On the Capital Planet, Calvin emerged from the emperor’s chambers looking haggard. His knights were waiting outside; they rushed to support him, but he waved them off.
“I’m fine.”
After shooing his knights away, Calvin walked off by himself, but the knights rushed to follow him.
“Sir, you’ll collapse at this rate.”
“It’s fine,” he insisted. “And it’ll raise eyebrows if people see you holding me up.”
He stopped to catch his breath, then moved on again, thinking about the visit he’d just had with Bagrada. Father changed after taking the throne. He used to be so kind, but there isn’t a trace of that man left in him. Calvin could remember the good-natured father from his youth, but Bagrada had changed after becoming emperor. The throne must be that great a pressure.
The man’s majesty frightened him. Simply speaking to the emperor had taken all the willpower and stamina Calvin could muster. The crown prince wasn’t frail, but the emperor’s presence had worn him down completely.
“If you don’t mind my asking, why did His Majesty summon you, Your Highness?” one of his knights asked.
Calvin answered without stopping, walking quickly, as if trying to shake off his doubts. “To tell me that, should I lose this proxy war, Cleo will be crown prince…and that, in that case, I’m to be handed over to Count Banfield.”
The blood drained from the knights’ faces. If their master was given to Liam, the count would be free to do whatever he pleased with the prince. They had opposed Liam for a long time now, and he would be free to take whatever revenge he deemed appropriate over the grudges he bore Calvin. There was a good chance that Calvin would prefer death to whatever he’d go through at House Banfield’s hands.
A knight brought up the Seventh Weapons Factory. “W-was it over those rare metals? Do you think maybe we were too hasty in joining hands with the third prince, Your Highness?”
When he had made his deal with Cleo, Calvin had promised to prepare a successor for the Avid. Taking over the Seventh Weapons Factory was a rather forceful way to achieve that goal, and his reputation took a hit in turn. Cleo was breaking worse taboos, however. He wasn’t merely making use of the artificial intelligence that humanity so despised—he was even dabbling in cloning, which was avoided for many reasons, ethical and otherwise. Still, Cleo was sticking to his promise while embarking on those dangerous endeavors.
“Cleo’s the one in real danger right now,” Calvin replied. “Besides, it’s too late for regrets. The fighting’s already started, so now we need to worry about winning.”
That’s right. I’ve got my back to the wall now. Calvin pictured his wives and children—his family. If I fail, they’ll be erased too.
Just then, a noble from Calvin’s faction dashed up to him, wearing a bright expression. “I have good news, Your Highness!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Damn her!”
On the bridge of her ship, Marie screamed and kicked her chair, which broke into several pieces. Her monitor displayed the wreckage of a fleet belonging to Cleo’s faction.
“We’ve received a distress signal. C-commencing rescue operations,” a bridge operator notified Marie fearfully.
Marie was angry that the enemy had outsmarted them and taken out one of their fleets. She had hurried to aid their allies, but by the time her ships arrived, the enemy had already escaped.
“This wouldn’t have happened if that ground-meat woman knew what she was doiiiiing!”
Marie slashed at her broken chair with a cleaver, taking out her stress on it as everyone else watched, stunned. She was also upset that Tia was commanding their army, while Marie had been tasked with cleaning up after her.
Liam was the one who had given Tia command, so while Marie had complaints, she had kept them to herself at the time. Now that Tia was making so many mistakes, though, it was hard for Marie to check her anger.
“It wasn’t your mistake, so there’s no point getting so upset about it,” Marie’s adjutant Haydi told her.
That was true; this was Tia’s misstep, so it had nothing to do with their own performance. Marie would normally have accepted this loss with only minor grumbling, but the circumstances were different now.
“This war will go on longer for every mistake that stupid woman makes!” she retorted.
“R-right…” Haydi’s expression showed that he knew he’d put his foot in his mouth. He must just have remembered Marie’s goal when it came to this war. To her, the conflict was more of an irritation than anything.
“We should be preparing for Lord Liam and Lady Rosetta’s wedding, not doing this! Why the hell are we fighting a proxy war for idiots on the Capital Planet?! Why can’t they kill each other on their own time?!”
The crew members all pretended not to hear Marie’s extremely rude comments about the royal family.
Haydi was now desperate to calm her down. “I understand where you’re coming from, but it’s not like we can call the war off now that it’s started. Even the boss is fighting out here, right?”
“That’s what’s so frustrating… If he would at least leave all the fighting to us, Lady Rosetta wouldn’t suffer so much.”
As long as they were out here, Liam and Rosetta’s wedding grew more and more distant. Marie wouldn’t be able to live with herself if Rosetta had to wait decades for the wedding she looked forward to so fervently.
She bit down on her thumbnail. “I’m not sure why that ground-meat woman is being this useless, though. I may detest her, but she’s not stupid enough to make this many mistakes in battle.”
Haydi was curious about Tia’s losing streak too. “I’ve been wondering about that myself. However superior the enemy may be, it shouldn’t be possible for us to lose this many engagements.”
Marie and Haydi may have opposed Tia, but both held her skills in high regard.
“There’s a traitor somewhere close to Lord Liam,” Marie muttered.
The supreme commander was aboard the Argos, and that was also where all the battlefield information would be gathered. Marie’s instincts told her that there must be a traitor in their midst.
“Should I let Claus know?” Haydi asked. “He could probably sniff out the traitor and get rid of them. ’Course, it’ll be his win in that case—not ours.”
To Marie and her allies, Claus was another rival. He’d come out of nowhere and usurped the position of head knight in no time. The hateful man had stolen that role right out from under Marie and Tia while they were busy squabbling over it.
Although it would mean another achievement under Claus’s belt, Marie replied right away, “Yes. Let him know immediately.”
“…Yes, ma’am.”
Marie couldn’t say that she was fine with giving Claus all the credit, but it was more important to her that they get this conflict over with as soon as possible for Rosetta’s sake.