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Volume 1 Chapter 5 Part 13

「Do whatever you think is best. 」

 

「As you wish, your grace! 」

 

Erich saluted Marine.

 

「But can I ask you one thing? 」

 

Starting with Erich, Marine looked around all the knights one by one.

 

「What is it? 」

 

Erich asked on behalf of the knights.

 

「What are you going to be fighting for tomorrow? 」

 

「For the Crest of the Kraische family of course! 」

 

The knights said so.

 

「Good. 」

 

Marine smiled.

「If you said that you were going to fight for anything else, then the Crest of the Kraische family would not be there for you to back you up. 」

 

Saying that, Marine turned on her heel and entered her bedroom in the back of her tent. Taking turns, two maids appear from inside and block the doorway with a piece of cloth. Although they are called maids, they are both Shadows, the Artists whose role is to protect Marine.

 

Aubest also bowed to the knights and returned to his tent where the magic division was stationed. The remaining knights looked at each other, hoping someone would blow the stifling air away. However, seeing the sorrowful expression of their comrades, the place became more and more heavy with uneasiness.

 

「Where have we gone wrong? 」

 

After a while, Erich opened his mouth with a bitter expression.

 

「Even so, until tomorrow ends, we have no choice but to continue this mistake. But we also have to be careful not to repeat the same mistake again. 」

 

Everyone nodded at their commander’s words.

 

(A Lord named Theo managed to make the knights of Waldrind get serious. This is an achievement that deserves the highest of honors. Right now, we have no other choice but to give him the righteous death that he deserves.)

 

*          *          *

 

The next day, the battle began early in the morning. Both Theo and Siluca thought that today was going to be their last day. The day before, the food and alcohol that were left in the castle were served to everyone, as they threw a small feast. And after that feast, most of the people did not went to sleep until pretty late at night, because they wanted to stay with one another as long as possible.

 

Yesterday, the enemy has ordered their entire force to retreat, but today, the soldiers from the infantry remained and surrounded the castle. Siluca stood on top of the tower and watched the heavy knights climb up the slope.

 

It is a spectacle that can only be called comical. The heavy knights were pulled from the front by a rope, pushed from behind, and that is how they managed to climb up the mountain, since their armor was simply too heavy for them to advance otherwise. They were fine as long as they were riding a strong horse, however, as soon as they got off the horse, the dullness of their movements was immediately apparent.

 

「Good morning… 」

 

Theo called out with a refreshing voice. Siluca was startled, but she feigned composure and turned around. The words he spoke to her the day before yesterday had been running on repeat in her mind many times since then.

 

「How is it going? 」

 

「As you can see. 」

 

Siluca gave up her place to Theo.

 

「It looks like they’re coming with an all-out assault today. There aren’t many of them left in their base camp. 」

 

「It seems that they were wary of the Earl of Artuk coming with the reinforcements. But I am sure that this is not going to happen. 」

 

「Did you expect things to turn out this way when you went to negotiate with him? 」

 

「If that’s the case, then it was worth it. I was only horribly insulted. 」

 

「I heard you didn’t get to meet the Earl at all. 」

 

「Yes, I negotiated with his Head Mage, Margret-senpai instead. The Earl… 」

 

Having said that, Siluca was taken aback. She remembered exactly what the Earl had said to her through Margaret.

 

「What’s wrong? 」

 

Theo asked since he noticed the change in Siluca’s expression.

 

「Margret-senpai said this to me…」

 

Siluca mutters dumbfoundedly.

「The Earl is not going to see you right now. 」

 

「Right now? 」

Theo seemed to notice it too.

 

「If he hadn’t met you then, then did he knew that he was not going to never see you again? 」

 

「That’s right… 」

 

Siluca nodded. Fragments of thoughts joined together to form a single thought in her head.

 

「What if the Earl of Artuk had been waiting for this moment… 」

 

Without protecting their rear, the knights of Waldrind are about to attack with almost their entire army at once, leaving Marine with only a few soldiers worth of escort.

 

「Right now, everyone assumes that Artuk will not come to our aid because the Earl has a personal grudge against you… so he might be planning to do the opposite of what everyone is expecting? 」

 

「Exactly… 」

 

Siluca nodded. As usual, Theo’s intuition was sharp.

「Rumors spread quickly that the Earl of Artuk wasn’t going to be coming to our aid. It was probably spread by the Tribunal of Waldrind, supposedly to prevent the independent Lords of Selvis from siding with Lord Theo. 」

 

「But on the contrary, many people came to support us because of that. 」

Thanks to that, they have made it this far with only few Lords losing their lives. Most of them had already left the castle and returned to their respective territories. Their hopes were short-lived, and so they have chosen to subordinate themselves directly to Marine. It was the same situation as before 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral」. Among them, there are those who increased their territories in the previous battle, so they truly appreciated Theo’s behavior and approach to ruling. All the neighboring Lords know that Theo has fulfilled his duties admirably.

 

「What if the Earl of Artuk took advantage of the rumors spread by Waldrind’s spies in order to keep the enemy off guard? 」

 

「It does not look like the enemy let their guards down to me. 」

 

Theo smiled wryly.

 

「That’s because my adoptive father has an extremely cautious personality. The earl of Artuk may have a personal grudge against me, but he would probably not miss such a chance to defeat Waldrind. However, in the two days’ worth of battles, the damage increased because their fighting strength was divided, so perhaps my father’s opinions have been rejected by the Knights of Waldrind? 」

 

Aubest only made proposals and did not make any strong claims, because he thinks that this is all that the Mage is supposed to be doing.

 

「If the Earl of Artuk wants to join in the battle, then now would be a good time to do so. 」

 

「I hope so. 」

 

Theo nodded with a smile. It’s not that he distrusts Siluca’s words, but he doesn’t seem to expect much either. But the more Siluca thought about it, the more convinced she was becoming.

 

(Margaret-senpai said that Count Artuk is a genius of military strategy. If that’s the case…)

 

 

Siluca stood in the tower, watching the knights of Waldrind come up the mountain as they were being carried by others again. They all looked like the giant land turtles. They were halfway up the crag where the castle was right now.

 

(Now it would take them a while to come back to the main camp. If Marine Kraische would be killed here, the Factory Alliance would have fallen apart, and Artuk would become the closest country with a Lord powerful enough to become Emperor.)

 

If Villar Constance really is a genius of military strategy, he should be able to see through it. He would never have allowed an opportunity like that go to waste just because of a personal grudge against a little girl.

 

Even if they win this battle, Siluca did not know if he would be willing to forgive her. However, she still wanted to meet the Earl of Artuk and apologize for various things.

 

Siluca no longer turned a blind eye to the enemy forces, but stared at Marine’s main force at the foot of the mountain. There is also a small plain with a curving river on the left and a walled city. There was a small forest in front and a series of gentle mountains on the right.

 

If he were to attack, it would probably be forming the forest.

 

Earl of Artuk’s banner was definitely the 「Partisan」, enhancing the abilities of the soldiers that are good at guerilla warfare that takes advantage of the terrain. Siluca continued to stare at the forest without blinking for even a moment. After a while, lightly dressed warriors emerged from the forest one after another. There could be no doubt as to who they were.

 

「Lord Theo! 」

Siluca instinctively hugged Theo.

 

「Looks like our lives may have been saved. However, we have to remember that Artuk is not on our side. They only used us to win against Waldrind. 」

 

「Y-Yes, of course. 」