couran. I’d sooner rot in jail than work for that geezer.”

“But you’d work for me?” I asked, a little taken aback. It was a proposal that I couldn’t complain about…for the most part. He had incredible potential, but at the moment, I had to admit he seemed like a major troublemaker. I wasn’t confident that I was capable of giving him the education he needed. “I trust you’re aware that I’m a child? And you’d serve me anyway?”

“I mean, I’d rather work for someone who’s tough enough to make me acknowledge them, but you’ve got an eye for people, at least. That gives you a leg up on all my other options. Not that any of this matters, since I’m gonna beat Rietz into the dirt.”

Braham was as confident as ever, but personally, I had a hard time imagining Rietz losing to him. The kid’s lack of brains offset his excess of brawn, after all. I had faith that Rietz would win the day…and that thought led me to another realization: if Braham ended up becoming one of my retainers, I could just ask Rietz to teach him everything he needed to know! I’d gotten the impression that Braham was the sort of guy who’d listen to people as long as they were capable of beating him up, so it seemed like a perfect solution.

“I’ll have to run the conditions for the duel past Lord Couran before I accept, but I suspect he’ll be open to them,” I said. “I’ll be back as soon as I’ve spoken with him.”

“Well, hurry it up, then!” Braham snapped.

Unfortunately for him, I still had prisoners to appraise before I could leave. Braham kept grumbling along the lines of “What are you waiting for? Get going!” all the while, but I kept up with my appraisals and found a few capable people in the process, though nobody who stood head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd.

After I finished, I left the jail and went out to meet with Couran.

“I’ve finished my appraisals.”

“Good work,” replied Couran.

To start, I handed over a list of all the talented prisoners I’d found over the course of my search. Then, I explained the Braham situation to him.

“So he’s to serve you should he lose the duel, and walk free should he win?” said Couran. “Braham Joe…not a name I’m familiar with. You say he possesses outstanding talent?”

“Yes, though his talents are still underdeveloped at the moment,” I replied. “With the right training and education, I’m certain he’ll be an outstanding general.”

“Hmm… And why is it that he wishes to serve you, rather than me?” Couran asked.

I had a feeling that being upfront about Braham’s reasons would only cause problems, so I decided to phrase my explanation a little more diplomatically than he would’ve.

“It seems that his previous lord treated him rather poorly, and he’s concerned that you would neglect him in a similar manner. You have so many people in your service already, he feels his needs would fall by the wayside.”

“Hmm,” said Couran. “If he’s as capable as you say, I’d be more than willing to reward him accordingly, but so be it. The question is, are you inclined to take this man into your service?”

Now that I’d thought up the idea of having Rietz train him, I’d come around to the idea.

“Yes.”

“In that case, I see no reason not to accept his conditions. After all, those who serve you serve me by extension. I don’t feel the need to have every talented soldier in my realm act under my direct supervision. I have confidence you will raise him to his full potential.”

Having gained the permission I’d been hoping for, I said my thanks to Couran and went on my way. Rietz would want to know about his rematch with Braham in advance, so speaking to him was my next objective. I had a feeling he’d be amiable to the idea, but there was always the possibility something would compel him to refuse, and I wanted to be on the safe side. I tracked him down and broached the topic.

“Braham? O-Oh, yes…I remember him. He was quite capable, but, well…he had some sizable flaws in his fighting style,” said Rietz. He remembered Braham, at least, though considering how memorable a manner the man had lost in, that almost seemed like a given.

“Would you be all right with fighting him again?”

“I suppose so, but why?” Rietz countered. I explained the situation, and Rietz’s eyes widened. “You’re planning on bringing him into the service of House Louvent? A-Are you serious?”

“Absolutely.”

“W-Well…far be it from me to question your judgment when it comes to his talent, I suppose…”

“He has the potential to grow much smarter with the right education. If he does enter my service, I was hoping you would handle that.”

“Excuse me?! I’m going to have to ask you to please reconsider!” Rietz stammered. I’d have to work a bit harder to convince him to help out with Braham’s education, it seemed. I could understand the reluctance. Being Braham’s teacher sounded like it would be rather trying.

“Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure he’ll listen to you as long as you beat him first. It won’t be as bad as you’re imagining it.”

“A-Are you sure about that?” Rietz asked skeptically.

I decided to put off further discussion of Braham’s education and focus on the duel itself. To start, I led Rietz to the cell Braham was locked up in. We ended up finding a training ground within the castle, and escorted him there for the duel.

Rietz and Braham stood across from each other, wooden spears in their hands. I’d suggested wooden swords, but apparently, the spear was Braham’s weapon of choice. Rietz was capable with either weapon and didn’t have a strong preference, so they settled on dueling with spears.

“I’ve been looking forward to this, Rietz Muses! You won’t catch me off guard with your dirty tricks this time!” said Braham.

“‘Dirty tricks’…?” Rietz repeated incredulously, then sighed. “You have no one but yourself to blame for what happened last time.”

The duel would conclude when one participant dropped their weapon or sustained what would be a fatal wound in a real battle, and a skilled soldier chosen by Couran would serve as the referee. I would’ve had a hard time judging the match, so I was grateful to have someone who knew what they were doing to handle the task. The referee was a stern-faced man with a beard. He looked like a serious sort and had a Valor score of 75, which put him on the higher end of the spectrum.

“This will be a one round match,” said the referee. “Should Rietz Muses win, Braham Joe shall enter the service of Lord Ars Louvent. Should Braham Joe win, he will earn his freedom and be allowed to leave this place unmolested. En garde!”

Rietz and Braham raised their spears, standing at the ready.

“Begin!” shouted the referee.

Braham launched himself forward that very instant at a tremendous speed. For a second I panicked, thinking it would end then and there, but Rietz evaded the thrust without batting an eyelash. I couldn’t tell if he’d predicted the attack or if he’d just reacted to it on the spot, but I could tell that Braham had wagered the whole duel on that single attack. His eyes widened in shock as Rietz dodged out of the way, and Rietz took the opportunity to thrust his own spear at Braham, stopping it just before its point slammed into his throat.

“Rietz Muses is victorious!” declared the referee.

The duel had been far shorter than I’d expected. Braham had been planning on ending the match before it even began, which I had to admit was a decent plan for someone with an Intelligence score like his.

“Dammit,” spat Braham. “How the hell’d you dodge that…?”

“You had a decent plan,” said Rietz, “but I could tell you were going to come at me right away by the look in your eyes when we faced off. If I hadn’t figured that out, though, I might not have been able to dodge your attack.”

As expected, Rietz had predicted Braham’s line of attack in advance. He made dodging it look easy, but considering its speed, I could believe it would’ve given him trouble if he hadn’t seen it coming, no matter how good he was.

“Ugh! Dammit, really? I let it show on my face…?” Braham grunted as he scowled and clenched his fists. “I admit it. I lost… As promised, I’ll work for the pipsqueak from now on.”

“Incorrect,” said Rietz. “You will work for Lord Ars Louvent from now on.”

“Ah… Right, sure. I’ll work for Ars.”

“Lord Ars,” Rietz repeated. He was smiling, but it was one of those mirthless smiles that told you that you were in big trouble. Rietz’s expression could exude some serious pressure when he wanted it to.

For all his protests, Rietz wasn’t one to turn down my orders, and I got the feeling that he was already carrying out my command to oversee Braham’s education. Braham, for his part, behaved exactly as I’d expected and obeyed the command of the man who’d just defeated him, repeating “Lord Ars,” without further prompting.

I was starting to get the feeling that Rietz would be able to give Braham the education he needed without any issues, which was a very good thing considering that thanks to Rietz’s victory, Braham was now officially my newest retainer.

○

Kanses, the Count of Velshdt, sat with Thomas and his various retainers in the Castle Velshdt Chamber of Debate. A council of war had been called, and the expressions of every last attendant were grim. The battle of Castle Staatz had been lost, robbing them of a vital stronghold and incurring a heavy toll in terms of casualties.

The loss of Castle Staatz was a painful─one might even say fatal─blow. With Staatz in enemy hands, Vasmarque would no longer be capable of sending reinforcements to Velshdt. Considering the fact that the forces left in Velshdt had been driven so far into a corner that Vasmarque’s reinforcements were their only hope to turn things around, that was a very big problem. It seemed the fall of the county was all but inevitable, and none present could come up with a plan to remedy the situation.

The long, gloomy silence was broken by one of Kanses’s retainers.

“I believe it is time we consider surrender,” he said.

All of his fellows were thinking the same thing. If they fought to the bitter end, their count would surely be killed before the struggle was over. Were they to give up now, however, they could demand that Kanses be spared as a condition of their surrender. He would not be able to keep his position as count, of course, but the likelihood of him being killed would at least be lowered.

In the eyes of Kanses’s followers and advisors, resistance would bring about nothing but needless bloodshed. Kanses’s capitulation would be beneficial to Couran and his army as well, so they were very likely to accept it without question. When Kanses’s retainer suggested surrender, in short, he had done so out of a desire to preserve his lord and master’s life.

“Never,” said Kanses with a pained scowl. “I will never surrender.”

Kanses was the brother-in-law of Vasmarque, and he held him and his capabilities in the highest of esteem. He could never have brought himself to give up Vasmarque’s cause just to save his own life.

“Lord Kanses, please,” the retainer spoke up once more. “You know what must be done! You need only give the word!”

“We could never bear to lose you, Your Lordship! And that’s not all─at this rate, House Bandle itself may fall! Would you have your son suffer the consequences of this war?!” said another. “My family has served the Bandles for generations, Lord Kanses. I beg of you, do not let it all be for nothing…”

Kanses’s followers’ pleas grew more and more desperate as they appealed to their lord, and their words did not fall on deaf ears. While Kanses valued his loyalty more than his own life, his son’s life was a different matter altogether. His resolve began to waver, and for the first time, he began considering the prospect of surrender.

That was when Thomas chose to open his mouth.

“I do not believe we have run entirely out of options. Not yet,” he said.

All eyes turned to Thomas. Some gazed at him with looks of hope in their eyes, while others frowned, as if to chastise him for butting in when they were so very close to convincing their lord to see reason.

“Have you come up with a plan?” asked Kanses.

“Not one that would assure victory… But in the best-case scenario, it may allow us to reclaim Castle Staatz,” said Thomas. The room broke out in hushed whispers.

“Castle Staatz is guarded by a host more than twice the size of our own,” said Kanses. “How could we possibly reclaim it?”

Thomas began to describe his plan. As his frank, detached speech went on, the whispers in the room grew louder and less reserved, turning into shouts. It was a preposterously reckless proposal, and yet nobody could deny that with Thomas there to guide its course, it just might have a chance at success.

“If this operation fails, I would like you to surrender, Your Lordship,” said Thomas as he looked Kanses in the eye. “Your life still has too much value for us to throw it away here.”

Kanses hesitated for just a moment, then nodded in agreement. Thomas waited for that confirmation, then left the room, off to prepare for his final, last-ditch effort to turn the tides of the war.

○

The cold set in soon after Castle Staatz fell, and we ended up riding out the dead of winter in the castle itself. We eventually finished repairing the curtain walls, and when that work was finished, Couran granted us the rest of the winter to rest and recuperate. The castle wasn’t large enough to host the entire army, though, so many of his soldiers found themselves camping outside the walls, and I found myself worrying about how restful a break like that could even be.

I, in contrast, had been granted a room to stay within the castle. It was far more spacious than I had any need for, so I invited my retainers to share the room with me and spend their winter in relative comfort─especially after we set up a heater powered by flame magistones.

One morning, I felt a shaking sensation as a voice roused me from my slumber.

“Wake up, Lord Ars! Wake up!”

That voice… Must be Charlotte, right…?

If so, this was a rarity. Charlotte was such a heavy sleeper that it usually fell to me or Rietz to make sure she managed to haul herself out of bed in time for breakfast.

“Well, that’s something,” I mumbled as I sat up. “You managed to wake up on your own today?”

“Who cares! Come outside, hurry!”

Charlotte grabbed my hand, pulled me out of bed, and dragged me out the door without missing a beat. I had no idea what she was thinking, but in my half-asleep daze I was powerless to resist.

The moment we stepped outside, an intense chill washed over me. Our heater kept it nice and toasty inside, but it was downright frigid out there. It was probably the coldest weather I’d experienced since I was reborn in this world, and the fact that I’d stepped outside without bothering to change out of my bed clothes made it all the worse.

“F-Freezing! N-Need a coat!” I said, my teeth chattering.

“Look, look! Out there!” Charlotte shouted excitedly, pointing toward the castle garden and ignoring me.

I looked out, still confused, and found myself face to face with a sea of white. Snow had fallen, blanketing the garden in a thick layer of powder. It was the first snow of the year, and it took me until that moment to remember that Charlotte loved the snow so much, she flew into an ecstatic frenzy every year when it fell for the first time. She really did act just like a kid sometimes. I didn’t mind looking out over a snowscape myself, but it was way too cold at the moment for me to appreciate the sight. In fact, looking at all that snow just made me feel colder!

“I love it when it snows! Come on, let’s run around in it!” said Charlotte.

That was my cue to dig in my heels.

“W-Wait! I’ll freeze to death if I go out dressed like this! At least let me put on something warm first!”

“Oh, right. You are dressed pretty lightly… Why’d you go outside wearing that? Of course you’d be cold.”

“Whose fault do you think this is?”

“Well, go on, then! Hurry up and get changed! I’ll be waiting out in the garden!”

I shook my head with exasperation as I made my way back inside and changed into something a little more seasonable. I was tempted to just go back to bed for a moment, but going along with their follower’s requests sometimes was part of a lord’s duties. I braved the cold once more and made my way to the garden, where I found Charlotte already hard at play in the snow with a few other youths. The first snow of the year had her even more wildly out of control than usual.

“Ah, Lord Ars! What took you so long?” Charlotte shouted as I approached. “We were just deciding what we’d build out of snow today! Come help!”

I spent quite some time outside, playing around in the snow at Charlotte’s behest. We made all sorts of sculptures─cats, dogs, and the like, though I had a feeling nobody would manage to guess what they were supposed to be unless we told them first. I was a little worried they’d think we were making heretical idols to some occult deity.

“I’m getting hungry. Think I’ll go find something to eat,” Charlotte eventually said, then wandered off into the castle. I didn’t think I’d ever meet anyone as free-spirited as she was.

I was also getting pretty hungry, having not eaten anything since she dragged me out of bed, so I followed along after her to try to find some breakfast. I thought that I’d get to take it easy afterward, but no sooner had I finished eating than Charlotte dragged me right back outside again. Rietz and Rosell came along too this time, and we ended up engaging in a wintertime activity that Charlotte had taught us a few winters back: a snowball fight.

It started out quiet enough, but it wasn’t long before we started attracting the interest of the passersby. First a few people joined in, then a few more, and before I knew it the garden had descended into a full-blown snowball war. These were real soldiers who’d been fighting in a real war up until just recently, too, so the way they conducted their snow warfare was intense, to say the least. I was too exhausted to take part in that, so I retired to observe from the sidelines with Mireille, who’d opted out from the very beginning.

“They’re all sure taking it easy, huh?” Mireille muttered. “They think this whole war’s in the bag, I’d bet.”

“I can’t say you’re wrong about that…but we do hold a nearly insurmountable advantage, don’t you think?”

“True enough. But I know my brother, and I know that’s not enough to make him give up. He might be cooking up another of his usual tricks right now, and if he is, we can’t let our guards down.”

Her brother─that is to say, Thomas Grunzeon. His first attempt on Couran’s life had failed, but that wasn’t to say there wouldn’t be a second. Mireille had a point, and we couldn’t let ourselves get complacent, but one little detail kept me from giving her too much credit for her prudence.

“If we can’t afford to let our guards down, then why’re you already drinking?”

“What? A girl’s gotta have her liquor! We could be scheduled to fight an all-out battle tomorrow, and I’d still get a few cups in here and there.”

I shook my head and sighed.

What could be more complacent than drowning in a bottle first thing in the morning?

○

A few days later, Ben paid me a visit.

“The boss wants to talk with you,” he said. “Mind coming with me for a bit?”

“He wants to talk with me?” I repeated, a little puzzled. I didn’t have anything in particular to do at the moment, though, and I didn’t have a problem with the idea, so I decided to play along. “Sure, I suppose. I can come.”

“Great. Follow me, then.”

Ben led me away without bothering to explain what Pham wanted. I figured that either he didn’t know, or he’d just forgotten to mention it to me. I’d learn when I got to Pham regardless, so I didn’t bother prying and just followed along.

We walked on for some time, arriving at an abandoned alleyway where I found Pham waiting for me. For once, he wasn’t alone. A group of five men and women I’d never seen before were waiting with him.

“You made it,” said Pham when he noticed me approaching.

“Oh? He’s a lot cuter than I thought he’d be,” said a woman who was standing next to him. She had a big smile on a face thick with makeup, and was dressed in a flashy, gaudy outfit. She was also tall for a woman─if I had to guess, I’d say she was around 5’6” or so. I couldn’t tell how old she was at all, beyond maybe somewhere in the vicinity of her thirties.

There were two other women with Pham, and two men as well, none of whom were wearing anything eye-catching and none of whom left a very strong impression. They seemed closer to Ben’s type, though none of them were quite as profoundly plain as him.

“Who are these people?” I asked.

“My people,” said Pham. “Since I’m one of your retainers now, I want you to take them into the fold as well. I can’t do my best work without them backing me up.”

“So these are the rest of the Shadows…? I see now,” I said. The flashily-dressed woman aside, all of them did seem suited to spy work. That just made me wonder what her deal was even more.

Pham seemed to catch on to my curiosity.

“This is Lambers, our master of disguise. Dunno if you’ve appraised him yet or not, but just so you know, he’s a guy underneath all that. Not even I know what he looks like─he usually dresses as a pretty plain man when he meets me, but when he learned he’d be meeting you for the first time today, he decided to go all-out with the crossdressing. Don’t ask me why.”

“What? Is something wrong with wanting to leave an impression on the man who might be my master from now on?” asked Lambers.

That’s a man?

I never would’ve guessed, and was stunned by the revelation. I’d gone through a similar sort of surprise back when I met Pham, but his crossdressing was enabled by his naturally youthful and feminine appearance, whereas it sounded like Lambers’s entire appearance was fabricated from the ground up. Not only did he look the part, he sounded just like a woman as well. I had to wonder how he managed it─could he be using magic?

I gave him an appraisal, just to clear away my doubts, and he was indeed a man. His stats were unexceptional, but his talent for disguises had already impressed me more than a few high abilities could’ve. Lambers wasn’t his real name, by the way. Apparently, he was Andrew Sumage. I was also surprised to find that he’d been born outside of the Summerforth Empire. He didn’t sound foreign, so I had to wonder what sort of life he’d led to take him from being born in a foreign country to working as a mercenary in Missian. I was curious, but I knew he wouldn’t open up to me just like that, so I decided to ask once we’d gotten to know each other a little better.

I appraised the rest of the Shadows as well, and in doing so found that all of them gave me false names when they introduced themselves. There was a tall man who called himself Mulad, a man with a middling build and gray hair who said his name was Dondo, a woman with distinctively long hair called Remen, and a woman with a very sharp glare who claimed to be called Shac. All of them had fairly high Valor and Intelligence scores, which led me to conclude that you had to be pretty smart and physically capable to cut it as a spy. Remen and Dondo both had B-ranked Mage Aptitudes, too, which was on the higher side. All of them came from outside of Missian, and I assumed their backgrounds were all rather complicated, given their line of work.

“So? What do you think?” asked Pham. “Feel like taking them on?”

“If making them my retainers will make your work easier, I have no objections to doing so,” I replied. “And even if it wouldn’t, they’re all capable enough that I’d be inclined to recruit them anyway.”

“Good to hear. Thanks,” said Pham.

Everyone went on their way again shortly thereafter without exchanging much in the way of pleasantries. It seemed they’d come here just to meet me, and with that mission accomplished they had no desire to stick around. For my part, I returned to Castle Staatz with a skip in my step, over the moon at having gained a whole host of capable retainers all at once.

○

A few weeks passed by, the days grew warmer, and the snow began to melt away. In other words, it was time for us to prepare to once again go out on the march. Our soldiers had spent long enough resting that they’d need a period of training before they were ready to go back into battle, and while they were drilling away in the training grounds, I was participating in council after council as we worked to iron out our plans to take Castle Velshdt.

Ultimately, it was decided that we would besiege the castle. A siege would take time, but there was no way for reinforcements to reach the castle anymore, and Castle Velshdt was just as sturdy and hard to assail as Castle Staatz had been. A siege was the option least likely to bring about needless casualties among our men, so considering the circumstances, it seemed like our best option.

This time around, Couran would not be going out into battle himself. Instead, he would stay behind in Castle Staatz and have his orders sent to us by messenger when necessary. Killing Couran was just about the only hope that our foes had of turning the situation around, and him setting foot outside the castle without reason was just asking for them to try to assassinate him, so he chose to prioritize his own safety for the time being.

Staying in the castle wouldn’t mitigate the threat of assassination, of course, and so Couran requested that I lend him the services of the Shadows until Velshdt fell. I got the feeling that Pham and Ben had left quite the impression on him back when they saved his life. That wasn’t the sort of request you could just turn down, of course, so I acquiesced right away.

With the Shadows on the job, I knew that the risk of Couran’s assassination would be reduced to effectively nothing, and we held an overwhelming advantage over our foes in terms of military might. It felt like our victory was assured, but I couldn’t help but feel a nagging hint of doubt that something could go wrong. Mireille’s warning that her brother could still have a trick up his sleeve weighed on my mind. What, I wondered, could he do to turn the situation around?

I asked Mireille what sort of plan she’d expect him to use, but she didn’t have much in the way of specifics to offer.

“That’s a good question, kiddo, but as things stand, there’s no telling what he might try,” she’d said. “If he wants to make a move, he could go in all sorts of directions. No use trying to predict it.”

“How does a terrible situation like this give him that many options?” I asked, a little confused.

“We’ve got a massive edge on him, sure, but when all’s said and done, we lose the second our leader’s taken out. It’d only take one murder to do us in, and you wouldn’t believe how many ways there are to kill a man. He could fake a surrender to get close to Couran, or pull some trick to lure him back onto the battlefield. Couran knows that, though, so he’ll have his guard as high up as it can go. Honestly, I doubt there’s much of a chance left at this point.”

“So…it really is impossible for them to turn the tides, then? What happened to all that talk about us needing to stay on guard?”

“Well, the thing is, my brother’s the sort of person who comes up with something so off the wall nobody else could ever think it up. He might make up a plan so outlandish, not even I could ever predict it. There’s no way of telling that’s the case until he makes his move, though.”

It was quite something to hear Mireille, of all people, admit that he could think up a plan that was beyond even her. Thomas would have to be an incredible leader to pull that off.

That very same day, a messenger who claimed to bear word from Kanses, the Count of Velshdt, arrived at Castle Staatz. When I heard he’d sent a message, my first assumption was that the count had decided to surrender. Couran must have thought the same, since he allowed the messenger through the castle gates without protest─though not without a hefty guard on the alert for any and all trickery. They were exceedingly cautious about the potential for an assassination attempt, and subjected the messenger to a full-body check. Even when that didn’t turn up any hidden weapons, they kept him under close watch and had him meet with Couran’s right-hand man Robinson rather than the lord himself.

The messenger and Robinson were to meet in Castle Staatz’s great hall. A few other high-ranking nobles were also in attendance, while I stood off to the side, ready to observe the meeting at a distance. Soon, the doors to the great hall opened and the messenger was led inside, flanked by a pair of soldiers who were prepared to take action at the first sign of any funny business.

“My name is Beens Lobans, and I come on behalf of Lord Kanses,” said the messenger. He was a middle-aged man with a notable bald spot, and when I appraised him I found that his Leadership and Valor were both quite low─in the thirties─but his Intelligence was at 72, and his Politics at 79, which were notably high. He felt like the quintessential civilian paper-pusher, judging by his stats.

“I am Robinson, representative of Lord Couran. On account of His Lordship having fallen ill, I will receive your message in his place,” Robinson lied. I supposed it would be something of a faux pas to admit that Couran wouldn’t meet with the messenger out of fear of assassination.

“Very well,” said Beens. “Allow me, then, to deliver my message: Lord Kanses requests an armistice.”

The assembled lords began whispering to one another. Some of them went so far as to jeer the messenger. Why, after all, would Couran feel inclined to lay down arms now that he held such an overwhelming advantage? I was surprised as well. I’d assumed that the messenger had been sent to declare their surrender and negotiate for terms that would benefit Kanses as much as possible, not offer an armistice that Couran would have no need or desire to accept.

“An armistice, you say?” said Robinson. “My apologies, but we will not accept such a proposal, regardless of the specifics of your offer. Please be on your way.”

The rest of the assembled lords were in agreement, some already urging the messenger to make himself scarce. Beens, however, spoke up once more and said, “I believe it would be in your best interests to allow me to finish… Velshdt is not as defenseless as you may assume─we still have a secret weapon in reserve.”

A secret weapon?

That was a strange thing for a messenger to say, no matter how you sliced it.

“What, exactly, do you mean by that?” asked Robinson.

“In recent times, Castle Velshdt has been the staging ground for a long-term experiment in magical weapon development. That project has borne fruit in the form of a catalyzer that dwarfs all previous models in scale, capable of reducing a city to ash with a single spell. Were he so inclined, His Lordship could order this very castle to be obliterated in an instant. That being said, I trust you appreciate why he would rather not resort to such methods if at all possible.”

I jumped to the conclusion that he was bluffing. If Kanses could have Couran and this castle blown away at will, he would’ve done it a long time ago.

“That is a lie,” said Robinson, echoing my first impression. “If such a weapon existed, I find it hard to believe we would have heard nothing about it. More to the point, if you have the means to wreak such devastation at your disposal, why have you not done so?”

The other lords muttered in agreement, but Beens didn’t waver.

“The catalyzer in question is capable of bringing about slaughter on an unprecedented scale, and His Lordship does not mean to use it unless provoked. He would not even consider doing so unless he was driven into a corner and left with no other options─in other words, the precise situation he finds himself in now.”

It wasn’t an implausible explanation, but it didn’t change the fact that this supposed superweapon was impossibly convenient for Kanses’s purposes. On the other hand, the fact that we couldn’t rule out its existence with absolute certainty meant that this could turn into a major headache, if I was reading the situation right.

Beens kept talking for some time. He was quite the orator, and the lords who had been so convinced he was lying began to waver, their wills shaken by his story. Eventually, Robinson came to the conclusion that letting him continue to influence them would be a poor decision and called the meeting to a preemptive close, ordering his men to escort Beens out of the hall.

“I would like to make it clear to everyone present that what that man said was a bluff, and nothing more,” Robinson said as soon as Beens was gone.

The nobles, however, looked confused and unconvinced. The odds of the mega-catalyzer being a bluff seemed high, but they couldn’t help but consider the slight possibility that it was real. Their worries were plain to see.

“He said that Kanses did not wish to destroy a city offhand, and that is believable, yes,” Robinson continued. “However, ask yourself this: if such a weapon was available to Kanses, then why would he not have kept silent on the matter, waited until we began our march toward Castle Velshdt, then used it to obliterate our force wholesale once we were a safe distance from civilization? Surely a weapon that can destroy a city could have decimated our forces, leaving what few survivors there may have been demoralized and incapable of carrying on the fight. A tactician of Thomas’s capabilities would never have missed such an obvious opportunity.”

“But Beens already explained that,” said one of the lords. “He said that war or not, we’re all fellow Missians, and that Kanses didn’t want to use a weapon of mass slaughter on his own countrymen! That was the whole point of the armistice!”

“He said that, yes, and you’d be a fool to believe it,” said Robinson. “I believe that Kanses may choose to refrain from killing Missian civilians, but he would not hesitate for a second to slay a soldier. Otherwise, he would have laid down arms before the war began in earnest.”

Nobody could refute Robinson’s argument outright, but it was still clear that they were fretting over the worst-case scenario. This superweapon business was turning into a major pain in the neck already. For all the authority Couran commanded, he couldn’t completely ignore the opinions of his vassals, and I got the sense that a lot of them would be arguing in favor of an armistice unless something was done, and fast.

“Hmph,” snorted Mireille, who was standing off to my side. She was loud enough that the attention of all the assembled lords turned to her. “It’s a bluff, obviously, and if you don’t believe me, then listen up! Even if a weapon like that were possible to build, Velshdt doesn’t have the resources to pull it off. You’d need to be the duke himself to have access to that sort of wealth! In the unlikely event that Velshdt was involved in the development of such a weapon, it would’ve been at the duke’s request. There’s just no other way, and in case you need a reminder, Lord Couran is the son of that very duke! Even if the project was kept top-secret, there’s no way he wouldn’t have heard something about it, and if he did know that Velshdt had a superweapon on hand, he would’ve approached this war with a different set of tactics.”

The lords seemed at least a little convinced by Mireille’s argument, muttering to one another about how she had a point.

“Anyway,” Mireille continued. “Seems to me you can just call Lord Couran over, tell him what the messenger had to say, and see what he thinks. I have a feeling he’s going to tell you that there’s no such thing and that anyone who believed it for a second is an idiot, though.”

Getting Couran’s judgment on the matter could certainly do a lot to put his followers’ worries to rest. His words carried considerable weight, and he had a way of being remarkably persuasive. Considering how many of the assembled lords respected him, that struck me as a great way to resolve the issue. Robinson seemed to agree, and he summoned Couran at once.

As Mireille had predicted, when Couran heard what was going on, he declared that Kanses’s supposed superweapon was the stuff of fantasy. Almost none of the lords seemed worried anymore after hearing their leader’s reassurances, and Beens was told that no armistice would be accepted, then driven out of the castle. I felt relieved to see that the incident had ended without a hitch, but for some reason Mireille and Rosell were off on the side of the room, engaged in furious discussion with grave expressions on their faces. That piqued my curiosity, so I went over to see what they were going on about.

“What are the two of you discussing?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, just how the whole thing with the messenger didn’t really make sense. We can’t figure out what the actual goal of sending him here was,” said Rosell.

“Right,” agreed Mireille with a nod. “There was no way we’d fall for a trick like that, and there’s no way they thought we would for a second. Makes you wonder what they were actually after.”

They had a point. Thomas was supposed to be an exceptional tactician, and it was hard to believe that a bluff like that was the best plan he could come up with. That said, I had a hard time imagining that there was some deep, ultimate objective hidden behind the messenger stunt.

“What if they just sent the messenger because they had nothing to lose? For all we know, they have some other, totally unrelated plan they’re working on at the same time,” I suggested.

“That’s possible, but we’re not so sure,” said Rosell.

“It just feels way too sloppy,” said Mireille. “But, meh, we might be overthinking this. No point obsessing over it when we have this little to go on.”

We spent a while longer discussing possibilities, but we weren’t able to pin down any plausible explanations for the enemy’s behavior. A few days later, though, as our preparations for the attack on Castle Velshdt moved along, a scout we’d sent to scope out the enemy’s movements came rushing back to Staatz with an urgent report. The scout went straight to Couran to deliver the news without so much as pausing to rest, and I decided to follow along and listen in out of curiosity.

“We’ve observed the enemy engaging in peculiar activities, Your Lordship,” the scout reported. “They seem to be readying some sort of massive mechanism, like nothing we’ve ever seen before!”

“They what?” said Couran with a grimace.

The words “massive mechanism” brought to mind the secret weapon Velshdt was supposedly developing that the messenger had warned us about some days beforehand. For a moment I wondered if his story had been true after all, but then I realized it was just as likely that this new device was an extension of their prior bluff. It could’ve been anything at all, as long as they could make it look like it was a weapon they were preparing to use on us.

On the other hand, the fact that they were making a show of preparing the supposed weapon meant that an extra dose of caution might be merited. Probing deeper into their activities seemed necessary, just to be on the safe side. There was always the chance our assumptions were wrong and it was as powerful as described, and even if it wasn’t capable of leveling a city, it could’ve still been a lesser but potent weapon.

What’s Couran going to say this time?

“It seems very likely that this, too, is a bluff…but as long as we don’t know what it is they’re doing, my men will fear the possibilities and raising their morale will be a challenge,” Couran muttered. “Investigating this so-called weapon will take time, though. Is that what their goal is? To delay our advance? But what would the point of that be? Winter gained them all the time they could have asked for already─how could more of it be of any use to them?”

In spite of his doubts, it seemed Couran was resolved to look into the weapon’s true nature. The scout reported that it was being worked on outside of Velshdt’s city walls, so it would be possible to probe deeper into the matter, but that would take time. It just didn’t make sense─why would time be all they were after? As Couran said, they had little to gain from subjecting us to yet another minor delay.

Maybe they really are developing a weapon, and need just a little more time to make it functional? Hmm…

It didn’t seem impossible, but if that was the case, it wouldn’t make sense for them to go out of their way to bring the weapon up with us. There were plenty of other ways they could’ve bought time, after all. What else could they have to gain from this, though? No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with any answers, and since Couran was set on learning more, I decided to wait for additional information to come in and see how things looked then. The Shadows, incidentally, would not be participating in this mission. Couran considered his own protection to be of higher priority, and entrusted the task to a different unit of spies instead.

The spies returned to Staatz just a few days later─much faster than I’d anticipated. I wasn’t able to hear their report directly, but after Couran heard what they had to say, he called all of his vassals together to update us on the situation.

“As expected, the so-called weapon our foes have been working on is nothing but a fabrication,” he said. “The enemy’s goal was to use it to draw our attention and buy time while they riddled the area with magical traps and bolstered Velshdt’s defenses. Had our spies failed in this mission, they would have ended up with ample time to make the battlefield much more dangerous for us and our men.”

So it was just a distraction, then.

Planting the idea of a superweapon in our heads and then making a show of working on something distinctly superweapon-esque was a good way of grabbing our attention and keeping our focus away from the traps they were setting in the meantime.

“We’ve uncovered the enemy’s plot, and while traps will not prevent us from laying siege to Velshdt, they could very well make the process take more time than I hope to expend. We must march on Velshdt before they have time to complete their preparations, and render this scheme of theirs meaningless!”

So it’s finally time for us to move out, then.

With the enemy’s objective clear, I had to agree that we had no reason to just sit around and let them get away with it. That said, there was something about the situation that felt subtly off to me. The fact that our spies turned up all that information had to mean that the enemy had screwed up and leaked it to us, in one way or another, but would a master tactician like Thomas really be that careless? Was he the sort of person who’d make a last-second blunder and ruin everything? Even incredible people made mistakes sometimes, sure, but even though I knew I was probably just overthinking it, I decided to ask Mireille what she thought about the matter.

“That seemed suspicious to me too, but Thomas isn’t some perfect superhuman or anything,” Mireille said. “He’s the sort of person who makes stupid, simple mistakes every once in a while, even if he doesn’t look it… Though then again, it’s been years since the last time I saw him. Maybe he’s grown out of that; who knows. Even taking that into account, it’s not impossible that he just screwed up.”

That was a relief to hear. Even if she hadn’t seen him recently, she was still his relative, so if she thought that the leak being an honest mistake was possible, I figured I didn’t have much to worry about after all.

“The enemy’s tactician is my master’s little brother…” Rosell muttered to himself. He was standing nearby, deep in thought.

Is there something about this that’s bothering him, too?

I watched him mull it over until suddenly, his eyes widened and a look of understanding dawned on his face. He looked up at me and spoke, his voice wavering.

“I…I think I’ve figured out the enemy’s real plan.”

○

And now I just have to wait and see if they take the bait, Thomas thought to himself. His nerves ate away at him as he lurked in the woods with his men. Ambushes were Thomas’s specialty, and he excelled at concealing entire regiments of soldiers in ways no one would ever uncover. Even though his troop was on the larger side, he knew that his foes wouldn’t notice them until it was far too late.

Thomas had brought his troops here in absolute confidence that the enemy army would soon travel along a road that ran just nearby. His confidence wasn’t baseless: he knew they would come because he’d lured them into doing so. He’d sent a messenger and readied a weapon-like apparatus to plant a thought in their minds, then leaked information to make them believe they’d seen through his scheme. The enemy would never imagine he had another plan on top of those, and would surely rush forward to prevent him from laying the traps they assumed his scheme centered around. Now all he had to do was wait and let them walk into his ambush.

Thomas wasn’t sure how many soldiers he’d be able to eliminate in the imminent bloodbath, but by his best estimate, he had a good chance of reducing their numbers enough to turn around the seemingly impossible odds that Velshdt’s defenders faced. He’d put every ounce of thought and care into the plan he could possibly muster, but still, he had his doubts. There was a chance the enemy would prioritize caution and not show up at all, to start, and even if they did play into his hands, pulling off the ambush was no easy task. Even though it was his signature move, there was every chance this one would end in failure.

Although Thomas was very aware that his plan could fail, at the same time, he was confident that his foes had not seen through it. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that his own sister had utilized a very similar scheme in a mock battle mere months beforehand.

○

“I think our enemy might be trying to pull off a plan like the one my master used in the mock battle right after she came to Lamberg,” said Rosell.

A look of surprise passed across Mireille’s face.

“Now that you mention it, I guess that is possible,” she said. “I think I remember using a routine like that to play pranks a few times, back when we were kids. Maybe he remembered that and used it as inspiration?”

Rosell’s brief explanation was enough to let me catch on to the plan our foes might’ve been carrying out as well. In short, they might have deliberately leaked information to us in order to lure us into a trap. I did indeed remember Mireille using a very similar tactic of layered deception back during one of our mock battles, and seeing as they were siblings, it was plausible that Thomas could come up with a similar scheme.

Rosell went on to explain the specifics of the enemy’s plan, as he imagined them. By leaking false information, they would lure us into making a hasty move, catch us in an ambush, inflict heavy casualties on our main fighting force, and do the best they could to even the disparity in numbers. They likely weren’t expecting to bring our forces into perfect balance with theirs, but it was reasonable to think they could bring it down to slightly skewed odds rather than the overwhelming advantage we held.

A successful ambush wouldn’t win them the war offhand, or even put them at an advantage, but at least it could earn them a fighting chance and open up a path to victory in the long run, especially since it could force Couran to return to the battlefield in person. He could never leave the command of his army in one of his followers’ hands if the odds were that close to even, after all.

In any case, if the enemy was allowed to carry their plan out, our hopes of conquering Velshdt with ease would dim. I couldn’t say with complete confidence that a sneak attack would be waiting for us, but as long as everyone was aware of the possibility and moved with caution, the odds of the potential attack’s success would be dramatically reduced. I shuddered to think what could’ve been if we hadn’t noticed any of this.

I brought Rosell and Mireille to meet with Couran and had Rosell explain his theory.

“I see,” said Couran when Rosell was finished. “I must admit, I found it odd myself… The spies I sent have a decent reputation, and I expected much from them, but they still learned too much, too quickly. It seemed unnatural…but if it was all part of the enemy’s plan, then it makes perfect sense. I’m not certain beyond a reasonable doubt that your theory is correct, but it is plausible enough to be worthy of consideration. You’ve done well to bring this to my attention.”

Rosell fidgeted bashfully, unsure of how to deal with Couran’s praise. Couran went on to question him about the specifics of the theory, asking where he believed the attack would take place. Rosell began to explain, with the aid of a nearby map, that there was a large forest en route to Velshdt that was the perfect place to conceal a division of soldiers.

“They’ll be hiding in the forest, will they?” said Couran. “Is that so… In that case, I imagine burning them out would prove most efficient.”

“I agree,” replied Rosell. “If we set the forest ablaze with fire magic, we could cut the hostile force off in moments.”

“I would prefer to take their tactician Thomas alive, if at all possible. It would pain me to slay a man of his capabilities. Of course, it would be far worse to miss our opportunity and allow him to flee back to Velshdt,” said Couran. He sounded a little conflicted, but eventually came to a decision. “We stand more to gain than lose. Let us burn out the enemy army.”

From that point onward, everything proceeded according to plan. Lumeire was given command of the expedition, and being under his command, I wound up accompanying him. We could’ve sent out spies to verify that there was an ambush waiting for us in the woods, but the enemy was sure to flee if they realized we’d caught on to them, so instead we decided to go on the attack blindly. We’d waste some aqua magia if Rosell’s theory was wrong and nobody was there, but we weren’t at a lack of resources at the moment. The part of me that still remembered what it was like to live in Japan and still held all those old values balked at the thought of burning down a beautiful, verdant forest, and I felt more than a little guilty for enabling such a thing, but it seemed the people of this world didn’t make much of it at all.

We set up several large catalyzers on the outskirts of the woodland we believed the enemy was hiding in. The weather was bright and clear, and it felt a little on the arid side─the perfect weather for burning down a forest. We readied the catalyzers, and once all our preparations were complete, Lumeire raised a hand to signal our mages to cast their magic. They did so in unison, unleashing a powerful spell called Firestorm.

Vortexes of flame issued forth from the catalyzers, plowing into the woods and setting them ablaze. One of the whirling infernos was far larger than the rest, and I assumed Charlotte was responsible for it. It was hard to believe that anyone could’ve survived a conflagration of that magnitude, and anyone in the woods was probably burned to ash, but there was always a chance that one or two of them would get lucky and make it past the treeline alive. That was why we held position around the woods, keeping a loose perimeter to catch any escapees. We had our soldiers stand far enough away to keep them from getting caught up in the blaze themselves, of course.

We were under express orders to capture Thomas, if he made an appearance, and our whole army had been given a description of what he looked like. That description came courtesy of Couran─I’d thought Mireille would be a better option, but she hadn’t seen him in years and claimed to have no idea how he looked these days. She’d been very surprised to learn that he’d grown a beard, so not pitching in was the right call on her part.

I waited a slightly farther distance from the forest and watched as it burned away. I still wasn’t sure whether anyone had been hiding in there or not, but if they were, I could only imagine how hellish of a fate they’d met, given how bad it looked from the outside.

Eventually, I noticed a few of our soldiers beginning to move in the distance. That meant that enemy soldiers had emerged from the woods, and over the next several minutes I bore witness as troops fled for their lives from the forest, only to be finished off by the infantrymen who awaited them. I could barely stand to watch, but as the head of House Louvent, I couldn’t let myself show weakness and forced myself to take in every second of the horrid spectacle.

Before long, a victorious shout rang out.

“News, Your Lordship! We’ve captured Thomas Grunzeon!”

“You have?!” Lumeire shouted back. “Bring him here at once!”

A bald man with a grizzled beard was soon dragged before us, bound tightly with rope. He was tall, burly, and I could see a resemblance between him and Mireille in the shape of his nose and the look of his eyes. It was easy to believe that the two of them were siblings.

“Is this man your brother, Mireille?” asked Lumeire.

“That’s him, all right,” answered Mireille. “Hey there. Been a while, you little dunce.”

Thomas shot Mireille a wordless glare. I could already tell that there was no love lost between the two of them, and while I had him right before me, I decided to give him an appraisal.

Born on the tenth day of the first month, 183 Imperial Era, in Arcantez, County of Arcantez, Duchy of Missian, Summerforth Empire. Parents have passed away. Has one older sister. Stubborn and bullish, with a fondness for sweets and horseback riding. Enjoys the company of kind women. Feels fierce loyalty toward his lord and master Vasmarque.

His stats were incredible, more than justifying his reputation as a commander and master tactician. He was an even match for Mireille, and in fact, he may have even exceeded her from an overall perspective. I knew that he would be a powerful ally if we could talk him into siding with Couran, but unfortunately, his loyalty to Vasmarque was as unshakeable as expected. Convincing him to betray his master was no small feat.

All that said, with this one-sided battle wrapped up, it seemed inevitable that Velshdt would fall into our hands. There was no way our foes could turn the tide after this, and the fall of Velshdt would put Vasmarque in an unenviable position. If Couran brought down his brother and seized control of Missian, it seemed possible that Thomas would come around and serve him…as long as Couran didn’t earn his eternal enmity by executing Vasmarque, anyway.

With Thomas secured, we made our way back to Castle Staatz to present him to Couran.

“It’s been some time, Thomas,” Couran said. “Three years, I believe? I was worried this expedition would be the end of you, and I consider it a stroke of good fortune that you’ve made it out alive.”

I didn’t get the impression Couran was lying about that. He seemed pleased to see Thomas alive, and I assumed he was hoping to recruit him in the near future.

Thomas seemed to draw the same conclusion I had.

“I won’t be working for you, so don’t even ask. I serve Lord Vasmarque, and none other,” he said, preemptively shutting down Couran’s invitation.

“Yes, I thought you’d say that,” replied Couran. “However, I also know that you’re clever, and I expect you’ve already realized that Vasmarque stands upon the brink of defeat. If you choose to serve me, I promise you will be treated most favorably.”

“No decent man would choose his lord based solely on who can offer him the greatest rewards,” Thomas spat. I could already tell how stubborn he was.

Couran spent a while longer trying to tempt Thomas to his side, but Thomas staunchly refused. We certainly couldn’t let him go free, so when Couran gave up on his solicitations, he had Thomas locked up in the dungeons.

With that, it was time to prepare for the attack on Velshdt. Our army would march the moment winter came to a close.