Everything happened really fast after that.
To start things off, we sent a messenger horse to the Sylvarian royal family with a declaration of war, citing Balthazar’s attempted invasion as justification and including his helmet as proof. Of course, they panicked and tried to claim there was some sort of mistake, but we ignored them. We literally had Balthazar in custody, after all.
The only reason the guy was still alive was to show that our counterattack was just. But the moment we were finished, he was toast.
There was a chance Sylvario would try to claim he was an imposter, but that would just mean he’d die sooner. Our plans weren’t going to change; it was internationally known that Sylvario had attacked us, after all.
Anyway, we didn’t wait for a reply. Brigandia began its invasion around the same time we assumed our messenger would get there. The main force numbered around ten thousand, marching along the main highway that linked both Brigandia’s and Sylvario’s capitals. It was the same one I’d traveled back then on my way to Sylvario’s capital. On that same note, we’d already managed to get the magistrate of Vestigo, the border city, to support us, so we had no trouble passing into Sylvario. He might’ve been a bit weak-willed, but he had good judgment, so he’d probably already realized Sylvario’s royal family was done for.
And with all of that together, we started our push as well. With Count Farlon’s brigade plus Prince Alphonse’s Special Battalion, we numbered near seven thousand, but thanks to Nia’s knowledge of the terrain and all the talks she’d had earlier with Sylvarian nobles, we progressed quite smoothly. On the way, we also managed to pick up Gorthuk—who was completely ignorant of current events—at a military supply depot, simultaneously capturing him and his inventory.
Though we were technically farther away than they had been, we arrived at Sylvario’s capital around the same time as the main force did.
“Things are going a little too well, aren’t they?” I muttered, neither complaining nor joking, as I gazed at the walls of Sylvario’s capital now right in front of my eyes.
“My father-in-law said the same thing.”
I turned around when I heard a voice I recognized, and there was Gale with a wry smile on his face.
“Well, if it isn’t Gale! So Count Barracuda is here too?” I asked.
“Yes. He said that this is part of my training to take over as head of the family...”
I see. So his educational practices haven’t changed.
Barracuda County had a tradition of bringing both the head of their family and their heir to fight on the battlefield with no holds barred. That tradition had led to the count losing his oldest son in the previous war and causing a bit of a stir when he tried to get me to marry his daughter and take over the family. In the end, he’d gotten Gale, a skilled and politically safe groom. And it seemed he was using the same training practices with his new groom. But since Gale had already gone through a number of battlefields, I figured he was safe.
“He’s getting you some experience with sieges here?”
“Yes, though he said that this might not be a very good example.”
I couldn’t help but give him a bitter smile back at his reply. After all, things were uneventful enough that we were able to shoot the shit at each other like this, despite the fact that we were right at the walls of Sylvario’s capital.
Why were things so quiet here? Because Sylvario’s army had made the choice to garrison themselves. Our Brigandian forces numbered only seventeen thousand, while Sylvario should have had over twenty thousand soldiers. But they still didn’t attack us.
“Well, it’s not like I don’t understand what they’re thinking,” I said. “They probably don’t have anyone who could lead twenty thousand soldiers to battle right now.”
“Oh, that’s right, Count Eisendarque isn’t here,” Gale replied. “But isn’t the head of their Royal Guard still around?”
“The fact that he’s still around says it all.”
“Ahh, so that’s what’s happening.”
My explanation was right to the point, but Gale still got it.
From our little investigation, we’d learned that the commander of Sylvario’s Royal Guard had no experience in real battle. He had a big, fancy job title, but in reality he didn’t have experience doing much else but guarding the palace. There was no way he could successfully lead an army of twenty thousand men.
What was even worse was that he was either an incompetent man who couldn’t even manage security around the palace, or a corrupt, rotten bastard—possibly even both. He’d ignored the abuse that Princess Sonia had to endure, so on the list of “Bastards I Need to Punch in the Face,” he definitely had a place near the top.
“The only bit of commanding this guy has done would probably be on-the-spot security decisions and other spontaneous things. And to think they believe that’ll be enough to protect them.”
“Then it really doesn’t seem like I’ll learn much.”
Seeing Gale smile like that in front of me made me realize that he was already learning Barracuda County’s ways. I mean, he was already good with those types of jokes, having been on the battlefield before, but it felt like he was more comfortable with it now. At this rate, he was gonna be good and ready by the time he and his fiancée, Emilia, actually married. And if that was the case, he might understand what I was about to say.
“You really aren’t gonna learn anything here. Like, at all,” I said.
“Huh? Do you mean we’re not going to use orthodox methods here?”
Looked like he got what I was saying. If this development made him bored, then I would’ve said he was much closer to being a hardcore military type like myself and Count Barracuda. But his hint of surprise meant he wasn’t that far gone yet.
Feeling a little bit relieved, I gave him a smile.
“That’s right. We’ve got a wonderful source of intel, after all.”
“Ah, that’s right. Now that you mention it, we do,” Gale agreed, nodding in understanding.
Gale, of course, knew that we’d taken Sylvario’s second prince, Balthazar, prisoner. Normally, that would’ve been enough, but...
“But are we sure that intel is reliable? I’ve heard he was an overconfident, self-proclaimed tactician. Are we certain we aren’t doing exactly what he wants?”
Good on Gale for thinking about all of that too. That actually was something we would’ve normally had to watch out for.
“We’re talking about His Highness Prince Alphonse here. Of course he’s taken measures against that.”
“Now that you mention it, we should be fine.”
Gale nodded in understanding again, seemingly not having caught on to the fact that those measures weren’t normal ones either. Of course he’d never even think we had a former Sylvarian royal on our side and were checking everything Balthazar said against her. The “wonderful source of intel” I had mentioned had actually been Nia.
With thoughts like that, I finally understood just how easy it was to snub royalty. The moment you got carried away with that kind of thinking was when you became more prone to fatal mistakes. In the first place, an entire country was about to fall because of one of those fatal mistakes.
“Well, you might not learn anything, but... I’m pretty sure you’re about to see something interesting,” I boasted, getting another wry smile back.
And really, if Gale knew what the battle plan was, he’d have the same look on his face. The plan was to use the secret underground passages that only Sylvarian royalty knew of to sneak into the palace. His Highness had guessed that since there were some under Brigandia’s capital city, Sylvario would probably have some too, and he was right. When we questioned Balthazar about it, he blabbed immediately to save his own skin. He did it so easily that we thought something was up, and...
“He isn’t lying, but he isn’t telling you everything either,” Nia had added from where she was hiding while listening, and I’d understood.
The only ones who were intended to know about the secret passages were members of the royal family, but there was a possibility that other people would find them. Which was why they were dotted with traps which only the royal family knew how to disarm.