Rain - Volume 5 - Chapter 5.2

Chapter 5.2

Part 1

Safir Dalmanac Fostier took pride in the fact that he was a high general and vainly believed that he had the ability to back it up.

He had simply not felt the need to show off his abilities until now, but he was more than capable of getting things done when he wanted to——or so he thought.

Yet, he was honest enough to secretly admit that ‘there are still people who are better at warfare than me.’

In all honesty, Safir’s military records could not be called befitting of his station even sycophantically and he would have never held the office of high general if not for the noble cause granted to him by his lineage.

Safir understood all of this, if subconsciously. He would still stubbornly deny it if someone singled him out and told him he was ‘useless on the battlefield,’ of course.

Besides, it wasn’t as if the other high generals could be said to be talented either. Rain and Ralphus were the exceptions to the case. Well, in addition to those two, Ganoa, who had betrayed them in the previous war, had occasionally distinguished himself in war as well, but his methods for victory had generally been so underhanded that only King Douglas saw any merit in them.

In any event, Safir was neither particularly weak nor particularly incompetent in comparison to his former colleagues. He would be evaluated as just barely average among the nobles. And so, these truths did not really trigger any feelings of inferiority in Safir.

Besides, Safir did not think to ‘step back to safety’ just because he internally accepted the fact that he was ‘weak at warfare.’

If he was bad at war, then he simply had to entrust the job to someone who was good at it. After all, that was what authority and economic wealth was for, was it not?

The treasures in the castle storehouse had been whisked clean away, but that wealth had originally belonged to someone else and his personal fortune still remained intact.

In addition, his former comrades would offer him funds even if he didn’t do anything anyway. They were all considering what would come next after the princess was overthrown.

——And so.

Safir, who now sat at the head of all the nobles, had taken measures to bring down the iron hammer of justice (or so he believed) on Rain and his group, who had stolen away the princess.

In other words, he had exercised his authority to headhunt a man who seemed to be good at war from among his comrades.

That man was a man named Ludic.

This forty-year-old moody and nervous-looking man was the ‘man to use in war’ whom Safir had found.

Ludic had served as a centurion during the war against their once longtime enemy, Lunan, and had consistently delivered results whenever he had been deployed.

He was a noble and he was good at war——Ludic had stood out from his peers when Safir had combed through his allies.

Safir had wasted no time inviting him to the castle and making Ludic his retainer. If Ludic achieved good results in war, it would translate to Safir’s accomplishments as Ludic’s liege.

Safir had done well for himself up until that point, but the same could not be said for his actions afterward.

Safir allowed himself to relax after a job well done and, thinking his upcoming battles were already as good as won, indulged himself in celebratory banquets every day and night since.

Long story short, he was busy fooling around.

On the other hand, Ludic, who had been promoted from a centurion to a brigadier, was naturally overjoyed. His family ranked among the middle ranks of Sunkwoll nobility, and he hadn’t expected to have been able to advance further in life than he already had.

And yet, he was now a brigadier……which meant that he was technically a general and that the seat of high general would be within his reach after one more step. Ludic wasn’t a particularly ambitious man, but he was still happy to be able to go far in life.

His beautiful wife and two beloved children had been overjoyed as well.

Thus, Ludic, the new brigadier, was incredibly eager to reorganize the army.

——Or he had been at first, at least.

Ludic’s enthusiasm had declined day by day ever since he took up his new post. He had been endowed with a little bit (though, only a little) of common sense even as a noble, and he could not understand why his superiors, starting with Safir, indulged only in their festivities nonstop.

Safir had been more useless than a scrawny horse. Ludic’s superiors had pushed all of the menial tasks on to him while all they did was horse around.

By the time that Ludic had managed to reorganize the noble armies that had gathered from various territories across the kingdom, he received word of Chandrys’ invasion from a fast horse.

He had been shocked upon receiving the report.

He had not thought in his wildest dreams that Chandrys would invade even despite the discourtesy that had been shown to them the other day.

Incidentally, Rain’s group had known about the invasion long before the enemy had broken through the border, but Ludic only learned of it after the fact.

They were much too ill-prepared, even after taking into consideration the fact that Folnier hadn’t sent them a messenger with a declaration of war. It showed just how much the nobles had been slacking off.

In any case, at this time, Ludic was the only person in Safir’s faction who had an accurate grasp on just how grave the situation truly was.

~~*~~*~~*~~

“Is His Majesty present?!”

Ludic asked the guards as he jogged through the corridor with bloodshot eyes.

The two guards who had been diligently performing their duties in front of Safir’s bedchambers exchanged looks as they said,

“he is, but now isn’t the best time.”

“He’s only just gotten up.”

“You idiots!”

Even Ludic, who hardly ever raised his voice, could not help but thunder.

He released all of his pent-up dissatisfaction at the two guards who stumbled back in surprise.

“What time do you think it is?! It’s already noon. It’s not the time to be sleeping in without a care in the world! I’m here because of a state emergency! Stop grumbling at me about trivial matters and announce my arrival!”

He pushed aside the guards, who were both blabbering something about how they couldn’t do that even if he was a brigadier, and put his hands on the door.

It wasn’t the time to hold back anymore.

He pulled open the door with brute strength.

The middle-aged knight’s lean figure was instantly assaulted with a humid heat and the thick stench of sweat.

Safir was lying down stark naked on top of a vast, canopied bed that was so large that one could have held a ball on it. He was in a great mood as he flirted with three young women who were serving him.

Astonishingly, the self-made king had yet to notice that Ludic was there. He fingered the white bodies that he held in both his arms with an oily and sweaty face that displayed his lust for all to see.

But, the women who had served Safir through the night had obviously noticed Ludic’s presence and were trying to hide their bodies under the blankets in a panic.

“Hey now! Why are you hiding, hmm? You girls better hurry up and do what I say.”

“But Y, Your Majesty! Over there……”

“Over there? What’s over there? There now, stop being silly and do what I ordered you to do.”

Blood rushed into Ludic’s head upon hearing their foolish conversation.

He slammed the door shut as hard as he could and yelled loudly in rebuke.

“Your Majestyyyyy——————!!”

“Eek!”

Safir finally looked to the door with a strange yelp. At first, he confirmed who it was with lethargic eyes and then grew angry upon learning it was Ludic.

“H, how dare you?! I’ll have you decapitated for spying on your liege lord’s pleasures.”

“Sunkwoll is about to fall!!”

Ludic interrupted Safir, his liege, despite that doing so was something that would normally have never been allowed. His words acted as a lance to seal away Safir’s complaints.

He reported on the situation without a moment’s delay as soon as Safir was startled into silence.

Safir of course, but even the girls who were huddling close together grew pale as they heard Ludic’s report.

Upon a closer look, all three girls looked similar and had similar physiques. They all had long, uncurled blonde hair and large eyes set into their slender faces.

Ludic felt like they reminded him of someone, and then the answer to his question reflexively flashed into his mind.

Indeed, all three girls looked like Princess Shelfa.

However, they were only similar enough that Ludic would say that they might look similar only if he absolutely had to, and on further inspection the difference between the girls and Princess Shelfa was like the difference between candlelight and the sun.

It wasn’t only because of their respective beauties, but likely because a certain “something” that exuded from within Shelfa made her definitively different from the three girls before him.

Ludic had only caught a glimpse of the princess just moments before she absconded, but the difference between her and the three girls was all too clear to him.

He can’t help but want her even if he knows he can’t have her……is that how it is?

Ludic concluded, feeling all the more disgusted about it.

All things regardless, isn’t he much too obsessed with the princess? It’s like his soul was stolen away by her unrivaled beauty. A king shouldn’t be having his heart stolen by mere women!

Ludic could have still understood it if Safir had wanted the princess in order to justify his authority as a king.

It would have been the type of political maneuver that happened in any country. However, no matter how he looked at it, Ludic felt like his young lord was putting politics second and only wanted the princess to satisfy his own lust.

In short, Safir wanted to do the things he was doing to those girls to the actual princess.

That was what Safir probably wanted deep down, despite what he usually broadcasted as his public stance. Safir finally broke out of his stupor while Ludic was quickly thinking through all of this while stacking on a large chunk of demerits against his liege in his mind.

The first thing out of his mouth was,

“wh, why is Chandrys doing this?”

“……Wouldn’t you have a better idea than me, Your Majesty?”

“Preposterous!”

A stunning volume of spit flew out of his mouth. Safir continued,

“I only tried to restrain them a bit to investigate them!

“Is that really something to get angry enough about to invade another country?! Who’d go that far, normally? How can she be so petty for someone who calls herself an empress?!”

Would you have simply smiled and forgiven her if you were in her shoes?!

Ludic held back what he truly wanted to say and indifferently continued,

“there’s no point in worrying about that at this point. Right now, our first priority should be to think about how we can win.”

“C, can we win?!”

Safir looked imploringly at Ludic.

However, that question was one that Ludic had wanted to ask for himself.

Besides, isn’t it much too cowardly for a liege to be trembling stark naked like this?

Ludic scowled and deliberately said his next words in a stronger tone.

“I wouldn’t know that. Still, in any case, I plan on doing everything we can. ——But, please have these women restrained before we discuss this any further. It’d cause trouble if the masses knew about the invasion. Even if the news will get out eventually, it’s better to hold it off for as long as we can.”

“Urk…… These girls here?”

Safir cast a stubborn side-eye at the girls. They were holding each other and quivering upon hearing the brigadier’s unexpected words. They implored Safir with their eyes. Safir continued,

“I had to search through all of my comrades within the nobility before I finally found girls who looked like——ah, no, never mind. In, in any event, I’m quite fond of these girls.”

“Your Majesty! What you need right now isn’t women but a war council!”

Ludic raised his voice. He continued,

“I will offer you any beauty you desire once your imperial reign as stabilized, Your Majesty. Please be patient until then.”

“Any beauty I desire……even Princess Shelfa herself?”

Safir readily disclosed his true feelings.

Hell if I cared!

Ludic wanted to say but managed to keep silent.

The truth of the matter was that, in order for him to have the princess, they would have to defeat not only Chandrys but Rain’s group as well.

Even if they ignored the possibility of reaching a mutual agreement and tried to power through them, it was currently a near-impossible feat.

However, Safir should have been aware of this as well.

——And yet, as soon as Ludic gave his consent, Safir immediately looked relaxed and was suddenly in high spirits.

“I see! Then we’ll hold a war council at once. ——But first, I need to have these girls moved to another room. Now, girls, I’ll make sure to let you out later, so just bear with it for now.”

Ludic stopped Safir in a hurry before the latter could call out loudly to the guards outside.

“Your Majesty, you must first have these women put on some clothes!”

“Y, you’re right. Oh, and I still need to get dressed as well. Hahaha……haha.”

Safir laughed wryly in an attempt to hide his feelings and restlessly began to clothe himself. Ludic had no intention of seeing his master’s naked body or to watching the women put on clothes so he silently turned his back to them.

And then, he softly let out a sigh.

The final pillar of support for a knight fighting on the battlefield was not his family, but none other than the liege he served. It had to do with a knight’s pride.

Will I be able to look up to this person as my liege and fight for him until my very last breath?

“By the way, Ludic.”

Safir spoke while Ludic had his back turned to him in distress. He continued,

“how have things been after you became a brigadier……no, a general? Is everyone obeying your orders?”

“……It’s been difficult. I was originally merely a viscount. There are many nobles serving under me, and they haven’t taken too kindly to me.”

“What, a viscount you say? I see, is that what it was……? Hmph, then for the time being, I’ll raise your standing to that of an earl. Make sure you keep working hard!”

Safir had finished putting on white riding pants by then and had recovered much of his composure.

In addition, he had also regained the air of arrogance he always wore. A smug smile alighted his visage.

Ludic reflexively said his thanks and was suddenly struck by the impulse to laugh out loud.

Psychologically, he’s just a selfish child.

He doesn’t understand how the world works, or how people work. And he doesn’t even try to learn.

Evidently, Rain had recently welcomed an aged hero that he had only met once or twice before as his aide all of a sudden. He apparently made other such exceptional promotions quite often.

But, as frustrating as it was, the value of Rain and Safir’s actions were completely different even if the actions in question had been the same. Ludic didn’t want to appreciate his enemy, but the facts were the facts.

Rain already had the qualities of a general in his person. On top of that, he also had the insight to judge people’s talents and the generosity to act on it.

That was why he had the ability to make such exceptional promotions and had actually exercised it.

However, Safir was a different story.

He had simply brought out a bigger bait in order to make Ludic work the way he wanted him to.

He did not seriously acknowledge or respect Ludic’s abilities. Ludic seems like someone who’s skilled at war, so I’ll make use of him. I don’t care about what happens next. That was what Safir probably thought.

He thought that the world revolved around money and status and that he could move the world as he wished as long as he had both.

But then, he would never be able to earn true respect from sensible retainers.

Although he was a noble, Ludic had interacted to some extent with the knights under him who were common-born. The popularity that he gained in doing so was what had led to his past results in war. Additionally, he personally did not lead a particularly luxurious lifestyle.

Rather, from his fellow nobles’ point of view, he lived a frightfully modest life.

That was probably why——he felt antipathy at Safir’s truly noble-like manner of handling things.

He was deeply disappointed instead of happy despite the fact that Safir had raised his rank in court.

~~*~~*~~*~~

Joe Lamberck, the person who actually led the Chandrys army, was seized by a quiet sense of anxiety after invading into Sunkwoll.

However, it wasn’t because there had been some sort of hinderance to their advance or anything of the sort.

Rather, it was the opposite.

Things had been going so smoothly ever since they had left the fortress by the border that it was as if they were traversing through an uninhabited land. No one stopped them on their path and no messenger of affliction had appeared before them. Even the weather had been continuously clear, as if it was blessing their journey ahead. It was as easy as simply talking a stroll through the area.

Morale among the troops was high, and everyone thought that no other general commanding an invading army was as blessed to be in the position than Joe.

Joe, however, was not happy about the situation but rather grew all the warier.

It was because Rain, who had yet to make any movements, was consistently weighing on his mind. He had made arrangements to uncover any movements Rain would make, of course. He had sent out several spies before they had passed the border to that effect. However……none of them had returned despite the amount of time that had passed since.

This was yet another matter that cast a dark shadow over Joe’s heart.

“……After all, he’s a man who doesn’t easily fit into any established patterns of behavior.”

Joe crossed his arms as he sat alone in his large tent on the campground.

In his hands was the official reply that Princess Shelfa had sent them the other day. It was……how should he put it, a truly novel reply.

First of all, there was not a single letter written on it despite what it was.

Instead, there was a portrait that covered the entire sheet of paper.

It depicted a daring man with black hair sneering with his tongue out as far as it would go. Incidentally, Rain had likely been the model for this picture. He had probably drawn it as well. Joe couldn’t say that it was any good, but he did acknowledge that it used strong brush strokes.

Joe had stared seriously at the portrait within the reply wondering whether there was ‘a deeper meaning to the picture,’ but then smiled wryly upon realizing how foolish he must have looked.

There was no deeper meaning to the reply.

Nevertheless, according to the messenger who had returned, Rain had been attacked by a mysterious group, causing Joe to wonder in Rain was dealing with some other problem as well.

He had spared no details in receiving a summary of the attack, but the thought that someone would try to kill their messengers along with Rain was frankly both insane and a little suspicious.

“……But more importantly, I have to worry about things on our end first.”

Joe tossed the ridiculous picture off to the side and sighed.

Then, he heard someone calling him from outside.

“Come in.”

A knight timidly pulled aside the tent entrance and came inside at Joe’s lighthearted answer.

Joe brushed back his silver hair and stood up from his stool upon seeing the color of the knight’s face.

“Is it bad news?”

“No……but I didn’t know what I should do.”

The senior knight, who was under Joe’s direct supervision, appeared perplexed. He continued,

“that is, I actually decided on my own to dispatch a few men to the enemy…”

“——Not to Safir, but to Princess Shelfa?”

“Yessir. I believed that they were the more formidable enemy than Safir.”

“……You made the right call. So, what happened then?”

Extremely reluctantly, the knight answered,

“none of my men have returned. I only chose my most skilled men for this mission, but I haven’t heard back from any of them since they departed for Astel.”

Joe did not reply.

Both the knight and Joe already knew. The spies had been discovered and completely wiped out.

They could not approach Rain’s castle no matter who they sent ever since the messenger and the guard unit had returned. Rain’s intelligence network was apparently stronger than Joe had imagined.

Even if they had been attacked by a mysterious enemy and lost a lot of men, the chief envoy had returned alive, so they didn’t have any grounds to complain either. They couldn’t just go up to Rain and say, “return the spies that we sent you safely back to us.”

Anyhow, Joe found it exceedingly unpleasant that Rain and his group were doing something that they didn’t want anyone else to find out about.

“……What a headache this is, even though Lydia is right before our eyes.”

“I, I’m shorry sir.”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong. Actually, I’m grateful that you took action.”

Jou smiled faintly and placed a hand on the knight’s shoulder. He continued,

“but don’t bother sending in any more spies. We’ll have to think of something else.”

“Ye, yessir!”

The knight nodded in relief.

That being said, even if Joe wanted to think of something else, the only way to obtain reliable information about an enemy was to send in a skilled spy.

If he wanted his men to return alive, he would have to send in a certain number of soldiers along with the spy to act as a large scouting party, but that would prove to be somewhat problematic at the moment.

After all, they were trying not to make Rain their enemy. He had to avoid the folly of accidentally making more enemies by ordering his soldiers around carelessly.

In other words, he basically had no good way of obtaining intelligence at the moment.

“For now, our first priority is to make time our ally,”

said Joe, almost to himself. He continued,

“we’ll force Galfort to surrender as quickly as possible! That’s the most efficient plan of action we can take.”

Though, it would probably be even better if we pulled out here.

——Naturally, Joe refrained from putting his final thoughts into words.

Even now, he was still opposed to the invasion on an emotional level.

The Chandrys army steadily continued their march for several days without any interference whatsoever and finally arrived at Sunkwoll’s capital, Lydia.

Lydia was an oval-shaped city that was surrounded by an outer wall meant to deter enemies.

The giant gates to the city were normally left open and a small unit from Galfort’s army was stationed there to perform a rigorous check on the travelers who visited Lydia.

Usually, any foreigner who wanted to visit Lydia first had to undergo a simple check at a checkpoint set up by one of the lords who owned territory near the national border and pay a toll. Then, they would have to go through a similar process once they finally reached the capital. Thus, it could be said that the gates served as the final checkpoint before entering the city.

——Or, that’s how it was supposed to be, but the toll had been repealed under Princess Shelfa’s name just the other day.

Joe didn’t know if things had changed ever since a new master had taken over the capital, but in either case, the gates were currently closed to prevent anyone from entering.

Evidently, even the carefree nobles had received news about the invasion.

Joe had his large army suddenly spread out and form battle formations with the capital’s outer walls before their eyes. They had not sent their enemies a messenger like they had with Rain. Neither Joe nor Folnier considered any of the nobles worthy enough to extend that courtesy to them.

Folnier drew her horse closer to Joe’s once the latter had finished giving out numerous orders in rapid succession.

“It seems like our enemies have chosen to hold the castle.”

Her eyes were blazing in apparent exhilaration.

There were hardly any examples of enemies who had been able to invade this far into Sunkwoll territory ever since the nation’s founding. That was to say nothing of the fact that nobody to date had been able to occupy it.

Even Zarmine, as large of a country as it was, had fallen just short of being able to capture the capital.

Folnier was likely excited at the prospect that she might be the first person in history to accomplish the feat.

“I don’t mean to belittle our enemies, but I believe that it’s closer to the truth to say that they had no other choice but to hold the castle, rather than to say that they intentionally chose the strategy. I’m sure this is the case, considering the reports I’ve received from our spies.”

“Oh? If so, then the outcome of this battle is already as good as decided.”

“……You shouldn’t let your guard down,”

Joe said flatly as he saw the soldiers setting up siege weapons out of the corner of his eye.

Incidentally, their ‘siege weapons’ had rectangular, box-shaped bases that were several meters long, which they would ram against the gates using brute strength in order to break it down.

Attached to its forefront was an iron point that resembled an arrowhead.

Additionally, in the same glance, Joe saw that the soldiers were also setting up weapons that looked like wooden watchtowers. Soldiers would climb up to the top of these towers and shoot down at enemy soldiers from a position that was higher than the castle ramparts.

The above weapons were all customary weapons of a siege battle, but they seemed unwieldly from Joe’s point of view.

There was an easier way to get things done. For example, if they used his personal power, the gates before them would fall without offering even the least resistance.

However, Joe greatly disliked using his power like that on the battlefield. It was not the type of ‘power’ to bring to a fight. That was what Joe thought.

If he was to live his life as a human, he should fight like a human as well.

“Be that as it may, but Rain didn’t show up in the end. Did he decide to turn a blind eye to us?”

Folnier spoke up again. She gave Joe a side-eye as she giggled.

She was likely poking fun at Joe, who brought up the topic of Rain at the drop of a hat.

“I believe otherwise. That man will likely pick a fight with us sometime soon……without fail. He’s not the type of man to sit on his hands and simply watch.”

“I wonder. The number of soldiers in the Princess’ party doesn’t number ten-thousand even with a generous estimate. I feel like I’m correct in saying that he simply decided to avoid fighting. Rain is a smart man, is he not? I don’t think it’d be strange for him to make such a decision.”

——Certainly.

It was certainly one valid path that Rain could take.

But Joe thought that Rain was not the type of person who would make that decision.

Joe felt that if both the path of fighting and the path of running away were presented before Rain, and if taking a third route in between the two was out of the question, Rain would ultimately choose the former.

That being said, that was only what Joe’s intuition told him, so he did not speak a word of it to his liege.

Thus, Joe simply bowed his head in silence and ended the conversation there. Folnier, however, appeared less than pleased with the outcome.

She puffed up her cheeks a little and said,

“I can tell, Joe. You’re refraining from saying something again. I thought I told you that there was to be no holding back between the two of us. When all things are said and done, in the future I want you——”

“My apologies, Lady Fol. We have a guest on top of the ramparts.”

“What?!”

Folnier looked up, startled. She had evidently mistaken their ‘guest’ as Rain.

Then, upon seeing the obvious noble who was combing down his blond curls standing atop the ramparts, Folnier immediately looked less than impressed.

“Oh, is he Safir or whatever it was? I’d thought that he’d have a stupid face, and it appears that I wasn’t too far off the mark. He really looks like an idiot.”

The soldiers around her tried their best not to laugh after hearing her harsh evaluation of Safir.

Then, Safir, the man in question, cupped both of his hands to his mouth and began to scream. He was loud enough that the middle-aged man standing next to him, who looked like a general, grimaced.

“Hold it! Hold it hold it hold it, hold it right thereeeee! Just what justification do you have for invading my territory?! You should be ashamed of yourselves! Aren’t you embarrassed after taking a moment to think about exactly what you’re doing?!”

Neither Joe nor Folnier replied as Safir heaved up and down from his shouting (his voice wouldn’t reach them if he didn’t yell).

Folnier yawned, as if she keeping herself from saying how boring she found his speech out loud and Joe silently unfasted his favored bow from his saddle.

Safir stomped his feet from far up above (and far away from) them.

“Hey youuu! I, I’m the master of this kingdom! Don’t you dare ignore meee!”

Folnier reacted to him for the first time.

She raised her far-reaching voice and declared,

“You call yourself the kingdom’s master, but unfortunately, we don’t acknowledge you as the rightful ruler of Sunkwoll. Sorry about that, you idiotic fool of a noble!”

“Wha, what did you saay?!”

The bitter-looking general standing in wait besides Safir stopped the latter from screaming anything else as he flew into a rage. He pointed at Joe and offered Safir a word of caution.

Safir was afraid for a moment, but quickly regained his composure.

He cupped his hands to his mouth again and said,

“hey you, that young whelp over there! Arrows won’t hit their mark from that distance! Even I know that much!”

It was pathetic how readily Safir admitted his ignorance regarding warfare, but what he pointed out was generally true. It was nearly impossible to hit a small target from that kind of distance. The effective range of a bow and arrow was only about a few dozen meters.

However, that logic only held true for normal people using normal bows.

There were always exceptions to the rule.

“A young whelp, was it?”

Folnier snorted. She continued,

“I guess you can find the blind just about anywhere. I wonder what that noble idiot would say if he knew how old you really are?”

Joe simply smiled. Then, he readied a specially made large and tough bow that normal people would have trouble drawing even to half of its full extent and nocked an arrow. Joe readily drew the bow taut and nonchalantly shot an arrow aimed at Safir. He hadn’t even bothered to make sure that his aim was true.

Swoosh!

The conspicuously loud sound of the arrow cutting through the air coincided with Safir’s general’s warning cry. Joe’s arrow howled through the air where Safir’s, who had been pushed down, head had been just moments earlier.

With his excellent hearing, Joe could even hear the quivering scream that the young noble had let out.

“——An excellent decision. The enemy has at least one competent general with them.”

Joe nodded, impressed.

He waited for a little while without breaking out of his stance, but Safir did not stand back up again. He had apparently crawled away from the ramparts. Instead, Joe’s party heard Safir’s voice saying the stereotypical lines, “I’ll remember this you bastards!” as it echoed into the distance.

“That was unfortunate, Joe,”

Folnier said as she laughed merrily. She continued,

“as weak of an enemy he may be, it seems like he still has a bit of luck on his side.”

“If we had finished things off here, we could have eliminated the need for a siege battle…… It seems that things just don’t want to go our way,”

Joe replied with a wry smile and was about to raise a hand. He was about to give his men the order to commence attack.

——Just then.

Joe heard a voice calling out to him across the wind from far away.

When he turned toward it, he saw a lone man whipping his horse as fast as it could go approaching while stirring up a cloud of dust. It was a man he knew. The man was one of the spies he had dispatched to Astel but had given up on because they hadn’t returned.

Joe lowered his half-raised arm and waited for the spy to draw closer.

“Gr, Grand General! Oh……a, and Your Majesty as well.”

“I don’t mind!”

Folnier sharply stopped the man as he attempted to dismount. She continued,

“this is a battlefield. We don’t need to go through with cumbersome formalities. You can give Joe your report first.”

“Yes ma’am! Thank you for your consideration!”

Grateful, the man went up to Joe and whispered something rapidly in the latter’s ear. Joe remained composed as he received the report and looked to Folnier when the spy was done.

“……What is it?”

“It looks like we’ll need to hold a war council.”

Joe let the other generals, who had hastily gathered in a large tent, know of what he learned from the report he had just received.

Everybody who was seated on a stool looked dubious upon hearing what Joe had to say, though Joe did not blame them for it.

“So……are you sure that our opponent’s a guy named Ralphus?”

Zartz asked modestly, for once.

“The spy was only able to catch a glimpse on them from afar, so I can’t say anything for certain, but their insignia was definitely decorated with the crest of a lion. Then again, we can’t rule out that they might be dummy soldiers either. The spy wasn’t able to get close enough to check.”

Joe frowned and shook his head. He continued,

“in any case, let’s assume that the army is real. A unit of two to three thousand under General Ralphus’ command deployed from Astel. They took the highway and headed directly north. From the direction they’re going, we can probably assume that they’re headed here.”

“……That’s kinda few in terms of numbers,”

Sayle pointed out as he tilted his head to the side. He continued,

“and it’s not like……he doesn’t know about our numbers, right?”

“That’s not the case,”

Joe declared as he shook his head. He continued,

“their ability to gather intelligence is outstanding. They probably have a clear grasp of our numbers, give or take less than a hundred.”

“Then, what does this mean?”

asked Shing this time. He continued,

“it’s not like he’s making a desperate bid or something, is it?”

“I don’t know either,”

Joe said honestly before adding, “but…

“——we can still speculate. Ralphus’ unit is probably a decoy. A fake to draw away our attention. They likely never had the intention to fight from the start. In that case, it would make sense for them to be so few in number.”

Folnier, seated beside Joe, gave her assent.

“I can predict that much as well. No……there’s more. Isn’t Rain planning to invade Chandrys and capture Zawall, and Sadaraan (the royal castle of Chandrys) in one fell swoop?”

The tent grew noisy all at once.

That they could have their all-important home base taken from them while they were out on a military campaign themselves……was a chilling idea, so no one could blame them.

Annoyed, Shing said,

“is he some kind of sneaky thief?!”

and punched a fist into the palm of his other hand.

Zartz yelled as well.

“The soldiers won’t be able to fight calmly if news of this gets out!”

He had a point.

But……that was only if that was truly Rain’s party’s aim.

The defense around their capital city, Zawoll, had indeed decreased substantially now that the Chandrys army’s main force was here in Sunkwoll. The unit they had left behind was only a few thousand in number, so there was merit for Rain in making that all or nothing gamble. If it was Rain, he would probably invade into Zawoll like the wind and capture Sadaraan.

But, was that really his aim?

Folnier gently called out to Joe as he peacefully closed his eyes.

“Did I guess wrong?”

“No. I wouldn’t say that. As long as we don’t know where Rain currently is, it’s most sensible to assume that he plans on making an assault on Zawoll. ……And currently, I believe that it’s the most effective strategy for him as well.”

“But, something still doesn’t sit well with you. Is that what it is?”

“……Yes.”

“It’s not that I don’t understand how you’re feeling, but as long as we don’t have any concrete evidence, we have to form our plans around the most probably outcome.”

Folnier decisively made her decision as she always did and looked to Joe. She continued,

“and so, assuming that Rain will head for our capital, what do you think we should do? What’s your opinion?”

“——We should ignore Ralphus’ unit and turn our entire army around to pursue after Rain’s unit and annihilate them. It’s a roundabout strategy, but it’s also the most certain.”

As he had expected, Folnier did not approve. She stared at Joe’s face and furrowed her brows.

“……Aren’t you being a little too pessimistic? Why do we need to turn around our entire army? Weren’t you the one who taught me that ——“it’s a good strategy to purposefully split our army in two if we have at least double the number of troops” during my military strategy classes when I was young? Not only do we have double their numbers right now, but we have multiple times that!”

“You have great memory, Lady Fol.”

Joe smiled faintly. He continued,

“I most certainly did tell you that. However, please don’t forget that my lectures were purely theoretical. You battle human opponents in war. I believe that it is best to be flexible depending on your opponent.”

“And that’s how wary you are of Rain……is that what you’re trying to say?”

Joe nodded deeply.

“Indeed. However, Rain is not omnipotent, naturally. Let’s say that his biggest weakness is his lack of troops. That’s why he had to rely on clever schemes during Sunkwoll’s war with Zarmine. Thus, he won’t be able to take advantage of any openings we may present as long as we concentrate our larger army and manage it effectively.

Folnier silently listened to Joe’s easy to understand explanation from beginning to end. Still, the expression on her face made it easy to see that she wasn’t convinced in the slightest.

No one, including Joe, bothered Folnier while she was deep in thought. Everyone kept silent and waited for their liege to speak.

And then, Folnier announced her decision when she finally looked back up.

“Joe, I have faith in your abilities. This time too, I don’t doubt that we’ll be victorious if we followed your opinion. However! I was the one who started this war in the first place. I’m sorry, but I want you to let me do things my way until the very end.”

Joe simply bowed his head without a single word of protest. It was because he had a hunch……that their defeat would not be fatal even if they lost this war.

Besides, it wasn’t as if Folnier’s plan was completely off the mark either.

“In that case, we’ll do as you wish. And so, what would you like to do?”

“Let’s stay faithful to the basics, like in your theoretical lectures.”

Folnier grinned. She continued,

“we’ll divide our troops in two, so we’ll have ten thousand men to ambush Ralphus’ unit with and another ten thousand to pursue Rain. We can leave Safir for later. ……Why don’t we let Rain’s party taste a bit of pain while we’re at it?”

“——As you command, Lady Fol. Still, and while I know I say this often, you shouldn’t let your guard down. You mustn’t underestimate General Ralphus just because his troops are fewer in number.”

I know, Folnier answered with a bright smile.

Even still, Joe was worried about whether or not she truly understood.

“Now then, let’s split up into units. ……I’ll leave the specifics to you, Joe.”

Folnier snuck in a wink when the other generals weren’t looking.

Both her words and her wink were probably her way of apologizing to Joe for flatly refusing his advice.

Joe did not dislike that aspect of his liege.

Which was why he smiled in response to convey that he didn’t mind in the slightest.

Then, he made his decision a beat later.

“Then, we’ll split our army in two as per Lady Fol’s decision.”

A wave of tension ran through Junna and the generals. Joe continued,

“first is the group tasked to pursue and capture Rain…… I want to have Shing do this. Sayle and Junna, please work with him. You’ll have ten thousand men. I want you to organize your unit around a cavalry since speed is the problem here. Zartz, you’ll be staying here with me.”

“……Suree.”

Zartz nodded pathetically.

He had undoubtedly wanted to cross blades with the rumored Rain.

Sayle simply grinned and said, “Junna, let’s do our best to help Mr. Shing,” to his sister. Shing, who was still all tensed up, simply nodded.

“Ten thousand to the pursuit unit…… You’ve assigned a lot of troops to Rain. The truth is that you wanted to join the pursuit unit yourself, isn’t it, Joe?”

There was an obvious hint of mischief in Folnier’s mien.

Lady Fol is correct,

Joe acknowledge in his heart, though he did not put it to words.

He had wanted to capture Rain personally if at all possible if the latter really was heading for Zawoll.

However, it was none other than Folnier’s existence that kept Joe from doing so.

While Rain did not have any set pattern of attack, he did have a strategy that he liked to use often.

It was a simple yet effective strategy called “crushing the enemy’s head”. And, in this case, the ‘head’ referred to Folnier.

This was why Joe could not leave his liege’s side, ‘just in case’.

Joe currently had no other choice but to listen to Folnier’s opinions as her retainer and could not secure his personal freedom of movement due to the reason mentioned above.

And so, he had gone with the second-best plan……or rather, he had increased the number of troops assigned to Shing’s unit in order to erase his personal worries……

But even still, his worries had not disappeared.

Joe would have to warn Shing not to ever “recklessly challenge Rain in single combat” later just as he had with Sayle.

And even after having done all of that, his regret did not fade away in the slightest.

Both he and Folnier had made a decisive mistake regarding Rain’s ulterior motives……. Joe could not help but think that this was the case.