At that moment, Tia was bowing her head before Liam in the wake of their most recent loss. Her face was pale, and cold sweat ran down her back.
Theodore stood beside Liam, watching. Inside, he was beside himself with amusement at the sight of the shamed female knight, who normally enjoyed a higher standing than Theodore himself.
“Well, it’s been months since the war began,” he remarked. “How does piling up all these losses feel, Miss Christiana?”
“Do you have something to say to me?” Tia raised her head, glaring at him. “Please refrain from comments that might make me want to kill you.”
Her rage intimidated Theodore. He took a step back. “H-how dare you speak to me like that?! It seems you don’t feel very responsible for your failures, do you? And how dare a mere vassal knight glare at an Imperial knight like myself?! I should have your head!”
Much to Theodore’s annoyance, Tia’s master, Liam, denied his demand. “Tia’s my knight. You have no right to punish her, Special Lieutenant General.”
This obvious statement hurt Theodore’s pride, so he switched to trying to hold Liam responsible in his capacity as military advisor. “Well, who will take responsibility for this, then? Prince Cleo is disappointed in our army’s performance.” He sneered, but straightened up when he noticed Claus staring at him from Liam’s other side. He was chilled by the ice-cold eyes of the Empire’s greatest knight—the man who had destroyed the United Kingdom of Oxys’s army in battle. Not even Theodore wanted to make an enemy of the most dangerous man in the Empire.
“A-and how long do you plan to leave Sir Claus in the rear like this?” he added. “Surely he would be a better commander than Miss Christiana, who has only blundered so far.”
It had now been some time since the fighting began, and Liam still hadn’t thrown Claus into the ring. All the head knight did was track figures from Liam’s side. That didn’t seem like a good use of his talents to Theodore.
Liam chuckled and looked over at Claus. “The special lieutenant general seems to want to see what you’re capable of, Claus.”
Claus shook his head. “You jest. Lady Christiana is clearly the superior commander. The special lieutenant general overestimates my abilities.”
He acted as humble as ever, and Liam took his input into account, keeping him in the rear.
Theodore strove to understand what Liam was thinking, but the looks Claus shot him every so often distracted him. The man never said anything, just directed a sharp gaze at Theodore, which Theodore found endlessly unsettling. Claus’s eyes almost implied that he saw through Theodore’s scheming. Theodore was terrified of him.
“There you go—avoiding the question again! If you’ll excuse me!”
As if fleeing, Theodore left the bridge.
✦ ✦ ✦
When he returned to his guest room aboard the Argos, Theodore sighed deeply. He couldn’t stand feeling monitored when Claus gazed at him like that.
“I can’t imagine that he’s recognized my betrayal, but…”
As he lowered himself into a recliner, a call came with perfect timing through his hidden line.
It was Schlust. “Good day, Sir Theodore.”
“…If it isn’t Baron Glynn.”
“Hm? My, you look exhausted. Is something the matter?”
“No, everything’s going fine here. Please don’t contact me so often, though. Someone could get suspicious.”
If people found out that he and Schlust were purposely impeding House Banfield, who knew what would happen to them? Aboard this vessel, Theodore was like a spy alone in enemy territory.
Schlust merely grinned as if he didn’t understand Theodore’s concerns at all. “I called you because it’s an emergency. You see, some officers have actually realized that there’s a traitor among them. Some even suspect that the traitor is aboard the flagship.”
“I’m being careful…”
“Well, I don’t know how they figured it out. Still, you probably shouldn’t ignore this, should you?”
Theodore straightened up in his chair. Schlust was right—this was an emergency. “I’ll pass those suspicions along to a couple of nobles I know.”
“Will that be enough?”
“We just need to spread around some nonsense as well. That Claus is the traitor, for instance. Enough false reports will bury the truth.”
“Ah, I see.” Schlust nodded along.
Internally, Theodore scoffed at him. He couldn’t even come up with something like that? What an idiot.
As Theodore relaxed, knowing that he could hide the fact that he was the traitor, Schlust added, “Anyway, I’ve requested more aid from House Banfield, but I haven’t received any money or supplies at all. Could you find out what’s going on with that?”
“Sure. I’ll check later.”
“Much appreciated! I’m thinking about building a lavish mansion on the Capital Planet, you see, and the deadline for the down payment is coming up.”
While the other nobles in Cleo’s faction fought a war, Schlust was constructing a mansion in the capital. All in all, Theodore was satisfied enough with the baron’s performance, but he had complaints about the man. “…As long as that uses up House Banfield’s money, it’s fine with me.”
Does the baron even understand this is his family’s war? He could at least pretend to feel some responsibility for the conflict.
As Theodore endured his irritation with Schlust, the baron received an update from a subordinate. It appeared to annoy him deeply, so Theodore was curious about what he’d learned.
“Is something the matter, Baron Glynn?”
“Nothing, really. It just sounds like my subjects found out that I’m back in my domain and are swarming my mansion. They have all these opinions on my policies and whatnot…but why in the world should I have to listen to them? Honestly, I wish they’d learn their place already.”
His subjects’ desperate pleas were nothing more than annoyances to Schlust. Of course, Theodore didn’t care about House Glynn’s subjects either. “If the commotion gets big enough to reach Liam’s ears, it’ll be trouble. Hand out some supplies, and they should calm down for a bit, shouldn’t they?”
“I suppose I’ll have to. I’ll need more supplies from House Banfield to do that, though.”
“Yes, that would be for the best. I’ll have a word with the count.”
Theodore and Schlust were doing everything they could to squeeze House Banfield dry.
✦ ✦ ✦
The torture was over. Returning to his room, Claus saw to a few odd tasks before taking his usual stomach medicine from a drawer in his desk.
“Aaaaah… Couldn’t the special lieutenant general be a little more tactful? I understand feeling frustrated that we’ve lost so frequently, but with an attitude like his, things will never improve.”
Theodore had to find fault with every little thing, so the fleet wasn’t as cohesive as it could have been.
“Still, should I say something? Or would pointing it out shame him?”
Something else had been bothering Claus.
“I’d embarrass him if I told him he has hair coming out of his nose, right? How can I let him know less bluntly? Could someone else say something? I don’t think Lord Liam looks at his face all that much…”
It was Theodore’s nose hair. Usually, it wasn’t noticeable, but when he sneered at people, his nostrils tended to flare. That revealed it. Ever since noticing this, Claus had been hopelessly distracted by it. Now, whenever he looked at Theodore, he couldn’t help focusing on the issue. He was tormented over whether to say something about it or keep quiet.
“It would be best if it came from Lord Liam… But the special lieutenant general tends to control himself when speaking to Lord Liam. He doesn’t really make that face…”
He thought about wordlessly handing Theodore some tweezers, but he could easily imagine how much that would upset the prideful man. Claus didn’t know what to do.
“Why am I stuck at Lord Liam’s side like this anyway? If I weren’t right next to him, I doubt I would’ve noticed.”
Claus couldn’t understand why people treated him like Liam’s right-hand man when he was merely performing simple logistics for the army. Of course, it was only natural for the head knight to be near his master, but everyone’s inflated opinion of Claus pained his stomach to no end.
He took his medicine, and after a little while, the pain in his gut subsided.
“Ahh… What would I do without this?”
He’d planned to go straight to bed after taking the dose, but all of a sudden, he found himself being summoned.
“Who’s calling me at this time of night…? L-Lord Liam?!”
Claus scrambled to report to Liam’s side.