Nia approved of my idea. We barely had enough time to put it into place, but if things went well, its effect would be massive. We couldn’t pull it off alone, though. We would absolutely need to work with Count Farlon’s brigade. They were the main force here, after all.
And so, I quickly sent a messenger to make an appointment to see the count.
“So Sylvario will attack in about a month...”
Once we were in the reception room and had got most of the greetings out of the way, I started telling him about what Sylvario was doing. He looked worried. I had figured he’d probably be a little skeptical hearing that the country we’d just gone into a ceasefire with was about to attack, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“This must have been what His Highness Prince Alphonse spoke of in his letter...”
“His Highness’s letter?”
At his words, I remembered the letter His Highness had had me deliver when I first arrived in Stonegaze. All I had been told about it was that it contained something that would benefit everyone.
“Wait. Did His Highness say that you’d be able to distinguish yourself through military service if you worked with me?”
“Just what I’d expect from His Highness’s right-hand man. That’s exactly what he wrote,” Count Farlon confirmed, impressed.
“No, I am definitely not his right-hand man. I’m not that close to him yet.”
I was pretty sure I was more like one of His Highness’s ballistae than his right-hand man. Or maybe just his hound. But I was impressed that His Highness had tempted him with a payoff like that.
Count Farlon was a territory-less count palatine and a higher-up in the Order of Knights. He had enough experience to be sent out near the kingdom’s border like this, and on top of that, he was definitely skilled.
So basically, you could say his position was supported by his martial merits and distinctions, but up until recently he’d had no part in the war with Sylvario we’d just been in. It wasn’t like that would have any effect on his standing, but it wouldn’t hurt for him to get some more distinctions...
Or wait, maybe he was having troubles? It was completely possible that His Highness understood his situation and made his offer because of it. And the fact that His Highness didn’t tell me anything about it was probably his way of telling me to keep my nose out of it. I should probably stop with this line of thought and go back to business.
“Let’s forget about how His Highness thinks of me. I wanted to have a meeting with you about our counterattack.”
“Which would mean that not only do you have information on the enemy, but also a plan against them?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Count Farlon is sharp. Though I guess he wouldn’t survive in the palace if he wasn’t, I thought, keeping my admiration to myself as I shared all of the information that we had so far.
“I see,” the count replied after I finished. “With those numbers, we would be more than able to defend against them, but...”
“Yes, the brigade would take heavy losses. And, speaking as the province’s lord, we would also be unable to avoid this town taking substantial damage as well.”
The count nodded at my statement. Now, we’d established that sitting and doing nothing would be bad for both of us. This meant...
“On the other hand, it would favor us both to get a sweeping victory against them in a field battle.”
“That’s true, but we would need a plan.”
“Which we have. And that plan is...”
Count Farlon didn’t jump at my words, instead looking cautious. That was a good attitude to have. He looked to be a well-balanced commander. And if he was, then he’d probably accept my suggestion.
“I see. That is quite a good idea. If we can pull it off, that is.”
Ooh, it looks like he calculated everything in his mind while he was listening. When we first met, I’d thought he might be bad at thinking on the fly, but it now looked like he was probably just good at calculating things and planning when given information beforehand. He was probably really serious with his preparations too. That would be why he was bad at things he hadn’t prepared for. If that was the case, then it gave me a clear idea of how to support him.
“We can definitely do the preparations. Nia captured the citizens’ hearts on our trip a while back.”
“I see. Then I should be able to expect great things.” He quickly nodded at my explanation. Nia had captured his heart too. I was a bit afraid that she’d done it a little too well. “If that’s the case, then we’ll have to prepare so we can face their attacks without issue.”
Count Farlon was also very quick to visualize the plan mentally. My plan was purely the trigger, while his brigade would take the lead on the battlefield. Or rather, I needed them to do so, because even if we got the Sylvarians to fall for it, the brigade would be losing the most blood.
“Basically, you would be stopping a straight charge. Their forces will mainly be composed of mercenaries, so I doubt they’ll be able to execute anything more complicated,” I explained.
“Then we should prepare simple-to-build anticavalry palisades. They should act as replacement bulwarks.”
Ooh, he’s already imagining the flow of battle in his head.
As I mentioned before, there were all sorts of mercenaries, and their quality was all over the place. They felt next to no loyalty and weren’t well trained in fighting in groups, so most of them were slow to follow orders.
For example, it would be incredibly difficult for them to do something like split as they advanced to perform a two-prong attack. To be precise, it wasn’t completely impossible, but it would take so long for them to keep pace with each other that it would be next to impossible to time it well.
It would be a different story if they had a unit commander with a lot of charisma, but Balthazar probably didn’t have it himself and most likely didn’t have any skilled commanders under his belt. But that was only a guess, so we couldn’t let our guard down and would make sure to have a backup plan.
“Do you have plenty of longspears for the foot soldiers?” I asked.
“Of course. I’m sure we could prepare even more if needed.”
“And we can have His Highness help us with the expenses for the anticavalry palisades.”
Prince Alphonse probably wouldn’t refuse if he thought about the effect it would have.
With this, we were going to make it look like a field battle while it was actually a siege, though it would only be for a short time. It would all depend on how quickly those palisades could be built, but we’d just have to trust in Count Farlon and his brigade for that. They’d probably be frantically trying to keep themselves alive, after all.
“All that’s left is deciding how the cavalry will be placed and their roles. I’ll leave that all to you, Count Farlon.”
“I see. So we’ll be showing you what we have.”
“No, no, I don’t mean that at all. Anyway, I’m not that great of a commander.”
I quickly shook my head when Count Farlon said that with a daring grin. Honestly, I’d only ever commanded a company before, so I was in no place to say anything about someone commanding an entire brigade. The count probably knew this and was half praising and half teasing me. And him doing that showed that he’d opened up to me a little bit.
“Whatever the case, the use of our cavalry will depend on our opponent.”
“That’s true. While I believe they’ll probably charge straight at us, it will ultimately depend on their formation.” I nodded in response to Count Farlon’s statement.
Cavalry were more skilled in comparison to foot soldiers and mercenaries, and incomparably faster. Seeing as they were usually knights, their sense of loyalty, morale, and understanding of warfare were also very different. Their strength was in their versatility—how they could aim for an enemy’s weakness and ruin whatever gambit their opponent had planned, along with many other things depending on the situation.
All of this meant that their presence on the battlefield changed drastically based on the skill of who was commanding them, but Count Farlon was well aware of that and probably wouldn’t have any issues.
“We’ll do our best on our side to gather intelligence for you,” I said.
“All right. Seeing as you seem to have quite the wide intelligence network, I won’t object to your help.”
Ah, damn. So he noticed that we had a unique network from our conversation, huh. I couldn’t really help it this time, but I’d have to be careful about how I came out with things from now on. My discussion with the count concluded soon after I came to that thought.