Chapter 9:
Fishing
ON THE ARGOS’S BRIDGE, Theodore attempted to keep a straight face, guffawing on the inside. Liam’s faction must have had weak ties to fall apart this quickly! Or am I that good? My own talent scares me!
The faces of the nobles in the faction were displayed on screens floating in the air, and every single one appeared furious with Liam.
“Count Banfield, you’re responsible for this!”
“You wait. When this is over…”
“You’ve let me down.”
Half a year after the war began, Calvin’s faction had gained a significant advantage. On the other hand, Cleo’s faction had lost nearly all its territory, and many members had been forced to retreat to the rear. More than a few nobles had declared that they were leaving the faction entirely and fled from the battlefield. Some even defected to Calvin’s side.
The remaining nobles were now berating Liam for his failure, but…
“Is that all you have to say?” he replied to them. “Turn tail and run, then. I’ll fight Calvin on my own if I have to.”
The young, fiery Liam had missed his chance to back down from the fight. He hadn’t managed to keep his allies from defecting, and now he was trying to browbeat those who remained. Anyone could see that the war had already been lost, yet Liam insisted on fighting to win.
Theodore was thrilled. Yes. Struggle on, and spill even more blood. Once this fight is over, none of you will be able to defy Prince Cleo ever again. A fitting conclusion for a spoiled brat born into a count’s family.
He glanced around the bridge and saw Tia and Marie hanging their heads in frustration, as if they couldn’t bear to watch Liam embarrass himself.
“Any more efforts will cause further damage,” Tia cautioned her lord.
For once, she and Marie were on the same page. “The battle is over,” the other knight advised. “We should either retreat or begin negotiations with the enemy.”
Even with two skilled House Banfield knights advising against it, Liam demanded they continue the fight, his emotions getting the better of him. “Shut up! The only thing I’ve permitted you two to do is bring me victory! But Tia…Marie…you’ve done nothing but lose ever since this war began. If you’re too incompetent to carry out my orders, I have no need of either of you. Gather up our wounded and go back to the home planet.”
Since he was relegating the pair to taking home wounded soldiers and broken weapons, even Tia and Marie had now been chased from the battlefield.
Claus, who still remained, spoke up to rebuke Liam. “It’s over, Lord Liam. If they push us back any farther, the enemy will reach Baron Glynn’s planet. Even if we focus on defense, the enemy has over four times our numbers—we’ve lost.”
In response to Claus’s warning, Liam brought up his past battles against pirates. “There’s no problem, then. I’ve overcome similar odds countless times. I’m used to being outnumbered like this.”
“But, sir…!”
“Claus, are you defying me too? I’m disappointed. You can leave as well, then.”
Having witnessed Liam dismissing all the talented retainers at his side, Theodore decided that it was time to act. This is over sooner than I expected. How handy that he’s sending all his close advisors away too!
✦ ✦ ✦
After ensuring that he was alone on the ship, Theodore contacted Schlust. Communications between the two traitors weren’t viewed with suspicion, since they were on the same side. Theodore delivered the code phrase he and the baron had picked beforehand to let Schlust know that their plan was entering its final stage. Since the baron controlled the local communications, that layer of deception was just for fun.
“We’re in trouble. You should prepare yourself, Baron Glynn.” Under the circumstances, no one would think these words were strange.
Baron Glynn’s eyes widened when he heard them, however. He nodded firmly. “Understood. I’ll resist until the end.”
They had decided in advance what those lines truly meant. Theodore’s line translated as. “We’ve cornered Liam. Prepare to surrender.” In turn, Schlust’s response meant, “Understood.” Schlust had never intended to fight in the first place, so he planned to surrender the moment Calvin’s faction invaded his planet.
“You’ve dispatched the defensive forces House Banfield provided you with, right?” Theodore confirmed with Schlust.
“Yes. I’ll make sure to put them to work. Glad I pushed for those extra forces!”
Schlust had insisted that Liam lend him additional fighting power, since his planet wasn’t well defended. He planned to hand those forces over to Calvin’s faction when he surrendered, but if they resisted, he’d join Calvin’s faction in a pincer attack against them.
“That will be all, then.”
“Be careful.”
Theodore disconnected and grinned nastily. “This will be worth a lot, and not solely with Prince Cleo. Prince Calvin won’t be able to ignore what I’ve done either. And I know their secret, so I have them at a disadvantage… If I play my cards right, I could be one of the Empire’s most powerful nobles.”
He snickered to himself as he pictured his rosy future.
✦ ✦ ✦
It had now been a year since the fighting began. When Calvin received news on the Capital Planet, he couldn’t help shooting up from his chair in surprise. The young noble who delivered the message had tears in his eyes.
“We won?” Calvin asked. “Really?!”
“Yes, Your Highness! Our army repelled House Banfield’s and now occupies Baron Glynn’s home planet! The baron has surrendered. Defense forces on the ground dispatched by House Banfield are still resisting, but there aren’t many of them, so we should subdue them soon.”
If they had taken control of Baron Glynn’s home planet and captured the baron, Calvin had won. The proxy war was over.
Still, Calvin couldn’t believe it. “It’s too easy,” he said. “Didn’t Liam have his right-hand man, Claus, with him?”
“Our spies tell us that Liam pursued victory against Claus’s advice.”
Would Liam really have done that? At this point, Calvin felt more uneasy than relieved. “What’s Cleo doing…?”
Getting his excitement under control, the young noble solemnly continued his report. He seemed distrustful of Cleo himself. “Our operatives are watching him, but he hasn’t done anything suspicious. He doesn’t seem to be in contact with Liam, and he’s doing everything we planned for him to. That worries me more than anything, frankly.”
Anyone would feel dubious hearing that Cleo, who’d pulled ahead in the succession conflict, was throwing the competition for Calvin, who’d had his back to the wall. Earlier, Calvin had had no choice but to join forces with Cleo. If he’d killed the other prince then and there, Liam would simply have backed someone else. There would have been no point. It was Liam who Calvin feared, not Cleo, and he’d joined forces with Cleo because Liam was the more daunting threat to him. Still, he was still nervous…about Cleo, and about Liam’s hard-to-believe defeat.
“Tell our allies not to let down their guard,” Calvin instructed. “If he…if Liam were so easily defeated, we’d never have been driven this far in the first place.”
When Calvin ordered that they not let their guard down, the young noble straightened up. “I’ll tell them right away!”
“Good. I’ll remind them too when I go thank them for their efforts.”
This would normally be when everyone in the faction relaxed, assured of victory. Yet that victory had been so effortless that Calvin was struck with anxiety, suspecting that they were walking into a trap.
When the young noble left his office, Calvin held his head in his hands. “It’s over…right? I’ve won…haven’t I? Then why am I so anxious…?”
He’d just been told of his victory, yet he couldn’t be happy about the news.