Worse still, if the airships turned out to be less game-changing in combat than I expected them to be, they could lead us into an endless quagmire of war after war. Needless to say, that would involve me being sent out to the front lines time after time…and no matter how capable my retainers were, going out onto the battlefield that often would mean terrible things for my chances of long-term survival.
Then again, in spite of all those worries, my status as the lord of House Louvent meant that there wasn’t any way to get out of sending him a report. I just had to hope that doing so wouldn’t be the spark that lit the fuse of a large-scale conflict.
“An investment, huh?” said Rosell. “I wonder if he’ll be up for that? Airships are an amazing invention, and they could change the nature of warfare as we know it, but it’s not like we’ve tested them on the battlefield yet. Whether or not they’re useful in combat is still an unproven factor, and if we don’t demonstrate how powerful they are in a real way, he might not be willing to spare us much funding at all. We still have to tell him about them one way or the other, of course.”
Rosell seemed to be coming at this from a rather pessimistic standpoint, but indeed, the airship’s practical capabilities were still an unproven factor. It would certainly be easier to convince Couran that they were worth investing in once we’d achieved something through their use. Airships were groundbreaking enough at face value that I assumed he’d give us some funding one way or the other, but proving their practicality could make a massive difference in terms of how much he was willing to spare, and more money would mean that the next model of new and improved airship could be developed all the quicker.
Rosell was right that proving the airship’s value in battle could give us a big advantage, but needless to say, we’d have to actually go into battle to make that happen. Seitz had been bolstering its military forces, sure, but that didn’t change the fact that its crushing defeat in its last attempted invasion would make another attack on Canarre a very tall order. For all I knew, it would be a very long time before we were called on to do any fighting at all.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, a messenger burst into the meeting room.
“Apologies for the interruption, Your Lordship! A letter has just arrived from King Couran!”
The messenger was brandishing the letter in question. I accepted it, and found that its envelope had a message of its own written on it, informing me that it was a matter of great urgency and asking me to open it immediately. I called the meeting to a pause so I could do just that.
Moments later, I let out a gasp. The contents of the letter were so shocking, my eyes widened with surprise.
“Wh-What does it say?” Licia asked, a little shaken by my expression.
“Paradille and Seitz have formed an alliance, and are marching on Missian together,” I explained. “They gathered up their armies in Paradille and have invaded over the northern border rather than attempting to attack Canarre again.”
“Wh-What?!” Licia exclaimed.
“Paradille and Seitz, huh…?” muttered Mireille.
“And they’ve invaded from Paradille’s territory?” Rietz asked.
“Y-Yes,” I said. “A region to the north─Lund County─has already fallen under attack, and King Couran has called for an emergency council of war. He’ll decide our response then, and has ordered us to bolster our defenses along the border and stand by until we receive new instructions.”
My retainers were stunned by my summary of the letter.
“An alliance between Paradille and Seitz…? This could be troublesome indeed,” said Rietz. “Missian’s population is large, and our military is capable, but having to fend off the armies of two duchies at once puts us at an unmistakable disadvantage.”
It didn’t help that Paradille and Ansel had an already established alliance in place, as well. In the worst case, it was possible that Ansel would also join the fray. That would put Missian in a very tight spot.
“A-And isn’t Seitz invading from Paradille’s territory nothing at all like what we were counting on?” said Rosell, his face pallid with anxiety. “I’m sure King Couran could handle that if he was aware of it in advance, but if not, the enemy might manage to conquer a castle or two before he can even respond.”
Paradille had plenty of enemies, at the moment, and was lacking when it came to food stockpiles. The idea that they might invade another duchy was something nobody had really considered, and as a result, Lund County─the county closest to Paradille─was likely relatively poorly defended. An alliance with Seitz meant that Paradille now had a source of food, at least to some extent, and also that Paradille no longer had to concern itself with the possibility of a Seitzan invasion. The troops it had dedicated to defense could now be sent out on the attack. Their options had shifted dramatically in an instant.
“Well, so much for Couran pulling his precious strings behind the scenes to make sure his bid for independence went smoothly,” Mireille commented dryly.
The moment Missian declared its independence, the odds of its surrounding duchies banding together for an attack had skyrocketed. You’d think Couran would have done something to prevent that, but by all appearances, he’d declared independence without laying any such groundwork at all. Maybe he’d thought that Seitz and Paradille weren’t on good enough terms to forge such an alliance, and had underestimated the threat it would pose? It certainly seemed like the Duke of Seitz had outwitted him, this time.
“You said he had called together a council of war, did you not? Should House Louvent not be in attendance?” asked Licia.
“It would take too long for us to travel there, even if we left now, and delaying the meeting on our account would be difficult, I’m sure,” said Rietz. “Moreover, strengthening Canarre’s defenses is of vital importance. If we show the slightest hint of weakness, there’s every chance the enemy will invade from this flank as well. The fact that Seitz is invading from Paradille does not necessarily mean that all of their troops have left the duchy.”
Licia seemed convinced by Rietz’s explanation.
“Then again, there’s no doubt that Seitz’s defenses are weaker than usual. This might be the perfect chance for us to storm in and take the whole duchy for ourselves. We’ve got a shiny new weapon on our side, after all─wouldn’t it be nice to test it out and see just how helpful it can be?” Mireille suggested with a devious smirk.
“Absolutely not. We can’t go defying King Couran’s orders,” I firmly replied. I knew she was just kidding, but I still felt like I should put my foot down. Judging by the way she started grumbling about how it would’ve totally gone well, I’d made the right call.
“Going on the offense might be out of the question, but perhaps His Majesty will order us to strike at Seitz in the future?” suggested Maika. “From what I’ve heard, Canarre performed admirably in the previous war. If our troops were to march into Seitz, they would have to divert a portion of their own armies to fend us off. They may even need to recall some of the troops they sent out to invade Missian.”
She had a point─it wasn’t hard to think that Couran would reach a similar conclusion during his council. The one problem with Canarre staging an attack, however, was that we just didn’t have enough manpower. A field battle was one thing, but storming a castle required numbers that we couldn’t muster. The airship had the potential to change things in that regard, but it didn’t seem advisable to put blind faith in a completely untested form of weaponry. In other words, if we were ordered to go on the attack, we could expect it to be a very harsh ordeal.
“So war’s to begin all over again…?” Licia muttered mournfully to herself.
Nothing was set in stone yet, but it was possible I would once again have to go into battle. I had my concerns as well, but I was resolved to live through it, for the sake of House Louvent’s future.
“For now, we’ll follow His Majesty’s orders. We’ll bolster Canarre’s defenses and ensure that we’re prepared if the battle comes to us. In regard to your airship, Shin, please carry out the modifications to make it battle-ready as quickly as you can.”
With those final orders, our meeting came to a close.
○
Meanwhile in Castle Arcantez, Couran gathered up everyone available within for an emergency council of war. His chief tactician, Remus, his right-hand man, Robinson, and a number of lords who happened to rule over territory in Arcantez’s vicinity soon assembled. The situation being as urgent as it was, Couran had chosen not to wait for the lords of more outlying regions to arrive, instead dispatching letters to inform them of the situation.