“Is your wife all right?”
“Yes, she doesn’t have a fever. But she is mentally exhausted.”
That was the first thing His Highness asked the moment I returned to his room in the garrison. I was a bit relieved. It made me feel like he really had let Nia into his inner circle. That meant that she would become someone this cruel, blackhearted prince would protect. If that was the case, then there was nothing for me to fear.
“Well then. Let’s get to taking down Sylvario!”
“While I’d like to tell you you’re getting ahead of yourself, this is probably our chance.”
I’d said it a bit forcefully, but instead of His Highness stopping me like I thought he would, he nodded, albeit with a little joking tease.
I see. So that’s it.
“So you’ve completed all your preparations in the past month?”
“A few coincidences happened to fall into place,” His Highness began, adjusting himself in his chair. At this small gesture, both Count Farlon and I straightened up as well.
“Ark. From your perspective, what is the biggest obstacle in our plan to take Sylvario down?” His Highness asked.
“Well, Sir Eisendarque, of course,” I answered. “If we stormed their capital with him protecting it, then we’d need to be prepared to take considerable losses.”
“So he’s someone who would make even Sir McGuine say that,” Count Farlon commented, trailing off.
When His Highness posed the question to me, I answered without a pause.
Count Eisendarque was the commander of the Kingdom of Sylvario’s knights and one of the few decent people in the higher rungs of the country. I could tell just how good a warrior he was with a single glance, and he was someone I personally would’ve loved to have a bout with.
While he’d given up on the Sylvarian royal family, he was very serious about his job, which meant that if he was defending their capital—a place where their defenses had all the upgrades and resources money could buy—then we’d have a really hard time there.
“I thought so. That’s why I made him disappear,” His Highness said.
“What?”
I was almost aghast hearing those unexpected words, before I thought on them further. Sir Eisendarque was currently mostly on our side. There was no way that His Highness would erase him so easily. In the first place, he’d probably be really hard to assassinate.
When I gave His Highness a suspicious glare, the prince shot a wry smile back. “Guess a joke like that isn’t enough to shake you.”
“I’ve known you for a long time after all, Your Highness. So? What is it that you mean?”
“Sir Eisendarque is currently outside of the Sylvarian capital. He’s now stationed on their eastern border.”
When he said that, I pulled up a simple map in my brain. The Kingdom of Sylvario was located to the east of Brigandia. So from a Sylvarian perspective, we touched their western border. And on the other side, to their east...
“So the Kingdom of Zandia made a move on them?”
“You catch on quick. Yes, that’s right. They attacked while Sylvario was weak.”
“I see. So you made sure to provoke them by leaking information their way.”
My words got an icy smile back. It seemed I was correct. His Highness really seemed like he was having fun.
“Between Brigandia—who they just reached an armistice with—and Zandia, who are clearly moving their military against them... It’s obvious which one they’d be on guard against.”
“And thanks to exhausting their army in the war, Sylvario doesn’t have much to defend their border with. Which would make sending Sir Eisendarque there a necessity,” I continued where His Highness left off, getting a satisfied smile from him.
Of course he was smiling. He’d gotten rid of our biggest obstacle without losing a single soldier from my battalion. But that wasn’t all.
“And while our kingdom’s defenses would normally be thin if we were to counterattack,” Count Farlon murmured, looking off into the distance.
They say one man’s fault is another’s lesson, but we were likely to make the same mistake as Sylvario if we invaded carelessly. But of course, His Highness Prince Alphonse had already taken that into account.
“As I said before, we’ve achieved the same effect as doubling our forces thanks to Count Farlon here. From what I know, none of the countries bordering Brigandia would willingly attack us if we’re supposedly that strong,” His Highness said amusedly.
Count Farlon could only give a forced smile. And thinking back on the situation again, I, too, had a distant look in my eyes.
With our magnificent victory in the field battle today, Count Farlon’s rating went up, I had managed to defend the town of Bigden without any damage, and His Highness gained the pretext needed to invade Sylvario. Brigandia had also become a country full of strong warriors that couldn’t be easily invaded. There were probably other pluses in our favor in places I couldn’t see.
We’d gained all of that with the defense of a single border town. Seriously, this guy was something. I’d already known it, but His Highness truly shone when he was putting his schemes into practice.
And if all of that was the case, then...
“Could it be that the big victory party in the town is part of that plan? To have any spies who get in bring that intel back with them? If it is, then are you planning on making a big announcement in the capital too?”
“Oooh, you’ve got most of it. You are correct. I’ve already sent word to the capital,” His Highness said as if it were completely obvious. Was that supposed to be a compliment to me?
It went without saying that the capital was an intel goldmine. There were sure to be tons of foreign spies there, and most of them probably had a method of communicating quickly with their superiors, such as carrier pigeons. If they got wind that “Brigandia defeated an enemy twice their army’s size in a field battle while taking almost no casualties,” then they’d be sure to rush to call home about it. They would have to, using something like carrier pigeons.
“And you would need that intelligence to be something so sensational, yet concise, that they would have to send it back home as soon as possible.”
Judging from His Highness’s face, my answer got a passing mark. And hearing that, Count Farlon looked even more shocked than before.
“Ah. I-I see,” he said, still shocked. “The battle took place outside of town, on the field, and not only did it not last a day, but it only took a few hours. In such little time, foreign spies would be incapable of analyzing the battle. It’s likely they wouldn’t have noticed that the Sylvarian forces were comprised mostly of mercenaries,” concluded the count.
“And they’d have no way of knowing that those mercenaries were battered from catching the local endemic, and that they were actually in a terrible state,” I added.
“The only intelligence that other countries would end up getting is that ‘Brigandia’s army drove off Sylvarian forces twice their size,’” His Highness finished.
Is he the devil? That was all I could think of as I looked at His Highness smile in glee.
Obviously, if that intel made its way back to other countries, then they would mistakenly assume that both sides had been fighting with their proper soldiers. Normally, no one would ever think that a nation would attack with a force composed primarily of mercenaries. I mean, normally, no one would hire that many. They couldn’t. And even more unthinkable was attacking again so shortly after losing a war to us.
“So you took Balthazar’s half-assed talents into consideration...”
“And I have your wife to thank for that.”
Yep. Balthazar really was a failure. He might’ve had the talent, but he was born in the wrong age. And even though he had His Highness in the country next door, there was no mistaking that he wouldn’t accomplish anything with his personality or surroundings.
When His Highness said that, Count Farlon gave me a questioning gaze.
Ahh. How much did His Highness tell him? I wondered, making eye contact with the prince.
“Viscountess McGuine is the daughter of a scholar, you see. She knows a lot about the state Sylvario is in,” His Highness said, stopping there, even though his explanation was clearly lacking. It was a hint that he couldn’t say more.
And Count Farlon got that hint. “I see. So that’s the case,” the count said. The way he just nodded easily with no change in expression gave me the sense that he’d gone through a lot living in the royal court. Middle management’s rough, huh...
“We should drink together sometime, Count Farlon,” I said.
“All of a sudden? Though I’d be happy to take you up on your offer.”
The count looked shocked at my sudden invitation. Of course he would. It didn’t have any logical connection to what we were talking about.
“Well, I’m just fine with that. You two getting closer is a plus for me,” His Highness said.
“Your Highness, you could have said that in another way,” I chided.
“But before any of that, we need to take Sylvario down first.”
“Your Highness, you could have said that in another way!”
How was he here talking so lightly about conquering a nation? Although, yeah, we were almost done with it at this point.
“I’ll need you two to get back to work tomorrow. That’s fine, isn’t it?” His Highness asked—no, confirmed.
Anyway, all Count Farlon and I could do was nod.