Chapter 10:
Lily and Gerbera
SHOT-DOWN SHIPS, reduced to space trash, floated around Baron Glynn’s home planet. My superdreadnought, the Argos, cruised through that wreckage, surrounded by the ships of the nobles who’d supposedly defected from my side. The battle still raged all around us, but Cleo’s faction clearly had the upper hand at this point.
I observed all this from my position on the Argos’s bridge, checking the situation on the planet’s surface via a monitor and watching our ships enter the atmosphere and destroy the enemy. Among them was Kurt in the Vanadís Frey; he shot down mobile knights one after another.
“Kurt’s improved, huh?” I murmured.
As I said this, a man came running onto the bridge. It was Theodore.
“Wh-what in the world is going on?!” he cried. Knowing nothing about my plan, he stared in shock at the screen.
“Finally awake, Special Lieutenant General?”
When I addressed him, Theodore jabbed a finger at the monitor. “What are you doing, Count Banfield?! The war is over! Why are you continuing to fight?!” He couldn’t believe that the battle before him was even taking place.
“The enemy took Baron Glynn’s planet, true. And it seems the baron’s subjects put him down. Those are my failures, and I have no excuses to give for them.”
“Baron Glynn was killed?! I haven’t heard anything about this!”
Once the baron’s planet was taken, Theodore had decided that we’d lost the war, and he’d called for retreat. Then he’d gone back to his room to rest, so at that point, I began my counteroffensive. The situation had changed so much overnight that he couldn’t keep up.
“Well, we only got word of his death moments ago.”
As I remained sitting in my chair, the very picture of calm, Theodore exploded at me. “W-was this a sneak attack?!”
When he accused me of foul play, I gave a slight smile. “It’s not very nice to call it a sneak attack. I’m eliminating Calvin’s faction for Prince Cleo’s sake. Sure, we lost the proxy war, but I have no intention of losing the succession conflict.”
Theodore took a step back. “I-I can’t believe you. I never thought you’d stoop this low.”
“Well, sorry to betray your expectations, but Calvin’s faction has taken a heavy blow. Prince Cleo is sure to become crown prince now, right? As one of the heads of his Imperial Guard, you should be happy about this.” I was asking him, “What do you have to complain about if Prince Cleo’s going to win?”
His face bright red, Theodore argued back, “If Prince Cleo wins in such an underhanded way, no one will acknowledge him! You’ll need to take responsibility for this when we get back, Count Banfield.” His nostrils flared as he shouted at me, and I noticed hair sticking out of them conspicuously.
I glanced at Claus, who stood next to me. “I guess I’ll have to take responsibility, Claus.”
“I would say that’s inescapable if the war is an apparent loss on paper, sir.”
“Pretty unfair, don’t you agree? I’ve spared no expense supporting Prince Cleo up till now, and I have to eat crow over one loss?”
At that point, Theodore finally seemed to notice Claus’s presence. He trembled in fear before my knight. “Wh-what’s Sir Claus doing here?! I thought you made him leave!”
This was probably enough, right? “Yeah, I got sick of keeping up the ruse. Let me fill you in on the truth.”
“The truth?”
Theodore still hadn’t caught on, so I explained my little magic trick to him. “Did you seriously think that we didn’t know you and Baron Glynn were feeding the enemy information? Me throwing a tantrum and sending my retainers away was all a performance. Am I a good actor? I’d love to hear your opinion.”
Although I’d told him that I tricked him, Theodore refused to acknowledge his own treachery. “Th-that simply isn’t true. What an accusation! Besides, I have no motive to betray my allies!”
When he kept up his own act, even after all this, I lost interest. “I couldn’t care less about your motive. You betrayed me—that’s all there is to it.”
“H-have you gone mad, Banfield?!”
The more agitated Theodore got, the farther his nose hair poked out, distracting me so much that I couldn’t focus on the conversation. I glanced over at Claus. “Would you like to say anything to the special lieutenant general?”
“You’ve noticed too, Lord Liam?”
Claus kept glancing in the direction of Theodore’s nose hair as well. You can’t concentrate ’cause of that either, huh?
“I have,” I replied. “So? What’s your opinion?”
Claus handed down a harsher judgment than I expected from him. “I believe removal would be prudent, sir.”
I’d thought that he would advise me to keep things peaceful. Even if Claus did feel that Theodore should be killed, I would’ve expected him to tell me in secret somewhere later. I was surprised at how brutal he could be.
“I didn’t think you’d say something like that,” I admitted. “You’re that upset by this?”
“No, it’s nothing like that…”
Claus seemed hesitant, so maybe he wasn’t sure whether I should really kill the man. After all, Theodore was a military advisor whom Cleo had sent to keep an eye on me. I had plenty of evidence of his betrayal, but I might still get in trouble if I got rid of him without even speaking to Cleo in advance. Even accounting for that though, Claus had determined that I might want to remove Theodore right here.
“Very well,” I said. “I was of the same opinion. I thought you’d stop me, Claus—but if you’re in favor of it, removal it is.”
Eulisia, who was also beside me, silently handed me my sheathed sword. As I accepted the weapon, Theodore realized what I was about to do, turned tail, and ran.
“Somebody stop—him…?”
A second later, Theodore tripped to the floor. I’d severed his Achilles tendons, so he’d have a hard time even walking now. He didn’t seem to understand what had happened, though, so I walked over and planted a foot on him.
“I’m still far from my master’s level…but I think I finally see his back in the distance.” I remarked. I felt that I was getting closer to the abilities Master Yasushi held in his prime.
“Do you think you’ll get away with this? You’re a heinous criminal who’s now turned on Prince Cleo! You won’t get off scot-free!” Theodore must’ve misunderstood why I hadn’t killed him. Did he think I couldn’t kill him or something?
If he wanted to play tough, I didn’t mind teasing him for a bit, but if I fooled around too much I’d soil the bridge. “Don’t get the wrong idea. The only reason I haven’t killed you yet is that I don’t want my bridge dirtied.” I addressed my underlings. “Hey! Put a spacesuit on him and throw him off the ship.”
“Wh-what’re you saying? D-don’t…” The blood drained from Theodore’s face. When he realized what I was going to do, despair set in.
“You’d better pray that someone finds you out in the vastness of space.”
A battle was raging outside, so there was a high risk that a stray beam or being struck by debris would kill Theodore instantly. Even if he survived those things, there was hardly any chance that someone would rescue him. His own fear would torture him until his suit’s oxygen ran out, he suffered an accident, or he killed himself.
“If you kill me, you’ll never come back from this!”
I shouldered my sword, replying, “It’s a little late for that, isn’t it? You’re the ones who betrayed us first.”
Finally, Theodore seemed to understand what I was saying. It must’ve sunk in at last that I was really going to throw him overboard, so to speak. Knowing that it wasn’t an empty threat, a despairing expression came over his face.
“D-do you realize…?”
“Take him away,” I ordered my soldiers, no longer interested in what he had to say. They escorted Theodore from the bridge.
“Spare me… Spare me! Count Banfield, I was being used—”
The bridge door closed, cutting off Theodore’s pleas for mercy. I thrust my sheathed sword back at Eulisia.
She took it from me, wide-eyed. “Did you even need this?! You didn’t draw it, did you?”
“Are you stupid? I couldn’t perform a delicate move like the Flash unarmed. But if I’d butchered him, there would’ve been a big mess to clean up. Now then, that’s enough of that. Claus, order Marie to attack Cleo’s Imperial Guard.”
This command made Claus hesitate again. Was something bothering him?
“Will it really be all right to attack the Imperial Guard, sir?”
If we just got rid of Theodore, the traitor, we could still make excuses to Cleo. But if we attacked ships piloted by his Imperial Guard, there’d be no going back. If I went through with this, I’d cut my ties with Cleo—but what of it?
“Show them who they made an enemy of. Wipe them out,” I insisted.
“…Understood.”