As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Canarre in Crisis

The day after Lumeire agreed to hand the title of Count of Canarre over to me, Couran called his vassals together to officially announce the appointment.

None of the assembled lords stuck their necks out to object to the decision, this time, but I had a feeling that I’d probably earned the envy of at least a few of them. Some of them were giving me less than friendly looks, at the very least. I took the time to appraise the ones who looked especially hostile, and made sure to write their names down as soon as I could so I didn’t forget them. That way if disaster ever struck, I would know who not to turn to for help.

With that, our business in Velshdt was fully concluded. While we were preparing for the journey home, though, Couran called me out once more.

“Ars! I’m sure you remember that our agreement was for you to become the Count of Canarre after I emerged victorious in the war with Vasmarque. That said, I simply couldn’t leave your achievements here in Velshdt unrewarded. You were magnificent, plain and simple, and I hope you’ll understand why I felt the need to move your promotion up,” he said.

I still wasn’t used to being praised for achievements that my retainers, in truth, had won. It never failed to make me feel uncomfortable. I’d played an active role in talking an enemy general onto our side, so it wasn’t like I hadn’t contributed anything to the war effort, but I’d barely done much at all on the battlefield. I still had to play the part of the feudal lord, though, so I bottled up my discomfort and offered him my thanks.

“I am truly honored by your words, Your Lordship, and my gratitude knows no bounds,” I replied. “As Count of Canarre, I swear to serve you to the best of my ability.”

“Good. I’m expecting great things from you,” said Couran with a nod. “Now then─as I told you previously, we’ll need time to prepare before we’re ready to mount an invasion of Arcantez. Our provisions have run low, and equally problematic is the fact that Paradille’s forces have sustained heavy losses over the course of their assault on the city. My hope is to cooperate with Paradille’s army and stage our final attack with theirs, and that means we’ll need to give them time to bolster their forces before we can march on the capital.”

That meant, I assumed, that it would be even longer before the invasion of Arcantez began than I’d suspected. I was relieved to think that I’d be able to spend the intervening period without having to go out into battle. Becoming the Count of Canarre meant that I had a lot to learn, which would be a struggle in its own right, but nothing compared to risking my life on a battlefield.

“I’m sure your new position will bring plenty of challenges with it, but don’t forget to prepare for the battle to come!” said Couran.

“Yes, Your Lordship,” I replied.

Couran gave me a satisfied nod, and we said our goodbyes. It was finally time for my retainers and I to return to Lamberg.

○

Before we embarked on our journey, a final member joined up with our party: Lumeire’s faithful retainer Menas Renard. He would be accompanying me to explain the current state of Canarre, guide me around the castle, and generally help acquaint me with my new role. He was a very capable man─one of Lumeire’s best─and knew all about the Count of Canarre’s duties.

I was a little apprehensive about depriving Lumeire of one of his best men. He’d be taking up a new position as the Count of Velshdt, and I was sure he’d need all the help he could get. However, when I asked, he told me that while Menas would surely have been a godsend for his transition, he’d been a count for many years already and would be able to make due. I, on the other hand, was new to the role and was in much greater need of a helping hand. He really seemed to be acting as my benefactor.

Our first destination was Lamberg, where I stopped to explain the circumstances to all of my people who’d stayed behind at the estate during the war. Reactions were mixed. Some of them were shocked, others were ecstatic, and some seemed worried about what would become of Lamberg in my absence. After all, becoming the count meant that I would hold domain over the district of Canarre, and would no longer be personally reigning over Lamberg.

I’d lived in my family’s estate my whole life, and I felt a little reluctant to leave it behind. That being said, Castle Canarre and the walled city that surrounded it wasn’t a very long trip away from my homeland, so if I ever grew so homesick I couldn’t stand it I could always just take a quick trip back when I had a moment to spare.

The one remaining question was who would take over the position of baron in my stead. That decision was mine to make, and the person I’d most trust to fill that role would be Rietz…but I preferred for him to stay as close to me as possible so he could keep acting as my right-hand man. Eventually, I decided to consult my retainers and get their input before making the decision.

When I set out for the city of Canarre, I did so with my retainers and a few of my family’s servants. I couldn’t take everyone─that would leave Lamberg without any management to speak of─so I started out by bringing the bare minimum of staff with me. We packed our bags, then hit the road once more.

○

I made the journey to Castle Canarre by carriage. Lamberg wasn’t very far from the capital at all, so it only took a few hours for us to arrive.

Castle Canarre was relatively old compared to the castle in Semplar or the Imperial Capital, and it hadn’t been the most stunningly lavish or fortified structure to begin with. Still, the thought that I’d become the sort of lord who had his own personal castle was pretty hard to swallow. All the more so considering the mundane, white-collar life I’d led before my reincarnation.

It struck me how long it had been since I’d found myself here as we made our way into the castle. If I recalled correctly, the first time I ended up inside the castle was when I came here in my father’s place after he died, and as that thought crossed my mind, I was struck with a question: what would my father have said if he learned I’d become the count? Would he have been shocked? Or thrilled? Possibly both, I imagined, and as I pictured the face he might’ve made when he got the news, I felt a sense of desolation swell up within me. I had to carry on House Louvent’s legacy, both for my sake, and to help my father’s spirit rest easily.

Menas guided me through the castle. I hadn’t gotten the full tour on any of my prior visits, so I wasn’t well acquainted with its layout yet. The castle was three stories tall, with the first floor containing the dining hall, the great hall, a parlor, a treasure vault, an armory, the kitchens, the pantry, and the bathing chambers. The second floor was home to the library, a common room, a meeting room, and personal quarters for retainers and staff. Finally, the personal chambers for the count and their family were located on the third floor, along with a study and the count’s office.

Compared to the Louvent estate, the castle was massive. Just taking the full tour ate up a fair chunk of time. I would’ve liked to take a little more time touring the place, but I had a lot more on my plate than just seeing the sights, so I kept it to a quick walk-through for the moment. The servants I’d brought with me and those who’d remained in the castle after Lumeire’s people cleared out set about organizing my chamber, and in the meantime, I retired to the count’s office to receive a detailed explanation of my duties from Menas.

A massive desk was set up in the middle of the office. A few shelves lined the walls as well, stuffed with documents that I assumed had some relation to Canarre’s management.

“To begin with, I’d like you to read through this,” said Menas as he passed me a rather thick bundle of papers.

What are these? I wondered as I leafed through the first few pages. I soon came to realize that they were a set of documents describing the current state of Canarre County. They detailed the current status of our standing army, the yields of the latest harvests, the income from the latest round of tax collection, the county’s population, problems they faced, the local state of law and order, and even included an up-to-date map and an analysis of the local natural resources. The bundle was packed with information.

I’d gotten similar reports when I ruled over Lamberg, but the territory I governed back then was so much smaller in scale that there had not been much information to report to me in the first place. I’d never had to peruse more than a few sparing pages. This time, though, it took me two hours just to read through the whole packet, and by the time I finished my eyes were dry and weary.

It occurred to me as I put the bundle down that if I’d tried sitting still and reading for two hours straight in my previous life, it would’ve left me with back pain and stiff shoulders to go along with the eyestrain. My current body was still young enough that I didn’t have to deal with any of those aches, mercifully. My next impression was that, as expected, I would be working on a much larger scale than I had back in Lamberg from now on. I mean, all the latest info about Lamberg was still present in this new report!

I’d almost forgotten that I used to have to send those off to the count.

“This concludes your orientation,” said Menas. “I encourage you to discuss how you’ll manage your territory from here on out with your people, and take their advice into consideration. Oh, and I would also advise you to invite all of Canarre’s barons to meet with you at your convenience. They have already been informed of the change in rulership, but nevertheless, it would only be proper.”

“Understood, and thank you for all your help and guidance,” I replied.

Menas’s orientation had been far shorter than I’d expected, overall, and I had to wonder if he’d received orders to return to Velshdt sooner than anticipated. I quickly penned letters to each of Canarre’s barons, then called my retainers together to discuss the matter of Lamberg’s new ruler.

“To start, I’d like to talk about who we’ll be appointing to watch over Lamberg in my stead,” I said. “I’ll be spending most of my time here in the castle from now on, so I’d like to leave Lamberg in the hands of someone I can trust to keep it safe.”

Rosell spoke up first. “I think that Rietz would be the best man for the job.”

For just a moment, Rietz looked startled. All of us knew very well how much he’d contributed to our cause. There wasn’t anyone left among my people who looked down on him for being a Malkan, and in fact, everyone seemed to accept Rosell’s suggestion.

Personally, I would’ve liked to keep Rietz at my side, but I was starting to see that it wasn’t for the best. There was no mistaking the fact that he was the most reliable candidate for the job. When I glanced over to see how he was reacting to the nomination, though, I found that he didn’t look pleased by the idea at all. In fact, it almost looked like he wanted to speak his mind, but was holding himself back.

Does he not want the job? I’d rather figure out how he feels before I make any decisions.

“Do you have any objections to that suggestion, Rietz?” I asked.

Rietz hesitated for a moment, but then replied, “If that is what you wish of me, then I would not dream to object, Lord Ars.”

But even as he claimed to be all right with the suggestion he gave me a look like a sad little puppy dog that had been abandoned by its owner. It was abundantly clear that he didn’t want to leave my side, and after everything he’d done for me and my household, I wasn’t about to force him to take on a job that he didn’t want to do.

“Be honest with me, Rietz. What do you really want?” I asked.

Rietz hesitated once more, his gaze dropping to the floor, but then he stood up straight, looked me in the eye, and spoke with conviction. “If possible, I would sooner remain in your immediate service, Lord Ars,” he said, his voice laden with intense emotion.

I wasn’t about to disagree. I wanted Rietz by my side as much as he wanted to be there, so if he was opposed to the idea of being Lamberg’s baron, I didn’t see any reason not to keep him with me in Castle Canarre.

“Very well,” I replied. “I will respect Rietz’s wishes, and refrain from asking him to fill the vacancy.”

“Well, okay,” Rosell muttered. “Who else could do the job, though…?”

Everyone present sank into thought. Eventually, Rietz himself broke the silence.

“I believe it would only be fair for the most successful member of our council to be given rulership over Lamberg,” he said. “Does that sound reasonable to you?”

I paused to consider his words.

The most successful among us…?

My gaze─and everyone else’s─drifted briefly to Charlotte, and a moment later, all of us grimaced in unison. She was, undeniably, the most successful of all my retainers in terms of pure contributions to the war effort. Even in the context of Couran’s whole army, she was the soldier who’d contributed the most to the cause on a personal level.

Managing a barony, though…?

No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t picture her doing a good job in that sort of position.

Charlotte was watching my expression, and judging by the scowl on her face, I’d been doing a poor job of concealing my thought process.

“Hmph! Do you have some sort of problem with me?” she asked.

“N-No, of course not! But, well…I just think there may be someone else more suited for the role,” I said, frantically attempting to appease her.

“Not exactly nice to hear you don’t think I could do a job like that. Barons spend all day sitting around at their desks, right?” Charlotte sulkily grumbled.

“You can’t think it’s that easy?” I sighed. As expected, I couldn’t leave Lamberg in her hands. I needed someone more responsible for the job.

“I believe that Rosell may be well-suited for the position,” Rietz chimed in once more. “He may be young, yes, but his youth belies his intelligence, and I believe his contributions to the war have proven his strength of will beyond a doubt.”

“N-No way! I can’t!” Rosell shouted with all his might. “Ruling over a territory’s way out of my comfort zone! I’m not cut out for it, no way, no how! And just think about how little time I’d have to study if I became a baron!”

That was about as unenthusiastic of a response as I could’ve expected. Rosell had been very helpful to me, and I didn’t want to impose a job that he didn’t want on him either.

But that just leaves one candidate…

“Guess that means it’s up to me, huh?” Mireille said as she crossed her arms. “Wouldn’t be my first time around the baron block. I can take care of Lamberg, no issue.”

“That’s a great idea, come to think of it! I’m sure Master would do an excellent job!” insisted Rosell, who’d badgered his way into Mireille’s apprenticeship. Mireille had one dedicated supporter already.

My one concern about the suggestion was her Ambition score. It was high─scarily high, even. To be honest, I couldn’t bring myself to trust her. She was more than capable of ruling Lamberg, to be sure, but that didn’t do away with my concerns.

“I believe Mireille would be the best candidate for the task as well,” Rietz said, catching me off guard. I’d been under the impression that he hadn’t accepted her as one of my advisors, and certainly didn’t trust her, so I never imagined he’d advocate for her to be given this sort of power.

With Rosell and Rietz both offering Mireille their endorsements, part of me felt that it would be for the best to entrust the job to her.

But still, that Ambition of hers…

As I mulled over the choice, Rietz leaned in to whisper into my ear. “No need to worry, Lord Ars. The people of Lamberg hold House Louvent in the highest of esteem, and even if you give her control over the barony, turning its populace against you would be no simple task. Moreover, with the Shadows in your formal service, you have ample means to keep an eye on her.”

That explained a lot. It seemed that Rietz really didn’t have faith in Mireille after all. He just believed we had the means to ensure she wouldn’t or couldn’t betray us. And he had a point─it was true that assigning a member of the Shadows to work for her while reporting to me on her every move would make it very hard for her to betray me. Rietz’s reassurance made me feel a lot less nervous about this whole prospect.

“I’m convinced. Mireille, I’ll leave Lamberg in your care. I trust that no one objects to this decision?” I said, and as expected, nobody was opposed. Mireille would be the new Baroness of Lamberg.

○

With our most pressing decision having been made, we called the day’s meeting to a close. There were plenty of small policy matters that we’d have to choose our course on, but I’d decided that we could space those out over a number of meetings in the future.

“Seeing as all of Canarre’s barons have been invited to the castle, I believe our first order of business should be to prepare a banquet to receive them. I believe it likely that all of them will accept the invitation,” suggested Rietz after everyone else had gone on their way.

“Good thinking,” I agreed. “Let’s start preparing at once.”

I’d only just sent out the letters, so needless to say, I hadn’t received any replies yet. Still, I had a hard time imagining that any of Canarre’s barons would snub my invitation. There was a chance they might resent the fact that a kid like me had been made the count, but since the order had come from Couran himself, a mere baron didn’t have the sort of influence it would take to mount a proper objection. At the absolute least, I was positive that Hammond Pleide, the Baron of Torbequista, would make an appearance─I was engaged to his daughter Licia, after all─and even in the worst-case scenario where nobody showed up, I wouldn’t lose anything by having been prepared.

Come to think of it, I wonder how Licia’s doing?

I’d promised her that I would marry her once the war was over. I wasn’t opposed to the idea of marrying her, in and of itself, but the war technically hadn’t come to a close yet, which left us in an awkward situation. Couran held an overwhelming advantage, but the enemy’s main citadel, Arcantez, still stood strong for now, and the fighting could break out again before long.

Personally, I was in favor of waiting until the war came to a complete, conclusive finish before we tied the knot. I was not, however, convinced that Licia felt the same way. The odds were very good that she’d come along with her father to visit, and I decided I would take a moment to discuss the matter with her when that time came.

A few days of banquet preparations later, messages arrived from the Baron of Torbequista, Hammond Pleide, and the Baron of Coumeire, Krall Orslow. Both of them stated that they would make their way to Canarre at once. Later that same day, while I was helping with the banquet preparations, Rietz approached me.

“If I may, Lord Ars?” he said. “Shin Seimallo has arrived at the castle, and requests an audience with you. Are you inclined to meet with him?”

Shin Seimallo…

The name didn’t ring any bells for a second, but then it hit me: he was the man I’d met in the capital who had a remarkably high Aerial Aptitude. I’d promised him that when I moved up in the noble world and gained access to greater resources, I’d support and finance his quest to build an airship.

“Do you intend to invest in his airship development effort, Lord Ars?” Rietz asked.

“Well, I did give him my word,” I answered with a shrug.

“Yes, indeed, and one must not break one’s word without due cause. Nevertheless, the state of Canarre’s finances is, if I may speak frankly, rather poor. The recent string of conflicts has done us no favors on that front, either… If you can convince Shin to accept a delay on his promised funding, I believe that would be for the best.”

It was true that Canarre as a county had less money to throw around than I’d expected, and it made sense that the recent conflict was to blame. Still, I had more funding at my disposal now than I’d had back in Lamberg, and I was a little concerned about what Shin would say if I told him his airship would have to go on the back burner. He hadn’t struck me as the patient type. Besides, I was anxious for the airship to be built as soon as possible myself. If we managed to build the very first airship in the world, it would earn House Louvent no small amount of prestige.

“I see what you mean, but I also believe that Shin’s airship will be of great importance to us,” I said, countering Rietz’s point.

“Is that so…?” said Rietz. “I don’t know how much funding Shin intends to ask for, but regardless, why not offer to start with a partial payment? You can give him a third of what he requests, and deliver the rest of the funding later on. Even without a full budget, he should be able to make progress so long as he has some funding available to him.”

“That makes sense. I’m convinced─we’ll go with your plan. Bring him here, please.”

“Yes, Your Lordship.”

Rietz left the room, only to return momentarily with Shin in tow. He looked like he was in an excellent mood, and struck up a conversation before I had the chance.

“Gotta say, I’m real impressed! If I’m bein’ honest, I didn’t actually think you’d make yourself a count! Looks like I picked a damn fine horse to hook my carriage up to!” Shin said, openly admitting that he hadn’t believed in me up until now. “So, you’ll be footing my development costs, right? I’ve gone over all my plans ’n theories again, and I’m more sure than ever that it’ll fly! All I need’s the money to make it happen!” he asserted, brimming with confidence.

“Yes, about that,” I said. “Becoming the count has been a step in the right direction, but I’m afraid to say that Canarre’s finances are already rather strained.”

“Wh-What?! Does that mean ya can’t spare the coin?!” Shin shouted, aghast.

“I didn’t say that. My intent was to provide you with one third of the money you need, to start. You’ll have the rest of your funding once we’ve brought our books into balance.”

“H-Hmm. And you’re sure that’s gonna happen?”

“I’ll make it happen, one way or another.”

Shin looked a little dissatisfied, but nodded anyway.

“All right, then. You won yourself the count’s seat, as promised, so I’ll trust you to keep yer word again,” he said, looking me squarely in the eye.

At that point, I finally asked how much money Shin wanted. It turned out to be quite the sum, but while giving him the full payment would’ve strained my budget, a third of it was more or less manageable. Before I handed the money over, though, I had Shin sign a written contract that I’d had Rietz prepare in advance. It specified that the completed airship would be the property of House Louvent, and included clauses intended to prevent the details of the ship’s construction from falling into the wrong hands and gave us exclusive rights to profit off its design.

Shin, for his part, was only interested in building and flying the thing. So long as he was allowed to pilot the ship he didn’t care a whit who owned it on paper, and he signed the contract─in blood─without hesitation. With that, his grand endeavor had finally begun.

○

A few days later, the barons arrived at Castle Canarre. House Pleide and House Orslow would both be in attendance, representing Torbequista and Coumeire respectively. I picked out Licia among House Pleide’s party, and the moment she noticed me, she beamed, dashed over, and threw her arms around me.

“Thank goodness, Lord Ars! I’ve been so worried,” she said, her shoulders quivering with emotion.

I almost panicked the moment she hugged me, but when I realized she was shivering, I regained my composure. I’d been away for a long time, thanks to the war, and it seemed she’d spent that whole period worried that I’d never come back. That was just how things went when there was a war to fight, but I still couldn’t help but feel guilty when confronted with clear proof of how anxious she’d been.

“I’m sorry to have worried you. I’m back now safe and sound,” I said as I returned her embrace, doing my best to reassure her. It seemed to work, or at the very least, her shivering quickly abated.

After we released each other, Licia leaned in and whispered quietly enough that only I could hear her.

“I never imagined you’d become the Count of Canarre so soon! I was right to expect great things from you,” she said, dropping the cloyingly sweet voice she usually spoke in to address me in a more calm and composed tone.

I remembered that Licia wasn’t just an innocent little girl who feared for my safety from afar. She was also a cunning and calculating girl who boasted high Intelligence, Politics, and Ambition scores.

“Hee hee!” Licia giggled. “Why, at this rate I wouldn’t be surprised to hear you’d claimed the whole duchy, one of these days!”

“Th-The duchy? I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” I replied awkwardly. If I wanted to inherit the title of duke from Couran, I’d need to take his heir, Rengue, out of the picture first. That was a move I had no intention of attempting. My goal was to grow Canarre into a stronger, more prosperous domain, and aspiring for more felt like it’d be asking for trouble.

“Oh, I was only teasing,” said Licia with a grin, though it hadn’t sounded like a joke to me.

Hammond, the Baron of Torbequista, and Krall, the Baron of Coumeire, stepped up to greet me next. Both of them took a knee, bowed deeply, and spoke in unison.

“I hereby pledge fealty to His Lordship Ars Louvent, Count of Canarre,” they said.

“Stand, please,” I said. “I may be the count, but I’m still far from experienced. I can’t even begin to guess how much I have left to learn, so I’ll be counting on both of your support as I strive to turn Canarre into an even better place than it already is.”

At my command, the barons stood once more. Glancing at their expressions I could tell that Hammond had no misgivings about my sudden promotion, but that Krall was…well, not necessarily apprehensive, but not enthusiastic, either. The way he looked at me made me feel like he was sizing me up. I had a feeling that he had yet to decide whether or not I was worthy of my new title, and I had serious doubts about whether he’d meant the oath he’d sworn just moments before. He wasn’t outright hostile, at least, so I figured that as long as I did a good job and proved my worth to him, he’d come to accept me in due time.

The banquet began, and the atmosphere in the castle took a cheerful turn. As the festivities went on, Hammond eventually broached the subject of my engagement to Licia.

“I seem to recall that you and my daughter agreed to be wed when the war was over,” he began.

“Yes, that’s true,” I said. “However, in my eyes the war has yet to come to a close. The battle for Arcantez will begin before we know it, and I’m inclined to put off our marriage until after it’s concluded.”

“Y-Yes, of course,” said Licia. “Our agreement was that we’d marry after the war was over, so naturally, having our wedding now would be premature,” she agreed. She seemed a little reluctant, but a little relieved as well.

The banquet eventually drew to a close, and the next day, the barons returned to their territories.

○

After the barons went on their way, I managed to secure a brief period of time for myself. I hadn’t had so much as a moment to rest since I’d returned from the war, and the exhaustion had been piling up. The castle’s bathhouse was the perfect place for me to relieve a bit of that fatigue, so I started my time off with a good, long soak.

No sooner had I gotten out of the bath and returned to my chamber than the high-pitched voice of a child rang out.

“Come practice sword fighting with me, Ars!”

I looked over to find that my little brother, Kreiz, had stepped into my room with a wooden sword in hand. Kreiz was six years old, and had grown up into quite the rambunctious little troublemaker as of late. His youthful face carried distinct traces of our father’s features, and his blond hair emphasized the resemblance. Of course, a little kid like him had no hope of emulating the intimidating aura our father had exuded.

“Of course he can’t train with you, Kreiz! That would be much too tiring. You should study with me instead, Ars!” said my little sister, Wren, from behind him. Wren’s hair was black, and she looked more like me than our father. She struck me as a little more mature than her brother, as well. They were twins, but they’d never resembled each other, physically or mentally. Fraternal twins were just like that, I had to assume.

“He’s gonna sword fight with me!” shouted Kreiz.

“No, he’s going to study with me!” insisted Wren.

The two of them were seconds away from a nasty fight, so I hastily intervened before things got out of hand.

“I’ll do both! Just don’t fight, please!”

“Really?!” Kreiz and Wren gleefully exclaimed together.

So much for my break. Nothing I can do about that, though.

“I’ll train with Kreiz first,” I said.

“Hurray!” Kreiz yelped as he threw his hands into the air.

“Aww,” pouted Wren.

My brother had remarkably high Valor, while my sister’s Intelligence was something special. Both of them had shown a clear interest in the fields they were talented in, as well. They were only six years old, and were still far from fully grown, but they’d been picking up skills as time went on.

The three of us made for the training grounds. I found a wooden sword for myself, and got ready to spar with Kreiz while Wren sat off to the side to watch us.

“Okay, here I come!” said Kreiz.

“Whenever you’re ready,” I replied.

I was far from talented when it came to swordsmanship, but Rietz had taught me the basics, and while Kreiz was brimming with talent, it wasn’t enough to let him win against a boy seven years his senior…or so I thought, but as our duel commenced, I was surprised to find it a much closer contest than I’d been expecting. He was fast, for one thing, and so strong you’d almost think we were the same age. I managed to eke out a win, but only just, and I had a horrible feeling that a year from now I wouldn’t even be able to do that much.

“Ahh, I lost! You really are tough, Ars!” Kreiz groaned.

“You’re plenty tough as well, Kreiz. It won’t be long before you’ve left me in the dust,” I said as I patted him on the head. I’d always viewed the two of them as something closer to my children than my siblings, and when you took my thirty-five years of life in Japan into account, our relative ages made that distance feel pretty appropriate.

“You bet I am! I’m gonna get tougher than you, Rietz, and everyone else! Then I’ll become a warrior and fight for you!” Kreiz said as he clenched his fist.

I was honestly quite impressed that he had such a defined dream for his future already. He had a pretty high Ambition score, but he was also such a purehearted child that he’d never struck me as the sort who’d do anything to get ahead. Then again, he was only six years old.

“Okay, one more round!” said Kreiz.

It ended up being a lot more than one round, in the end, and we kept sparring until Wren stepped in to intervene.

“All right, that’s enough! It’s time to study!” she shouted. I was pretty tired at that point, so her timing couldn’t have been better.

“Aw, whaaat? But we were just getting started!” whined Kreiz, who apparently still had energy to spare. “Why don’t you train with us, Wren?”

“There’s no way I’m letting you swing those swords at me! That would be terrifying! Anyway, I’ve been waiting long enough─it’s my turn, already!”

“She’s right, Kreiz. Don’t be selfish,” I said.

“Hmmph!” Kreiz grunted, but reluctantly agreed to bring our session to an end.

We returned to the castle and made our way to the library, within which I was unsurprised to find Rosell with his nose buried in a book.

“Oh, Rosell! Are you studying too?” Kreiz asked. Rosell, however, was concentrating so deeply that he didn’t even notice.

“There’ll be no asking him to join us, then. He never listens to anyone when he gets like this,” Wren said, sounding a little disappointed. The twins both loved playing with Rosell, though Wren was especially attached to him.

We left Rosell to his own devices and started a three-person study session. It had been quite some time since I’d studied with Wren, and it seemed that Rosell had been rubbing off on her. I was astonished by just how knowledgeable she’d become, and could hardly believe she was only six years old. Kreiz, on the other hand, had clearly been devoting his time to other pursuits and was lagging behind his sister by a fair margin. The gap between their respective levels made working with both of them at the same time a bit of a challenge, but I somehow managed to pull it off in the end.

“Nope. I can’t. I’m done,” Kreiz eventually groaned as he slumped over onto the table. He’d hit his limit for the day, and boiled his brain in the process.

“Ha ha ha! I think you’d better focus on your studies a little more from now on, Kreiz,” I said. “I’m impressed with you, though, Wren!”

“Rosell’s been teaching me all sorts of things,” Wren explained. “Kreiz is a blockhead, so I have to be smart enough for the both of us,” she added with a mischievous grin.

I had a feeling that when the two of them grew up, Kreiz would end up doing Wren’s bidding more often than not.

○

Just as I’d decided that it was time to wrap up my break from administrative work and get back down to business, Rietz arrived on the scene with an astonishing invitation.

“Would you care to go fishing with me, Lord Ars?” he asked out of the blue.

Rietz was, on a fundamental level, a workaholic. I’d barely ever witnessed him goofing off or taking time for himself. I’d actually encouraged him to work a little less and rest a little more on a few occasions, but he’d never seemed to take that advice to heart. It was just about the only thing he didn’t take my words as gospel for, in fact.

You’d think that living a life of hard work, day in and day out, would leave Rietz exhausted and bedraggled, but he never showed any signs of being worn down. Back in my last life when I was an office worker, I’d known people who did far less work than him and seemed like they were just barely pushing through their fatigue. Rietz, however, seemed to be living his best life. I had to wonder how he did it. My best guess was that he just liked working for other people’s sake, and enjoyed his duties so much he could keep at them indefinitely. That was why I’d decided not to pressure him into taking more breaks.

With all that in mind, the fact that Rietz was now inviting me to take a moment away from work with him was shocking. I didn’t even know that he liked fishing! That being said, I’d always wanted to spend a day off with him, so while I was curious about what had brought this on I said, “All right, let’s,” without probing any deeper. It would mean putting off my work for a little longer, sure, but it could wait until I got a quick fishing trip in.

“Thank you very much! I couldn’t ask for a better companion for this excursion!” said Rietz with a stunningly─almost blindingly─brilliant smile. The thought that going finishing with me made him that happy was a little embarrassing.

Rietz explained that we’d be fishing at a small lake located quite nearby to the city of Canarre. We gathered up our gear, trekked out to the lake, set up, and started fishing.

A few hours passed us by.

“The fish must not be hungry today, huh?” I mumbled.

“It would seem so,” sighed Rietz.

We hadn’t caught a single fish so far. It wasn’t that there weren’t any fish in the lake─the water was pure and clear enough that we could see them swimming about below the surface. They just weren’t biting.

I hadn’t been much of a fisher in my last life, but I’d had a friend who was, and he’d taken me out to fish with him a few times. I remembered catching quite a haul at the time…but then again, fishing in modern Japan and fishing in another world could’ve been completely different beasts, for all I knew.

For lack of fish on our hooks, Rietz and I quickly turned to chatting with each other.

“Mireille’s drinking is as out of hand as ever,” he said to me. “I took a trip to Lamberg to check in on her just recently, only to find she’d drunk herself into a stupor.”

“Ha ha ha,” I laughed uncomfortably. “Do you think leaving Lamberg in her hands was a bad idea after all…?”

“Surprisingly, her followers’ accounts would suggest otherwise. It seems she’s been content to leave the day-to-day management of the barony to them, only stepping in when they find themselves at a loss, and providing clear, effective instructions whenever the need arises.”

“Well, that’s certainly something. I suppose that’s how I’d imagine her managing a territory.”

“Effective baron or not, I did make it clear that I wished she’d refrain from overindulging,” Rietz added.

“O-Oh, did you…?” I said with a wince.

“And about Rosell,” he continued. “He’s been shut up in the library for days on end, and I’m concerned about his health. I’ve tried to encourage him to go outside and exercise on occasion, but he’s been uninterested in lending me an ear.”

“I’ve heard about him spending all his time in the library, yeah. I probably should’ve expected it, knowing him,” I said.

Castle Canarre’s library boasted a collection of books that dwarfed what few we’d had back in Lamberg. Considering what a bookworm Rosell was, I imagined that his new home was something of a paradise for him.

“He’s an incredibly fast reader, though,” I continued. “It’s only a matter of time before he’s worked his way through the whole collection, and he’ll start going outside again once he’s done.”

“I’d certainly hope so,” said Rietz. “It’s always seemed that he commits most books to memory after a single reading, but according to him there’s always a danger he’ll forget bits and pieces of them, so he makes sure to read every book he can at least twice. Reading the entire library twice over would take quite some time, even for him.”

“Y-Yeah, you have a point,” I said, resolving myself to encourage Rosell to get out and go for a run every once in a while. On the other hand, the more he learned, the more helpful he’d be for Canarre on the whole, so I’d have to take some time and consider whether making that a formal order would be for the best or not.

“Charlotte,” Rietz began, then hesitated. “Well, Charlotte’s more or less the same as she’s always been, from what I can tell.”

“Aside from the weight of her wallet,” I noted. “She was rewarded quite generously for all her exploits in the war. You’d think a girl like her would use it to buy clothes, or something, but I’ve heard she’s been spending all of her money on food instead.”

“All of it…? I can’t believe she’s still so slender,” said Rietz.

“She’s the sort of person who just doesn’t gain weight, no matter what she eats. Of course, she claims that all of it goes straight to her chest.”

“That seems…borderline unfair,” replied Rietz. “I put quite a lot of effort into maintaining my physique, for what it’s worth. Putting on too much weight would hamper my mobility, and I have to be ready to fight at any given moment.”

I guess Rietz has things he struggles with that I’ve never even considered, I reflected.

We kept chatting away, and eventually, we ran out of subjects to talk about. A minute or so passed by in silence, until suddenly, Rietz looked over his shoulder, back toward the castle. The lake was close enough to the city that it was visible from here.

“All of this makes me a little emotional, I must admit,” he said. “To think─you, the Count of Canarre!”

“I know what you mean,” I said.

“I always had faith that you’d make your way to a station worthy of you, of course. But that you’d become the count in such a short span of time defied even my wildest expectations.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you and the others,” I said. “In fact, I barely did anything at all myself!”

“That’s not true!” Rietz said─almost shouted, really, loudly enough to make me jump. “Ah! My apologies,” he continued. “But truly, that couldn’t be farther from the truth, Lord Ars. If you hadn’t made me your retainer, I’m confident I would’ve either wound up dead in a ditch, or spent the rest of my life wandering aimlessly through Missian, or maybe even some other duchy. Charlotte would have lived her life as a slave, and Rosell would have remained the talentless son of a hunter forever. And that’s not to mention Mireille─she’d still be drifting from bar to bar, making a nuisance of herself.”

Rietz turned to look me in the eye, his expression profoundly serious.

“I cannot express the gratitude I feel toward you, Lord Ars. I never would have become the person I am today if it weren’t for you, and if the need arises, I will gladly lay down my life for yours.”

Hearing all of that directly was, to say the least, a little awkward.

“I didn’t make you my retainer out of good will,” I said. “I did it for myself, and you’ve done more than enough to help and support me since then, so I don’t think there’s any need for you to feel that indebted to me… But of course, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m very glad to hear how you feel.”

The day was drawing to a close, and it wouldn’t be long before evening set in.

“Should we head on home?” I suggested.

“All right,” said Rietz. “A shame we didn’t catch anything, in the end. My apologies. I feel like I’ve dragged you out to spend a day wasting your time.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “We didn’t catch any fish, sure, but talking with you was a great use of time in my book. Let’s do this again sometime.”

“Of course!” Rietz said with a smile.

The two of us made our way back to Castle Canarre, entering through the main gateway. The moment we stepped into the great hall, the roar of numerous voices rang out in unison.

“Happy Birthday, Lord Ars!”

I’d only just stepped inside, not expecting anything of the sort, and it was all so abrupt that my brain shut down for a second. A moment later, though, I finally managed to process what was happening.

My birthday…? Oh, that’s right─yesterday was the seventh day of the eighth month, wasn’t it? That means that today’s the eighth…so it really is my thirteenth birthday.

I’d been so busy since I became the count that I’d forgotten about it.

“My apologies for not informing you, Lord Ars,” said Rietz. “We carried out our preparations in absolute secrecy. We wanted it to be a surprise, you see.”

“So this is why you invited me to go fishing with you?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Rietz. “Ah, though I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to, of course!”

Suddenly, it all made sense. Still, though, I was astonished. I’d seen surprise parties portrayed in comics and cartoons over and over in my past life, but I’d never experienced anything of the sort in reality. I’d thought that a party being a surprise wouldn’t make it any better than an ordinary sort of event…but, actually, I was a lot happier about it than I’d ever imagined a party could make me.

“You’re really growin’ up on us, huh, Lord Ars? Here, I got you a present!” said Charlotte with a smirk, pleased by how thoroughly she and the others had caught me by surprise. She handed me her gift, which turned out to be a bag that was packed to the brim with cookies.

Sweets were scarce and precious in this world, and I barely ever got to eat them, so it was a remarkably thoughtful gift that I appreciated.

“Thank you, Charlotte,” I said.

“Just glad you like it! I really mulled it over, y’know? Thought it might be better to get you something that you could keep forever, but, well, nothing’s better than eating, and you have to live for the moment, right? So I decided that food would be best in the end,” Charlotte explained. That did feel like the sort of philosophy she’d adhere to. “Oh, and I baked all of those myself, so you’d better savor them!” she added as an afterthought.

“You…huh?” I said, then gulped.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Charlotte.

I couldn’t recall having ever heard anyone mention Charlotte knowing how to bake. They looked like perfectly ordinary cookies, but I was very apprehensive about how they’d taste.

“L-Lord Ars,” said Rietz, “perhaps I should sample one of those before you─”

“Oh, for the─they’re not poisoned, dangit!” Charlotte snapped. “Could you get any ruder?! They’re good, so just eat one already!”

I couldn’t very well say no to that, so I opened up the bag and sampled a cookie. They really were quite tasty, as it turned out, and I had to admit that Rietz and I had been a little rude by assuming otherwise, so I gave Charlotte a quick apology.

“I’m up next! Here! I got you some books!” said Rosell. The fact that he’d gotten me books wasn’t a surprise, though the fact that he’d gotten me ten of them was quite something. “They’re novels, and all of them are worth your time! Be sure to read them all!” he added.

Rosell had recommended novels to me before, and almost all of them had been so extraordinarily complicated that a single reading hadn’t been enough for me to understand them on a basic level. Repeated readings, however, had led to me catching on, and by the time I understood what he saw in them I was always hooked. In other words, just one book took a long time to read, and he’d given me ten. I wouldn’t be at a lack of ways to kill time in the immediate future, that was for sure.

“Guess I’ll go next,” said Mireille. She’d traveled here from Lamberg specifically for the sake of my party, it seemed. “Here. It’s booze. Got you the good stuff,” she said as she offered me a bottle.

I had to admit, I was quite happy with her gift. I’d been a grown adult in my past life, so I was reasonably well acquainted with the joys of alcohol. This me, however, had only just turned thirteen, and that meant that booze was off the table. The standards of this world weren’t different from my old society, in that regard. I knew that perfectly well, but I was also tempted to give it a try, and was just about to give in and accept her gift when Rietz cut in.

“Why in the world would you give him alcohol, you degenerate?!” he snapped. I, meanwhile, had been about to accept the bottle, but quickly snapped my hands back down to my sides.

“Oh, quit kicking up a fuss about every little thing, Rietz,” said Mireille with a roll of her eyes. “What’s wrong with a nice bottle of booze?”

“The fact that Lord Ars is only thirteen, for one thing! He’s too young to indulge!” Rietz fired back.

“Always thought that was a stupid rule, personally,” Mireille grumbled. “Okay, how about this, then?” she said, and handed me what I assumed was a backup present. It seemed to be a piece of white…triangular…fabric…

Wait, is this what I think it─?

“Underwear?! Are you out of your mind?! That’s even worse! You mustn’t touch such filth, Lord Ars!” Rietz shouted as he snatched Mireille’s underwear out of my hand.

“What? Kiddo’s thirteen, right? What could he want more than a pretty girl’s unmentionables?” Mireille said, then smirked. “Oh, I see how it is. You took ’em because you wanted ’em too, didn’t you, Rietz? Come on, you can’t go stealing your master’s things! How about I give you the ones I’m wearing now instead?” she offered, already reaching for her waist.

“Keep them on!” Rietz bellowed.

When all was said and done, Mireille gave me a silver coin that she happened to be carrying in her pocket. I certainly wasn’t one to turn down money, and was grateful, setting aside the process it took to get us there. This was my own personal funding, too, so I figured I’d use it to buy something just for myself.

Just as I accepted the coin, the castle’s front doorway opened with a slam. A girl rushed inside, then planted her hands on her knees, panting and wheezing for dear life. It was, I quickly realized, Licia!

“Wh-Why wasn’t I informed of this sooner…?” Licia said between heaving gasps. “How could I possibly not be present for Lord Ars’s birthday party…?”

“M-My apologies,” said Rietz. “We should have sent news to you sooner, yes. I fear the message didn’t arrive until yesterday, or somewhere thereabouts?”

“As a matter of fact, it did,” said Licia. “Yesterday evening, to be precise. Never before have I had to prepare for a journey on such short notice! I left Torbequista the moment I was able!”

Licia seemed exhausted. Judging by the bags under her eyes, she hadn’t slept at all the night before. She was so haggard that part of me couldn’t help but think she should’ve just written the party off and stayed home.

Licia took a moment longer to catch her breath, then stepped up to me.

“Happy Birthday, Lord Ars,” she said with an elegant curtsy. The moment she managed to collect herself, all signs of her fatigue vanished into thin air and she was once more the very picture of refinement.

“Thank you for coming,” I said.

“I’ve prepared a gift for you as well,” Licia continued, passing me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. “I selected them from my personal garden in Torbequista.”

Just as I was thinking what a nice, thoughtful gift she’d prepared for me, Licia’s servants began carrying box after box into the castle.

“In addition,” Licia said, “I’ve brought fruits grown in our Torbequistan orchards, as well as a number of dishes I cooked for you myself… Oh, this one has clothes in it, I believe… Ah, and I just knew that the accessories in this one would be the perfect fit for you…”

She shouldn’t have. Like, really, she shouldn’t have, I thought as the sheer scale of her gifts became apparent.

“I’m afraid Lady Licia’s gift has rather outshone my effort, but nevertheless─Happy Birthday, Lord Ars,” said Rietz as he presented me with his present.

Rietz had prepared a sword and a suit of armor for me. He explained that he’d commissioned them from a craftsman, and that the blade was both finely-made and specifically designed to suit my strengths. The armor, meanwhile, was a light, mobile set of clothing with chainmail sewn into it.

“Your safety is of the utmost importance,” said Rietz, “so I spared no expense in obtaining the finest set that I could get my hands on. They’ll protect you should you find yourself in battle once more, so please, be sure to wear them when the time comes.”

I’d never been much of a fighter, so I needed every edge that I could get to keep me in battle. A well-crafted set of gear could mean the difference between life and death, in that sense. It was a wonderful present.

“Thank you, Rietz,” I said as I accepted his gift.

The party carried on for some time after that. By the time it drew to a close, I was certain beyond a doubt that this had been the best birthday party I’d ever experienced, in either lifetime.

○

The day after my birthday, I decided that I’d had plenty of rest and called my retainers together to have a detailed discussion regarding the management of Canarre. Rietz, Rosell, Charlotte, and Pham all gathered for the meeting.

Before we addressed the main subject of the day, I had a question for Pham.

“How’s Mireille? Is she doing a decent job of managing Lamberg?” I asked.

“According to Ben, she’s been swilling booze like it’s water and hasn’t been the portrait of nobility when her subordinates come to her for advice. She’s not making it look like she’s taking it seriously, and I can’t say she doesn’t have issues, but she hasn’t shown any signs of turning traitor, at least,” Pham reported.

I guess I only just promoted her. It’d be strange if she was already causing more serious issues.

Her lack of seriousness was an issue in its own right, of course, but it wasn’t as concerning as the worst-case scenario.

“All right, then─I think it’s time for us to get started on our main topic of discussion,” I said. “I’ve called you here today to discuss what areas we’ll focus on in our management of Canarre. I’ll start by proposing that we prioritize gathering more capable personnel to help us.”

Now that I was the count, the number of people I could keep in my service had increased substantially. Well, not as substantially as I would’ve liked, considering how the county was pressed for funding, but I could certainly bring a couple dozen people or so into my service.

“Seeking out skilled individuals is very much your forte, Lord Ars, so I believe that applying yourself to the task would be a suitable use of your time,” said Rietz. “That being said, I believe the methods you’ve used up until now─going into town to seek out talented recruits to personally solicit, for instance─might be inefficient, at this stage.”

Rietz had a point. All the walking involved in seeking people out personally always tired me out, and even if I found a diamond in the rough there was no guarantee they’d be interested in serving me, so all my effort sometimes went to waste. I certainly couldn’t claim that it was an efficient method.

“Do you have any alternatives?” I asked. I knew that Rietz wouldn’t bring up that sort of issue unless he had an idea in mind.

“I believe you should put out word that you’re recruiting individuals with something to offer the county,” said Rietz. “Make it known that you’ll take anyone with talent, regardless of their social standing. It might also do us well to make it known that you have a gift for perceiving people’s talents. That could draw people to you in the hopes that you can tell them what areas they’re gifted in.”

“I can spread that sort of notice far and wide now that I’m the count, so I could see that working well. Let’s try it,” I said with a nod.

Rosell spoke up next.

“Um, about that. Bringing in more people’s all well and good, but there is a limit to how many we can afford to hire. I think it’d be a good idea to decide what sort of people we’re looking for first,” he suggested.

“That’s…a very good point, actually,” I said. “I don’t know, though. If someone with talent shows up, I’m going to want to hire them no matter what it’s for.”

“I must concur with Rosell, Lord Ars,” said Rietz. “Individuals with truly exceptional talent are worth making an exception for, perhaps, but for those less stunning but still worthy candidates, having a clear goal in mind will almost certainly be for the best.”

“Okay, you win,” I said. When Rosell and Rietz were both in favor of something, I could always be all but certain it would be my best course of action. “What sort of people should we be looking for, though? We have a battle on the horizon, so I guess capable fighters should be our top priority?”

“Perhaps… Currently, that does seem prudent. We may want to reassess our priorities after the war has come to a close, though,” said Rietz.

“What about that new guy, Braham? He’s about as capable as fighters get, right?” asked Rosell.

“Oh, Braham? I asked Rietz to take care of him. How has that been turning out?” I inquired.

“Well, he’s as capable of a fighter as ever. The problem was his mind, but as it happens, he’s turned out to be a quicker learner than expected,” said Rietz. “As you predicted, Lord Ars, his intellect isn’t as lacking as one might have believed at a glance. On the other hand, he’s starting from an unenviable baseline, and I’d still be hard-pressed to call him, well, smart. As things stand I believe that asking him to lead a large regiment would be too risky, but so long as a capable aide was assigned to him, he could command a smaller squad without issue.”

Sounds like he’s making steady progress, then. That’s good to hear.

“Hey, if we’re talking people who can fight, I think we’d better bring in a few more mages,” said Charlotte, speaking up for the first time this meeting.

“That is a good point. We could always use more magic on our side,” I admitted.

“Oh, and new mages is only part of the picture. We could also use people to teach other people magic, and a place to study it would be great too,” Charlotte continued.

She was drifting away from the topic of recruitment, but I had to admit, I was stunned to hear such a reasonable and well-considered proposal come from Charlotte, of all people.

“What? Why’re you all looking at me like that?” Charlotte grumbled. Apparently Rietz, Rosell, and I hadn’t done a great job of concealing our shock.

At the moment, Canarre didn’t have any sort of facilities for the research and instruction of magic. I had no doubt that making a place like that would be to the county’s benefit, in the long run.

“A facility meant for magical studies would indeed be worth creating,” said Rietz. “That being said, we’ll need to bring in plenty of people with magical talent beforehand. Plus, there’s the matter of the funding needed for construction, and then for any research. There are a number of barriers that make it somewhat less than practical, for now.”

“Well, even if we don’t make it right away, it sounds like it’s something we should prioritize in the near future,” I said.

“Indeed,” agreed Rietz, “but let us return to the matter of recruitment. Focusing our search in the hopes of finding capable mages seems advisable, I would agree.”

“Same,” I said. “I think we have a plan, then! Let’s get that notice sent out!”

With Rosell and Rietz’s help, I drafted up a public notice that would hopefully bring as many candidates as possible to me, then gave the order to have it posted on signboards which would be set up all throughout Canarre.

○

Our course of action was now firmly set, and I knew we’d be focusing on proactive recruitment for the time being, but that didn’t mean we could slack off in other areas. We’d have to dedicate a fair share of time to preparing for the upcoming battle, as well. Mobilizing our forces took money and food, not to mention the resources required to keep them armed and armored. The troops were only the beginning, too─we’d also need to procure as many strategic resources as possible, chief among them aqua magia.

I was already feeling the loss of the money I’d pumped into airship development. Every coin devoted to that cause meant soldiers I wouldn’t be able to pay and goods our troops would lack. Fewer troops, in the worst case, could damage Couran’s opinion of me.

I guess I’ll just have to make up for it by being extra useful on the battlefield.

Bolstering our numbers was only part of what it would take to prepare our army for war. We’d also have to train our troops, better preparing them for the battles to come. That task I left in the hands of Rietz and my other retainers. I, meanwhile, spent my days appraising the people who came to us after seeing one of our recruitment signboards.

Said signboards seemed to be doing their job quite well, and a decent number of hopeful applicants soon started arriving in hopes of entering into my service. The people who arrived for appraisal came from all walks of life. Some were the children of disgraced nobles, some were ordinary townsfolk, some were farmers, some were former mercenaries or bodyguards, and some were hunters.

I quickly settled into a routine, first appraising the applicant, then telling them that we’d inform them of my decision in a few days’ time and sending them on their way rather than giving them their results on the spot. We’d written that I was capable of perceiving people’s talents at a glance on the signboards, but I had a feeling that if I really just looked at them and sent them home, the failed applicants would be less than satisfied. I figured that acting as if some sort of test were happening behind the scenes would make them take the news a little better, at least.

Of course, I’m basing my choices off people’s long-term potential, not their current capabilities.

It still seemed possible that once the results were in, someone would decide to kick up a fuss about how someone who seemed superficially less useful had been accepted, while they’d been rejected. There just wasn’t a perfect answer, at least as far as I could find.

On the first day, I appraised over a hundred people and wore my eyes into a state of exhaustion, but didn’t find a single one who struck me as the perfect candidate. There was one person who was reasonably capable, with maximum stats in the seventies or so, and I spent some time wondering whether or not to recruit him before deciding to ask Rietz for his input. He noted that the man’s magical Aptitude wasn’t remarkable, and since he wasn’t exceptional in any other way, I took his advice and turned the man down. I did keep his appearance and where he lived in the back of my mind, just in case the county’s fortunes turned around and I had the chance to reach out again and recruit him for real. Whether or not he’d accept was a whole different question, of course!

There was one other noteworthy fact about the first day of applications that caught my attention: every one of the prospective candidates was a man. As a general rule women weren’t a match for men in close combat─with some exceptions, of course─but I knew that some of them could have incredible talent for magic slumbering within them, like Charlotte. Whether or not someone was smart or politically capable had nothing to do with their sex whatsoever, either.

I’d intended to hire any exceptional women who showed up, but in society’s eyes, women were meant to stay at home while men went out to earn their family’s keep, and that bias had proven powerful enough to convince Canarre’s women not to even try. We’d written that anyone could apply, but we hadn’t gone out of our way to specify that “anyone” included women. I’d thought that was just a given, but to the people of this world, “anyone” apparently meant “anyone, as long as you’re a man.” And so, even though it would be a bit of a pain, I had the signboards altered to include a specific note inviting women to apply as well.

Hopefully I’ll have a few women start showing up in the next couple batches of applicants!

○

A few days packed full of appraisals came and went, but I just wasn’t finding as many new retainers as I’d been hoping for. I’d met plenty of people, but they just weren’t up to my standards, and the fatigue of it all was starting to take a toll on me. I briefly considered putting the whole project on pause and rethinking things, but in the end, I decided to push through and keep looking, however long it took.

I kept searching and searching until almost a month had passed. I took a few days off here and there over the course of that period, but still, interviewing the sheer number of people I’d gone through was brutal. To make matters worse, I still had yet to find anyone who suited my desires. After turning down that many people, I was starting to worry that rumors would start spreading about the requirements for the job being impossibly high. That could mean that my pool of applicants would dry up, and I was starting to think that it’d be a good idea to bring someone on board, even if they were less than ideal.

“Forty applicants await your judgment, Your Lordship,” one of the castle’s servants reported to me. That was a relatively small crowd, and I was relieved to think it would be an easy day.

The applicants filed into the room all at once. They were mostly men, as usual, but two women had shown up as well this time. I started out by offering them a quick greeting, then got right to my appraisals, starting with a conspicuously tall, red-headed man.

Oh? These stats aren’t bad at all!

His name was Zaht Brouzdo, he was thirty-one years old, and he had a Valor score of 81, which told me he was quite the capable fighter. His Intelligence and Politics scores were in the seventies as well, which wasn’t bad at all. His one lacking skill was his Leadership of 51, which told me he wasn’t the sort of person who excelled in a position of command. His Ambition was also 56, which was a little on the high side. His current scores and maximum scores were all almost equal, so I had to assume he’d been through some proper training.

Zaht had an A-ranked Infantry Aptitude, which was quite high. The rest of his Aptitudes were all around C or D-ranked, however, which meant that he wasn’t much of a mage. Still, with stats like his, taking him into my service seemed like it would be worthwhile on the whole.

I moved on to the rest of my appraisals in an excellent mood, elated at having finally found my first exceptional new recruit. Neither my mood nor my luck would last, as applicant after applicant turned out to not live up to my standards.

Finally, I reached the fortieth and final candidate, who turned out to be a child. They were just about as tall as I was, and at a glance, I couldn’t tell whether they were a boy or a girl. Their hair was pretty short, and their chest was flat as could be, so I assumed they were a boy until I appraised them and found out that I was wrong, and that she was, in fact, a girl after all.

Her name was Musia Trick, and she was sixteen years old─much older than I’d been expecting. The important part, though, was her status box…

Oh, she’s not bad either, actually!

All four of her core stats had maximum scores in the seventies, and her Ambition score was 32, which wasn’t too high at all. Her current stats were all in the forties, so I could imagine that her abilities weren’t all that impressive at the moment, but I had high expectations for her growth.

It struck me as pretty rare for a woman as small as Musia to have that high of a Valor score. Mireille had high Valor too, but she was practically a giantess, with muscles to match. That was when I looked at Musia’s Aptitudes, and found my explanation: there, in the section for her Mage Aptitude, sat the letter “A.”

○

I had all of the day’s applicants return to their homes, for the time being. Part of me had wanted to snap up my chosen candidates on the spot, but I didn’t want to earn them the enmity of all the people I hadn’t picked, and I also wanted to talk with my current retainers before I made the choice official. I was all but set on bringing Zaht and Musia into the fold. Especially Musia─an A-ranked Mage Aptitude was exactly what I’d been looking for this whole time.

I eventually found the time to gather my retainers for a meeting. I’d more or less tasked Rietz with handling all of our war preparations, so his schedule was pretty packed and it took quite a while for us to find a good moment to get everyone together. But soon, everything fell into place, we all gathered up, and I gave everyone a brief summary of Zaht and Musia’s capabilities.

“So you’ve finally found a talented mage! Well done, Lord Ars!” said Rietz with a broad smile.

“Even just a single capable mage more makes all the difference in terms of the strategies available to us! I’m so glad we got one, honestly. Who knows if they’ll be battle-ready before the fighting starts, though,” said Rosell, who was happy too, but a little more tempered in tone. It seemed he wasn’t optimistic about Musia’s ability to participate in the imminent conflict.

“Woohoo!” Charlotte cheered with a pump of her fists. “So, what’s the new mage like?”

“Well, she’s a woman like you, to start,” I said. “She’s sixteen, and short for her age. We didn’t talk much, so I’m not sure what sort of personality she has yet.”

“A girl? Nice! I’ll have to really press her nose to the grindstone,” said Charlotte.

“Please don’t,” I sighed. “I mean, don’t be that hard on her. It took a long time to pick her out, you know?”

The last thing I wanted was for Charlotte to go nuts with Musia’s training routine and drive her away. Of course, knowing the sort of person Charlotte was, I couldn’t imagine her really being that much of a drill sergeant.

“As for the other candidate you mentioned…Zaht, I believe? You said his abilities are exceptional, per your appraisal, yes?” said Rietz. “In that case, I believe that bringing both of them into your service is an excellent idea. Given how few results our search has produced so far, I was of the mind to suggest recruiting someone soon, no matter who they were.”

Rietz, it seemed, had been thinking along the same lines I was, and since nobody had raised any objections, Musia and Zaht’s recruitment was set in stone. I had letters dispatched to both of their homes at once, informing them of their offers of employment. A few days later, they arrived at Castle Canarre once more.

“It’s an honor to enter your esteemed service, Your Lordship,” Zaht said with a bow the moment he saw me. He was clearly a man who knew his manners, though considering how high his Ambition score was, I wasn’t about to let myself lower my guard around him. Who knew what he might do if I was too careless.

“U-Umm… Did I really pass the test?” Musia asked in a tone devoid of self-confidence.

“Yes, you did. You have remarkable potential,” I replied.

“D-Do I really? I can hardly believe it… What sort of potential do you mean, Your Lordship?” she asked.

“The potential to be a mage. You have a talent for magic,” I explained.

“F-For magic?! But I’ve never cast a spell in my life!” Musia exclaimed in bewildered shock. I could understand why being told she had a talent for something she’d never even tried would be hard to swallow, to be fair.

“With enough training, you will become a mage among mages. I can promise you that with absolute confidence,” I said.

“B-But…mages are soldiers, aren’t they? You expect me to fight?! Even if I can use magic, I think I’d do better work far away from the front line,” Musia muttered. Her apprehension about my proposal was plain to see.

It struck me that Charlotte’s willingness to march right into battle without a hint of protest made her quite the rare exception. By this world’s values, sending a woman to war was an incredibly cruel thing to do. I’d sort of assumed that her talent for magic meant that Musia would be just as much of a weirdo as Charlotte was, but it turned out that she was an ordinary girl, at least in terms of her personality.

“And wait,” Musia continued. “Are you saying that women can use magic?”

“Yes, they can,” I replied. “One of my retainers is a female mage who’s achieved great things on countless battlefields. You haven’t heard of her?”

“N-No, I haven’t. I had no idea,” Musia said with a shake of her head.

I’d thought that Charlotte was pretty famous, so I was a little surprised. To be fair, I wasn’t on Earth anymore and my current society didn’t have the ability to diffuse information like my old world did, so maybe it was only natural that word hadn’t gotten around in the way I’d thought it would. On the other hand, it felt a little strange that someone who was trying to enter into the service of the count wouldn’t have looked into that sort of thing before signing up.

“I-I don’t know if I can fight, and I don’t know if I can use magic, but I’ll do my absolute best anyway!” Musia said with a panicked bow. And with that, House Louvent formally welcomed two new retainers into its service.

○

“Hey! I’m Charlotte. I think they said your name was, err… What was it again, actually?”

“M-Musia,” House Louvent’s newest recruit timidly replied. She and her senior retainer were a short distance away from the city of Canarre, in a training ground set up for the count’s troops.

Where in the world have I let myself get dragged off to? Musia thought to herself as she glanced around at all the male mages in the training grounds. They were all looking back at her, their gazes sharp and appraising. They weren’t trying to intimidate her, though─that was just how their expressions wound up while they were training. Soldiers like them took their practice very seriously, and there was always an almost electric air of tension in the air when they ran through their drills.

“U-Umm,” Musia said, raising a trembling hand into the air. “I’m, well, a girl…and I’ve never used magic at all, so…is it really even possible for me to have a talent for it?”

“You’re not the first female mage in this crew,” Charlotte pointed out. “Plus, Lord Ars picked you out! That means you’ve got some crazy talent for sure. But, eh, might as well give it a try and see for yourself, right?” she added, passing Musia a small catalyzer already full of aqua magia.

“What do I do with this?” Musia asked.

“Just chant a spell. That’s all it takes to use magic! Here, I’ll show you one.”

Charlotte recited the incantation for Fire Bullet, a flame-aspected spell. Musia, in turn, repeated the incantation in an almost inaudible mutter. Fortunately, the volume of a mage’s voice was unrelated to the effectiveness of the spell they cast. A mage couldn’t get away with just mouthing the words, of course, but past that point, how loudly they cast wasn’t a factor.

The very instant Musia finished reciting her spell, an orb of flame burst forth before her. It slammed into a target and detonated in a moderately-sized explosion. It wasn’t an outlandishly large blast, by any means, but for an absolute beginner’s very first spell, it was without a doubt remarkably powerful.

“Ooh,” one of the nearby mages exclaimed in admiration.

“Impressive,” said another.

“That was a far cry from one of Charlotte’s spells, but it’s quite something to see a beginner cast like that,” added a third. Now, at least, their businesslike frowns faded away, and they complimented their new ally with smiles on their faces.

“Huh? Was that pretty good, or something?” asked Charlotte, who’d never had a proper grasp of what counted as a reasonable level of magical power.

She had been casting outlandishly ultra-powered spells from the very beginning, and was very much an outlier─enough so that she couldn’t judge other mages’ abilities by any reasonable standard. The other mages, however, had a clearer perspective, and explained how impressive Musia’s spell was by using the stories of their own first spells as a comparison.

“Huh! That so?” said Charlotte. “Guess she really is amazing, then! I knew Lord Ars wouldn’t screw up that sorta call.”

Musia, however, didn’t hear so much as a word of Charlotte and the mages’ exchange. She was too busy staring blankly at the charred wreckage of the target she’d just immolated.

I…I can really use magic? Musia thought to herself, so moved by the revelation she began to tremble. Until she’d recited the spell─until she’d seen the fireball conjured by her own will slam into the target─she had never truly believed that she had the potential to be a mage. A person like me? Really…? And it was pretty powerful, too…

Musia had never seen magic in person before, so by her standards, the spell she’d cast had appeared tremendously destructive. At the absolute least, she could tell that if she’d directed a spell like that toward a person, terrible burns would be the best-case scenario for them.

Nothing I’ve ever tried to do before now has felt like it clicked…but maybe I’ve found the one thing that does.

In that moment, Musia could tell that her life was about to change dramatically.

○

And so, Musia’s training as a mage began.

The first time she saw Charlotte, the leader of Canarre’s mage division, cast a spell, Musia was stunned. She realized instantly that the spell that she had cast was nothing compared to the sheer power that Charlotte wielded. That being said, she didn’t feel frustrated by the revelation, as she was still a rank and file beginner. To the contrary, she felt a sense of admiration toward Charlotte. The knowledge that a woman like her was capable of casting such mighty spells made Musia begin to wish that she, too, could be that skilled one day.

She soon had opportunities to watch the other mages cast as well, and found that, Charlotte aside, none of them were particularly impressive. They were all capable of casting more effective spells than Musia’s had been, of course─it was, after all, her very first attempt─but none of them blew hers out of the water like Charlotte’s had. Musia realized on an intuitive level that it might not be long at all before she surpassed them.

As time passed by and her training continued, Musia’s magical capabilities never spiked dramatically. They did grow, though, little by little and day by day, which was enough to catch Charlotte’s attention and give her a positive impression of Musia’s capabilities. Many of the other mages never seemed to improve no matter how much they practiced.

“Hey, Musia! Let’s go get some grub!” Charlotte called out one day after the mage unit’s training came to a close. She’d taken quite a liking to the newest mage in their force, and was hoping to get to know her a little better over a meal.

“W-Well, all right,” Musia agreed hesitantly.

Their meals were waiting for them in Castle Canarre’s dining hall. Musia and Charlotte returned to the castle together, collected their food, and sat down to eat at the same table.

“So, looks like you’ve been enjoying yourself, eh? I bet you’re pretty glad to get to throw some magic around, huh?” asked Charlotte.

“Huh? Oh, I mean, yes! It’s been wonderful!” Musia replied with a smile.

“Great! That’s good to hear, seriously. The more you like it, the easier it is to get motivated, y’know?” Charlotte said as she nodded.

“So, umm─can I ask you a few questions?” inquired Musia, who was starting to get a little worked up. She’d been hoping to speak with Charlotte about all sorts of things for quite some time.

“Sure, go for it!” said Charlotte.

“Okay, then─how do you use such incredibly powerful magic?”

“Oof, that’s a toughie,” said Charlotte. “I just kinda do it, and then it’s like…bam! Magic! Nobody ever seems to get it when I try to explain.”

“So, umm…bam?”

“Right.”

“…”

Musia paused to ponder Charlotte’s words, but just couldn’t understand what she was trying to describe. The two of them sank into silence for a moment, and eventually, Musia decided to ask a new question and change the topic.

“So, how did you become a mage?”

“Oh, that was thanks to Lord Ars! I was a slave, see, but then he came along and bought me. Said he was buying me as a retainer instead of a slave, though, and, well, here I am!”

“A s-slave…?” Musia repeated in shock. She’d never imagined Charlotte had such a history.

“Yeah, I screwed up and got nabbed by a snatcher,” said Charlotte. “If Lord Ars hadn’t found me, I’d probably be a sex slave right about now. I’ve got the looks for it, right?”

She certainly did, though Musia was a little put off by the fact that Charlotte had pointed the fact out herself.

“What about you? What’s your story? Before you got here, I mean,” inquired Charlotte, turning the question back around on Musia.

“I was just a plain old peasant,” Musia replied. “I spent all of my life helping out at home. It was, well, very ordinary.”

“Huh,” mumbled Charlotte.

One might’ve expected her to ask why Musia had chosen to enter into a lord’s service, but Charlotte did no such thing, much to Musia’s relief. It wasn’t a topic she cared to discuss, though not because the answer was complicated or touchy. To the contrary, she was embarrassed to explain herself because her motives were so plain and simple.

“Well, glad to have you, in any case!” said Charlotte.

“Thank you!” said Musia with a nod, returning Charlotte’s smile.

○

Meanwhile, Zaht was already regretting his decision to become Ars’s retainer.

“Graaaaaah! Show some backbone, you buncha slugs!”

The source of his regret: Zaht’s direct superior Braham, who was, charitably, an idiot.

On Ars’s orders, Zaht had been stationed as the second in command of a small troop of elite soldiers. That wasn’t a problem, in and of itself. The problem─or rather, the many problems─were on account of the commander of the troop, Braham. The man exuded an aura of stupidity, no matter where he was or what he was doing. It wasn’t long before Zaht found himself questioning why he’d been made to work under a man like that, and it was only shortly thereafter that he found his patience for the situation dangling by a rapidly-fraying thread.

The recruitment sign was weird enough to get my attention, and everything seemed all well and good up until I passed the test…but how was I supposed to know I’d end up working with someone like him? Maybe it’s time for me to make tracks, Zaht thought to himself as he fretted over his immediate future.

Zaht hadn’t been born into a distinguished family, and had never achieved anything especially great upon the field of battle. He was a capable enough fighter, but he knew that wouldn’t be enough to get him far in the world. There was no guarantee he’d be able to find employment if he left Canarre, which meant that he couldn’t afford to make any hasty moves.

“All right, Zaht, it’s sparring time! let’s do this!” Braham shouted.

The proposal had come out of nowhere, and Zaht hesitated for a moment, but then decided to take Braham up on his offer. The man was an idiot, yes, but judging by the way he carried himself, Zaht judged that he was exceptionally physically capable. This struck him as a good opportunity to judge Braham’s ability as a fighter firsthand.

The men took up wooden swords and faced off against each other. Braham’s specialty was the spear, but he’d chosen a sword today in spite of that fact. He was capable of holding his own, even without using his weapon of choice.

“Let’s do this!” Braham bellowed as he swung his sword toward Zaht. Braham’s small stature belied the sheer power packed into his compact frame, and his first strike was a heavy one.

Zaht skillfully parried the attack rather than blocking it head-on. The duel wore on in much the same manner for some time, but in the end, Braham’s strength won out and Zaht’s sword was knocked clean out of his hand.

Zaht found himself so frustrated by the loss that he soon chose to challenge Braham to a duel in turn. They fought again, and then again, but time after time, their battles ended in Zaht’s defeat. He had no choice but to admit that Braham was a remarkable warrior, in spite of his stupidity.

“I’m on a whole new level of strength thanks to Rietz’s lessons!” Braham proudly declared. “I’ll pass on some of his wisdom, so listen up: When you’re fighting someone, you’ve gotta watch their movements really carefully!”

That’s the most basic of the basics! Zaht’s inner voice shouted indignantly. It was so basic that it went without saying, in fact.

“When you watch how the person you’re fighting moves, it makes it easier to hit them and to dodge their attacks! You should see how Rietz fights─he’s a master, through and through!”

Zaht had to wonder: if Braham had only learned that particular lesson recently, then how in the world had he been fighting up until then? And moreover, what did it say about Zaht that he was incapable of defeating a man who didn’t know how fighting worked on a fundamental level? A budding sense of self-loathing was beginning to grow within him.

Guess I won’t be quitting after all, Zaht thought. Not until I manage to take this idiot down, anyway!

And so, Zaht found his resolve, by way of intense, bitter frustration.

○

A few weeks had passed since I took Musia and Zaht into my service, and I decided to check in with everyone and see how the two of them had been acclimating to their positions.

Musia, it seemed, had been diligently training away to improve her magical skills. Although her Mage Aptitude was quite high, the spells she cast weren’t as fearsomely powerful as Charlotte’s just yet. I’d come to understand that some people with high aptitudes learned and grew quicker than others, and Musia seemed to be on the slow and steady end of that spectrum. That being said, she was still capable enough to almost immediately wield more powerful magic than the rest of our mage division. Her talent was unmistakable─it was just still developing, and she hadn’t quite reached a level where she could participate in a real battle.

Charlotte, meanwhile, had grown quite fond of Musia and had taken it upon herself to act as the fledgeling mage’s personal tutor. I wasn’t convinced that affection was a two-way street─Musia was, after all, getting an up close and personal view of Charlotte’s whimsical nature─but Musia did at least seem to genuinely admire Charlotte and the powerful magic she wielded.

Zaht, on the other hand, was an exceptionally skilled combatant and was easily capable of going out into battle already. His lack of Leadership meant that he wouldn’t be commanding any armies any time soon, so I’d formed a small division of relatively capable soldiers and made him one of its members.

I’d entrusted the leadership of that division to Braham, a former enemy soldier who I’d recruited after a recent battle. Braham had the potential to be an incredible leader, but at the moment, his Leadership score was less than impressive. I’d decided to start him out in command of a small force, hoping that would give him the chance to get some experience and boost his score. I gave Zaht the role of the division’s second-in-command, tasking him with aiding Braham in his duties. Braham had a rather over-the-top personality, but Zaht was a little older and considerably calmer, so I was hoping that the two of them would balance each other out.

I kept up my recruitment drive even after bringing Zaht and Musia into the fold, and eventually found ten other individuals who struck me as capable enough to hire. Musia was the only one with a talent for magic, in the end, but the rest of them were gifted enough in their own rights. Some of them were already capable and ready to go out into battle at once, while others’ talents were still latent and would take some fostering before I could use them. Most of the people I chose were either commoners or disgraced nobles, and a few of them had come to Canarre from other duchies.

My search had taken quite a long time in the end, and I’d only managed to recruit twelve or so people, so I found myself questioning whether this new method was as efficient as we’d hoped it would be. I wished there were some way for me to cast a wider net. My best idea for the moment was to foster relationships with the counts of the nearby counties and put myself in a position where I could search their territories for talent as well. That, surely, would make for a more efficient process. My hands were full just dealing with my own county, and I’d had no opportunities to socialize with my fellow counts so far, which seemed like something I’d want to make happen in the long run.

Maybe I’ll have to invite all the counts I can to a party, or something to that effect? And if I get an invitation from any of them to any gatherings, I’ll definitely have to make attending it a priority.

○

Several months after I assumed leadership over Canarre, Rietz came to me with a report.

“Lord Ars,” he said, “a letter from Lord Couran has arrived for you.”

“Oh, has it?” I said.

“Indeed. I presume the war is soon to resume, and he has chosen to order you to assemble your troops and march to the front lines.”

Rietz handed me the letter, which I opened and read on the spot. It was exactly what he’d anticipated: a request that me and my troops march to join forces with Couran’s army. That said, it also noted that there were reports of suspicious movements in Seitz, and instructed me to leave behind a standing force to deal with any sudden developments on the border.

I had actually already been made aware of Seitz’s questionable movements, and Rietz, capable as he was, had recognized the importance of the news. He hadn’t even waited for me to give the order before using all our available resources, the Shadows included, to start amassing information. It wasn’t long before I’d received a full report on the situation in Seitz.

Seitz’s leadership had recently been disrupted by a rebellion, and the man responsible had managed to drive the now former Duke of Seitz out of the duchy and install himself as the new leader. It was a classic case of a retainer unseating the lord that he served. The rebellion’s success was still a recent development, so the situation in the duchy was still far from settled and I’d initially assumed that they wouldn’t be capable of any aggressive moves for some time, but there was also the possibility that the presence of an external enemy would bring the armies of Seitz together faster than I was anticipating.

The easiest target of invasion for Seitz, however, was not, in fact, Missian. Scheutz, the duchy to Seitz’s north, presented a more appealing target, and if Seitz was to march on any of its neighbors it seemed more than likely they’d head in that direction. Missian still couldn’t let its guard down, though, and strengthening our borders was a clear necessity. Of course, the fact that I’d been told I didn’t have to bring my whole army to the front meant that even if I showed up with a somewhat unimpressive force, Couran wouldn’t blame me for it. The situation wasn’t completely devoid of upsides.

“Spread the word, Rietz─we’ll begin preparing to march into battle at once!” I ordered.

“Yes, Your Lordship!” said Rietz.

On Couran’s command, we set about preparing to sortie on the double.

○

Meanwhile in Castle Arcantez, Vasmarque’s followers were delivering a report to their lord.

“Our attempts to sabotage Couran’s alliance with Paradille have failed, Your Lordship.”

“With regards to our appeal for an armistice with the Emperor, we have regrettably received a letter denying our request.”

Vasmarque scowled. Velshdt had fallen, his right-hand man Thomas taken captive, and now Couran was rallying his troops for another offensive, leaving Vasmarque in a genuine predicament. He’d tried everything he could think of to extricate himself from his dilemma, but to no avail.

“We’ve few options left…and little choice but to make do with the means available to us. We must fight to our last breath─or otherwise, lay down our arms and surrender,” said Remus. Although he’d led his troops to victory in countless battles, the old veteran seemed half-resigned to defeat already. “I would have it be known that even were we to fight to the last, we would gain nothing more than needless bloodshed. For Missian’s sake, I believe our proper course is to admit defeat.”

“No. Never…” Vasmarque muttered, his fists clenched so tightly they trembled. “I have never thought myself to be a man of great ambition. I am well aware that my talents suit the role of a counselor more than they do a leader. But…I would never leave Missian in Couran’s hands.”

A tinge of fury crept into Vasmarque’s words as he spoke on.

“Couran is a man held in high esteem, I will grant him that. His underlings adore him, and he is by no means inept. I, however, have spent my whole life watching him. I know him all too well─I know his pettiness, his small-mindedness, and his utter inability to truly trust anyone. The moment he claims the highest seat in Missian, he will purge any of his subordinates who may be capable enough to challenge him, and in their absence, the duchy will begin its inevitable decline. It would be bad enough if we lacked external foes, but in this day and age, the slightest sign of weakness will bring our neighboring duchies down upon us. They will feast upon Missian’s carcass, and House Salemakhia will fall to ruin. That, above all else, I cannot allow to come to pass.”

Being Couran’s younger brother offered Vasmarque a unique perspective into the man’s personality. That perspective─those memories of his brother─led him to conclude that Couran did not have what it took to lead the duchy.

“But, Lord Vasmarque,” said Remus, “you mustn’t blind yourself to reality. The simple truth is that we have no moves left to make.”

“No,” said Vasmarque with a shake of his head. “Not quite. We still have one remaining ray of hope. If it fails, then I will concede that we’ve exhausted our last option…but not until then.”

At that moment, another of Vasmarque’s subordinates burst into the room.

“I’ve returned from Seitz, Your Lordship!” he shouted.

“Excellent work! What news do you bear?” Vasmarque asked.

“The rebellion has unseated the duke, and Lord Grenda Domatson has claimed his position! He has stated that he’s willing to negotiate, and entrusted me with a letter for you!”

“He has?! Let’s see it!”

Vasmarque believed that if he could bring Seitz into the conflict on his side, he would still have a chance to turn the tide in his favor. To that end, when he heard that the rebellion was nearing victory, he’d had a letter dispatched to Seitz’s current rulership. The new duke, Grenda Domatson, had seized his position in a remarkably short period of time, and was unmistakably as capable as rulers come. He would surely prove to be an invaluable ally.

Vasmarque scanned the letter. As his subordinate had reported, it stated that Grenda was willing to open negotiations. It did not, however, make any concrete promises of an alliance to come─that would depend on how their talks played out.

A chance to negotiate was a boon, to be sure, but there was no guarantee that the negotiations would end in Vasmarque’s favor. Knowing how recently Grenda had ascended, it seemed all but certain he would have his hands full with internal issues as well. Even if he were looking for opportunities to stage an assault on his neighboring duchies, Scheutz would be a far easier target. Moreover, Scheutz was home to a cavern known colloquially as Mage’s Paradise, in which an incredible variety of magistone deposits could be found. Seitz was comparatively limited in its magical resources, so a potential windfall of that nature would be almost impossible to resist.

We’ve few cards to play, and the tide is flowing against us. But that doesn’t mean it’s over─whether or not we can secure this alliance will all come down to our ability to negotiate, thought Vasmarque. He was determined to come out of the talks with a new ally, no matter what it took.

○

My retainers and I rallied our troops, and began our preparations to join forces with Couran’s army. As I’d anticipated, however, we lacked proper funding, and could only afford to bring some of our men into active mobilization. Then, there was the matter of Seitz, and the fact that we needed to leave a standing force behind to ward off any unexpected assaults. Between those two factors, we wound up with a considerably smaller army that was ready to march than we’d had last time we sortied.

Then again, it’s not like Couran’s lacking in manpower to begin with.

I had a pretty clear idea that he didn’t want me there for my rank and file troops─he wanted me for my exceptional retainers and the out-of-the-box ideas they could supply him with for his attack. Considering how small Canarre’s population was, I would have been shocked if he’d expected us to bring along many soldiers in the first place.

I was to understand that Couran’s force would hold a considerable advantage in manpower during the fight for Arcantez, but that wasn’t to say that Vasmarque’s personal troops would be pushovers by any means. I was certain that the battle would be winnable, but I was also certain it wouldn’t be easy. We’d have to do everything we could to tip the odds in our favor and make it as simple of a conquest as possible, in the hopes of putting me deeper into Couran’s good graces.

“The troops are prepared to move out whenever you’re ready, Lord Ars,” Rietz reported.

“Great! In that case, let’s get─” I began, but before I could finish giving the order, a man burst into the room.

It was Ben, the Shadows’ resident message-runner. He was usually an impassive man, but for once, there was a clear hint of panic on his face. I didn’t like what that impression implied one bit. It seemed unlikely he was here to deliver good news.

“What happened?” I asked.

Ben took a moment to catch his breath, then returned to his usual blank expression and gave his report in an almost indifferent tone.

“Seitz’s troops are preparing to mobilize, and they’re gathering up in the County of Purledo, which is just across the border from us. Their objective isn’t clear yet, but the odds are high that they’re preparing for an invasion of Canarre.”

“They’re…what?” I gasped. I was in a state of utter and complete shock. I’d known there was a chance that Seitz would make a move on Canarre, but now, of all times? Moreover, they were gathering what sounded like a sizable invasion force. I couldn’t begin to guess how many soldiers that would mean, but it certainly sounded like they intended to take the county by storm.

“How many soldiers are we talking?” I asked.

“Around eighty thousand,” said Ben.

“E-Eighty thousand,” I stammered. It was almost too large a number for me to wrap my head around, and was far greater a force than Canarre had any hope of fending off. In fact, it was a large enough army that I had to wonder if they were planning on starting with Canarre, then rolling over the rest of Missian while they were at it. “F-First things first─call off the sortie, and be ready to send a message to Lord Couran on the double! Then, gather everyone up for an emergency meeting!” I ordered.

“Understood,” said Rietz.

Mere moments beforehand I’d been occupied by the thought of how I could make myself more useful to my superiors. Now, though, I’d shifted gears and was single-mindedly focused on how I could protect my territory. To start, I returned to my room and drafted a letter to Couran as quickly as I could manage, explaining the situation and requesting as many troops as he could possibly spare to back us up. I entrusted it to one of my retainers for delivery, then hurried off to meet with Rietz, Mireille, Rosell, and the others, who would hopefully help me figure out what in the world we could do about our newfound crisis.

○

“Well, we’re sure in one hell of a pickle this time, aren’t we?” said Mireille. She sounded rather casual for a woman who’d just rushed from Lamberg to Canarre at a breakneck pace, but then again, she’d never seemed to react dramatically to this sort of crisis. Part of me suspected she enjoyed the thrill of an oncoming disaster.

“Wh-Why are you acting like nothing’s wrong?! Th-This is a disaster!” Rosell shouted. He was so stressed he’d gone pallid, but also, I had to agree with him. Blind panic was the natural reaction in this situation. Mireille’s aloof attitude did help me feel a little reassured that we could still turn things around, though, so I didn’t fault her for it.

“Assuming the Shadows’ report is accurate, the enemy force is far larger than we have any hope of dealing with on our own. Waiting for reinforcements is our only option,” said Rietz, who seemed relatively calm and collected. His conclusion was undeniable, as well. Canarre’s army stood no chance of defeating eighty thousand men.

“The question is, how many men will he even bother sending…?” Mireille muttered.

“I believe Lord Couran has ample cause to send a sizable force,” said Rietz. “Canarre may not be a location of vital importance, but we are quite close to Semplar, which serves as his base of operations. Should Canarre fall, Lord Couran will face a distinct threat on his doorstep.”

Mireille shook her head.

“That’s wishful thinking,” she said. “If Seitz has eighty thousand troops on the border, that pretty much guarantees they’re convinced they’ll profit from an invasion. And if that’s true, then odds are good they’ve got some sort of trick up their sleeve.”

“Such as…?” I prompted.

“I’d put money on Seitz and Vasmarque working together on this one. Dunno what sort of deal they could’ve made with each other, but I’m positive that Vasmarque’s going to use Seitz’s assault to spring some sort of trap of his own. That’ll keep Couran busy, and he won’t be able to send us the backup we need as a result.”

Mireille’s explanation seemed weirdly convincing to me. There was something unnatural about Seitz’s offensive, when she put it that way, and them having made a deal to work together and take down Couran would make everything make sense again. We didn’t have any concrete evidence, of course, and there was always the possibility that Seitz had just decided to invade and take over Missian on its own initiative. If we received a message from Couran saying that Vasmarque was on the move and he wouldn’t be able to help us, though, then I would consider Mireille’s theory all but proven.

“I think Master’s right,” said Rosell. “Vasmarque’s supposed to be a tactical genius, so I’m sure he could have pulled a plan like that off without much trouble.”

“There’s no telling how the situation may develop, but for the moment, it would behoove us to plan for the worst-case scenario. After all, should reinforcements not arrive, then protecting Canarre will fall upon our shoulders.” said Rietz.

“Okay, but…protect it how?” I asked.

Mireille, Rietz, and Rosell all fell silent. Even with all three of their exceptional Intelligence scores put together, it seemed that figuring out how to repel a force of eighty thousand men wasn’t such an easy task.

“Yeah, nah. It’s a lost cause,” said Mireille. “Not only do we not have the manpower, but our cities aren’t designed to repel a serious invasion. Castle Canarre’s walls aren’t equipped with any half-decent magical weapons or defenses at all. If Seitz really wanted this territory, they could have it within a year, at most. Our only hope’s that Couran will defeat Vasmarque before then and send reinforcements our way.”

In other words, Mireille was recommending that we fight a defensive battle and stall for as much time as possible.

We’d be leaving our fates in the hands of our allies…but is that our only choice?

“Well, there is one other option,” Mireille continued.

“What would that be?” I asked.

“Surrender to Seitz before the battle even starts,” said Mireille. “They’ll probably ask us to lay down our arms before they invade in earnest, and if we say yes, they might decide not to kill the lot of us. I’m sure the Duke of Seitz would love to get his hands on your power, and if you play your cards right, you might even manage to move up in the world. Seitz’ll move in to hit Couran in the flank and take Semplar, most likely, and if you manage to contribute enough in that battle, he might just set you up in charge of the place. Hell, you might even be able to keep Canarre too, for all I know.”

I could think of a word to describe that proposal: a betrayal. Mireille was right that stabbing Couran in the back could save the lives of me and my retainers, and it seemed less risky than the other options on the table. Considering that I’d made a point of prioritizing the continued existence of House Louvent, it should’ve by all rights been an option that I took into serious consideration…but I just couldn’t help but balk at the idea.

Why was I so opposed to betraying Couran? Simply put, one of the biggest reasons was because I’d taken a liking to him as an individual. He was understanding, honest, and generous in treating his followers to lavish rewards and feasts. He also seemed to hold me in high esteem, whereas I had no idea how the Duke of Seitz would view me if I jumped ship. The promise I’d made to Lumeire played a motivating factor as well. He was deeply loyal to Couran, from what I could tell, and having inherited his former territory, using it and its resources to stab Couran in the back would feel downright coldhearted.

I quickly reached my decision.

“I’m afraid I would prefer not to surrender, Mireille,” I said.

“Lemme set something straight, kiddo. You think that surrendering would mean betraying Couran, right?” Mireille replied. “Well, this whole scenario’s assuming that he either doesn’t send any reinforcements to help us, or sends too few to make any difference. If one of his vassals asks for his help and he doesn’t deliver, that means he’s failed in his lordly duties. If you’re faced with unbeatable odds and your lord doesn’t send anyone to back you up, then when you surrender, it’s not your fault─it’s the lord’s, no question. That means that nobody will see it as a betrayal, and you won’t damage your family’s reputation.”

I have to admit that I found her argument compelling, and a part of me wavered, but I’d made my choice and I felt compelled to stick with it. Rietz and Rosell seemed to see the logic in surrendering as well, and while they didn’t like the idea of giving up without a fight, they were of the opinion that in the worst-case scenario it might be our only option. I wasn’t excited about the idea of fighting to the death, either…and if it came down to it, I knew that surrender could be the best way to save my retainers, my family, my fiancée Licia, my citizens, and, of course, myself.

“Well, none of this will matter if Lord Couran can get us the troops we need,” I said. “Let’s wait for his response before we make any major decisions. That, and send what troops we have on hand toward the border. Can we deploy them right away?”

“We were already preparing for a sortie, so they can move out at once,” said Rietz. “I believe we should have them set up camps at a number of strategic points immediately.”

“Then I’ll leave commanding the army to you. I’m counting on you,” I replied.

“Yes, Your Lordship!” Rietz said, then headed out to give the troops their orders.

○

A few days had passed since the news of Seitz’s impending invasion arrived, and the possibility of Vasmarque making a move and preventing Couran from sending us reinforcements was still nothing more than speculation on Mireille’s part. Her Intelligence score was exceptional, but that didn’t mean she was always right. I hoped she’d gotten this one wrong, frankly, but all I could do was await news from Couran.

Finally, a soldier came hurrying into my office.

“I bear urgent news, Lord Ars! A message has arrived from Lord Couran!”

“It’s finally here?!” I exclaimed, then hurried over to accept and read the letter.

Couran’s report read like a summary of Mireille’s predictions. At the same moment Seitz’s forces began massing on our border, Vasmarque’s troops had gone on the warpath. He sent out a vast number of his troops─enough to leave the capital almost undefended─in an all-out effort to recapture Velshdt. At first Couran had assumed that Vasmarque was trusting Arcantez’s fortifications to hold the castle while he was away and staking the war on a gamble, but when news of Seitz’s preparations reached him, he realized that it was no gamble at all, and that Vasmarque had made a deal with Seitz behind the scenes.

Velshdt had been hard-won, to say the least, and would be incredibly important for the sake of the war. Losing it could prove fatal, and so Couran had no choice but to throw everything he had into its defense. The force marching toward Velshdt was substantial, and since Couran had to send just as many troops to support the city, that left him with very few reinforcements to dispatch to Canarre’s aid.

He did not, however, intend to abandon Canarre entirely, and pledged to dispatch a small force to back our troops up. Small, in this instance, meant twenty thousand. Canarre’s standing army numbered eight thousand, giving us twenty-eight thousand troops to work with in total. That meant we were still outnumbered, but not by so dramatic an extent as to make it possible for the enemy to rush in and overwhelm us in a flash. In addition, while he wasn’t able to send us many men, he did promise to send resources and provisions in abundance.

Couran also mentioned that the Maitraw Company would be among the reinforcements he sent to us. I’d fought with the mercenaries before, and I knew that their leader was exceptional and his troops highly skilled. I’d learned in our previous engagement that they weren’t the sort of sellswords who did the bare minimum to earn their pay, and I felt that I could trust them.

Couran, it seemed, had every intention of warding off Vasmarque’s assault and coming to our aid before Canarre fell. Until then, our job was to buy time and hold out for as long as possible with what troops he could spare. He emphasized that he would send more men, no matter what, and asked that I keep up the fight in spite of our inferior numbers and not surrender, no matter how dire the situation seemed. Clearly, he’d realized that we’d be considering raising the white flag if the situation devolved.

The difference in numbers hadn’t been balanced, but on the other hand, if we were to devote ourselves purely to defense, I had a feeling that we might just be able to pull through. Couran was no slouch in battle, and I didn’t imagine he’d have a hard time winning the day on his front, even with his brother as his opponent. I resolved myself to believe in him and fight as hard as I could…though first things first, I needed to call my retainers together for a meeting on the double.

I was still in Castle Canarre, but Rietz had headed out to the border to help set up our defensive encampments and wasn’t available at the moment. As such, we’d have to conduct our meeting without him this time. He was always a source of calm, sensible analysis, and I would have preferred to have him around, but there wasn’t much I could do to make that happen under the circumstances. I sent word to the rest of my people and got things underway at once.

○

“Twenty thousand, eh? That’s gonna be dicey, but I can’t say it’s impossible,” Mireille said after I finished updating her on the situation.

“So they outnumber us three to one…? This isn’t good at all… At least we’ll have the Maitraw Company on our side… But when all’s said and done, war’s a game of numbers…” Rosell muttered to himself. I could tell by the pallid gloom cast over his face that he was going into pessimist mode again.

“It’d be handy if we could get more detailed info on how many we’re up against, or about the state of the provisions and resources they’re working with. Do we have anything along those lines yet?” asked Mireille.

I’d asked the Shadows to investigate the enemy forces, and as luck had it, their initial report had arrived just moments before Couran’s letter. According to that report, they had yet to begin their invasion in earnest, but the fact that they intended to attack Canarre was no longer in question. They numbered roughly eighty thousand, as we’d expected, and they were well-stocked with the provisions needed for an extended campaign. They could keep it up for a year, at minimum.

Their magical resources, in contrast, were somewhat limited. Fire-aspected magistones weren’t a resource that Seitz had in abundance. The most common sort of magistone in that region was earth-aspected, and while earth magic was quite useful for creating walls and moats in a flash, those were primarily for defensive purposes, and it wasn’t especially useful when fighting an offensive war. A capable mage could use it to attack by synthesizing chunks of metal and sending them flying through the air, but for an average mage, digging holes and making walls was the best you could hope for.

Missian’s relationship with Seitz had been rocky for quite some time, so very few fire magistones had been exported in recent memory…at least, in theory. Somehow, though, the Shadows reported that Seitz’s army was stocked with a supply of fire-aspected aqua magia. Vasmarque, clearly, had engineered a means to deliver those resources to Seitz, and that meant that we couldn’t assume they’d be lacking in straight-up firepower.

The report also mentioned that the assault would not be led by the newly-ascended Duke of Seitz. Rather, it would be spearheaded by his most trusted retainer, a man named Boroths Heigand who had played a key role in enabling the new duke’s rise to power. He was a very capable leader who had once crushed an army of a hundred thousand with a force half their size. That victory had dealt a serious blow to the former duke’s resistance, and had ultimately played the deciding factor in the war.

I realized, in retrospect, that I should’ve known the new duke would have capable followers on his side, considering the dramatic rise to power he’d pulled off. I wasn’t the only lord with people who knew their stuff, and I knew I had to get in the habit of taking that fact into consideration.

“So they have plenty of provisions, not much flame aqua magia, and a small stock of explosive aqua magia,” Mireille summed up. “And the enemy commander’s a force to be reckoned with, huh…? What about their morale? That can make or break a battle, when all’s said and done.”

“Not so great, apparently,” I said. “They just finished one large-scale war, so I imagine none of their soldiers are very excited about jumping right into another one.”

“So their morale’s pretty low, then,” said Rosell. “Though if their commander’s as capable as you say he is, I’m sure he has a trick or two to raise morale up his sleeve. We can’t assume his troops won’t be fighting their best.”

“In other words, we’re still in dire straits,” Mireille muttered. She didn’t sound optimistic, but the smirk on her face told a different story.

“Do you think we stand a chance?” I asked.

“Well, first off, we can’t let that story about their commander taking on an army twice the size of his and winning scare us. It’s not exactly rare for military men to exaggerate their victories, and even if it is true, sometimes a little luck makes all the difference in battle. It’s possible that he caught a lucky break and his plan worked out perfectly by pure chance.”

Rosell nodded in agreement.

“That’s true,” he said. “Not to mention that taking on a large force with a small one and taking on a small force with a large one require totally different tactics.”

“Plus, our goal this time is to drive them away, not to wipe them out. Considering that, I’d say yeah, we stand a good chance,” added Mireille.

“Seitz wouldn’t be invading if they didn’t think they stood to gain something,” Rosell claimed. “I figure they must have made some sort of deal with Vasmarque, but if we can put them in a position where they’d lose more by carrying on the invasion than they’d gain from the deal, they’ll probably withdraw. I don’t know what they’re gaining by attacking us, but I can’t imagine it’s enough to justify getting the better part of their army killed.”

“So, essentially, you’re saying we have to convince the army of Seitz that their losses would outweigh their gains?” I asked to make sure I was following his logic. Rosell nodded.

“And that means everything hinges on the start of the war,” said Mireille. “We need to make this invasion look as unappealing as possible from the outset. If we can take the wind out of their sails right away, it’ll ruin their morale so badly that even the most skilled commander would need time to bring their troops back around. That’ll make them less likely to press the attack.”

Taking the wind out of their sails, huh?

Her reasoning was sound. Considering the advantage in numbers the enemy held, that felt like our best bet at keeping their invasion at bay. We had an incredibly powerful mage on our side in Charlotte, and a very capable battlefield commander in Rietz. We also had the Maitraw Company on the way to reinforce us, and they were sure to equal the enemy’s troops in skill. In fact, I was willing to bet they’d surpass our foes.

“I guess we’ll be relying on Charlotte again,” I said.

“We’re counting on you, Charlotte!” Rosell chimed in.

Charlotte was present at the meeting…physically, anyway. She must not have been keeping up with the conversation, though, and the closest we got to a reply from her was a slovenly snore. She was also drooling, which didn’t make her look like less of a moron. I had my apprehensions about staking Canarre’s future on her, but I knew that for all her flaws she was a magical monster on the battlefield, so I decided to try my best to have faith in her.

“Okay, then,” said Rosell. “First, let’s have the Shadows keep watch on the enemy, report on their movements, and try to figure out how they’ll be coming at us. That aside, we should also find a place to set up our main encampment that’ll give us as much of an advantage as possible. Considering how many troops the enemy has compared to our force, I’m sure they’ll go on the attack even if we have a clear upper hand in terms of positioning. Then, we’ll use that advantage to turn the tide and drive them back, or something to that effect.”

For the time being, we just had to watch and wait for the Shadows’ report. I wasn’t expecting them to figure out every last detail of the enemy’s strategy─that seemed like it’d be hoping for too much, however capable they were─but what they could tell us would determine our course from then on. Well, with enough time they might’ve been able to figure out the enemy’s entire plan, but I doubted they’d be giving us that sort of time to work with. Rosell and Mireille’s theories would have to suffice, as far as predicting the enemy’s movements went.

With that, we’d made all the plans we could for the moment, and our meeting came to a close.

Couran’s reinforcements ended up arriving before the Shadows could get us any more solid information to work with. Thankfully, the army of Seitz seemed to have had some delays in transporting their aqua magia, so they had yet to march on the border. The downside was that it had turned out they had a fair bit more aqua magia to work with than the Shadows had first reported, which made them more of a pressing threat than ever. Thankfully, our reinforcements had brought plenty of flame-aspected aqua magia with them as well. Even though they were only twenty thousand men strong, their resources gave us a massive boost to our overall combat potential.

With the Maitraw company, of course, came their leader, Clamant.

“We meet again,” he said when we reunited.

I don’t think either of us had been expecting our next meeting to be so soon. The look in his eyes was as chilly as ever, and the way he stared at me made it feel like I might freeze over.

“I can’t understand how a child like you could end up becoming a count. Is it those strange eyes of yours?” Clamant asked.

I had to wonder who had told him about my Appraisal skill. He’d said something about not liking the way I’d looked at him the last time we met, so maybe he’d figured it out on his own? He was far more observant than the average person, that was for certain. In fact, he was exceptional enough that I would’ve loved to make him my retainer, but I got the sense that if I tried to recruit him now, he’d turn me down in a heartbeat. He struck me as the sort of man who wasn’t fond of serving others, and unless I could make him really like me, bringing him into my service would be a lost cause.

“On second thought, I don’t care,” Clamant said before I could answer him. “I’ve been told the situation here’s grim, but we were paid generously for this job, and we’ll give you your money’s worth.”

“I’m relieved to hear it,” I said, and I meant it from the bottom of my heart. His policy as a mercenary was to fight as hard as he’d been paid to fight, and I had a feeling that Couran had really shelled out for his services this time. That meant I could expect great things from him and his men on the battlefield.

With our reinforcements in tow, we made our way to the most important defensive site on the border with Seitz: Fort Coumeire. Holding the fort against an enemy attack would prove difficult, so we were planning on stationing the bulk of our forces there to shore it up. It would serve as our headquarters, and all of the orders we gave our troops would be dispatched from there.

Rietz had set up an encampment on a nearby road in record time, helping to expand our line of defense. That line would be the front in our defensive war, and with any luck, we’d both hold it and inflict major damage to the enemy force in the process, convincing them that the war wasn’t worth it and that they should withdraw to Seitz…or at least, that was the best-case scenario.

As we moved our troops about and prepared for the oncoming battle, word arrived that the army of Seitz was on the march. The war was about to begin in earnest.

○

“So they’re finally on the move?” I said. “All right─our goal’s to deal as much damage as possible in the first skirmish, and convince them that this invasion isn’t worth it after all! As such, I want Rietz, Charlotte, and the Maitraw Company to all fight on the front lines.”

“Understood,” said Rietz. Charlotte and Clamant offered no particular reaction, though.

“We need to win a crushing victory here for the sake of our overall strategy, but if the enemy force is tougher than expected and things start to turn for the worse, I want you to get out of there as quickly as possible. We’re not fighting to the death here, so stay safe,” I added.

I couldn’t afford to lose Rietz and the others, no matter what happened. Winning big here and prompting the enemy to withdraw was the best possible outcome, but I knew there was no guarantee the battle would proceed that smoothly. Fortunately, even if it didn’t turn out well, we had plenty of provisions and resources to hold out for a long time, and Couran would be sending reinforcements in droves the moment he could. If worse came to worst, holding out and buying time was always an option.

The problem with that option, of course, was that it would be a constant, perilous struggle, and we’d likely lose plenty of soldiers in the process. There was also the danger of them laying waste to wide swaths of the county if the enemy army managed to push past our borders. Driving them back immediately with a one-sided shutdown was the best possible way that this could end.

In any case, Rietz agreed to not put himself at risk, but I knew that there was a real chance he’d push himself too hard anyway when the fighting began. In a sense, that was my biggest concern. Being a mercenary, Clamant knew exactly when to cut his losses and withdraw, and Charlotte wasn’t dedicated enough to hesitate if the time came to run. Rietz, on the other hand, was dedicated and loyal to a fault, which meant he might try to hold out past the point of reason.

I would be staying in Fort Coumeire and wouldn’t be able to give orders directly, so I was concerned for Rietz’s safety. I considered heading out to the front lines myself, for a moment, but quickly thought better of it. I was the count, after all─the leader of Canarre on the whole─and if I got myself killed here, the chain of command would shatter and we’d lose the war before it even began. I appreciated now more than ever that my own personal safety was directly linked to the safety of my retainers and my domain. Plus, in all practicality, I wouldn’t have been very useful out there even if I did head for the front lines in person.

“The time has come, then. We depart for battle, Your Lordship!” Rietz said, then led his troops off toward the front line.

I watched him go, still deeply concerned. Thanks to my Appraisal skill I knew that he was objectively one of the most capable warriors I’d ever met, but still, I couldn’t help but worry about him. In the end, I cared more about Rietz returning to me safely than I did about whether or not we won the battle.

○

Fort Purledo stuck out like a sore thumb. Built in the wilds of Purledo, a county of Seitz, the fort featured a beautiful design that contrasted sharply with the rugged wastes that surrounded it. It was from that fort that the army of Seitz would march into battle, and it was within that fort that the man they called the Duke of Seitz’s right hand, Boroths Heigand, watched over his men.

Boroths was a tall man with a long, well-kept mustache. He was in his early thirties, and his rather narrow eyes combined with the slightly raised corners of his mouth made it seem as if he was constantly smiling. At a glance, most people assumed he was a pleasant, good-natured person.

The duke had directed Boroths to command his army in the oncoming battle, and Boroths had chosen Fort Purledo to serve as his headquarters, from which he dispatched orders to the leaders of each of his army’s divisions. Boroths wasn’t much of a fighter himself, but as a strategist, he had his fair share of talents.

“I can’t say I understand what His Lordship is thinking this time. I suppose this is what I get for choosing to serve a master who sees things in such a peculiar way,” Boroths muttered to himself as he restlessly stroked his mustache. “It’s not as if the rewards Vasmarque offered in exchange for us occupying Canarre are all that remarkable. We’ll hardly gain any territory worth speaking of, and the provisions and resources weren’t much better. I suppose that having him in our debt once he’s united Missian has its merits… But I’m sure we could have asked for more in exchange, as well… Is His Lordship truly that dedicated to making Canarre’s vassals his own?”

To most of his retainers, the Duke of Seitz had claimed that he’d determined that Vasmarque was a more worthy and capable ruler than Couran, and that by helping him unite Missian under his banner, Seitz would gain a powerful ally. In private, however, he had told his closest associate Boroths his true motive: he believed that finding skilled individuals to serve him was of the utmost importance, and that he who brought the most talent under his banner would one day rule all of Summerforth.

The duke was aware of Ars, the newly-appointed Count of Canarre. He had been struck by the promotion of one so young to a position of such importance, and had concluded that there must be more to the boy than meets the eye. He had gathered up as much information on the young count as he could, and after a careful investigation, the duke had learned that Ars was either exceptionally capable of perceiving people’s talents, or otherwise of drawing those talents out.

The duke had immediately decided that he needed Ars as one of his vassals, and that he wanted the various talented retainers Ars had gathered so far as well. The duke believed that having capable followers was paramount, and someone who could either find or create those with talent would be the most essential follower of them all.

There were a number of ways to bring another lord’s vassal into one’s service, but this time, the duke had decided that engaging Ars in battle, defeating him, and bringing him into the fold after he chose to yield was the only practical possibility. Convincing a lord who ruled over a sizable region to defect to your side would be difficult without a similarly-sized territory to offer them, and at the moment, Seitz had no appropriate regions that could be spared. This was no time to be tearing territory away from one of Seitz’s current lords, either─the fallout of such an act would be instant and dramatic.

Buying Ars’s allegiance would be similarly difficult, considering the sheer wealth that Couran had at his beck and call. If Ars was dissatisfied with Couran’s rule, then convincing him to turn traitor on his own initiative may have been possible, but at the moment, there were no signs whatsoever that he was. Occupying Canarre, taking Ars into captivity, and forcing him to enter the duke’s service seemed both the quickest and most likely method to succeed. That, in truth, was why the duke had decided that war would be a necessity.

He had, of course, considered the possibility that his actions would earn Ars’s enmity, and that the boy would refuse to serve him as a result. The duke believed that he could talk Ars into working for him, but in the event he was unsuccessful, Boroths was quite certain the duke intended to put Ars to death. Anyone with talent who wouldn’t serve him, after all, was a threat, and would remain so until they were removed from the picture for good. As things stood, having Ars ruling over a county directly across the border from Seitz made him a clear and immediate threat. In the eyes of the duke, either making Ars into one of his own men or otherwise killing him was a vital step to securing the future of the duchy.

“Could this Ars Louvent really be that special? He’s still just a child, isn’t he? Maybe he can see people’s talents, or maybe he can raise them up…or, maybe he just got lucky and blundered his way into a host of capable subordinates,” Boroths said to himself, then sighed. “Then again, His Lordship is rarely wrong, in spite of his peculiarities. I thought his rebellion was hopeless as well, at first, and look at us now. I’m sure he has the right of it once again.”

The duke had Boroths’s wholehearted trust and loyalty. Even if he had no clue what his master was thinking, he never truly believed that the duke was wrong.

“We hold the advantage of numbers, but our foes have a host of exceptional individuals on their side. This may not be an easy fight, but His Lordship has instructed me to bring it to a close as soon as possible, even if I have to lose scores of men in the process. I must win this war, for his sake!”

Even if Canarre’s army proved more capable than expected and the fighting turned fierce and bloody, Boroths had no intention of calling off the assault. The plan was for him to carry on the fight after Canarre was occupied, moving deeper into Missian to invade Semplar and storm Couran’s headquarters from its flank. As such, he couldn’t afford to lose too many men in the early stages of the war, but so long as he managed to secure or slay Ars before the war was finished, his most important mission would be accomplished even if the worst came to pass and Vasmarque fell, leaving Missian in Couran’s hands.

If Boroths let this chance slip past and Couran united Missian before Ars was dealt with, he knew there may never be another chance to take Ars out of the picture. Couran valued Ars’s service highly, and was unlikely to ever let him go or treat him poorly. Ars had talented spies in his employ, as well, which made assassination a bad prospect. The duke had made it very clear to Boroths that this was their best, and perhaps only, opportunity.

“Well then─time to get this war underway,” said Boroths. He was dead set on making his lord’s will a reality, so wasted no time putting his plan into motion.