“You have my signature.”
“Thanks.”
I folded the letter into thirds and placed it in an envelope embossed with the Bof family’s emblem.
There was a burning candle in a weighty candlestick—heavy enough to ensure it wouldn’t fall over—on the tray. Candle wax and sealing wax were two different substances. I tilted the candlestick to empty the pool of wax on the candle into a pot for disposal, then I held a stick of sealing wax near the candle’s flame so that it would melt and fall onto the envelope. Before it could harden, I pressed a stamp down on it firmly. The letter now bore the Bof family’s seal.
“Your Excellency, I’ll see that it’s delivered at once,” Dimitri said.
“If you don’t mind.” I waved the envelope in the air a little to let the wax seal harden before handing it over.
“Should I head north along with my soldiers?” Kien asked.
“Can the Rube family afford to leave a well-trained unit here?” I replied. “You’ll find it easier to offer shelter to migrating civilians if you control Koturah.”
Koturah was like a roadblock on the main route connecting Rube Province to the royal capital, set up for the sake of collecting taxes. Refugees would have to pass through the city. If the Ho family was in control, it would necessitate some coordination between us, so the Rube family would probably want to handle it by themselves.
“That would make things easier. You wouldn’t mind?” It seemed as though Kien was asking whether I really trusted him.
“It’s fine. It’s not like I have Ho soldiers to spare. They have to keep the peace in the royal capital while also training the second order of the royal guard. This actually benefits me.”
“In that case, I’ll accept your offer.”
“But this doesn’t mean that the Rube family can keep the city when the war is over.”
“Ha ha. I know.” Kien laughed as he left the room.
✧✧✧
Tigris spoke to me once everyone had left the meeting. “Sir Yuri.”
Dimitri had hurried off to dispatch a messenger, and everyone else had gone about their business. Tillet, Tigris, and I were the only ones still in the room.
“What is it?”
“There was something I wanted to ask. Yesterday, you said that Koturah would fall within a week. What was your plan?”
Oh, she’s curious about that. What should I tell her? “Hmmm...”
“Was it a bluff to deceive us?”
“No, I’m confident I could’ve taken it within a week. I’m just not sure whether I should tell you how.”
“I see. I haven’t offered my spear to you. I understand your concerns.”
“Actually, I don’t mind telling you. It doesn’t matter who finds out at this point.”
It wasn’t worth thinking about what came after the crusade. A few years from now, there’d be many more options for capturing a city.
“Then please tell me.”
“The city certainly had impressive gates, but its wall was too thin.”
Tigris knitted her brow. “You intended to destroy the wall?”
Koturah wasn’t like a castle on a hill. It rested on a flat plain, surrounded by a simple wall. It was a fragile structure that wasn’t much better than a reinforced fence.
Similarly designed walls often had rocks and earth piled up behind them to offer reinforcement. Destroying such walls was incredibly difficult. A cannonball would merely damage the surface, and it would be incredibly time-consuming to create a hole all the way through. Striking the wall dozens of times in the same place would cause the structure to collapse and form a slope, but we lacked the technology needed to concentrate cannon fire so precisely. Even if we did have that option, the top of the resulting slope would still be an easy position to defend.
Koturah’s wall, however, wasn’t that tough. It was little more than a fence and not particularly thick. The weak construction was understandable, given that it had to surround an entire city rather than just one structure. It was more than enough to prevent a raid by bandits, but not very good for much else.
“It seems you didn’t notice that a section of the wall on the north side was in need of repair. There are stones missing near the bottom.”
“What of it?”
“We could’ve dug there to make a hole leading into the interior of the wall. After filling the hole with gunpowder, we would’ve put an explosive device on top and detonated it. I can’t be sure it would’ve worked—I’ve never tried it before—but I think the wall would’ve collapsed. Then it would’ve been a simple matter of rushing into the city via the gap.”
“But even if your device could destroy the wall, how would you get it in place?”
“I was studying the wall from above for the past few days. Your defenses were all focused on the gates, so there were barely any guards elsewhere. Would the lookouts at the top have even noticed if we were doing something at the foot of the wall during the night?”
“I see.” She sounded convinced.
“But don’t think about repairing it now. That wall’s a relic of the past. It’ll be no use to you in the near future, so don’t waste your money.”
“Okay...”
“I’ll decide what to do with you after I’m done with the Noza family. Return to your territory and train your soldiers until then.”
“As you wish.”
Despite her popularity, she’d always be the knight who’d killed her own master. If I was going to give her command of the Bof family army, I’d have to wait until tensions died down.