IV
Felix’s Workroom in Listelein Castle in Olsted, Capital of the Asvelt Empire
“My lord,” asked Second Lieutenant Teresa tentatively, placing a cup of tea on Felix’s desk, “might I have a moment of your time?” Felix stopped writing and looked up at her.
“From the look on your face, it isn’t good news.”
“Yes, ser,” said Teresa, after a pause. She held out a report to Felix; he took it without a word, his eyes running down the page. Its contents were thus: Fort Caspar was lost. Osvannes and their other senior generals had perished in battle, along with at least forty-five thousand soldiers. It was the most crushing defeat the empire had suffered since the Battle of Berchel—perhaps more so, considering the death of a giant like Osvannes.
“Perhaps I should have pressed the emperor harder to pursue an attack on Galia Fortress,” said Felix. “Even at the risk of His Majesty’s displeasure.” A look passed over Teresa’s face that Felix couldn’t interpret. Their squandered opportunity had bought Fernest the time it needed to defeat Osvannes. Some might’ve ventured to say that the empire had all but handed them this victory. There was no point in dwelling on what-ifs now, but Osvannes’s plan had been so perfect Felix was sure that if only the emperor had approved the plan, the south would now be theirs.
Felix took a sip of his tea, then sighed as he stood up.
“I must go and tell the lord chancellor about this,” he said to Teresa as he fastened on an azure-blue cloak emblazoned with the crossed swords. “We will have to hold a council on how to deal with this.”
“Oh, forgive me, my lord!” said Teresa, startled. “Chancellor Darmès asked me to inform you there is to be a council of the three generals.”
“The three generals?”
“Yes, ser. Two hours hence, in the second council chamber.”
Felix’s brow furrowed. There was no point in having a council of the three generals when two of them weren’t present. Teresa seemed to guess his concern.
“Lord Gladden and Lady Rosenmarie arrived yesterday to report on the situation at the front lines.”
“I see... Thank you, Lieutenant Teresa,” said Felix, before he sat down again.
Two hours later, the three generals gathered in the second council chamber just as Darmès had instructed them. They sat around an ebony table that could have comfortably seated thirty. The moment the meeting commenced, General Rosenmarie slammed the report she held down on the table.
“You’re not seriously telling me General Osvannes is dead?” she demanded. Marshal Gladden turned his sharp gaze on her.
“There can be no doubting the report. All the testimony from the soldiers who escaped to Kier Fortress corroborates it.”
“Come on, though! There’s got to be a chance that they’re wrong!” snapped Rosenmarie, obstinate in her refusal to accept Osvannes’ death. Gladden raised one eyebrow, irked by her disrespectful tone.
“Control yourself, ser. We have numerous eyewitness reports from soldiers who saw Osvannes’s head impaled on a spear. It is a fact,” Gladden said emphatically. Rosenmarie puffed up her face in indignation, but she looked away. She had once been Osvannes’s most trusted officer. It was only expected that she would struggle to accept his death.
The council chamber plunged into a tense silence that remained unbroken until Rosenmarie muttered, “Then I’ll go to the southern front.”
“You’ll what?” exclaimed Felix. “Excuse me, General, but what?”
“I said I’m going to the southern front!” snarled Rosenmarie, baring her teeth at him like a wild animal. “We’ll see how this Seventh Legion or whatever likes it when my Crimson Knights beat them to a pulp!”
“Yes, and what happens to the northern front while you’re in the south? You’ll leave them without a commander?” Felix shot back. It was the obvious retort. Abandoning one post to go and fight on another? It was absurd. But Rosenmarie had a counterargument ready that he hadn’t expected.
“You take the north, obviously. Better than just sitting on your butt in the capital,” she said, as though this decided the whole matter. Felix was too stunned to reply, but Gladden cut in for him.
“Now listen here, you little fool!” he bellowed. “You think you can go around making whatever decisions you like? You know full well Felix is charged with the protection of the capital—he can’t just go gallivanting off on a whim!” But Rosenmarie only laughed coldly.
“Protecting the capital? Please. With our defenses, you don’t seriously think the royal army can march on the capital in the state they’re in, do you? Or are you getting a bit senile in your old age?”
“You—! You’ve got some nerve!”
Felix did his best to placate the other two generals, who looked like they were ready to come to blows. Privately, though, he had to hand it to Rosenmarie—the royal army didn’t have the force to mount an assault on the capital. Like as not, no one would even notice if the Azure Knights rode off to the northern front. But she was also wrong in another sense. The elite Azure Knights’ presence in the capital, where the emperor resided, both reassured the commoners and served as a powerful deterrent to other nations. As long as the emperor did not wish it, they would not set a single foot outside of the city.
“Putting that aside for the moment,” said Felix. “With the fall of Fort Caspar, we’ve lost our last foothold in the south. We can’t leave that unaddressed for long.”
“If I may, General?” Darmès said, breaking his silence for the first time. The three generals all turned to look at him.
“Of course, my lord Chancellor,” said Gladden, speaking for all three of them. “You have your own plan, then?”
“Oh no, nothing like that,” said Darmès. “I would merely like to suggest that perhaps we can simply leave southern Fernest be.”
“I’m... I’m afraid I don’t understand, my lord,” said Gladden, confusion writ plain on his face. None of them had seen such a proposal coming. Darmès’s face was uncanny in its lack of emotion, and it made his thoughts difficult to read, so Felix couldn’t tell what he meant by the suggestion.
“Just what I said, General. The fighting on the southern front had already come to a standstill long before this. As such, I see no pressing reason to dig our heels in there. So long as we hold Kier Fortress, the royal army cannot readily attack us.”
“I... Yes, I suppose so,” said Gladden, not sounding like he agreed at all.
“In addition, I believe the report stated that forty-five thousand of our soldiers are dead. Such a tragedy! Now is the time for us to offer our condolences, and mourn this sad affair.” As Darmès spoke, though, the edges of his mouth curled. Felix felt his misgivings growing.
“Is the emperor aware that Fort Caspar has fallen?” he asked.
“Oh yes, I told His Majesty myself,” said Darmès. “The emperor happens to agree with me, by the way—he believes our best course is to withdraw from southern Fernest.”
“Hey, no fair!” cut in Rosenmarie, bristling at this. “How am I supposed to avenge General Osvannes?”
“Rosenmarie!” cautioned Gladden. “Now is hardly the time for such trivialities!”
“You did not just call avenging General Osvannes trivial!” Rosenmarie snapped back, tossing her flaming red hair. Felix could see how Gladden might have sounded heartless to Rosenmarie, but he also agreed with him. They needed to focus on how to move forwards.
The council chamber fell once more into tense silence, until Darmès broke it, this time addressing Rosenmarie.
“Rosenmarie, my dear,” he said, his voice saccharine sweet, “the chance to avenge Osvannes may be closer at hand than you think.”
“Wh-What’s that supposed to mean?” Rosenmarie looked confused, and this time there was no mistaking the smile on Darmès’s sunken face.
“Now that the royal army has reclaimed Fort Caspar and can establish their defenses around it, they won’t be sticking so close to Galia Fortress.”
“What’s that got to do with my revenge?” said Rosenmarie, skeptical, no doubt, of Darmès’s cryptic explanation. Felix held back a sigh. Darmès was obviously trying to get Rosenmarie worked up.
“This is mere conjecture on my part,” continued Darmès, “but I imagine that after solidifying their defenses, they will advance on either the northern or the southern fronts. I seriously doubt they have such reserves as they can afford to leave soldiers idle.”
Rosenmarie folded her arms as she apparently mulled over Darmès’s words. Then, a smile stretched over her lips. “Understood, my lord Chancellor. So now we just need to get them to the northern front—willingly or not.”
“I knew I could count on you to quickly grasp the situation, Rosenmarie.”
Three days after the council, all imperial troops withdrew from southern Fernest, on the order of the emperor.
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