Royal swords became such by swearing a vow of absolute devotion to the queen. They weren’t merely chosen for their bloodline. Most were orphans, and they only became royal swords following a grueling training regime that some of them didn’t even survive. They’d slaughter a baby if their queen ordered it, and none had any aversion to giving their body to a man in the course of their duty. But the devotion they’d sworn to their queen made them fiercely proud all the same. Even when murdering babies or acting like whores, they remained confident in the knowledge that they were serving their queen. It was what allowed them to keep their pride. None of them would’ve been conflicted in the way that Galla was now.
Galla was different. Unlike her, he knew he hadn’t stayed true to the vow he’d made when offering his spear to the queen. He really did feel he’d ceased to be a knight. He was just a petty underling in service to the witches now.
Galla shook his head to ward off these unpleasant thoughts and sat back down on the couch.
“Why’d you come to me? The first order’s immobilized already. Rank-and-file soldiers are prepared to disobey orders.”
Galla looked down at the papers lying on the table between the room’s two couches. They were directly beneath the hanging lamp where they lay in its shadow. But even without light, he knew what was written there. By now, every single person in the royal capital must’ve learned the contents of these papers. Even those who couldn’t read had heard it from others.
Galla had already been struggling to keep his subordinates calm when the papers had rained down from above. They’d been enraged ever since, and Galla’s control over them was slowly slipping.
Many of the soldiers fully believed the flyers.
“How come we did nothing while this was going on? Why did we just sit back and watch when the second order raided the royal castle and our queen was murdered? Aren’t we Her Majesty’s knights? Then what are we?” The soldiers had demanded answers, weeping with such intensity that it had seemed their tears might turn to blood.
This very day, a younger soldier had come to Galla with a list of names and proposed gathering a few trusted men for a raid on the first order’s headquarters with the aim of killing anyone who worked for the witches. Galla had seriously considered throwing him in a dungeon, but that would’ve risked inspiring a full-scale mutiny.
The first order was unfit to fight in its current condition.
“The second order’s no better,” Galla said. “They lost the will to fight before the battle even began. I don’t know whether it’s true, but they say that a single elderly knight from the Ho family attacked the Euclich Knights and killed their captain. The survivors ran off to spread rumors about the ferocity of the Ho family. It sounds to me like the battle is already decided.”
As Galla saw it, the Ho family couldn’t possibly lose, so it didn’t particularly matter whether he switched sides or not. The Ho family had no need to approach with caution. A lion needed no assistance when hunting a wounded hare. Likewise, a battle against the second order of the royal guard would be no contest at all—it would be a massacre.
“The boy Yu—” Galla stopped himself. Yuri was old enough to graduate from the Knight Academy, and he’d probably assumed control of the Ho family already. “Sir Yuri is overthinking things. He can win here without my help.”
“Yuri expects a crusade force to reach us within a few months. He suspects the witches have sold our kingdom to the crusaders.”
“What...?” Galla sat there, stupefied, as all of his thoughts came to a halt.
“If the witches’ plan had been more successful, Yuri and Princess Carol would’ve both died in the royal castle, leaving Carla to serve as a puppet. But Yuri says they won’t gain anything from that. Under Her Majesty Queen Shimoné’s rule, the kingdom would’ve banded together to fight the crusaders, but that won’t happen under Carla. If a crusade force is likely to arrive within the next few years, then all the witches have done is assure their own deaths. But what if they were in contact with the crusaders and have agreed to sell our kingdom to them in exchange for their own safety? Then their plot makes more sense.”
Galla’s mind cleared of all other thoughts. The sluggishness caused by his exhaustion faded. His head began to hurt as he forced himself to consider what he’d been told, but he kept thinking regardless of the pain.
For a long time—it might have ten whole minutes—he pondered over it. All the while, Tillet silently waited for him.
It made sense. There were various factors that made it hard to be sure, but now that it had been pointed out to him, he could see that there had to have been a motivation behind the witches’ drastic plot.
If it’s true, then the kingdom’s finished, he concluded. And does this mean we’re fighting for the very traitors who sold out our kingdom?
Tillet spoke again when she judged that Galla had reached a conclusion. “I believe Yuri wants the second order at full strength to fight against the crusaders,” she said softly. “Naturally, every one of the top officers will need to be replaced. Ho family soldiers can fill the roles. After a few months of whipping the second order into shape, the force should be at least somewhat useful.”
“Got it. The first order will stand down. If anyone gets ideas, I’ll stop them before they do anything.”
“Haaah...” Tillet heaved a great sigh. “Yuri told me that you’d side with us because you were a friend of his father. He said you two had crossed spears with Her Majesty bearing witness. Was he wrong?”
Tillet wasn’t being entirely truthful. Yuri had said no such thing. It was a lie that she’d quickly put together based on the information she’d gotten from Myalo.
“Don’t overestimate me. I’ll do what I can, but I doubt I can put the first order under my command. I won’t make any promises I can’t keep. I wouldn’t want to ruin Sir Yuri’s strategy.”
“You’re telling me that you can stop the first order from fighting, but nothing beyond that?”
“Basically. That much I can promise you.”
“All right. I’ll relay that to Yuri. I trust you not to betray us, so I’ll tell you Yuri’s plan. Listen closely.”
Tillet began to share everything with Galla.