“He didn’t tell you about a number of those traps. In particular, three especially lethal ones,” Nia said.
“Ahh, so he’s trying to be clever. He must know that good swindlers surround their lies with truths,” His Highness said, smiling amusedly as Nia explained back at the camp after Balthazar’s questioning. He’d probably guessed that the guy would either lie or omit certain facts. And Prince Alphonse had been right on the money, and Balthazar had no choice but to continue dancing in the palm of His Highness’s hand.
“One of the traps that Balthazar did mention is particularly tricky to disarm. And despite the fact that he knows how to do it, he hasn’t told you,” Nia said. “I’m relatively certain you wouldn’t have just blindly trusted Balthazar’s words and would have sent some scouts to verify his claims. I believe he planned to offer his help to disarm them when your scouts returned with injuries.”
“So instead of telling us about them from the beginning, he’d use the traps to make himself more valuable,” His Highness surmised. “Perhaps he planned to accompany us and disarm some traps to earn our trust before triggering one to harm the group he was traveling with.”
“Probably. He must have thought that he might be able to run back to the palace afterwards.”
Man, conversations between smart people are scary, I thought, watching Nia and His Highness’s back-and-forth without pause.
It looked like Balthazar, the half-assed tactician, had slapped together this scheme aiming for the moment we were just about putting the final touches on our plan. That itself wasn’t a bad idea, but... He was up against the wrong person.
“Perhaps he’s been so loose-lipped until now as an attempt to lull us into thinking he would reveal anything to save his own life,” His Highness inferred.
“Humans do tend to think that other people think the exact same way they do, after all,” Nia replied.
“So he thought I was someone who’d look down on others that easily. Even though that’s not true.”
No, it isn’t. And probably not in a good way either, I thought to myself, holding the words in. It would have been one thing if we had been bantering in his office, but this was a meeting discussing battle plans.
“All right,” His Highness said, in conclusion. “We’ve got a clear picture of the underground passages now, but it looks like it’ll be quite the pain to get through them.”
If His Highness had been the sort of person who’d want us to charge in as soon as we knew of the passages, then we would’ve fallen for Balthazar’s plot hook, line, and sinker. But he really hadn’t done any research on who he was up against. Although it was a little late to think that, seeing as he’d lost so stupidly.
“We have plenty of engineers, so we should be able to manage it in about two days’ time,” I said.
His Highness gave a small nod back at my words, but hadn’t decided immediately. I intentionally neglected to mention it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about just how many casualties we’d have to suffer in order to get us through the passages. We would, of course, be getting as much information about the traps from Nia as we could, but...
Just as I thought that, she spoke.
“Er, Your Highness. I realize that this is quite forward of me to ask, but would it be possible for me to come along?”
Words I’d never expected to hear came out of her mouth. I was horrified, and even His Highness froze for a moment. But of course, he composed himself again within seconds. Seeing him do that helped me calm down too, but I still couldn’t speak.
“Nia, that’s...”
I wanted to say that her suggestion was ridiculous. But at the same time, I knew in my head that her idea was logical.
“Are the traps truly that difficult to disarm?” His Highness asked her, as if he were speaking on my heart’s behalf.
There was no way Nia would suggest something like this without thinking, which meant that was probably the case. And she indeed nodded.
“Yes. More precisely, not only are they difficult to disarm, but the manner of their disarming would change based on the timing of their disarmament.”
“So you’d have to observe them to see which method would work.”
Saying that much, His Highness sighed. It was rare for him to do that, but I understood how he felt. Really, at that moment I had been the one who wanted to sigh the most.
“What do you think, Ark?”
His Highness asked me not how I felt, but what I thought of Nia’s proposal. That meant that he wanted a logical answer rather than an emotional one.
“On the basis of pure logic and nothing else, I would think that would be an effective plan.”
That was the only way I could respond. After I said it, I looked around the tent. His Highness and Nia were, of course, here, and both Count Barracuda and Count Farlon would probably see the benefit as well. There weren’t any higher-ups from the Order of Knights who might cause problems.
Had His Highness known something like this would happen?
“Though Nia has various circumstances, I believe this would create our best chance to finish Sylvario off.”
I had done my very best to hold my emotions back as I spoke, but it seemed like Count Farlon caught on anyway, because he’d stiffened at my words. I knew I’d worded it badly. I’d done it intentionally. I wasn’t wrong, but even I thought it was dirty of me.
“Then we’ll prepare ourselves as decoys by pretending to be the main offensive force!”
Count Barracuda laughed off my words with a hearty guffaw. From his point of view, it must have been incredibly entertaining to see someone like Nia ready to take down Sylvario. And honestly, I did feel the same way, at least a little bit. But more than anything, I wanted her to achieve her life’s dream.
“Good. Then we will be going with the sneak-attack invasion plan, with Viscountess McGuine accompanying them.”
It must have gone exactly how His Highness had planned it. When he announced that, there’d been no way anyone could object. We all just had to bow our heads to him.
And so, at early dawn the next day, we slipped into the underground passages.
“This is so nasty.”
The groan slipped from my mouth as we dodged tons of brutal traps. The traps had been hidden well—likely placed by someone with an expert knowledge of human psychology—and were all lethal, as if they were meant to eliminate everyone but those with the true right of passage. I wasn’t sure if we could’ve even gotten through them if we’d been going through the passages fairly.
It was abundantly clear that we wouldn’t have been able to clear this in two days. If we had taken that long, there was a chance that Sylvarian forces would have noticed us, requiring our surface troops to attack and take attention off of us. If this had come to pass, no doubt we would have suffered quite a few casualties.
But thanks to Nia’s precise guidance, we were going to avoid those casualties.
“Laura, next is that switch.”
“Yes, Madam.”
When Nia called out instructions, Laura followed them as if she were an extension of Nia’s arms, movements agile and swift. With their teamwork, the traps were getting disarmed left and right.
“Wow, that’s seriously amazing,” I murmured, impressed. Nia gave me a bright smile back from her spot at my side. And at point-blank range, that did absolutely brutal damage.
As I broke out coughing, trying to play it off, I heard jeering coming from behind us.
“Hey, Commander! Could you try not flirting in front of us?”
“We’re not flirting, dumbass!” I spat back, turning around.
Behind us were one hundred knights from the Special Battalion. Most of them were my former subordinates, and since we’d gotten through a number of battles together, we were all pretty friendly with each other. Which was why I’d reflexively yelled back at them, but damn! Nia was right there!
Or so I thought. I glanced over at Nia, worried, but she seemed to enjoy the banter; she was giggling. What a girl.
“Hee hee, it’s a bit novel seeing you like this, Lord Ark,” she said.
“Oh, no, it’s embarrassing.”